Child and Adolescent Psychology: Chapters 1 & 2

Developmental Science/Psychology

-Multidisciplinary (multiple people working for one goal)

-Explores predictable milestones that punctuate human growth (walking and talking)

-Focuses on individual variations that spice up life

-Explores impact of specific child-rearing practices and life conditions

Cohort

People born during the same historical time period

Demographic Shifts

-Stats of population

-Extension in life expectancy (vaccines didn’t exist back then, no fridges for food, often spoiled

-Escalation in education (finish elementary → work, adolescent is now protected)

-Decrease in family size (kids not dying as often, having kids later in life)

Fertility Rate

The average number of children a woman gives birth to in a specific nation during her lifetime.

Socioeconomic Status

-Status on education and income (SES)

-Developed-world nations are defined by their affluence, or high median per person incomes (access to education and medical care)

-Developing-world countries stand in sharp contrast to other privileged nations

Collectivist Cultures

-Place a premium on social harmony

-Respect to elders

-Multiple generations living together

-Encourage suppressing emotions

Individualistic Cultures

-Emphasize independence, competition, and personal success

-U.S., expressing one’s emotions, stand on their own

Impact of Gender

-Culture’s values shape development of gender

-Fluidity of gender roles

-Gender differences statistically speaking (still individual differences)

Theory

Any perspective explaining why people act the way they do: always predict behavior and also suggests how to intervene to improve behavior

Nature vs. Nurture

-Nature: biological or genetic causes of development (DNA)

-Nurture: environmental causes of development (schools, how your parents raised you)

Behaviorism

-Traditional behaviorists believed a few general laws of learning could explain behavior from infancy → teens

-Focused on charting & modifying only “objective” visible behavior

-Nurture focused

Operant Conditioning

-Law of learning that determines any voluntary response

-Specifically, children behave the way they do when they are reinforced for acting in a certain way

-BF. Skinner

Reinforcement

-Behavioral term for reward

-Variable reinforcement

-Extinction: not gonna happen anymore

Reinforcement

Positive- ”Add”

Negative- “Take Away”

Cognitive Behaviorism

-”Social Learning Theory”

-Children learn by watching others & our thoughts about the reinforcers determine behavior

-Albert Bandura

Modeling

Learning by watching and imitating others

Self-efficacy

-Internal belief in one’s competence that predicts whether children initiate activities or persist in the face of failures

-Are we gonna try, fail, and try again

Psychoanalytic Theory

-Importance of parents in early years determines trajectory of development

-Sigmund Freud

Id

Instincts, needs, and feelings, present at birth

Ego

-Conscious

-Being rational

Superego

-Moral aspect of personality

-Right & Wrong

Stages of Sexuality as developmental stages

Drives all beings all the time

Attachment Theory

-Crucial importance to our specie’s survival of being closely connected with a caregiver during the early childhood

-Genetically programed to need care-giving for life

-Importance of nature

-John Bowlby

Evolutionary Psychology

-Theory of worldview highlighting the role that inborn, species specific behaviors play in shaping behavior

-Nature focus

-Morning sickness: when organs are being created, how babies prefer attractive faces

Behavioral Genetics

-Field devoted to scientifically determining the role that hereditary forces play in determining individual differences

Twin Studies

-Identical twins→ 100% same genetics

-Fraternal→ 2 eggs, 50% same

-Is IQ/Intelligence heritable

Adoption Studies

-Are adopted kids more like biological parents or adopted parents

Twin Adoption Study

-Identical twins split into 2 different environments

-How similar are they since they grew up in different households

Nature and Nurture

Principle 1: Our nature (genetic tendencies) shape our nurture (life experiences)

Principle 2: We need the right nurture to fully express our nature

Evocative Forces

-Smile back to happy babies or ignoring screaming babies

Active Forces

-Coordinated as a child, seek out soccer team

-Breeding tendency/skills

Person-environment fit

-Need environment that will foster talent

-Fostering environment will bring out best in child

Bi-directional

-Both evocative and active

Epigenetics

-Research field exploring how early life events alter the outer cover of out DNA, producing lifelong changes in health and behavior

Age-Linked Theories

-Erik Erikson

-Basic Goal: Becoming independent and relating to others

-Psycho-social tasks: specific challenges in each stage of life

Cognitive Development Theory

-Principle that from infancy to adolescence, children progress through 4 qualitatively different stages of intellectual growth

Assimilation

-Way we see world into current cognitive structures

Accommodation

-Changing way we think to fit new information of the world

Ecological, Developmental Systems Approach

-All-encompassing perspective

-Stresses the need to embrace a variety of approaches

-Emphasizes the need to look at how processes interact

-Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Model

Research Methods

-Correlations: 2+ variable relating

-Experiments: something causes something else

Representative Sample

-Piece of population that represents characteristics of whole population

Naturalistic Observation

-Involves directly watching and coding in real time

Self-Report Strategy

-Where people report in themselves through questionnaires (feelings)

Issues in Developmental Research

-May not ask children because of bias, ask teach or parent instead

Quantitative Research

-Testing groups and using numerical scales and stats

-#’S, “Scale of 1-5”

Qualitative Research

-Personal Interviews

-Quotes

-Takes longer

Cross-Sectional Study

-Comparing different age groups at a single ti,e

Longitudinal Study

-Testing the same group repeatedly over years

-Very long time but rich info

Subject Attrition

-The fact that people drop out at each testing point in longitudinal research

Uterus

-pear-shaped muscular organ in woman’s abdomen that houses developing baby

Cervix

-the neck or narrow lower portion of the uterus

-holds tight to hold baby in, also needs to open

Fallopian Tube

-one of a pair of slim, pipelike, structures that connect ovaries to uterus

Ovary

-one of a pair of almond-shaped organs that contain women’s ova or eggs

Ovum

-an egg cell containing the genetic material contributed by the mother to the baby

Testes

-Male organs that manufacture sperm

Ovulation

-the movement during a women’s monthly cycle when an ovum is expelled from the ovary

Fertilization

-union of sperm and egg

-sperm can live up to 1 week, egg → 24 hours

Chromosome

-A threadlike strand of DNA located in the nucleus of every cell that carries the genes, which transmit hereditary info (46 total)

DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid)

-material that make up genes, which bear our hereditary characteristics

Gene

-a segment of DNA that contains a chemical blueprint for manufacturing a particular protein

Natal Sex

-Sex assigned at birth based on reproductive function determined by sex chromosomes

-Female → XX, Male → XY

Intersex

-General term used for a variety of conditions in which a person is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male

-Chromosomal differences → XXY

The Germinal Stage

-First two weeks

-Hasn’t fully attached to uterine wall

-Fertilization to full implantation

Zygote

-Fertilized egg/ovum, continue to divide to uterus

Blastocyst

-Hollow sphere of cells, preperation for implantation

Implantation

-process where blastocyst attaches to uterun wall

Placenta

-structure that projects from uterun wall

-where baby gets nutrients

The Embryonic Stage

-Week 3-8

-Most fast paced in entire process

-All majors organs are constructed

Neural Tube

-Cylinder structure, contains brain and spinal cord

-neurons!

Proximodistal Sequence

-Growth occurs from most interior part of body outward

-Torso→arms→fingers

Cephalocaudal Sequence

-Growth occurs in sequence from head→ toe

-Head is big

Mass-to-specific Sequence

-Large structures (and movements) precede increasingly detailed refinements

-Big picture→details

-Head before facial expressions

The Fetal Stage

-Week 9 to Birth

-Physical Refinements, leisurely paced, little details

-Finger nails, hair follicles, baby fat

-Massive growth and development of brain

-7 months

Age of Viability

-Earliest point at which a baby can survive outside womb

-22-23 weeks

Umbilical Cord

-Attaches placenta to fetus; through which nutrients are passed and fetal waste are removed

Amniotic Fluid

-A bag-shaped, fluid-filled membrane that contains and insulates the fetus

-”My Water Broke”

1st Trimester

-Often feeling tired and ill

-Tender breasts, fainting, peeing a lot, morning sickness

Gestation

-Period of pregnancy (36 weeks)

Trimester

3 month long period

Hormones

-Chemical substances released in the bloodstream that target and change organs and tissues

Progesterone

-Responsible for maintaining pregnancy

HCG (human chronic gonadotropin)

-Prevent female body from rejecting fetus

-What pregnancy tests look for

Miscarriage

-Naturally occurring loss of a pregnancy and death of fetus

-1-10 pregnancies

-Does increase when woman gets older (1-5 pregnancies)

2nd Trimester

-Feeling much better and connecting emotionally

Quickening

-Pregnant woman first time feeling baby move in their body

3rd Trimester

-Getting very large and waiting for birth

-Works worries: family-work conflict

-Relationship issues

Birth Defects

-Physical or neurological problem that occurs prenatally or at birth

Teratogen

-Substance that crosses placenta and harms fetus

-Pollution, medicine, infectious disease

Sensitive Period

-time when a body structure is most vulnerable to damage by teratogen

-starting to develop and organs are going online

Developmental Disorders

-learning impairments and behavioral problems during infancy and childhood

Basic Teratogenic Principles

-Most likely to cause major structural damage during embryonic stage (3-8 weeks)

-Can affect developing brain throughout pregnancy

-Have a threshold level above which damage occurs

-Exert their damage unpredictably, depending or fetal and maternal vulnerabilities (all different, don’t know exact threshold)

Smoking and Alcohol

-Smoking: smaller than normal, hyperactivity, nicotine→ closes blood vessels and nutrients can’t get to baby

Alcohol: fetal alcohol syndrome, crosses placenta and causes neural issues, smaller weight, facial abnormalities

Prenatal depression and severe emotional upheavals

-Can impair fetal growth or provoke premature labor

-Longer child stays in = the better

Cortisol

-Stress hormone

-Increased levels in women before baby = smaller baby

Fetal programming research

-impact of traumatic pregnancy events and stress on producing low birth weight, obesity, and long-term problems

Common Chromosomal Disorders

-Down Syndrome: Extra chromosome on Pair 21, 1-700

-Causes intellectual disability, susceptibility to heart disease, other health problems, and distinctive physical characteristics (alzeimher’s)

Single-Gene Disorder

-Passed form parent to child

-Dominant disorder: 1 copy of gene causes the disorder

-Recessive disorder: 2 copies of abnormal gene to show

-Sex-linked single-gene disorder: presented on male more, carries on mom

Genetic Counseling

-Combines genetics & psych

-Gives treatments and odds

Genetic Testing

-Blood test to see if parents are carries of disorders

Ultrasound

-Non-invasive

-Image of fetus in womb