Hoofdstuk 1: an introduction to child development
Reasons to learn about child development:
- Raising children: trying to be a good parent raises endless questions
- Choosing social policies: able to make informed decisions about the wide variety of social-policy
questions that affect children.
- Understanding human nature
Historical foundations of the study of child development
Philosopher Believes Education goals
Plato Believed that the long-term welfare of society depended on Plato emphasized self-control and discipline as the most
the proper raising of children. Careful upbringing was essential important goals of education. He believed that children have
because children’s basic nature would otherwise lead to their innate knowledge.
becoming rebellious and unruly
Aristoteles Believed that the long-term welfare of society depended on Aristotle agreed that discipline was necessary, but he was more
the proper raising of children. Careful upbringing was essential concerned with fitting child rearing to the needs of the individual
because children’s basic nature would otherwise lead to their child. He believed that all knowledge comes from experience.
becoming rebellious and unruly.
Locke Viewed the child as a tabula rasa, whose development largely Locke believed that the most important goal of child rearing is
reflects the nurture provided by the child’s parents and the the growth of character.
broader society.
Rousseau Believed that parents and society should give children Children learn mainly from their own spontaneous interactions.
maximum freedom from the beginning. Children should not receive any formal education until their 12,
when they reach the age of reason
The classic Greek philosophers Plato and Aristoteles were particularly interested in how children are
influenced by their nature and by the nurture they receive. Roughly 200 years later John Locke and Jean-
Jacques Rousseau refocused attention on the question of how parents and society in general can best
promote children’s development.
The contemporary fields of child psychology also has roots in early social reform movements that were
devoted to improving children’s lives by changing the conditions in which they lived. (Child labour laws)
Charles Darwin’s work on evolution inspired a number of scientists to propose that intensive study of
children’s development might lead to important insights into human nature. Darwin himself was also
interested in child development and published an article which presented careful observations of the
growth of his infant son.
Enduring themes in child development
1. How do nature and nurture together shape development? (nature and nurture)
All human characteristics are created throughout the joint workings of nature and nurture. A biological
mechanism in which nature and nurture interacts is in the genome (:each person’s complete set of hereditary
information). The genome influences behaviors and experiences, and behavior and experiences influence the
genome. A person’s DNA is constant throughout life, but the genome includes not only DNA but also proteins
what regulate gene expression by turning gene activity on and off. These proteins change in response to
experience. This discovery has given rise to a new field called epigenetics (: the study of stable changes in
gene expression that are mediated by the environment). Evidence for the enduring epigenetic impact of early
experiences and behaviors comes from research on methylation (: a biochemical process that influences
behavior by suppressing gene activity and expression).
2. How do children shape their own development? (the active child)
Infants shape their own development through patterns of attention, use of language, and choice of activities.
3. In what ways is development continuous, and in what ways is it discontinuous ? (continuity/
discontinuity)
Some scientists envision children’s development as continuous development (:the idea that changes with age
occur gradually, in small increments) others see the process as discontinuous development (: the idea that
changes with age include occasional large shifts). One common approach to answering questions about
development comes from stage theories (:approaches proposing that development involves a series of large
discontinuous, age-related phases), like the cognitive development theory of Piaget. If development is
continuous or discontinuous depends on how you look at it and how often you look.
, 4. How does change occur? (mechanisms of change)
Developmental mechanisms can be behavioral, neural, or genetic. The mechanisms that produce
developmental changes involve a complex interplay among experiences, genes, brain structures and
activities.
5. How does the sociocultural context influence development? (the sociocultural context)
The contexts that shape development include the people with whom children interact directly, the
institutions in which they participate and societal beliefs and values.
6. How do children become so different from one another? (individual differences)
Genetic differences, differences in treatment by parents and others, differences in reactions to similar
experiences, different choices of environment.
7. How can research promote children’s well-being? (research and children’s welfare)
Improved research-based understanding of child development often leads to practical benefits.
Methods for studying child development
The scientific method: approach to testing beliefs that involves choosing a question, formulating a
hypothesis, testing the hypothesis, and drawing a conclusion. Basic assumption is that all belief may be
wrong, until beliefs have been repeatedly tested.
The measurement must be directly relevant to the hypothesis and must possess reliability (the degree to
which independent measurements of a given behaviour are consistent) and validity (the degree to which a
test measures what it is intended to measure).
- Interrater reliability: the amount of agreement in the observations of different raters who witness
the same behavior
- Test-retest reliability: the degree of similarity of a participant’s performance on two or more
occasions
- Internal validity: the degree of which effects observed within the experiments can be attributed to
the factor that the researcher is testing
- External validity: the degree to which results can be generalized beyond the particulars of the
research
Researchers obtain data about children in three main contexts:
- Interviews: advantages: can reveal children’s subjective experience, structured interviews are
inexpensive means for collecting in-depth data about individuals, clinical interviews allow flexibility
for following up on unexpected comments. Disadvantages: reports are often biased to reflect
favorably on interviewee, memories of interviewees are often inaccurate and incomplete,
prediction of future behaviors often is inaccurate.
Structured interviews: a research procedure in which all participants are asked to answer the
same questions
Questionnaire: a method that allows researchers to gather information from a large number of
participants simultaneously by presenting them a uniform set of printed questions
Clinical interview: a procedure in which questions are adjusted in accord with the answers the
interviewee provides.
- Observation:
Naturalistic observation: examination of ongoing behavior in an environment not controlled by
the researcher. Naturalistic observation is useful for describing behavior in everyday settings.
Disadvantages: in naturalistic observation it is difficult to know which aspects of the situation
are most influential, naturalistic observation has a limited value for studying infrequent
behaviors.
Structured observation: a method that involves presenting an identical situation to each
participant and recording the participant’s behavior. Structured observation allows controlled
comparison of children’s behavior in different situations. Structured observation ensures that
all children’s behavior are observed in the same context. Helps illuminate social interaction
processes. Disadvantages: in structured observation the context is less natural and structured
observation reveals less about subjective experience than interviews.
, The primary goal of studies that use correlational designs is to indicate how two variables are related to
each other. The association between two variables is known as correlation. Correlations do not justify
inferences about causal relations between the variables. This is true for two reasons. The first is the
direction-of-causation problem: a correlation does not indicate which variable is the cause and which
variable is the effect. The second reason is the third-variable problem: the correlation between variables
may actually be the result of some third, unspecified variable.
Experimental designs can indicate cause-effect relations. Two techniques are crucial to experimental
designs: random assignment (:a procedure in which each participant has an equal chance of being assigned
to each group within the experiment) and experimental control (: the ability of researchers to determine
the specific experiences of participants during the course of an experiment).
To study development over time, investigators use three types of research designs:
- Cross-sectional: a research method in which participants of different ages are compared on a given
behavior or characteristic over a short period.
- Longitudinal: a method of study in which the same participants are studied twice or more over a
substantial length of time
- Microgenetic: a method of study in which the same participants are studied repeatedly over a short
period.
All research with human beings raises ethical issues, and this is especially the case when the research
involves children.
Begrippen:
Meta-analysis: a method for combining the results from independent studies to reach conclusions based
on all of them.
Amygdala: an area of the brain that is involved in emotional reaction.
Nature: our biological endowment; the genes we receive from our parents.
Nurture: the environments, both physical and social, that influence our development.
Genome: each person’s complete set of hereditary information.
Epigenetics: the study of stable changes in gene expression that are mediated by the environment.
Methylation: a biochemical process that influences behavior by suppressing gene activity and expression.
Continuous development: the idea that changes with age occur gradually, in small increments, like that of
a pine tree growing taller and taller.
Discontinuous development: the idea that changes with age include occasional large shifts, like the
transition from caterpillar to cocoon to butterfly.
Stage theories: approaches proposing that development involves a series of large discontinuous, age-
related phases.
