Developmental Psychology

Maturation-the unfolding of behaviors that are genetically programmed for all humans and learning-systematic changes in behavior, thoughts and feelings as a result of experience. 

To what extent do biological, cognitive, and socio-cultral factors influence human development?

Evaluate psychological research relevant to developmental psychology

• Observations and interviews in naturalistic settings (don't lend to control)
• Labratory experiments (ecological validity is questioned)
• Combinations of experimental data are corroborated by findings from naturalistic settings
• Case study (ethical issues)
• Longitudinal research (participants development is measured over time)-time consuming
• Corss-sectional design (comparing two or more groups on a particular variable

Evaluate theories of cognitive development

Biological

• Newborn babies show universal characteristics at birth
• Mirror neurons (baby responds to human faces, enables interaction long before language develops)
• Synaptic growth is most significant in first year of life
• Neuroplasticity (ability to develop and change in response to environment)
• Chugani (1999) PET scan of glucose metabolism 
  • little activity in cerebral cortex (higher-level…