Child psychology project

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206177 2018SU Developmental Psych: Childhood (PSYCH- 2230- NET01)

Observation ProjectH

Observation Project

Observation Project

Psychology 2230 Observational Project Project Description: For this project, you will apply the concepts and theories you have been learning in this course to an observation of a child, an adolescent, or an adult in their natural environment. The Who: You are to observe and interact with an individual from one of the following age groups: Infants and Toddlers (0-2 years of age) Early Childhood (2- 6 years of age) Middle Childhood (6-11 years of age) Adolescence (12 – 20 years of age) Under no circumstances are you allowed to observe members of your immediate family. (i.e. your children, spouse, parents, siblings) The What: You are to assess the physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development of the individual you are observing and connect your observations to the theories discussed in your text. To focus your observation, a list of terms to be addressed for each age group is attached to these instructions. While you may include additional information, you are only required to include a discussion of each of the terms listed. Terms that you are unable to cover in your observations, interviews, and interactions are to be included within the appropriate section (i.e. physical, social). Define the term and provide an example to illustrate it. These examples may come from your personal experiences, but should be kept to a minimum. The majority of terms should come from your observations, interactions, and interviews.

Preparing for your observation: 1. Before you begin your observation, review the attached list of

My Institution Student Support Haider Lakhani 9

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oncepts/behaviors, read/review the appropriate text chapters that apply to the age group to which the individual you will be observing belongs, and develop an observation plan. You can supplement your text with additional sources of information, but the only required source is your text. Decide what kinds of information you will need to complete your observation of the required concepts. Determine the setting(s) in which you will observe. The ideal setting will allow you to make observations, ask questions, and interact with the individual. 2. Secure parental consent if you are observing a child or the individual’s consent if you are interviewing an adult by using the attached forms. Explain that you are doing this research for a course in developmental psychology and that the main purpose of the report is to help you see the relationship between textbook knowledge and real children/adolescents/adults. Tell your respondents and/or parents that their information will remain anonymous and that you will make up a name for them (called a pseudonym). This allows you to protect their privacy. Explain that you are not making a psychological evaluation of the child/adolescent/adult – you are not qualified to do so. Let them know that you will not be sharing the written report with them, but that you would be willing to talk with them informally about the results. Have them sign a copy of a consent). The How: How you conduct this study will depend on the age of the individual you choose to observe, the behaviors you are interested in learning more about, and the setting and may include any or all of the following methods: 1. Naturalistic Observation: Child– Ask the parents when the child is likely to be awake and active and observe the child during this time. Try to be as unobtrusive as possible – you are not there to play with or care for the child. If the child wants to play, explain that you must sit and write for now and that you will play later. Write down everything the child does and that others do with the child. Try to be objective, focusing on behavior rather than interpretation. Instead of writing, “Jennifer was delighted when her father came home,” you should write, “Her father opened the door, Jennifer looked up, smiled, said ‘Dada’ and ran to him.” After your observation, summarize the data noting specific examples of cognitive, physical, emotional, and social development. Also, note any circumstances atypical (e.g., “Jenny’s mother said she hasn’t been herself since she had the flu a week ago.”) Adolescent/Adult – participant observation may be more appropriate. Ask the individual if you can spend some time with them and/or their family and let them know you will be taking some notes so that you can remember what happened. 2. Informal Interaction – Interact with the child/adolescent/adult. Your goal is to observe the individual’s personality and abilities in a relaxed setting. The particular activities you engage in will depend on the individual’s age and character. Most children enjoy playing games, reading books, drawing, and talking. Asking a younger child to show you his or her favorite toys is a good way to break the ice; asking an older child to show you the neighborhood can

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provide insights. You might want to go out for coffee with an adult. 3. Interviews – For children and/or adolescents you may want to interview parents and other adults responsible for their care. Older adolescents can serve as their own respondents. There are two kinds of questions: restricted and open-ended. Restricted questions are ones like "Are you married, divorced, or single?" Open-ended questions include questions where the respondents answer in their own words, such as "Tell me how your life is different now that you are retired." Most interviews include both kinds of questions. You might want to begin your interview with broad, open-ended questions ("Tell me a little about yourself/your child") and then start narrowing down to specific, restricted ones to get more information. Keep these points in mind when you design the questions you will ask your respondents: ♦ make questions clear and unambiguous; ♦ keep the vocabulary appropriate to the age and education of your subject; ♦ don't ask embarrassing information, such as why people get divorced, if

dating includes having sex, etc, unless you know your respondent well enough to ask these questions; and

♦ focus on what you want to know, keep your goals in mind. Don't begin to ask specific questions right away. Get to know each other a little first. Begin talking about why you are conducting the interview, what your goals are. As you warm up to each other, you can ask more specific questions. It's hard to write down everything someone says. Using a tape recorder helps, but some respondents may feel awkward or embarrassed to think their answers are being recorded. Decide if you can write fast enough (you can use shorthand — just jot down the main ideas) or tape your interviews. It helps to have your questions typed out ahead of time with lots of blank space after each question so you can record your respondent's answers right away. Remember that additional questions will come up in the interview that are not on your sheet. Leave lots of room so you can jot these down, too. Don't forget to thank your respondent for taking the time to help you 2. Testing the Child/Adolescent/Adult – Assess the individual’s perceptual, motor, language, and intellectual abilities by using specific test items you have planned in advance. The actual test items will depend on the age of the individual and the behaviors being assessed. For instance, you would test for object permanence in an infant between 6 and 24 months and conservation in a child between 3 and 9 years. Writing Your Paper Your paper should be typed and double-spaced and include the following:

1. Cover Sheet: your name, date, instructor, PSY 2230 and time class meets (e.g., CIL), and a title.

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2. Introduction: Begin by reporting relevant background information, tell me a little bit about the individual you observed (no real names, just describe them), their age, how you found them, how much time you spent with them, how and where you interviewed them, economic and ethnic background, educational and marital status, employment history and any additional background information you feel is relevant. What were your goals conducting this project? What did you think you would find out?

3. Physical Development – Give a general overview of physical development for this age group. Use the terms identified in the attached list to describe the physical development of the individual. Be sure to highlight the term in bold and define it in your own words. Explain how this concept fits within theories of physical development as appropriate (i.e. pincer grasp would be discussed as it relates to fine motor skills). Provide an example of the individual’s observed behavior to illustrate the term, concept, and/or developmental stage. When appropriate, assess how the behavior of the individual you observed fits the developmental stage described. Was their behavior age appropriate? Why or why not?

4. Cognitive Development – Give a general overview of cognitive development for this age group. Use the terms identified in the attached list to describe the cognitive development of the individual. Be sure to highlight the term in bold and define it in your own words. Explain how this concept fits within theories of cognitive development as appropriate (i.e. connect object permanence to Piaget’s sensorimotor stage). Provide an example of the individual’s observed behavior to illustrate the term, concept, and/or developmental stage. When appropriate, assess how the behavior of the individual you observed fits the developmental stage described. Was their behavior age appropriate? Why or why not?

5. Social and Emotional Development –Provide a general overview of social and emotional development for this age group. Use the terms identified in the attached list to describe the social and emotional development of the individual. Be sure to highlight the term in bold and define it in your own words. Explain how this concept fits within theories of social/emotional development as appropriate (i.e. discuss identity statuses as a part of Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development). Provide an example of the individual’s observed behavior to illustrate the term, concept, and/or developmental stage. When appropriate, assess how the behavior of the individual you observed fits the developmental stage described. Was their behavior age appropriate? Why or why not?

6. Conclusion: Summarize your observations by generally describing the overall level of physical, cognitive, and social/emotional development. You may want to consider the strengths and/or weaknesses in the individual, the family, and/or the community that have fostered and /or hindered optimal development.

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7. References: You are to use the referencing style of the American Psychological Association (APA) for this paper. Reference citations within the body of your paper: Citing a source within your paper is fairly simple in APA style. Direct quotes are put in quotation marks and followed by the author’ s last name, year of publication, and the page number of the quote. You put this all in parentheses at the end of the sentence and put the period after it. This is what it might look like if you were quoting a popular intorductory psychology textbook (Weiten, 2007, p. 31). If you are paraphrasing, you do not put the page number in your citation; you use only the author’s last name and publication. It would look like this (Weiten, 2007). A how to guide for writing a citation in APA and MLA style is available at the COD library’s website listed above. Reference Page: “References” means “sources referred to.” Therefore, the “References” section of your paper includes only those books or articles actually mentioned in the paper, not sources that you might have looked at but did not cite. All books, journals, websites etc. used in your paper should be listed on a separate reference page at the end of your paper following APA style. You can supplement your text with additional sources of information, but the only required source is your text. Begin your reference page with the word references, typed with the first letter capitalized and centered at the top of your last page. Individual references appear alphabetically by author’s last name. All references begin with the author’s last name followed by their first and middle initials. Multiple authors are typed in the order they appear in the book and/or article and are separated by a comma. An ampersand (&) is used before the last author’s name, and a period is used at the end of the author list. The next item in every reference is the date of publication typed in parentheses and followed by a period. Every component of the reference is considered a complete thought and like a sentence, is followed by a period. Components of references following the date vary by media type. Specifics can be found in the APA style manual and websites mentioned above. Capitalization rules in APA style vary from others and are worth noting. In book and journal article titles, only the first letter of the first word and the first letter after a colon (:) are capitalized. Book and journal titles are italicized, and each reference is typed using a hanging indent. Grading: Papers will be graded on the basis of completeness, accurate use of terminology, the integration of theory, organization, spelling, grammar, and the correct use of APA style. Each paper is worth a total of 80 points based on the following criteria: Correctly describing the assigned term in your own words (10 terms) 40 Examples provided accurately illustrate the concepts (same 10 terms) 40 Overall integration of theory 10

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Grammar, spelling, APA format 10 Total Points 80 Term List by Age

Infants and Toddlers Early Childhood

1. Cephalocaudal/Proximodistal Trends

1. Fine/ Gross Motor Skills

2. Pincer Grasp 2. Dominant Cerebral Hemisphere

3. Fine/ Gross Motor Skills 3. General Growth Curve

4. Dynamic Systems Theory of Motor Development

4. Fast Mapping 5. Pragmatics

5. Brain Plasticity 6. Overregularization

6. Intermodal Perception 7. Sociodramatic Play

7. Deferred Imitation 8. Scaffolding

8. Sensorimotor Stage 9. Egocentrism

9. Child Directed Speech 10. Animistic Thinking

10. Object Permanence 11. Irreversibility

11. Overextension/Underextension 12. Preoperational Stage

12. Referential Style of Language 13. Memory Strategies

13. Zone of Proximal Development 14. Child Rearing Styles

14. Telegraphic Speech 15. Parallel Play

15. Attachment 16. Initiative v Guilt

16. Temperament 17. Self-concept

17. Trust v Mistrust 18. Self-esteem

18. Autonomy v Shame and Doubt 19. Hostile Aggression

19. I-self/ Me-self 20. Gender Identity

20. Interaction Synchrony

Middle Childhood Adolescence

1. Obesity 1. Puberty

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2. Unintentional Injuries 2. Growth Spurt

3. Myopia 4. Reaction Time

3. Primary/Secondary Sexual Characteristics

5. Gross/ Fine Motor Skills 4. Spermarche/Menarche

6. Concrete Operational Stage 5. Body Image

7. Decentration 6. Anorexia/Bulimia

8. Reversibility 7. Formal Operational Stage

9. Elaboration 8. Hypothetico-deductive Reasoning

10. Seriation 9. Propositional Thought

11. Creativity 10. Imaginary Audience

12. Theory of Multiple Intelligence 11. Personal Fable

13. Gender Typing 12. Identity v Identity Confusion

14. Industry v Inferiority 13. Self-Esteem

15. Peer Acceptance 14. Identity Statuses

16. Perspective Taking 17. Peer Group

15. Kohlberg’r r s Levels of Moral Development

18. Distributive Justice 16. Gender Intensification

19. Coregulation 17. Clique

20. Social Comparison 18. Crowd

19. Ethnic Identity

20. Conformity to Peer Pressure