Developmental psychology - created from Mind Map Notes

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What is developmental psychology?

Different domains of development

Stages of development

Developmental issues

Developmental theories

The scientific study of human development

Physical development

Cognitive development

Personality development

Social development

Body changes: Height and weight

Brain development

Motor development

Effect of factors such as heredity, hormones and nutrition

Cognition refers to how we acquire information about the world by our senses

How children come to understand their world

Includes perception, learning, memory, decision-making, imagination, creativity, language and intelligence

Personality is the totility of a person's psychological, social, moral and physical characteristics

Personality = Unique

Parts of personality development

Self: Core of personality

Self-concept: How a person evaluates him-/herself

Identity: The way a person identifies him or herself in relation to other individuals or social groups

Development of the individual's interaction and relationships with other people.

Influenced by society and significant others

Development of attachment between caregiver and child.

Expansion of interpersonal relationships

Development of relationships between the sexes

Moral development

Religion and spirituality are learned in the social context

1. Prenatal stage

2. Neonatal stage

3. Infancy

4. Early childhood

5. Middle childhood

6. Adolescence

Nature vs Nurture

Continuity or discontinuity

Active or passive involvement

Cultural or universal perspective

Nature = Biological determinants

Nurture = Social and physical environment

Cause-effect issue

Interaction & the effect of interaction, between heredity and environment = more important

Continuity = Gradual / smooth development

Discontinuity = Occurs in distinct steps / stages

Both is correct, depending on the type of behaviour

Do all children in the world follow universal development pathways or are there clear differences along the cultural line?

Context = The setting or specific environment where development takes place

Culture's influence on development

Ensuring that children acquire the necessary attributes and skills to make them competent adults

Children are more exposed to cultural influences than universal influences

Role of parent practice differs

Paths of development differ (Collectivistic vs Individualistic)

Cognitive development theory: Development reflects on children's efforts to understand the world

Contextual development theory: Development is influenced by immediate and more distant environment, which typically influence one another

African perspective

Psychodynamic perspective: Development is determined primarily by how a child resolves (mainly unconsciously) conflicts at different ages

Learning theory: Development is determined primarily by a child's environment

Biological perspective: Development is determined by biological factors

Piaget's theory

Information-processing theory

Emphasizes the different stages of thinking that result from children's changing theories of the world.

Children naturally try to make sense of the world

4 Stages of cognitive development

Stage 1: Sensorimotor

Stage 2: Preoperational

Stage 3: Concrete operational

Stage 4: Formal operational

Birth - 2 years

Infants' understanding of the world is acquired through senses

2 - 6 years

Children start to use language and symbols to represent ideas and objects

7 - 11 years

Logical thinking developes

Abstract thinking is still absent

12 years and older

Adolescent or adult starts thinking abstractly, speculates and reasons about what may be possible

Emphasizes changes in thinking that reflect changes in perception, attention, memory, and problem-solving skills

Memory system

Sensory memory: Where information is recognized

Short term memory: The working memory where information is processed

Long term memory: Where information is permanently stored

Vygotsky's theory

Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory

Super & Harkness' theory

Emphasizes the role of parents (and other adults) in developing skills and conveying culture to the next generation

Zone of proximal development: Refers to tasks which are too difficult for a child to do alone, but which he or she can manage with the help of an adult

Emphasizes the reciprocal influences of the microsystem, mesosystem, ecosystem and macrosystem

Identifies the developmental niche that consists of 3 components in order to incorporate the child's immediate cultural environment

Views development as social ontogenesis because it unfolds within a culture

3 phases of selfhood is identified & 7 phases in the social selfhood are indicated, each consisting of specific developmental tasks

Freud's theory

Erickson's theory

Psychosexual developmental stages

Emphasizes the conflict between primitive biological forces and societal standards of right and wrong

Psychoanalysis: Holds that development is largely determined by how well people resolve unconscious conflicts that they face at different ages

3 Components of personality

Each stage focus on a different erogenous zone, dominated by sexual instincts

Fixation = Problems that result due to permitting too little or too much gratification of these urges

5 Stages

Stage 1: Oral

Stage 2: Anal

Stage 3: Phallic

Stage 4: Latency

Stage 5: Genital

0-2 years

Infant achieves gratification through oral activities such as feeding, thumb sucking and babbling

2-3 years

The child learns to respond to some of the demands of society (such as bladder control)

3-7 years

The child learns to realize the differences between males and females and becomes aware of sexuality

7-11 years

The child continues his or her development but sexual urges are relatively quite

11-adult

The growing adolescent shakes off old dependencies and learns to deal maturely with the opposite sex

ID: Reservoir of primitive instincts and drives

EGO: Practical, rational component of personality

SUPER EGO: Moral agent

8 Stages of psychosocial development

Emphasizes the challenges posed by the formation of trust, autonomy, initiative, industry and identity

Emphasizes the psychological and social aspects of conflict

Stage 1: Basic trust vs Mistrust

Stage 2: Autonomy vs. Shame and doubt

Stage 3: Initiative vs Guilt

Stage 4: Industry vs Inferiority

Stage 5: Identity vs Identity confusion

Stage 6: Intimacy vs Isolation

Stage 7: Generativity vs. stagnation

Stage 8: Integrity vs Despair

Skinner's theory

Bandura's theory

Watson's theory

Operant conditioning

Emphasizes the role of reinforcement and punishment

Social cognitive theory

Imitation / Modeling / Observational learning : Children learn by watching those around them

Believes self-efficacy plays a role in their decision to imitate others

Emphasizes children's effort to understand their world, using reinforcement, punishment and other's behavior

Father of behaviorism

Influenced by Pavlov

Little Albert experiment

Behaviorism: The theory that behavior is primarily learned from one's environment

Classical conditioning: The process of learning through which an initially neutral stimulus, comes to elicit a particular response after repeatedly being paired with an unconditioned stimulus

Maturation theory

Evolution theory

Ethological theory

Emphasizes development as the natural unfolding of a biological plan

Speech, play and reasoning emerges spontaneously

Discarded because it had little to say about the impact of the environment on children's development

Emphasizes that children and parent's behavior adapt over generations to meet specific environmental challenges

Principal of natural selection is applied to human behavior

Emphasizes the survival value of many behaviours

Behaviors are inherited but some kinds of learning have to occur at certain periods

Critical period

Stage in development when a specific type of learning takes place