ch 5 developmental psychology

what issues does developmental psych cover?

nature and nurture, continuity and stages, stability and change

stability and change

traits that persist or change such as personality

continuity and change

development is gradual/continuous or change abruptly

(in reality it’s a little of both)

nurture and nature

genetic inheritance interact with our experiences

continuous researchers believed

developmental process is slow

stage theorists believed

development was predetermined

what does the smile study tell us?

smiles are stable and barely change; A fake smile often leads to 1 in 4 adults getting a divorce while A real smile predicts 1 in 20 getting divorced

zygote

Life cycle begins at conception when one sperm unites with an egg to form a zygote - fertilized egg; it enters a 2 week period of rapid cell division

placenta

umbilical cord

embryo

zygote’s inner cells become this; outer cells become placenta; embryo is the developing human organism from 4-8 weeks

Fetus

Body organs begin to form such as ears and eyes (9 weeks)

prenatal development at 16 weeks

palms, feet, eyelids, taste, and smell develop

teratogen

an agent such as a chemicals or virus that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development that can cause harm

fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)

physical and mental abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant women’s heavy drinking. In severe cases, signs include small out of proportion head and abnormal facial features

examples of newborn actions/reflexes

cries (elicit help and comfort), searches, smells, grasps, fans toes, throws out arms and legs, breathes, swallows, HAS A biologically rooted temperament (easy or hard)

Palmar reflex

grasping reflex - Ex) baby doesn’t let go of a mother’s finger

Rooting Reflex

searching for nipple when touched on cheek in order to get milk

Babinski Reflex

fanning of the toes

Moro Reflex

throws out arms and legs all of a sudden (startled)

research equipment on studying newborns

eye tracking machines and pacifiers wired to electronic gear

habituation

decreasing responsiveness to repeated stimulus; this is to measure the infants learning; if a baby has already learned it they are less reactive

Preferences of a newborn

newborns prefer face-like images and the smell of the mother’s body

brain are sculpted by

heredity and experience

maturation

biological growths process relatively uninfluenced by experience EX) walking

brain maturation

infants are capable of learning and remembering but INFANTILE AMNESIA may reflect conscious memory

schema

mental categories (ex: colors)

assimilation

additional information to schemas that are simple ex) green is a color

accommodation

complex information that changes the schema ex) new shades to colors such as forest green

Piaget’s stages

sensorimotor, preoperational, concreate operational, formal operational

sensorimotor

birth- 2 years

explores the world and moves around; often time to build object permanence

object permanence

aware of an object’s existence even when it is not perceived

preoperational

2-7 years

understands words and images and uses intuition rather than logic

They lack understandings of conservation, centration, and irreversibility; often are egocentric

conservation

principle that mass/volume remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects

Egocentrism

inability to take another’s POV

EX) pick a gift that I would like instead of a gift mom would like

centration

focus on one dimension of reality ex) can’t think about another they aren’t thinking about; “what did you eat today?” “pasta” **didn’t eat pasta

irreversibility

unable to imagine to reverse an action ex) reason why children have a difficulty of the concept of “clean up”, they don’t want to go back and reverse the actions of play

theory of mind

opposite of egocentrism; involves the ability to read the mental state of others; “my mind is different than yours”; preoperational children will eventually learn this

concrete operational

7-11 years

gain the mental operations for logical thinking about concrete events. They begin to understand simple math and conservation

formal operational

12 - adulthood

Children are able to think abstractly and are no longer limited to concrete reasoning; they think about morality

morality of constraint

Often found in younger children; moral responsibility to obey to authority

ex) criss-cross apple sauce

morality of cooperation

grows out of mutual respect; often found in as early as 8 years old

ex) that’s not nice; respect my property and space

Lev Vygotsky

Agreed that children cognitively develop but disagreed with Piaget; Believed that Children needed to interact with their environment and have scaffolds to facilitate higher level of thinking; culture also influenced the inner voice of a child

scaffold

people that support for further development

Person developed the beginning of child development

Jean Piaget

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

1. impaired theory of mind = hard to understand others

2. social deficiency = hard to converse/read faces

3. repeating behavior = ex) rock back and forth

4. CAUSED by poor communication between brain regions that impact theory of mind

stats on ASD

4:1 boys to girls ratio

higher change in prenatal testosterone/extreme male brain

higher among elite math students and progeny of engineers and MIT graduates

Higher when identical co-twin has ASD

ASD in order siblings = higher risk

stranger anxiety

shows distress of separation or when with an unfamiliar person

Creator of the Monkey experiment

Harry Harlow

Harlow’s Surrogate Mother Experiment

Baby monkey is separated from birth mother

Had two surrogate mothers; one with a comfortable cloth but no milk while the other had a feeding tube but no cloth.

The monkey stayed with the comfortable cloth mother and only went to the feeding mother when hungry

showed that attachment = comfort

effects from Harlow experiment

monkeys were terror-stricken and had a hard time assimilating

Shows that attachment with caregiver is IMPORTANT

critical period

optimal period in early life when exposure to certain stimuli produces normal development

imprinting

process where certain animals form strong attachments to the first moving object they see;

EX) Lorenz duckling experiment; ducklings see Lorenz right after birth and follow the scientist (believe him to be their mother)

John Bowlby believed attachment was based on

proximity maintenance (close); safe haven (hurt or safe); secure base (dependent); separation (distress or cry);

MADE attachment researchable

what are some elements of attachment

familiarity and comfort

who created the strange situation study

Mary Ainsworth

Infant’s differing attachemtn styles reflect the

individual temperament and responsiveness of their parents

Strange Situation Study

1. parent and child are in a room playing together

2. the child will explore the room without parental participation

3. stranger will come in and interact with the child

4. the parent will leave the room (the child will cry)

5. the parent will return and comfort the child

secure children are

upset when parent departs and happy to see them when they return; often become empathetic people with high self esteem

ambivalent insecure

will continue to cry when the parent returns; the child will remain close to the caregiver but will be resentful and resistant when caregiver initiates attention; leads to people with jealousy and trust issues

ambivalent avoidant

avoid the parents and show little emotion when the parent leaves or returns; becomes people who avoid deep relationships

the person who created the development of the ENTIRE life

Erik Erikson

basic trust

attachment is the foundation for adult relationship

Romanian orphanage

250 children outnumbered the caregivers; 15:1

Children were not able to cerate secure attachments and thus died

The children that did survive were put in a longitudinal study but these children had lower intelligence and 20% more anxiety

self concept

an understanding and evaluation of who we are

rogue test

recognize yourself in the mirror (you put on rogue in the mirror)

from 6 moths

self awareness begins with self recognition

15-18 months

schema of how the face should look is apparent

school age

more detailed description of gender; peer comparisons, and traits

at 8-10 years

self image becomes stable

Who developed the parenting styles

Diana Baumrind

4 types of parenting

authoritarian, permissive, negligent, authoritative

authoritarian

controlling; has high control of child but little warmth; the child will often let loose when they gain independence; ex) someone with authoritatian father was Hitler

Permissive

not controlling; less control and warm towards children; kids do what they like

Negligent

low control and low warmth; they don’t know their children and the kids often become delinquents

authoritative

accountability/responsive ; give lots of warms but still has control; est. rules but can be negotiated; children will have higher self esteem and are more motivated

adolescence

the transition from puberty to social independence; VERY COMPLICATED; more often, girls have harder time; frontal lobes develop and synaptic pruning may lead to irrational risky behavior

Lawrence Kohlberg develop

moral reasoning; moral intuition and moral action

moral intuition (thoughts)

Haidt believed morality is rooted in quick and automatic decisions

Greene beleived moral cognition is often automatic but you can justify actions/overide

Moral action (behaviors)

Mischel believed that delayed gratification/control would lead to a more positive person

Kohlberg’s levels of Moral thinking

preconventional, conventional, and post conventional

Level 1 (pre conventional)

obedience and punishment (avoid punishment); individual interest

Level 2 (conventional morality)

connect with others/social approval

conform and obey/ maintain social law and order

Level 3 (post conventional morality)

A balance between social law and individual rights

Universal morals; good of humankind over the rules

Heinze Dilema

Your loved one is dying and there is one medicine to cure them. But the company is asking for A LOT of money you don’t have. Do you :

1. steal drug and go to prison (conventional)

2. not steal (preconventional)

3. steal drug but don’t go to prison (post conventional)

what issues do adolescence go through

social identity - group role

identity - who am i?

self image rebound - you get older and you are less distressed about who you are

erikson’s stages of development

8 stages going all the way to adulthood

trust v. mistrust (Erikson - stage 1)

critical period to develop basic trust and attachment (1st year)

autonomy v. shame and doubt (Erikson - stage 2)

you either build independence or not (so you self doubt) (2nd year)

Initiative v. guilt (Erikson - stage 3)

proactive (make choices) or become guilty because you don’t take initiative so you have low self esteem; (3-5 years)

Competence v. inferior (Erikson - stage 4)

success will lead to confidence or failure leads to inferior (6 to puberty)

Identity v. role confusion (Erikson - stage 5)

figure your self out and be okay or role confusion and unsure of who you are (teens to 20s)

Intimacy v. isolation (Erikson - stage 6)

intimate relationship = strong connections; weak relationship = loneliness (20-40 )

Generativity v. Stagnation (Erikson - stage 7)

sense of contribution to the world (career, family) or mid life crisis where you feel like you do nothing (40-50)

Integrity v. despair (Erikson - stage 8)

look back and feel satisfied or look back and feel bitter (60 and up)

emerging adulthood

18-20s

identity exploration = learn about yourself

instability = you aren’t fully stable with income/career

self focus = take time for yourself; ex) travel the world

feeling in between = you are at a time where you are independent but still dependent on parents

age of possibilities = you try multiple things in your life

early adulthood

20-30s ; prime physical condition and fertility; peak time for learning

middle adulthood

40-65 ; periods stop and menopause; less sperms; decline in recall

late adulthood

65+ ; everything deteriorates; memory and retention is bad

cross sectional study

study of people of different ages compared to one another; but there are outliers; ex) someone is a genius or a person has dementia

longitudinal study

same people for long period of time; attrition rate where people drop out of study either because someone dies or they move away