PSYC 101 (UCSD) Midterm 1

First developmental study

Ancient Egypt: Psamtik ll told a shepherd to raise kids away from family and observe their first word to figure out the origin of language which was Bekos ( had no meaning)

Modern Studies ( controlled-rearing AKA deprivation studies)

Behavioral studies with animals- Example: What experience is needed to develop depth perception?

(Held & Hein, 1963)

Kitten study- kitten need both visual and motor experience to develop depth and perception

Extreme Deprivation (Abuse)

Genie- was never able to develop normally because she had :

No interactions of any type

Was Severely malnourished

No exposure to speech

Physical abuse

After being removed from her parents, she developed:

Non-verbal communication skills

Basic social skills

Never was able to learn a language

Had normal vision but couldn't focus on anything more than 10 ft

away (size of the room she was kept in)

The Meno: Socrates and the boy

Written by Plato - Developed the idea that all knowledge one can learn one already knows thus learning is act at of remembering previous innate knowledge

Aristole

All knowledge is gained through experience so child rearing should adjust to the needs of the child

Plato

Born with knowledge children should be raised with strict discipline and self-control

John Locke

Emphasized nurture and the blank slate theory ( tabula rasa) , importance of early strict parenting and freedom later on in life

Beginnings of Empirical Research

Late 1800s to early 1900s because of the social reform movement and Charles Darwin

Emerging Theories of Development

Behavior is motivated by

innate,

unconscious, instinctual

drives... Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

- The type of drive changes over development

-Universal stages

-Emphasized early development

-Never studied children!

Founders of Behaviorism

Ivan Pavlov, John Watson, B.F. Skinner

Main principles of behaviorism

-Study only observable things: all behavior results from stimulus and response

-No mental phenomena: "thoughts", "concepts", "desires", "beliefs","consciousness"

- "The most scientific approach to studying the mind"

(..is never to talk about the mind?)

Little Albert Experiment

Watson's experiment of classical conditioning- conditioned to be afraid of white fluffy things, nurture is all that matters ( response to eugenics movement)

Behaviorism

A response to Eugenics

Eugenics Movement

Eugenics: Belief that human race

can be improved by selecting for

traits in population, by controlling

reproduction ("Social Darwinism")

Jean Piaget (1896-1980)

Father of modern developmental psychology, founded the field of cognitive development and made careful and clever observations, and tasks to test his theories

Jean Piaget Views

-Baby's view of the world is as complex

as an adult's ... just different

-Aren't born with adult knowledge -

have powerful learning mechanisms

Piaget's 4 stages of cognitive development

1. sensorimotor

2. preoperational

3. concrete operational

4. formal operational

Sensorimotor stage

In Piaget's theory, the stage (from birth to about 2 years of age) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities

Preoperational stage

in Piaget's theory, the stage (from about 2 to 6 or 7 years of age) during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic, egocentrism is evident conversation marks the end of this stage

Concerte operational stage

In Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 6 or 7 to 11 years of age) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events. Has a mature understanding of cause and effect. App: my cousin was able to finally understand that 5x3 and 3x5 are the same product.

Formal operational stage

in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts

1st Developmental Theory

Development happens in stages (challenged)

-Children develop in 4 stages

-A child's capacity to understand concepts is limited by

their stage

-We all go through the same stages, in the same order

2nd Developmental Theory

Learning is a constructive process (enduring)

-Child as a "little scientist"

-Active Learning!

Lev Vygotsky

-Child in cultural context IS unity of study

-Development is internalizing social and cultural information

-Social interaction as mechanism

Vygotsky vs. Piaget

V: No stages ,stressed importance of culture, adult/ peer interactions and language.

P: 4 stages of development, ignored language, only peers, development is universal

Nature

basic genetics, hereditary

Nurture

parents, siblings, cultural influences

Genotype

complete set of genes inherited

Phenotype

combination of genes genotype and environment

5 relationships

Look at slides

Genes

sections of chromosomes that are the basic unit of heredity in all living things

- small sections of DNA

-stores information

Chromosomes

made up of DNA and proteins, made up of many genes and transmits genetic info

Genome

the complete instructions for making an organism

DNA

deoxyribonucleic acid

- hereditary material

- made up of 4 nucleotides

Nucleotides

Organic Molecules that form DNA - Adenine, Thymine, Guanine, Cytosine

23 pairs of chromosomes

46 total, 23 from each parent

Alleses

Different forms of a gene

Males

XY chromosomes

Females

XX chromosomes

X chromosome

carries 1500 genes

Y chromosome

carries 200 genes

Males are more likely to suffer from

sex-linked recessive disorders

Mutations

- can be hereditary

- can be random

-caused the environment

-harmful or beneficial

random assortment

cells divide and chromosomes randomly organized into 8.4 million possible combinations

crossing over

when chromosomes swap sections of DNA

Hereditary mutations

Mutations passed from parents to the offspring via gametes ( egg or sperm cells )

Ex. Huntington's Disease & Cystic Fibrosis

Hintington's disease

-hereditary disorder that results in the death of brain cells

- caused by CAG repetitions (40+)

- mutation of HTT gene

- uncontrolled movements , emotional problems, loss of thinking ability

- onset typically 30-40s

- lifespan 15-20 yrs after symptoms

Juvenile Huntington's Disease

More CAG repetitions (80-100)

- Lifespan 10-15 yrs ofter symptoms begin

Cystic Fibrosis

A genetic disorder that is present at birth and affects both the respiratory and digestive systems.

- CFTR gene mutated

- mucus clog in lungs

-1/3000 births

Mutations can be random

Ex. William's syndrome

-genetic condition present at brith

- caused by the deletion of 26-28 genes on chromosome 7

-common facial features, social, affinity for music

-cardiovascular disease, learning challenges, developmental delays

Mutation can be environmental

Ex. UV rays and skin cancer

-99% of non- melanoma skin cancer is caused by UV rays

-95% of melanoma skin cancer caused by Uv rays

Ex. Cigarrettes and lung cancer

- 30% of all cancer deaths

-87% of lung cancer deaths

Mutations can be helpful

sickle cell anemia - (heterozygous advantage)

- protection against malaria

- oxygen cannot be carried by RBC

Regulator Gens

control expression by other genes - have to be turned on and off by regulator genes

Huntington's disease

dominant mutation

cystic fibrosis

recessive- need two copies of the mutation

When identical twins show more similarity for trait than fraternal twins

genetics greater factor

when both types of twins show equal similarity for trait

environment is a greater factor

Disadvantages to twins studies

- can they be generalized to rest of the population

- genetics can lead to higher incidents of twin births

- not 100% genetically similar

Minnesota Twin Study

Data on >9800 people including, parents, siblings, and twins

-very extensive

Schizophrenia rates

- uncommon in general but other twin has 48% risk if one twin has it

anorexia

first degrees relatives 10X more likely for developing an ED

Preformationism

Organisms develop from miniature

versions of themselves

- spermists: complete human in the sperm

-Ovists: complete human in the egg

Fertilization

Fusion of an egg and sperm cell

- strongest and fastest sperm survive

-One sperm's head penetrates chemical reaction seals the membrane

-The tail falls off, and the content of the head

pours in, fusing the two nuclei to create a full

set of chromosomes

Zygote (1-2 weeks)

- fertilization

-implantation

-placenta formation

Embryo (3-8 weeks)

Layers of cells, neural tube, limbs, and organs tube, limbs, and organs form

Fetus ( 9-38)

Movement, sensory abilities, rapid growth, brain development

Embryo Development

1. cell division: mitosis - one cells divides to produce genetically identical daughter cell

2. cell migration: Movement of newly formed cells to somewhere else( brain cells may migrate to outer cortex)

3. Cell Differentiation:

(~350 different cell types)

Initially all of the embryos' cells can become

anything (stem cells)

4. Apoptosis: cell death

Early sex differences

More male embryos conceived

- Slight male bias at brith

- M are more spontaneous abortion

-M are born with lower birth weights in general, M are less likely to survive

M embryos > than F embryos... BUT

-F are less likely to survive early gestation ( slight male bias)

-M are more likely to experience fetal distress, stress of childbirth and SIDs

Fetal experience

Fetuses experience the senes

1. Motor

- 5-6 weeks movement in head and spin

- 7 weeks hiccups

- 10 weeks lung use

- 11 weeks swallowing reflex

- 12 weeks movement that's present at birth developed

Sight

- 27 weeks: eyes open but can't blink at light

- 30 weeks: pupils can constrict and expand

- 32 weeks: can focus on large objects

- 34 weeks: can track movements, can see red

- 36 weeks: similar to newborn

Smell

~ 8 weeks: nose forms

~ 11-19: nose neurons connected to the brain

- 28 weeks: can start smelling and sense of smell increases through mo. 8 and 9

- Amniotic fluid absorbs odor from mother's diet

Taste

- 13-15 weeks taste buds develop

- Amniotic fluid contains flavors of what the mother eats

- predisposition to weet taste

Hearing

-womb is 10-95 decibels

-18 weeks first sounds

- ear develop around 24 weeks

last trimester: can perceive sounds in the womb, distinguish mother's speech and music

- sounds filtered through amniotic fluid

Shoda, Mischel, and Peake's (1990)

OG Marshmallow study: showed strong bivariate correlations between a child's ability to delay gratification just before entering school and both adolescent achievement and socioemotional behaviors.

DeCasper & Spence, (1986)

- mother read target passage twice a day (control group with no prenatal exposure)

- infants shifted sucking rate in direction of target passage (no difference in sucking rate for control)

- infants learned and remembered something about the acoustic cues they heard in utero

Newborns prefer:

-Their own language over foreign languages

-Their own mother's voice over another mother's voice

-Their mother's voice FILTERED to sound like it did in the womb...over what it sounds like from outside the womb!

-Can't be due to post-birth learning!

Can learn during 3rd trimester !

Mennella, Jagnow & Beauchamp (2001)

During the last month or pregnancy mothers either drank carrot juice or water and then measured the number of negative faces when baby eat carrot/water flavored cereal - at 8mo in gestation fetuses form memories of taste bc flavors transfer through amniotic fluid

Teratogens

Environmental agents that have the potential to

cause harm during prenatal development

Sensitivity to Teratogens

Sensitivity to many

teratogens is highest in

the first trimester

(later exposure also

causes defects, but

more minor)

Thalidomide (Teratogen)

A mild tranquilizer that, taken early in pregnancy, can produce a variety of malformations of the limbs, eyes, ears, and heart.

Estimated 10,000 -20,000 babies in 46 countries

~40% died at birth

Zika (Teratogen)

-Can be sexually transmitted

-Virus stays in semen longer than other bodily fluids

- Can pass Zika through sex even though there are no

symptoms

Antidepressants (Teratogen)

-Possible complications:

-Heavy bleeding after birth

-Low birth weight

-Fetal heart defect (Paxil)

Cigarettes (Teratogen)

Nicotine, carbon monoxide and other poisons are carried through the

mother's bloodstream directly to the baby

Risks: less O2 carried to baby , smaller than usuals , more higher chance of SIDS, double than risk of bleeding, damage to lungs and brain of the baby, premature birth , miscarriage, stillborn

2nd hand smoke

More likely to develop:

-Asthma

-Allergies

-More frequent lung and ear

infections

-Higher risk for SIDS

-Stillbirth

- Lower birthweight

Alcohol

-Alcohol can pass from the mother's bloodstream

through the placenta to the fetus

- Defects can happen with prenatal exposure to

alcohol anytime - often before a woman knows she's

pregnant

- Maternal alcoholism associated with:

-facial deformity

-intellectual disability

-attention problems

-hyperactivity and more...

fetal alcohol syndrome

physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman's heavy drinking

- Deformities in the joints, limbs and fingers

- Slow physical growth before and after birth

- Small head circumference and brain size

- Heart defects and problems with kidneys

-Certain facial features - small eyes, smooth skin between nose

and upper lip, exceptionally thin upper lip, short lip

- intellectual disability, learning disorders

-Poor memory, attention, judgement skills, reasoning and problem solving

- Hyperactivity - 94% of children diagnosed with ADHD as well

Opioids (Teratogens)

Heroin, Fentanyl, Oxycodone, Vicodin,

Codeine, Morphine etc

Effects:

-Vision, motor and cognitive problems

-Sleeping and feeding disturbances

-Seizures

-Low birth weight

Marijuana (Teratogens)

THC can pass through to the baby

Can cause:

-Low birth weight

-Premature birth

-Increases chance of developmental problems

-Attention problems later on

- 2-3 times greater risk of stillbirth

In animal studies:

-Risk of miscarriage increases

-Abnormal patterns of social interactions

-Learning deficits

Air quality

Those exposed to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAHs) showed:

-Cord blood analyses: 40% already showed DNA damage from PAHs

- those exposed to PAH were prenatally

more than twice as likely to be cognitively delayed at 3

compared to those that were exposed to less PAHs in the womb

Obesity

The greater the woman's weight gain during pregnancy, the higher the risk that he child would

be overweight by 3 years old

- Children gestated by women post surgery ( anti-obesity surgery) were 52% less likely to be obese than siblings born to the same mother when she was still heavy

Dabelea, D., Knowler, W.C., & Pettitt, D.J., (2000)

Diabetes in Pima Indians - Diabetic's high blood sugar appears to disrupt the developing metabolism of the fetus predisposing them to diabetes and obesity

- Over 70% of persons with prenatal exposure have Type 2 diabetes at 25-34 years old

- Development of Type 2 diabetes results more because

of the intrauterine environment

Scientific Progress

Non Invasion can be done to test for diseases- invasive one run higher risk to the fetus

- Nuchal translucency screening:

Non-invasive: a special type of ultrasound

Chorionic villus sampling (CVS)

Invasive but can test for almost all chromosomal abnormalities and several hundred genetic disorders

amniocentesis

Needle puncture of the amniotic sac to withdraw amniotic fluid for analysis

-Can detect neural tube defects like anencephaly and

spina bifida

Folic Acid: water-soluble B vitamin

Prevents:

- Anecephaly: missing parts of the cerebrum

and cerebellum (fatal condition)

- Spina bifida: spine and spinal cord don't

form properly

Watts? Duncan, Quan

Marshmallow study revisited- basically no association with delayed gratification and academic success later on in life only significant difference was at 20s wait time

Cell body (soma):

contains the cell's nucleus and has all of the cell's genome

Node of Ranvier

Node of Ranvier: gaps on the axon where it is unmyelinated