Developmental Psyc Exam 1

What is development

• Pattern of movement or change that begins at conception and continues through the life span

  • Includes growth, decline, dying

What is the average and maximum life span in US

79/122

What are Paul Baltes Characteristics of Development

• Lifelong

• Multidimensional

• Multidirectional

• Plastic

  • Constantly able to change

• Contextual

  • All develop occurs within a context

    • Families, neighborhoods, schools, workplace

• Multidisciplinary

• Involves growth, maintenance, regulation of loss

• Biological sociocultural, and individual factors working together

What are the periods of development

1. Prenatal period

   1. Conception to birth

2. Infancy

   1. Birth to 18-24 months

3. Early Childhood

   1. 3-5 years

4. Middle and late childhood

   1. 6-10/11 years

5. Adolescence

   1. 10-12 to 18-21 years

6. Early adulthood

   1. 20s-30s

7. Middle adulthood

   1. 40s-50s

8. Late adulthood

   1. 50s-70s to death

How can we conceptualize age?

• Chronological age

  • Number of years since birth

• Biological age

  • Age in terms of biological heath

• Psychological age

  • Adaptive capacities compared with others of the same chronological age

• Social age

  • Connections with others and the social roles that individuals adopt

What are the patterns of aging

Normal

Pathological - greater than average decline

Successful - later decline in health than average

theory

An interrelated, coherent set of ideas that helps to explain phenomena and make predictions

Hypothesis

Specific assertions and predictions that can be tested

Freud’s psychoanalytic theory

• Describe development as primarily as unconscious and heavily influenced by emotions

• Early experiences with parents shape development

• Stress the importance of the unconscious

What is Erikson’s Theory?

Primary motivation for human behavior is social -> reflects a desire to affiliate with other people

What is Skinner’s Operant Conditioning

• Consequences of a behavior produce changes in the probability of a behaviors occurrence

• Rewards and punishments shape behavior

Ethological Theory

• behavior is strongly influenced by biology, tied to evolution, and characterized by critical or sensitive periods

• Attachment during first year of the life has a consequences throughout the life span

• Secure attachment predicts optimal development

Ecological Theory

Emphasizes environmental factors in development

• Development reflects the influence of several environmental systems

  • Microsystem

    • Where individual lives, friends, church group etc.

  • Mesosystem

    • Relationships between microsystems

  • Exosystemic

    • Experiences in other social settings

      • Mass media, online

      • Legal services

      • Friends of family

      • Neighbors

  • Macrosystem

    • General culture where individual lives

      • USA -> Texas -> Ft. Worth

  • Chronosystem

    • Time

What is the difference between correlational and experimental research design?

• Correlation research

  • Describe the strength and direction of the relationship

  • Correlation coefficient: a number used to describe the degree of association between two variables (+1.00 to -1.00) 

  • Correlation does NOT equal causation

• Experimental research

  • Determine if one factor causes another

    • IV: factor manipulated

    • DV: factor that may change; measured by the researcher

    • Experiment group: Group who is being tested

    • Control group: group that is not manipulated

    • Random assignment: determines which group participants will be placed in

What is Natural Selection

• Individuals best adapted to their environment are most likely to survive and reproduce

  • Their characteristics are passed onto the next generation

  • Over generations, organisms with the characteristics best suited for survival make up an increased percentage of the population

• Emphasizes adaptation, reproduction, and survival of the fittest in shaping behavior

Chromosomes

Threadlike Structures made up of DNA

DNA

Complex molecule that contains genetic information

Genes

The basic unit of hereditary information

methylation

turns genes off

Mitosis vs Meiosis

• Body cells reproduce through mitosis

  • The nucleus duplicate itself and divides (two identical cells)

  • The new cells each contain the same DNA as the original

• Sperm and egg cells are formed through Meiosis

  • A cell of the testes or ovaries duplicates chromosomes but divides twice, forming four cells

  • Each has half the genetic material of the original

    

Sources of Variability

• Genotype

  • All of a persons actual genetic materials

    • genes

• Dominant Gene

  • Overrides expression of the recessive gene

    • Always going to express itself when present

• Phenotype

  • Observable and measurable characteristics of an individual

    • Expression of genes ex: blue eyes

• Recessive gene

  • Only exerts influence if both genes in the pair are recessive

What are down syndrome, Fragile X syndrome, and Turner syndrome?

• Down syndrome

  • Extra chromosome causing intellectual disability

• Fragile X

  • Abnormality in X chromosome, causes intellectual disability, short attention span

• Turner Syndrome

  • Missing X chromosome in females, intellectual disability, sexual underdevelopment

Compare passive, evocative, and active/niche-picking genotype-environment correlations.

• Passive genotype-environment correlations

  • Occur because biological parents provide the rearing environment

• Evocative genotype-environment correlations

  • Occur because a child's genetically influenced characteristics elicit certain types of environments

• Active (niche-picking) genotype-environment correlations

  • Occur when children seek out environments they find compatible and stimulating

What are the periods of prenatal development and their key characteristics?

• Conception: when a single sperm cell unites with an ovum in a process called fertilization

• Germinal period

  • First 2 weeks after conception

  • Creation of fertilized egg; cell division; attachment of zygote to uterine wall (implantation)

• Embryonic period

  • 2-3 weeks after conception

  • Cell differentiation massively increases; support systems for cell form

  • Organogenesis

    • Building of certain organs

• Fetal period

  • Lasts about 7 months

  • Fetus is viable about 6 months after conception

  • Average birth weight is 8 lbs.

Neural Tube

The structure that forms from the ectoderm during embryonic development, which later develops into the brain and spinal cord.

Neural Migration

Neurons move to their destination in the brain, then a mature into a more complex structures

Neurogenisis

• Massive proliferation of new neurons.

• At the peak, roughly 200,000 neurons are created per minute

What are the stages of birth and their key characteristics?

• First stage: uterine Contractions

  • 15-20 min apart

  • Cervix stretches and opens to 10cm

  • For a fist child, average of 6-12 hours

• Second Stage

  • Begins when baby's head moves through cervix until baby's body emerges

  • 45 mins - 1 hour

  • Contractions almost every minute

• Third Stage: Afterbirth

  • Placenta, umbilical cord, and other membranes are detached and expelled

  • A few Minutes

Cephalocaudal pattern of growth

• Growth sequence that gradually works from top to bottom of the body

• Typically, sensory and motor development proceeds according to this pattern

Proximodistal Pattern of growth

Growth sequence in which growth starts at the center of the body and moves toward the extremities

Menarche

a girl’s first menstruation occurring late in the pubertal cycle

Puberty

Brain neuroendocrine process that stimulates rapid physical changes, primarily in adolescence

Gonadotropins

• Hormones that stimulate the testes or ovaries

  • Promotes changes in sperm production, menstruation, release of eggs

Testosterone

• a hormone associated in boys with the development of genitals, increased height, and deepening of the voice

Estradiol

a type of the hormone estrogen associated in girls with breast, uterine, and skeletal development

Climacteric

• Midlife transition in which fertility declines

Menopause

• End of menstrual periods, usually late 40s-50s

Lobes of the brain

• frontal

• occipital - vision

• temporal - hearing, language

• parietal - attention, motor control, spatial location

What are the parts of a neuron

1.     Cell body + Nucleus

2.     Axon

3.     Dendrite

4.     Myeline Sheath

5.     Node of Ranvier

6.     Axon Terminal

7.     Synapse

Myelination

• The process of encasing axons with a myelin sheath, improving the speed and efficiency of information processing

Lateralization

Specialization of function in one hemisphere

Acetylcholine

memory loss (Alzheimer's disease)

Dopamine

Decreased motor control (Parkinson's disease)

How much REM sleep do infants get

about half of their sleep is REM, compared to 1/5 for adults

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

• SIDS occurs when infants stop breathing, usually during the night, and die without apparent cause

• Infants should be placed to sleep on their backs 

Evolutionary theory of aging

Natural Selection is linked with reproductive fitness

Hormonal Stress theory of aging

body has lower resistance to stress and disease

What are the leading causes of death for each developmental period?

Children: Malnutrition

Adolescent: Health Compromising Behaviors

Young adults: Chronic Health Problems

Adults: Cancer

Compare adolescent and emerging adulthood health.

Adolescent's health

• Adolescents is a critical juncture for adopting behaviors that affect health

• Social contexts influence adolescent health

  • Families, peers, schools, neighbors, and culture

  • Making adolescents have a limited capacity to resist peer pressure and risk taking

Emerging and Young adults health

• Emerging adults have more than twice the mortality rates of adolescents

• Many know how to be healthy but don’t apply the information to their own behavior

Dementia

Neurological disorder in which the primary symptoms involve deterioration of mental function

Alzheimer Disease

A progressive, irreversible brain disorder characterized by gradual deterioration of memory, reasoning, language, and physical function

What is Parkinson disease?

• Chronic, progressive disease characterized by muscle tremors, slowed movements, and partial facial paralysis

  • Triggered by degeneration of dopamine producing neurons in the brain

Anorexia Nervosa

• Eating disorder that involves a relentless pursuit of thinness through starvation

• Weight loss due to food intake restriction

Bulimia Nervosa

An eating disorder that involves a consistent binge-and-purge eating

Define binge drinking.

Emerging adults are MOST likely to engage in Binge-drinking

Binge drinking is 5+ drinks in a row

rooting reflex

When an infants cheek is stroked or the side of mouth is touched, the infant turns its head and tries to find something to suck

Sucking reflex

• Occurs when infants suck an object placed in their mouth

• Enables infant to get nourishment before it associates a nipple with food

Moro Reflex

• A startle response to sudden intense noise or movement

• Newborns arch their back, through back their head, fling out limbs then close them

• Coughing, sneezing, blinking, shivering, yawning

Grasping reflex

Infants tightly grasp an object placed in their palm

What are the motor develop milestones?

1.     Prone, lift head

2.     Prone, chest up, use arms for support

3.     Roll over

4.     Support some weight with legs

5.     Sit without support

6.     Stand with support

7.     Pull self to stand

8.     Walk using furniture for support

9.     Stand alone easily

10. Walk alone easily

How does motor development change over the lifespan?

Motor development improves until around age 30, than it begins to decrease

Fine motor skills

• Finely tuned movements, such as any task requiring finger dexterity

• Infants have hardly any control over fine motor skills at birth

Gross Motor Skills

• Those that involved large activities, such as ones arms or walking

• Gross motor skills development requires postural control

• Dynamic process linked with

  • Sensory information in skin, joints, and muscles

  • Vestibular organs in the inner ears that regulate balance and equilibrium

  • Vision and hearing

Sensation

• A reaction that occurs when information interacts with sensory receptors

Presbyopia

Difficulty viewing close objects, and an increased blind spot

Cataracts

• A thickening of the lens of the eye

  • Causes vision to become cloudy, opaque, and distorted

  • Results in partial loss of vision by 70 for 30% of people

Macular Degeneration

• Causes deterioration of the macular of the retina, which corresponds to the focal center of the visual field

• Normal peripheral vision, unable to see right in front of them

Glaucoma

Damage to the optic nerve due to pressure created by fluid buildup in the eye

When do infants/fetuses develop smell and taste?

Smell

• Newborns can differentiate odors (ex: breast pads)

Taste

• Sensitivity to taste is present even before birth

Intermodal Perception

• The ability to integrate information about 2 or more sensory modalities such as vision or hearing

Palmer Grasp

Grasp with whole hand

Pincer Grasp

Grasp small objects with finger and thumb

perception

The interpretation of what is sensed

Accommodation of the eye

• The eyes ability to focus and maintain an image on the retina

  • Declines most sharply at 40-59 years of age

Outcomes of Breastfeeding (for the child)

Lower likely-hood of SIDS

No evidence that it protects against allergies

osteoporosis

Extensive loss of bone tissue