Developmental Characteristics

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Story

Let’s follow Dave.

Dave is a hypothetical typical person. And we’ll follow his entire lifespan. But let’s start with what development is.

Here’s what is included in this lesson:

• 11 characteristics of development
• 4 goals for studying development
• Maturation
• Lifespan

Mind Map

Notes

• Developmental Psych
  • Lifespan Development
  • Child Development
  • Adolescence
  • Geriatrics
• Includes all aspects of humans
  • from conception to death
  • life span
• Constancy and change
  • Consistent
  • Always changing
• Principles
  • Maturation = rogrammed series of change
  • Maturation must be:
    • Relatively resistant
    • Sequential
    • Universal
  • Early development is elated to later development
    • Not perfect correlation
• 4 Goals for studying development
  • Describe
  • Explain
  • Predict
  • Modify
• 11 Primary Characteristics
  • 1. Lifelong
    • Lifespan
    • understanding all aspects of humans
    • from conception to death (life span)
  • 2. Consistent & Dynamic
    • Stability vs Change
      • happy kids, what when grown
      • dynamic: always changing
    • One Course w many sub-paths
    • Cultural norms are not requirements
  • 3. Continuous & discrete
    • Stages: overlapping or separate
    • Everyone goes thru the same steps in same order
    • Universal
    • Sequential
    • Relatively resistant
    • Steps or Waves
  • 4. Multidimensional
    • Many things change at once
    • 3 Domains
    • A. Biosocial Domain
      • How body affected
      • genetics, nutrition & health
      • motor movement, cognition, experience, breastfeeding
    • B. Cognitive Domain
      • Mental processes
      • Knowledge & awareness
      • Sensation & perceptions
      • Language & memory
    • C. Psychosocial Domain
      • Culture & society
      • Social skills
      • Emotional characteristics
  • 5. Multi-disciplinary
    • Medicine & neuroscience
    • Psychology & sociology
    • Chemistry & biology
    • Anthropology
  • 6. Multi-directional
    • Change is not linear
      • failures & successes
    • Both unpredictable & predictable
      • morphogenesis = getting more organized
      • apoptosis = programmed cell death
  • 7. Multi-contextual
    • Many contexts
    • Flexible
    • Rules don’t always apply; even in the same context
    • Social context
    • Rules change from place to place
  • 8. Multi-cultural
    • Each culture has own
    • Traditions
    • Values
    • Tools
    • Age-graded
      • Drive when 16
      • Married by 21
    • History-graded
      • Everyone get at same time
      • Phone, TV, internet
  • 9. Plastic
    • Can change at any point in time
      • Positively or negatively
    • Great potential for change
      • Usually don’t
  • 10. Sensitive
    • Sensitive periods
    • Critical periods
    • Summative & Existential
    • Early experiences cause later problems
  • 11. Interactive
    • Person, heredity & environment
    • Multiple interacting forces
    • Active child
      • Actively influence own develop
    • Passive child
      • At mercy of the environment

Terms

• age-graded influences
• behavior modification
• behaviorism
• chronosystem
• clinical interview
• clinical method (case study)
• cognitive-developmental theory
• cohort effects
• contexts
• continuous development
• correlation coefficient
• correlational design
• cross-sectional design
• dependent variable
• developmental cognitive neuroscience
• developmental science
• discontinuous development
• ecological systems theory
• ethnography
• ethology
• evolutionary developmental psychology
• exosystem
• experimental design
• history-graded influences
• independent variable
• information processing
• lifespan perspective
• longitudinal design
• macrosystem
• mesosystem
• microsystem
• naturalistic observation
• nature–nurture controversy
• nonnormative influences
• normative approach
• psychoanalytic perspective
• psychosexual theory
• random assignment
• resilience
• sensitive period
• sequential designs
• social learning theory
• sociocultural theory
• stage
• structured interview
• structured observation
• theory

Quiz

• 1. Development is both consistent and:
  • a.           uni-dimensional
  • b.           overlapping
  • c.           dynamic
  • d.           passive
• 2. Maturation must be:
  • a.           overlapping
  • b.           sequential
  • c.           reversible
  • d.           localized
• 3. Driving when you are 16 is an:
  • a.           age-graded tradition
  • b.           morphogenesis
  • c.           critical period
  • d.           bad idea
• 4. Children who actively influence own develop are:
  • a.           rapid processors
  • b.           segmented
  • c.           precocious
  • d.           active
• 5. Things can change at any point, so development is said to be:
  • a.           progressive
  • b.           contextual
  • c.           simplistic
  • d.           plastic

Answers

• 1. Development is both consistent and:
  • a.           uni-dimensional
  • b.           overlapping
  • c.           dynamic
  • d.           passive
• 2. Maturation must be:
  • a.           overlapping
  • b.           sequential
  • c.           reversible
  • d.           localized
• 3. Driving when you are 16 is an:
  • a.           age-graded tradition
  • b.           morphogenesis
  • c.           critical period
  • d.           bad idea
• 4. Children who actively influence own develop are:
  • a.           rapid processors
  • b.           segmented
  • c.           precocious
  • d.           active
• 5. Things can change at any point, so development is said to be:
  • a.           progressive
  • b.           contextual
  • c.           simplistic
  • d.           plastic

Summary

Bonus

Photo credit

Saga of Dave

Dave, our fictional character, does not exist…yet. When he does, there are a lot of things we are going to want to know about him. All of the following characteristics will be a part of understanding Dave.

Before we get to Dave, let’s discuss development itself. There are five things you should know.

Five Things To Remember

There are five major things we are going to look at:

• 4 Goals
• Steps & Waves
• Dynamic & Interactive
• Sensitive & Critical Periods
• Hallmarks

1. Four Goals

Like most areas of psychology, we have four goals we’d like to achieve: describe, explain, predict and modify. The easiest of the four is the massive task of describing human development. There is a lot of research, many opinions, and vast number of facts.

Explaining how things happen is harder than just describing what you see. We are not totally devoid of explanation but there are things we don’t understand.

Predicting what will happen is even harder. We aren’t even close to predicting who will be a genius, successful or artistic. Similarly, we can’t predict who will be dishonest, mean spirited, or abuse children.

The fourth goal of enquirers is modification. This activity should be attempted only after the other 3 goals have been completed. It doesn’t appear to be within our nature to be cautious and thoughtful. Our tendency is to jump to modifying before we really knowing what we’re doing.

2. Steps & Waves

Some theories view development as a continuous process. According to this approach, development is gradual, linear and cumulative.

Other theories suggest that development occurs in discrete stages. Stages can be discrete or overlapping, depending on the theory. Although they disagree on the nature and number of stages,  stage theories do agree that stages are sequential and universal; everyone goes through the same stages in the same order.

3. Dynamic & Interactive

Development is both dynamic and interactive. It is always changing, and influenced by the interaction of genetics, environment and human behavior. Some have proposed that children are passive. But the idea of a passive child is very limiting. Kids are actively participating in their environment. They are not at the mercy of their environment, waiting for things to happen. They produce behavior. Development is one course with many sub-paths.

4. Sensitive & Critical Period

Sensitive periods make it easier for developmental changes to occur. During a sensitive period stimuli can have more affect. Think of it as readiness or heightened awareness. If no stimuli occur which take advantage of the increased sensitivity, progress can be made up later.

In contrast, a critical period requires certain stimuli to occur or normal development will not happen. If eyes are not exposed to light in early childhood, normal vision will not occur. To be a “native speaker” (no accent), a language must be learned in childhood. It is critical that environmental exposure occur within the critical period.

5. Hallmarks

Altough there is quite a lot of variability, child development follow fairly regular patterns. These hallmarks, quick rules of thumb, are common but not absolute. It is not of great concern if a child doesn’t meet a hallmark until perhaps six months later. Most 1-year can stand by themselves, and about 50% can walk. If an 18-month old is not standing that would a matter of concern.

Here are some common hallmarks of childhood:

1 Month. Infants are burning, grunting and sneezing. All of these activities exercise the vocal cords and prepare the way for speech. In addition, interactions with care givers form a sort of dialogue.

2 Months. Babies begin cooing and laughing out loud. The big trick is learning to roll over. Infants learn the melody of speech.

3 Months. Consonant sounds are repeatedly practiced. Bah bah bah and dah dah dah are particularly popular. These tongue sounds and simple lip movements are much easier to produce than more complex lips sounds, such mamma. Infants have not linked these sounds to specific people but fathers tend to believe otherwise.

At 3 months or 12 pounds, whichever comes first, babies are usually able to sleep through the night. Before this point they usually don’t have enough body fat or stomach space to keep them from starving to death. When a newborn cries from hunger, it is a distress call. They must be fed because they have no reserves. When they have enough reserves, they can wait until morning to be fed. They will still wake up but will fall back to sleep.

A major aid to language development is joint attention. Babies and care givers follow each other’s gaze. Adults label what the baby sees. The baby doesn’t even have to ask “What’s that?’. The answer is given automatically.

6 Months. Language and motor skills are often coupled. At this age, sitting up (supported by pillows) and  babbling occur. This is also phonemes that don’t occur is care givers’ language are pruned .

Before six months, any baby can learn any language. At six months, language becomes regional, not universal. If Japanese is spoken in the home, certain sounds are excluded or included as needed. After six months, Japanese speaking babies can no longer distinguish between “r” and “l.” English speakers need that distinction so those phonemes remain if English is the primary language.

‘No, you can’t keep the ability to speak all languages. Language requires differentiation. Interestingly, this is the age that deaf children fall behind in producing well formed syllables.

9 Months. Crawling and Dada appear together. Mama is still a month or two away. The sounds have appeared before but now they are applied to real people. Regional accents appear; Southern drawls, Midwest clipping, Western brogue.

Joint attention continues to be important. Reading to your baby, which can start as soon as 4 months old, should continue.

1 Year. Standing and single words arrive together. ‘Up,” for example, is a complete sentence, and it is used with intention. Language is used to influence others. Using gestures and pre-verbal cues are still present. About 50% of 1-year olds can walk.

18 Months. A sudden spurt of growth in vocabulary accompanies the increased mobility of toddlers. Every has a name. Vocabulary soon reaches 200 words.

Two interesting phenomena can be seen as children learn the rules of language. First, toddlers use the same word for everything. A “duck” is any animal. This overextension demonstrates that the child is learning rules, not just random words. Under-extension usually follows. ‘Kitty” applies to the family cat but not to other felines.

2 Years. A primary characteristic of a 2-year old’s language is the use of 2-3 word sparse sentences. No unnecessary items are added. No propitious, no connecting words. This “telegraphic speech” has only essentials. ‘Daddy shoe,” More cookie.” It’s language without the frills.

Another characteristic of this age is over-regulation. Even though the child has used plurals and past tense correctly in the past, they suddenly seem to have forgotten what they know. Asked what they did today they will proudly say “I holded the rabbit.” Asked to repeat the phrase word by word they can parrot “I,” “held,” “the,” ‘rabbit.” What did you do? I holded the rabbit. Learning isn’t linear.

3 Years. Three word sentences, plural words and hopping three times on one foot.

4 Years. Rhymes, word plays, and hopping four times on one foot.5 Years.

5 Years. Using pronouns and prepositions. Able to hop as much as they wish.

6 Years. Starting first grade, children have an 8000 word vocabulary, half of which they regularly use. Comprehension precedes production. That is, understanding always exceeds usage. First we understand what is said, then we work on saying it.

When my kids were young, the littlest couldn’t say her name, Heather Marie. It came out “Ha-ree.’ Her older sister loved to torment her with “Hi, Ha-ree.” ‘Not Ha-ree; Ha-ree.” She could hear what was wrong but couldn’t fix it.

Although girls are typically ahead in vocabulary, this distinction disappears in 2-3 years.

A big change during this period is the ability to share toys and take turns. The mercurial emotions of toddlers has stabilized

 

Mind Map

Things To Look Up As Needed

• Three Studies
• Lifelong
• Body-Language Coupling
• Multicultural
  • Each culture has own
  • Traditions
  • Values
  • Tools
  • Age-graded
    • Drive when 16
    • Married by 21
  • History-graded
    • Everyone get at same time
    • Phone, TV, internet
• Multidisciplinary
  • Medicine & neuroscience
  • Psychology & sociology
  • Chemistry & biology
  • Anthropology
• Multidirectional
  • Change is not linear
    • failures & successes
  • Both unpredictable & predictable
    • morphogenesis = getting more organized
    • apoptosis = programmed cell death
• Multidimensional
  • Many things change at once
  • 3 Domains
  • A. Biosocial Domain
    • How body affected
    • genetics, nutrition & health
    • motor movement, cognition, experience, breastfeeding
  • B. Cognitive Domain
    • Mental processes
    • Knowledge & awareness
    • Sensation & perceptions
    • Language & memory
  • C. Psychosocial Domain
    • Culture & society
    • Social skills
    • Emotional characteristics
• Multicontextual
  • Many contexts
  • Flexible
  • Rules don’t always apply; even in the same context
  • Social context
  • Rules change from place to place
• Methods
• Plasticity
• Plastic
  • Can change at any point in time
    • Positively or negatively
  • Great potential for change
    • Usually don’t
• Kahneman
• Piaget

Notes

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Key Terms

Here are the terms you need to know about TOPIC.

 

 

 

 

Quiz

It is important to check your progress. Here’s a short quiz for you: TOPIC

• And

Summary

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