An Introduction to Developmental psychology by A. Slater and G. Bremner (third edition) - Chapter 1
Increasing age, by itself, contributes nothing to development. The maturation and changes resulting from experience that intervene between different ages and stages of childhood are important. Maturation aspects are aspects of development that are largely under genetic control and hence largely uninfluenced by environmental factors. Folk theories of development are ideas held about development that is not based upon scientific investigation There are two main folk theories:PraiseChildren are born inherently good and physical punishment is not necessary.PunishmentThis theory bases itself on the idea that a child is born in sin and his soul should be saved and punishment is necessary for this. Punishment is necessary regularly in order to develop as pleasant, law-abiding citizens.A paradigm is a world view or a world hypothesis. There are two main paradigms in many developmental theories:Organismic world viewThis is the idea that people are inherently active and continually interacting with the environment and therefore helping shape their own development. An example of this world view is Piaget’s theory. There is no returning to former stages of development.Mechanistic world viewThis is the idea that a person can be represented as being like a machine, which is inherently passive until stimulated by the environment. It is possible to return to former stages of development as the frequency of behaviour can increase and decrease due to various learning processes.There are three main ways of studying age-related changes:DesignDefinitionStrong aspectsWeak aspectsCross-sectional designsChildren of different ages are observed at a single point in time.It is not expensive and not that time-consuming. It only describes age differences and there is no estimate of continuity. Longitudinal designsChildren are observed multiple times in their development.It is possible to assess within-person and between...
A great collection Luc Berger contributed on 04-01-2022 12:38
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Reply to Luc Berger Jesper contributed on 04-01-2022 15:24
Hi Luc! Thanks for your kind words. I will absolutely be working on the summaries in the future!
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