AP Psychology Unit 3.1: Development

Developmental psych

Branch of psych that studies cognitive, phyiscal, and social changes throughout the lifespan

Developmental psych: Continuity vs. stages

Is developmental gradual or in stages?

Developmental psych: Stability vs change

Is our personality established as kids or does it change?

Longitudinal study

Research of the same people over a long period of time

• How does your IQ change from age 20 (2017) to age 70 (2067)

Cross-sectional study

People of different ages are compared with one another

• In 2017 do 20 years olds score higher on an IQ test than 70 year olds

Maturation

Development that reflects graudal unfolding on one’s genetic blueprint

• Change that comes with age—not based on learning or experience

• Biological growth experience

• Ex: Growing tall because everyone in your family is tall

Germinal

• Conception — 2 weeks

• Baby is a zygote = fertilized egg

Embryonic

• 3 — 8 weeks

• Baby is an embryo = organs begins to form and function

• Miscarriages and defects occur in this stage

Fetal

• 9 weeks — birth

• Baby is a fetus = developing more complex physical and cognitive abilities

Teratogens

Any external agent that can harm the embryo or fetus

• Ex: Prescription drugs, alcohol, tobacco, reactional drugs, viruses, etc

• All pass through the placenta to the baby’s bloodstream

• Can cause birth defects

• Ex: Babies of heroin addicts will be born addicted to the drug as well

Fetal alcohol syndrom

Physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman’s heavy drinking

• Severe cases: Noticeable facial misproportions

Maternal illnesses

Placenta will screen for infectious agents, but will not catch all

• Chicken pox, measles, HIV/AIDs

• Even environmental pollutatnts can pass to the baby

Habituation

Decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation

• Babies will pay attention less the more often a stimulus is present—they become familiar with it

• They will focus on new stimuli longer

When will you have the most neurons?

The day you are born you will have the most neurons you will ever have

• As you learn, neural connections form

• Nervous system is still immature at birth

• Most rapid growth in frontal lobe

Reflexes

Automatic behaviors, necessary for survival

• Info for reflexes not interpreted by the brain

Rooting reflex

Necessary for feeding

• Touch a baby’s cheek and baby turns head in that direction

Moro reflex

When a baby feels threatened / like they’re falling

• They will stretch out their arms and legs

Babinski reflex

When you touch babies toes and fingers theey will flare out or curl up

• Disappear as we age (2 years)

Grasping reflex

Babies will hold onto things

• Ex: If a baby grabs your hair, hard to get the baby to let go

Gross motor skills

Involving large muscles, or whole body movement

• Develop coordination

• Ex: Crawling, running, jumping jacks, etc

Fine motor skills

Movements involving small movements

• Develop dexterity

• Ex: Drawing, cutting, grabbing, etc

Babies crawling

• Crawling will occur when baby is physically ready to crawl

• Not influenced by watching parents crawl

• Happens when nervous system is preparedd

• Cerebellum needs to develop

• Genes oversee the process

• Exact timing is different for ever baby, often for identical twins it is similar

Critical periods

An optimal period when exposure to certain stimuli or experience produce normal development

• Ex: Language—those not exposed to language never develop it

• Ex: Imprinting = infant animals follow whatever is seen first after birth → may imprint on the wrong animal

• Not necessarily wirtten in stone → thanks to neuroplasticity

Temperament

A person’s characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity

• Researched by thomas and chess

• Believe people were born with a type of emotional intensity that lasts throughout their life

Easy temperament

Established routines in eating and sleeping, very happy

Difficult temperament

Intense emotinos, no routines in eating and sleeping

Slow-to-warm-up temperament

Shy, withdraws from new situations

ACEs

Adverse Childhood Experiences

• Neglect, abuse, violence

Jean Piaget

Development psychologist who believed chilren learn from interacting with the environment, intelligence not fixed

• Children’s ability to understand, think about, and solve problems

• Develops in a stop-start discontinous manner

• Children constantly trying to make sense of the world

Piaget’s Stages: Sensorimotor

• Birth — 2 years

• Experiencing the world through sensation

  • Looking, hearing, touching, grasping

• Raw sensations, significant movement development

• Egocentric

• Begin language development

• 9 — 12 months = object permanence & separation anxiety

egocentric

Can only see things from their perspective

• Out of sight, out of mind → hide & seek

Object permanence

Kids view the world from their own reference point

• Before developing, if you hide something, its gone

• Once developed a child knows things are permanent even when they are out of sight

• Ex: Peek-a-boo

Separation anxiety

A baby is afraid when mom or dad leave

• Begins when object permanence is developed

• Babies now remember you and can understand you are leaving

Piaget’s Stages: Preoperational

• 2 — 7 years

• Still egocentric

• Acquire intelligence and ability to use symbols

• Symbolic thought

• Understand things are permanent

• Fantasy / imagination — pretend play

• Animism

• Still not capable of logical thought

• Reversibility

• Conservation

• Theory of mind

Symbolic thought

Represents things with words and images

Animism

Believing nature / objects are alive

Reversibility

A relationship that goes in one direction can also go in the opposite direction

• Ex: Do you have a brother?

• Ex: Does your brother have a brother?

Conservation

Some of an objects characteristics can change while others remain the same

• 1 $5 bill vs. 3 $1 bills

  • Before developing kids think the 3 bill are more

Theory of mind

People’s ideas about their own vs. others mental states

• Kids can begin to understand how others see the world, what other intentions maight be, and predict behavior

Sally-Anne test

• Sally has a basket, Anna has a box

• Sally puts a ball in the basket and then leaves

• Anna takes the ball and puts it in her box

• When Sally comes back wehre will she look for the ball?

• Without theory of mind:

  • Kids will think she will look in the box, because they themselves know its in the box

• With theory of mind:

  • Kids will think she will look in the basket, because that is where Sally left it

Piaget’s Stages: Concrete operational

• 7 — 11 years

• Development of logical thought

• Learn to compare items

• Can think logically about concrete events

• Grasping concrete analogies

• performing mathmatical operations

• 8 + 4 = 4 + 8

Piaget’s Stages: Formal operational

• 11 years and up

• Highly symbolic thought is developed

• Potential for mature and moral reasoning

• Abstract thinking and hypothetical thought

• Ex: Logic, math, ethics, pro / con list, “what if”

• Some logic develops earlir than 11 — easier if its concrete

• Ex: If John is in school, then May is in school. John is in school, where is May?

Criticism of Piaget’s Stages

• Development is more continuous than Piaget claimed

• Heavy focus on age

• Should be focused on unique development

• Formal logic is a smaller part than Piaget thought

• more discoveries have been made

Lev Vygotsky

• Emphasized social interaction in the development of cognitive abilities

• Believed the more a chld talked / interacted with people the better their cognitive abilities developed

• More stimulation = more neural connections

• Social interaction helps to scaffold a childs thinking

• Build on current info-reach higher heights

• Developed Zone of proximal development

Scaffolding

Framework that offers children temporary support as they develop higher levels of learning

• Ex: Learning repeated addition before multiplication

Zone of proximal development

Measurement or indication of what a child can do alone vs. when other people are around offering encouragement and guidance

• Kid might feel comfortable completing a task when adult figure is present, but get frustrated if they are not there

1. Parents offer encouragement and guidance

2. Parents being there makes them feel secure

3. Parents leave, kids loose security

4. Kids might demonstrate they don’t know something, but they actually do

Ecological systems theory

A theory of social environments influence on human development

• Uses 5 nested system ranging from direct to indirect systems

Ecological Systems: Microsystem

People with who we have direct contact

• Ex: Family, friends, classmates, teachers, and neighbors

Ecological Systems: Mesosystem

Relationships between microsystems

• Meaning your family experiences may be related to your school experience

• Ex: If a child is neglected by parents, they have a low chance of developing a positive attitude toward their teachers

Ecological Systems: Exosystem

System of indirect influences and includes systems that have influence but are those with which a child doesn’t have any direct contact

• Ex: A parent is demoted and angry, child may have never interacted with boss but the boss influences how the parent interacts with the child

Ecological Systems: Macrosystem

Actual culture of an individual

• Ex: Socioeconomic status of child, their ethnicity or race, and the specific society in which a child lives

Ecological Systems: Chronosystem

Dimension of time, includes transitions and shifts in one’s life

• Divorce affects parents and their children’s behavior

Attachment

An emotional tie with another person

• Shown in young kids by them seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress with separation

• Early attachments form a foundation for our relationships later in life

• Ex: How comfortable someone is with affection / intimacy / trust

Harry Harlow - Contact Comfort Experiment

• Experiment on monkeys

• 1 cage had a wire monkey that fed baby monkeys, another cage had a monkey wrapped in terry cloth

• Baby monkeys formed attachments faster with cloth monkey than with the monkey feeding them

  • Attachment was better through contact and warmth, not nourishment

Familiarity

Attachment in animals is formed during a critical period

• During this time, infant animals attach to the first moving things they see

Imprinting

Infact animals follow whatever is seen first after birth

• Ex: Chicks see dog as mother if they see them first

Secure attachment

Children who feel protected by and can trust their caregiver

• Ex: Children show distress when caregiver leaves but compose themselves quickly when caregiver returns

• Secure parental relationships → secure friendships, relationships

• More responsive and sensitive caregivers → kids are social and successful

Insecure attachment

Elements of mistrust toward caregiver

• Can be for a number of reasons

• Most children are resilient

• Hardships, short of trauma, often boosts mental toughness

• Form an unhealthy attachment to parents

  • Can influence individuals throughout their lives

    • Romance, parenting styles

Insecure Attachment: Disorganized attachment

Upset when mother leaves, but when mother returns alternates between clinging to her and reject her

• Due to inconsistent reactions from caregiver

• Adults who crave attention but worry about rejection

Insecure Attachment: Avoidant attachment

Children avoids mother when she returns due to typically being ignored

• Struggles with commitment, discomfort, conflict—tend to avoid relationships

Insecure Attachment: Anxious attachment

Infant continues to cry and show stress when mother returns, despite attempt to comfort

Insecure Attachment: NO attachment

Abused / severely neglected babies often grow up withdrawn, frightened, or even speechless

• Same can be true for children growing up in institutions without stimulation or attention

• May be underweight and lacking proper physical development

  • Changes brain chemistry

• Correlated with lower IQ

  • Abnormal stress response, reduced brain development, struggling socially later in life

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

Potentially traumatic events that occur in childhood

• Can influence physical and cognitive development

• Have long term impacts on health, opportunity, and wellbeing

• Ex: Violence, abuse, neglect, household with substance abuse

• Ex: Abused children’s brain show same heightened reactivity in threat-detecting areas to angry faces as soldiers who saw battle

Self concept

An understanding and assessment of who they are

• Early on, means recognizing oneself

• School age, more detailed description of who they are / what makes them happy

• Ex: “I like yellow”, “I like my friends”

Diane Baumrind

Studied parenting styles

• Determining 4 main parenting styles which predict kids behavior

• Correlational

• Children’s personality traits may influence parenting style and parenting style may influence children’s personality traits

Parenting Style: Authoritative

More rules, more emotion

• Parents are role models

• Reason with children

• Emphasize maturity

• Democratic parenting

• Best parenting style

Parenting Style: Authoritarian

More rules, less emotion

• Based on power and emphasis on discipline

• Children might end up disobeying rules

Parenting Style: Permissive

Less rules, more emotion

• Parents do not take interest in child

• Chidlren can do whatever they want

• Not taught responsibility and no consequences

Parenting Style: Negligent

Less rules, less emotion

• Ignores child

• Careless, inattentive

Language

Our spoken, written, or signed words to communicate meaning

Phoneme

Smallest distinctive sound unit

• bat - b a t

• chat = ch a t

• Not all languages have same phoneme

• Not the same as syllables

Morpheme

Smallest unit that communicates meaning

• Ex: dog, un

Semantics

Set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes

• Ex: -ed = past, a- = not

Syntax

Rules for combing words into grammatically sensible sentences in a language

• Ex: Other languages put adjectives and nounsi n different orders

• Ex: Clifford the big red dog vs. Clifford the red, big dog

Critical period

An optimal period shortly after birth when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development

• Ex: Language, those not exposed to language never develop it

Nonverbal manual gestures

Communicating with body movements, postures, and gestures to convey messages

• Type of body language

• Ex: Waving = hello

Grammar

System of rules that allow us to communicate effectively using language

• Ex: Lets eat Tim vs. Lets eat, Tim

Noam Chomsky

Believed children are biologically predisposed to develop a specific lanuage (WRONG)

• Prepare to learn a specific language based on genetics

• Univeral grammar → every language is acquired as easily as others in similar steps

B.F. Skinner

Believed children learn language through association and reinforcement

• Connects sights with sounds, reinforced by reactions

• Children learn their language

• Depends on environmental factors

• Ex: Growing up hearing english and spanish, you learn english and spanish

Linguistic determinism

Our language abilities structure the way we think

• As vocab increases, intelligence and thinking skills improve

• Ex: If your language does not use past-tense, it is more difficult to think about the past

• Ex: If your language had 100 different terms for snow, you can describe it more vividly

Overgeneralization of grammar rules

• People learning a language typically make these mistakes

• Apply grammar rule in cases where it doesn’t apply

• Ex: Child says “foots” instead of “feet” → trying to apply rules when there is exceptions

Erik Erikson

Believed each stage of life has psychosocial task → a crisis that needs a resolution

• First half of the crisis is a positive outcome, the second half is the negative outcome

• Resolution at each stage carries on affecting later life stages as well

Erikson’s Stages - Childhood: Trust vs. Mistrust

• Infancy — 1 year

• Trust must occur for attachment to occur

  • Can establish through feeding, comforting, etc

• If needs are dependly met, infants form a basic sense of trust → develop hope

• Child abuse / neglect could lead to mistrust and eventually insecure attachment

Erikson’s Stages - Childhood: Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt

• 1 — 3 years

• Children want to do things themselves and parents must support this

  • Ex: Feeding themselves

• If they are not allowed to try they will feel shame and doubt their abilities

• If they are allowed they will develop willpower

Erikson’s Stages - Childhood: Initiative vs. Guilt

• 3 — 6 years

• Independence is important

• Making friends, making plans, feel proud of their abilities → purpose

• If not allowed or receive punishments they will feel guilty

Erikson’s Stages - Childhood: Industry vs. Inferiority

• 6 years — adolescence

• Learn to enjoy doing tasks and feeling accomplished → competency

  • Ex: Homework

• If they aren’t encouraged or aren’t noticed for doing so, they will feel inferior

Erikson’s Stages - Adolescence: Identity vs. Role Confusion

• Teen — early adult

• Search for identity through experimentation

• Individuals work at refining their sense of self by testing roles then integrating them into a single role

• If they don’t explore, they don’t know who they are

Erikson’s Stages - Adulthood: Intimacy vs. Isolation

• 20s — 30s

• Start to form intimate relationships and form love, if not they may feel socially isolated

Erikson’s Stages - Adulthood: Generativity vs. Stagnation

• 40s — 50s

• People feel a sense to give back and want to contribute to the world → care

• If they don’t feel like they have contributed, they feel like they don’t have a purpose

Erikson’s Stages - Adulthood: Ego Integrity vs. Despair

• 60+

• As people age they begin to reflect

  • If proud → wisdom

  • If not proud → despair

Parallel play

Children play side by side without interacting

Adolescence

Transitional period between childhood and adulthood, starts with puberty

• Determine right from wrong

• Develop character

• Kids begin to search for their own identities

• Look for where they fit in society

• Frequently changing peer groups

Puberty

Period of sexual maturation, person becomes capable of reproducing

• Menarche

• Spermarche

• Adolescent growth spurts

• Primary sex characteristics develop dramatically

• Secondary sex characteristics also develop

Menarche

First menstrual period

Spermarche

First ejaculation

Primary sex characteristics

The body structures that make sexual reproduction possible

Secondary sex characteristics

Nonreproductive sexual characteristics

• Female breasts and hips

• Male voice quality and body hair

Adolescent egocentrism

The heightened self-consciousness of adolescents

Imaginary audience

Adolescent’s belief that they are the focus of everyone else’s attention and concern

Personal fable

Type of thought common to adolescents in which young people believe themselves to be unique and protected from harm