Introduction to Developmental

Psychology and Its Research

Strategies
Presented by: Myke Dale P. Lacay
Introduction to Developmental Psychology
 What is Developmental Psychology?
Developmental Psychology
The branch of psychology devoted to identifying and
explaining the continuities and changes that individuals
display over time.

Development Developmental Continuities Developmentalist

Any scholar, regardless of discipline, who seeks to
The systematic continuities and changes in the The ways in which we remain stable over time or
understand the developmental process (such as
individual over the course of life. continue to reflect our past.
psychologists, biologists, sociologists,
neuroscientists, anthropologists, educators).

Learning
Normative Development a relatively permanent change in behavior that
results from one’s experiences or practice.
developmental changes that characterize most or
all members of a species; typical patterns of
development.
Maturation
Ideographic Development developmental changes in the body or behavior that
result from the aging process rather than from
individual variations in the rate, extent, or learning, injury, illness, or some other life
direction of development. experience.
 Human Development
Continual and Cumulative

Holistic Approach
A unified
Cumulative view of the developmental process that
emphasizes the important interrelationships among the
physical, mental, social, and emotional aspects of
human development.
Continual

Plasticity
The capacity for change; a developmental state that has
the potentialto be shaped by experience.

Cultural and Historical Context

Research Strategies: Basic Methods and
Designs
 Research Methods in Child and Adolescent
Development
• Scientific Method
• The use of objective and replicable methods to gather data for the purpose of testing a theory or
hypothesis. It dictates that, above all, investigators must be objective and must allow their data to
decide the merits of their thinking.
• Theory
• Is a set of concepts and propositions designed to organize, describe, and explain an existing set of
observations.
• Hypothesis
• Is a theoretical prediction about some aspect of experience.
The Scientific Method
 Gathering Data: Basic Fact-Finding Strategies
• Reliability
•The extent to which a measuring instrument
yields consistent results, both over time
(temporal) and across observers (interrater).

• Validity
•The extent to which a measuring instrument
ADOBO
accurately reflects what the researchers
intended to measure.
 Data Gathering Methodologies
Observational
Self-Reports
Methodologies

Interviews and Questionnaires Naturalistic Observation

A method in which the scientist tests
A technique in which all participants are asked hypotheses by observing people as they
the same questions in precisely the same order so engage in everyday activities in their natural
that the responses of different participants can be habitats (for example, at home, at school,
compared. or on the playground).

Diary Study Observer Influence

A questionnaire method in which
participants write answers to specified The tendency of participants to react to an
questions in a diary or notebook, either at observer’s presence by behaving in
predetermined times or when prompted by unnatural ways.
an electronic pager.

Structured Observation
Clinical Interview an observational method in which the
investigator attempts to elicit the behavior
A type of interview in which a participant’s
of interest and observes participants’
response to each question (or problem) determines
responses in a laboratory.
what the investigator will ask next.
 Data Gathering Methodologies

Case Study Ethnography Psychophysiological Method

A research method in which the
investigator gathers extensive information a method in which the researcher seeks to
Methods that measure the relationships
about the life of an individual and then understand the unique values, traditions,
between physiological processes and aspects
tests developmental hypotheses by and social processes of a culture or
of children’s physical, cognitive, social, or
analyzing the events of the person’s life subculture by living with its members and
emotional behavior/development.
history. making extensive observations and notes.
Detecting Relationships: Correlational, Experimental and
Cross-Cultural Designs

RESEARCH DESIGN

Correlational Design Experimental Design Cross Cultural Design

Field Experiment Design

 Correlational Design
A type of research design that indicates the strength of
associations among variables; though correlated variables
are systematically related, these relationships are not
necessarily causal.

Correlational Coefficient
A numerical index, ranging from −1.00 to
+1.00, describing the strength and direction
of the relationship between two variables.
 Experimental Design
A research design in which the investigator introduces some
Experimental change in the participant’s environment and then measures the
Control effect of that change on the participant’s behavior. Field Experiment
Steps taken by an experimenter An experiment that takes place in a
to ensure that all extraneous naturalistic setting such as home,
factors that could influence the Independent Variable Dependent Variable school, or a playground.
dependent variable are roughly
equivalent in each experimental The aspect of the environment The aspect of behavior that is
condition, and to ensure that that an experimenter modifies or measured in an experiment and
observed changes in the manipulates in order to measure assumed to be under the control Natural (Quasi)
dependent variable were indeed its impact on behavior. of the independent variable.
Experiment
caused by the manipulation of
the independent variable. A study in which the investigator
Confounding
Random Assignment measures the impact of some naturally
Variable occurring event that is assumed to affect
A control technique in which people’s lives.
participants are assigned to Some factor other than the
experimental conditions through independent variable that, if not
an unbiased procedure so that the controlled by the experimenter,
members of the groups are not could explain any differences
systematically different from one across treatment conditions in
another. participants’ performance on the
dependent variable.
Ecological Validity
The state of affairs in which the
findings of one’s research are an
accurate representation of
processes that occur in the
natural environment.
 Guards against overgeneralization

Cross-Cultural Design
Looks at Historical, Cultural, and
A study that compares the behavior and/or development
of people from different cultural or subcultural Ethnic Factors
backgrounds.

Defines differences across cultures

Research Strategies and Studying
Development
 RESEARCH DESIGN FOR
STUDYING DEVELOPMENT

Sequential Microgenetic
Cross-Sectional Longitudinal A research design in which
A research design in which
participants are studied
A research design in which A research design in which one subjects from different age
intensively over a short period
subjects from different age group of subjects is studied groups are studied repeatedly
of time as developmental
groups are studied at the same repeatedly over a period of over a period of months or
changes occur; attempts to
point in time. months or years. years; usually shorter than a
specify how or why those
longitudinal study.
changes occur.

Cohort Effect Practice Effect

an age-related difference among changes in participants’ natural
cohorts that is attributable to responses as a result of repeated
cultural/historical differences testing. Cross-Generational
in cohorts’ growing-up
Selective Attrition Problem
experiences rather than to true
developmental change. The fact that long-term changes
Nonrandom loss of participants in the environment may limit
during a study that results in a conclusions of a longitudinal
nonrepresentative sample. project to that generation of
children who were growing up
Non-Representative while the study was in progress.
Sample
a subgroup that differs in
important ways from the larger
group (or population) to which
it belongs.
Major Rights of Children and Responsibilities of Investigators
Involved in Psychological Research
Themes in the Study of Human
Development
 Themes in the Study of
Human Development

Qualitative Change Developmental Stage Quantitative Change

A change in kind that make
An incremental change in degree A distinct phase within a larger
individuals fundamentally different
without sudden transformations; for sequence of development; a period
than they were before; the
example, some view the small yearly characterized by a particular set of
transformation of a prelinguistic
increases in height and weight that 2- abilities, motives, behaviors, or
infant into a language user is viewed
to 11-year-olds display as quantitative emotions that occur together and
by many as a qualitative change in
developmental changes. form a coherent pattern.
communication skills.

Nature/Nurture Holistic
Active/Passive Continuity/Discontinuity
A debate among theorist on whether
The debate among developmental
A debate among developmental A debate among theorists about different aspects of human
theorists about the relative
theorists about whether children are whether developmental changes are development, such as cognition,
importance of biological
active contributors to their own quantitative and continuous, or personality, social development,
predispositions (nature) and
development or, rather, passive qualitative and discontinuous biological development, and so forth,
environmental influences (nurture) as
recipients of environmental influence. (stagelike). are interrelated and influence each
determinants of human development.
other as the child matures.
 Thank you for listening

Kindly go over our discussion and note down all your questions and clarifications so
that they may be addressed during the consultation period.