Childhood: Developmental Psychology – Lecture 5 (UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM)

The interaction between nature and nurture produces intelligent behaviour. The transactions are essential (i.e. parents change behaviour children and vice versa). The development of intelligence is continuous and there is a reciprocal interaction between the child with a biological disposition and the changing environment. This means that genes drive experience (i.e. genotype -> environment theory).

The individual multiplier effect states that there may be a small difference in nature (e.g. height) and the effect of this initial difference becomes bigger and bigger because it is multiplied by nurture (e.g. basketball analogy). This multiplier effect due to nurture can occur because of selecting environments that encourage innate differences and through additional practice.

The social multiplier effect states that a small difference between groups in nature can become greater due to the interaction between the initial difference and the environment of the group (e.g. people at a school liking chess, starting a chess club and this school subsequently becoming better at chess). Social multipliers can lead to differences between groups but also between generations. The cause for the differences is mainly nurture (i.e. practice) but the ones with talent (i.e. nature) still have the biggest chance of becoming the best (e.g. the smartest; the best athlete).

According to the social multiplier effect, if intelligence is promoted and admired in a group due to initial differences, then these differences between this group and other groups will become larger. The social multiplier effect is one of the explanations for the Flynn effect (i.e. generations valuing intelligence more and spend more time improving it). This effect may lead to more focus on cognitive development in certain groups which lead to greater intelligence.

The cumulative deficit effect refers to multiple risks persisting over many years adding up. This is comparable to the negative individual multiplier effect. This means that having more risk factors has an additive effect and the more risk factors one has, the greater the deficit. Risk factors often do not come in isolation. One risk factor is often followed by other risk factors leading to risk factors adding up (e.g. cascade effect).

The positive manifold refers to the fact that individual differences in intelligence are general and not specific (e.g. people who are ‘more intelligent’ score better on all the metrics of an IQ test and not just on some). One explanation for the positive manifold is the g-factor (i.e. general intelligence factor). However, this is atheoretical (1), there is no developmental model for this (2), it is unclear ‘where’ in the brain it is (3) and it is unclear what it is (4).

Mutualism states that there is a positive influence of cognitive modules on each other and this is another explanation for the positive manifold. For example, having better memory strategies leads to better reading comprehension and this makes it easier to gain more knowledge, which, in turn, makes it easier to remember things. Without some form of intervention, individuals may spiral up or down.

Self-esteem refers to the degree to which one considers oneself capable. Academic emotions are emotions that are evoked by the value attached to an academic task and perceived control. This can activate or deactivate children’s behaviour. Mindsets refer to implicit theories on intelligence. This is often related to goal orientation (e.g. mastery vs. performance) (1), attaching importance to effort (2), attribution of errors (3) and learning approach (4). One can have an entity mindset or an incremental mindset.

People with an incremental mindset typically put in more effort and have better academic outcomes. However, next to the child who is studying, the parents and teachers have mindsets too which influence performance and effort (in both the child and person self).

Endorsing a stereotype (i.e. stereotype threat) relates to somebody’s self-image (1), emotions (2), goal-orientation (3) and mindset (4). This, in turn, relates to somebody’s effort. The effort somebody puts in relates to performance. Between all aspects, there is a bidirectional relationship.

Life experiences and school-related experiences change both the brain and IQ.  According to Kaufman, there is no IQ but it is relative to how well you are doing compared to your peers. However, in practice, the rank position is quite stable. This stable rank position does not say anything about the development of intelligence but only how one scores relative to peers.

IQ scores are quite stable from around six years of age but this is not the case before the age of 6. IQ scores are also relatively stable in adulthood. Ageing people score worse on IQ test items (e.g. memory; mental fluency). There is an increase in the heredity of intelligence because individuals have more opportunities to select their environments (1), the shared environment decreases due to the decreasing influence of parents (2) and some genes are ‘switched on’ later (3).

With monozygotic twins, the environment and the genes are equal. With dizygotic twins and siblings, the genes and environment are partly equal. The environment and the genes are different when two people are not family.

Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences states that there is no general intelligence factor and there are several intellectual domains (e.g. interpersonal intelligence; body-intelligence). Many schools embrace this theory as this emphasizes the strengths of children and allows children to learn in different ways. However, there is no strong evidence for this theory and it is difficult to determine the ‘effectiveness’ of a type of school.

While it is methodologically difficult to assess the effectiveness of school, there are some natural experiments that demonstrate that it actually is effective. For example, IQ drops during school holidays (1), IQ drops in children who do not attend school consistently (2), people who start school later have a lower IQ (3), people who dropout have a lower IQ (4) and there is a correlation between the number of school years and IQ (5).

School aims to increase motivation (1), instruct what is not learned independently (2), provide additional guidance for weak children (3) and stimulate gifted children (4). Schools teach skills that can affect other skills (i.e. mutualistic relationship) and school prevents that a disadvantage is multiplied by a disadvantageous environment (i.e. compensation effect).

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). Effective teachers facilitate metacognitive activities in which students reflect on their thought processes and engage in self-monitoring and planning to promote self-regulation and motivation. 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 includes providing informative feedback that focuses on students’ effort while still expressing high expectations in ways that promote interest and engagement.
3. Planning and delivering engaging, assessment-driven instruction
   This includes processes of classroom management and the use of instructional strategies. The learning activities need to be planned and managed to provide an appropriate context to motivate students learning. This includes individualizing instruction (1), using student assessment data for student grouping (2) and using this data for instructional focus (3).
4. Supporting students’ deep processing and self-regulation
   This includes all other domains and requires careful coordination of all domains.

Teachers’ knowledge and dispositions are reflected in their behaviour and are thus of importance. Teachers with mastery-focused values and goals tend to display and elicit more positive emotions. Expectations of teachers are linked to student outcomes because they affect choices of instructional activities (1), teacher-student interactions (2) and students’ perceptions of these interactions (3).

Effective feedback provides students with specific information about attainment of learning goals (1), their progress and how to proceed (2) and greater possibilities of learning (3). Formative feedback refers to information provided to modify the learner’s thinking or behaviour to improve one’s learning. There are several characteristics of feedback that enhances learning:

• The feedback is focused on the task and not on the learner.
• The feedback is elaborate.
• The feedback is presented in manageable units.
• The feedback is specific and clear.
• The feedback is provided after learners have attempted a solution.
• The feedback promotes a learning goal orientation.
• The feedback reduces uncertainty between performance and goals.

Delayed feedback is more effective for high-achieving learners and immediate feedback is more effective for low-achieving learners. There are several guidelines for teacher behaviour:

• Normative comparisons should be avoided.
• Praise should rarely be used.
• Feedback should be presented in writing
• The learner should not be interrupted with feedback when one is still actively engaged.
• Progressive hints that terminate with the correct answer should be avoided.

Monitoring without public punishment leads to more engaged students. Teachers need to communicate high expectations but need to do this with care as this could otherwise result in impossible goal setting.

Metacognition enables students’ learning from instruction. Higher-order thinking involves understanding relationships among various aspects of the material (1), thinking creatively (2) and formulating predictions (3). This can be promoted by modelling and explicitly articulating metacognitive processes. Low-level thinking involves memorization or applying procedures that take little thought.

Parental involvement refers to parents’ commitment of resources to children’s learning. This 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). 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).

The more involved parents are, the more children benefit over time in terms of their achievement. Highly involved parents also tend to engage in other parenting practices which are beneficial for children’s achievement (e.g. autonomy support). Parental involvement may be more beneficial for children’s learning among families at risk for achievement problems (e.g. as a result of low SES). There are several models through which parental involvement may lead to improved achievement:

1. Skill development model
   This holds that parental involvement fosters skill assets that enhance children’s achievement. This may occur because parents gain knowledge about the children’s learning process which allows them to facilitate development (1), involvement leads to accurate information about children’s abilities which can be used to foster skill development (2), it provides the child with opportunities to practice (3) and the children receive extra attention from teachers when the teacher believed that the parents are involved (4).
2. Motivation development model
   This holds that parental involvement provides children with motivation assets (e.g. perceived competence) that fosters children’s engagement and their school achievement. Parental involvement may highlight the importance of school (1), may demonstrate that taking control of one’s learning is an effective method of tackling challenges (2) and it may increase children’s experience with learning activities which leads to self-views of competence (3).
3. Social development models
   This holds that parental involvement contributes to children’s achievement through facilitating social assets (e.g improve behavioural conduct).
4. Emotion development models
   This holds that parental involvement contributes to children’s achievement through developing emotion assets in children. The experience of positive emotions may create openness to novel ideas and courses of actions.

The quality of parental involvement may be more important than the quantity. Parental involvement in children’s learning is optimal when it is structuring (1), supportive of the child’s autonomy (2), focused on the process of learning (3) and characterized by positive affect (4). Structuring refers to parent’s organization of the environment so that it develops children’s competence. This includes providing clear and consistent guidelines (1), expectations (2), rules (3) and communicate predictable consequences for children’s actions (4). Structuring requires instruction that is adjusted to the child’s capacity.

Socioeconomic status and beliefs and goals of parents drive involvement. Lower SES parents may have fewer resources to be involved and parents with a lower educational attainment may believe it is not their role to facilitate learning. The beliefs about the malleability of ability may determine the quality of parents’ involvement. Competence experiences of the child may influence parental involvement as this may signal that resources are needed to assist children in overcoming difficulty leading to increased involvement. The child’s developmental phase also influence involvement (e.g. childhood vs. adolescence). Lastly, the cultural beliefs and the degree to which a school allows and stimulates parents’ involvement influences the subsequent involvement.