Lecture notes for Developmental Psychology at the University of Groningen - 2015/2016

Lecture 1: an introduction to Developmental Psychology

Developmental psychology builds on several fields within psychology.  It its a combination of physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development.  Development examines both 'what' and 'how' these three aspects change across the human life span. 

The six 'what' factors studied in development are:

Nature vs. Nurture

This is one of the most fundamental arguments in psychology.  Everyone knows that psychological development is influenced by both aspects; however discovering exactly what that means is still largely unanswered.

Activity vs. Passivity

Are we able to influence our own development, or are we simply shaped by aspects that are beyond our control?  Some of these aspects include a person's parents, culture, genetic disposition, and socioeconomic status.  These are all factors of nature or nurture that all can push us into passivity in our own development. 

Goodness vs. Badness

Are individuals fundamentally good?  Do we become more and more 'bad' due to society? This point relates to nature vs. nurture and passivity vs. activity in that if we assume that we are born a certain way, nature and passivity are the clear determinants of our personalities. 

Continuity vs. Discontinuity

Do we change slowly across the lifespan, or do we experience jumps and spurts in our development? Some theorists believe that development is always gradual, while some believe it is always abrupt. In psychology, it is very impractical to think in black and white; thus development, like everything else, has aspects of both continuity and discontinuity. Psychologists examine both quantitative and qualitative changes to address this topic. A quantitative change does not always mean a continuous change, while a qualitative change does not always imply a discontinuative change.

Universality vs. Context-specific

Do all humans undergo the same stages of development; do we all go through the same universal stages?  Or is our development simply context-dependent?

These contexts can be physical or environments, for example: the university you attend, your particular subculture, gender, or any other individual differences. 

Trait or State?

Traits are stable aspects of ourselves that are different within individuals, while states are things that change across contexts.  One argument studied in developmental psychology is whether people all develop the same traits, or whether we all develop similarly across similar states. 

In addition, psychological development studies the 'how' of how we develop:

There are several factors that influence development, including cognitive factors, environmental factors, and predisposition. There are many research designs available and many have advantages and disadvantages. It's important to select an appropriate design to measure the variable of interest. 

This course will cover the aforementioned topics.  Lectures are meant to provide some depth on some topics addressed in the books.  Both lecture materials and the outlined book chapters are testable material. 

What is development?

The classical way of viewing development as a whole; that people gain something, stabilise, and lose it towards the end of our lives. While this view is no longer applicable to development as a whole, it does still apply to biological aspects, such as height, weight, motor skills, etc. When we discuss psychological development, however, this view is outdated. 

The modern view of development examines gains, losses, neutral changes, and stability across each area of human development.  The important thing to remember is that it is impossible to characterise all development under one model.

So how do we characterise development?

People tend to be characterised in age grades, groups of people of similar ages, who are theoretically undergoing the same stage of development.  Grouping people in age grades has many functions:

Practical - Some practical applications of age grades include:  determining age limits for movies, based on our understanding of what a child can handle, with regard to cognitive development; and policy-making, such as when individuals are criminally responsible, the legal age of marriage, buying alcohol, and voting. 

Social - Age norms are the behvaiours we expect for a particular age grade.  Are we following the appropriate social clock?  Whether the age grade fits the expected age norm affects how we experience life events.   The link between age norms and age grades can be influenced by many aspects of life:

• Cultural differences:  What is expected of a teenager in The Netherlands is drastically different than what's expected from a teenager in Kenya, for example.

• Historical context: What's currently happening in history and what has happened in the histories of particular societies plays a huge role in our development. For example, during World War II, the threat of dying caused many people to marry earlier than they would have otherwise done according to cultural norms. 

• Technology: As time progresses, we have developed machines to do heavy work, as well as much better healthcare. This results in an increasingly raised age of retirement, as well as what people conder 'normal' activities during retirement.

• Socioeconomic status: People who come from a low socioeconomic status tend to have earlier age norms, which impacts their developmental progress.

Scientific - Age norms and grades guide research. They provide a framework for talking about development. 

Classifying people according to age croups in scientific research as well as basing research on averages, will result in a lot of missed individual differences and outliers. In addition, these studies do not take cultural differences into account. However, the variability between individuals is often huge, and reducing such results to averages that can be generalised for a certain age group is actually quite inaccurate. The average often does not tell us about most, or even some, individuals. A more useful approach would be to examine subgroups within a sample. 

In development, we are moving towards a more idiographic paradigm, since it has been shown that averages cannot be generalised to any individual of a population. Unfortunately, this goes against most o the current teaching within psychology (we use a lot of average-based statistics) does not take a very individualistic approach, and this is just an annoying fact of developmental psychology that we will encounter throughout our lives. 

Population studies often use averages and few repeated measures. They are useful for telling use what changes over time and are regarded as static.  On the other hand, individual studies involve taking multiple individual time series and answers the question of how people develop over time.  In that way, they offer a more dynamic view of development. 

What we are trying to do is generalise structural characteristics of developmental processes to the population, rather than averages.  Each individual may follow a similar developmental structure, but at different points in time. 

While many studies and research methods focus on describing development, however we are also interested in why a particular aspect of development happens. This can be examined through observation or experimentation. What we want to do is zoom into a specific area of development and figure out the mechanisms behind a particular change. Researchers are becoming increasingly interested in intraperson variability, as this provides much information behind the 'why' of development. Real time studies offer a new paradigm for studying developmental processes. Thus, the structure of development can be generalised across individuals.  

Lecture 2: Which theories on developmental psychologie exist? What is their focus on the Nature/Nurture theorie?

Today's lecture will discuss various developmental theories, as well as what aspects of these theories focus on nature and nurture. 

To begin, we must first talk about the people involved.  Nativists believe that development is a natural process that everyone undergoes universally.  Differences in development, according to nativists, are due to maturation.  Constructivists, on the other hand, believe that traits unfold through interaction with environment.  The believe that there are always differences between individuals, but that these differences are not necessarily due to gender, ethnicity etc.

Origins

Descartes was a nativist. He believed that all individuals were born with an aptitude to understand reality, and that these aptitudes are different between individuals.  At the same time, he thought that the understanding of reality was universal.  He believed that the pituitary gland housed animal spirits; it would perceive information from our reality, which would pass information on to our souls, guiding us like puppets.  This phenomenon is known as interactive dualism. 

Aristotle and John Locke were the key historical players on the nurture side of development.  Aristotle believed that when we're born, our minds are completely blank.  Locke, on the other hand, believed that the mind is complete at birth, but without knowledge.  It has all the potential, but knowledge and understanding is gained through interaction with environment.

Theories in Development

Freud and Erikson were the first two psychologists to publish theories on development.  Freud focused a lot on nature, coming up with developmental stages that each individual goes through:

• Oral stage 0 – 1 year, trust vs mistrust

• Anal stage 1 – 3 years, autonomy vs shame

• Phallic stage 3 – 6 years, initiative vs guilt

• Latent period 6 – 12 years, industry vs inferiority

• Genital stage 12 + years, identity vs role confusion

Additionally, Erikson proposed a few additional stages:

• 20-40 years, intimacy vs isolation

• 40 – 65 years, generativity vs stagnation

• 65+ years, integrity vs despair

Erikson also believed that we move through these stages, that we are pushed through these stages through our biological maturation; but also through having to deal with social conflict, for example trusting our caregivers or being autonomous as toddlers.

Piaget, a constructivist, later came up with his own stages of development:

• Sensorimotor: 0 – 2 years

• Preoperational: 2 – 7 years

• Concrete operations: 7 – 11 years

• Formal operations: 11+ years

He posited that people develop through interacting with the environment and are limited by brain developme.  This theory is more active and moves towards constructivism, because you have to actively interact with your environment in order to learn and develop. It focuses on operational tasks, tasks that are performed mentally or using symbolic thought.

Watson's theory of behaviourism states that development should be understood by focusing on overt behaviour.  Any development is a result of conditioning.

Later, Bandura presented the Social Cognitive Theory, in which interaction with environment is very important, but is not necessarily passive.  Bandura's theory focuses on observational learning - he thought that through observational learning, a lot of cognitive processes occur.  He also believed in self-regulation as a result of cognitive processing of information.  One famous experiment that displays this was the Bobo doll experiment, discussed in previous courses. 

In the 20th century, cultural determinism, a belief that culture determines (passively) our development, was widely followed.  For a while, this was called the Standard Social Science Model; however it was not actually followed in its entirety.  (Nurture extreme)

The 'Nature extreme' is called reductionism, where the only thing that matters are our genes, and determinism, where our genes determine everything we do.  This view ignores self-regulation and autonomy/experience.  It is also critiqued for being difficult to generalise; however, not many developmental psychologists believe in this model in its entirety. 

In fact, development is an interaction between both nature and nurture.  The interaction between thee two areas results in plasticity of human development, giving us variability in developmental trajectories. 

Brains and Plasticity

One central aspect in brain research is lateralisation, that the two hemispheres of our brains have specific roles.  The left hemisphere is in charge of sequential procession, like analytical reasoning and language.  It also controls the right side of our body. The right hemisphere is involved in simultaneous processing, such as spatial reasoning and understanding emotional content.  It is also in charge of the left side of the body. 

The two hemispheres communicate with each other through the corpus collossum

This lateralisation is something innate - we are born with this. Some evidence of this can be found int he fact that newborns turn their heads more often to the right than to the left, 25% prefer using their right hands when grasping, and that there is more left hemisphere response to speech.

The brain is very plastic - able to change.  This is related to a number of aspects:

While all newborns have plastic brains, development is very much influenced by stimulation.  The brain is also very capable of recovering from injuries.  Plasticity is greatest during sensitive periods, or periods of rapid development.  At birth, the brain is only 25% of its total weight; at 2 years, 75%, and at 5 years, 90%.  Neurogenesis continues throughout the lifespan. 

From the age of 50, the brain begins to slowly degenerate.  This happens, for example, due to the loss or damage of neurons.  While this may be true, we can still see a lot of plasticity during this life phase.  In cases where a whole hemisphere is removed from young patients, they are often able to make a full recovery and lead normal lives (see video clip on Nestor.) 

There are slow and immediate factors that affect brain development and perceptions.  A slow and longterm effect is, for example, developing attachments in childhood, while anything to do with sensual perception is more immediate. 

Evolution

Darwin's theory of evolution plays a role in development.  The main points of his theory are:

1)  There is genetic variation between all of us.

2) Some genes are more adaptive than others

3) Genes that are more adaptive will be passed down because of 'survival of the fittest'

Evolution is not just about genes.  It is actually about the gene-environment interaction.  For example, one particular species of Australian lizard either lays eggs or undergoes natural birth, depending on its environment it lives in.  This is, however, based on a genetic mutation and not based on the lizards' choice.

Additionally, there are some other important notes on heritability:

Only heritable characteristics are passed down, that is, characteristics that are linked to our DNA.  This means that traits and behaviours that a acquired within our lifespan are not passed down. 

The way something is not necessarily the way it ought to be.  Whatever is passed down is not necessarily an optimised fit; but it worked and allowed a species to survive.  A 'good fit' does not necessarily mean 'good morality.'

Biological and cultural evolution should be considered separately.  Biological evolution refers to adaptation tot eh physical environment and it takes a long time (many generations) to occur.  Cultural evolution occurs on a shorter time frame (1-3 generations) and refers to cultural and societal rules and norms.  These are based upon social learning, such as education. 

Heritability is based on the amount of variation in a population, referring to a particular trait, that is linked to genetic variation between people.  It is measured by comparing the correlation for manifested behaviour between twins, siblings, and relatives.  Some highly heritable traits include height and weight, while less heritable traits include religiosity and occupational interests

Lecture 3: The theories of Piaget and Vygotsky

In the past, developmental psychologists viewed babies as very passive participants in their own development. In fact, babies are actually quite active, creating a learning environment for themselves, based on what they can see and touch. Babies also learn through trial and error, through which they learn cause and effect.

Piaget studied how children think, rather than just what they know. His constructivist approach means that he believed children to be active agents in their own development. Action leads to logic and can be achieved through play. Using his clinical method, he observed children while solving problems during play sessions.

One of Piaget's main theories is schemas, as discussed previously. Piaget hypothesised that building new schemas and organising them is the key to development. Adaptation refers to the adjustment of behaviour and/or understanding to new information in the environment, according to schemes. This happens in two ways:

• Assimilation: Putting new information into old schemes. For example, if you see a new breed of dog that you've never seen before, you may already know, according to its characteristics, that it is a dog. In this case, assimilation is simply putting the new breed into the category of “dog.”

• Accommodation: Modifying existing schemes to accommodate new information. For example: A child seeing a zebra for the first time calls it a horse. When the child accommodates information, she takes into consideration the different properties of a zebra compared to a horse, perhaps calling a zebra a horse with stripes. When she eventually learns the name of zebra, she has accommodated this information.

Children tend to accommodate a lot more than they assimilate, even more so than adults, because they still have a lot to learn. This led to the idea that babies are model learners rather than passive learners. Infants actually use a lot of higher-level cognition to learn; they are doing more than just gaining knowledge. They engage actively and more frequently than older children or adults. Children often apply the empirical cycle to learn new things and develop:

• Observation

• Induction

• Deduction

• Testing

• Evaluation

One could say that each time a child goes through this cycle, s/he is accommodating. Children are often better at this than adults because they come up with much more creative theories; even those that don't make logical sense. Adults would stop the process much earlier, skipping the step of daring to be creative.

Stages of Cognitive Development

Piaget observed that younger children make different mistakes than older children. Through this, he deduced that children differ qualitatively in their thinking, depending on the stage of development they are undergoing.

Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 years)

Piaget called the first month after birth the reflex activity substage. From 1-4 months old, babies only assimilate and are primarily interested in the repetition of their own body movements. This is called making primary circular movements. From 4-8 months of age, babies continue with circular actions, but attention is focused to objects outside of the body. Babies begin to interact more and more with their environments. Between 8 and 12 months, infants begin to coordinate these secondary actions by building upon schemas and organising them. For example, combining grasping and putting something in its mouth.

The 12-18 month period is dubbed the tertiary circular reaction stage. This is when babies start thinking about the cause and effect of their actions. At 18-24 months, the emergence of symbolic thought occurs. Here, babies use the objects around them to symbolise something else, leading into the next stage of development.

One of the major mistakes children make is object permanence. This error occurs in 2 stages:

• “If I don't see it, it isn't there”

• A not B error: When an object is moved, the child still looks in the last place the toy was found, even after having seen the object move. This is a form of assimilation.

Preoperational Stage (2-7 years)

During this stage, symbolic thought rapidly advances. Children learn to represent objects with words or images; however this symbolic thought is not based on logic; it is instead guided by perceptual salience.

One main error made by children in this stage is the problem of conservation. If you show a child 2 identically filled glasses of water, then pour one into a taller, narrower glass, the child will think there is more int he tall glass. This test also works in reverse; they believe that water poured form the tall glass will overflow if poured back into the short glass.

Another problem is the problem of egocentrism, that they are unable to take another person's perspectives. While this is true for complex tasks, research has demonstrated that when a task is less complicated, for example, showing a two-sided card with different images on each side, children are able to identify that they see one picture, while the other person sees what's on the other side of the card.

This study calls to question, other factors that must be considered when testing children. We have to take into account what we are actually asking them: how long do we make them wait before asking for an answer? How much attention do they have to invest? Are they able to communicate what they actually mean? Therefore, it is always important to consider how a test is carried out, alongside the parameters being tested.

Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 years)

In this stage, children master mental actions on objects. They are able to take others' perspectives, imagine consequences of actions without actually performing the action, and understand reversible and transformational of thought. A child is able to change ideas, think about different realities, and manipulating the rules of their reality and thinking of the consequences of this imagined reality.

Formal Operational Stage (12+)

In this stage, children master mental actions on ideas. They are able to reason inductively, not just based on trial and error. Additionally, they are more capable of abstract thought and thinking hypothetically. This kind of mental processing includes thinking outside the box and thinking in terms of relativity.

Vygotsky

While Piaget emphasised interaction with the physical environment, Vygotsky placed a higher emphasis on interaction with the social environment. His Social Development Theory posits that children are guided by mature thinkers in their development. In this regard, children are not independent explorers; rather, their development is shaped by the social-cultural context in which they grow up (scaffolding).

One major contribution of Vygotsky is the idea of Zone of Proximal Development. Essentially, children learn more when they are with knowledgeable others than when they are alone. A knowledgeable other is someone who is one level higher than the child's level of development. According to his theory, children learn by interacting with this knowledgeable other, and once the child has learned new skills from this knowledgeable other, this social scaffolding can be removed.

Lecture 4: What is intelligence?

The question of whether or not someone is intelligent is rather loaded, as its answer depends entirely on the definition and conceptualisation of “intelligence” being used. What's problematic is that often times, tests that measure intelligence are taken outside the context of the intelligence they are trying to measure. Tests also do not take into account the various situational and emotional factors that may influence a person's score.

There are three approaches discussed in today's lecture:

The psychometric approach refers to the most classic approach used, where the goal is to measure intelligence as a trait that differs among individuals

The multiple intelligences approach refers to the view that there are multiple types of intelligence

The triarchic approach refers to the interaction between three domains of intelligence: conventional, creative, and practical.

These approaches are described, in detail, in the textbook.

The most dominant approach used today was first proposed by Spearman, which states that we all have varying levels of a trait, intelligence, as expressed by a g factor, or general intelligence. This takes a top-down approach: We have a certain level of intelligence, or g, and that, in turn, affects our abilities and behaviours

Binet, on the other hand, developed the intelligence quotient (IQ) test, originally to identify children who needed more help in school. It was never his intention to use the test to measure a trait (as he did not view intelligence as a trait;) however nowadays, we often use his IQ test to measure our intelligence, treating it as though it is a trait.

In measuring intelligence, we often assume two things:

1. The reductionistic assumption that genes and the brain cause IQ,

2. The deterministic assumption that an underlying IQ determines IQ test scores and professional success

Again, these are all top-down models, which imply that intelligence is fixed and located in the brain.

Research today is moving towards a more complex, dynamic systems model of intelligence. This means that intelligence is starting to be viewed as a convergence of intelligence-related components, within an individual and in a specific context. This system views intelligence as abilities emerging into order through iterative interactions between the components that make up intelligence and the environment. Thus, according to this theory, behaviour is not latent inside individuals and is not directed by an external agent.

This provides explanations for pre-and post test intelligence studies that have shown children's IQ scores to deviate by as much as 2 SD over 15 years. Viewing intelligences as a dynamic characteristic allows for this change in IQ score.

Another thing to consider is that any individual could experience gains and losses of intelligence over time, similar to any concept studied in development. The pattern of overall long-term development is often determined by repetition of similar experiences over short-term periods. It is also important to remember that emergence of these short-term patterns often constrain patterns that may occur int he near future. Thus, as we develop, our negative and positive development accumulates over time, forming an overall gain or loss pattern.

As alluded to earlier, there are two main mindsets pertaining intelligence, that more knowledgeable others (MKO) can take on:

The fixed mindset (entity theory) is the belief that abilities (eg: intelligence) are more or less fixed. This often causes a learners to focus on outcomes and looking smart. Setbacks are often discouraged, leading to helplessness on the side of the learner. As a result the learner avoids challenges and future development is limited.

The growth mindset (incremental theory) is the belief that abilities are malleable. This mindset encourages learners to view setbacks as opportunities to improve. As a result, the learner approaches challenges and development is encouraged.

The mindset of the MKO is important because it influences the feedback that a learner will receive. Therefore, in order to encourage development, MKOs should focus on the learning process, encouraging the learner to look at within-person differences and reassuring the learner that mistakes are part of the journey of learning.

Lecture 5: Self concept

The “What”

Physical Awareness. As with all parts of development, development of the self goes in stages. During the Sensorimotor Stage (around 3 months), babies learn that their physical selves are separate form the environment. They also learn to imitate others and see themselves as an agent in the environment. They start to realise where their physical bodies end and where the rest of the world starts and notice that they can interact with their environments.

Physical Self. During the Pre-operational Stage, at around 2 years old, the sense of self is based on salient perceptions, or fundamental physical characteristics that can be observed. They begin to recognise themselves and learnt hat they are distinct from others. This is evident when you place a toddler in front of a mirror – they realise that they are the person they see looking back at them. In addition, they begin to notice their physical characteristics, such as their sex and hair colour.

At 3 years of age, children begin to see themselves as concrete and physical. They are able to identify possessions that are connected to the self, such as pets and toys, and begin to make basic internal descriptions, such as “I am short and have blue eyes.” They also begin to describe basic emotions, such as “I am happy / i am sad.”

Social Self. During the Concrete Operations stage (8 years), children are able to describe concrete psychological and social qualities, such as abilities, attitudes, and preferences. For example, a child may be able to say “I am good at school,” and “I don't like girls.” At this stage, social comparisons begin, and children will think and say things like “I wish I were more adventurous.”

Psychological Self. In early adolescence, people begin to describe psychological and subjective attributes about self that cannot be observed. This includes meta-cognitive, abstract, differentiated, and integrated attributes. As you probably noticed in your own development, social comparisons during this stage of life are very prominent

and more detailed. While an 8-year-old may have been able to say “I am honest” and “I am more honest than the people in my class,” adolescents begin to see the complexity in their attributes, such as “I am honest with my family but not my friends.”

In adulthood, we reach a point where we achieve a sense of stability about the self. We begint o close the gap between our ideal selves adn our real selves.

The Subjective Self

The subjective self refers to our own understanding of ourselves. One important component of this is self-esteem. Self esteem tends to drop from childhood to adolescence, increase across adulthood, and drop again after middle-age. Why does this occur?

Drop from childhood to adolescence: during the concrete operations stage, we gain more insight about ourselves. We begin to compare ourselves socially and form an idea of who the ideal self is. All of these social comparisons, in combination with uncertainty of who our ideal selves are cause a drop in self esteem.

Increase across adulthood: During the formal operations stage, we gain more perspective of who we are as people. The ability to think abstractly allows us to assess subjective levels of happiness and success, and e learn to accept who we are.

Drop after middle-age: This drop occurs due to the pain of isolation as people age, as well as the negative self-image of becoming old.

The Objective Self

The objective self refers to a person's temperament and personality. Personality refers to an individual's tendencies in relation to the environment, including factors such as extraversion and neuroticism. Temperament, on the other hand, refers to genetically-based tendencies, such as being adaptable,irritable, and content.

As introduced in earlier courses, the Five Factor Model of Personality is a psychometric approach to measuring personality. There are, however, several problems with this model. For one thing, this model generalises to the individual, which is not how personalities actually work. For another, the model does not take environmental influences into account, and personality structures are, in fact, highly influenced by the environment. Lastly, personality changes across time, as found in several studies, so measuring traits is questionable in application.

The following section is not included in the textbook, and is therefore not included on the exam:

The psychometric approach cannot explain the fluctuations in, for example, self-esteem. What we are missing, perhaps, is that self-esteem follows a development path of tis own. In order to investigate this empirically, you would have to be able to measure second-to-second changes of self-esteem. Traditional questionnaires come up with a “true score” for an individual's self-esteem. More recent research changes this by asking how people feel at a certain moment. In doing repeated measures of this, researchers are able to track patterns of change in things like self-esteem and see whether or not fluctuations are more than just random noise.

Lecture 6: Developmental psychology and gender

Gender is much more complicated than fashion choices and other physical attributes. One of the most important things to note is that gender is very different from sex.

• Sex refers strictly to anatomical differences, such as genitalia, hormone balance (prenatal), and chromosomes.

• Gender is a combination of biological and psychological aspects. It is a person's identification as male or female (or anything in between) and represents an internalisation of gender-congruent behavioural, emotional, and societal norms.

Popular pyschology often focuses on gender differences between male and female. It has reduced gender down to a dichotomy, and often looks at the differences between a “male brain” and “female brain.” But gender is, in fact, much more complicated.

It is, of course, important to accept that there are differences in gender. Empirical evidence shows that some traits are more prominent in males vs females:

While there is scientific evidence of the claims int he table above, it is important to keep in mind that gender differences are based on averages and that the effect sizes of differences are small. In fact, within gender differences are often bigger than between—gender difference.

Keeping this in mind, many researchers have accepted the Gender Similarity Hypothesis -->, which says that men and women are more alike than they are different. Thus, it is important to think about whether or not a gender difference is attributed to a sex difference. In between what we inherit from our biology – our sex – and the what we think is gender development.

Gender development involves the internalisation of gender-congruent behaviours, emotions, and norms. For example, women are expected to be loving and nurturing; both men and women show a preference for women who display these characteristics. There is a lot of pressure to conform, and a part of ender development is achieving agency: a sense of achievement, assertiveness, and independence.

Based on several twin studies, it has been found that genes explain 20-50% of gender-congruent behaviour and sexual orientation. This does not mean that 20-50% of one's gender is due to genes; but rather, that there is a 20 to 50% correlation between genes and behaviour. As mentioned many times in previous lectures and courses, correlation does not equal causation. It is inaccurate to say that genes alone account for this evidence because twins share the same prenatal environment, including hormones, which have been shown to have a huge impact on gender development.

So how do genes influence our prenatal environments? One of the most important hormones in gender development is testosterone. It influences how active children are, along with several other behavioural characteristics, such as sexual orientation.

In studying gender differences, what many people do is apply the Social-Role Hypothesis, which is when we see a characteristic of social roles and attribute the behaviour to something “innate.” This is a very reductionist perspective (in the case of gender, reducing it to genes,) and forgets to consider the impact of the environment and the different stages of the developmental process.

The Biosocial Theory of Gender Role Development

As with many other areas of development, gender development also follows a biosocial model. This theory states that the brain and biology are malleable; that is, they change and fluctuate based on interactions with the environment. Small biological differences between males an females, such as level of activity, perceived level of care, etc, contribute to gender development because we (and society) react to these differences. For example, fathering behaviour influences changes in levels of testosterone, which influences how we act and perceive our environments. Fathers with more active parenting roles often have lower testosterone levels, which may influence the father's future behaviour gender development. This pattern continues as we develop, turning us into who we are.

The Social Learning Theory

This theory regards children as receivers of information and adults as information givers. While differences between males and females at birth are quite small, the way they are treated shortly after birth has a huge influence on how they will develop a gender identity. Boys, for example, are described by their parents as strong or adventurous, while girls are often described as pretty, soft, or cuddly. Parents often buy gender-typical toys, limiting the choices of their children. This influences children's preferences for a particular type of environment (ie: what toys they like, what kinds of activities they enjoy doing) and influences their self-concept and gender development.

Within our society, there are also many norms and typical gender roles that children are (sometimes subtly) encouraged to follow. Behaviours are often reinforced when they conform to these roles and discouraged when they don't.

Cognitive Theories

There are also several things we must keep in mind regarding cognitive theories. In cognitive development, children adopt gender-congruent behaviours in order to make sense of the world and to clarify what they are learning. One of the first things children learn is whether or not they are a boy or a girl. Sometimes it's easier for children to understand gender as 2 categories, sort specific behaviours and preferences into the two categories, and then see how that affects everything else.

The first thing children learn is gender constancy, that our sex stays the same throughout our lives. They then learn the characteristics of both male and female, and then self-categorise – they determine which of the two they are. They learn that sex is consistent; that, for example, if a girl plays with trucks, she is still a girl.

After this is learned, we are able to self-socialise, trying to find a cognitive equilibrium. It's much easier to adopt gender-congruent behaviours and values because they are consistent with the learned schemas

Gender Development Across the Lifespan

3-6 years old: Between 3 and 6 years of age, children learn about gender typing; that is, they learn what is appropriate for each biological sex. One example of this is that children of this age will be able to talk about gender-typical toys, hair styles, clothing norms, etc. All of these characteristics are physical and studies have found that gender typing is more prominent in boys. At 4 years old, children begin to understand typical gender occupation norms, such as men being construction workers and women being secretaries. They gain an understanding of gender-congruent expectations and begin to have positive or negative emotions about such things, depending on whether their own preferences are gender congruent or gender incongruent.

4-7 years old: Based on levels of activity and reinforced by peer socialisation, gender segregation increases. During this age, children may see the other gender as an out-group and act accordingly. At this age, they have very rigid beliefs on gender-typical activities and exaggerate the differences for cognitive clarification. This, again, is more prominent in boys,

7-10 years old: During this period, children become less rigid about gender typing and gain more cognitive flexibility. They begin to understand that norms are not rules to be followed, but are rather just what si most common. They begin to learn that gender-incongruent behaviours are not bad or wrong; but that they are still not desired or “cool”. Gender segregation also begins to decrease as boys and girls begin to do activities together.

During adolescence, people tend to act similarly as children regarding gender in ongruency. The main reason for this is puberty. During puberty, adolescents experience an intensification of their gender experiences; boys see themselves as more masculine and girls embrace and emphasise their femininity. Peers also play an important role in this development, as they often pressure one another to act “normal” and conform to norms. As adolescents enter the formal operations stage, this intolerance decreases.

Secondary Effects

Gender development affects other areas of development and is part of a complex network of interactions. One example is in boys, who ar eperceived and expected to excel in STEM subjects – science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Because we have these stereotypes and expectations, parents often have higher expectations for boys than girls in these subjects, may encourage them more or put more pressure of them to succeed. As a result, girls are challenged less than boys in these subjects, which may influence their academic pursuits. In the same way, there is often a bias from teachers and parents that boys' success is associated with talent and intelligence, while girls' success is associated with hard work. This influences the reinforcement parents and teachers may give to children, which tints their view on life and development.

Lecture 7: Parent-Child Relationships

Infancy – Attachment Theory

One important aspect of development is the parent-child bonds that are formed from the very beginning of a child's life. Attachment between parent and child develops across a critical period and emerges through biological-environmental interaction. Attachment spans two different domains: On the bahvaiourla front, attachment refers to proximity preference and overall attachment is behaviourally co-regulated. On the emotional front, attachment refers to the extent to which parent and child are emotionally in sync or the extent to which a child feels emotionally secure.

There are 4 phases of attachment development:

• 0-3 months: Undiscriminating – The child has a strong preference for faces but is not yet able to distinguish between them

• 3-6 months: Discriminating – The child still focuses on faces but has a preference for familiar faces

• 7 months: Proximity-seeking – The child develops a primary attachment, most likely to his or her primary caregiver. As time progresses, the child also begins developing attachment ot others.

• 3+ years: Goal-connected partnership – The child begins to understand the caregiver's goals and plans and begins to adapt his or her behaviour appropriately. During this phase, the child may display signs of separation anxiety.

Since attachment develops so early, it indicates that attachment develops due to some biological factor. Harlow (1959) did a study in monkeys, to study whether babies needed comfort or actual biological needs. What he found was that the monkeys preferred the comforting (soft) caregiver, versus a caregiver with food. In situations of fear or novel situations, monkeys would first seek comfort before exploring, while monkeys who were placed int he situation without a caregiver would simply not explore at all.

It's important to keep in mind that attachment develops within a critical period. If children do not develop a sense of attachment within a year, they are likely not to develop an attachment to a caregiver in the future. However, children are also resilient. If a child was abandoned for 3 months, they can still develop attachments, as long as the issue is touched within this critical period.

This has many implications, for example, what orphanages should provide. It is not simply enough to meet basic needs, such as food an shelter. Caregivers must also comfort and hold children – offer some physical comfort. With regard to parenting roles, attachment does not necessarily develop between mother (provider of breast milk) and child; the attachment can develop between the child and anyone.

The environment also plays a role in childhood attachment. Parents can show various forms of reactions to their children. Parenting that leads to healthy attachment is sensitive and responsive, in addition to being consistent. Parents who are inconsistent, that is, they respond either with indifference or enthusiasm inappropriately run the risk of their child not developing a secur attachment. One step further from inconsistent is rejecting the child or being overstimulating. As suspected, children who experience abuse and neglect during infancy and childhood also will not develop a secure attachment with their caregivers.

Healthy parent-child interaction involves mutual communication through emotion and allows the child to learn about the world safely, while being nurtured. As discussed in the previous lecture, this often involves social referencing (joint attention), such as when both parent and child look at the same object and connect over that. Healthy parenting also involves a sense of synchrony – offering the child stimulation when needed, but also giving the child space when that's what he/she needs.

Often times, parents who are depressed do not react appropriately to their children, leaving them confused and unsupported. For an overview of the influence on parenting style on the type of attachment that develops, look AT TABLE 14.2 in the textbook.

Adolescence

Adolescence marks a period of change in the parent-child relationship. It is a period in time when adolescents are trying to forge their own way and discover a self-concept. Popular opinion and the media depicts adolescnence as an increase in conflict between parent and child, however most adolescents do no develop behavioural issues and the parent-child relationship often does retain its quality.

One of the main focuses of adolescent development is the development of autonomy. This occurs on three levels. On the behavioural front, adolescents focus on taking charge of their own actions and self-reliance. They want to prove (to themselves and others0 that they are capable of taking care of themselves and can control their own behaviours. The cognitive aspect of autonomy achievement focuses on one's belief in his or her own capabilities and self-efficacy, both aspects of perception. On an emotional level, autonomy enforces positive emotions associated with one's goals and actions. Adolescents learn to be more emotionally flexible, learning to be adaptive and responsive in conflicts.

Developmental Psychopathology - Depression

Mental disorders and illnesses develop as a result of the interaction between predisposition and the environment. One of the most common mental illnesses worldwide is depression. This lecture summary will not go into the details of the diagnostic criteria, but will focus mor eon the developmental aspects of depression.

While most of what we think is depression is prevalent in older childre, adolescents, and adults, studies have found that depression can also be identified in infants. This usually opccurs due to stress from an inconsistent parenting style or if the infant is punished with love/attention withdrawal.

In children, depression is usually seen as talking about hopelessness, experiencing an extreme sense of shame and guilt, or talking about depression and attempting suicide. The stress indicators are similar as in infancy – inconsistent parenting and withdrawal of love; however children who grow up in homes with depressed parents also learn and mirror them. Through watching their depressed parent(s), they learn to take on their methods of emotional regulation, interpersonal interaction styles, and their representations of themselves and relationships.

In adolescents, there is a moderate carry-over effect from childhood. In adolescence, the gender ratios of people affected by depression shifts from being primarily in boys to primarily in girls. These gender differences actually emerge with the onset of puberty, which may account for the bulk of the emotional change during adolescence. Girls tend to be mor ehighly affected due to a higher influence of gender stereotypes. During and after puberty, they often experience a lot of pressure form their peers to fit in, and from society to be beautiful. Additonally, girls often respond differently than boys to stressful situations, favouring rumination over other methods of coping with stress.

In adulthood, there is a large carry-over from adolescence regarding depression. Particularly in late adulthood, the trials of growing old (experiencing pain,social isolation, lower physical performance) may cause depression in the elderly.

Source

Lecture notes from the course in 2015/2016.