Psych exam 2

Chapter 8 information

NAEYC standards

–Breastfeeding is encouraged \n –Babies are put to sleep on their back \n –Adult to infant ratio is 1:4 \n –Health standards \n –Engage infants in face-to-face \n interactions

Growth Patterns

• Children slim down as \n lower body lengthens \n • Age 2 through 6, healthy \n children add: \n - Almost 3 inches in height \n - About 4 1/2 pounds in \n weight

As family income decreases, both malnutrition and obesity increase

– Obesity is a sign of poor nutrition \n – Parents may underestimate overweight child’s weight \n – Some improvements have occurred in diets and day- \n care activities

Nutrition and Nutritional Deficiencies In developed nations

• Most children consume more than enough calories \n • Sugar consumption is often encouraged by customs \n • About 3-8% of children are allergic to a specific food

Brain Development

• Primary reason for faster thinking is myelination \n • Myelin = fatty coating on the axons \n - Speeds signals between neurons \n - Makes 5-year-olds much quicker than 3-year-olds

Corpus callosum

– Long, thick band of nerve fibers \n – Connects the left and right hemispheres \n – Allows communication between them

Lateralization

– Specialization in certain functions by each side of the brain \n – One side dominant for each activity

Lateralization Continued

• Certain functions are located more in one \n the hemisphere of the brain than in the other \n • Left hemisphere > Verbal competence \n • Right hemisphere > Nonverbal areas

Maturation of prefrontal cortex

– Improvements in: \n • Sleep \n • Emotions \n • Temper tantrums

\n Immaturity of the prefrontal cortex

– Still show some impulsive behavior \n – Perservation \n • Sticking to one action for a long \n period of time

Gross Motor Skills

• Motor skills advance due to: \n –Brain maturation \n –Motivation \n –Guided practice \n • Influenced by culture & urbanization

Fine Motor Skills

– Influenced by practice and maturation \n – On average, mature 6 months earlier in females \n • All forms of artistic expression increases in early childhood \n – Correlated with later creative drawing \n – Due to adult encouragement, child practice, and \n developing technical skill

Avoidable Injury

• Parents typically want to: \n –Protect their children from injury \n –Foster children’s growth \n –Young children die more from accidents than \n any other specific cause \n –U.S. 2- to 6-year-olds are at greater risk than \n slightly older children

Injury Control (Age-related dangers)

– Falls \n – Motor-vehicle deaths \n – Poison \n – Fire \n – Drowning

Injury control (harm reduction)

– Safety surfaces \n – Car seats \n – Bike helmets \n – Safety containers for medications \n – Pool monitoring

Chapter 9 information

Piaget: Preoperational intelligence (2-6 years)

– Includes imagination and language \n • Internal images of experience  Children \n label with words \n – Logical, operational thinking is not yet possible \n – Symbolic thought = major accomplishment \n • Helps explain animism

Animism

• Belief that natural objects \n and phenomena are alive \n – Lifelike qualities

• Research today suggests \n that Piaget may have \n overestimated use of \n animism

Piaget: Preoperational Thought (conversation)

• Principle that the amount of a substance remains the same (i.e., is conserved) when its appearance changes \n • Preschoolers cannot do this \n • Why is this challenging? \n Centration and Irreversibility

Limitations of Piaget’s research

1. Piagetian conservation tasks require words
2. When tasks are modified, younger children
may perform better
3. Piaget underestimated cognition during early
childhood

Vygotsky: Social Learning

• Cognitive development is embedded in the social context \n • Children are curious, observant, always asking questions

Mentors

1. Present challenges
– Zone of Proximal Development
– Scaffolding
2. Offer assistance (without taking over)
3. Add crucial information
4. Encourage motivation

Theory of mind

– Involves a person's theory of what other \n people might be thinking \n – Emergent ability \n – Become aware that someone else might have \n false beliefs

Language Learning and Development

Comprehension is always greater than production

Fast-mapping

Learning a word after one exposure

Overregularization grammer

Applying rules of grammar when they should not

Pragmatics grammer

– Adjusting language according to audience and \n context \n – See pragmatics in pretend play

Effective Strategies and Experiences \n that aid Reading

• Code-focused teaching \n • Book-reading \n • Parent education \n • Language enhancement \n • Preschool programs

Homes and schools: Quality matters

Teacher–child interaction relates to learning

Child-centered or developmental programs

– Stress each child’s development and growth \n – Allow children to follow their own interests \n – Influenced by Piaget and Vygotsky

Teacher-directed programs

– Goal: Make child “ready to \n learn” for elementary school \n – Stress academic subjects \n – Taught by a teacher to an \n entire class

Which approach works best?

– Child-centered is encouraged \n by developmentalists

Intervention programs: Head Start

– Originated in 1960s \n – Belief in serving the “whole child” \n – Children show immediate IQ gains; increases do \n not last \n – Benefits strongest for children: \n • In poverty \n • In rural areas \n • With disabilities

Developmentally Appropriate \n Educational Practice (Psychologist David Elkind)

• Society tends to push young children too much •Believed that children require developmentally appropriate educational practice

–Education is based on:


1. Typical development of a child
2. Unique characteristics of a child

•Learning should be encouraged, not pushed

Chaper 10

Initiative

• Eager to try new tasks & join peer activities \n • Try out new skills through play \n • Discover what they can do with adult support

Guilt

• Overly strict conscience (superego)  too much guilt \n –Excessive punishment, criticism or threats from \n adults \n • Less effort to play and master new tasks

Self-concept

• Person's understanding of who he or she is \n • Involves: \n – Self-esteem \n – Physical appearance \n – Personality and other personal traits \n • Connected to parental confirmation

Protective optimism

– Young children are not realistic \n – Confidence in self helps young children to persist

Intrinsic motivation

–Drive to pursue a goal comes from \n inside a person \n –Seen when children invent \n imaginary friends

Extrinsic motivation

–Drive to pursue a goal comes from \n the need to have achievements \n rewarded from outside

\n Play with peers > positive social skills.

• Playmates
– People of about the same age and social status
– Are preferred play partners over parents
• Developmentalists fear that play is challenged by:


1. Push towards mastery of academic skills
2. Rise of electronic media
3. More controlling adults

Solitary play:

A child plays alone, unaware of any other children playing nearby

Onlooker play:

A child watches other children play

Parallel play:

Children play with similar toys in similar ways, but not together

Associative play:

Children interact, observing each other and sharing material, but their play is not yet mutual and reciprocal

Cooperative play:

Children play together, creating and elaborating a joint activity or taking turns

Rough-and-tumble play

• Mimics aggression with \n no intention to harm \n • Expressions and gestures \n signify “pretending” \n • Common among males \n • Advances social \n understanding, but increase \n likelihood of injury

Sociodramatic play

• Explore/rehearse social \n rules \n • Learn to explain ideas to \n playmates \n • Practice emotional \n regulation \n • Develop self-concept

Playful interactions with other children increase:

– Empathy development \n • Understanding of feeling/concerns of others

Four general aggression types

–Instrumental aggression \n –Reactive aggression \n –Relational aggression \n –Bullying aggression

Caregiving styles: Dimensions (Baumrind)

–Expressions of warmth \n –Strategies for discipline \n –Communication \n –Expectations for maturity

Authoritative

– High acceptance & involvement, adaptive control, \n autonomy-granting \n – Warm, attentive, sensitive to child’s needs

why is authoritative the best style?

1. Model caring concern and self-controlled behavior
2. Promote compliance fairly and reasonably
3. Convey to children that they are competent
4. Foster self-esteem and maturity

Authoritarian

• Low acceptance, involvement, and autonomy granting \n • Controlling: Yell, threaten, criticize \n • Appear cold and rejecting

Permissive

• Warm and accepting, but uninvolved \n • Lax and require little of their children \n • Let children make decisions before they are ready

Neglectful/Uninvolved

\n • Little/no interest in their children \n • Indifferent about autonomy \n • Emotionally detached \n • Depressed or overwhelmed by life stress

Corporal punishment: Punishment that physically \n hurts the body

– Increases obedience temporarily \n – Also increases potential later bullying and aggression, \n delinquency, and abusive behavior \n – In some cultures it is illegal, in others it is the norm

Psychological control

– Involves threatening to withdraw love and support \n – Relies on child's feelings of guilt and gratitude to \n parents

Time-out

– Child is separated from people/activities for a \n specified time \n – For some children, time out is effective \n – Sometimes it produces anger without changing \n child’s behavior \n – Induction often occurs

Methods of discipline vary in \n consequences and effectiveness, \n depending on:

–Temperament \n –Culture \n –Adult–child relationship

Sex and gender differences

– Sex differences: Differences in male/female biology \n • Differences in organs, hormones, and body type \n – Gender differences: Differences male/female roles \n and behaviors

Awareness of gender

– Age 2, children apply gender labels \n – Age 4, children convinced that certain toys and roles \n are “best suited” for one sex or the other \n – Ages 3-6, in the US sexual stereotypes are obvious \n – Children on Gender Roles

Biological Approach

• Gender-related hormones (androgens) \n • Exhibit gender differences for survival of species

Social Learning Approach

• Learn about gender by observing others \n • Rewards > Conforming to gendered behaviors

Cognitive Approach

• Gender schemas \n • Gender constancy

Ideas for Reducing Gender Stereotyping In \n Young Children

1. Delay exposure to gender stereotyped messages
2. Limit gender roles in own behavior
3. Provide nontraditional alternatives
4. Ensure that children spend time in mixed-gender
activities
5. Point out exceptions to gender stereotypes

Middle Childhood

• Ages 6 to 11 \n • Fatal diseases and \n accidents are rare \n • Minor illnesses are \n less common than a \n few decades ago \n – Healthiest years of the \n life span

Growth is slow and steady

• Teeth \n –Baby teeth are lost \n –Permanent teeth come in \n • Muscles become stronger \n –Includes hearts and lungs \n –Children run faster and exercise longer

Obesity in 6- to 11-year-olds

• Eat too much, exercise too little > \n overweight/obese \n • > 42 million overweight children around \n the world \n • Correlates with asthma, high blood \n pressure, and elevated cholesterol

The Blame Game

Who or what is responsible for childhood obesity? \n – Genes \n – Parents \n – Policies

Measuring the Mind

• Aptitude \n – Potential to master a specific skill or to learn a certain body of knowledge \n • IQ test \n – Test designed to measure intellectual aptitude, or ability to learn in school \n • Flynn effect \n – Rise in average IQ scores that has occurred over the decades in many nations

Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences

1. Linguistic
2. Logico-mathematical
3. Musical
4. Spatial
5. Bodily-kinesthetic
6. Naturalist
7. Interpersonal
8. Intrapersonal

ADHD is marked by:

–Great difficulty concentrating for periods of time \n –Inattentiveness \n –Impulsiveness \n –Overactivity \n • Interferes with home and school functioning \n • Increases in ADHD diagnosis are concerning: \n –Misdiagnosis \n –Drug abuse \n –Normal behavior is considered pathological

Treatment for ADHD

–Training for family and child \n • Behavior therapy \n –Special education for children \n • Mainstreaming \n –Medication/Drug treatment

Dyslexia

– Unusual difficulty with \n reading \n – Possibly results from \n some neurological \n underdevelopment

Dyscalculia

– Unusual difficulty with \n math \n – May originate from a \n distinct part of the brain

Children with ASD are:

– Less likely to understand others’ emotions \n – Less likely to talk/play with other children \n – Delayed at developing theory of mind \n – Showing signs in infancy

Children with Severe ASD

– May not talk \n – Rarely smile \n – Can play for hours with one object \n – May be talented in a certain area

Gifted children:

• High IQ \n • Divergent thinker

Approaches

• Special teachers \n • Tracking \n – Putting gifted children \n together in the same \n learning environment

Concrete operational thought

\n Ability to reason logically about direct experiences \n – Classification (most children do this by age 8) \n • Organization into groups or categories based on a \n shared characteristic \n – Seriation \n • Knowledge that things can be arranged in logical \n series

Information-processing theory

Compares human thinking processes to computer \n analysis of data

Like computers, people sense and perceive \n large amounts of information:

– Seek relevant information (as a search engine does) \n – Analyze (as software programs do) \n – Express conclusions so another person can \n understand (as a networked computer or a printout \n might do)

Information Processing and Brain Growth

• Brain growth seen in neurological scans \n confirms that this approach is useful: \n • Children learn step by step \n – Gradually advancing as neurological domain \n connections spread \n • Hubs develop where massive numbers of \n axons meet: \n – Reading and related skills \n – Social skills \n – Automatization

Information Processing

\n Extensive knowledge base \n makes it easier to master \n new, related information \n – Factors influencing \n knowledge base \n • Experience \n • Current opportunity \n • Personal motivation \n – Control processes \n • Emotional regulation \n • Selective attention

Understanding metaphors

School-age children comprehend and enjoy: \n – Puns \n – Unexpected answers to normal questions \n – Metaphors \n • New cognitive flexibility and social awareness  Funny

Pragmatics

• Ability to use words/devices to communicate in various contexts \n • Allow children to change formal/informal codes to fit audience \n – Can switch from one manner of speaking to another

Children can become bilingual by:

1. Learning two languages at once
2. Learning first language, then a second

ilingual children engage in code switching

– Sentence in one language contains “guest” words from other

Causes for Code Switching

1. Child may lack vocabulary of one language
2. Parents are likely to do so
3. Expression of cultural identity
• Code switching may facilitate bilingual development

U.S. Bilingual Children

• More children in the \n United States are now \n bilingual \n • More of them speak \n English well

Determining Educational Practice

• Central government sets public education in most nations \n • In US, local jurisdictions provide most funds/guidelines

types of educational practice

• Public schools \n • Charter schools \n • Private schools \n – Vouchers \n • Home schooling

Schooling in the United States

\n Most national tests indicate  in U.S. children’s academic \n performance \n – Over the past decade \n – Far from the top in an international context \n • In 2014, U.S. public schools include “majority minority” \n • Schools more segregated than 40 years earlier \n • Children not always treated equally \n • Disparities linked to race and income

True Grit or Test Achievement?

• Instead of focusing on test scores, maybe \n we should focus on characteristics \n – Grit: Persistence and effort \n • Long term: Grit  Achievement \n – Also important to have at least one adult who \n encourages accomplishment

Chapter 13

Self-concept

More complex and logical

self-concept due to increased…

– Cognitive development and social awareness \n – Social comparison \n – Effortful control