What is child development?
• Changes in physical, social, emotional and
intellectual functioning over time, from
conception through adolescence
• Why do we study it?
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Areas of Development
• Physical development
• Cognitive development
• Social-emotional development
“We develop in body, mind and
spirit simultaneously.”
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Critical Issues
1) Influences on Child Development:
• Maturation
• Environmental factors
• Learning
• Socialization
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2) Nature and Nurture
• Nature
– Biological and genetic factors
• Nurture
– Environmental factors and experiences
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Studying Nature and Nurture
• Adoption studies
• Twin studies
– Monozygotic (MZ) twins
– Dizygotic (DZ) twins
– Heritability
• Combination approaches
(twins reared apart)
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3)Continuity and Discontinuity
• Continuous
– Development is smooth and gradual
– Quantitative change
• Discontinuous
– Development is abrupt and unstable
– Qualitative change
– Implicit in stage theories
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Stage Theories
• Organize information
in a meaningful way
but gloss over
individual differences
• There are 4 criteria
central to stage
theories according to
John Flavell (1971).
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The Size of the Lens
• Changes may appear
– Abrupt if viewed from farther away
– Gradual if viewed closely
• Development is best conceived of as a dynamic
and complex pattern of both gradual and abrupt
changes.
• “It depends on how you look at and how often
you look.”
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4) Critical and Sensitive Periods
• Critical period: a
specific period during
which the environment
has its greatest impact
on development
• Sensitive periods:
times that are optimal,
but not necessary, for
the development of
certain behaviors or
functions
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5) Individual Differences in
Development
• Universal characteristics develop in similar ways
in all humans, but there are also vast individual
differences between children. These differences
tend to be stable yet still can show great
flexibility.
“In some respects you are like all other people, like
some other people, and like no other person.”
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Historical Roots of the Field:
1) Children of Antiquity: Ancient Rome and Greece
• Children viewed as
– Helpless
– Lacking in self-control and prone to disobedience.
– Naïve and easily led astray
• Discipline emphasized
• Environment and socialization seen as critical
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2) Medieval Children
• Children viewed as miniature adults
• Life was harsh
• Child labor was a necessity
• High infant mortality
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Early Philosophical Roots:
John Locke (1600s)
• Infants enter the world as a “Tabula rasa “ or
“Blank slate”
• Environment is driving force in development
• Early experiences have a long term impact
• More emphasis on Nurture
“The sooner you treat him a man, the
sooner he will begin to be one.”
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1700s)
• Doctrine of innate
morality
• Children are intrinsically
good and moral – born
pure.
• Natural qualities of child
dictate development
• More emphasis on Nature
“God makes all things good; man meddles with them and they
become evil.”
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4) Evolution and Child Development
• Charles Darwin
– Natural selection
– Theory of evolution
• Challenged idea that
human behavior and
development are fixed.
• Also, argued that human
behavior reflects adaptive
pressures.
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5) 19th Century -- Industrialization
• Many children employed in factories or mines.
• Early studies of the effects of labor on children.
• Beginning child labor laws.
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6) Application of the Scientific Method
• G. Stanley Hall – early 1900s
• Pioneered the use of scientific procedures for
the study of child development
• First to focus on adolescence and write a
developmental textbook
• Human development is now a recognized field of
scientific inquiry.
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Changes in Contemporary Life
1) Changes in Family Structure
• Nuclear family
– Biological father and mother and their
children
– Prevalence is declining
• Single-parent family
– Primary cause is divorce
– Usually headed by women
– Prevalence is rising
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Changes in Family Structure
• blended family
– formed when a widowed or divorced person
remarries
• stepfamily
– formed when at least one partner in a
blended family has children
• extended family
– consists of one or more parents, one or more
of the parents’ children, and one or more
relatives living together in one household
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Changes in Family Structure
• Other trends
– Parents, especially mothers, are working more
– More hours that both parents spend at work is
increasing
– More non-parental caregivers
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2) Children of Same-Sex Parents
• Number of families
including gay or
lesbian parents is
substantial and likely
to rise
• Research suggests
these children are no
different than children
raised in heterosexual
families
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3) Ethnic and Racial Diversity
• The U.S. is becoming more diverse
• Both birthrates and immigration factor into this
• Researching diversity is complicated by withingroup variation
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Ethnic and Racial Diversity
• Race
– refers to a group of people who share a genetic
heritage
– Usually based on appearance
• Ethnicity
– refers to a group of people who share a
common cultural heritage
– Not necessarily genetics
• Multiracial
– refers to people who are of two or more races.
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4) Poverty and Child Development
• In 2007, 13 million children in the U.S. lived
under the poverty line.
• Poverty adversely affects development.
• Not all children are at equal risk.
• Problems with poverty are intergenerational,
complex and enduring.
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Transactional Model of Development
• Implies development is influenced in multiple
ways by the diverse qualities that individuals
bring to their environments and the diverse
environments that individuals experience.
• Development results from the continuous and
dynamic interactions between the child and their
social context.
• No single influence determines the outcome of
development.
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