How Children Develop 6th Edition Developmental Psychology Textbook Chapter 1 Comprehensive Notes
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Course
PSY210H5F
Institution
University Of Toronto (U Of T
)
Book
How Children Develop (Canadian Edition)
This document contains an expertly summarized chapter from the 6th edition of the textbook How Children Develop, which delves into Developmental Psychology. The document focuses on Chapter 1, which is an introduction to child development and psychology. The document is easy to read, pleasantly form...
historical foundations of the study of child development
key properties of behavioural measures
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University of Toronto (U of T
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PSY210H5F
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Reasons to Learn About Child
Development
● It improves child rearing, promotes adoption of wiser social policies about children’s
welfare, answers basic questions about human nature
Raising Children
Anger
● 80% of parents of kindergarten children reported spanking their child on occasion when
they fought, name-called and talked back to express their anger.
● This made matters worse no matter the race or culture.
● The effects of spanking on the child’s behaviour held above other relevant factors like
parent’s income and education.
Spanking Alternatives
● Express Sympathy
○ This leads to children being better able to cope with the distressing situation.
● Positive Alternatives to Expressing Feelings
○ Ex. Encourage them to do something they enjoy to cope with hostile and
frustrated feelings.
● Use the Turtle Technique
○ This technique is used to help angry 3- and 4-year-olds.
○ It also helps children recognize their own and other children’s emotions (children
would “go into their shell” when they were mad and came back to their peers
when they were calm).
● Children who did this were better at recognizing and regulating anger, even after 4-5
years.
, Choosing Social Policies
Studies let us make informed decisions about social-policy questions that affect children.
○ ex. Do violent video games make children and adolescents more aggressive?
■ meta-analysis (a statistical technique that combines results from
independent studies) was used to reach conclusions).
■ It showed that the effect of playing violent video games on
children’s and adolescent’s aggression was minimal & this is not a
major cause of children’s and adolescent’s aggression.
■ These analyses let us weigh whether the benefits of removing something
that may be harmful outweighs taking away someone’s freedom of
choice.
● Understanding Human Nature
○ nativists → group of contemporary philosophers and psychologists
■ argue evolution has created many capabilities in early infancy especially
particularly the understanding of basic properties of physical objects,
plants, animals, and other people.
○ empiricists → infants possess general learning mechanisms but they do not
have the specialized capabilities nativists believe them to.
Romanian Adoption Study
● Research examines children whose early lives were spent in horrible conditions in
Romanian orphanages.
, ● The goal of this study was to evaluable the long-term effects of the children’s deprivation
at such a young age (physical, intellectual and social).
● When the children left the orphanage, they were below 6 months old. Most were
severely malnourished, showed varying degrees of intellectual disability, and were
socially immature.
● At 6 years old, the early experience in the orphanages had prolonged damaging effects
on children’s social development and followed them into early adulthood. Differences in
intellectual development diminished over time.
● The findings showed that the timing of experiences influence their effects, and the
later the age of adoption, the greater the long-term harmful effects of early
deprivation.
Historical Foundations of the Study of
Child Development
Early Philosophers Views of Children’s Development
● Plato & Aristotle (4th century BC) believed long-term welfare of society depended on
proper raising of children.
● Plato thought boys were the most difficult to handle so he emphasized self-control and
discipline.
● Aristotle agreed with Plato but he cared more about accommodating the different needs
of each individual child.
● Plato believed children have innate knowledge and Aristotle believed all knowledge
comes from experience.
● English philosopher John Locke (1632-1704) & French philosopher Jean-Jacques
Rousseau (1712-1778) focused on how parents and society can best promote children’s
development.
○ Locke believed children were born as a blank slate (concept of tabula rasa) &
their development was largely influenced by the nurture provided by parents and
society.
■ He believed parents need to set good examples of honesty, stability, and
gentleness and instill discipline and reason so they mature.
○ Rousseau on the other hand believed parents and society should give children
maximum freedom.
■ He claimed children learn primarily from their own spontaneous
interactions & shouldn’t receive formal education until they are 12 (old
enough to judge validity of teachings in his eyes).
Social Reform Movements
● Child psychology was important in social reform movements that were focused on
improving children’s lives by changing the conditions in which they lived.
○ Children as young as 5-6 years old worked up to 12 hours a day in factories or
mines in dangerous circumstances.
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