Lifespan Exam 1

Self-Report Measures

participants answer questions themselves, Pros: easy and cheap to collect, Cons: subject to error, inaccurate memories, lack of insight, social desirability

Questionnaire/survey

set of mc questions

Open-ended interview

no parameters; conversation style, flexible questions

Structured Interview

asks each participant same questions; differences in responses = actual differences in participants

Observational Measures

Researchers watch and monitor behavior, then organize information

Freuds Psychosexual Theory

discontinued stages, passive are motivated by inborn basic drives

Eriksons Psychosocial Theory

Active minds interact with social world to resolve psychosocial tasks

• Each stage provides a conflict and social interactions determine stages outcome, never too late to resolve

• Infancy > Early Childhood > Play Age > School Age > Adolescence > Early Adulthood > Adulthood > Old Age

• One of the first lifespan views of development, view with society/culture included

Behaviorist Theory

• passive shaped by environment; only observable behavior is examined 

  • Classical/Operant Conditioning

Banduras Social Learning Theory

• emphasizes role of modeling/observing learning over people behavior and consequences to that behavior

  • Can learn by thinking of potential consequences to actions

Piagets Cognitive Development Theory

• interact with the world to create their own schemas 

  • Sensorimotor > Pre-operational and Concrete Operational > Formal Operations

  • With each advancing stage, people use more sophisticated schemas to understand worlds complexities 

Information Processing Theory

Mind is computer that takes in, stores, processes, and manipulates information

Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory

• focuses on role of society/culture in cognitive development on children learning through interactions with others who are more competent 

  • Throughout interactions, children learn rules and practices of society/their culture

Brofenbrenner’s Bioecological Systems Theory

• Connects are organized into series of systems

  • Inds are embedded and interact with one another to influence development; systems interact too

  • Microsystem (Child) > mesosystem (family, school, peers) > exosystem (parents work, neighbors) > macrosystems (politics, culture laws/policies, social class)

Evocative

child genes > others peoples behavior, evoke responses from others

Prenatal Development Stages

germinal (first 14 days, where rapid cell growth and differentiation occurs) > embryonic (3-8 weeks, when organs and major body systems develop (organogenesis)reflexes and defects)> fetal (9 weeks to birth, rapid growth, complex organ development, spontaneous movement)

Patterns of development

Cephalocaudal (from head down), and Proximodistal ( from center out)

Apgar Scale

• accesses baby’s immediate condition 

  • Appearance, pulse, grimace, respiration

Brazelton Neonatal Assessment Scale

• assess subtle behavior aspects of newborns condition

  • Motor capacities, responsiveness to objects/people and self-control

Neurogenesis

creation of neurons, begins during prenatal development, and proceeds rapidly

Neuronal migration

• neurons align themselves with glial cells (provide neurons with supplements) and migrate to different parts of the brain

  • Leads to organization if brain and localizes functions

Synaptogenesis

forming of new synapses, begins prenatally and makes more connections than needed

Synaptic pruning

synapses not used die off

Experience - expectant brain development

in anticipation to species wide events and stimuli, sensory dep. interrupts the development

Experience dependent brain development

in response to specific individual learning experiences, playing musical instruments isn’t universal, Association between screen time and underdeveloped white matter in preschoolers

hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal axis (HPG axis)

Puberty is driven by hormones regulated

Menarche

first menstrual cylce

spermarche

first ejaculation

how puberty is measure

age of menarche/spermarche, genetic onset of puberty symptoms and personal perception

• Levels of testosterone can shift dramatically in response to stress and illness

• Nutrition, stress, and contextual factors > pubertal timing

Gross motor development

use of large muscles for large movements, how we move through environment

Fine motor skills

development and coordination of small muscles (reaching, grasping, manual dexterity)

maturation and context

what drives motor development (pruning, development of cerebellum, myelination), Need for communication, writing and eating with intensive drives motor development culturally

Dynamic systems theory

maturation motivation and context intertwine > motor development

Affordances

how infants gauge what they can do with what they see in environments (objects)

Intermodal perception

• integrate information from multiple sensory systems to understand the world (ex. Localizing sounds)