Question

Discovering Psychology Video 5: The Developing Child

1. What is the name of the classic debate in developmental psychology?
2. Briefly describe three of a newborn’s visual abilities (several are mentioned):

                a.        

                b.        

c.

3. Briefly describe two of a newborn’s auditory abilities (several are mentioned):

                a.        

                b.        

4. Since babies cannot tell us what they think, feel or know, how do psychologists infer what a baby knows? Several methods are named. Name three:

                a.        

                b.        

c.

Answer 1

1. the classical debate in developmental psychology is the nature vs nurture debate. this is focused on the manner in which a person develops and the pre dominant characteristics that a person may have. many researchers argue that a person is more similar to the environment in which hw is brought up and the environment shoes his personality, whereas, the other group argues that it is the genetic desposition of the person that would be shaping their personality.

2. babies cannot see with full adult vision as soon as they are born. their vision develops over a period of months in order to provide them with full adult like visual capacities. though, at the time of birth there maybe some abilities that the child possesses, which are:

a) they are not Abel to focus properly on a target, and hence cannot tell the difference.

b) in the first two months, the coordination of the eyes are not proper. it takes some time in order for the eyes to be coordinated, and hence, these may seem to be crossed.

c) they begin to learn to follow objects that are moving through their eyes, at approximately three months.