Basic concepts and principles in developmental psychology Chapter 2: Basic concepts and principles in developmental psychology
DEBATES and CONTROVERSIES Stability versus Change The Life-Span Perspective Nature versus Nurture Continuity versus Discontinuity Ontogeny and Phylogeny Critical Periods Non-normative and Normative Influences
1. STABILITY versus CHANGE Lifetime stability versus lifetime change 2. LIFE-SPAN PERSPECTIVE Development is lifelong Development is multidimensional Development is multidirectional Development is plastic Development is embedded in history Development is multidisciplinary Development is contextual
3. NATURE versus NURTURE Nativism or genetic determinism Our characteristics are chiefly determined by heredity Environmental determinism Environmental factors exert the greatest influence on human development
4. CONTINUITY vs DISCONTINUITY Quantitative changes: changes in degree or amount (seen in the slow, cumulative development of a tiny acorn into a huge oak tree) Qualitative changes: changes in kind, structure or organisation (seen in the clearly differentiated stages as a larva transforms into a moth)
5. ONTOGENY and PHYLOGENY Understanding of individual development of a specific child or person Understanding of a wider group of people, or ‘species’ development
6. CRITICAL PERIODS Critical period: a specific time during development when a given event has its greatest impact. Readiness: the point at which an individual can be said to have matured sufficiently to benefit from a particular learning experience.
7. NORMATIVE & NON-NORMATIVE INFLUENCES Normative age-graded events (most children enter formal schooling at a similar age) Normative history-graded events (children in England during 1939-1945 shared the similar experience of World War II) Non-normative life events (the death of a parent when a child is young)
Does theory follow development does development follow theory? Theory Development
CONTEXTS FOR DEVELOPMENT Biological Social Cultural Historical Economic Intellectual