Unit 6 Developmental Psych

Heritability

how people's genes account for differences in their traits. Traits can include : height, eye color, and intelligence,

What are the 2 ways to study nature-nurture?

Twin studies & adoption studies

Twin studies

Identical twins have the same \n genotype, and fraternal twins have an average of 50% \n of their genes in common.

Adoption Studies

Similarities with the biological \n family support nature, while similarities with the \n adoptive family support nurture.

Continuity

human development a gradual and continuous process in which individuals build on previously acquired knowledge and skills (escalator)

Discontinuity

view that development is characterized by abrupt behaviors (elevator)

Developmental theories that support discontinuity

– Freud's psychosexual stages \n – Piaget's stages of cognitive development \n – Erikson's theories of development

Stability v. Change

Whether personality traits that are present in an \n individual at birth remain constant or change throughout \n the life span

What studies are used in research concerning stability vs. change?

cross-sectional and longitudinal studies

genetic plan

determines how all of the organs will be formed

Differentiation

stem cells that are \n capable of forming into any organ in \n the body begin to specialize as \n components of certain organs

Mitosis

the process during which \n zygote divides first into two cells, then \n four, then eight, and so on till the mass \n of the cells becomes a baby

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)

\n physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a \n pregnant woman’s heavy drinking.

Ex; facial disproportions

Smoking

miscarriage, stillbirth, prematurity, or complications

increases risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)

Prenatal Period

from conception to brith

3 phases:

Germinal Stage (1st 2 weeks– zygote)

Embryonic Stage (2 weeks – 2 months)

\n Fetal Stage (2 months – birth)

Germinal Stage

\n -one-celled organism (contains chromosomes & genes with genetic info) \n › enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division \n › develops into an embryo \n › less than half of all zygotes survive first two weeks \n › the outer part of the zygote becomes the placenta (which filters nutrients)

Embryonic Stage

2 weeks-2nd months

vital organs form (beating heart)

baby can hear (and recognize) sounds and respond to light

Fetal Stage

the final stage of human prenatal development, from the 8th or 9th week after fertilization to the time of birth

\n the organs of the fetus develop and become functional

\
Age of Viability– age at which the baby can survive premature birth (22-24 weeks \n gestation– getting earlier and earlier)

True or false: newborns do NOT have an innate ability to find nourishment, interact with others, and avoid harmful situation

FALSE

John locke believed…

newborns began life as a “tabula \n rasa” or “blank slate”-an empty \n brain and no abilities.

APGAR score

scale of 1-10 to evaluate a newborn’s and infant’s physical statue

\n Infant reflexes

– grasping (finger holding reflex) \n – rooting- when you touch a baby‘s cheek it will turn toward your \n hand, open its mouth, and search for a nipple \n – Moro (startle) \n – stepping \n – sucking

Neonatal Period

birth to one month

\
During this stage babies are capable of responding to \n stimulation from all of their senses.

Infancy Period

1 month to 24 months

period of rapid development but is still heavily \n reliant on reflexive behavior.

Motor Development

Progression of muscular coordination required \n for physical activities

Basic Motor skills

\-grasping or reaching for objects \n • manipulating objects \n • sitting up \n • crawling \n • walking \n • running

Continuous Growth

Constantly add new lessons and skills on top \n of old lessons and skills as they get older.

(grandparents say omg they changed so much; parents dont notice big differences)

Episodic Growth

Grow discontinuously-children grow in stages as they seem to \n develop chunks of abilities and to experience events at certain \n times in life.

\n – To some parents, it may seem that their children learn to do \n things all of a sudden.

\n – Growing lots in spurts at special times and then are not growing \n so fast for a while in between the spurts.

Physical Development

Biological growth processes \n that enable orderly changes \n in behavior

Brain Development

From birth to 3 years, neurons grow as the brain triples in \n weight due to growth of new dendrites, axon terminals, and \n increasing numbers of synaptic connections

\n Synaptic sprouting and pruning

necessary loss of neurons as unused synaptic \n connections and nerve cells are cleared away to make \n way for functioning connections and cells and new neural \n connections to form

Sensory Development

the sense of touch, smell, and \n taste are fairy well developed.

\
Hearing is functional at birth and takes a little while to reach its \n full potential

\
Newborns seem most responsive to high pitches, as in a \n woman’s voice, and low pitches, as in a male’s voice

Vision…

least functional and takes 6 months to fully develop

\
\-newborns have poor color perception

\-a fixed distance of about 7- 10 inches for clear vision

Preferential looking assumes…

the longer an infant spends looking at a stimulus, the more the infant prefers that stimulus \n over others

Habituation

the tendency for infants (and adults) to stop paying \n attention to a stimulus that does not change

Synchronicity

close coordination between the gazing, vocalizing, \n touching, and smiling of mothers and infants

Ex; laughs when mom laughs, cries when mom displays negative emotion

Ways infants demonstrate personalities…,

temperament and attachment

Slow to warm up baby:

less grumpy, quieter but slow to adapt to \n change; if change is introduced gradually, they warm up to new \n people and new situations

attachment

emotional tie with someone

Imprinting in birds example

a powerful attraction occurs between \n infants and the first moving object or individual \n with whom they spend time.

Types of Attachment by Mary Ainsworth’s “strange situation” Study

Secure (ideal)

Avoidant

Ambivalent

Secure (ideal) Attachment

explore happily; upset when mother departs, but easily soothed upon her return

Avoidant Attachment

willing to explore, don’t “touch base,” react very little to mother’s absence or return

Ambivalent Attachment

clinging, unwilling, to explore; upset when mother leaves, angry with her on her return

Disorganized disoriented:

unable to decide reaction to mother’s return, approach \n mother with their eyes turned away from her, avoid eye contact

Stranger Anxiety

fear of strangers that infants commonly display

begins at 8 months

Separation Anxiety

extreme emotional agitation, fear, and distress particularly in infants when object/loved one leaves

peaks at between 14 & 18 months

\

Freud’s view on temperament & attachment

\n Freud convinced most doctors that young \n infants and children were so mentally \n underdeveloped that the only thing of real \n importance to infants was the breast or the \n bottle.

Cupboard theory

infants become \n attached to those who provide the \n “cupboard” containing the food supply.

proving Freud wrong about temperment and attatchment

Harry and Margaret Harlow thought physical contact was important to child development. (experiment with monkeys)

Psychological dwarfism

A study of children in emotionally detached family \n environments showed slower growth and bone \n development. \n When removed from such a situation they may grow again.

Jean Piaget developed

a theory \n about development called the \n Cognitive Theory of Development.

Piaget’s theory was a \n _________ stage model of \n development.

discontinuous.

\
Children will undergo a revolutionary \n change in thought at each stage.

At age 5 what major advances happen on cognitive development

\n Development of thinking \n – Problem solving \n – Memory

\n Piaget’s theory was based on three key ideas:

\n Schemas \n • Assimilation and accommodation \n • Stages of cognitive development

Schemas

mental pictures that guide thinking.

Assimilation

\n process that modifies new information to fit \n with existing schemas or with what is already known. New \n information fit our existing view of the world.

Accommodation

process of restructuring or modifying \n schemas to incorporate new information. Changes our \n views to fit new information.

Sensorimotor Stage

birth to nearly 2 yrs

\
Experiencing the world through \n senses and actions (looking, \n touching, mouthing)

\
\-object permanence (peak-a-poo)

\-stranger anxiety

Preoperational Stage

About 2-6 yrs

Representing things \n with words and images \n but lacking logical reasoning

\
•Pretend play \n •Egocentrism (concerned with ones own needs) \n •Language development

Concrete Operational

about 7-11

\
Thinking logically about concrete \n events; grasping concrete analogies \n and performing arithmetical operations

\
•Conservation \n •Mathematical \n transformations

Formal operational

about 12 through adulthood

\
Abstract reasoning

•Abstract logic \n •Potential for \n moral reasoning

Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development

\n the difference between what a child \n can do alone and what that child can do with guidance and encouragement

Freud’s Psychosexual Stages of Development

Oral stage

anal stage

Phallic Stage

Latency Stage

Genital Stage

Oral stage

(birth-2) pleasure from oral stimulation (tasting and sucking)

\
Dependency or aggression; problems with drinking, smoking, eating, nail biting

Anal Stage

(15 months-3) primary focus on controlling bladder and bowels - eliminating/retaining feces

\
Anal-expulsive (messy, wasteful, destructive) vs. Anal-retentive (orderly, rigid, obessive)

Phallic Stage

(3-6) primary focus on genitals - differences between male and females

\
Fixation can result in sexual deviancies or confused sexual identity

\
Freud believed that girls continued to possess feelings of envy or inferiority --penis envy

Latency Stage

(6-puberty) focus on intellectual and social responsibilities, dormant sexual feelings

\
Important stage for development of communication skills and self-confidence

Genital Stage

(puberty on) sexual desires renewed - seek relationship with others

\
Problems that emerge in this stage are carried over from earlier stages

Oedipus complex

boys in love with their mothers

Electra complex:

girls in love with their fathers

identification

boys identify with their dads

Penis envy

girls desire to have a penis; jealous of boys

Fixation

occurs when development is stopped at a particular stage

Erik Erikson

known for 8 stages of Psychosocial development

\
thought that personality develops throughout their lifetime

basic trust vs. mistrust

(infancy-1) if needs are dependably met, infants develop a sense of basic trust

Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt

(1-3) toddlers learn to exercise their will and do things for themselves, or they doubt their abilities

initiative vs. guilt

(3-6) preschoolers learn to initiate tasks and carry out plans, or they feel guilty about their efforts to be independent

competance/industry vs inferiority

(6-puberty) children learn the pleasure of applying themselves to tasks, or they feel inferior

indentity vs role confusion

(teens years into 20s) teenagers work at refining a sense of self by testing roles and then integrating them to form a single identity, or thy become confused about who they are

intimacy vs. isolation

(20-40) young adults struggle to form close relationships and to gain the capacity for intimate love, or they feel socially isolated

Generativity vs. Stagnation

\n (40-60) discover a sense of contributing to the world, usually through family and work, or they may feel a lack of prupose

integrity vs despair

(60-up) reflecting on their lives, may feel a sense of satisfaction or failure

Baumrind parenting styles

\n Authoritative \n • Authoritarian \n • Permissive \n • Uninvolved

Authoritative

\n Parent is warm, attentive \n and sensitive to child’s \n needs and interests.

(reasonable demands)

\
resulting child behavior:

good social skills, self-reliant,

independent

Authoritarian

\n Parent is cold and \n rejecting; frequently \n degrades the child. (highly demanding)

\
resulting child behavior:

unsociable, unfriendly, withdrawn

Permissive

\n Parent is warm but may \n spoil the child

(few demands - concern for childs self esteem) (kids best friend)

\
Resulting child behavior:

immature, moody, dependent, low self-control

Uninvolved

\n Parent is emotionally \n detached, withdrawn and \n inattentive.

(few demands - lacking interest or expectations for child)

\
resulting child behavior:

indifferent, undisciplined, rejecting behavior

What a permissive parent would say

“whatever you want”

What an authoritative parent would say

“let’s discuss this”

What an authoritarian parent would say

“because I said so!”

What an uninvolved parent would say

“i don’t care”

Leisure time

Children learn through play... very important to \n development and not a “waste of time.”

Kohlberg’s Moral Ladder

Preconventional, conventional, postconventional

Level 1: preconventional

Stage 1: avoiding punishment

stage 2: “getting what you want” by reciprocity

Level 2: conventional

Stage 3: meeting the expectations of others

Stage 4: fulfilling duties and upholding laws

Level 3: post-conventional

stage 5: sensing the democracy and relativity of rules

stage 6: self-selecting universal principles

Adolescence

\n the transition period from childhood to adulthood \n • extending from puberty to independence \n – the “teens,” from ages 13 to 19

Puberty

the period of sexual maturation

Height in boys and girls

chidlhood: similar \n puberty: girl taller \n adult: boys taller