Theory - coherent set of related concepts that seeks to organize and explain data gathered through research.
- theories are dynamic; they change to incorporate new findings;
- they aren't universal; they can't explain all;
- they may give more weight to one perspective over another (nature vs. nurture; stages vs. continuous)
- they emphasize methodological approaches (quantitative or qualitative)
- they serve as a continuing source of hypotheses to be tested by research
Hypotheses – possible explanations for phenomena, used to predict the outcome of research.
Which is more important: heredity or environment? both
Is development active or passive?
Mechanistic model - views humans as passive, merely reacting to the environment
Organismic model - views humans as active, setting their own development in motion
Is development continuous or does it occur in stages?
Mechanistic theorists view development as continuous, quantitative change
Organismic theorists view development as qualitative change in a series of distinct stages
Five Theoretical Perspectives: Psychoanalytic; Learning; Cognitive; Evolutionary/Sociobiological; Contextual
See overview of comparisons: Table 2-1; pp. 30-31
1. Psychoanalytic Perspective - concerned with unconscious forces that motivate human behavior
- Seeks to describe qualitative change, through clinical observation
- Originated with Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), Viennese physician
- Further developed by Erik Erikson (1902-1994), German-born, moved to U.S. in 1933
Freud was interested in medical research, especially interested in studying somatic disorders.
- He was able to relieve symptoms by asking questions designed to uncover long-buried memories.
- He concluded that emotional disturbances are the result of traumatic experiences in early childhood and innate factors.
- He viewed humans as passive in their own development.
- He believe that personality is formed in the first few years of life -- through a series of psychosexual developmental stages.
Psychosexual Stages - Freud focused on the sources of gratification at each stage of life.
The first three stages are the most important. He suggested that if children received too little or too much gratification in any stage, they are at risk of fixation (an arrest in development) and may need help to move beyond that stage.
Oral Stage (birth to 12-18 months) Infants chief source of pleasure involves oral activities (sucking and eating).
- If a child's needs are not met, s/he may grow up to become nail-biting or develop pica (eat/chew inedible substances)
- If a child gets too much oral gratification, s/he may become a smoker, compulsive eater or develop a critical personality -- becoming sarcastic and verbally abusive.
Anal Stage (12-18 months to 3 years) Child derives pleasure from withholding and expelling feces.
- A person who had too strict toilet training may be fixed at this stage. Such a person may have a "constipated" personality (obsessively clean and neat, rigidly tied to schedules and routines).
- A person who got no training might become messy, disorganized, too spontaneous.
Phallic Stage (3-6 years) The site of pleasure shifts to the genitals.
- Boys develop sexual attachment to their mothers and girls to their fathers, and they regard the same-sex parent as a rival.
- Boys learn that girls don't have a penis, assumes that they were cut off, and worries that his father will castrate him too.
- Girls experience penis envy.
- Children eventually resolve their anxiety by identifying with the same-sex parent and move into a relatively calm latency stage.
Latency Stage (6 years - puberty) Middle childhood
Children become socialized, develop skills, learn about themselves and society.
Genital Stage (puberty - adulthood) Time of mature sexual development.
The physical changes of puberty "reawakens the libido" (the energy that fuels the sex drive).
(Sexual urges that were repressed during latency now resurface.)
Three Parts of Personality: Id, Ego and Superego
Id - seeks immediate satisfaction under the pleasure principle, present at birth,.
- When gratification is delayed, children see themselves as separate from the outside world.
Ego - represents reason or common sense under the reality principle, develops after the first year.
- The egos' aim is to find realistic ways to satisfy the id.
Superego - serves as a moral guide of "shoulds" and "should nots" and emerges at about 5-6 years.
- Initially, the superego develops out of guilt; with maturity, it becomes more realistic and flexible under control of the ego.
Strengths of Freud's Theory
- focus on unconscious thoughts and emotions;
- initiated a public discourse around sex -- which was taboo during Victorian times;
- discusses the ambivalence of early parent-child relationships;
- influenced modern-day psychotherapy.
Criticism of Freud's Theory
- demeans women, prioritizes the male-dominated social system of a Victorian-era European culture;
- based his theories about 'normal' development on a population of average upper-middle-class adults in therapy;
- too focused on biological maturation and sex;
- doesn't take into account later experiences in life and potential for more personality development;
- theories are hard to test scientifically.
Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory - modified view of Freud's theories, Erik Erikson (1902-1994)
Rather than focusing on biological influences of personality, Erikson emphasized societal factors.
- Society shapes the development of the ego or self. (Each society has unique qualities that influence personality.)
- Ego development continues throughout life (unlike what Freud believed).
- "Crisis" exists at each developmental stage, according to a maturational timetable, and must be resolved for healthy ego development.
The Eight Psychosocial Stages of Development:
Basic Trust vs. Mistrust (birth to 12-18 months)
Through experience with parents, the infant develops a sense of whether the world is good and safe.
Virtues: hope and trust
Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt (12-18 months to 3 years)
The child develops a balance of independence over doubt and shame.
Virtues: will
Initiative vs. Guilt (3-6 years)
Develops initiative when trying new things and is not overwhelmed by failure.
Virtue: purpose
Industry vs. Inferiority (6 years to puberty)
Must learn skills of the culture or face feelings of incompetence
Virtue: skill
Identity vs. Identity Confusion (puberty to young adulthood)
Adolescent must determine own sense of self or experience confusion about roles.
Virtue: fidelity
Intimacy vs. Isolation (young adulthood)
Person seeks to make commitments to others; if unsuccessful, may suffer from isolation and self-absorption.
Virtue: love
Generativity vs. Stagnation (middle adulthood)
Mature adult is concerned with establishing and guiding the next generation, or feels personal impoverishment.
Virtue: care
Ego Integrity vs. Despair (late adulthood)
Elderly person achieves acceptance of own life, allowing acceptance of death, or else despairs over inability to relive life.
Virtue: wisdom
Strengths of Erikson's Theory
- emphasis is on social and cultural influences (as opposed to biological or sexual);
- acknowledges that life is filled with crisis;
- focus is on identity formation.
Criticism of Erikson's Theory
- adopted the male perspective of development (avoids emotional development, focuses on competing forces)
- difficult to test scientifically
2. Learning Perspectives: Behaviorism and Social Learning Theory
- not concerned with unconscious forces;
- focuses on observable behavior;
- studied through experimentation
- adopts a quantitative focus regarding development, rather than focusing on the kind of development
- behaviorism views development as passive, however,
- social-learning theory views development as both passive and active
Assumptions
- development results from learning;
- learning is continuous (rather than occurring in stages)
Behaviorism
Describes observed behavior as a predictable response to experience.
- Although biology sets limits on what people do, behaviorists view the environment as much more influential.
- Humans learn about the world the same way other animals do: by reacting to conditions in the environment.
- Examine events that determine whether or not a particular behavior will be repeated.
Two Kinds of Learning: Classical Conditioning & Operant Conditioning
Classical Conditioning – learning that is based on association of a stimulus that does not ordinarily elicit a response with another stimulus that does elicit a response.
Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936), Russian physiologist experimented with salivation in dogs.
Pavlov’s Example of Classical Conditioning:
Before conditioning: The dog salivates (as a reflex) whenever it sees food. The food is an unconditioned stimulus (not conditioned to produce a response), which produces an unconditioned response (untrained response).
During conditioning: Each time the food is presented to the dog, a bell is rung. Thus, the food and the bell are paired stimuli. The bell is being conditioned to produce a conditioned response.
After conditioning: The dog now salivates when the bell is rung, even when the food isn't present. The bell is now a conditioned stimulus, which now produces salivation as a conditioned response.
John B. Watson (1878-1958), applied stimulus response theories of learning to children.
- He taught "Little Albert" to fear furry white objects through classical conditioning.
Operant Conditioning - learning is the consequence of operating in the environment, through reinforcement or punishment.
Reinforcement - a consequence of behavior that increases the likelihood that the behavior will be repeated.
Example: giving praise whenever a child gives the correct answer to a question or engages in cooperative behavior.
Punishment - a consequence of behavior that decreases the likelihood that the behavior will be repeated (such as spanking or scolding).
Question for discussion: Is spanking necessary?
B.F. Skinner (1904-1990) formulated the principles of operant conditioning on the basis of his preliminary work with rats and pigeons. He maintained that the same applied to humans.
Stimulus-Response: stimulus = environmental situation; response = behavior
Example of Operant Conditioning
Jessica smiles at her mother from her crib. Her mother picks her up. The same occurs with her father. As this sequence continues to occur, Jessica learns that something she does (smiling) can produce something she likes (loving attention from a parent).
Reinforcements: Positive Reinforcement and Negative Reinforcement
Positive Reinforcement - giving a reward like praise, money, food to increase a behavior. It is most effective when it immediately follows a behavior. If a behavior is no longer reinforced, it tends to decrease.
Negative Reinforcement - not punishment; it is the removal of something negative (discomfort, pain) to increase a behavior.
Extinction - when reinforcement ceases to be given after a behavior. That behavior stops existing; it becomes extinct.
Intermittent Reinforcement - reinforcing a response at certain times and not at others.
Example: by sometimes reinforcing a child's tantrum, the tantrum behavior will continue to increase.
Shaping: technique used to bring about a new response by reinforcing responses that are more and more like the desired one.
Example: Teaching a child to throw the ball to you. Praise each of the first attempts, no matter where the ball is thrown, then add more praise as the child directs the ball more and more closer to you. Later, if the child throws the ball away from you, withdraw praise.
Behavior Modification: a form of operant conditioning used to eliminate undesirable behavior or to instill positive behavior. It is especially useful among children with special needs (mentally challenged or emotionally disturbed).
Example: intensive sessions with autistic children to promote pro-social behavior (through smiling, physical contact, eye contact, talking, praise, and/or desirable snack), and ignoring (or punishing?) undesirable behavior (self-injury, withdrawal, harm to others).
Self-Reinforcement - training yourself through rewards.
Social-Learning Theory (Social-Cognitive) Theory - Albert Bandura (b. 1925)
An outgrowth of behaviorism, maintains that children, in particular, learn social behaviors by observing and imitating models (usually their parents).
Observational Learning - watching others.
Imitation - most important for learning language, dealing with aggression, developing a moral sense.
- Children tend to chose the models they imitate
-They tend to imitate people of high status
- They imitate those whose personalities are similar to their own
- They imitate what is valued in their culture.
- Imitation is also influenced by the child's level of attention and how they mentally organize sensory information.
Assumptions of Social-Learning Theory
- Learners are active in their own learning; they cause things to happen; they create the environment.
Example: one child's hostile behavior creates a negative, rejecting environment; another child's cheerful, cooperative demeanor creates a positive, accepting environment.
- theories based on animal research can't explain human behavior.
- cognitive responses to perceptions are central to development, not reflexive responses to reinforcement.
Evaluation of Learning Perspectives
Strengths
- Make the study of human development more scientific (terms are defined precisely, theories can be tested)
- By stressing environmental influences, learning theories can help explain cultural differences in behavior
- Behaviorism is useful in designing therapies to effect rapid changes in behavior (smoking, toilet training)
- Social-learning theory acknowledges the active role people play in their own learning, it serves as a bridge between behaviorism and cognitive psychology.
Weaknesses
-They underplay the importance of heredity and biology
- Don't deal with age-related development
- Not interested in causes of symptoms or mental processes, leaving the cause of problems unresolved
- Behaviorism assumes that people merely respond to external stimulus, in a mechanical way, without consideration of cognitive processing.
3. Cognitive Perspective - thought is central to development, originated by Jean Piaget (1896-1980), Swiss psychologist
Piaget’s Assumptions
- Humans are active learners, with internal impulses and patterns of development
- Humans actively construct their own world
- Intelligence is inborn, for adapting to the environment
- Independent experimentation is one of the best ways to learn
- Piaget’s research method combined observation with flexible questioning; naturalistic and laboratory
- He experimented with categorization and conservation
- He studied wrong answers to learn more about the thought process
Cognitive Organization - tendency to create increasingly complex systems of knowledge
Schemes (or schemas) - organized patterns of behavior that a person uses for action in a particular situation. Schemes become more and more complex (improving motor actions and concrete thinking about sensory perceptions and, eventually, abstract thought.
Example: Touching a toy makes it move. Through experience, the child learns that adding more force makes it move further and faster. It also requires more energy and greater balance.
Adaptation occurs through two procedures: Assimilation and Accommodation. These typically work together.
Assimilation - taking in new information and incorporating it into existing cognitive structures or ways of thinking.
Accommodation - changing one's ideas, or cognitive structures, to include the new knowledge.
Equilibrium - constant striving for a state of balance. When a child cannot handles new experiences, s/he will organize new mental patterns, restoring equilibrium.
Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development
Sensorimotor (birth - 2 years)
The infant gradually becomes able to organize activities in relation to the environment through sensory motor activity.
Preoperational (2 - 7 years)
Child develops a representational system and uses symbols such as words to represent people, places and events.
Concrete Operations (7 - 12 years)
Child can solve problems logically if they are focused on the here and now.
Formal Operations (12 years - adulthood)
Person can think abstractly, deal with hypothetical situations, and think about possibilities.
Strengths of Piaget’s Perspective
- Started the "cognitive revolution," breaking away from behaviorism and social-learning theory
- Inspired many others through his books (40 books, 100 articles)
- Careful observation, experimentation, and interviews yield a wealth of information about human development
Weaknesses in Piaget’s Perspective
- Spoke of the "normal" child, not individual differences, culture, education, motivation, emotions or personality
- Too much informal observation, not enough rigorous scientific research
- Recent research suggests that he underestimated the abilities of young children
- Development may not be clearly demarcated in stages, but may be more continuous and gradual.
Neo-Piagetians and the Information-Processing Approach
Neo-Piagetian - extended and modified Piagetian theory. Some research, such as Robbie Case, have found there are more effective information processors than Piaget had imagined.
- More clearly explains the processes by which qualitative changes in cognition occur
- Explains the constraints on learning at any given stage.
- Helps account for individual differences in cognition.
Information-Processing Theory
Focuses on analyzing the mental processes underlying intelligent behavior: perception, attention, memory, and problem solving.
Focus: How we acquire, transform and use sensory information through active manipulation of symbols or mental images?
Research method: usually experimental or observation of problem solving.
Strengths
- Valuable way to assess intelligence
- Provides insight on the development of memory and other cognitive processes
- Helped to refine curriculum development
Weaknesses - Doesn't address creativity, emotions, motivation and social interaction
Cognitive Neuroscience Approach
- based on brain research
- supports information processing theory
- links brain processes to cognitive processes
4. Evolutionary/Sociobiological – influenced by Darwin
- focuses on biological and evolutionary bases of behavior
- assumes that innate, species-specific behaviors have evolved to increase odds of survival
- humans adapt to environmental demands
- study involves naturalistic and laboratory observation
- view humans as passive and active in their own development
- evolutionary developmental psychologists seek to identify behaviors that are adaptive at different ages
Ethology - study of the adaptive behaviors of species of animals that have evolved to increase their survival.
John Bowlby (1950s British psychologist) refined the theories to fit human development. He claimed:
There is an innate inseparable bond between mothers and newborns
Imprinting - Lorenz (1957) - innate attachment to the "first moving object." Lorenz got ducklings to follow him as evidence of his claim.
Imprinting is the result of:
"a predisposition toward learning: the readiness of an organism's nervous system to acquire certain information during a brief critical period in early life."
Other examples: certain ritual behaviors occur right after birth for many animals – sucking, standing, running, , etc.
Strength of evolutionary/Sociobiological Perspective
- Appreciate the adaptive value of behavior, and the role of evolution
- Encourages naturalistic observation
Weaknesses – doesn’t address the quality of attachment and bonds, such as interaction.
Discussion Question: Does the evolutionary/sociobiological perspective promote conflict among people by espousing Darwinian interpretations?
5. Contextual Approach to Understanding Influence - Urie Bronfenbrenner (1979)
- Human development can be understood only in its social context.
- The individual is a social being, not living independently from the world around her.
- The person actions upon the environment; AND the environment acts upon the person.
- Contextualists emphasize individual differences
- Assume that individuals set goals within a particular context as they perceive it (opportunities, limitations, available resources)
Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological Theory assumes: (see p. 42)
- every biological organism develops within the context of ecological systems
- development occurs through regular, active, two-way interaction between the person and the environment
- Assumes five levels of environmental influence, from most intimate to broadest
Microsystem - everyday environment
Examples: home, school, work, church, peers, neighborhood
Mesosystem - a system of microsystems, linkages between local environments
Examples: home and school (educational planning), home and work,
family and peer group, social collaboration, educational planning.
Exosystem - linkages between two or more settings where one environment doesn't contain the individual,
but affects that person indirectly.
Examples: - parent's workplaces (frustration at work may cause aggression at home);
- parents' social networks (friends help promote your career or academic training);
- links between family and community (cultural experiences).
Macrosystem - overarching cultural patterns, such as dominant beliefs ideologies, economic and political systems.
How is a person affected by: capitalist or socialist society?
- Urban or rural setting; South America or North America?
- Wealth or poverty?
- Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, Atheist, Agnostic
- X-generation or 1960s generation?
Chronosystem - dimension of time, historical period
- Are family systems similar today as 50 years ago?
- Is the unemployment level similar to 25 years ago?
- Is growing up during the 60s different than today?
- Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory - Lev Semenovich Vygotsky (Russian psychologist; 1896-1934)
- language and literacy are central to development
- thinking is constrained by the particular language. A wider linguistic repertoire provides one with a greater range of expression and thought.
- Vigotsky worked with blind, deaf people; later repressed by Stalin Concerned mainly with higher mental activities with important educational implications.
- disagreed with Piaget – use scaffolding to direct and organize a child's learning before she can master and internalize it. If left on her own to experiment, she may become discouraged and quit
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) - children can nearly accomplish a task (such as mathematical multiplication), but need an adult to teach them the steps.
Strengths of Vygotsky
- suggests that the development of children from one culture (such as white, middle-class, American) may not be an appropriate norm for children from other societies or cultural groups.
- Emphasizes directed learning, not 'chance' and experimentation.
Weaknesses of Vygotsky - ZPD can't be tested; it doesn't address motivation or maturation
Research Methods
Two broad methodological traditions: qualitatitve research and quantitative research
Qualitative Research – deals with ‘soft’ data, such as subjective experiences, feelings or beliefs.
Quantitative Research – focuses on ‘hard’ data and numerical or statistical measures, based on scientific method.
Scientific Method - refers to principles and processes that characterize scientific inquiry in any field:
- Identification of a problem to be studied;
- Formulation of a hypothesis - explanation or predictions that can be tested);
- Collection of data - (information obtained through research);
- Analyzing the data - to determine whether the data support the hypothesis;
- Dissemination of findings (journals, conferences)
Sampling - how participants are to be chosen
Sample - a smaller group for study, because studying an entire population isn't always possible
Does the group represent the larger population?
If not, the results cannot be generalized - applied to the population as a whole.
Random Selection - each person in the population has an equal and independent chance of being chosen.
Forms of Data Collection - methods for obtaining information
Self-Reports:
Diary or journal - log of activity, thoughts, important details.
Interviews - face-to-face or telephone discussions, usually questions about attitudes, opinions, or behavior.
Questionnaire - written questions -- to reach more people with less interview labor.
Advantages: provides first-hand information about a person's life, attitudes or opinions
Disadvantages: - person may not remember information accurately
- Person may distort responses (to please the researcher)
- How questions are asked or by whom may affect answer.
- Multiple meanings - "drink" can mean a full glass or a sip.
Behavioral Measures: tests and other measures (psychometics)
Examples: IQ tests, physical responses
Advantages: objective measurable information; avoids subjective distortions
Disadvantages: can't measure attitudes or nonbehavioral phenomena (thoughts); results may be affected by extraneous factors (energy levels, amount of sleep, hunger, mental distractions)
Naturalistic Observation - look at people in real-life, natural settings (home, school or workplace)
- Do not try to alter behavior or environment
- Record what they see
Advantages: - Good description of behavior
- Does not subject people to unnatural settings that may distort behavior
Disadvantages: - Lack of control when naturalistic
- Observer bias
Laboratory Observation - observe and record behavior in a controlled situation, such as a laboratory.
- All research participants are observed under the same conditions.
- Investigators can more clearly identify any differences in behavior, not attributed to the environment.
Advantages - Provides good descriptions;
- Greater control than naturalistic observation
Disadvantages - Observer bias;
- Controlled situation can be artificial; not ‘natural’ behavior
Four Basic Research Designs – plan for conducting scientific investigation, depends on:
- what questions are to be answered
- how participants are to be selected
- how data are to be collected and interpreted
- how valid conclusions can be drawn
Case Study - study of a single individual in depth.
Sad Example: "Genie" at 20 months - 13½ years of age was confined to a small room where no one spoke to her. When found, she weighed 59 pounds, couldn’t straighten her arms/legs, and did not speak. Now in her 30s, is getting intensive therapy and language training, but still has social problems and her language is not normal.
Advantages: - Provides detailed picture of one person's behavior and develoments;
- Can generate hypotheses
Disadvantages - May not generalize to others;
- Conclusions not directly testable;
- Cannot establish cause and effect.
Ethnographic Study - in-depth study of culture, using a combination of methods, including participant observation. Examine behavior, rituals, language, artifacts, etc.
Participant observation - observer/researcher lives with the people, participates in the activity observed
Cross-Cultural Research - comparing cultures (practices and beliefs) can tell us which aspects of development are universal and which are culturally determined.
Examples of cultural comparisons
U.S. Children - learn to read and write, and use computers
Nepalese Children - learn to drive buffalo and find their way along mountain paths
Research Task: Sort 20 objects
Kpelle tribe sort by function - knife and orange; potato and hoe
Westerners sort by kinds - tools together; food together
Advantages: - Provides detailed perspective on people and culture
Disadvantage: observer bias; subject bias.
Correlational Studies - attempt to find positive or negative relationship between two variables
Examples: - as stress increase, task performance decreases
- as alcohol consumption increases, intoxication increases
Advantages: - Allows prediction of one variable on basis of another
- Explores sources of behavior and test treatments for problems
- Suggests possible causes, or causal relationships
Disadvantage: - Cannot establish cause and effect.
Experiments - controlled procedure in which the researcher manipulates variables to determine the effect on another variable
Experimental Group - participants who are to be exposed to experimental manipulation or treatment.
Control Group: same kind of people as in the experimental group, but no treatment.
Replication - the study is repeated in exactly the same way with different participants to verify results and conclusions.
Independent Variable - something the experimenter has direct control (type of reading approach; temperature in the room; amount of alcohol consumed)
Dependent Variable - something that may or may not change as a result of changes in the independent variable; it depends on the independent variable. (the score; the outcome; measure of performance)
Advantages: - Establishes cause-and-effect relationships;
- Highly controlled procedure that can be repeated by another investigator;
- Degree of control is greatest in the laboratory.
Disadvantages: findings may not generalize to situations outside the laboratory.
Laboratory Experiment - study is done in a lab.
Field Experiment - controlled study is conducted in a natural setting (home, school, workplace)
Combing Experimentation with Other Designs - greater understanding of human development can be gained
Examples: laboratory experiments and interviews; observation and interviews; etc.
Quasi-Experimental Methods - when profile of participants can't be controlled (such as age)
Developmental Research Designs
Longitudinal Study - study the same person(s) over a period of time.
Example: study vocabulary size over time
Advantages: show age-related change or continuity; avoids confounding age with cohort effects
Disadvantages: time-consuming; expensive; attrition; bias in sample; effects of repeated testing; results may not be generalized.
Cross-Sectional Study - provides information about differences among different groups
Example: compare vocabulary size between different age groups, rather than within the same age group.
Cross-Sequential Study - combines longitudinal studies and cross-sectional studies
Example: assess cross-sectional sample more than once to determine differences in each age cohort over a period of time.
Microgenetic Study – direct observation of change by repeated testing over a short time.
Example: from Rovee-Collier & Boller, 1995)
- tie a string from the 2 month-old infant's leg to a mobile
- observe how the child learns about the connection between her movement and the movement of the mobile
Research Ethics
- Do no harm - right to self-esteem
- Right to informed consent
- Avoid Deception
- Right to privacy and confidentiality
- Right to withdraw
Historical Perspectives on Human Development (omitted from the textbook)
Studying Childhood - People throughout history have held various ideas about what children are like and how they should be raised
Aries (1962): "Before the 17th century, children were not seen as qualitatively different from adults."
Evidence: - Paintings show children to appear as young adults
- Documents describe children as working long hours, leaving their parents at an early age for apprenticeships, suffering brutality at the hands of adults.
Most developmentalists agree: Children have historically been seen and treated differently than adults
Evidence: Linda Pollock (1983) studied autobiographies, diaries and literature through the 16th century
David Elkind (1986) studied Bible, literature from Greeks and Romans
19th century advances in the scientific study of child development:
- Discovery of germs and immunization - protection from disease
- Adults came to feel more responsible for the way children developed
- Abundance of cheap labor - children no longer needed as workers, laws against child labor
- Psychology - science taught us that we can understand ourselves by learning what influences development.
Important Historical Studies
G. Stanley Hall - pioneer of child study, published Adolescence (1904/1916)
- The book stimulated lots of attention to this topic
- When he was 78 years old, he published Senescence: The Last Half of Life (1922)
Stanford University - opened the first major scientific research unit devoted to aging (1928).
National Institute of Health (1946) - large-scale research unit, specialized organizations, research journals
Harvard University - The Grant Study of Adult Development (1930s) - long-term study focused on adults
University of Chicago - Bernice Neugarten and associates (1950s) began studies of middle age
Seattle Longitudinal Study - K Warner Schaie (1950s) - adult intelligence
Paul Costa and Robert McCrae (1950s) studied personality traits in thousands of adults of all ages
Life Span Studies - following children through adulthood
- Stanford University - Studies of Gifted Children (1921 to present) - study unusually intelligent in childhood
- Fels Research Institute (1930s) -
- Berkeley Growth and Guidance Studies (1930s)
- Oakland (Adolescent) Growth Study (1930s)
Paul B. Baltes (1987) - leader in shaping the study of life span development, identified four features:
Multidirectionality - a balance of growth and decline. As we gain in one area, we lose in another.
Example: increased vocabulary as we age, greater difficulty in solving unfamiliar problems
Plasticity - skills can be significantly modified with training and practice, even in late age.
History and Context - each person develops within a specific set of circumstances or conditions defined by time and place.
Multiple Causation - development has a variety of causes (biology, social forces)
John A. Clausen - Institute of Human Development, UC, Berkeley. Berkeley Longitudinal Studies
Focused on planning competence - ability to organize one's own life; plan and take action.
- helps people mobilize resources and cope with difficulties
- does not guarantee success, nor does absence ensure failure
Research findings:
- the personalities of teens who have high planning competence change less than those with low or ordinary planning competence.
- competent teens make good choices in adolescence and early childhood, which often led to promising opportunities (scholarships, good jobs, competent spouse).
- less competent teens made poorer early decisions and then tended to lead crisis-ridden lives.
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