Developmental Psychology

Final Exam

learning

a more or less permanent change in behavior which occurs as a result of practice

reductionist

breakdown into simple units, study the units and put it back together

associations

between stimulus and response

classical conditioning

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learn through association

based on stimulus response relationship and time

little Albert experiment

Operant Conditioning

learn thorugh shaping

punishment and reward

skinner box

behavior modification

shaping

give reinforcement for behavior, slowly making it more challenging to receive reward

behavior modification

desirable behavior reinforced, undesirable behavior ignored

socialization

process by which society attempts to teach children to behave like ideal adults

vicarious reinforcement

learning by seeing the consequence of others actions

* imitation theory

observational learning

general process of acquiring behavior by observing people, books, and electronic media

* accounts for most new behavior
* modeling

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models

parents, older children likely to imitated due to perceived higher status, competence, and power

abstract modeling

getting a general rule from observing specific behaviors

* reinforcement unnecessary
* bobo doll experiment
* learning vs. performance

triadic reciprocal causation

p) biological and psychological characteristics

b) person’s behavior

e) environment

interdependent

imposed environment

can’t control presence but do have control of reaction

selected environment

part of the environment they experience

created

chosen through behavior

cognitive rehearsal

visualizing self as behavioral model

enactive rehearsal

practicing behavior

self-efficacy

people’s perception of their competence in dealing with environment and exercising influence over events that effect their lives

* impacts academic, social and recreational behavior
* comes from success/failure, similarity to successful model, persuasion from others
* important in adolescence and young adulthood

collective efficacy

a group’s shared belief in its ability, through collective action to produce valued outcomes

agency

belief that one has the power to produce desired outcomes

moral judgements-social learning theory

children use observed behaviors/moral statements to actively construct general standards of conduct

moral judgements-Piaget

children go from understanding amount of damage and degree of punishment to later focus on intentions and extenuating circumstances

moral judgements-Vygotsky

internalize moral belief system of culture

Moral judgements

identification with parents

moral disengagement

people justifying unacceptable behavior

Gender Development

from intrapersonal, behavioral and social influences

cognitive dev allows infants and toddlers to differentiate between the two

associate toys on binary by 3/4

mechanisms of development

* physical maturation
* experience with social world
* cognitive development

theory-theory of mind

children and infants have the capacity to construct intuitive, everyday, naïve theories that explain a particular domain

* thinking is similar to scientific method
* specific areas of understanding develop at different times and rates

Core Knowledge

humans have evolved a largely innate system that facilitates early, rapid learning in certain domains

* innate push towards (5) certain areas of learning
* innate areas act as foundation for later, more complex knowledge

dynamic-systems theory

addresses changes over time in complex, self-organizing, holistic systems

* two-way interactions between brain, body and environment
* focuses on the assembling or recreating of a behavior on the spot
* focus on behavior in context

attractor state

a preferred state in which the system tends to reside

habituation

gradual decline in responding following repeated occurrences of the same stimuls

dishabituation

(recovering from habituation) occurs with a change in a familiar stimulus

imitation

repeat a response that another person has made

deferred imitation

ability to imitate a model’s behavior hours or days after exposure

implicit learning

refers to abstract knowledge not available to conscious reflection, priming. procedural, associative learning

* language

explicit learning

semantic and episodic

semantic

facts

episodic

events

priming

perceptual, conceptual

procedural

skills and habits

associative learning

classical and operant conditioning

stimulus

object or situation that elicits a response by one of our sense organs

conditioned taste aversion

occurs when an animal acquires an aversion to the taste of a certain food after it has been paired with aversive stimuli.

* Garcia Effect
* adaptive trait one trial learning

positive reinforcement

addition of a positive stimulus to increase behavior frequency

negative reinforcement

removal of an aversive stimulus increases behavioral frequency

continuous reinforcement

the desired response is reinforced every time it occurs

* fast acquisition
* high rate of response
* consistent responding
* fast extinction of behavior

partial reinforcement

the desired response is reinforced on an intermittent schedule

* slower acquisition
* more resistant to extinction

fixed-ratio schedules

reinforce behavior after a set number of responses

* fast rates of output

variable-ratio schedules

reinforcers provided after an unpredictable number of responses

* high response rate
* subject does not know when response with be rewarded

fixed-interval schedules

feature an equal pause after each reinforcer

* slow response at first, faster as reinforcement becomes nearer

variable-interval schedules

reinforce the response after varying time intervals

* results in a more regular rate of responding
* watching and seeing shooting stars at night

positive punishment

stimulus administered to decrease frequency of behavior

negative punishment

stimulus that is removed to decrease frequency of behavior

social learning theory

emphasizes the importance of observing and modeling the behaviors, attitudes and emotional reactions of other people

modeling

more likely if it results in outcomes they value

more effective if person is similar to observer and has admired status and functional value

modeled events

distinctive, affective valence, complexity, prevalence, functional value

observer characteristics

sensory capacity, arousal level, perceptual set, past reinforcement

retention

including symbolic coding, cognitive organization, symbolic rehearsal, motor rehearsal

motor reproduction

including physical capabilities, self-observation of reproduction, accuracy of feedback

two-way observational learning

viewing a prerecorded video where a model teaches specific behaviors and concepts, often used with autistic children

Theory of Genotype-Environment Interactions

genotypes direct environmental experiences

passive genotype

trait from parents

* genetic material
* structure environment socially and emotionally

evocative genotype

trait that is enhanced or developed by the environment

active genotype

the person selects the environment that best represents their trait, interests and identity

self

a psychological construct involving the realization that you are an independent, unique, stable, and self-reflective entity

self-concept

perceptions, conceptions, beliefs and values one holds about oneself

self-efficacy

the belief in one’s ability to produce an effect, usually a specifically desired effect, Future oriented

mastery orientation

belief that achievements are based on one’s own efforts

learned helplessness

belief that achievements are a result of luck or others factors over which one has little control

locus of control

where one perceives outcomes to be determined

external locus of control

means that outcomes are outside one’s control

internal locus of control

outcomes within one’s control

self-control

control over one’s behavior, and taking responsibility for one’s actions

sexual selection

based on competition of one sex for access to members of the other sex or through choice by members of one sex of certain members of the other sex

* selects for adaptive traits

natural selection

works on the fitness of a phenotype

* selects against maladaptive traits

convergent evolution

species from different evolutionary branches may resemble each other if they have similar ecological roles

red queen hypothesis

evolution is not about progress per se, but about changing in order to survive

epigenesis

looks at how gene expression is influenced by experience to produce individual differences in behavior, cognition, personality, mental health, ect

epigenetic gene regulation

involved changes that can increase the growth of neurons in the developing brain and modify neuron activity in adult brains

plastic genotype

genotype produces different phenotypes under different environmental circumstances

norm of reaction

function that relates the developmental environment to the phenotype produced

Harry Harlow

maternal-separation and social isolation

* monkeys
* demonstrated importance of care-giving and companionship in social and cognitive development
* deprivation experiments

deprivation experiments

Involve depriving an animal of experiences it would normally have in development

contact comfort

wire vs. cloth mother

monkeys ran to cloth mother when startled and spent hours staring at it when separated from it

anaclitic depression

primate infants and human infants become very passive, sad, upset, tearful and depressed after total separation from mother

Peer isolate monkeys

overaggressive, sexually inadequate, rejected from group, ignored/punished by other monkeys

Primary reinforcers

rewards that satisfy basic biological needs and satisfy basic drives

drive-reduction theory

mother provides food that alleviates hunger, then infant has primary drive and preference for mother

cognitive developmental theory

attachment dependent upon the child’s previous acquisition of cognitive abilities: object permanence

Ethological theory

John Bowlby

attachment is fundamental for survival

secure attachment

comfortable with intimacy and autonomy in close relationships; self-confident, and resolves conflict constructively

preoccupied

overly interested and involved in close relationships; dependent on others for self-worth; demanding, needy, approach orientation toward others

dismissing

compulsively self-reliant, distant in relationships; downplays the importance of intimate relationships

fearful

dependent on others, but avoids intimacy due to fear of rejection. Low self-esteem and high attachment anxiety

attachment behavior

1. stranger anxiety
2. separation anxiety/protest
3. signaling behaviors


1. crying
2. smiling
3. laughing
4. cooing
5. speech

baby schema/neoteny

large head, eyes and small nose

* prompts caregiving-nurturing response

Mary Ainsworth

strange situation procedure