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Developmental Psychology and Developmental Psychopathology - CLPS11054
The Psychology of Mental Health Conversion course - Developmental Psychology and Developmental
Psychopathology
Exam – Answer 2 essay questions out of a choice of 10
Week 1 – Introduction to Developmental Psychology
Week 2 – Infancy
Week 3 – Cognitive Development
Week 4 – Social Development
Week 5 – Adolescence
Week 1 – Introduction to Developmental Psychology
Lecture Notes
Development – Process by which an organism (human or animal) grows and changes through its life-span
(smith, Cowie & blades, 2015)
Includes: Biological, individual and environmental influences/change processes
Developmental Psychopathology – an evolving interdisciplinary scientific field that seeks to elucidate the
interplay among biological, psychological and social-contextual aspects of normal and abnormal
development across the life course (Cicchetti & Toth, 2009)
Phases of development: (not fixed, children are individual and develop differently at different times)
Before Birth - (prenatal Neonatal)
0-2 Years - Infancy
3-10 - Childhood early middle late
11-12 Years – Adolescence, early, middle, late
Aspects of Development:
- Physical
- Social-Emotional
- Cognitive
*They all interact with each other e.g. language – physical, communication tool, guides how we think,
language fundamental to thought, related to culture
Nature/Nurture cade study
- Isabelle (Davis, 1976)
- Discovered at the age of 6 and only made croaking noises – ‘atypical’ development
Environmental factors:
- Child of a deaf-mute woman – language stimulation is likely to be less than in a house with lots of
verbal interactions
- She spent the majority of 6 years in a dark room, cut off from other people (toys, light, stimulation –
important)
- NVIQ (non-verbal IQ) and social development = younger than a 3-year-old (atypical)
- Given the right environment, reached normal education level in 2 years (bounce back recovery with
nurturing environment) but emotional development? – Bounceback doesn’t necessarily occur in all
aspects of development
Can’t rule out genetic or congenital factors e.g. premature babies have a different crying pattern which
parents find uncomfortable which can impact how parent cares for them
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Developmental Psychology and Developmental Psychopathology - CLPS11054
- Maybe development would not be atypical because of genetic factors?
Biological influences – very important
- Monozygotic (identical) versus Dizygotic twins (non-identical)
- Research shows consistently more correlations between IQ, personality, educational attainment,
memory, interests in MZ (Plomin et al, 1994)
- Correlation not perfect – correlations just closer
Adoption studies
- Highlight role of genetics and experience
- Even when children adopted – have a lot in common with parents/twins
Shared and non-shared environments within a family – research shows parents differentiate their
parenting with different children
- Family situations are not the same for each child e.g. a child’s personality
- A child’s temperament is important to consider
- Parenting style – can differ depending on the gender of the child
- Family factors can influence children – children are socialised into ways of thinking/behaving in the
family
Social influences
Social and physical environment
- Food, shelter, stimulation
- Emotional support, love and affection: childcare
Learning
- Models of behaviour social learning theory (Bandura)
- Social construction (Vygotsky)
- Learning through reinforcement (Skinner)
- Learning through tuition
Individual differences in the susceptibility to environment – features of child impact how the environment
will affect them
For example, different models include:
- Diathesis-stress model
- Differential susceptivity model
- Vantage sensitivity model
Nature nurture interactions (Psychological, biological, social – all interact development)
Potential Essay Question & Answer: Critically evaluate the notion that child development is an
interaction between nature and nurture (Covers week 1)
The Nature/Nurture debate is one that continues to be a contentious discussion in developmental
psychology, which is “the discipline that attempts to describe and explain changes that occur over time in
the thought, behaviour, reasoning and function of a person due to biological, individual and environmental
influences” (Slater et al, 2011,p 5). Nativists are situated on the nature side of the debate and view
development as genetically determined. Conversely, empiricists view development as dependent on the
environment (Nurture). However, the question itself is reductionist in nature, as child and adolescent
development are complex processes that cannot be categorised in such a dichotomous way. Therefore, it is
more appropriate to consider child development as a ‘complex interaction between the two’ (Rutter, 2002).
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Developmental Psychology and Developmental Psychopathology - CLPS11054
This essay will demonstrate the importance of the interaction of nature and nurture in
understanding child development. It will begin with situating the debate in history and outlining some
development theories. It will then go on to discuss the importance of acknowledging the interaction of
nature and nurture exploring intrauterine development, twin studies, individual differences and
epigenetics, before concluding.
The origins of the nature/nurture debate can be traced to Greek philosophers such as Plato who
argued in favour of nativism, and Aristotle, who argued for empiricism as he believed that the child’s mind
was a ‘tabula rasa’ on which experiences were written. Similarly, John Locke argued that the mind was a
blank sheet of paper on which experiences formed lasting impressions to shape the mind. These
philosophical discussions lay the foundation for later developmental theories such as, Behaviourism, with
Watson claiming that he could take any child and shape the course of their development into any outcome
he wanted (Schacter, 2014). More recently however, psychologists appreciate the importance of the
interaction between nature and nurture in understanding development, which Balte’s (1980) illustrates in
his conceptualisation of life-span development model. (See below). Through this, Balte’s portrays that
influences on development are determined by the interaction with biological and environmental factors
(draw model). Similarly, epigenetics, which describes how behaviours and environment can cause changes
that affect the way a person’s genes work, also addresses the interaction of nature and nurture in
development. For example, Heim and Nemeroff (2002) describe how early developmental stress in humans
appears to be associated with neurobiological alterations that likely represent the biological basis of
enhanced risk for psychopathology.
Child development starts at conception not birth (intrauterine development), and this period of
development demonstrates the importance of both genetic and environmental factors in child
development. Genetic factors are important, for example, Huntington’s disease is a fatal neurodegenerative
disorder that is dominantly inherited and therefore each child of an affected parent has a 50% chance of
inheriting the mutated gene and subsequently developing the disease (Parsons and Raymond, 2023).
However, it is not only genetics that affect development at this stage, there are many environmental factors
that present as risk factors. For example, maternal alcohol use during pregnancy can contribute to a range
of effects in exposed children including fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD), which has been linked to
cognitive and behavioural impairments (Kodituwakku, 2007). However, in a longitudinal study, Lewis et al
(2012) obtained evidence that four genetic variants in alcohol metabolizing genes were associated with
lower IQs in alcohol-exposed children at age 8. Demonstrating that complex interactions between genetic
and environmental factors determine the intellectual ability of children with FASD (Kodituwakku &
Kodituwakku, 2014).
Twin studies, in which monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins are compared, have been used
previously to assess the importance of nature and nurture in child development. In such studies, a genetic
effect is identified where there is a larger correlation in a trait between MZ twins compared to DZ twins,
while an effect of shared environment is found when both MZ and DZ twins have similarly strong
correlations.
Research has consistently shown that there are more correlations between IQ, personality, educational
achievement, memory and interests between MZ twins (Plomin et al 1994). This is supported by Polderman
et al (2015) in their meta-analysis which analysed data from 2,748 publications on twin studies, as they
state “our results provide compelling evidence that all human traits are heritable” as not one trait had a
weighted heritability estimate of zero out of the 17,804 traits they reported variance components for. This
does indicate the significance of genetic inheritance over the environment in development. However, twin
studies demonstrate the difficulty in comparing nature and nurture as they have been criticised for the
‘equal environment assumption’ (Joseph, 2002). However, twins may perceive a shared experience
differently, resulting in different outcomes for both. Many researchers have attributed the differences in
perception of shared environment to an individual’s genetics, again indicating the complexity of the nature
nurture debate (e.g. Kendler & Baker, 2007).
