Child Development
Samuel R. Mathews, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Psychology
DEP 3103 Requirements
• Come to class on time
• Review chapters prior to the day we cover
them in class
• Take notes in class
• Review notes as soon as possible after
class
• Within a day or two compare notes with
text
DEP 3103 Requirements
• Pose questions based on your comparison
• Prior to each exam, review your class
notes, text, and comparisons of notes to
text
• Four exams (3 chapters/exam) with dates
posted on schedule
• Missed exams may be taken with
physician’s documentation or evidence of
death in immediate family
DEP 3103 Requirements
• Writing assignments must be submitted in
hard copy at the beginning of class on the
date they are due (guidelines are
elsewhere).
• Late assignment submissions will be
accepted only with physician’s
documentation or evidence of death in
immediate family
• In-class participation exercises will be
accepted only on the day they are
presented.
Defining Childhood and Child
Development
• Put your name, year in school and major
on a sheet of paper and answer the
following questions?
• How are
– newborns different from infants?
– Infants different from toddlers?
– Toddlers different from young children?
– Young children different from older children?
– Children different from adolescents?
Defining Childhood and Child
Development
• Areas of development across the lifespan:
– Physical development
– Cognitive development
– Socio-emotional development
Issues in Child Development
• Does one’s genetic code or does the
environment impact development more?
• Is development a continuous process
across childhood or does it proceed
across a series of rather distinct stages?
Major Theories of Child
Development
• What is a theory?
• What do theories allow us to do?
– Describe
– Predict
– Explain
– Organize knowledge
– Direct new research
– Guide application of scientific findings
Major Theories of Child
Development
• Psychosexual—Freud
• Psychosocial—Erikson
• Cognitive
• Piaget
• Information Processing
• Vygotsky
Major Theories of Child
Development
• Behavioral—Skinner, Watson
• Social Cognitive—Bandura
• Biological
– Ethological/Evolutionary
– Developmental Neuroscience
• Ecological Systems—Bronfenbrenner
• Dynamic Systems—Thalen
The Study of Child Development
• Science as a way of knowing the world
• Causality:
– Covariation
– Time precedence
– Plausibility
•
•
•
•
Descriptive Research
Correlational Research
Experimental Research
Quasi-experimental Research
The Study of Child Development
• Developmental Designs
– Cross sectional
– Longitudinal
– Cohort sequential
• Research ethics and the study of children
– Informed consent (child and guardian)
– Confidentiality, anonymity, voluntary
participation, right to withdraw
Applications of Understandings about
Child Development
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Child care worker
Teacher
Juvenile justice worker
Counselor
Researcher
Therapist
Law enforcement
Recreation center employee
Parent