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CHAPTER 1 THE STUDY OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
1.1 Thinking about development (all) 1.2 Development Theories (rachel) 1.3 Doing Development Research (marbs) 1.1 Thinking about development Fundamental Characteristics of Human Development
- a person’s development is a blend of these characteristics Nature and nurture Continuity and discontinuity Universal and Context-specific Nature and nurture
- Concern: genetic or hereditary influences (nature) and experiential or environmental influences (nurture)
- Joint of heredity and environment Continuity and Discontinuity
- Changes from one developmental path to another
- Concern: represents a smooth progression (continuity) or abrupt shifts (discontinuity) Universal and Context-specific
- Concern: one path development or several
- Theorists view: only one fundamental developmental process for everyone
- Development = simply variations on the same fundamental process
- Alternative view: differences are not simply variations
- Development = product of complex interaction with environment and interaction is not fundamentally same in all environments ; each environment is unique that shape development Basic Forces in Human Development: The Biopsychosocial Framework
- Organize all four forces on development Biological forces Psychological forces Sociocultural forces Life-cycle forces Biological forces
- Not only genetic, but also diet, and exercise Psychological forces
- Made up of internal cognitive, emotional, personality, perceptual, and related factors Sociocultural forces
- Race, ethnicity, and culture
- People + environment = mutually influence
- View it as a much larger system which influences all other aspects
- Person’s culture - linked to (1) specific point in time, and (2) identifiable cultural traditions ● Knowledge ● Attitudes ● Behavior Life-cycle forces
- Timing is everything The Forces Interact
- No aspect can be examined with isolation
- All four forces interact
- Combining all four forces gives a view of development that encompasses yet appreciates the unique aspects of each life phase Neuroscience: A window into human development
- Study of the brain and nervous system
- Brain-behavior relationship
1.2 Developmental Theories
Theories “why”
- In human development, it serves as the explanation for behavior and development.
5 General Perspectives/ Theories in HD:
● Psychodynamic theory ● Learning theory ● Cognitive theory ● Ecological and Systems theory ● Lifespan Perspective theories ○ Selective Optimization with compensation ○ Life-course Perspective
Psychodynamic Theory
- Development is largely determined by how well people resolve conflicts they face at different stages.
- From Sigmund Freud’s (SF) theory ; personality emerges from conflicts that children experience between what they want to do and what society wants them to do. Example theory: **Psychosocial theory
- Erik Erikson (1902-1994) to build up SF’s theory.
- First comprehensive life-span view.**
- experience **was about all that mattered in determining the course of development.
- little research. B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)
- filled the gaps on Watson’s research Operant Conditioning - the consequences of a behavior determines whether a behavior is repeated in the future.** 2 Kinds of Consequences: 1. Reinforcement - increases the likelihood of the behavior that it follows Positive reinforcement - giving reward to increase the likelihood of a behavior. “good” behavior. Negative reinforcement - rewarding people by taking away unpleasant things e.g. Rachel cleans the room. As a reward, she doesn’t have to weed the garden or wash dishes. 2. Punishment - consequence that decreases the likelihood of a behavior. - suppresses behavior by adding something aversive or with-holding pleasant events. **- Skinner examines animals.
- principles of operant conditioning can be extended to people (Baer & Wolf, 1968).**
- reinforcement and punishment are powerful influences on children, adolescents, and adults however reinforcement tends to quicker and longer-lasting learnings. **Social Learning theory
- other form of learning by watching others known as** imitation or observational learning. Imitation “Monkey sees, monkey does” **- people imitate what they see. However through further research people do not imitate what they see around them but to people who they see as important, popular, smart, or talented.
- likely to imitate a rewarded behavior.
- imitation is more complex than mimicry. It takes careful consideration of finding information about appropriate behavior.** e.g. (group/s) of friends tend to behave, talk, and think similarly. **Albert Bandura (1925-)
- more complex view of reward, punishment, and imitation.
- “cognitive” as people actively try to understand what goes on in their world.**
- “social” along with reinforcement & punishment, what other people do is an important source of information about the world. “experience gives people a sense of self-efficacy”. - people’s belief about their own abilities and talents. - helps determine when to imitate others.
- whether the individual imitates on ‘who’ the other person is, or whether that person’s behavior is rewarded, and on the individual's beliefs about his or her own abilities.
- Bandura’s theory is a far cry from Skinner’s. Nevertheless, shares a common view that experience propels people along a development journey.
Cognitive-Developmental Theory
**- focus on the thought processes and a person’s constructing knowledge actively.
- key: how people think & how thinking changes over time.
- began with a focus on how children construct knowledge & how it changes over time.** Example theories
3 Distinct Approach:
Piaget’s Theory
**- Jean Piaget (1896-1980) most influential child and adolescent developmental psychologist of the 20th century.
- children = scientists**
- want to understand the physical and social world through testing and creating theories daily through experiences. Test → Predict → Occur = Solidifies theory Test → Predict → does not occur = Revise their theory (brand new)
- children began to construct knowledge in new ways at few critical points in development. **- changes occur first about age 2 years, then another at age 7 and third towards adolescence.
- 4 distinct stages in cognitive development;**
- each represents a fundamental change in how they understand and organize their environment.
- characterized by more sophisticated types of reasoning. - influences how developmentalists & practitioners think about cognitive development during childhood & adolescence.
**- human development is inseparable from the environment context in which a person develops.
- all aspects of development are interconnected (spider’s web)**
- we need to consider many different systems that influence them; parents, peers, teachers, media, neighborhood & social policy to infer why they behave so. Example theories **Bronfenbrenner’s Theory
- Urie Bronfenbrenner (1917-2005) best-known advocate of ecological approach.
- proposed that developing a person is embedded in a series of complex interactive system.
- (2005) divided environment into 4 levels: Microsystem - people & object in an individual’s immediate environment.** e.g. parents or siblings -some have more than one microsystem. e.g. family and day-care center of the young child.
- strongly influences development; connects to create a mesosystem. Mesosystem - provides connections across microsystems; what happens in microsystem is likely to influence others e.g. stressful work, often grouchy at home.
- indicates the mesosystem is alive and well; interconnected emotionally. Exosystem - social settings that a person may not experience first hand but still influence development. e.g. changes in government’s policy regarding welfare may mean economically disadvantaged children have fewer opportunities.
- indirect change, strong influence. Macrosystem - broadest; cultures and subcultures in which microsystem, mesosystem, and exosystem are embedded. e.g. mother, her workplace, child, its school are part of a larger cultural setting.
- Filipino Americans living in San Francisco, Italian Americans living in Brooklyns share common identity, heritage, and values.
- evolves overtime; each successive generation may develop in unique macrosystems. - emphasizes many levels of influence on human development. Everything affects one another.
Competence - Environmental Press Theory
**- Lawton and Nahemow’s (1973)
- people adapt most effectively when their competence** (ability) matches their environmental press (demands put on them by environment). - originally proposed to account the ways in which adults function in their environment but applies throughout lifespan. e.g. adult social skill & work demands determines her acceptability by her group. - people’s functioning to understand the systems in which they live.
Life-Span Perspective, Selective Optimization with Compensation, and
Life-Course Perspective
- historically, adulthood was downplayed, owing to the belief that it was a time when abilities had reached a plateau (continues to develop) --- followed by inevitable decline in old age.
- modern perspective emphasizes the importance of viewing human development as a lifelong process. Life-Span Perspective and Selective Optimization with Compensation
● Elective Selection - people reduce their involvement to fewer domains from new tasks; reduces liability. ● Loss-based Selection - real or anticipated losses in personal or environmental resources cause to reduce involvement. e.g. older person stops going to church because he can no longer drive.
- continuing goals on a lesser scale/ substituting with new goals. Compensation - people’s skills have decreased so they no longer function well in a particular domain then search for alternative ways to accomplish the goal.
- sometimes requires learning new skills; maintained but achieved through other means. Optimization - minimizing losses, maximizing gains.
- main idea: find the best match possible between one’s resources and desired goals.
- people cannot achieve optimal outcomes in everything. *selecting right goals and compensating when possible to help achieve it. Life-Course Perspective
- Story that includes several key life events and transitions; shows how people move through their lives and experience unique interaction of the 4 processes of life. e.g. going to school, getting married, getting the first job, having children.)
- This perspective describes the ways in which various generations experience the biological, psychological, and sociocultural forces of development in their respective historical contexts.
- It’s basically how people create their own lives at their own paces. Key Feature: the dynamic play between the individual and society. 3 Major Dimensions: ● The individual timing of life events in relation to external historical events. How do people time and sequence their lives in the context of changing historical conditions? e.g. getting first job in a pandemic (haha) ● The synchronization of individual transitions with collective familial ones. How do people balance their own lives with those of their own family? e.g. school obligations to uyab matters (char) ● The impact of earlier life events, as shaped on historical events, on subsequent ones. How does experiencing an event earlier in life at a particular point in history affect one’s subsequent life? e.g. male turning 18 when there is a military draft affects his ability to choose career.
= major life-courses can be taken by each individual at their own pace. It appears first at the adolescent stage of a person that he gets to take control/ balance out the courses in his life; various domains of people’s lives are highly interdependent. e.g. having a child depends on where one's career and education that person is.
- A less common but potentially powerful form of measurement is measuring people’s physiological responses.
- Usually specialized—they focus on a particular aspect of a person’s behavior Examples: Brain imaging technique (memory), heart rate (attention), measuring cortisol level (stress) Reliability and Validity Representative Sampling ♦ Reliability ♦ Populations The extent to which a measure provides a Broad groups of people that are of consistent index of a characteristic. interest to researchers. ♦ Validity ♦ Sample Whether a measure actually measures what A subset of the population. researchers think it measures. General Designs for Research
➻ Human development researchers rely on two primary designs in their work: correlational studies and experimental studies ❖ Correlational Studies - Investigators look at relations between variables as they exist naturally in the world. *A correlational study can determine whether variables are related , it doesn’t address the question of cause and effect between the variables. Correlation coefficient -An expression of the strength and direction of a relation between two variables. -It can range from −1.0 to +1.0. -Three possible results: positive correlation, negative correlation, and no correlation at all Positive sign (+)
- larger values of one variable are associated with larger values of the second variable. Negative sign (-)
- larger values of one variable are associated with smaller values of the second variable. *The size or strength of a relation is measured by how much the correlation differs from 0, either positively or negatively. *The sign indicates the direction. ❖ Experimental Studies - Investigators systematically manipulate the factor(s) that they think causes a particular behavior. Independent Variable - Factor being manipulated - Treatments, interventions, experiences, or events. Dependent Variable - The behavior being observed - Used to evaluate the impact of the independent variable. *Conclusions about cause and effect are possible because the direct manipulation occurred under controlled conditions. ❁ Qualitative Studies
- Method that involves gaining in-depth understanding of human behavior and what governs it.
- Typically involves intensive observation of behavior over extended periods of time. - The need is for smaller but focused samples rather than large random samples.
researcher then adds more cross-sectional or longitudinal studies, resulting in a sequence of these studies. -They allow researchers to distinguish age-related change from other effects (e.g., cohort effects, participant dropout). -Rare because it is so expensive, yet powerful.
Integrating Findings from Different Studies
★ Meta-analysis -A tool that enables researchers to synthesize the results of many studies to estimate relations between variables. -In conducting a meta-analysis, investigators find all studies published on a topic over a substantial period of time (e.g., 10 to 20 years) and then record and analyze the results and important methodological variables. -A particularly powerful tool because it allows scientists to determine whether a finding generalizes across many studies. -Can reveal the impact of different methods on results and further the development of specific theories of behavior.
Conducting Research Ethically
➻ Researchers must determine whether the methods they plan to use protects the rights of people who participate. ➻ Local panels of experts and community representatives, called the Institutional Review Board, evaluate proposed studies before any data are collected. ✓ Only with the approval of this panel can scientists begin their study. ➻ Conducting research ethically is an obligation of every investigator. If you conduct a project, you should submit your procedures for review. If you are a participant in someone else’s project, make sure you are given complete information and read it thoroughly.
Codes of Ethical Conduct
❣ Minimize risks to research participants ❣ Describe the research to potential participants so that they can determine whether they want to participate ❣ Avoid deception; if participants must be deceived, provide a thorough explanation of the true nature of the experiment as soon as possible ❣ Results should be anonymous or confidential
Communicating Research Results
➻When the study is complete and the data have been analyzed, researchers write a report of their work that describes what they did and why, their results, and the meanings of their results. ➻The researchers will submit the report to one of several scientific journals that specialize in human development research. (Child Development, Developmental Psychology, Psychology and Aging, and the Journals of Gerontology.)
Applying Research Results: Social Policy
➻Human development research played a role in establishing laws and regulations. ➻Research done by developmentalists influences many aspects of daily life that are governed by laws and societal rules. ➻Research on human development not only provides many insights into what makes people tick but also can provide ways to improve the quality of life. ➻However, the views of scientists, ethicists, public citizens, and government sometimes collide in ways that result in significant debate concerning research. ➺ Stem cell research.
- More complex process
- Dominant - followed chemical instructions
- Recessive - ignored chemical instructions
- Incomplete dominance
- Alleles that do not complete another
- Resultant phenotype falls between the phenotype it associates
- Sickle-cell trait
- One dominant allele and one recessive allele
- Appear when exercise vigorously, becomes hydrated, or at high altitudes Genetic Disorders Inherited Abnormal chromosomes Inherited
- Phenylketonuria (PKU)
- Involves recessive alleles
- Born lacking an important liver enzyme (phenylalanine)
- Amino acid found in dairy products, bread diet, soda and fish (tyrosine)
- Without this enzyme: accumulates and produces poisons, resulting in mental retardation
- Huntington’s disease
- Progressive degeneration of nervous system
- Caused by: dominant allele (chromosome 4)
- Patient develop normally through childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood; during middle age, nerve cells deteriorate Abnormal chromosomes
- Down syndrome (extra autosome)
- Have almond-shape eyes and a fold over the eyelid
- Head, neck, and nose are usually smaller than normal
- First several months seem normal → mental and behavioral development begins to lag
- Child rearing challenge
- Extra 21st chromosomes Heredity, Environment, and Development Behavioral Genetics: Mechanisms and Methods
- Deals with inheritance of behavioral and psychological traits
- Polygenic inheritance
- Pattern of combined activity of many separate genes
- Hard to trace effects of each gene
- Hypothetical example: Extroversion is not based on the combined influence of eight pairs of genes [example shows how several genes working together could produce continuum of phenotypes]
- Monozygotic/identical twins
- From a single fertilized egg that splits in two
- Dizygotic/fraternal twins
- From two separate eggs fertilized by two separate sperm
- Adopted children
- Resembles their biological parents - impact of heredity
- Resembles their adoptive parents - influence of environment
- Potential flaw: parents and others may treat monozygotic twins more similar than they treat dizygotic twins Paths from Gene to Behavior
- Heredity and environment interact dynamically throughout development
- Clay of life and experience does the sculpting
- Genes and environments constantly interact to produce phenotypes
- PKU
- good example of genotype-phenotype link
- homozygous recessive trait in which phenylalanine accumulates in the child’s body, damaging the nervous system and leading to retarded mental development
- Placed on diet that limits phenylalanine
- People’s experiences help determine how and when genes are activated; however exact pathway of influence is unknown
- Constant interaction between genetic instructions and nature of immediate cellular environment
- Hereditary clay and environmental sculpting are continuously interweaving and influencing each other: Nature - nurture
- Molecular genetics research: Experiences get “under the skin”
- Methylation
- Sometimes experiences change the expression of DNA—the genetic code is preserved but some genes are “turned off.”
- Methyl - chemical silencer
- Behavioral geneticists: often use correlations from twin and adoption studies to calculate a heritability coefficient
- estimates the extent to which differences between people reflect heredity
- many people mistakenly interpret heritability coefficients to mean that 50% of an individual’s intelligence is due to heredity
