Developmental psychology

Newborns

Newly born babies

Infancy

From birth to around 2 years old

Childhood

begins at about 18-24 months and lasts until adolescence

Human Genetic Project

where scientists set out to identify all human genes

supports claims that the environment has a significant role in influencing genes to be switched on and off by experiences

The two primary forces controlling development

Information contained within the genetic instructions encoded in our DNA which tell molecules how to form and organise themselves to build our bodies

How all this development also has an external component

Canalization

The idea of development as constrained epigenesis

Zygote

Single cell that contains chromosomes from both a sperm and an egg

Germinal stage

Two-week period that begins at conception

Embryonic stage

the period that lasts from the 2nd week until about the 8th week

Zygote continues to divide and cells begin to differentiate

Blastocyte

Ball of cells formed in the embryonic stage

Embryonic disk

Blastocyst flattens out to become an embryonic disk, comprising the endoderm, mesoderm and ectoderm

Endoderm

Goes on to form the internal organs

Mesoderm

Becomes skeletal muscles

Ectoderm

Forms the skin and nervous system

Neural tube

Portion of ectoderm that folds over, cylindrical structure of the embryonic central nervous system

Neurogenesis

The formation of neural cells

Placenta

links bloodstreams of mother and developing embryo/fetus and allows them to exchange materials

Teratogens

Agents that damage the process of development eg environmental poisons like mercury in fish or lead in water, can also be common substances like tobacco or alcohol

Fetal Alcohol syndrome

A developmental disorder that stems from heavy alcohol use during pregnancy

Cortical development

Related to increased connectivity between the neurons in different regions of the brain as cells start to wire up

Cortical cells start connecting up through three major generative processes: Arborization, Synaptogenesis, Myelination

Generative processes

those that lead to the formation of new structures

Arborization

A process where the cell axon lengthens and grows increasing dendritic branches

Synaptogenesis

The increase in the number of synaptic junctions where cells communicate through the activity of neurotransmitters

Myelination

The formation of a fatty sheath around the axons of a brain cell

Synaptic pruning

the mechanism whereby synaptic connections die off

Plasticity

The capacity of the brain to be moulded by experience

Experience-expectant plasticity

Much of the neural organization is largely pre-specified, waiting for input from the environment

Experience-dependent plasticity

Much of the neural organization is not pre-specified and depends on input from the environment

Quantitative

The amount of quantity of change

Qualitative

The type or quality of change

Continuous developmental function

indicates a steadily increasing ability or quantity

discontinuous or step functions

common developmental patterns that reflect the combination of periods of stability and change

Stage theories

those that advocate development as a fundamental reorganization of the underlying mechanisms

Longitudinal research

based on a representative sample of children who are then studied repeatedly over time

Cross-sectional research

Based on groups of children who represent a cross-section of the population

Repeated measure

Where several data points are collected from the same individual

Cohort bias

Anomalies that are predominant in one group that distort comparison between groups

Visual preference paradigm

Technique that uses difference in duration of looking to infer pattern discrimination

Preference for novelty

following habituation, organisms prefer to attend to novel stimulation

violation of expectancy (VOE) paradigm

Where the anticipated outcome is deliberately contravened

Visual acuity

The level of finest visual detail that can be perceived

Mental representations

Patterns of neuronal activity that initially refer to aspects of the external world

Crossmodal perception

the capacity to detect correspondences of different features in the world from different sensory modalities

eg when a book is slammed onto a table (visual) you expect to hear a thud at the same time (auditory)

Motor development

the emergence of the ability to execute physical actions such as reaching, grasping, crawling and walking

Stereopsis

The perception of depth by combining the images from each eye

Piaget's four stages of childhood

Sensorimotor stage, preoperational stage, concrete operational stage, and the formal operational stage

Sensorimotor stage

birth-2 years
Infant experiences the world through movement and senses, develops schemas, begins to act intentionally, and shows evidence of understanding object permanence

Preoperational stage

2-6 years
The child acquires motor skills but doesn't understand conservation of physical properties. Children begin this stage by thinking egocentrically but ends with a basic understanding of other minds

Concrete operational

6-11 years
Child can think logically about physical objects and events and understands conservation of physical properties

Formal operational

11 years and up
Child can think logically about abstract propositions and hypotheticals

Assimilation

occurs when infants apply their schemas in novel situations

Accomodation

Occurs when infants revise their schemas in light of new information

Object permanence

The idea that objects continue to exist even when they are not visible

Limited competence

An inability to understand what needs to be done to solve the task

Limited performance

An inability to execute the necessary actions to solve the task

conservation

the notion that the quantitative properties of an object are invariant despite changes in the objects appearance

invariant

every child goes through the same sequence in the same order at roughly the same time

universal

every child in every culture goes through the same stages

Centration (one of children's several tendencies to explain mistakes)

tendency to focus on just one property of an object to the exclusion of all others

Reversibility (one of children's several tendencies to explain mistakes)

do not consider the fact that the operation done can be reversed

appearance-reality distinction

the appreciation that looks can be deceiving

Executive functions

Mental operations that enable us to coordinate our thoughts and behaviours using the process of planning, working memory and response inhibition

inhibition

the ability to suppress intrusive thoughts and behaviours

Information processing approaches

Strategies, Executive functions, Memory, Casual reasoning

Deferred imitation paradigm

where the infant imitates an event demonstrated some time earlier

Casual reasoning

when we infer that events happening close together in time and space are linked in some casual way

timing is crucial to perceive a casual collision

Intuitive theories

Rudimentary frameworks that are not explicitly taught and explain related aspects of the world

Intuitive theories operate within three broad domains...

... physical world, living world, and psychological worlds

Psychological essentialism

the belief that things in nature, and in particular living things, are what they are because of some inner property or essence

Zone of proximal development

At any age, a child was capable of acquiring a wide - but nonetheless bounded - range of skills

Adulthood

the stage of development that begins around 18-21 years and ends at death

Feral children

Children raised in isolation from society

Imprinting (usually shown in birds)

a process where the hatchlings bond to their mother at first sight and then follow her about everywhere

Conspec

a system that orients the infant towards face-like structures and is supported by mature subcortical brain mechanisms, present at birth

Conlearn

a system largely supported by maturing cortical brain mechanisms that learns about specific faces

Joint attention

the capacity to coordinate the social interaction with attention direction towards objects of mutual interest

facilitates language learning

Social smiling

smiles directed towards peopleC

Contingent behaviour

synchronized responding from an adult

provides a powerful social cue for interaction

Dyadic relationship

where the focus of interest is between two individuals

when a mother interacts with her baby, they spend about 70% of the time looking at one another when the baby is aged around six weeks (Kaye and Fogel, 1980)

Triadic relationship

where attention is directed between two individuals and a third potential source

Social referencing

Looking at carers to gauge their reactions in unfamiliar or threatening circumstances

Protoimperative

to direct anothers attention to obtain a particular goal

Protodeclarative

to direct another's attention to an object or event of interest

Liszkowski experiment and conditions

examined relationship between joint attention and protodeclarative pointing in one year olds

1. joint attention condition - the adult turned to look at the puppet and back to the child, talking excitedly about the event
2. face condition - the adult kept their attention on the infant and spoke excitedly about the child
3. event condition - adult simply turned and looked at the puppet but not back at the infant
4. ignore condition - the adult ignored the puppet and the infant

Attachment

an emotional bond

three key features of attachment

1. proximity seeking - the attached child will stay close to the primary carer
2. Secure base - the primary carer provides a secure base from which the attached child can explore the world as if tied by invisible elastics
3. separation protest - attached children will be distressed and cry if separated from the primary carer

Bowlbys theory

that infants were motivated by biological drives such as warmth, hunger, and thirst that they sought to appease

stranger anxiety

a fearful response associated with crying and attempts to cling or move closer to the carer

bowlbys three phases of attachment

initial pre attachment phase - up to two months
stranger anxiety - around 7 months
end of infancy period - two years

Strange situation (Dr Ainsworth)

a behavioural test used to determine a child's attachment style

reactions during 'strange situation'

proximity seeking - where the infant seeks to be close to the mother
contact maintenance - where the infant clings to the mother
Resistance - where the infant refuses to settle and is petulant
avoidance - where the infant does not seek out the mother and appears indifferent

four main attachment styles

secure, avoidant, ambivalent, disorganized

parental-sensitivity

consistent attentiveness to the infant's emotional wellbeing

internal working model of attachment

a set of expectations about how the primary carer will respond when the child feels insecure

temperament

characteristic pattern of emotional reactivity

behavioural inhibition

the tendency towards shyness and fear of novelty

goodness of fit

the extent to which the child's environment is compatible with their temperament

agent

a being that operates purposefully wit intention to achieve outcomes in the world

social cognition

the processes by which people come to understand others

pedagogy

the transfer of knowledge primarily for the purpose of teaching