Psych 413:Social and Personality Development

Dr. Susan Birch

Oral Presentations: Topics, Partners, Dates

#1) Early Precursors (aka. Social and Personality Development in Infancy) (Sept. 17) #2) Emotional Development (Sept 24)  A. Carla H. & Etela B. Andrea & Karen H. C. Katherine H & #3) Attachment and/or Borderline Personality Disorder (Oct. 1)  A. Katie C. & Monica T.B. Teresa #4) Theory of Mind/Autism (Oct. 13th) (NOTE: Not Oct 8th as originally scheduled) A. Kristin F & Catherine.CB. Chris S & Nargess T #5) Theory of Mind/Autism (Oct. 22)  A. Fikir & RameenB. Margaret C. Cecelia & Michelle #6) Social Development in Non-human animals (Oct 29)A. Russ & ShelaghB. Sandy &C. Sandra* & Wendy  

Oral Presentations: Topics, Partners, Dates

#7) Gender Development (Nov 5)A. MelissaB. Carola* & Liz H.C. Mandy & Nancy D.D. Angela B & Kim R

#8) Moral and Prosocial Development (Nov 12) A. Caitlin, Allaina, JenniferB. Cloe & Jennifer N. #9) Antisocial Personality Disorder (Nov 19) A. Daniela & SophieB. Clara & ErinC. Tenille & AliceD. Amy* & #10) Development of Self and/or Autobiographical Memory (Nov 29) A. Adam G. & Tania F.B. Tahira &C. Susan* & Cynthia #11) Dissociative Identify Disorder (aka Multiple Personality Disorder) (Dec. 1) A. Michelle C. & Stephanie H. Or, Gender Development on Wed. Nov. 3rd *Let me know

 

Today’s Topics

1. Important Themes

2. Basics of Methodology

Important Themes

1. Nature and Nurture

2. The Sociocultural Context

3. Individual Differences

The debate has switched from an either or debate to a question of

How large a role does each play?e.g. Watson’s Little Albert Study

Obviously, this research shows us that experience plays a role in learning but additional research suggests we are ‘pre-wired’ or predisposed with certain constraints on learning

Nature AND Nurture

We can learn to be afraid of… But not…

The Sociocultural Context of Development

How does the sociocultural context influence development?

Sociocultural context refers to the physical, social, cultural, economic, and historical circumstancesin a child’s life.

Sociocultural Context• Physical = house, daycare, school, urban vs. rural neighborhood

etc.

• Social = parents, siblings, other family members, teachers, friends, peers, etc.

• Economic = national wealth, societal wealth, family/individual wealth

• Cultural = language, values, traditions, attitudes/beliefs, laws, political structure, technology, etc.

• Historical = influences all these other factors, e.g. traditional practices, policies, economy, technology etc.

Individual Differences• As well as sharing a vast number of common capacities for language, perception,

thought etc., individuals also differ from one another.e.g. even 2 children from within the same family who share both a lot of their genes and a lot

of the same environment

• What are the sources of this variation?– Genetic differences– Difference in ways parents and other treat them– Differences in children’s choices of environment– Similar experiences affect children differently

Thus, an interaction of genes and environment

Why might it be interesting to study individual differences?

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Basics of Research Methods

The Scientific Method

4 Basic Steps:1. Choose a question to be answered.2. Formulate a hypothesis or prediction

about the answer.3. Develop a method for testing the

hypothesis.4. Interpret the data yielded and draw a

conclusion.

3 Main Ways of Collecting Data

1. Interviews2. Naturalistic Observation3. Structured Observation

* Each have their advantages and disadvantages and the type of data collection method a researcher chooses depends on which is best suited to the primary goal of the research

Interviews: Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages:

1. Reveals children’s subjective experience

2. Inexpensive/easy means of data collection

3. Can be geared to specific individuals

Disadvantages:

1. Reports are often biased in a positive direction

2. Participant’s memory is often inaccurate or incomplete

3. Participant’s ability to predict their actions are often inaccurate.

4. Subject to experimenter bias

Naturalistic Observation

• A person observes the child in their normal environments of interest (e.g. home, school, playground etc.)

• Used when the primary goal is to describe how children behave in their usual environments

Naturalistic Observation

Advantages

• Particularly useful for studying social interactions (e.g. parents and child) and other types of behavior which could not be studied “on-demand” in a lab– E.g. How a child’s behavior changes after a new

baby brother or sister is brought home– E.g. How children react when Mom & Dad are

fighting

Naturalistic Observation

Disadvantages

• Can’t control all variables in a natural environment making it very hard to determine which variable(s) influenced the behavior

• Possibility that the observer influenced the behavior

• The behavior you are interested in might occur very rarely, reducing the opportunity to study it

• subject to experimenter bias

Structured Observation(aka experimental and correlational designs)

Researchers design a specific task or situation that will elicit the behavior relevant to their hypothesis

Advantages

• Ensures all children experience the same thing--allowing for direct comparison of different children/groups

Disadvantages

• Reveals less info about subjective information than interviews

• Not in the child’s natural environment

Experimental Designs• Enable you to determine cause and effect

Experimental Designs must meet 2 premises:1. 2 or more groups of participants are comparable at the

beginning (via random assignment)2. Each group is presented with experiences that differ in

only 1 way.

If the 2 groups yield different responses you can assume that the one thing that was different caused the differences.

Correlational Designs

Correlational Designs• Used to determine if there is a relationship between 2

variables• If there is a strong relationship, knowing one variable

helps predict the other

e.g. aggressive behavior and hours watching TV

Can’t tell you the direction of the cause!

Examining Development: Cross sectional vs Longitudinal design

Cross Sectional vs. Longitudinal Design

Longitudinal: Advantages• Reveal information about the stability of individual

differences or patterns of change in individual children• Avoids cohort effects (8 vs. 80-year olds computer

knowledge)

Longitudinal: Disadvantages• Time-consuming, expensive• Subject loss (attrition) may influence the results

But what do you do when your subjects can’t speak?

What about babies? They can’t talk! What do they do? (besides eating, pooping, and sleeping)?

• Cry• Smile• Suck• Look around Researchers have designed clever ways to ask infants

questions and have them answer using all of the above (most often Looking!!)

Preferential Looking Paradigm

Preferential Looking ParadigmThis method measures the amount of time they spend

looking at different stimuli.

If they consistently look longer at 1 it tells us 2 things:1. They can tell the difference between the two.2. They prefer to look at one over the other.

Preferential Looking Paradigm

When Preferences Fail…

• if infants fail to show a preference between two stimuli, what explanations follow?

they cannot tell the difference they can tell the difference, but happen not

to have a preference

• we need to use a different technique to find the answer.

Habituation Method

what happens when we change the stimulus?

old new

Habituation Method

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Habituation Method

• Repeatedly presents infants with one thing over and over until they become “bored” (decrease their looking time to a set criterion) • Then a new stimulus is presented.

• If they can tell the difference between the old and the new stimuli they should increase their looking time when the new stimuli is introduced.

Violation of Expectation ParadigmBased on the assumption that infants (or anyone) will looklonger when something violates their expectations or “surprises” them.

For example,When a magician cuts a person in 2.

Violation of ExpectationBaillargeon’s Drawbridge study

Bringing up Monkey Video!(Keep in mind the themes and the paper in your course pack on temperament)