1. Studying a Child’s World
Chapter 1
Studying a Child’s World

2. Learning Objectives
What is child development, and how has its study evolved?
What do developmental scientists study?
What kinds of influences make one child different from another?
What are six fundamental points about child development on which consensus has emerged?

3. Early Approaches to Child Development
Child development: Scientific study of processes of change and stability in children from conception through adolescence.
Early approaches
Baby biographies - Recorded the early development of a single child
Darwin’s journal - Developmental nature of infant behavior

4. Developmental Psychology: A Science
Higher infant survival rates due to:
Discovery of germs
Development of vaccines
Child welfare laws were designed to protect children from long workdays.
New science of psychology suggested that people could better understand themselves by learning what had influenced them as children.

5. Developmental Psychology: A Science
Establishment of research institutes
Emergence of child psychology as a true science
Gesell’s studies on stages in motor development

6. Studying the Life Span
Development considered to be from “womb to tomb”—Comprises the entire human life span
Development can be positive or negative.
Aspects of developmental psychology:
Timing of parenthood
Maternal employment
Marital satisfaction

7. New Frontiers Advances in technology Advances in brain imaging
Study biological influences
Scan for early signs of emotions in infants
Analyze mothers’ and babies’ communication
Advances in brain imaging
Decode temperament
Investigate neural basis of language
Discover sources of logical thought

8. Domains of Development
Physical development: Growth of body and brain
Biological and physiological patterns of change in sensory capacities, motor skills, and health
Cognitive development: Pattern of change in mental abilities
Psychosocial development: Pattern of change in emotions, personality, and social relationships

9. Social Construction
Concept about the nature of reality based on societally shared perceptions and assumptions.
Understanding of childhood can be viewed as social construction.

10. Table 1.1 Typical Major Developments in Five Periods of Child Development

11. Influences on Development
Individual differences: Differences among children in:
Characteristics, influences, or developmental outcomes
Primary challenges in developmental psychology:
Identify the universal influences on development.
Apply influences to the understanding of individual differences in developmental trajectories.

12. Influences on Development
Heredity: Inborn traits or characteristics from biological parents.
Environment: Totality of nonhereditary, or experiential, influences on development.
Socialization - Child’s induction into the value system of the culture
Maturation: Unfolding of a universal, natural sequence of physical changes and behavior changes.

13. Family Nuclear family Extended family Two-generational household unit
Consists of one or two parents and children
Biological
Adopted
Stepchildren
Extended family
Multigenerational kinship network of:
Parents
Children
Other relatives
Sometimes living together in a household

14. Culture and Race/Ethnicity
Culture: Society’s total way of life passed on from adults to children
Customs, traditions, beliefs, values, language, and physical products—all learned behavior
Ethnic group: United by ancestry, race, religion, language, or national origin
Contributes to a sense of shared identity

15. Ethnic and Cultural Patterns
Influence on the composition of a household
Economic and social resources
Adults
How they act toward one another
Foods they eat
Occupations they engage in
How they perceive the world

16. Ethnic and Cultural Patterns
Children
Games they play
The way they learn and how well they do in school
Immigrants acculturate by learning the aspects needed to get along in the dominant culture.
Language
Customs
Attitudes

17. Ethnic and Cultural Patterns
While trying to preserve some of their cultural practices and values
Ethnic gloss: Overgeneralization about an ethnic or cultural group that
Blurs or obscures variations within the group.
Overlaps with other such groups.

18. Socioeconomic Status
Combination of economic and social factors that describe an individual or family.
Income, education, and occupation
Affects:
Developmental processes
Developmental outcomes
Risk factors: Conditions that increase the likelihood of a negative developmental outcome.

19. Socioeconomic Status Poor children Children in affluent families
Frequent illnesses and lack access to health care
Experience accidents, violence, and family conflict
Emotional or behavioral problems
Children in affluent families
Pressure to achieve
Left on their own by busy parents
High rates of:
Substance abuse
Anxiety, depression

20. Figure 1.3 - Child Poverty Rates, United States,1959–2010

21. Normative Influences
Characteristic of an event that occurs in a similar way for most people in a group.
Age-graded - Highly similar for people in a particular age group.
History-graded - Significant events that shape the behavior and attitudes of a historical generation.
Historical generation: Group of people strongly influenced by a major historical event during their formative period.
Cohort: Group of people born at about the same time.

22. Nonnormative Influences
Unusual event that happens to a particular person.
Typical event that happens at an unusual time of life.
Largely beyond a person’s control

23. Timing of Influences
Imprinting: Young animal forms an attachment to the first moving object it sees.
Happens during a critical period in early development
Instinctive form of learning
Is a result of predisposition toward learning
Critical period: Specific time when a given event or its absence has a profound and specific impact on development.

24. Timing of Influences
Plasticity: Modifiability of performance
Sensitive periods: Times in development when a given event or its absence has a strong effect on development.

25. An Emerging Consensus All domains of development are interrelated.
Normal development includes a wide range of individual differences.
Children help shape their development and influence others’ responses to them.
Historical and cultural contexts strongly influence development.

26. An Emerging Consensus
Early experience is important, but children can be remarkably resilient.
Development in childhood affects development throughout the life span.