PSYC1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 28: Longitudinal Study, Hot Sauce, Naturalistic Observation
2 Jul 2018
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14/05/2018 Introduction to Developmental Psychology
Developmental psychology = discipline that seeks to identify and explain the changes (in
behaviour) that individuals undergo from the moment of conception until they die
E.g. short-term capacity of a 3-year-old in comparison to an 8-year-old – you would assume
it would increase over time
Children have hypotheses about the world so they go out and test them (“play”) – children
are sophisticated at a young age
Children have great attention to things around them but get distracted and cannot focus on
one thing – can’t decide to not pay attention to certain things
Areas of change:
oPhysical growth – sensation, perception and motor skills
oMental or reasoning ability – cognition and learning
oEmotional expression
oPatterns of social behaviour – going from playing by themselves to playing pretend
with others
oPersonality – why are children so different from each other?
Questions asked by developmental psychologists:
oWhat does the world look like to the newborn?
oHow does perception change with age?
oWhy do many 1-year-olds seem so attached to their mothers and so fearful of
strangers
oWhy are some people friendly and outgoing whereas others are shy and reserved?
oWhy is learning to speak so natural, but learning to read or learning maths so
effortful?
oIs ADHD the same in adults as in children?
oCan we trust children’s testimony?
Interpreting children’s behaviour – where does the behaviour originate? How do we know it
is normal?
E.g. delayed gratification – the marshmallow test:
oQ: What is this task measuring? Is it a good measure?
A: It is not deterministic, but there is a relationship. Did have predictive validity but
was a very sterile scenario, child isolated in a lab – not exactly realistic. Not
particularly meaningful in the real world
oQ: Why are there such big differences between children of the same age?
oQ: What determines these differences? What are the sources of these behaviours?
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Document Summary
Developmental psychology = discipline that seeks to identify and explain the changes (in behaviour) that individuals undergo from the moment of conception until they die. E. g. short-term capacity of a 3-year-old in comparison to an 8-year-old you would assume it would increase over time. Children have hypotheses about the world so they go out and test them ( play ) children are sophisticated at a young age. Children have great attention to things around them but get distracted and cannot focus on one thing can"t decide to not pay attention to certain things. A: it is not deterministic, but there is a relationship. Did have predictive validity but was a very sterile scenario, child isolated in a lab not exactly realistic. Sources of behaviour regarding delayed gratification: biological/maturation (nature) in population there is genetic variation regarding delayed gratification, experience (nurture) environment, something learnt during development which causes differences in behaviour.
