Psychology 605 week 3 discussion responses | Psychology homework help

1. Hi classmates,

For your initial post, you will describe the positive and negative influences of technology on human development during childhood (ages 3-12) or adolescence (ages 13-18). The effects of technology on development during childhood can be positive and/or negative, depending on the context and the content. We are living in a time where access to smartphones, tablets, smart TV's, computers, etc, can be seemingly limitless and this allows for great opportunity and growth in children, and a large opportunity for negative, unwanted outcomes. With such widespread access to a plethora of information, it is important that technology access is monitored by an adult in order to ensure that content is age-appropriate. Technology brings with it a multitude of ways to access educational information that can enhance well-being and cognition. It also allows for access to harmful materials depicting violence, crimes, sex, and various other forms of explicit inappropriate material that can be extremely harmful for development and behavior outcomes. Describes the way(s) in which technology has either positively or negatively influenced physical, cognitive, and/or psychosocial development within childhood or adolescence (e.g., the effects of media violence on aggression or educational products on learning). Technology can be quite an asset to childhood development, given that technology is being used and administered properly. In one study researchers created a media tool to enhance and evaluate emotional intelligence in children and the results showed that individuals who were subjected to this tool did see an increase in emotional intelligence. Along with this, researchers found that this multimedia tool was much more useful to children when paired with adult-interaction as well. A combination of media and human-interaction is the best method of administering technology to ensure a positive cognitive outcome, but this isn’t to say that technology alone isn’t beneficial. Educational content can still be beneficial to children, even when not co-viewed with another adult. Describe factors which may mediate the effect(s) of technology within your selected stage (e.g., education, gender, socioeconomic status, culture, or family/parenting). Studies have shown that during early childhood there are cognitive benefits of co-viewing content with parent and child, it’s also important that the content is educational. In childhood it’s imperative that there is an adult monitoring access to technology, and monitoring the content that is being accessed. Research shows that exposure to appropriate, educational content is associated with increased cognitive and academic performance. Reversely, there are poor cognitive and academic associations with exposure to media that is violent and purely for entertainment. Violent content has been linked to behavior issues later on as well.. It’s also recommended that technology access is limited to 1-2 hours a day, although research has shown that actual time spent watching television is less important on development than the content that is being absorbed by the child. Another study revealed that there are positive associations with television viewing in low-income households, but in higher income households there are negative associations with television viewing. Based on these results, depending on the type of income in that specific household, television viewing and technology may be somewhat beneficial in moderation.