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

Study guide with articles for Developmental psychology

Summaries and study assistance with articles for Developmental psychology

  • 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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Roehrig et al. (2012). Effective teachers and teaching: Characteristics and practices related to positive student outcomes.” – Article summary

Effective teachers are teachers who have a positive impact on students’ engagement in learning activities and the outcomes associated with students’ learning (e.g. self-regulation). Teachers operate in the atmosphere of the classroom (1), instruction (2) and management (3). Effective teaching encompasses all three domains. This means that an effective teacher is one who considers how the three domains interact and is able to respond to the teaching environment by implementing practices aligned with the four dimensions of effective teaching.

There are four dimensions of effective teaching:

  1. Developing caring classroom communities
    This includes elements from classroom management (e.g. monitoring) to promote a fair, democratic and caring classroom atmosphere.
  2. Enhancing students’ motivation to learn
    This is done by providing informative feedback that focuses on students’ effort while still expressing high expectations in ways that promotes interest and engagement.
  3. Planning and delivering engaging,
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Pomerantz, Ki, & Cheung (2012). Parents’ involvement in children’s learning.” – Article summary

Parent involvement in learning may be essential as parents provide the resources children depend on (1), children spend a substantial time outside of the school environment (2) and parents are a central relationship for children (3).

Parental involvement refers to parents’ commitment of resources to children’s learning. There is a distinction between parental involvement at school and at home. School-based involvement includes practices that require parents making contact with the school (e.g. attending school meetings). Home-based involvement refers to parents’ practices related to learning that take place outside of school (e.g. assisting children with homework; talking about academic issues). Home- and school-based involvement may be connected.

Parents’ expectations and values are not necessarily a sign of their commitment of resources to children’s learning. There is an association between expectations and values and children’s achievement and a link between parents’ involvement and children’s achievement. The

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Schaffer (2006). Social and personality development.” – Article summary

A peer refers to two or more people who are operating at similar levels of behavioural complexity (e.g. two toddlers). This means that children who differ in age can be considered peer as long as they adjust their behaviour to suit one another’s capabilities as they pursue common interests or goals.

Conflict among peers when resources (e.g. toys) are scarce can help children learn how to resolve their differences in a positive way. This fosters the growth of prosocial conflict resolution (e.g. sharing). Hostile exchanges could create dominance hierarchies which minimizes the likelihood of future aggression within the peer group. Peer interaction may promote the development of adaptive patterns of social conduct.

Equal-status contacts (i.e. same age interactions) with peers are likely to contribute to the development of social competencies. This is more difficult to obtain with parents as parents are the more powerful interaction

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Hay, Payne, & Chadwick (2004). Peer relations in childhood.” – Article summary

There is a bi-directional influence between peer relationships and children’s disorders. Children’s problems with peers may contribute to the genesis of the disorder (e.g. anxiety) and the disorders may make peer contact more problematic.

Matching of negative emotion with another infant (e.g. making another infant cry in the nursery) is the first form of peer interaction. Variation in responsiveness to young peers may relate to general individual differences in emotionality and behavioural inhibition.

Infants start to smile at, reach towards and touch other infants by the second half of the first year of life. This behaviours develops simultaneously with peers and adults. Topic-related interactions between infant peers is a characteristic of the second year of life (e.g. direct peers’ attention to toys).

Contingent peer interactions (i.e. contingent responsiveness) refers to an interaction which resembles turn-taking and can be observed at 6 months.

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Matthews et al. (2020). A longitudinal twin study of victimization and loneliness from childhood to young adulthood.” – Article summary

Children and adolescents who are exposed to victimization face increased risk of diverse negative outcomes by early adulthood (e.g. psychopathology; lower educational and career attainment; inflammatory disease). It could lead to loneliness, which refers to psychological distress associated with perceived shortcomings in one’s social relationships. Individuals vary in their susceptibility to feeling lonely. The heritability of loneliness is 40%-50%.

The evolutionary model of loneliness states that humans are motivated to seek social connection as it confers a sense of safety. Being victimized is a sign that one’s safety is compromised and this could elicit a feeling that one’s social network is deficient and not fulfilling the desired functions.

Bullying has several characteristics:

  • It takes place between peers of similar age.
  • It is characterized by an imbalance of power in favour of the perpetrator.
  • It takes place online or offline (i.e. cyberbullying).
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Zelazo & Müller (2011). Executive function in typical and atypical development.” – Article summary

Executive function (EF) refers to the psychological processes involved in the conscious control of thought and action. However, there are several possible definitions:

  • Executive function corresponds to planning (1), decision making (2), judgement (3) and self-perception (4).
  • Executive function corresponds to inhibitory control.
  • Executive function refers to a cognitive module consisting of effector output elements involving inhibition, working memory and organisational strategies necessary to prepare a response (i.e. homunculus approach).

It may be that executive function consists of separable but related constructs. It seems to consist of inhibition of prepotent responses (1), shifting between mental sets (i.e. flexibility) (2) and updating and monitoring of representations in working memory (3). However, by conducting a task which is aimed at a single construct of EF, it is unclear whether it taps into multiple component processes (e.g. does flexibility rely on inhibitory control or

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Gross (2010). Emotion regulation.” – Article summary

Emotions may facilitate adaptation by readying behavioural responses (1), enhancing memory for important events (2) and guide interpersonal interactions (3). However, emotions are maladaptive when they are of the wrong type (1), at the wrong time (2) or at the wrong intensity level (3). Emotions consist of three key features:

  1. Emotions arise when an individuals attend to a situation and understands it as being relevant to one’s current goals (i.e. the meaning a person assigns to a situation).
  2. Emotions are multifaceted and involve changes in subjective experience (1), behaviour (2) and peripheral physiology (3) (e.g. it gives rise to subjective feeling).
  3. Emotions are malleable (i.e. it gives rise to response tendencies that can be changed).

The behavioural changes as a result of emotions are associated with autonomic and neuroendocrine changes that anticipate the associated behavioural response with an emotion.

The

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Tucker-Drob, Briley, & Harden (2013). Genetic and environmental influences on cognition across development and context" – Article summary

Cognition is about 50% - 70% heritable at the population level. Heritability is maximized when people choose their own environments and experiences.

Gene-environment correlation states that people with more similar genes experience more similar environments and vice versa. Transactional models state that early-life behaviours, driven by genetics, lead to a person selecting particular types of environments. These environments have a causal effect on cognition, leading to the notion that the original behaviours led to these experiences and this cognition (e.g. having higher IQ leads to environments where you can stimulate IQ, which leads to an even higher IQ). Traits such as intelligence, motivation and intellectual interest are important in selecting these environments. Genes are thus very important in selecting environments which, in turn, have large impact on cognition. This leads to a large estimate of heritability.

The availability of environmental experiences is essential in

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Taraban & Shaw (2018). Parenting in context: Revisiting Belsky’s classic process of parenting model in early childhood.” – Article summary

According to Jay Belsky’s process of parenting model, parenting is determined by characteristics of the parent, child and family social context. Parental personality and parental psychological functioning are important factors in the parental domain. In the child’s domain, a difficult temperament is important. In the social context domain, parents’ work habits, sources of parental social support and marital relationship quality are important. 

Positive parenting refers to dimensions of parenting such as warmth, sensitivity, limit setting, appropriate scaffolding and contingency-based reinforcement. Negative parenting refers to behaviours that are inconsistent, over-reactive, controlling and harsh. Negative parenting has been linked to negative child outcomes (e.g. lower academic achievement) while positive parenting has been linked to adaptive child outcomes. Associations between parenting and child outcomes are stronger in early childhood. Adolescence may also be a critical period.

Fathers have taken up a larger parenting role over the recent years. Research

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Kuppens & Ceulemans (2019). Parenting styles: A closer look at a well-known concept”. – Article summary

Parenting practices refer to directly observable specific behaviours that parents use to socialize their children (e.g. supervision with homework). There are two broad dimensions of parenting:

  1. Parental support
    This refers to the affective nature of the parent-child relationship. Behaviours involve showing involvement (1), acceptance (2), emotional availability (3), warmth (4) and responsivity (3). This is associated with positive child outcomes.
  2. Parental control
    1. Behavioural control
      This refers to behaviours aimed at controlling, managing or regulating the child’s behaviour through enforcing demands and rules (1), disciplinary strategies (2), punishment (3) or supervisory functions (4). This is associated with positive child outcomes if not used excessively or not at all.
    2. Psychological control
      This refers to behaviours aimed at manipulating children’s thoughts, feelings and emotions. This is associated with negative child outcomes.

It is possible that

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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!

How does conceptual development take place? - Chapter 7

Concepts are general ideas or terms that can be used to group objects, situations, qualities, or abstractions, that let them become equal in a certain way.

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  • How do children learn to understand why, where, when, and h...

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