PSYC1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Developmental Psychology, Window Period, Critical Period

• School: UNSW, UNSW Sydney
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC1001
• Professor: All

Document Summary

Characteristics of developmental change: orderly - predictable, cumulative - building on foundations, directional. Basic science - social interactions, relationship building, memory. Applied science: nature vs nurture, what causes developmental change, biology vs experience, genes vs environment. A genetically determined process of growth that unfolds. Development process as an interaction of a biological and environmental factors. To what extent does early experience shape later functioning. Is there critical or sensitive periods of development: critical periods, experiences are crucial for a particular feature to emerge. Linear or big steps if plotted on a graph: continuous, change is gradual and uniform, quantitative, amount of skill or behaviour, discontinuous, abrupt or step like, qualitative, kind of skill/behaviour. Goals of developmental psychology: to describe - how human beings change over time, to explain - understand what causes developmental change, to apply - developmental psychologists try to use their knowledge to optimize developmental change. Methods of studying development: longitudinal studies, cross-sectional design.