Baylor Psychology 1305 Exam 2 (Lawrence)

major issues developmental psychology focuses on

nature v nurture, continuity and stages, stability and change

stable and less stable?

personality = stable; social attitudes = less stable

fetuses responsive to sound

6 months - prefer mother's language and voice

teratogens

disease, drug, environmental gent that can harm a developing fetus

when are teratogens most effective

during critical period - first 6 to 7 months

effects of fetal alcohol syndrome

birth defects, behavioral problems, hyperactivity, and lower intelligence

if mother is extremely stressed while pregnant, what could happen

child could have hypertension, obesity, and psychiatric disorders

automatic reflex responses that newborns are born with

sucking, tonguing, swallowing, breathing

habituation

decrease in response from repeated simulation

maturation

orderly sequence of biological growth

areas of brain first to develop

frontal lobes - in charge of attention and area

areas of brain last to develop

association areas - thinking, memory, language

what guides motor development

genes - identical twins usually have same pace of motor development

when do we start recalling conscious memories

after 3rd year - called infantile amnesia

Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory

Freud's idea of development of personality

identity

animal instinct - food, sex, etc

ego

balances ID and superego, personality, balances conscience with what ID wants

superego

conscience, knows right/wrong, learns morality from surroundings

psychosexual stages

oral

anal

phallic

latent

genital

Watson's theory

input -> black box -> output

Skinner's theory

positive reinforcement = powerful

catch being good

assimilation

interpret new things according to our past experiences

accommodation

adjust our rule to incorporate new information

Piaget's theory

children were not born with innate ideas about reality and that we construct our understanding of the world based on experiences (constructionism)

Piaget's stages

1) sensorimotor

2) preoperational

3) concrete operational

4) formal operational

sensorimotor (0-2)

hearing, touching, mouthing, grasping

scale errors

object permanence

preoperational (2-7)

represent things with words and images but cannot perform mental operations

egocentric

no hypotheticals

theory of mind

concrete operations (7-12)

logical

trial and error

conservation

math

formal operations (12+)

abstract thinking

imagine results of actions

moral reasoning

object permanence

objects still exist even when they are not seen

theory of mind

being able to infer other people's thoughts/minds/opinions

conservation

concept that the quantity remains the same even if the shape changes

Vygotsky's Theory

child's mind grows through interaction with social environment

language provides building blocks for thinking

autism spectrum disorder

impaired theory of mind

repetitive behaviors

impaired social skills

extreme male mind

good at math/following rules

children form stranger anxiety when

8 months

after object permanence established

imprinting

attachment process

infants close to caregivers

humans do not imprint but do become attached to what they are used to and what they know

secure attachment

with mom comfortable -> mom leaves = distressed -> happy when she returns and wants to be with her

insecure attachment

avoid trusting relationships -> cry loudly/is upset/is indifferent about mom's departure and return

3 adult styles of romantic love

1)secure, trusting attachment - basic trust

2) insecure, anxious attachment - crave acceptance, ignore possibly rejection

3) avoidance of attachment - discomfort in getting close with others

deprivation of attachment showed what about children?

withdrawn, frightened, or even speechless

four parenting styles

authoritarian

permissive

authoritative

uninvolved / reject/neglect

authoritarian

dictator

high control

low acceptance

children have less social skills and self-esteem

authoritative

high control

high acceptance

children have high self-esteem, self-reliance, and social competence

permissive

low control

high acceptance

children = aggressive, bossy, and immature

reject/neglect

this is child abuse

adolescent brain

brain fully develops at 25

sensory areas become mature, frontal cortex matures last

reasoning power

Piaget

moral reasoning

Kohlberg

Kohlberg's levels of moral thinking

1) pre-conventional

2) conventional

3) post-conventional

pre-conventional morality

self-interest

obey to receive reward and avoid punishment

conventional morality

uphold laws to gain social approval and maintain social order

post-conventional morality

belief in basic right

own morality according to personal ethics

moral reasoning v moral emotions

moral reasoning: thinking what is right and wrong

moral emotions: gut feelings of what is good and bad

delayed gratification

rejecting small rewards in mind for bigger reward later

Erikson's stages of life

1) infancy

2) toddlerhood

3) preschool

4) elementary school

5) adolescence

6) young adulthood

7) middle adulthood

8) late adulthood

infancy issue

trust v mistrust

toddlerhood

autonomy v shame and doubt

preschool

initiative v guilt

elementary school

competence v inferiority

adolescence

identity v role confusion

young adulthood

intimacy v isolation

middle adulthood

generativity v stagnation

late adulthood

integrity v despair

parents influence

religion

college

career

discipline

responsibility

charitableness

peers influence

behavior

how we talk, act, dress

emerging adulthood

not teens, but not yet adults

ages for early, middle, and late adulthood

early: 20-30

middle: 40-65

late: 65+

early adulthood

peak of muscular strength, reaction time, sensory keenness, and cardiac output

middle adulthood

gradual decline in fertility, physical decline, less sexual activity

late adulthood

visual sharpness and stamina diminish (pupils shrink)

andropause

age 50

slow decrease of testosterone in men

reduced fertility

menopause

50

end of fertility for women

sudden change

aging brain

speech slows and memory decays

exercise = good

enhances muscles, bones, energy, helps prevent disease, maintains telomeres

cross-sectional study

people of different ages are compared

longitudinal study

restudying people over time

neurocognitive disorder

losing brain cells

leads to mental erosion

Alzheimer's disease

memory and reasoning deteriorate

person = emotionally flat

mentally vacant eventually

two aspects that dominate adulthood

intimacy

generativity

indicator of marital success

5-1 ratio of positive to negative interactions

more positive feelings as we age

we have more emotional control

the more we use something

the less likely we are to lose it

sensation

detecting a stimulus

perception

interpreting a stimulus

bottom-up processing

sensation

works up to higher levels of processing

top-down processing

perception

uses info from past experiences and expectations

transduction

process of converting one form of energy into another form that our brain can use

absolute threshold

minimum stimulation needed to detect a stimulus 50% of time

signal detection theory predicts

how we detect signals depends on the stimulus's strength and our psychological state

lonely anxious people respond with a low threshold

subliminal stimuli

below absolute threshold for conscious awareness

cannot detect 50% of time

how can we create a stimulus even when we are not aware of it

when info is processed automatically

difference threshold

minimum difference a person can detect between any two stimuli half the time

increases with the size of stimulus

Weber's law states

in order to perceive a different in two stimuli, there must be a differing constant percentage, not a constant amount

sensory adaptation

when we are constantly exposed to an unchanging stimulus, neurons fire less frequently, making us notice it less

it helps us focus on things that are changing, instead of being distracted by other things

we do not perceive reality

but our brain's construction of reality

perceptual set

set of mental tendencies and assumptions that affect what we hear, taste, feel, and see

schemas

determine this as they organize and interpret unfamiliar information

power of context effects

a stimulus may trigger different perceptions depending on its immediate context, leading us to misinterpret things

emotions and motivation affects perception

sad emotions - prime us to perceive sad meanings

we see what we believe

wavelength, hue, and intensity

wavelength: distance from one wave peak to the next determines

hue: the color we see

intensity: the amount of energy in light waves; influences brightness