Human Development Notes
Developmental Psychology: Area of psychology that is concerned with changes in physical and
psychological functioning.
Development is the predictable changes in behaviour associated with age.
Remember table 1.1: Stages in life span development.
Stage Theories of Development
Discontinuity: Series of abrupt changes from one period to another (not all people develop the
exact same way for example: one year old can be hitting milestone but then at the age of 3 they
are not)
Continuity: Many advocate that changes unfold over time
Studying Development
Normative investigations: describe characteristics of a specific age of developmental stage
(Average level Norms: height, weight, reading, writing).
Longitudinal Design
Repeated observation and testing of the same people over time.
Is there benefit short term and long term.
Up Series by Michael Apted- followed the lives of fourteen British children since 1964.
Cross-sectional Design
Groups of participants of different chronological ages are observed and compared at the
same time (Census): Different ages, different characteristics etc
Advantages and Disadvantages
Piaget and Development
- Representations of reality change at different stages- needed for adaptation.
- How they got to solving the problem, the method
- Schemes: mental structures that enable individuals to interpret the world.
Assimilation: Modifies new environmental information to fit into what is already known
(Interpret new input according to existing schemes) (Take new info and bring it into what already
exists) ex: child thinks all animals are dogs.
Accommodation: restructure or modifies the child’s existing schemes so that information is
accounted for.
Stages of Cognitive Development
1. Sensorimotor Stage (0-2)
Sensation & motion (cribs lights, putting toys in mouth, gonna throw things, trying to eat
stuff)
Mobility allows for knowledge acquisition.
Object permanence: Understanding that objects exist from awareness (around age 2)
2. Preoperational Stage (2-7)
Use of symbols, language matures, memory develops, imagination develops (most
learning happens)
Non-reversable thinking
Egocentrism: Inability to take other perspectives
Centration: Tendency for attention to be captured by perceptually striking features
of objects
3. Concrete operations stage (7-11)
Conversation: Physical properties of objects don’t change even though
appearance might (reversibility)
Reversibility: 1 + 1 ¿ 2 and 2 – 2 = 1
4. Formal Operations Stage (11- adult)
Development of abstract and hypothetical thinking
Logical thinking, egocentric thinking
Contemporary Cognitive Views
Renee Baillargeon
- Infant cognition
- Violation of expectation: Experiments – rudimentary object permanence at a younger age
(4- 5 months)
Theory of Mind
- Foundational Theories: Frameworks for initial understanding (accumulation of
experiences)
Levy Vygotski & Internalization
- Process of absorbing knowledge from the social and cultural context that has a major
impact on how cognition unfolds over time.
- Zone of proximal Development: the space between what a learner can do without
assistance and what a learner can do with adult guidance or in collaboration with more
capable peers.
Social Development
Social Development: How individuals social Interactions and expectations change over time
Erikson’s psychosocial stages: Represents 8 conflicts that every individual must face through the
life span KNOW FOR TEST
Socialization: Lifelong process through which an individual’s behavioural patterns, values,
standards, skills, attitudes and motives are shaped to conform to those regarded as desirable in a
particular society. (Family is most important factor)
Temperament:
Biologically based levels of emotional and behavioural response to the environment
We are not all the same regarding our social responses.
Example: Inhibited (shy, withdrawn) & uninhibited babies (sociable outgoing)
Sets the stage for later aspects of development and can have interactive effects (social
anxiety, antisocial) – but not always.
Attachment
Intense social-emotional relationship with mother, father, or regular caregiver
Konrad Lorenz: some species experience Imprinting of the first moving object they
see.
John Bowlby: Humans biologically predisposed to form attachments but become more
selective in their attachment choices.
Attachment forms lifelong schema for relationships called internal working model.
Contact and Social Bonding
Attachment
Mary Ainsworth and the strange situation test
3 main types of attachment styles
1. Secure 70%
2. Insecure- avoidant 20%
3. Insecure- ambivalent/resistant 10%