Developmental Pyschology

Cross-sectional research

uses participants of different ages to compare how certain variables may change over the lifespan

Properties of Cross-sectional research

can produce quick results

researchers must be careful to avoid the effects of historical events and cultural trends

Longitudinal research

examines one group of participants over time

properties of longnitudinal studies

precisely measure the effects of development on a specific group

time-consuming

Prenatal Influences

Genetics and teratogens,

prenatal influence of genetics

genes also help determine what abilities we are born with, such as our reflexes and our process of developing motor skills

prenatal influence of teratogens

chemicals or agents that can cause harm if ingested or contracted by the mother

alcohol (heavy consumption)

at high risk of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

small, malformed skulls and intellectual disability

alcohol (moderate consumption)

fetal alcohol effect

have specific developmental problems (learning disabilities and behavioral problems)

psychoactive drugs - effect on prenatal development

cause newborns to share their parent's physical drug addiction

serious withdrawal symptoms associated with these addictions can kill an infant

polluting chemicals - effect on prenatal development

cause abnormal infant development

Reflexes Humans Have at Birth

rooting reflex, sucking reflex, grasping reflex, moro reflex, babinski reflex

Rooting reflex

When touched on the cheek, a baby will turn his or her head to the side where he or she felt the touch and seek to put the object into his or her mouth

Sucking reflex

When an object is placed into the baby's mouth, the infant will suck on it.

grasping reflex

If an object is placed into a baby's palm or foot pad, the baby will try to grasp the object with his or her fingers or toes

Moro reflex

When startled, a baby will fling his or her limbs out and then quickly retract them, making himself or herself as small as possible

Babinski reflex

When a baby's foot is stroked, he or she will spread the toes

zone of proximal development

Lev Vygotsky

the range of tasks the child can perform independently and those tasks the child needs assistance with. Teachers/parents can provide "scaffolds" for students to help them accomplish tasks at the upper end of their zone of proximal development, encouraging further cognitive development.

Erik Erikson

psychodynamic theorist

created the psychosocial stage theory

Stages psychosocial stage theory

1. trust vs mistrust

2. autonomy vs shame and doubt

3. initiative vs guilt

4. industry vs inferiority

5. identity vs role confusion

6. intimacy vs isolation

7. generativity vs stagnation

8. integrity vs despair

theory of cognitive development

through the process of schema creation, assimilation, and accommodation as we develop cognitively. the four stages are sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational.

Sensorimotor Stage

0-2 years

develop object permanence

Preoperational Stage

2-7 years

starts to use mental symbols

beginning of language

egocentric

develop the ability to imagine what someone else might be thinking and act on those predictions

Concrete Operational Stage

8-12 years

demonstrate knowledge of concepts of conservation - properties of objects remain the same even when their shapes change

volume, area, and number stay constant

formal operational stage

12 years onward

Through abstract reasoning, we can manipulate objects and contrast ideas in our mind without physically seeing them or having real-world correlates

metacognition

personal fable

belief that they (adolescent) are unique or different from everyone else, or they can develop an attitude of superiority or invulnerability

Criticisms of Piaget

Many children go through the stages faster and enter them earlier than Piaget predicted

his tests relied too heavily on language use

metacognition

the ability to think about the way we think

hypothetical thinking

reasoning from a hypothesis

information processing model

points out that our abilities to memorize, interpret, and perceive gradually develop as we age rather than developing in distinct stages

Phonemes

the smallest units of sound used in a language

number of phonemes used by english speakers

44

morpheme

the smallest unit of meaningful sound

syntax

Sentence structure

semantics

The meanings of words, and the combinations of words in phrases and sentences

babbling

4 months - 1 year

innates stage, represents experimentation with phonemes to learn what sounds they can produce

holophrastic stage or one-word stage

1 year to 18 months

babies speak in single words (holophrases) - imitate the words they hear caregivers speaking

telegraphic speech or two-word stage

18 months

Toddlers combine the words they can say into simple commands. Meaning is usually clear at this stage, but syntax is absent

overgeneralization or overregularization

misapplication of grammar rules

behaviorist theories about language acquisition

language is learned like other learned behaviors: through operant conditioning and shaping

cognitive psychologists theories about language acquisition

theorized that humans are born with a language acquisition device, the ability to learn a language rapidly as children

Nativist theory of language acquisition

theorised by Noam Chomsky

critical period of language learning exists

humans are born with a language acquisition device

Benjamin Whorf theories

linguistic relativity hypothesis

language we use might control, and in some ways limit, our thinking

Konrad Lorenz

established that some infant

animals (such as geese) become attached to (imprint on) individuals or even objects they see during a critical period after birth

attachment parenting

the reciprocal relationship between caregiver and child

Harry Harlow's experiment

raised baby monkeys with two artificial wire frame figures made to resemble mother monkeys

One mother figure was fitted with a bottle the infant could eat from, and the other was wrapped in a soft material

found that infant monkeys when frightened preferred the soft mother figure over the figure that they fed from, demonstrating the importance of physical comfort in the formation of attachment to parents

contact comfort

Stimulation and reassurance derived from the physical touch of a caregiver

temperament

our emotional style or typical way we react to stressful situations

Mary Ainsworth

Ainsworth observed infants' reactions when placed into a strange situation: their parents left them alone for a short period of time and then returned. The three kinds of infants are secure attachment, anxious/ambivalent attachment, and avoidant attachment

secure attachments

66 percent of the participants

confidently explored the novel environment while the parents were present, were distressed when the parents left, and came to the parents when they returned

avoidant attachments

resisted being held by the parents and explored the novel environment. The infants did not go to the parents for comfort when they returned after an absence

anxious/ambivalent attachments

The infants may have shown extreme stress (separation anxiety) when the parents left but resisted being comforted by them when they returned

Ecological Systems Theory

This theory views human development as a system of relationships that is impacted by our environment. Combinations of relationships across different contexts interact to impact our development. There are 5 interrelated systems

Microsystem

direct interactions between the child and their immediate surroundings, including their caregivers

Mesosystem

provides connections across microsystems

Exosystem

involves indirect influences on the child's development

Macrosystem

influences of the cultures a child is immersed in

Chronosystem

times of transition or change that occur over the

chronology or timeline of a child's life

Diana Baumrind

researched parent-child interactions and described three overall categories of parenting styles: Authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative parents

Authoritarian parents

set strict standards for their children's behavior and apply punishments for violations of these rules.

Obedient attitudes are valued more than discussions about the rationale behind the standards.

Punishment for undesired behavior is more often used than reinforcement for desired behavior.

Permissive parents

not set clear guidelines for their children. The rules that do exist in the family are constantly changed or are not enforced consistently.

Authoritative parents

set consistent standards for their children's behavior

explanations are encouraged in an authoritative house, and the rules are reasonable and consistent

benefits of authoritative parents

are more socially capable and perform better academically on average

disadvantages of permissive parents

emotional control problems and are more dependent

disadvantages of Authoritarian parents

more likely to distrust others and be withdrawn from peers

Learning

long-lasting change in behavior resulting from experience

Ivan Pavlov

found that the dogs learned to pair the sounds in the - environment where they were fed with the food that was given to them and began to salivate simply upon hearing the sounds

classical/associative conditioning

People and animals can learn to associate neutral stimuli (e.g., sounds) with stimuli that produce reflexive, involuntary responses (e.g., food) and will learn to respond similarly to the new stimulus as they did to the old one (e.g., salivate).

unconditioned stimulus (US or UCS

the original stimulus that elicits a natural, reflexive response

unconditioned response (UR or UCR)

the natural, involuntary response

conditioned stimulus (CS).

in classical conditioning, an originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus (US), comes to trigger a conditioned response.

conditioned response (CR)

in classical conditioning, the learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus (CS)

acquisition (classical conditioning)

takes place once the animals respond to the CS without a presentation of the US

factors affecting acquisition

repeated pairings of CSs and USs yield stronger CRs

The order and timing of the CS and US pairings also have an impact

present the CS first and then to introduce the US while the CS is still evident

delayed conditioning

A classical conditioning procedure in which the conditioned stimulus precedes the unconditioned stimulus and remains present until after the unconditioned stimulus is presented so that the two stimuli occur together.

Trace conditioning

Presentation of the CS, followed by a short break, followed by presentation of the US

Simultaneous conditioning

Presentation of the CS and US at the same time.

Backward conditioning

Presentation of the US first, followed by presentation of the CS. This method is particularly ineffective

extinction

the process of unlearning a behavior

has taken place when the CS no longer elicits the CR

achieved by repeatedly presenting the CS without the US, thus breaking the association between the two

spontaneous recovery

after a conditioned response has been extinguished and no further training of the animals has taken place, the response briefly reappears upon presentation of the conditioned stimulus

generalization (classical conditioning)

animals conditioned to respond to a certain stimulus will also respond to similar stimuli, although the response is usually smaller in magnitude

discrimination (classical conditioning)

Subjects can be trained, however, to tell the difference, or discriminate, among various stimuli

John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner's conditioning

conditioned a little boy named Albert to fear a white rat

repeatedly paired the rat with a loud noise, teaching Albert to cry when he saw the rat.

aversion conditioning

conditioning to have a negative response

higher-order conditioning or second-order conditioning

Once a CS elicits a CR, it is possible, briefly, to use that CS as a US in order to condition a response to a new stimulus

Taste aversions

ingest an unusual food or drink and then become nauseous, you may develop an aversion to the food or drink

John Garcia and Robert Koelling's experiment

performed a famous experiment illustrating how rats more readily learned to make certain associations than

others. The rats learned to associate noise with shock and unusual-tasting water with nausea.

biological preparedness

we are biologically predisposed to associate nausea with something we ate or drank

Garcia effect.

the ease with which animals learn taste aversions that occurs whenever nausea is paired with food or drink

operant conditioning

a kind of learning based on the association of consequences with one's behaviors

Edward Thorndike

conducted a series of famous experiments using a cat in a puzzle box. Thorndike found that the amount of time required for the cat to get out of the box decreased over a series of trials. led Thorndike to assert that the cat learned the new behavior without mental activity but,

rather, simply connected a stimulus and a response.

law of effect

if the consequences

of a behavior are pleasant, the stimulus-response (S-R) connection will be strengthened and the likelihood of the behavior will increase. However, if the consequences of a behavior are unpleasant, the S-R connection will weaken and the likelihood of the behavior will decrease.

B. F. Skinner

coined the term operant conditioning

Skinner box

has a way to deliver food to an animal and a lever to press or disk to peck to get the food

reinforcer

in operant conditioning, any event that strengthens the behavior it follows

reinforcement

the process of giving the animal the reinforcer

Positive reinforcement

addition of something pleasant

negative reinforcement

removal of something unpleasant

Escape learning

allows one to terminate an aversive stimulus

avoidance learning

enables one to avoid the unpleasant stimulus altogether