Human Growth & Development Study Guide Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering human growth and development topics including developmental theories, prenatal stages, motor skills, language development, and attachment styles.

How does your textbook define development?

The pattern of change beginning at conception and continuing throughout the lifespan.

What is nature versus nurture?

A scientific and philosophical debate that questions whether an individuals intelligence, personality and other characteristics are attributed by their biology or life experiences.

What are Erik Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development? What is the main conflict in the first stage?

Eight stages of human development, each representing a crisis that must be solved. First year of infancy (Trust vs mistrust), 1 to 3 years, 3 to 5 years, 6 years to puberty, 10 to 20 years, 20’s and 30’s, 40’s and 50’s, 60’s to death. Basic trust vs mistrust, where caregivers need to be responsive and meeting needs.

What are Sigmund Freud’s stages of psychosexual development? What is the focus of each stage?

Oral (Infant’s pleasure centers on the mouth), Anal (Child’s pleasure focuses on the anus), Phallic (Child’s pleasure focuses on genitals), Latency (Child represses sexual interest and develops social and intellectual skills), Genital (A time of sexual reawakening: source of sexual pleasure becomes someone outside the family)

What are Piaget’s stages of cognitive development? What are they key characteristics of the sensorimotor stage?

Children go through four stages of cognitive development as they actively construct their understanding of the world. Sensorimotor Stage (Birth-2 years of age), The infant constructs an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences with physical actions. An infant progresses from reflexive, instinctual action at birth to the beginning of symbolic thought toward the end of the stage.

What is Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Model? What are the different environmental systems it includes?

It is a model that explains how human development is shaped by five nested, interconnected environmental systems. These environmental systems are the microsystem (daily face-face settings), mesosystem (relationship between different microsystems), exosystem (external settings, ex parent’s workplace), macrosystem (overarching cultural, ideological and societal contexts), and chronosystem (the dimension of time)

What is Bandura’s Social Cognitive Model?

People learn by watching others, thinking about the actions, and interacting with the environment, typically repeating the action or similar.

What is a longitudinal study? Pros and cons?

A research strategy where the same individuals are studied over a period of time, usually several years or more. Pros: can measure change from real development and establishes chronological sequence by routine check-ins. Cons: Can be time consuming and expensive.

What is evolutionary developmental psychology? How does it explain human behavior?

How human behavior and mind have been shaped by evolution. It explains how through evolution, the human mind has developed certain frameworks of thinking that would help to survive e.g fear of snakes or selectiveness in partners.

What is Chorionic villus sampling (CVS)? When is it performed? What information does it provide during pregnancy?

It is a pre-natal diagnostic that takes a small tissue sample from the placenta to check for chromosomal abnormalities and genetic disorders. It is performed during the first trimester between 10-13 weeks. It tests for genetic information of the baby such as Down syndrome, cystic fibrosis etc.

What is ultrasound sonography? What information does it provide during pregnancy?

It is a pre-natal diagnostic that uses a safe, non-invasive imaging test to create a real time picture of the fetus’ soft tissues, organs, and blood flow. It can be used to monitor fetal growth and to check general health.

What is Meiosis?

Cell division forming eggs and sperm (gametes)

What is Mitosis?

The cellular reproduction in which the cell’s nucleus duplicates itself into two new cells.

What are the three periods of prenatal development? What occurs during each? Which trimester does each period take place in?

First trimester: Germinal and Embryonic period, this is where the zygote forms and the formation of the nervous, cardiac, respiratory, and gastrointestinal systems. This is also when the embryo forms after 2-8 weeks, developing a face, brain, and a heartbeat is detectable. Also when the “fetus” forms at 12 weeks, can move and move orally, can distinguish sex, can urinate. Second trimester: A strong heart beat forms, fingernails and hair, hiccups, and the skin is covered in vernix. Third trimester: Active around 28 weeks, periods of sleep/wakefulness, responds to sound, less active around 36-38 weeks, weighs 6-7.5 pounds. Germinal: First. Embryonic: First. Fetal: First, second, and third.

What drug options may be used during labor? What is the purpose of each?

Pain relief: To dull pain without stopping muscle movement. Anesthesia: To numb and block pain entirely in a region of the body. Epidural block: To provide continuous, highly effective regional pain relief for the lower half of the mother’s body while keeping her fully alert and awake. Oxytocin: To prompt uterine contractions during childbirth.

What are the stages of childbirth, and what occurs during each stage?

First stage: uterine contractions are 15-20 minutes apart and last up to 1 minutes. Longest stage, 6-12 hours, Cervix dilated to 10 inches. Second stage: Baby head moves through cervix and birth canal, takes 45-60 minutes. Third stage: afterbirth, when the placenta, umbilical chord, and other membranes are detached and expelled.

What is postpartum depression?

A condition experienced by women that have trouble coping with daily tasks during the postpartum period.

What is SIDS? What are the major risk factors?

Sudden unexplained death of an infant under 1 year old in their sleep. Typically from birth-6months.The risk factors of stomach/side sleeping, overheating, soft surfaces, loose bedding.

What is Kangaroo care and how does it support infant development?

Skin-to-skin contact with the baby upright against the parent’s bare chest. It can improve vital signs, supports brain development, and improve emotional bonds.

What are teratogens? Provide examples.

Any agent that can cause a birth defect or negatively alter cognitive and behavioral developmental outcomes.

What are reflexes? Why are they important for infant survival?

Built in reactions to stimuli that govern the newborn’s actions. They prepare them to interact with the world. They are foundation for later motor behavior and more complex actions.

What is the rooting reflex?

Occurs when the infant’s cheek is stroked, or the side of the mouth is touched. The infant turns their head to find something to suck.

What is the sucking reflex?

Occurs when newborns automatically suck an object in their mouth. Enables them to get nourishment before they have associated a nipple with food. Serves as a self-soothing mechanism.

What is the moro reflex?

Occurs in reaction to a sudden, intense noise or movement. The infant throws the head back, flings arms and legs, and arches the back, the contracts these movements. Believed to be a way of grabbing for support while falling.

What is the grasping reflex?

Occurs when something touches the infant’s palm. Responds by grasping tightly.

What is the Visual Cliff?

What infant’s perceive as a cliff.

How does the Visual Cliff demonstrate the development of depth perception?

It shows how they avoid falling from what the perceive as a big height.

What are gross motor skills? What are some examples?

Learning to walk. Babies can stand by 10 to 12 months and can alternate leg movements and balance on one leg without falling. They can also learn safe places to walk on. They can also practice motor skills.

What are fine motor skills? What are some examples?

Involve more finely tuned movements, such as finger dexterity. Include palmer grasp and pincer grasp.

What is the sensorimotor stage of cognitive development according to Piaget?

Coordination of senses with motor responses, sensory curiosity about the world. Language used for demands and cataloguing. Object permanence is developed.

What are Schemes? How do they help children understand the world?

Actions or representations to organize knowledge. Structured by simple actions that can be performed on objects. Ex. Sucking, looking, and grasping.

What is Assimilation?

Using existing schemes to deal with new information. Ex. Calling all moving vehicles on a road a car

What is Accommodation?

Adjusting schemes to fit new information/experiences. Ex. Learning about motorcycles and trucks.

What is language? How does it develop in infancy?

It is a form of communication. Infants can make distinctions between sounds of language. In the first six months, infants can recognize sound change regardless of language. In the second half of the first year, they begin to segment speech streams into words.

What is Broca’s Area? What role does it play in language?

The region in the brain’s left frontal lobe that is involved in speech production.

What is Wernicke’s Area? What role does it play in language comprehension?

The region in the brain’s left hemisphere that is involved in language comprehension.

What is Child-directed language?

Language spoken in a higher pitch and slower speed than normal, with simpler words and sentences.

What is the Genie Wiley case study? What does it reveal about language development?

It is when a young 13 year-old girl was found in a neglected home where she lived in isolation her entire life, thus never learning language. When she was in the process of rehabilitation, she never truly was able to relearn language which researchers have attributed to lesser used neurons being pruned, meaning her ability to learn language is permanently stunted.

How did Mary Ainsworth and John Bowlby’s contribute to our understanding of bonding and attachment?

Bowlby theorized a link between emotional understanding, conscience development, self-concept, and joint attention to attachment to caregivers. Mary Ainsworth created the Strange Situation experiment, that measured an infant’s experience through separation and reunion.

What is Attachment theory?

Infants develop an internal working model of attachment. Human survival and development depend on the close bonds infants form with their caregivers.

What are the different types of attachment? Define each.

Secure: Child becomes distressed but secure when the caregiver leaves and returns. Insecure-avoidant: The child is indifferent to caregiver’s presence and avoids them upon return. Insecure- resistant: Child is anxious before separation and becomes neutral or resistant to caregiver upon return. Disorganized: Child displays a mix of behaviors that indicate confusion or fear towards caregivers.

What is the Strange situation? How is it used to assess attachment?

Made by Mary Ainsworth an observational measure of infant attachment, takes 20 minutes, infant experiences a series of introductions, separations, and reunions with the caregiver and an adult stranger)