Developmental psychology and child psychology?

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What is developmental psychology?

What is developmental psychology?

Developmental psychology is a fascinating field that explores the lifespan changes in human beings. It delves into the physical, cognitive, social, emotional, and moral development that individuals experience from conception to death.

What are the main features of developmental psychology?

  • Lifespan Approach: It examines development across all stages of life, from prenatal development to old age.
  • Multidimensional Focus: Developmental psychology recognizes that growth occurs in various domains – physical, cognitive, social, emotional, and moral.
  • Nature vs. Nurture: This field explores the complex interplay between biological (genetic) predispositions and environmental influences on development.
  • Continuity vs. Discontinuity: Developmental psychologists debate whether development is a gradual, continuous process or punctuated by distinct stages.

What are important sub-areas in developmental psychology?

  • Prenatal Development: Examines the growth and development of the fetus from conception to birth.
  • Infancy and Childhood: Focuses on rapid physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development during the early years.
  • Adolescence: Studies the physical, cognitive, and social changes experienced during puberty and teenage years.
  • Emerging Adulthood: Explores the development of identity, relationships, and career paths in young adulthood.
  • Middle Adulthood: Examines changes in physical health, cognitive abilities, and family dynamics during middle age.
  • Late Adulthood: Studies the physical, cognitive, and social changes associated with aging.

What are key concepts in developmental psychology?

  • Critical Period: A specific time window when an organism is highly susceptible to environmental influences impacting development.
  • Maturation: The biological unfolding of genetic potential, leading to physical growth and development.
  • Attachment Theory: Explores the importance of early emotional bonds with caregivers for healthy emotional and social development.
  • Cognitive Development: The process of acquiring knowledge, skills, and thinking abilities throughout life.
  • Social Development: The process by which individuals learn to interact with others and form relationships.
  • Moral Development: The development of an understanding of right and wrong, and a sense of ethical principles.

Who are influential figures in developmental psychology?

  • Jean Piaget (Psychologist): Pioneered the theory of cognitive development, proposing stages of cognitive growth in children.
  • Lev Vygotsky (Psychologist): Emphasized the role of social interaction and culture in cognitive development, introducing the concept of the Zone of Proximal Development.
  • Erik Erikson (Psychologist): Developed the theory of psychosocial development, proposing eight stages of psychosocial challenges individuals face throughout life.
  • John Bowlby (Psychoanalyst): Pioneered attachment theory, highlighting the significance of early emotional bonds with caregivers for healthy development.
  • Mary Ainsworth (Psychologist): Expanded upon attachment theory, identifying different attachment styles (secure, anxious, avoidant) formed in early childhood.

Why is developmental psychology important?

  • Understanding Human Development: Provides a deeper understanding of how humans grow and change throughout life.
  • Early Childhood Intervention: Helps design programs and interventions to support healthy development in children, especially those facing challenges.
  • Education: Developmental psychology informs educational practices by tailoring teaching methods to different age groups and developmental stages.
  • Parenting and Family Support: Offers insights into child development stages, fostering positive and supportive parenting practices.
  • Aging Well: Helps us understand the aging process and develop strategies to promote healthy aging physically, cognitively, and socially.

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What is child psychology?

What is child psychology?

Child psychology is a specialized field within developmental psychology that focuses specifically on the mental, emotional, social, and cognitive development of children from prenatal development through adolescence.

What are the main features of child psychology?

  • Focus on Childhood: It delves into the unique aspects of development during the early years of life.
  • Multifaceted Approach: Examines a variety of domains, including emotional well-being, cognitive abilities, social skills, and moral development.
  • Developmental Stages: Child psychology acknowledges that children progress through distinct stages with specific challenges and milestones.
  • Play and Exploration: Recognizes the importance of play and exploration in learning and development.

What are important sub-areas in child psychology?

  • Prenatal Development: Examines how experiences in the womb can impact a child's physical and mental development.
  • Infant Development: Focuses on rapid physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development during the first year of life.
  • Early Childhood Development: Studies the cognitive, social, and emotional growth that occurs between the ages of 2 and 6.
  • Middle Childhood Development: Examines the physical, cognitive, and social changes experienced during the school years (ages 6-12).
  • Adolescence: Studies the physical, cognitive, and social changes experienced during puberty and the teenage years.

What are key concepts in child psychology?

  • Attachment Theory: The importance of early emotional bonds with caregivers for healthy emotional and social development.
  • Developmental Milestones: The expected skills and abilities children acquire at different ages.
  • Cognitive Development: The process of acquiring knowledge, skills, and thinking abilities throughout childhood.
  • Social Development: The process by which children learn to interact with others and form relationships.
  • Play Therapy: A therapeutic approach using play to help children express themselves, process emotions, and develop coping mechanisms.
  • Temperament: Inborn behavioral styles and characteristics influencing children's responses to their environment.

Who are influential figures in child psychology?

  • Jean Piaget (Psychologist): Pioneered the theory of cognitive development, proposing stages of cognitive growth in children.
  • Lev Vygotsky (Psychologist): Emphasized the role of social interaction and culture in cognitive development, introducing the Zone of Proximal Development.
  • Erik Erikson (Psychologist): Developed the theory of psychosocial development, proposing eight stages of psychosocial challenges individuals face throughout life, including challenges specific to childhood.
  • John Bowlby (Psychoanalyst): Pioneered attachment theory, highlighting the significance of early emotional bonds with caregivers for healthy development.
  • Mary Ainsworth (Psychologist): Expanded upon attachment theory, identifying different attachment styles (secure, anxious, avoidant) formed in early childhood.

Why is child psychology important?

  • Promoting Healthy Development: Provides insights for optimizing a child's physical, cognitive, social, and emotional well-being.
  • Early Intervention: Helps identify developmental delays or challenges early on, allowing for timely intervention and support.
  • Understanding Behavior: Provides a framework for understanding children's behavior and responding appropriately.
  • Positive Parenting: Offers guidance on effective parenting practices that foster healthy development and nurturing relationships.
  • Educational Practices: Informs the development of age-appropriate curriculum and teaching methods in schools.

How is child psychology applied in practice?

  • Early Childhood Education: Provides the foundation for designing effective preschool and kindergarten programs.
  • Parenting Education and Support: Offers guidance on child development stages and
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Developmental psychology and child psychology: The best textbooks summarized

Developmental psychology and child psychology: The best textbooks summarized

Summaries and Study Assistance with Developmental psychology and child psychology

Table of content

  • Summary with the book: A Critical Introduction to Sport Psychology by Moran and Toner - 3rd edition
  • Summary with the book: Abnormal Child and Adolescent Psychology by Wicks-Nelson and Israel - 8th edition
  • Summary with the book: Adolescence by Steinberg - 12th edition
  • Summary with the book: An Introduction to Developmental Psychology by Slater and Bremner - 3rd edition
  • Summary with the book: Child and Adolescent Therapy: Cognitive-Behavioral Procedures by Kendall - 4th edition
  • Summary with the book: Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Children and Families by Graham and Reynolds - 3rd edition
  • Summary with the book: How Children Develop by Siegler a.o. - 6th edition
  • Summary with the book: Life-Span Human Development by Sigelman and Rider - 9th edition
  • Summary with the book: The boy who was raised as a dog by Perry

About developmental psychology and child psychology

  • Developmental psychology is the scientific study of how people change and grow throughout their lifespan. Child psychology is a subfield of developmental psychology that focuses specifically on the cognitive, social, and emotional development of children.
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Developmental psychology: the best scientific articles summarized

Developmental psychology: the best scientific articles summarized

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  • for 60+ summaries with articles for Developmental psychology, see the supporting content of this study guide

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Developmental psychology: The best concepts summarized

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Adolescence: Developmental, Clinical, and School Psychology – Lecture 4 (UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM)

The goal of secondary education is to promote independent thinking and make your own well-informed choices. In the past, the goal was more about socialization and conformity. Secondary education was for the elite and males only before the last century. However, after the last century, a knowledge economy started to develop so secondary education was needed. In developing countries, there is a similar but delayed pattern. This means that secondary education cannot be taken for granted.

There are differences between developed countries when it comes to secondary education. In Europe, children have to decide about their future at an earlier age. The advantage of this is that children will have an early idea of future and this allows for better tailoring of teaching. However, the disadvantage is that there are children who are developing a bit later and those will be disadvantaged.

In the United States,

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Adolescence: Developmental, Clinical, and School Psychology – Lecture 3 (UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM)

In adolescence, there are three main biological changes:

  • Influx of pubertal hormones.
  • Growth spurt.
  • Change in circadian rhythm.

Adolescence is characterized by more advanced moral reasoning due to more advanced perspective taking and more risk and impulsive behaviour. There are large structural changes in the brain during adolescence. This occurs through two important processes:

  1. Synaptogenesis
    This refers to the formation of new synapses and occurs both during prenatal development and after birth. In adolescence, the connections between neurons change as most of the neurons are in place. This allows for plasticity.
  2. Pruning
    This refers to the elimination of the synapses and is experience-based fine-tuning of functional networks (i.e. ‘use it or lose it’). Synapses that are not used will be eliminated. This allows for a more functionally connected and specialized brain.

Overproduction (i.e. exuberance)

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Adolescence: Developmental, Clinical, and School Psychology – Lecture 2 (UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM)

There are several developmental trends of social relationships in adolescence:

  • There is an increasing interest in other-sex relationships.
  • The peer group is used as a reference group (i.e. for a sense of identity).
  • The definition of peers changes from shared outside activities to shared mindsets and attitudes.

There are developmental changes regarding peers. They go from being playmates to self-disclosing soulmates and friendships become more stable with age. There are different types of peer relationships:

  1. Peers (i.e. people who have aspects in common)
  2. Friends (i.e. valued, mutual relationships).
  3. Clique (i.e. small group of friends, regular social group).
  4. Crowds (i.e. larger, reputationally-based group; share similar norms, interests and values but are not necessarily friends).
  5. Dating relationships (i.e. relationships that provide autonomy, gain status, allow distance from family but also brings emotional risks).

Although the

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Adolescence: Developmental, Clinical, and School Psychology – Lecture 1 (UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM)

Puberty refers to a set of biological changes involved in reaching physical and sexual maturity. This is universal. Adolescence refers to the life course between beginning puberty and adult status. It roughly contains the ages 10-18. In this stage, young people are preparing to take on the roles and responsibilities of adulthood in their culture. It is culturally constructed as the length (1), content (2) and daily experiences (3) differ across cultures. It is typically characterized by:

  • Conflicts with parents.
  • Mood disruptions.
  • Risk behaviour.

It is debated whether this is a period of ‘storm and stress’ as this may depend on culture and individual characteristics. It may be context dependent how one experiences this period although it is more likely during this period that people experience storm and stress. Recapitulation states that the development of each individual re-enacts the evolutionary development of

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Youth Intervention: Theory, Research, and Practice – Lecture 3 (UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM)

Autism spectrum disorder is characterized by deficits in social communication and restricted, repetitive and/or sensory behaviours or interests. The severity levels should be specified.

In the 1970s, only 1.5% of the children with ASD achieved normal functioning. About 35% showed good adjustment but required some degree of supervision. The majority (i.e. 60%) remained severely handicapped. About 50% remained non-verbal throughout their lives. Currently, this is less than 10%. However, ASD does not need to be a life-long disabling condition. About 25% of the children can lose the diagnosis after treatment and most children can achieve positive outcomes with treatment. Children who lose the diagnosis will become similar to typically developing children.

There are several criteria for when an intervention is successful:

  • Reduction in symptoms (e.g. less repetitive behaviours).
  • Developmental improvements (e.g. learning to speak).
  • Reduction in problem behaviours (e.g. fewer temper
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Youth Intervention: Theory, Research, and Practice – Lecture 5 (UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM)

When treating criminals in the past, severe punishments were used. Later, phrenology was used to diagnose people and electro convulsion therapy was used to treat people with a criminal history.

Durkheim stated that every society gets the criminality that it deserves. The cost of incarceration is higher than that of rehabilitation. Martinez stated that people who commit crimes should be locked up. According to him, it is impossible to treat criminals. Early (humane) treatment for criminals consisted of CBT. It was focused on treating the symptoms and did not include the families.

Static risk factors refer to risk factors that cannot be changed and are fixed. Dynamic risk factors refer to risk factors that are malleable. The interaction between risk and protective factors and the interaction between the individual and the environment is essential for criminality.

The age crime curve refers to

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Youth Intervention: Theory, Research, and Practice – Lecture 4 (UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM)

There are several guidelines for treating children with ADHD:

  1. Always start with psychoeducation.
  2. Offer behavioural parent and/or teacher training.
  3. Offer medication in severe cases or when the previous interventions were not effective.

Behavioural intervention cannot be supported as a front-line treatment for core ADHD symptoms. This is especially the case in studies where the outcomes are blinded. However, parenting practices and conduct problems improve after behavioural interventions and this is often the main reason for referral, meaning that behavioural interventions serve their goal. Improving parents’ behaviour towards their children may improve child behaviour and improve the quality of the parent-child relationship.

Children who receive behavioural consultation are less likely to receive medication later that year. If they do receive medication, the dosages are lower compared to children who did not receive behavioural consultation. Using ­a low-intensity behavioural intervention as a first-line

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hoofdstuk 1 ontwikkelingspsychologie: beschrijving en identificeren van veranderingen in de manier waarop mensen denken en zich gedragen tijdens de ontwikkeling nature vs nurture  psychologische ontwikkeling nativism (nature): wordt voornamelijk bepaald door erfelijke factoren empiricism (nurtu...

Why do we study the development of children? - Chapter 1
  • How do we raise children?
  • What did the Romanian adoption study find?
  • How do we choose social policies?
  • How can we understand human nature?
  • What are historical ideas about child development?
  • What are the important aspects of a...
How does prenatal development work? - Chapter 2
  • How does prenatal development work?
  • What is conception?
  • What processes of development take place?
  • What does prenatal development look like?
  • How does a fetus behave?
  • How does the fetus learn?
  • What kind of negative events c...

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What can I find on this page? On this page, you can find a summary for all the study materials you need for the developmental specialization of the Psychology bachelor's programme at the University of Amsterdam. There is a link for all the separate courses. The courses have been organized into ...

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What?

  • On this page we discuss questions students have with the 2022/2023 course "Developmental Psychology" at the University of Amsterdam
  • You have the opportunity to ask any questions you might have and I will try and answer them
  • On 30/1/2023 you can ask questions!

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