Issues and debates in developmental psychology (1): ethics, practical issues, reductionism, approaches, science, culture and gender

Ethics (5.4.1) and practical issues (5.4.2)

• Ethics: research with children raises consent (parents plus the child's assent), distress (Strange Situation) and the UNCRC. Animal research (Harlow's monkeys) raises harm to animals and the question of whether findings generalise to humans.
• Practical issues: access to children through gatekeepers; children's limited language (Piaget's tasks may confuse them); attrition in longitudinal studies (Ding et al. lost 26.3%); cross-cultural studies need translation and comparable procedures; meta-analyses depend on the studies available.

Reductionism versus holism (5.4.3) and approaches (5.4.4)

• Reductionism explains behaviour by breaking it into simpler parts: learning theory reduces attachment to food and reinforcement; Ainsworth reduces attachment to three categories. Useful for testing, but may miss the whole picture.
• Holism looks at the whole person in context: ethnography (Punch, 2002) and Vygotsky's social and cultural account are more holistic.
• Different explanations of the same behaviour: attachment can be explained by learning theory (nurture), Bowlby (evolutionary, nature) or temperament; language by Skinner, Chomsky and Vygotsky; cognition by Piaget and Vygotsky. Good answers compare them.

Psychology as a science (5.4.5)

Science uses empirical, objective, replicable methods, testable hypotheses and controls.

• Scientific: the Strange Situation is standardised with high inter-rater reliability; randomised trials (O'Connor et al., 2013; Schonert-Reichl et al., 2015); blind testers (Ding et al.).
• Less scientific: Bowlby's retrospective interviews; Piaget's clinical interviews; Chomsky's LAD and Vygotsky's ZPD are hard to test (not easily falsifiable); Erikson's stages are descriptive.

Culture and gender (5.4.6)

• Culture: the Strange Situation may be an imposed etic; Erikson and Piaget built their theories on Western samples; van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988) and Cassibba et al. (2013) show both universal and culture-specific patterns.
• Gender: Bowlby focused on mothers and largely ignored fathers; Erikson's sequence may fit male development (Gilligan); Cassibba et al. found no gender differences in adult attachment; Ashdown and Bernard found YCDI worked equally for boys and girls, though boys started with more problem behaviour.

Worked example

Outline how attachment research can be both reductionist and holistic.

1. Reductionist: learning theory reduces attachment to conditioning by food; the Strange Situation reduces it to three types.
2. Holistic: cross-cultural and meta-analytic research places attachment in its cultural context; Bowlby's internal working model links attachment to later relationships.

Answer: Simple mechanisms and categories versus context and lifelong relationships.

Check yourself

1. Which explanation is the most reductionist?
   • Attachment is learned because the caregiver is paired with food
   • Attachment depends on culture, caregiving, temperament and family context
   • Development must be studied through long-term ethnography
   • Children's worlds should be understood from their own viewpoint
   Show answer

   Attachment is learned because the caregiver is paired with food. Reducing attachment to conditioning by food.

2. Which feature makes the Strange Situation scientific?
   • It was carried out in the USA
   • It causes mild distress
   • Standardised episodes with high inter-rater reliability
   • It classifies infants into types
   Show answer

   Standardised episodes with high inter-rater reliability. Standardisation and reliability are scientific features.

3. Why is Chomsky's language acquisition device difficult to study scientifically?
   • It cannot be directly observed or easily falsified
   • It has been measured with brain scans
   • It is based only on animal studies
   • It uses too many participants
   Show answer

   It cannot be directly observed or easily falsified. A hypothetical innate device.

4. Which is a gender issue in attachment research?
   • Cassibba et al. studied Italian samples
   • The Strange Situation has eight episodes
   • Ding et al. used the Bayley scales
   • Bowlby focused on mothers and largely ignored fathers
   Show answer

   Bowlby focused on mothers and largely ignored fathers. Mother-focus is a gender bias.

5. Which method is most holistic?
   • A one-hour laboratory test of conservation
   • Ethnographic fieldwork in a community over months
   • A questionnaire with fixed rating scales
   • A meta-analysis of attachment categories
   Show answer

   Ethnographic fieldwork in a community over months. Ethnography looks at the whole context.

6. Explain one cultural issue in developmental psychology research.
   Show answer

   The Strange Situation was developed in the USA and is used as an imposed etic, so behaviours like distress at separation may mean something different in Japan, making cross-cultural comparisons less valid.. Tool or theory from one culture applied to others.

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Sources

• Pearson Edexcel International Advanced Subsidiary/Advanced Level in Psychology specification, Issue 6 (November 2024, first assessment January 2026)
• Pearson IAL Psychology summary of studies: WPS03
• Pearson WPS03/01 examiners' report, January 2025

Last updated 8 November 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.