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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Vellutino, Scanlon, Zhang, & Schatschneider (2008). Using response to kindergarten and first grade intervention to identify children at-risk for long-term reading difficulties.” – Article summary

The IQ-discrepancy definition for problematic readers (e.g. dyslexia) is subpar as they often show average scores on measures of word level skills. Intelligence tests do not differentiate the atypically achieving children from a group of typically achieving children when it comes to reading performance. Early reading difficulties in most beginning readers are caused primarily by experiential and instructional deficits rather than basic deficits in reading-related cognitive abilities.

Most struggling readers can become average-level readers if they are provided with effective intervention. Those who continue to experience difficulties mat require more intensive or more individualized instruction to achieve this level.

The three-tier model of remedial intervention consists of three sequentially ordered intervention strategies:

  1. Tier 1
    This includes assessment and possible modification of the language programme to ensure that literacy instruction provided by the teacher is addressing the individual needs of all children
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Van der Pol et al. (2019). Common elements of evidence-based systemic treatments for adolescents with disruptive behaviour problems.” – Article summary

Identifying common elements between treatments could render them more effective. Many treatments have common elements yet a unique focus. This could help personalize the treatments. Knowing common elements of treatments allows therapists to implement these techniques in treatment more easily. Knowledge of treatment mechanisms and identification of potent treatment techniques can support enhanced precision in matching systemic treatments to the needs of adolescents and their families.

There are several common elements across individual systemic treatment protocols:

  1. Engagement
    This refers to motivating and involving all the key agents to start the process of change. This includes matching (1), facilitating (2) and availability (3).
  2. Alliance
    This refers to creating an atmosphere of positive bonds between the therapist, client and family members. This allows for consensual goal setting and establishing a foundation for positive change.
  3. Interactional focus
    This refers to viewing family-parent interactions
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Price & Ansari (2013). Dyscalculia: Characteristics, causes and treatments.” – Article summary

Developmental dyscalculia (DD) refers to a learning disorder which specifically affects the ability to acquire school-level arithmetic skills. It occurs when a child has a substantially lower mathematical ability compared to what can be expected for the person’s chronological age (1), measured intelligence (2) and age-appropriate education (3). The prevalence is 3% to 6%. It is often comorbid with other learning difficulties (e.g. dyslexia; ADHD).

There is a lot of heterogeneity within DD. This maybe due to variation across studies in criteria used to identify mathematical difficulties (e.g. discrepancy criteria vs. percentile cut-off points). This may include individuals whose math deficits stem from exogeneous sources (e.g. poor teaching quality) rather than those whose math deficits result from a learning disorder. Another reason is that math skills are heterogeneous and vulnerable to disruption from a wide range of endogenous and exogenous sources, leading to heterogeneity in DD.

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Staff et al. (2021). Effectiveness of specific techniques in behavioral teacher training for childhood ADHD: A randomized controlled microtrial.” – Article summary

Behavioural teacher training is the most effective psychosocial classroom intervention to treat ADHD. Additionally, it reduces teacher burden and increases levels of teacher self-efficacy. In this training, teachers are taught to change a child’s behaviour by using stimulus control techniques. This aims to change behaviours by manipulating their antecedents or stimulus conditions to increase the chance that a child elicits desired behaviour.

Antecedent-based techniques include providing structure and clear instructions. It is aimed at clarifying what behaviour is expected of a child in a specific situation. Consequent-based techniques include manipulating the consequences of actions to influence the frequency of behaviour (e.g. reinforcement). This can include praise, mild punishment or ignoring.

A time-out is effective in reducing disruptive behaviour problems in children with ADHD symptoms. Consequent-based techniques are more effective in reducing off-task and disruptive classroom behaviour of children with ADHD.  

The antecedent

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Evans et al. (2021). The efficacy of cognitive video game training for ADHD and what FDA clearance means for clinicians.” – Article summary

EndeavorRX refers to a videogame-delivered cognitive training treatment intended to improve neurocognitive deficits associated with ADHD. Children play the game for 30 minutes or more every day for several weeks. The idea is that when core cognitive deficits are reduced, the problems that are associated with these deficits will also reduce. This treatment has some evidence for near-transfer but there is very limited evidence for far transfer of skills.

The hyperactive subtype of ADHD is often attributed to frontrostriatal dysfunction. It projects from the striatum to the prefrontal cortex and is involved in reward-based learning. The striatum may be under-responsive to anticipated rewards in people with the hyperactive subtype. They require larger and more immediate rewards and they habituate to rewards more quickly. In this subtype, inattention may be a secondary symptom due to low motivation as a result of frontoparietal and temporal lobe dysfunction. Next

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Daley et al. (2014). Practitioner review: Current best practice in the use of parent training and other behavioural interventions in the treatment of children and adolescents with ADHD” – Article summary

Behavioural interventions refer to interventions which are directed at improving an individual’s conduct using reinforcement and social learning principles. This includes increasing desired behaviours and decreasing undesired behaviours. Among these treatments are classical contingency management (1), behaviour therapy (2) and cognitive behavioural therapy (3).

Not all studies investigating these interventions had blinded measures (e.g. symptom rating by an independent researcher) as most used non-blinded measures (e.g. parent symptom rating). This makes evidence more difficult to interpret. When blinded vs. non-blinded measures are taken into account, behavioural intervention can not be supported for the treatment of core ADHD symptoms. However, behavioural interventions did influence parenting effectively making behavioural interventions a form of parent training.

Improving parental knowledge about ADHD may be necessary for subsequent therapeutic interventions. Enhanced knowledge increases the likelihood of engagement in treatment. However, it is not clear whether behavioural interventions improve parental knowledge

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Schreibman et al. (2015). Naturalistic developmental behavioural interventions: Validated treatments for autism spectrum disorder”. – Article summary

Toddler interventions for ASD are often delivered in a naturalistic and interactive social context (e.g. play). It typically involves child-directed teaching strategies (e.g. child-preferred materials). Naturalistic developmental behavioural interventions (NDBI) refer to interventions that employ a naturalistic and interactive social context and involve child-directed teaching strategies.

Learning is facilitated by an affective exchange between the child and the therapist. However, children with autism have deficits in affective sharing and social motivation. This thus needs to be promoted for children with autism for interventions to be effective.

NDBIs make use of a constructivist approach where children’s learning experiences are designed to actively engage attention (1), help them connect new experiences with existing knowledge (2), teach within developmental sequences (3) and systematically increase the complexity of learning experiences (4). Child initiative and spontaneity are fostered and rewarded. Everyday routines are a rich learning context for children and

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Koegel, Koegel, Ashbaugh, & Bradshaw (2014). The importance of early identification and intervention for children with or at risk for autism spectrum disorders” – Article summary

The new criteria for ASD in the DSM-5 may influence the incidence of ASD as the diagnosis between people may now differ based on timing rather than symptoms (e.g. a person diagnosed in 2004 compared to a person diagnosed in 2015). The DSM-5 makes use of severity to tackle the difficulty disentangling whether symptoms are due to ASD or due to another comorbid disorder. The DSM has changed the ASD criteria to improve the precision of diagnosis (1), characterize the ASD symptoms within a single name (2) and use a description of severity level (3).

ASD does not need to be a life-long disabling condition. With intervention, children may either lose diagnosis or be included in regular education classrooms. However, a lot of children diagnosed with ASD remain non-verbal throughout their lives, although this number has been declining as the quality of intervention has been improving.

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Telman et al. (2020). Modular CBT for youth social anxiety disorder: A case series examining initial effectiveness.” – Article summary

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) refers to a persistent, intense fear of social situations in which the individual may be negatively evaluated by others. This fear must occur in peer settings and not just in adult settings for children. The prevalence rate is 10% in adolescence and first incidence after the age of 21 is very low.

Not treating SAD is associated with impairments in interpersonal functioning (1), loneliness (2), school refusal (3), drop-out (4), lower educational level (5), subsequent anxiety (6), subsequent depressive disorders (7) and subsequent substance use disorders (8). It typically persists into adulthood when it is left untreated.

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is the most efficacious treatment for anxiety disorders in children and adolescents. About 50-70% of the children with an anxiety disorder are free of it after treatment. CBT for childhood anxiety disorders typically consists of skill-building (1), psychoeducation (2),

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Hudson et al. (2015). Comparing outcomes for children with different anxiety disorders following cognitive behavioural therapy.” – Article summary

The recovery rate of CBT for anxiety disorders is approximately 60%. Treatment tries to treat underlying constructs of anxiety even though different anxiety disorders exist and are often highly heterogeneous. However, there may be a differential response to different treatments per disorder as this is the case with adults.

The presence of social anxiety disorder at pre-treatment leads to slower rate of change and poorer diagnostic outcomes at post-treatment and follow-up compared to children with other anxiety disorders. This is not affected by age or comorbid depression.

Children with SAD may have poorer diagnostic outcomes because the group setting is more aversive for them. Next, children with SAD have often shown behavioural inhibition since infancy and this may make it more resistant to change. It may thus be necessary to have a longer treatment programme for children with SAD. The presence of SAD may

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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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