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The Developmental Psychology

Psychology – A scientific study of human behavior and mental processes. Etymologically, it came from the Greek words, Psyche which means “soul” or “mind”, and Logos which means “the study of.”

Behavior - Any response or activity of an organism. It can either be simple or complex; overt or covert; conscious or unconscious; voluntary or involuntary; rational or irrational.

Goals of Psychology

To Describe

To Explain

To Predict

To Control

They use scientific methods to find answers that are far more valid and legitimate than those resulting from intuition and speculation

To test your knowledge of psychology, try answering the following questions – True or False?

Activity 1. Infants love their mothers primarily because their mothers fulfill their basic biological needs such as providing food.

2. Geniuses generally have poor social adjustment

3. The best way to ensure that a desired behavior will continue after training is completed is to reward that behavior every single time it occurs during training rather than rewarding it only periodically.

4. People with schizophrenia have at least two distinct personalities.

5. If you are having trouble sleeping. The best way to get to sleep is to take a sleeping pill.

To test your knowledge of psychology. try answering the following questions:

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6. Children's IQ scores have little to do with how well they do in school.

7. Frequent masturbation can lead to mental illness.

8. Once people reach old age, their leisure activities change radically.

9. Most people would refuse to give painful electric shocks to other people.

10. One of the least important factors affecting how much we like another person is that person‘s physical attractiveness

Contemporary Approaches Neuroscience - Views behavior from the perspective of biological functioning

Psychodynamic - Believes behavior is motivated by inner, unconscious force over which a person has little control

Behavioral - Focuses on observable behavior

Cognitive - Examines how people understand and think about the world

Humanistic – Contends that people can control their behavior and that they naturally try to reach their full potential

The Scientific Method The approach used by psychologists to systematically acquire knowledge and

understanding about behavior and other phenomena of interest.

1. Identifying questions of interest,

2. Formulating an explanation, (Theories and Hypotheses)

3. Carrying out research designed to support or refute the explanation.

Methods Used in Psychology

Descriptive Research – An approach to research designed to systematically investigate

a person, group, or patterns of behavior.

A. Naturalistic Observation - Research in which an investigator simply observes some naturally occurring behavior and does not make a change in the situation

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B. Directed Observation (Survey) - Research in which people chosen to represent a larger population are asked a series of questions about their behavior, thoughts, or attitudes.

Correlational Method - The correlational method involves systematically measuring

the relationship between two or more variables

Correlation Coefficient: +1.00 to -1.00

Positive Correlation

Negative Correlation

Experimental Method - Considered as the most scientific of all methods. The

researcher investigate a phenomenon by preparing 2 identical groups and altering the conditions of one of the groups; afterwards, measuring the difference.

Independent Variable

Dependent Variable

The Child Psychology Studying psychology is a bit like sailing a small boat on the high seas.”

Children should not be studied as embryonic adults, but in their essential child nature so as to understand their capacities and know how to deal with them

~John Amos Comenius

Psychology is an extremely exciting and challenging field of knowledge, which has enormous potential and offers us the hope of understanding and improving our lives, our communities and our planet.

Scientific – study of psychology is based on information collected through a set of systematic procedures known as “scientific method.”

Behaviour – any activity that can be observed, recorded and measured, it also includes physiological or bodily changes

For example: smiling, sucking and sleeping – are behaviours commonly seen in babies

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Mental processes – includes thoughts, memories, emotions, motivations, dreams, perceptions and beliefs.

The main aim of studying psychology is to gain an increased understanding of why people respond as they do.

“Child Psychology” “Is the science that deals with the study of child’s mind and how it functions, it also deals with the mental power or an interaction between the conscious and subconscious element in a child”

Aims & objectives of child psychology

Knowledge of the child psychology will help us to: Understand the child better Better planning & interaction Understand problems of psychosomatic origin So that child understand oral hygiene Modify child developmental process

Theories of child psychology Psychodynamic theories Behavior learning theories

Why Are Theories Important? Useful in integrating and abstracting interrelatedness of natural phenomenon

They are like a quest for unknown and uncertain

Predict future events and in some instances control forces of nature

Provide pleasure to the scientist of his own creation

Basic Methods of Research

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Case study

Systematic naturalistic observation

Correlational methods

Systems approaches

Experimental methods

Small-n approaches

Time Strategies Development Longitudinal strategies

Cross-Sectional strategies

Sequential strategies

Risk research Retrospective designs

Prospective designs

Epidemiologic Research Prevalence or incidence

Multiple Methods Each method has strengths and weakness

Combining methods adds strength to the findings

Ethics in Research Integrity

Openness

Awareness of research effects