Midterm Exam - Human Development

Prenatal Period

• conception until birth

• when a tremendous amount of rapid growth and organ development takes place

infancy

• birth to 2 years

• encompassing significant gains in sensorimotor and cognitive development.

Toddlerhood

• 2-3 years

• further develop their language skills and begin mastering such tasks as potty training and feeding and dressing themselves.

early childhood

• 3-6 years

• refine their gross and fine motor skills and make gains in independence, self-control, language, and memory

middle childhood

• 6-12 years

• think more logically and concretely in the structured educational environment they now inhabit.

• They experience incredible gains in language and learning.

• Peer relationships increase in importance

adolescence

• 12-19 years

• experience substantial changes, including puberty, the capacity to think abstractly, and the search for identity

• Mental disorders often begin in adolescence.

  • early adolescence - (about 12 to 14 years)

  • middle adolescence (about 15 to 18 years)

  • later adolescence (about 19 to 22 years)

young adulthood

• 19-30 years

• individuals face the challenges of establishing a career and seeking out intimate relationships

• Often the end of young adulthood is marked by marriage and starting a family

middle adulthood

• longest, 30-60 years

• many adults either experience career success or reeval-uate and change their careers

• Family obligations are extremely important for those who choose to have children

• the responsibility of caring for both children and aging parents may be stressful.

late adulthood

• 60-75 years

• most individuals are nearing the end of their career and are launching children, if they have not already done so.

• These substantial life changes may cause individuals in late adulthood to reflect on their lives and the impact they have made.

old age

• 75+ years

• face challenges such as retirement and loss of a spouse. As physical health and cognitive abilities gradually decline

• the support of close relationships and the search for life’s meaning become quite important

discontinuous development

believe that children go through relatively stable periods of development that culminate in abrupt transformations as they transition to the next stage of functioning

• progress through them in a fixed order

• long plateaus in growth followed by dramatic spurts where the child learns and grows a great deal in a short period of time, leaping to the next level of more advanced functioning

continuous development

developmental change is continually occurring at a gradual, steady pace

• smooth upward progress

continuity-discontinuity

• development is characterized by both continuity and discontinuity.

• The continuity–discontinuity issue is also related to perceptions of whether or not the personality traits of a young child and the effects of early experiences will persist across time

nature

biological characteristics and predispositions that an individual inherits

• heredity, universal maturational processes, biological predispositions, and hormones

nurture

refers to environmental influences and experiences

• nteractions among a child’s family members, peers, school, neighborhood, government, and culture, to the internal environment of their genes and cells

nature versus nurture

nature and nurture interacting together. He insists that nature and
nurture must be viewed as unified and continually influencing one another.

• intelligence, temperament, and personality are the result of the complicated interaction of biological and environmental forces.

Passive Genotype-Environment Correlation (Scarr and McCartney)

An interaction where biological parents provide both the genetic makeup and the rearing environment that shapes the child's development.

Evocative Genotype-Environment Correlation (Scarr and McCartney)

An interaction where a child's genetically influenced characteristics elicit specific environmental responses from others.

Active Genotype-Environment Correlation (Scarr and McCartney)

An interaction where an individual seeks out and selects environments consistent with their genetic makeup, reinforcing inherent qualities.

• gets stronger with age because children are increasingly able to select their own environmental niches

genotype-environment interactions (Scarr and McCartney)

Genes and environments can interact to restrict the range of attribute expression, or they can combine when the genes of children and their parents elicit various environments.

• Genes influence, rather than determine, environments.

epigenesis

idea that environments shape our genetic expressions, which in turn further shape our environments.

Bronfrenbrenner’s Ecological model of child development

believed that the developing child is continually influenced by the
systems within which the child is embedded

• child interact with these various systems, but the systems also
  interact with each other to influence the child’s development.

• an individual child in the center surrounded by concentric circles which increase in size

proximal processes

reciprocal, enduring interactions between the developing child and
environment

Microsystem - Bronfenbrenner

The innermost ecological tier consisting of direct activities, social roles, and interpersonal relations in immediate face-to-face settings.

Mesosystem - Bronfenbrenner

The ecological tier consisting of linkages and relationships between two or more microsystems, such as home and school.

Exosystem - Bronfenbrenner

The ecological level involving settings that the developing child does not experience directly, but which indirectly influence their development.

Macrosystem - Bronfenbrenner

The outermost ecological system encompassing overarching cultural values, beliefs, customs, lifestyles, and societal institutions.

Chronosystem - Bronfenbrenner

The ecological dimension capturing the cumulative effects of time, historical events, and developmental transitions across the lifespan.

Longitudinal Designs

researchers follow one group, or cohort, of participants over an extended period of time in order to repeatedly measure different aspects of development

• eliminate sources of individual variability in data collection

• researchers can be confident that the changes observed are the result of the passage of time rather than individual differences

cohort - longitudinal

group of individuals born at about the same time who experience similar cultural and historical events as they grow up

Choosing a Longitudinal Design

• chart developmental trajectories, which illuminate developmental patterns over time

• examine the stability of personality traits or abilities over time

• tracking long-term effects of events experienced in early childhood

Pros and Cons - Longitudinal design

• designs are by nature extremely time consuming and expensive.

• mortality or attrition is a potential problem; that is, researchers may lose participants due to death, relocation, or a loss of interest in such a long-term undertaking.

• researcher cannot be sure that the observed changes will generalize to other age cohorts

• historical events may affect development and cannot e comparable to other cohorts

Blank Slate - John Locke and Tabula Rasa

we are born without innate ideas and knowledge is determined by experience and perception

Psychoanalytic Theory - Freud Psychosocial

• focuses on childhood experiences, characterological change, the unconscious, insight

• goal - make unconscious conscious by gaining insight into current patterns with goal of changing personality, resolving underlying conflicts, attaining freedom from past

Personality Structure - Freud Psychosocial

• id ego, super ego

• people have inherent pathologies, spurred unconscious drives, which they need to address and overcome

id

pleasure and instinct (pleasure principle)

ego

reality and logic (reality principle)

superego

society and morality (morality priniciple)

Psychosexual stages - frued psychosocial

• oral (birth-18 months)

• anal (18 months - 3 years)

• phallic (3-5 years)

• latent (5 - puberty)

• genital (puberty and on)

Oral (birth -18 months)

pleasure of sucking and eating. Trust and security are major concerns

Anal (18 months - 3 years)

pleasure received from controlling one’s excretory functions

Phallic (3-5 years)

attends to children’s fascination with their genitalia and other bodily functions

• electra complex

• oedipal complex

electra complex

girls unconsciously yearn for their fathers

oedipus complex

boys unconsciously yearn for their mothers

latent stage (5 - puberty)

calm after torment of previous years

genital stage (puberty and on)

conscious and unconscious behaviors manifest as a result of the culmination of early childhood experiences

Psychosocial Stages - Erik Erikson

people who successfully address these central goals move forward in a healthy and fulfilled manner while those who do not are at risk for remaining stuck or regressing

• trust vs mistrust

• autonomy vs. shame

• initiative vs. guilt

• industry vs. inferiority

• identity vs. role confusino

• intimacy vs. isolation

• generativity vs. stagnation

• integrity vs. despair

Trust vs. Mistrust - Infancy (Erikson)

Infants develop trust within secure caregiver relationships when their basic needs are met

• If physical and emotional needs are not meet, the child may develop a mistrusting attitude toward others.

Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt - 1-3yrs Toddlerhood (Erikson)

children explore the world and experiment

• If parents or caregivers do not promote autonomy, children may lack self-reliance as they develop

initiative vs. guilt - 3-6yrs Preschool (Erikson)

focus is a basic sense of competence

• If others monopolize decision-making on behalf of these children, they become guilty and reluctant to make their own decisions.

industry vs. inferiority - 6-12yrs school age (Erikson)

focus is on goal-setting and achievement

• Without success at this task, feelings of inadequacy may develop.

identity vs. role confusion - adolscence/puberty (Erikson)

individuals explore limits, boundaries, meaning, identity, and goals

• Failure to achieve a coherent identity may yield confusion

intimacy vs. isolation - 18-35 yrs young adulthood (Erikson)

the major task is the development of and security within intimate relationships

• Without these, alienation and isolation may persist

Generativity vs. Stagnation - 35-60yrs middle adulthood (Erikson)

focus is on transcending self and family and focusing on the next generation

• People in this stage must reconcile differences between their aspirations/dreams and their actual accomplishments

integrity vs. despair - 60+yrs (Erikson)

coming to terms with one’s life

• People look back either with a sense of pride and contentment, or perhaps with feelings of failure, guilt, and despair.

Lev Vygotsky

examined social processes occurring around children

• Zone of proximal development

• scaffolding

• private speech

• developmental problems occur when external support is insufficient or lacking

Zone of proximal development - Lev Vygotsky

the difference or distance between what children can achieve individually versus what they can achieve with adult guidance and support

Scaffolding - Lev Vygotsky

the process that helps children move from apposition of an inability to complete challenging tasks to a position where they can eventually complete the tasks independently

Private Speech - Lev Vygotsky

when an individual talks aloud to oneself and not to others for the purpose of self-guidance; aids in mental processing of challenging tasks

Ecological Model of Child Development - Uri Brofenbrenner

Individuals do not exist in a vacuum, but in a vast, complex, interwoven net of social structures including families, communities, local and global economies, political organizations, and historical eras.

• Different system levels include: microsystem, mesosystem,
  exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem

ethological Theory

study of the adaptive and evolutionary basis of animal behavior, particularly behaviors of species that promote their survival

• species have inborn/instinctual responses shared by all members of that species, and these instincts guide individuals to similar developmental paths

• methodology for studying human behaviors and a theory to explain instinctive behavior

attachment theory

an emotional connection with important people in one’s life.

• Attachment leads to a sense of security and gives people pleasure as they interact with other people to whom they are attached

Development of Attachment Theory - John Bowlby

• The first to apply the concepts of ethology to the infant-caregiver relationship.

• While working in a home for maladjusted boys, he observed that disruptions in the mother-child relationship could lead to later child psychopathology

Bowlby’s Attachment Theory

infants are pre-adapted to respond to their caregiver and to exhibit behaviors that enhance the infant’s chances of survival

• attachment behavioral theory

• sensitive period

attachment behavioral system

cognitive component whereby individuals construct, at the subconscious level, mental representations of the attachment figure, the self, and the environment

Phase 1 - Non-focused responsiveness (Bowlby)

the infants cry, smile, and make eye contact with anyone with
whom they come into contact

Phase 2 - Discriminating Attention (Bowlby)

babies begin to focus their social responsiveness to fewer people

Phase 3 - Proximity-Seeking Behavior (Bowlby)

the attached figure becomes a base for the infant/toddler to explore

Phase 4 - Reciprocal Relationship (Bowlby)

child begins to develop an internal model of the attachment relationship

sensitive period (Bowlby attachment theory)

6 month - 24 months

• when attachment relationships will develop more readily

Mary Ainsworth

believes that individuals feel a strong attachment to each other

• proximity seeking system engages and individuals and individuals will want to be with the attachment object no matter the cost

The strange situation - Mary Ainsworth

Ainsworth recorded how children responded to their mother and a stranger as each entered and left the room

• 20 minutes while mother and a stranger left and entered the room

secure attachment - Ainsworth

• signs of missing the parent, the child easily separates from the mother and becomes engaged in exploration

• When the parent returns, the child greets parent actively and then returns to play

• The child demonstrates a clear preference for the mother over the stranger

insecure: Anxious-avoidant attachment - Ainsworth

• child does not cry at separation but rather continues to play

• When the parent returns, the infant actively avoids and ignores the parent but does not resist the mother’s efforts at contact

• The child demonstrates no preference for the mother over the stranger.

insecure: anxious-ambivalent attachment - Ainsworth

• child is preoccupied with the parent throughout the procedure

• The child demonstrates little exploration and is wary of the stranger

• The child both seeks and resists contact with the mother

• The child resists both comfort and contact with the stranger.

insecure: disorganized-disoriented attachment - Ainsworth

• child appears confused and displays contradictory behaviors in the presence of the parent

• For example, the child may cry unexpectedly after having settled down, or display odd postures

social learning theory

learning occurs through observation, imitation, or modeling

• attention

• retention

• reproduction

• behavior

reciprocal determinism

mutual relationships between the psychological processes of the individual, the environment, and the behavior

Albert Bandura - Bobo Doll

effects of models of aggression on preschool children’s aggressive behaviors and demonstrated that may be acquired through observational learning

self-efficacy (Bandura)

children receive feedback about their behaviors

• they become more selective of their behaviors

• they begin to develop beliefs about their capabilities and their ability to influence events that affect their lives.

Social learning perspective - bandura

child develops morals by learning what is and is notaccepted by society and its members

Piaget’s Stages of Development

process of adaptation, or how the human mind constructs knowledge

• humans encounter new things (by experiencing them, hearing them, etc.) they
  assimilate this new information

• accommodation, more sophisticated cognitive structures formed

1. sensorimotor (birth-2)

2. pre-operational (2-7)

3. concrete operational (7-11)

4. formal operational (12+)

assimilate

fitting it into the already existing cognitive structures, so that it can be learned and understood in context along with everything else the person already knows

accommodation

new information does affect a person, and the addition of this information may require that more sophisticated cognitive structures be formed and organized

adaptation

Together, assimilation and accommodation

Piaget’s Theory of Moral Development

observing children of various ages engage in games of marbles, and after interviewing the children about concepts such as justice and ethics,

• pre-moral

• heteronomous morality

• autonomous morality

Pre-moral - Piaget Moral Development

children are not concerned with rules and have little to no sense of morality

• birth - 4

• motor - egocentric - on his own

Heteronomous Morality - Piaget Moral Development

children adopt rules from authorities without question.

• 5-8

• cooperation, follow rules

autonomous morality - Piaget Moral Development

children learn that the rules are set by society, including their peers, in a cooperative fashion

• 8-12

• codification

Kohlberg’s - Theory of Moral Development

developed through moral dilemmas

• pre-conventional

• conventional

• post-conventional

Punishment and obedience orientation - Pre-conventional Level (Kohlberg)

Children obey the rules simply to avoid punishment, and they obey those in power simply because they are in power

instrumental relativist orientation - Pre-conventional Level (kohlberg)

• Children obey the rules, but only for self-satisfaction

• reward for one person might not be a reward for anothe

interpersonal concordance - conventional level (Kohlberg)

• Children or teens seek the approval of society and begin to appreciate good intentions

• A sense of caring for humanity emerges, and actions motivated by empathy and caring, rather than individual greed, are valued

Genetics

field of study of how inheritance operates.

• Inheritance involves the transmission of genetic characteristics from parents to offspring

• cell, smallest, independent

cytoplasm

cellular fluid that prevents the cell wall from collapsing

nucleus

the command or activity center, which houses the chromosomes

nucleoplasm

fluid within the nucleus

protoplasm

bodily fluids, comprising much of the body’s cells

• both nucleoplasm and cytoplasm

Ribosomes

small particles in the cytoplasm that help produce products necessary for cellular functions

• cellular replication

DNA

Inheritance of genetic information is contained in the form of a double helix of DNA

• Adenine (A)

• Thymine (T)

• Guanine (G)

• Cytosine (C)