Human Development Study Guide

Development Psychology

The study of the physical, cognitive and social changes that we experience throughout our life spans

Stability changes

What aspects are presents throughout your life and what have changed.

Nature/Nurture

How do both genetics and environment influence your development

Continuity/changes

Is development a continual, gradual process, or do we develop in a series of stages?

What are age changes? Age differences?

Age changes track how individual change as they age while age differences consider how people of varying ages differ from on another

Cross sectional studies

Observing different individuals at different ages to track age differences

Longitudinal studies

Observing the same people over and over period of time to track age changes

What do developmental psychologists study?

They study physical development from the womb to the grave as our physical characteristics impact our behavior throughout the lifespan

What impact does smoking, drinking and stress have on the womb?

Such chemicals and viruses can infiltrate the womb and cause birth defects. Can also cause premature births or babies, physical and cognitive abnormalities, and mental retardation

How many brain cells are we born with?

23 billion. We are born with all our brain cells but our nervous system is still immature

What ages does your brain experience the greatest growth spurt in the frontal lobes?

Ages 3-6

Promiodistal rule

The tendency of motor skills to emerge in a sequence from inside to outside. As a child, the center of your body possessed motor skills before the outer body.

Promiodistal rule

The tendency of motor skills to emerge in a sequence from inside to outside. As a child, the center of your body possessed motor skills before the outer body.

The impact of puberty and brain development

Our bodies go through physical changes and allow us to reproduce. Growth spurts in height, changes in body shaped and development of primary and secondary sex characteristics. Adolescents deal with different rates of development in their brains. Teens may feel like adults, but lack the ability to make sensible decisions and engaged in risky behaviors

Physical and brain decline in the elderly

Decline in vision, muscle strength, reaction time, stamina, hearing, distance perception and sense of smell. Memory decline may also be explained by the gradual loss of brain cells that begins in early adulthood. Most of the cell loss tends to occur in the frontal lobe which handle memory storage and other higher mental functions.

Assimilation

Interpreting new experiences in terms of existing schemas. Ex: a child with a pet cat might see a dog for the first time and say “cat” because both animals have four legs and fur

Accommodation

A person adjusting to refining his or her schema based on new information. Ex: once he or she has learned about the differences between cats and dogs.

Piagets theory of cognitive development

His theory described two processes by which we adjust our schemas or concepts or frameworks around which we organize and interpret information. Mental development derives from children interactions with the world around them.

Formal operational stage in Piagets Stages

12 years- adulthood. People begin to think logically about abstract concepts

Concrete operational stage in Piagets stages

7-12. Children gain the mental operations that allow them to think logically think. They become better at solving problems and understanding cause and effect effect situations. The limitation is that children have difficulty understanding abstract ideas and hypothetical situations they cannot see or experience directly

Pre operational stage of Piagets stages

2-7 years. Children learn to use language but do not yet possess the abilities to understand mental operations of concrete logic

Sensorimotor stage in Piagets Stages

Birth- 2 years. Infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities (looking, hearing, touching, mouthing, and grasping)

Hypothetical thinking

Imagining possibilities or impossibilities

Conservation

The principle that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite the objects changes in the form

Egocentrism

In the preoperational stage. They tend to think one dimensionally or focus on one aspect of a problem or situation at a time, then have difficulty seeing things from another’s point of view. The world “revolves around me”

Animism

The belief that inanimate objects have feelings, thoughts or life

A pre operational stage child has not mastered conservation. What does this mean a child cannot do?

They cannot understand that the amount of something stays the same even when its shape or appearance changes

Theory of mind

Ideas about their own versus others mental states- they can infer others feelings

Object permanence

Young infants lack this. It is the awareness that objects continue to exist when they are no longer in sight. By 8 months children begin to have O.P.

Toward the end of the 2nd year of life what do children begin to do according to Piaget?

The children begin mental trial and error before acting. They can imagine actions and think about where a hidden object might be instead of trial and error. This stage comes to an end once children begin to speak and represent ideas with words

As a child becomes less egocentric what type of cognitive development has emerged?

The ability to understand that other people have their own thoughts, feelings and perspectives that way be different from your own

Reversibility

The ability to recognize objects can be reversed back into their original condition

Imaginary audience

The belief that other people are as concerned with our thought and behavior as we are

Personal fable

The belief that our feelings and ideas are special, even unique and we are invulnerable

Level 1- Preconventional

People in this level range from 0-6/7. Moral judgments are based in this level on the consequences of their behavior. They do not have the cognitive ability to think abstractly or choose not to

Stage 1- Punishment-Obedience

If a person is punished for the moral decision then it must be BAD. If the person is praised for the moral decision, then it must be GOOD

Stage 2- Self interested exchanged

A person (child) recognizes that others have needs and if a person’s (child’s) moral decision can benefit him/herself at the same time then the decision is right.  “You scratch my back I will scratch yours.”  The moral decision is still about the person’s (child’s) behavior – similar to egocentrism.

Level 2- Conventional

People in this level usually range from 7-14/15.  Moral judgments are based in this level on following social concerns and meeting the needs and expectations of others.  In other words, how others view you will determine your moral decision.  Thinking more abstractly is involved.

Stage 3 -Good Boy/Good Girl

A moral decision is largely based on pleasing important people in a person’s life (authority figures and people of high status).  It is important to be seen in a positive light.

Stage 4-Law and Order

 A moral decision is based on following the rules and laws of society.  A decision is determined by understanding that society expects certain behaviors based on rules and the commonly accepted behavior for society.  *Most stop at this level.

Level 3- Postconventional

People in this level are older than 16/17.  According to Kohlberg most people do not reach this level.  Moral judgements at this level are based on a person’s own standards or conscience.  Reasons for moral judgements are not so “black and white” but rather “gray.”  Principles can override rules and laws.  Abstract thinking is at its highest.

Stage 5- social contract

In general, people agree to what the laws should be and agree to follow them b/c it is for the good of all.  However, there may be reasons that the laws should be broken, or rules not followed as breaking them may, in the long run, be for the betterment of the whole.  Martin Luther King and Ghandi believed that some laws needed to be broken as they were unjust.  Moral decisions are based, then, on ones’ view of the good for society.

Stage 6- universal ethical principles

People make moral decsions based on their own set of ethical standards of justice, sanctity of life, dignity, and the Golden Rule.  Moral decisions are based on a person’s own code, not societal rules.

 

Morality

Principles, values and standards that distinguish choices between right and wrong, good and bad

Socialization

The process by which a person learns and shapes his/her behavioral patterns according to the society in which he/she lives.  “Learning the ropes” of society is another way to put it.

What influences our growth other than physical changes?

Those around us also heavily influence our “growth”.  The larger culture we live in also influences us. (family, peers, media, school, religion)

 

Apprentice role

Humans learn more and develop cognitively when together with a competent person

What role does unsupervised play affords us?

It gives us the ability to resolve conflicts using reason rather than parental supervisions

Advantages of mixed-aged children playing

Older children “check” their competitiveness as they play and younger children can learn more advanced skills by watching older children.

Erikson’s Theory of Social Development

that the ability to establish intimate, caring relationships and find fulfillment are the primary tasks of early and middle adulthood.

 

How is our peer group vital to our social and emotional development of our idenity

As we enter our teen years we search for who we are, we look to our peers for guidance and affirmation of our identities. (Being different is not desires)

How does “out of sight, out of mind’ for a child in the sensorimotor stage?

They do not yet understand that objects continue to exist when they cannot see them

Psychological benefits to work

Work has the same psychological benefits for adults as play does for children.  It encourages peer socialization, promotes problem solving, and help enhance our physical and mental skills. Most people say that work is positive if it is complex rather than simple, varied rather than routine, and not too closely supervised.

Theories on aging

The elderly disengage from social life and withdraw into their own memories, they are the happiest when they remain active, the elderly focus on enjoying the present and close relationships (socioemotional selectivity theory). Our moods become less extreme as we age

Sex

Our biological classification as either male or female based on sex chromosomes

Gender

The set of behaviors and characteristics that define individuals as boys and men or girls and women in society

Influences of a persons sex and gender in our development

Babies are treated differently due to their gender right when they come out the womb.a father may talk to his son about cars while a mother may read her daughter princess stories. Children are given gendered toys and may be discouraged from playing with toys typical of the other gender

Gender roles

Expectations about the way womens and men behave-that they are expected to fill. Ex: women will go on to raise children while their husbands serve as the breadwinners

Gender stereotype

A widely held concept about a person or group of people that is based only on gender

Sexism

Prejudice and unfair treatment against men or women based on gender stereotypes

Male answer syndrome

Men are more likely than women to guess at answers to difficult questions rather than reveal their uncertainty. Women are more receptive to feedback than men

Benevolent sexism

The acceptance of positive stereotypes or favorable biased behavior that propagates unfairness and inequalities based on gender. Ex: men opening doors for women, paying for their meal

Gender typed

Behaviors and ideas associated with each gender that are socially constructed. Women are viewed as emotional and nurturing and men are viewed as rational and dominant

Androgynous

Those who rate themselves equally on both masculine and feminine traits

Gender identity disorder

Causes a person to feel that he or she was born with the body of the wrong sex. They feel their gender does not match their body’s anatomy

Gender identity

Our sense of being a boy, or girl, man or woman

Androgynous

Social learning theory

we learn gender behavior by observing and imitating adults and responding to rewards and punishments.

Gender schema theory

Combines the social learning theory with cognition. As we development we form a framework for our gender and adjust our behavior to align with it

Behaviors boys exhibit

Being rough, participating in risky behavior, less mature, careless, don’t show worries or emotions

Behaviors girls exhibit

More conscious about body, looks and take care of ourselves more, organized. Emotional, dramatic

Self regulation

A child will obey the rules, practice self discipline while playing. Children that do this are more likely to grow up to be well-adjusted members of society

Sexism

Differences between men and women

Physically men have more muscle and less fat than women. They are taller, and reach puberty later, and die sooner than women. Men to better with spatial puzzles while women do better with words due to small differences in the brain. Men are more agressive and women are more likely to engage in more verbally aggressive behaviors like gossiping and spreading rumors