Land Acknowledgement and
Positionality
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Let us acknowledge that Queen’s is situated on traditional Anishinaabe and
Haudenosaunee territory. We are grateful to be able to live, learn and play on
these lands. To acknowledge this traditional territory is to recognize its longer
history, one predating the establishment of the earliest European colonies. It is
also to acknowledge this territory’s significance for the Indigenous Peoples
who lived, and continue to live, upon it and whose practices and spiritualities
were tied to the land and continue to develop in relationship to the territory
and its other inhabitants today
The instructor would like to acknowledge that she is coming from the
positionality of a white, cisgender, heterosexual female, and that she cannot
begin to be able to experience what life for those with different positionalities
might be like. She would encourage all students to think about their
positionality, and to respect the positionality of everyone in the class by
encouraging different opinions and perspectives
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Contact Information
• Dr. Beth Kelley
– Office Hours Tuesdays 2:30-3:30 and Wednesdays
4-5
– Humphrey 351
– kelleyb@queensu.ca
– Only e-mail or call if emergency
• Accommodations or academic consideration
psyc.accom@queensu.ca
• All other questions psyc251@queensu.ca
• Your TAs will not be holding office hours-I strongly
encourage you to come to mine!
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Course Requirements
Assessment
Weight
Discussion Forums 20%
(Best grade out of 2
possible discussion
questions)
Alignment with Learning Outcomes
1,2,5,6
Essay (Best Grade
of 1 of 2 possible
essays)
20%
1,2,3,4,5
Midterm Exam
20%
Final Exam
40%
Bonus Mark2%
Volunteer Research
Participation
1,2,3,4
1,2,3,4,5
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Course Requirements (cont.)
• Designed for flexibility for you without
absolute craziness for us
• Do not need to let anyone know what you
are going to do except for midterm
• Be aware that a lot of sickness occurs later
in the term
• Any problems contact Tara
at psyc.accom@queensu.ca first and she
will contact me if necessary
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Discussion Questions
• Best one of 2
• Remember you may be sick later
• Accommodations for initial post but not for
reply because impossible in OnQ
• Deadlines strict
• Recommended 450-500 words-no more
than 550
• Connect to course material
• Don't need reference section
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Essays
• Best 1 out of 2
• Accommodations and academic
consideration allowed extensions
• If none, 0.5% of overall grade taken off
each 5 minutes -12 hours
• 5 pages, double spaced, 12-point font
• No reference section
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Midterm exam
• Week before fall break or week after
• Need to let head TA know @
psyc251@queensu.ca by noon on Oct. 16th
• Only one opportunity to write
• If you have accommodations, have to opt out
midterm you’re not writing thru Ventus
• No need for documentation
• 80 MC questions in 90 minutes unless
accommodations for extra time on tests
• Conceptual more than factual
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Final Exam
• 80 MC questions and 1 letter (essay)-3
hours
• Given letters ahead of time-3 options and
just prepare for one-no tricks
• Exam set by exams office
• If you miss, you must have academic
consideration and let the head TA know
within 72 hours
• Will take an incomplete and write in early
January at time set by FAS/exams office
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Rules for Assessments
• Everything except the final exam can be
reweighted if both missed
• Must have academic considerations for
second chance
• Must email psyc251@queensu.ca to let
them know within 72 hours of missing
deadline
• Only one reweighting allowed
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Textbook
• Seventh Canadian Edition of Siegler et
al "How Children Develop"
• Bookstore also has Looseleaf editions
and e-books available-electronic stuff is
NOT necessary and not set up
• Sixth edition acceptable but will have to
figure out page numbers yourself
• Lecture and textbook-almost certain to
be on tests, lecture only-probably,
textbook only-maybe but not likely
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1. Describe the general course of typical development from conception to late adolescence in
the cognitive, linguistic, emotional and social domains to recognize their effect on one
another.
2. Compare and contrast the major developmental theories and discuss the strengths and
weaknesses of each theory.
3. Discuss the different methods used in developmental psychology research and evaluate
how these research methods are dependent upon the theoretical approach of researcher,
developmental age of the participants and research question being asked.
4. Recommend ways to promote children’s well-being and successful development, based on
developmental research and theory.
5. Critically discuss a variety of materials related to child development
and effectively communicate ideas to different audiences.
6. Collaborate with peers through problem-based learning activities to explore concepts and
research related to child development.
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Why Study Development?
• Because it’s a lot of fun!!!!
• Help parents raise children
• Build empathy for diverse groups
of children
• Influence social policies
• Understand human nature
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Historical Foundations
• Plato-kids are born with conceptual knowledge
• Aristotle-all knowledge arises from experience
• Rousseau-innate justice and morality
• Locke-tabula rasa
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Nature and Nurture
• Nature =genes we receive from our parents
• Nurture-all of the physical and social
environment
• The question used to be: Is nature or nurture
responsible for development?
• Now the question is: How do nature and
nurture interact to affect development?
• Timing of experiences often crucial
• Epigenetics plays a huge role
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The Active vs. Passive Child
• How do children’s choices contribute to
their own development?
• Learning theorists state passive recipients of
environmental stimuli
• What children pay attention to, talk about
and play with affects their learning
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Continuity vs. Discontinuity
• Continuous-not much elemental change, just growth
• Discontinuous-qualitatively different at different stages
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Continuity vs. Discontinuity (cont.)
• Stage theorists very
influential-Piaget,
Freud, Erikson,
Kohlberg
• Conservation task
• Depends on how you
look and how often you
look
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Discontinuous Development
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujx47H
7X7eM
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Mechanisms of Development
– Not just when or why (nature/nurture) but how
– Development of effortful attention driven by
brain?
– Different genetic mechanisms and interactions
– Epigenetics often focus of study
– Training/microgenetic studies
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Sociocultural Context
• Historical era
• Economic structure
• Cultural beliefs and values
• Cross-cultural studies
• Example: children attending daycare.
Shared sleeping
• Also subcultures within culture
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Individual Differences
• Differences in genetics
• Differences in treatment by parents and
others
• Differences in reactions to similar
experiences (e.g. fixed vs. growth mindset)
• Differences in choice of environments
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Reliability and Validity
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Replicability
• Do other studies yield the same results?
• Replicability crisis-only 62% of “Science”
and “Nature” articles replicated
• Need to be able to publish null results
• File drawer problem
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Four Main Contexts for Gathering Data
• Interviews
– Structured-all asked exactly same questions
– Clinical-follows what children say
– Desirability bias and lack of insight
• Naturalistic Observation
– Lack of control
– Good for otherwise unethical behaviour
• Structured observations-lab more control
• Physiological Measures
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Overreliance on
WEIRD samples
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Correlational Designs
• If kids differ on one thing,
do they differ on another?
• What is the relationship
between two variables
• Can one score be used to
predict another?
• Magnitude of correlation
coefficient, not sign,
shows strength of
relationship
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CORRELATION DOES NOT MEAN
CAUSATION!!!
Direction of causation problem
Third variable problem
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• Remember strength
of number, not
whether positive or
negative
• What might be
expected to have a
strong positive
correlation?
• How about a
negative one?
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Experimental Designs
• Cause and effect
• Field or lab experiments
• Random Assignment
• Control Group
• If participants behave differently (DV) then
must be an effect of the manipulation (IV)
• Controlled circumstances-external validity?
• Quasi-experiments common in developmental
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Developmental Designs
• Longitudinal-study same kids over time
• Microgenetic-over short period of time
• Cross-sectional-kids of different ages
• Cross-sectional/Sequential-combines
longitudinal and crosssectional
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Cross-sectional-Sequential
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Ethical Issues
• Research ethics boards based on TriCouncil Policy Statement
– Respect for persons
– Concern for welfare
– Justice
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Ethical Issues (cont.)
• Kids more vulnerable to harm
• Clear benefit
• Explain in language kids understand
• Minimize risks
• Informed consent and assent
• Avoid deception
• Anonymity vs. confidentiality
• Debrief
• If problems arise, re-design study
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