PSYC 2110 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Cultural Relativism, Heredity, Predicable

• School: York University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 2110
• Professor: Gillian Wu

Document Summary

Psyc 2110 child development lecture week 1. Psychology the scientific study of behavior. Developmental psychology the branch of psychology devoted to the study of changes in behavior and ability over the course of development. Insight into complex adult processes : even understanding adult behaviors, we often find it useful to examine those behaviors during periods when they are not so complex, real-world applications , products of research benefit children with real-world problems. Interesting subject matter : human child is an intriguing and wondrous creature. Ancient greece & rome : infanticide killing of newborns to deal with babies who were illegitimate, unhealthy, unwanted etc, severe punishment and exploitations, did not display caring and protective attitude towards children. Four early scholars offered theories of human behavior that are the direct ancestors of the major theoretical traditions found in child psychology today. Johann gottfried von herder (1744-1803) : everyone is born into a specific cultural community with a shared language and historical traditions.