Theory & Research

Chapter 2
Window on the World: Purposes of
Cross-Cultural Research

• In what ways is development universal?

• Language development
• Motor development
• Bias in Western theories and research?
• Linguistic barriers
• Observational issues
• Cross-cultural comparison pitfalls?
Guideposts for Study

1. What purposes do theories serve, and what are

the two theoretical issues on which developmental
scientists differ?
2. What are five theoretical perspectives on human
development and their representative theories?
3. How do developmental scientists study people,
and what are the advantages and disadvantages
of each research method?
4. What ethical problems may arise in research on
humans?
 Basic Theoretical Terms

• Theory
• A set of logically related concepts that seek to
describe and explain behavior and to predict
what kinds of behavior might occur under specific
conditions
• Provides groundwork for hypotheses
• Hypotheses
• Tentative explanations that can be tested by
further research
 Theories of Development:
Is Development Active or Reactive?

● Mechanistic Model: Passive

ú Locke: tabula rasa
ú Children are “blank slates on
which society writes”
ú People are machines reacting to
environment
 Theories of Development:
Is Development Active or Reactive?

● Organismic Model: Active

ú Rousseau: “noble savages”
ú Children set their own
development in motion
ú People initiate events,
don’t just react
 Theories of Development:
Continuous or Discontinuous?

• Mechanistic Theories: Continuous

• Focus on quantitative change
• Same processes are involved
• Think of a ramp
 Theories of Development:
Continuous or Discontinuous?

• Organismic Theories: Stage

• Focus on qualitative change
• Different processes involved
● Think of stairs
Five Major Perspectives

• Psychoanalytic
• Learning
• Cognitive
• Contextual
• Evolutionary/Sociobiological
Freud’s Psychosexual Theory

• Psychoanalytic
• Unconscious forces motivate
human behavior
• Psychoanalysis: Therapy that
gives insight into unconscious
emotional conflicts
 Freudian Parts of Personality

• Id
• Pleasure Principle
• Ego
• Reality Principle
• Superego
• Follows rules of society
Freudian Psychosexual Stages

Stage Age Unconscious Conflict

Birth to about15
Oral Sucking & feeding
months
12–18 months to
Anal Potty training
3 years
Phallic 3 to 6 years Attachment to parents

Latency 6 years to puberty Socialization

Genital Puberty to adult Mature adult sexuality

Erickson’s Psychosocial Theory

• “Neo-Freudian”
• Emphasized influence of society
• Development is lifelong, not just during
childhood
• Each of eight stages of
development involves a “crisis”
• Crisis resolution gains a “virtue”
• ú Infancy: trust vs. mistrust
Learning Theory

• Learning
• Long-lasting change in
behavior, based on
experience
 Learning Theory:
Behaviorism

• We respond based on whether the

situation is:
• Painful or Threatening

• Pleasurable
 Behaviorism:
Classical Conditioning

• John Watson: Conditioning of Fear

• Orphan boy “Little Albert”
• 1. Albert liked the furry rat
• 2. Rat presented with loud CRASH!
• 3. Albert cried because of noise
• 4. Eventually, site of rat made
Albert cry
 Behaviorism:
Operant Conditioning

• Individual learns the consequences of

“operating” on the environment
• Learned relationship between behavior
and its consequences
• B. F. Skinner formulated original ideas by
working with animals, then applied them
to humans
Operant Conditioning:
Reinforcement

• Increases likelihood of behavior

reoccurring
• Positive: Giving a reward
• Candy for finishing a task
• Negative: Removing something aversive
• No chores for getting an A+ on homework
Operant Conditioning:
Punishment

• Decreases likelihood of behavior

reoccurring
• Positive: Adding something aversive
• Getting scolded
• Negative: Removing something pleasant
• Taking away car keys
• Getting a “time-out”
Social Learning Theory

• Albert Bandura: Development is

“bidirectional”
• Reciprocal determinism—person acts on
world as the world acts on the person

• Observational Learning or
Modeling
• Children choose models to imitate
 Social Cognitive Theory:
An Update to Modeling

• Emphasizes cognitive processes as central

to development
• Beginning of “self-efficacy”
• People observe models and learn “chunks”
of behavior
§ Imitating dance steps of teacher
§ … AND other students
 Cognitive Theory

• Focuses on thought processes

• and behavior that reflects those
processes
• Includes organismic and
mechanistic theories
 Piaget:
Cognitive Stage Theory

• Clinical Method
• Combining observation with questioning
• Development begins with an inborn
ability to adapt
• Rooting for a nipple, feeling for a pebble
 Piagetian Cognitive Growth:
Organization

=A tendency to create complex cognitive

structures, or “schemes”
=Schemes
=Organized patterns of behavior used to think
and act in a situation
=Infants suck bottles AND thumbs
 Piagetian Cognitive Growth:
Adaptation

• How children handle familiar information

• Two processes:
• Assimilation: Incorporating new information
into existing schemes
• Accommodation: Changing structures to
include new information
• These steps are balanced through
equilibration
Sociocultural Theory

• Lev Vygotsky
• Stresses children’s active interaction
with social environments
• Zone of proximal
development (ZPD)
• Scaffolding
 Information Processing
Approach

• Analyzes processes involved in

perceiving information
• Helps children be aware of their own
mental strategies
… and strategies for
improvement!
Information-Processing Approach:
Computer-Based Models

• Infers what happens between

stimulus and response
• Often uses flowcharts to define
steps of processing that people use
• Unlike Piaget, views
development as continuous
Information Processing Approach:
Neo-Piagetian Theories

• Focus on specific concepts,

strategies, and skills
• Number concepts
• Comparisons of “more”
and “less”
Contextual approach

• Development can be understood only in its

social contexts
• Urie Bronfenbrenner
• Describes range of interacting influences that
affect development
• Identifies contexts that stifle or promote
growth
• Home, classroom, neighborhood
Bronfenbrenner’s Five
Contextual Systems
Evolutionary/Sociobiological
Theory

• Uses Darwin’s evolutionary theory

• Survival of the fittest
• Animals with traits suited to environment survive
• These adaptive traits are passed on to offspring
• Natural selection
• As environments change, traits change in
adaptiveness
Evolutionary Theory:
Ethology

• Study of distinctive behaviors that have

adaptive value
• Innate behaviors evolved to increase
survival odds
• Think of imprinting
• Squirrels’ burying of nuts
 Evolutionary Psychology

• How biology and environment interact to

produce behavior and development
• Humans unconsciously strive for personal
survival and genetic legacy
ú Result: A development of mechanisms that
evolved to solve problems
ú Morning sickness actually protects fetuses
 Research Methods

Quantitative Qualitative
• Objectively • Non-numerical data
measurable data ú Feelings
ú Standardized tests ú Beliefs
ú Physiological
changes
 Scientific Method:
Quantitative Research

1. Identify problem
2. Formulate hypotheses
3. Collect data
4. Analyze data
5. Form conclusions
6. Share findings
Sampling

• Sample
• A smaller group within the population
• Studying the entire population is
inefficient

• Random Selection
• Each person in population has an equal
chance of being in sample
Data Collection:
Self-Reports

• Diaries
• Recording daily activities
• Interviews
• Ask questions about attitudes, opinions, or
behavior
• Can be open-ended or a questionnaire
Data Collection:
Naturalistic Observation

• “People watching”
• Behavior is observed in natural
settings, without interfering
• Limitations
• Can not inform causes of behavior
• Researcher cannot know all possible
influences on behavior
 Data Collection:
Laboratory Observation

• Behavior observed and recorded in

controlled environment
• More likely to identify and control causal
influences
• Limitation:
• Observer Bias: A researcher’s tendency to
interpret data to fit expectations
 Behavioral and
Performance Measures

• Objective measures
• Mechanical and electronic devices
• Assessing skills, knowledge, and
abilities
• Heart rate
• Brain activity
• Intelligence tests
 Meaningful Measures

• Reliable
• Results are consistent from time to time

• Valid
• The test actually measures what it claims
to measure
 Measures:
Operational Definitions

• Defining abstract ideas in objective

terms
• What is intelligence?
• A score on a test
• Are there different kinds of intelligence?
• Emotional intelligence
• Academic intelligence
 Social Cognitive
Neuroscience

• Emerging field
• Bridges mind, brain, and behavior
• Uses data from:
• Cognitive neuroscience
• Social psychology
• Info-processing approaches
Research Designs

Type Characteristics Pros Cons

Reduced
Case Study Study of individuals Flexibility
generalizability

Universality of
Ethnographic Study of cultures Observer bias
phenomena

Cannot
Positive or negative Enables
Correlational establish cause
relationships prediction
and effect
Establishes
Controlled Reduced
Experiment cause and
procedures generalizability
effect
Case Studies

• Study of an individual (such as Genie)

• Offer useful in-depth information
• Shortcomings
• Not generalizable
• No way to test conclusions
Ethnographic studies

• Describe patterns that make up a society’s

way of life
• Relationships, customs, beliefs, arts, traditions
• Participant observation
• Subject to observer bias
• Useful in cross-cultural research
Correlational Studies
 Experiments: Groups

• Experimental
• People who are exposed to the
treatment

• Control
• Similar to the experimental group but
do NOT receive the treatment
 Experiments: Variables

• Independent
• Experimenter has direct control over

• Dependent
• Something that may or may not
change as result of changes in
independent variable
 Experiments:
Random Assignment

• Participants have an equal chance of

placement in experimental or control
group(s)
• Helps avoid unintentional differences
between groups
 Experiments: Location

• Control over cause and effect varies,

depending on location:
• Laboratory – most control
• Field – controlled
• Everyday settings
• Home or school

• Natural – least control

Research Designs

Cross
People assessed at one point in time
sectional

Same people studied more than

Longitudinal once

• Complex combination of cross-

sectional and longitudinal
Sequential
• Adds more data than either design
alone
 Longitudinal and
Cross-Sectional Designs
Sequential Designs
Ethics

• Balancing benefits or research against

mental and physical risks to participants
• Considerations
• Right to informed consent
• Avoidance of deception
• Right to privacy
• Confidentiality
Ethics

• Researchers are guided by

• Beneficence
• Respect
• Justice
• Researchers should be sensitive to
participants’ developmental needs and
cultural issues and values
 Research Methods in Psychology

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