Chapter I

INTRODUCTION TO
DEVELOPMENTAL
PSYCHOLOGY AND ITS
RESEARCH
STRATEGIES
 Child Development –
Yesterday and Today
Historical Accounts of Children – once
treated as miniature adults – many views on
how they should be reared.

Tabula rasa – Locke – Children are born as

blank slates – childhood experiences are
therefore important.
Original sin – Children are basically bad –
rearing must provide salvation.
Innate goodness – Rousseau – Children are
inherently good – should grow naturally.
 WHAT IS DEVELOPMENT?

• Systematic continuities
and changes between
conception to death
– Orderly, patterned and
relatively enduring
– Stability, continues to
reflect the past
 WHAT CAUSES US TO DEVELOP?

• Maturation:
– biological unfolding of an individual
– refers to the sequential characteristic of
biological growth and development.
– The biological changes occur in sequential
order and give children new abilities.
• Learning:
– experiences producing relatively
permanent
changes in thoughts, feelings, and
behaviors
 Who studies Developmental
Psychology

• Because the science of development is

multidisciplinary, we use the term
developmentalist to refer to any scholar—
regardless of discipline—who seeks to
understand the developmental process.
 WHAT GOALS DO DEVELOPMENTALISTS
PURSUE?

• To Describe: based on observation

– Normative development – typical patterns
– Ideographic development – individual
differences
• To Explain: addresses the ―why‖ of
development
• To Optimize: to help people develop
in positive directions
 WHAT GOALS DO
DEVELOPMENTALISTS PURSUE?

• Promoting strong affectional ties between

fussy, unresponsive infants and their
frustrated parents;
• Assisting children with learning diffi culties to
succeed at school; and
• Helping socially unskilled children and
adolescents to prevent the emotional
difficulties that could result from having no
close friends and being rejected by peers.
 SOME BASIC OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE
CHARACTER OF DEVELOPMENT

• A continual and cumulative

process
– Change at any phase of life
impacts future
• Developmentalists have
learned that the first 12
years are extremely
important years that sets
the stage for adolescence
and adulthood.
SOME BASIC OBSERVATIONS ABOUT
THE CHARACTER OF DEVELOPMENT

• A holistic process: development is due to a

combination of changes in
– Physical growth
– Cognitive aspects of development
– Psychosocial aspects of development
• Humans are physical, cognitive, and social
beings, and each of these components of self
depends, in part, on changes taking place in
other areas of development.
• Table 1.1 A Chronological Overview of Human
Development
 SOME BASIC OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE
CHARACTER OF DEVELOPMENT
• Plasticity: capacity for change in response to
positive or negative life experiences
– For example, somber babies living in barren,
understaffed orphanages often become quite
cheerful and affectionate when placed in
socially stimulating adoptive homes (Rutter,
1981).
 SOME BASIC OBSERVATIONS ABOUT
THE CHARACTER OF DEVELOPMENT
• Historical/Cultural context
– Historical events may influence development
– Culture also influences development
• Historical events such as wars,
technological breakthroughs such as the
development of the Internet, and social
causes such as the gay and lesbian rights
movement.
– Each generation develops in its own way, and
each generation changes the world for
succeeding generations.
 HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IN HISTORICAL
PERSPECTIVE

• Origins of a Science of Development

– G. Stanley Hall – founder of developmental
psychology as a research discipline
• First large-scale studies of children
• Developed the questionnaire
• Produced first work to call attention to
adolescence as a unique phase of life
 HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IN HISTORICAL
PERSPECTIVE

• Origins of a Science of Development

– Theory: set of concepts and propositions
and describe and explain some aspect of
behavior
– Hypotheses – theoretical predictions
which
can be tested by collecting data
RESEARCH STRATEGIES: BASIC METHODS
AND DESIGNS

• Careful observation of subjects

• Analysis of collected information
• Use of data to draw conclusions about how
people develop
 RESEARCH METHODS IN CHILD AND
ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT

• The Scientific Method

– Objective: merits of thinking
are based on data
– It refers to the use of objective and
replicable methods to gather data
for the purpose of testing a theory or
hypothesis.
 Gathering Data: Basic Fact-Finding
Strategies

• We must find ways to measure what interests

us.
• Regardless of the technique one employs,
scientifically useful measures must
always display two important qualities:
– Reliability and Validity.
 Reliability and Validity
• A measure is reliable if it yields
consistent information over
time and across observers.
• A measure is valid if it
measures what it is supposed to
measure.
 Research Strategies
• Self-report methodology
• Systematic observation
• Case studies
• Ethnography and
• Psychophysiological
methods.
Self-Report methodologies
• Interviews and Questionnaires
(including psychological tests)
– interview or questionnaire techniques is used to
ask the child, or the child’s parents, a series of
questions pertaining to such aspects of
development as the child’s behavior, feelings,
beliefs, or characteristic methods of thinking.
• structured interview or structured
questionnaire a technique in which all
participants are asked the same questions in
precisely the same order so that the responses of
different participants can be compared.
Self-Report methodologies
• The clinical method
– The clinical method is
very similar to the
interview technique.
– The investigator is
usually interested in
testing a hypothesis by
presenting the
research participant
with a task or stimulus
of some sort and then
inviting a response.
• Table 1.2 Items Comprising Measures of Attitudes Regarding Family Obligations
Self-Report methodologies

• Interviews/Questionnaires
–Limitations:
»Ability to read/comprehend speech
»Issues of honesty and accuracy
»Interpretation of questions
–Strengths
»Gathering large amounts of data
»Confidentiality improves accuracy
Self-Report methodologies

• The clinical method

–Strengths
»Large amounts of data collected in
relatively brief periods
»Flexibility
–Limitations
»Comparison of responses
»Subjective interpretation of data
Observational Methodologies
• Naturalistic observation – observing in common
(natural) settings
– Strengths:
• Very easy
• Shows behavior in everyday life
– Limitations:
• Rare or socially undesirable behaviors
may
not occur
• Difficult to isolate cause of action or
developmental trend
• Observer may change behavior
(videotape/time may reduce this
• Figure 1.1 Social initiations and negative behaviors of abused and nonabused preschool
children. Compared with their nonabused companions, abused youngsters initiate far fewer
social interactions with peers and behave more negatively toward them.
Observational Methodologies
• Structured observations
– Conducted in the laboratory
• Exposed to a setting
• Observed surreptitiously
• Strength – all participants exposed to
same environment
• Limitations – results may not represent
real life
Case study
• Case study: a detailed portrait of a single
individual; can also describe groups
– family background, socioeconomic status,
health records, academic or work history,
and performance on psychological tests.
– Strength – depth of information
– Limitations
–Difficult to compare subjects
–Lack of generalizability (results may
not apply to others)
 Ethnography

• Ethnography
– collect data by living within
the cultural community for an
extended period
– form of participant
observation
• Strengths: understanding
cultural conflicts and
impacts on development
• Limitations: subjective,
may not be generalizable
 Psychophysiological methods
• Psychophysiological methods: examine
relationship between physiological responses and
behavior
– Heart Rate – compared to baseline, decrease
may indicate interest
– EEG – brain wave activity, showing
arousal
states; stimulus detection
• Limitations
–What aspect of stimulus caught
attention?
–Change in physiology may be hunger,
DETECTING RELATIONSHIPS:
CORRELATIONAL,
EXPERIMENTAL, AND
CROSS- CULTURAL DESIGNS
 DETECTING RELATIONSHIPS: GENERAL
RESEARCH DESIGNS

• The Correlational Design

– 2 or more variables meaningfully related
– Correlation coefficient (r)
• Value, +1.00 to -1.00, indicates strength
• Sign indicates direction
– Positive (+) both variables increase
– Negative (-) one variable increases,
other decreases
• Figure 1.2 Plot of a hypothetical positive correlation between the amount of violence that
children see on television and the number of aggressive responses they display. Each dot
represents a specific child who views a particular level of televised violence (shown on the
horizontal axis) and commits a particular number of aggressive acts (shown on the vertical axis).
Although the correlation is less than perfect, we see that the more acts of violence a child
watches on TV, the more inclined he or she is to behave aggressively toward peers.
 DETECTING RELATIONSHIPS: GENERAL
RESEARCH DESIGNS

• The Correlational Design

– Correlational studies do not show
causation.
• Causal direction of relationship is
unknown
• Relationship could be due to a
third,
unmeasured variable
 DETECTING RELATIONSHIPS: GENERAL
RESEARCH DESIGNS

• The Experimental Design

– Assesses cause-and-effect relationships
between 2 variables
– Independent Variable: modified or
manipulated by experimenter to measure
its impact on behavior
– Dependent Variable: aspect of behavior
measured in a study, under control of I.V.
 DETECTING RELATIONSHIPS: GENERAL
RESEARCH DESIGNS

• The Experimental Design

– Confounding variable: a factor other than
the I.V. that could explain differences in the
D.V.
– Experimental Control
• Control confounding variables
• Random assignment – equal probability
of exposure to each treatment
 DETECTING RELATIONSHIPS: GENERAL
RESEARCH DESIGNS

• The Experimental Design

– The Field Experiment: an experiment
taking place in a naturalistic setting.
– The Natural (or Quasi-) Experiment:
measuring the impact of a naturally
occurring event.
• I.V. cannot be manipulated
• Participants are not randomly
assigned
• Figure 1.3 Mean physical aggression scores in the evening for highly aggressive (HA) and
less aggressive (LA) boys under baseline conditions and after watching violent or neutral
movies. ADAPTED FROM LEVENS ET AL., 1975.
• Table 1.4 Strengths and Limitations of General Research
Designs
 DETECTING RELATIONSHIPS: GENERAL
RESEARCH DESIGNS

• Cross-Cultural Designs
– Participants from different cultures or
subcultures are observed, tested, and
compared on aspects of development.
• Studies people of different
nationalities,
but also groups within the same
nation
• Guard against overgeneralization of
research findings
 FOCUS ON RESEARCH: GENDER ROLES
ACROSS CULTURES

• Are sex differences in behavior due to

biological differences between the sexes?
– Arapesh: males and females taught to be
cooperative, nonaggressive, and sensitive
– Mundugumor: men and women are
aggressive and emotionally
nonresponsive
– Tchambuli: males are passive,
dependent, and sensitive, females the
opposite
 RESEARCH DESIGNS FOR STUDYING
DEVELOPMENT

• The Cross-Sectional Design

– People of different ages are studied at the
same point in time
• Cohort – group of the same age,
exposed to similar environments and
cultural events
 RESEARCH DESIGNS FOR STUDYING
DEVELOPMENT
• The Cross-Sectional Design –
– Limitations
• Cohort effects – any differences observed
may be due to cultural or historical factors that
distinguish cohorts, not actual developmental
change.
– For years, cross-sectional research had
consistently indicated that young adults score
slightly higher on intelligence tests than middle
aged adults, who, in turn, score much higher
than the elderly. But does intelligence decline
with age, as these findings would seem to
 RESEARCH DESIGNS FOR STUDYING
DEVELOPMENT

• The Longitudinal Design

– Same participants are observed repeatedly
over a period of time
• Can assess stability of attributes
• Can identify normative developmental
trends
• Can help understand individual
differences in development
 RESEARCH DESIGNS FOR STUDYING
DEVELOPMENT

• The Longitudinal Design

– Limitations
• Costly and time-consuming
• Practice effects – improvement due to
familiarity with test or interview
• Selective attrition – participants
remaining in the study may not be a
nonrepresentative sample
 RESEARCH DESIGNS FOR STUDYING
DEVELOPMENT

• The Longitudinal Design

– Limitations
• Cross-generational problem – due to
changes in environment, conclusions
may be limited to those who were
growing up while the study was in
progress
 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS IN
DEVELOPMENTAL RESEARCH

• Research Ethics – standards of conduct to

protect participants from harm
– Informed consent – explanation of all
aspects of research that may affect
willingness to participate
– Benefits to risks ratio – comparison of
possible benefits to costs of research in
terms of harm or inconvenience
 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS IN
DEVELOPMENTAL RESEARCH

• Research Ethics
– Confidentiality – concealment of identity
with respect to data subjects provide
– Protection from harm – research subjects
have a right to protection from physical or
psychological harm
• Table 1.6 Major Rights of Children and Responsibilities of Investigators Involved in
Psychological Research
 BOX 1.2: APPLYING RESEARCH TO LIFE:
BECOMING A CONSUMER OF RESEARCH

• Need to know how to evaluate the new

findings reported in the media
– How were the data gathered?
– How was the study designed?
– Were the conclusions appropriate for the
design?
– Were participants randomly assigned?