U1 AO1 Psychological Development

Psychological development is the process of growth and change in human cognitive, emotional, and social capabilities and functioning over the life span. 

Nature refers to hereditary factors of psychologoical development.

Hereditary refers to the inborn, inherited genetic factors passed from biological parents to children that partly determine individual characteristics; this is the nature component within the nature versus nurture debate. 

e.g. eye colour, skin colour

Nurture refers to the environmental factors that influence psychological development.

e.g. education, food, emotional support

In a twin study, the development of indentical twins (a single fertilised egg that splits into two) is compared with the development of fraternal twins (seperate eggs and sperm but develop at the same time).

• Advantages: 
• Allows us to compare how similar twins are to each other - indicate the influence of nature (hereditary factors)

• Disadvantages:
• - Indentical twins looks the same, so they may be treated similary leading to similar personality traits - not entirely nature
• - Although home and parents are shared, doesn't mean upbringing was exactly the same

In adoption studies, children from families with one adopted child and one biological child are compared. 

These studies can include sibling pairs with one child adopted and the other reared by the biological parents. Comparions of these children are then analysed.

• Advantages:
• - Allows to compare how similar adopted children are to adoptive parents - would indicate the influence of nurture (environmental factors)
• - whether good parents can change bad genes

• Disadvantages:
• Adoptive agencies try to match the child's biological characteristic with adoptive parents

• - network of connections to family, broad kinship structures, communities, to lands and waters that support them
• - kinship system defines relationship between people within a broad social network beyond blood relatives (Western concept)
• - kinship system main way knowledge and teachings are passes on
• - grandparents playing an important role in education children
• - trauma passed down generations - stolen generations

The biopsycholosoical approach proposes that health and illness outcomes are determined by the interaction and contribution of biological, psychological and social factors.

Biological factors include our genetics, hormones, immune function, stress response, brain function and other activities of our nervous system. Biological factors that can stop us from achieving mental wellbeing can include our response to stress.


E.g. When a person is stressed, the body’s stress response is activated and cortisol is released. A build up of cortisol can lead to digestive issues, anxiety, depression, headaches, muscle pain and sleep disturbances.

Social factors include the interactions, relationships and social networks we have with others as well as environmental factors such as our living conditions, access to health care and education, social disadvantage or deprivation, and our family support and circumstances.

Research suggests that social factors can influence biological and psychological factors and their consequences on mental health.

E.g. Children living in poverty are more at risk of developing negative health outcomes throughout the lifespan.

Psychological factors include cognitive processes such as our learning and memory systems, our self-concept, our emotional regulation, our perceptions, our thought processes, our personality traits and our coping skills.

E.g. Research by ABS (2021) found 15% of Australians experienced high or very high levels of psychological distress - demonstrated the importance of managing stress across the lifespan.

Mental wellbeing refers to a state in which an individual realises their own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and can contribute to their community.

Dealing with stressors and challenges throughout the lifespan can be difficult which is why it is ideal to have a model to help us approach it.

Attatchment refers to the close emotional bond or relationship between an infant and their primary caregiver (usually their mother).

• - Attatchment is universal to all humans
• - It's main function is to increase survival

• - Infants are biologically programmed to form attatchment with their primary caregiver -> Seeking attatchment is an inborn behaviour
• - Sensitive periods where attatchment must occur for optimal development
• - Avoid long term emotional difficulties -> an infant should not be separated from it’s mother in the first two years of life
• - Other caregivers play important roles in an infants life but falls lower on the hierarchy compared to the mother.

• Phase 1: Pre-attatchment (birth-2 months)
• - Infants responds to people, but does not discriminate between people

• Phase 2: Preliminary attatchment (2-7 months)
• - Infants begin to repspond to familar faces with smiles
• - Will prefer to be with primary caregiver ->expresses this with distress when mother is absent

• Phase 3: Clear-cut attatchment (7 months - 2 years)
• - Infant is more mobile and can crowl or walk to be closer to caregiver
• - Gives secure base to explore their environment
• - Infant will likely cry if caregiver is not there

• Phase 4: Goal-directed (2 years onwards)
• - Infant begins to adjust to times caregiver is absent
• - More willing to stay with other people or be by themselves for short amounts of time

The term separation anxiety refers to the feelings of apprehension and worry experience by an infant when they are seperated from a caregiver. 

• Purpose: 
• Test and measure an infants attatchment to their primary caregiver - typically infants aged 9-18 months

• Procedure:
• - an 8 event sequence
• - Infants reactions observed and recorded through 2 way mirror
• - 3 types of behaviour:
• Contact-seeking behaviour, exploratory play and behaviour, and crying or distress

• - unaffected by mother's precence or absence
• - rarely cried when mother left the room/showed little attention to her return

• - distressed when mother leaves
• - happy and comforted by her return
• - open to exploration when mother is present

• - very distressed when mother leaves the room
• - uncomforted by her return
• - heightened anxiety before, during and the test
• - did not activel explore room even with mother present

• - 8 rhsesus monkeys split into 2 groups
• - Both groups contained a wired mother and a cloth mother
• - One group, the wired mother had a the milk attached to it while the other group at the milk attached to the cloth mother
• - A 'stressor' would be introduced to examine the monkeys reaction
• - Results: Monkeys sought comfort from the cloth surrogate, regardless whether or not if had the feed bottle
• - contact comfort, provided by the softness of the cloth covering was more important that feeding in terms of the ingant's attachment to its mother
• - generalised the findings that contact comfort is a crucial factor in human infant-caregiver attachment

Cognition refers to all mental processes, including perceiving, conceptualising, remembering, reasoning, imagining and problem solving.

Cognitive development refers to the growth and maturation of these thinking processes.

Growth in these areas help children make sense of the world around them as they move into adulthood.

Assimilation is when a person applies existing mental structures or processes to new experiences​.

Accommodation involves a person modifying their existing psychological concepts or processes​ to adapt their understanding and behaviour in response to new information or experiences.​

Schema are the memory structures (or mental representations), developed from our experiences, that represents a person’s general knowledge about different kinds of objects and events.

As development progresses throughout childhood, a child’s schema advances and matures.

Birth - 2 years old

• In this stage:
• Babies start to explore the world
• Start to integrate sensory and motor information
• Realise they can grasp objects
• Learn to crawl, walk and begin to talk.

The understanding that if things cannot be seen, heard or touched they still exist.

Eg. If they haven’t reached this stage they genuinely think somebody has disappeared when playing peek-a-boo

The ability to form a series of steps with a particular goal in mind.

Eg. Crawling to get a toy on the ground

2 - 7 years old

• In this stage:
• Begin to use language and engage in symbolic thinking
• They start to use pretend play to mentally represent people, objects and events that may not be present.

Refers to the tendency of children to view situations and events only from their own perspective and believe that everyone else has the same view.

E.g. A child snatching a toy from another child at day care, even if it makes to other child upset.

Refers to the tendency of children to believe that any inanimate object possesses lifelike characteristics such as feelings.

Eg. Giving care to a teddy

When children tend to narrowly focus on one aspect of the problem.

Eg. Becoming upset if they see their sister getting two slices of cake when they only have one, even though the size of the two cakes combined equal their one.

Symbolic thinking refers to using symbols, gestures and images to mentally represent people, objects and events that may not be present.

7 - 11 years old

• In this stage:
• The child is capable of logical thought and can understand future consequences
• The child can undertake mental arithmetic

When a child understands that physical properties such as mass, volume, number and length do not change even when their shape or appearance changes.

Eg. Showing a child two glasses full of liquid with the same volume, one in a short glass and one in a tall glass and understanding that there is the same amount in each.

Allows children to recognise that if 4+2 = 6 then 2+4 does too, rather than memorising it as 2 seperate equations.

The ability of children to be able to group together or categorise objects based on similar properties.

12 years +

• In this stage:
• Thinking is based more on abstract principles
• Start to consider hypothetical possibilities

Thinking in terms of general concepts rather than specific objects, experiences or events.

Eg. Understanding the concept of love, freedom, morality, time, distance etc.

Being able to test a logical hypothesis by using abstract thought.

Eg. Systematically planning how a problem should be solved.

A sensitive period is a stage during biological maturation when an organism is most able to gain a particular skill or characteristic.

A critical period of development involves a stage, usually early in the lifespan, when an organism is most open to acquiring a specific cognitive or motor skill.

The behaviour of majority of people in a population or behaviour that is consistent with the way an individual normally behaves.

e.g. Waving your arms in the air and singly loudly at a music festival

Behaviour that is not like the haviour of the majority people in a population or is inconsistent with the way an individual normally behaves. 

e.g. Waving your arms in the air and singly loudly in the supermarket

Culture is thought as distinctivev beliefs, values, customs, knowledge, art and language that form the foundation of the everyday behaviours and practices of society. 

• - passed down from one generation to next by spoken and written means
• - fine line between classification of normal and abnormal in some cultural contexts

e.g In Australia it is illegal considered abnormal to be married to more than one person at the same time whereas in some Middle Eastern countries that may considered acceptable and normal.

A norm is a socially defined rule, standard or value that describes behaviours that are expected within groups.

Behaviour can be considered typical according to whether the behaviour fits in with the norms of that society.

e.g. Looking someone in the eye when having a conversation is considered normal in Australia, however in some Asian countries eye contact is used to intimidate someone.

Stressors are object that cause a feeling of stress. These can be felt internally and externally. 

Stress is the physiological response to feeling threatened or challenged.

• Distress is a negative physiological responses to a stressor. This can erode a person’s sense of wellbeing.
• As a result of this it can change their behaviour and be considered abnormal because it is causing the individual distress.

Eg. Moodiness, anxiety, confusion and difficulty concentrating.

Maladaptive behaviour is behaviour that interferes with an individual’s ability to complete daily tasks and to function in their particular society.

Eg. If you stay in bed all day, do not wash or eat or unable to hold a job, they would not be meeting their every day needs.

Normality relates to the capacity to cope with the demands of life or to behave in a way that allows you to achieve goals and meet needs.

Neurotypical – Describes an individual who thinks, behaves and feels in ways that are typical of most people.

Neurodivergent – Individuals who think, behave or feel differently from most other people.

Eg. People who have been diagnosed with ADHD, autism and dyslexia.

Emotional competence refers to an individual’s capability in identifying, labelling and managing their emotions as well as understanding the emotional states of others.

Good emotional competence reflects typical or normal emotional expression and understanding.

Eg. Being able to identify someone with a down turned mouth and tears to be sad or upset

Emotional regulation is regulated and adaptive emotional expressions that allows us to communicate our internal states to meet our needs and engage in effective social interaction.

Excessive and inappropriate expression of emotion originates from a diminished capacity to self-regulate, is maladaptive and interferes with an individual’s capacity to function in their daily life.

Eg. Somebody only being able to yell and shout through anger.

Neurodiversity is the natural neurological difference that occurs between people’s nervous systems, particularly their brain, resulting in differences in learning, thinking and processing.

Autistism - larger amygdala (responsible for perception and emotional regulation).

It may be overactive, causing heightened anxiety and making recognising and processing emotion more difficult.

Mental wellbeing is the psychological state of someone whos is functioning at a satisfactory level of emotional and behaviour adjustment.

Poor mental wellbeing occurs in response to stressors or environmental changes that affect a person’s psychological state and result in impaired functioning in their day-to-day life.

• Health services need to be culturally responsive by:
• - Appreciating diversity between various groups, families and communities
• - Using cultural perspectives and knowledge to inform their practice
• - Providing services that are safe and free from racism and cultural bias

• - often the first person to be involved if concern about atypical or neurodivergent development
• - records any behavioural symptoms and family history
• - investigates any environmental factors that may be encouraging or exacerbating the symptoms
• - thens decide whether to refer a patient to another mental health professional

Mental Health worker is a broad description that covers a number of different types of workers who care for people with mental health issues.

• - has a bachelors degree in either nursing or social work
• - work in hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and mental health units
• - assess conditions, provide medication and visit people at home.

Psychologists are professionals who study mental processes and behaviour.

• - use evidence based therapies to support clients regain their mental health and wellbeing
• - Treatments include; cognitive behavioural therapy and interpersonal therapy

As doctors, psychiatrists can prescribe medication to treat or reduce the symptoms of a mental illness. They are also authorised to admit a person to hospital for treatment. A referral from a GP is needed to see a psychiatrist.

Psychiatrists are best placed to develop treatment and support interventions for people suffering from more severe mental health conditions that require medications to control the symptoms, such as schizophrenia.