Psy 120 Human Development

• Womb to tomb• Cannot get credit for

120 and 211 at OCC• Fast paced to the very

end

• Jan Thompson-Wilda• 219, 847-635-1477• 22nd year at OCC• Student Development

Faculty

Psy 120 Human Development

• Chapter 1—The Study of Human Development

Formal Study of Human Development

• Human Development:– The scientific study of

how humans develop

– Main questions: How do people

change throughout their lives?

What characteristics remain stable?

Developmental Processes—Change and Stability

• 2 kinds of change– Quantitative change—

change in number or amount

– Qualitative change—change in kind, structure, or organization

• Despite change, there is also underlying stability

Basic Questions about Development

• Which aspects of development – are universal, and which vary from one

individual or group to the next?– are continuous, and which are not?– are more or less fixed (like marble) and difficult

to change, and which are relatively malleable and easy to change (like clay)?

• What makes development happen?

Guiding Principles

• Development results from constant interplay of biology and the environment.

• Development occurs in multilayered context.

• Development is a dynamic, reciprocal process.

• Development is cumulative.

• Development occurs throughout the life-span.

Domains of Development

• Physical development

• Cognitive development

• Social and emotional development

Human Development Today—Goals of This Scientific Discipline

Description

ExplanationPrediction

Modification

Periods of the Life Span

• Social construction

• 8 periods generally agreed upon

• Individual differences exist, but there are particular needs and tasks that must be met at certain stages for normal development to occur

• Theories– Sets of statements that propose general

principles of development

• Predictions or Hypotheses– An educated guess that is testable by data

collection and analysis

Research Methods and Designs

Theories of Development

• Classical Theories– Psychoanalytic theory

• Freud’s theory of psychosexual development• Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development

– Learning theory• Behaviorism

– Classical conditioning– Operant conditioning

• Social learning theory

– Cognitive-Developmental theory

Psychoanalytic--development shaped by unconscious forces that motivate human

behavior

Psychoanalytic Perspective

Sigmund Freud:Psychosexual Development

Erik Erikson:Psychosocial Development

Freud

• Development is shaped by unconscious forces that motivate behavior

• Id—pleasure principle• Ego—reality principle• Superego—conscience—

shoulds, oughts• Psychosexual development– Oral– Anal– Phallic– Latency– Genital

EriksonPsychosocial Development

8 stages

Competing tendencies in personality(crises)

These issues must be resolvedfor healthy ego development

Must balance positive and negative tendency at each stage

Learning—development results from experiences in the environment

Learning Perspective

Behaviorism Social Learning Theory

Behaviorism—Classical Conditioning

• Pavlov’s experiments

• A natural response to a stimulus is transferred to a second stimulus

Behaviorism—Operant Conditioning

Individuals learn from

operating on the

environment

Classical Conditioning

Operant Conditioning

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejjZZNGfIOM&feature=related

• Reinforcement—process by which a behavior is strengthened, increasing the likelihood it will be repeated

• Punishment—process by which a behavior is weakened, decreasing the likelihood it will be repeated

Social Learning Theory

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=ikTxfIDYx6Q&NR=1

• Not exactly, but cute.

• This is more like it.• http://www.youtube.com/watch

?v=8ZXOp5PopIA&feature=related

• Albert Bandura

• Modeling, or observational learning

• Model is usually someone powerful or admired, similar to you, when you see the model rewarded for the behavior you are observing

Cognitive-Developmental Theory

• Emphasizes changes in thinking over the lifespan

• Piaget—stage theory– Sensorimotor– Preoperational– Concrete Operational– Formal Operational

• Organization—the tendency to create categories

• Schemes—people create these increasingly complex cognitive structures for organizing information

– Adaptation—Adjustment to new information from the environment

• Assimilation• Accommodation

• Equilibration—constant striving for balance, equilibrium—shift from assimilation to accommodation

Theories of Development

• Contemporary Theories

– Ecological perspective– Sociocultural perspective– Behavioral genetics – Evolutionary perspective– Dynamic systems theory

Ecological perspective

Bronfenbrenner’s 5 Interlocking Contextual Systems

• Development occurs through increasingly complex processes of regular, active, two-way interaction between the developing person and the immediate environment

• The context—the ecological system—either supports or stifles growth

Sociocultural Perspective

• Emphasizes the ways development involves adaptation to specific cultural demands

Behavioral Genetics

• Emphasizes the inherited bases of behavior

• Reciprocol influences between genes and environment

Evolutionary Perspective

• Emphasizes how behavior develops as a result of adaptation to environment

Dynamic Systems Perspective

• Emphasizes that all facets of development, domains, context are part of a dynamic, constantly changing system

The Scientific Study of Development

• The scientific method: A systematic, step-by-step procedure for testing ideas.

Research methods

– Observational research

• Naturalistic observation

• Participant observation• Structured observation

– Self-reports– Standardized tests

• Reliability• Validity

Basic Research Designs

• Case studies

• Correlational studies

• Experiments– Groups and variables– Random assignment– Laboratory, field and

natural experiments

Figure 1.3: Positive and Negative Correlations

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•The Scientific Method

• Studying change over time

–Longitudinal research

–Cross-sectional studies

–Accelerated longitudinal design

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Figure 1.4: Research Designs for Studies of Development

34