Hoofdstuk 1: Meta-Theories
Lifespan Perspective (Paul Baltes):
- Development is lifelong.
- Development is multidirectional and multidimensional, different developmental
pathways and speeds.
- Development includes both gains and losses.
- Development is characterized by plasticity.
- Development is embedded in historical and cultural contexts.
- Development is multiply determined, shaped by both biological and
environmental factors.
- Development is multidisciplinary.
Contextual influences
- Normative age-graded influences: age groups such as toddler, adult etc.
specific events e.g. starting school
- Normative history-graded influences: time period events
- Non-normative influences: immigration, death of a parent
Societal factors: poverty, socioeconomic status, culture
Lifespan = maximum age
Life expectancy = average expected age
chronological age = years since birth
biological age = aging of the body
psychological age = psychological adaptability level
social age = based on expectations of our group, moving out/finishing college
Teratogen: substance that can cause abnormalities or birth defects
Key assumptions in human development:
- Human nature: whether people are born as blank slates (tabula rasa) or
whether people are inherently good or inherently bad.
- Causes of development: whether development is determined by nature
(genes, biology) or determined by nurture (environment, learning).
- Role of the individual in his or her own development: whether people are
passive participants, reacting to external forces or whether they are active in
choosing and shaping their own development.
- Stability vs. change: whether traits, characteristics, and experiences early in
life have permanent effects or whether people are malleable and open to
change throughout life.
,- Continuity vs. discontinuity: whether development involves quantitative
incremental change or qualitative shifts.
- Universality vs. context specificity: whether development follows a universal
pathway or depends more on specific experiences and environmental
contexts.
1. Maturational meta-theory:
- Passive, product of genes
- Development is continuous or discontinuous depending on the genetic
program
- 20th century individual focused approach
2. Mechanistic meta-theory:
- Passive, energy comes from the outside environment
- Development is continuous
- All causes for development come from the outside, from environmental
forces
- Classical/operant conditioning, social learning theory
3. Organismic meta-theory:
- Active, open to growth
- Development is discontinuous
, - Development is progressive and only goes in one direction and not the
reverse
- Piaget’s constructivist theory of cognitive and affective development
- Erikson’s psychosocial theory
4. Contextual meta-theory:
- Active, environment is also proactive
- Back and forth between person and environment (tennis metaphor)
- Development can be continuous or discontinuous depending on how
the game is played.
- Person and environment are both active, both can transform
- Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model
- Lifespan approach
Cognitivism: All the causal factors that shape human behavior and development are
inside the mind or belief system of the person
John Locke: Tabula Rasa = human is blank slate
Sigmund Freud: Importance of early childhood experiences in shaping our
personality and behavior. Driven by instincts learn to manage and transform them
into socially acceptable behaviors
Jean-Jacques Rousseau: did not believe they were blank slates, but instead
developed according to a natural plan which unfolded in different stages.
Arnold Gesell: believed that the child’s development was activated by genes and he
called this process maturation. Further, he believed that development unfolded in
fixed sequences
Skinner Learning Theory (behaviorism): Stimulus and response, reinforcements to
train animals
Social Learning Theory: learn through watching others
Reciprocal determinism: There is interplay between our personality and the way we
interpret events and how they influence us. Interaction between personality and
events
,Erikson Psychosocial Theory: each period of life has a unique challenge or crisis that
the person who reaches it must face.
Piaget Stages of Cognitive Development:
Sociocultural theory: emphasizes the importance of culture and interaction in the
development of cognitive abilities.
Information Processing: how individuals perceive, analyze, manipulate, use, and
remember information. Humans gradually improve in their processing skills; cognitive
development is continuous.
Bronfenbrenner Ecological Systems Theory:
, - Microsystem includes the individual’s setting and those who have direct,
significant contact with the person, such as parents or siblings
- Mesosystem includes the larger organizational structures, such as school, the
family, or religion
- Exosystem includes the larger contexts of community values/history
- Macrosystem includes the cultural elements/global conditions
- Chronosystem is the historical context
Hoofdstuk 2: Research Methods
Implementation science: methods to promote the adoption and integration of
evidence-based practices, interventions and policies into routine settings. Practices
have to be culturally attuned. Western focused science contributes to exclusion and
distortion.
Science and experience are historically and culturally embedded, and so best
practices need to be continually scrutinized for biases and attuned culturally.
Deductive method
- Formulate question/theory
- Conduct study
- Results
Inductive method
- Find a question
- Observations
- Formulate theory
Community-based participatory action research → Establish connection with people
in the community who are involved in the problem
Types of observations
- Naturalistic observations, regular life setting (problem of reactivity)
- Laboratory observations (problem of generalizability, behavior may be
different in lab setting)
- Video or audio observations
- Local expert observers (more representative)
- Participant observations, researcher participates instead of observing
Types of self-report (social desirability problem)
- Surveys
- Structured/unstructured interviews
- Open-ended interviews
, - Focus groups
- Responses to prompts
Case study: small number of participants with specific characteristics
Ethnographic methods: study and document people and their cultural settings,
usually through participant-observation, interviews, and engagement in the setting.
Goals of Lifespan Developmental Science
1. DESCRIBE development across the lifespan
- Normative stability and change: How do people typically develop and
remain the same?
- Differential stability and change: What are the variety of different
pathways that development (and stability) can follow?
2. EXPLAIN development across the lifespan
- Causal factors that shape normative and differential stability
3. OPTIMIZE development across the lifespan
- Identify optimal pathways
- Create conditions for optimal development
Cohort effects: are the lifelong effects of belonging to a specific generation
, Cross-sequential designs: combine cross-sectional and longitudinal designs. Starts
with a cross-sectional study followed up longitudinally for multiple measurement
points
Different Experimental Settings → pag. 65 tabel
Causation:
- The presumed effects(s) must covary with their presumed cause(s)
- The presumed cause(s) must precede their effects in time
- All other plausible alternative explanations for the effect must be excluded.
Hoofdstuk 3: Infancy
Genotype-Environment Correlations
- Passive genotype-environment correlations: children passively inherit both the
genes and the environments their family provides
- Active genotype-environment correlations: children seek out environments
that support their genetic tendencies
- Evocative genotype-environment correlations: social environment reacts to
individuals based on their inherited characteristics
Prenatal development:
- Germinal period: zygote → blastocyst → innesteling baarmoeder
- Embryonic period: blood vessels form the placenta → cephalocaudal
development + proximodistal development
- Fetal period: neurogenesis, or the formation of neurons, is largely completed
after five months of gestation → Followed by cell differentiation
Lifespan Perspective (Paul Baltes):
- Development is lifelong.
- Development is multidirectional and multidimensional, different developmental
pathways and speeds.
- Development includes both gains and losses.
- Development is characterized by plasticity.
- Development is embedded in historical and cultural contexts.
- Development is multiply determined, shaped by both biological and
environmental factors.
- Development is multidisciplinary.
Contextual influences
- Normative age-graded influences: age groups such as toddler, adult etc.
specific events e.g. starting school
- Normative history-graded influences: time period events
- Non-normative influences: immigration, death of a parent
Societal factors: poverty, socioeconomic status, culture
Lifespan = maximum age
Life expectancy = average expected age
chronological age = years since birth
biological age = aging of the body
psychological age = psychological adaptability level
social age = based on expectations of our group, moving out/finishing college
Teratogen: substance that can cause abnormalities or birth defects
Key assumptions in human development:
- Human nature: whether people are born as blank slates (tabula rasa) or
whether people are inherently good or inherently bad.
- Causes of development: whether development is determined by nature
(genes, biology) or determined by nurture (environment, learning).
- Role of the individual in his or her own development: whether people are
passive participants, reacting to external forces or whether they are active in
choosing and shaping their own development.
- Stability vs. change: whether traits, characteristics, and experiences early in
life have permanent effects or whether people are malleable and open to
change throughout life.
,- Continuity vs. discontinuity: whether development involves quantitative
incremental change or qualitative shifts.
- Universality vs. context specificity: whether development follows a universal
pathway or depends more on specific experiences and environmental
contexts.
1. Maturational meta-theory:
- Passive, product of genes
- Development is continuous or discontinuous depending on the genetic
program
- 20th century individual focused approach
2. Mechanistic meta-theory:
- Passive, energy comes from the outside environment
- Development is continuous
- All causes for development come from the outside, from environmental
forces
- Classical/operant conditioning, social learning theory
3. Organismic meta-theory:
- Active, open to growth
- Development is discontinuous
, - Development is progressive and only goes in one direction and not the
reverse
- Piaget’s constructivist theory of cognitive and affective development
- Erikson’s psychosocial theory
4. Contextual meta-theory:
- Active, environment is also proactive
- Back and forth between person and environment (tennis metaphor)
- Development can be continuous or discontinuous depending on how
the game is played.
- Person and environment are both active, both can transform
- Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model
- Lifespan approach
Cognitivism: All the causal factors that shape human behavior and development are
inside the mind or belief system of the person
John Locke: Tabula Rasa = human is blank slate
Sigmund Freud: Importance of early childhood experiences in shaping our
personality and behavior. Driven by instincts learn to manage and transform them
into socially acceptable behaviors
Jean-Jacques Rousseau: did not believe they were blank slates, but instead
developed according to a natural plan which unfolded in different stages.
Arnold Gesell: believed that the child’s development was activated by genes and he
called this process maturation. Further, he believed that development unfolded in
fixed sequences
Skinner Learning Theory (behaviorism): Stimulus and response, reinforcements to
train animals
Social Learning Theory: learn through watching others
Reciprocal determinism: There is interplay between our personality and the way we
interpret events and how they influence us. Interaction between personality and
events
,Erikson Psychosocial Theory: each period of life has a unique challenge or crisis that
the person who reaches it must face.
Piaget Stages of Cognitive Development:
Sociocultural theory: emphasizes the importance of culture and interaction in the
development of cognitive abilities.
Information Processing: how individuals perceive, analyze, manipulate, use, and
remember information. Humans gradually improve in their processing skills; cognitive
development is continuous.
Bronfenbrenner Ecological Systems Theory:
, - Microsystem includes the individual’s setting and those who have direct,
significant contact with the person, such as parents or siblings
- Mesosystem includes the larger organizational structures, such as school, the
family, or religion
- Exosystem includes the larger contexts of community values/history
- Macrosystem includes the cultural elements/global conditions
- Chronosystem is the historical context
Hoofdstuk 2: Research Methods
Implementation science: methods to promote the adoption and integration of
evidence-based practices, interventions and policies into routine settings. Practices
have to be culturally attuned. Western focused science contributes to exclusion and
distortion.
Science and experience are historically and culturally embedded, and so best
practices need to be continually scrutinized for biases and attuned culturally.
Deductive method
- Formulate question/theory
- Conduct study
- Results
Inductive method
- Find a question
- Observations
- Formulate theory
Community-based participatory action research → Establish connection with people
in the community who are involved in the problem
Types of observations
- Naturalistic observations, regular life setting (problem of reactivity)
- Laboratory observations (problem of generalizability, behavior may be
different in lab setting)
- Video or audio observations
- Local expert observers (more representative)
- Participant observations, researcher participates instead of observing
Types of self-report (social desirability problem)
- Surveys
- Structured/unstructured interviews
- Open-ended interviews
, - Focus groups
- Responses to prompts
Case study: small number of participants with specific characteristics
Ethnographic methods: study and document people and their cultural settings,
usually through participant-observation, interviews, and engagement in the setting.
Goals of Lifespan Developmental Science
1. DESCRIBE development across the lifespan
- Normative stability and change: How do people typically develop and
remain the same?
- Differential stability and change: What are the variety of different
pathways that development (and stability) can follow?
2. EXPLAIN development across the lifespan
- Causal factors that shape normative and differential stability
3. OPTIMIZE development across the lifespan
- Identify optimal pathways
- Create conditions for optimal development
Cohort effects: are the lifelong effects of belonging to a specific generation
, Cross-sequential designs: combine cross-sectional and longitudinal designs. Starts
with a cross-sectional study followed up longitudinally for multiple measurement
points
Different Experimental Settings → pag. 65 tabel
Causation:
- The presumed effects(s) must covary with their presumed cause(s)
- The presumed cause(s) must precede their effects in time
- All other plausible alternative explanations for the effect must be excluded.
Hoofdstuk 3: Infancy
Genotype-Environment Correlations
- Passive genotype-environment correlations: children passively inherit both the
genes and the environments their family provides
- Active genotype-environment correlations: children seek out environments
that support their genetic tendencies
- Evocative genotype-environment correlations: social environment reacts to
individuals based on their inherited characteristics
Prenatal development:
- Germinal period: zygote → blastocyst → innesteling baarmoeder
- Embryonic period: blood vessels form the placenta → cephalocaudal
development + proximodistal development
- Fetal period: neurogenesis, or the formation of neurons, is largely completed
after five months of gestation → Followed by cell differentiation
