ChAD 60 Midterm 1 SJSU

Explain each of the three major issues for developmental science.

1. Sources of development. Nature vs. nurture or biology vs. environment.

2. Plasticity. The degree to which, and the conditions under which, development is open to change and intervention.

3. Continuity/Discontinuity. Have to do with the extent to which development tends to be continuous, consisting of the gradual accumulation of small changes, and the extent to which it is discontinuous, involving a series of abrupt, radical transformations.

What is the function of a theory?

a framework of ideas or body of principles that can be used to guide the collection and interpretation of a set of facts.

Briefly describe each major theory (grand and modern) of development.

Psychodynamic theories: Freud = psychosexual theories. Erickson = psychosocial stages.

Behaviorist theory: development through learning. Emphasize behavioral changes resulting from forming associations between behavior and consequences.

Piaget: Constructivist theory. Progress through universal stages of cognitive development by mastering environments.

Vgotsky: Sociocultural theory. Focuses on the role of culture and development

MODERN

Evolutionary theories: how human characteristics contribute to the survival of the species & how evolutionary past influences development.

Social learning theories: Like behaviors theories but emphasizes learning that occurs through the observation of an interaction with others

Information processing theories: Uses computer analogies to look at how development works

Systems theories: Focuses on the organization of the environmental contexts within which children develop

What are the five major periods of development?

1. Prenatal

2. Infancy (0-3)

3. Early childhood (3-6)

4. Middle childhood (6-Puberty)

5. Adolescence (Puberty-Adult)

Describe the difference between Bronfenbrenner's: Micro-system and Exosytem - how do they impact the child?

Microsystem: Face to face settings, whereas exosystems consist of settings that effect but do not include the child.

Describe the difference between Bronfenbrenner's: Exosystem and Macrosystem

Exosystem a setting that effects but does not include a child. A macrosystem includes the values, customs, hazards and resources of the larger culture that shape what happens in all the settings of the systems nested within.

What are the four major domains of development?

1. Cognitive

2. Social

3. Emotional

4. Physical

Describe each major type of data collection method. List 2 advantages and disadvantages of each.

1. Naturalistic observation: involves watching children in the course of their everyday lives and recording what happens. WATCH THEM.

2. Experiments: consist of introducing some change onto a group's experience and measuring the effects of the change on the group's members, who are compared with a similar group that did not undergo the experience. TEST THEM.

3. Clinical interviews allow researchers to tailor data collection to each research participant. TALK TO THEM.

Describe each major research design. List 2 advantages and 2 disadvantages of each.

Longitudinal: NATURALISTIC OBSERVATION. Pick a group, same age, follow them. Advantage: possible to discover patterns of continuity and change over time. Disadvantage: expensive, high drop out, sensitive to cohort differences.

Cross sectional: EXPERIMENT. Pick multiple groups of different ages and compare them. Disadvantages: Generational differences, advances in technology and political change. Advantages: cheaper, and you get answers more quicky.

Cohort Sequential: CLINICAL INTERVIEW. Mix of both. Advantage: Lesses disadvantages of both. Disadvantage: Still expensive.

Compare and contrast: nature and nurture

Nature: the individual's inherited biological predispositions.

Nurture: the influences of the social and cultural environment. Particularly the family, community and individual's experiences.

Compare and contrast: continuity and discontinuity

Continuity: the gradual accumulation of small changes

Discontinuity: a series of abrupt radical transformations

Compare and contrast: experimental and control group

Experimental group: the group whose experience is changed as part of the experiment

Control group: the group that is treated as much as possible like the experimental group except that it does not participate in the experimental manipulation

Define: Plasticity

The degree to which and the conditions under which development is open to change and intervention.

Define: Sensitive Period

A time in an organism's development when a particular experience has an especially profound effect.

What is culture made up of and how does it influence development?

Made up of material and symbolic tools that are accumulated over time. Both types of tools provide resources for development by organizing children's activities, including how children relate to their environment.

What is cultural mediation and why is it important to development?

The process through which tools organize people's activities and ways of relating to their environments. I.e.: violent video games promoting aggression, barbies = poor body image

What does it mean to pass along cultural knowledge through social enhancement, imitation, and explicit instruction?

Social enhancement: the most basic social process of learning to use cultural resources in which resources are used simply because others' activities have made them available in the immediate environment. "It's lying around."

Imitation: The social process through which children learn to use their cultures, resources by observing and copying the behaviors of others. "We see it done"

Explicit instruction: The social process in which children are purposefully taught to use the resources of their culture.

Which of these processes seems to be uniquely human?

Explicit instruction. Uses symbolic communication, so it makes it possible to teach children about things that are not present in the immediate environment.

Explain why genotypes strongly influence phenotypes, but do not completely determine

the phenotype.

Phenotype = influenced by individual's environment in addition to being influenced by the genotype.

Explain each of the types of kinship studies and how they can be used to estimate heritability.

1. MZ twins raised together

2. DZ twins raised together

3. MZ twins raised apart

4. DZ twins raised apart

5. Parents/children living together

6. Adoptive parents and children

7. Siblings raised together

8. Siblings raised apart

They can see how much nature effects development and how much nurture effects development.

Compare and contrast: material tools and symbolic tools

Material tools: cultural tools including physical objects and observable patterns of behavior such as family routines and social practices

Symbolic tools: cultural tools such as abstract knowledge, beliefs, values, language, and numbers

Compare and contrast: genotype and phenotype

Genotype: genes

Phenotype: physical appearance

Compare and contrast: monozygotic twins and dizygotic twins

MZ twins: One zygote, identical genotypes. Identical twin

DZ twins: 2 zygotes. Fraternal twin

Describe each prenatal period.

• What marks the beginning of the period, what marks the end?

• What are the major developments during each period?

Germinal period: begins at conception and lasts until the zygote enters the uterus and becomes implanted there about 8 to 10 days later. Organism grows from a single cell to hundreds of cells.

Embryonic period: extends from implantation to the 8th week. differentiation: (endoderm - organs; mesoderm - muscles, skeleton and circulatory; ectoderm - skin, teeth and nervous system) and organogenesis. 3-4 weeks: primitive brain, spinal cord, heart and muscles. 5-8 weeks: sense of touch, embryo can move. Child is most vulnerable to developmental errors in this stage.

Fetal period - 9th week until birth. Sensory capacity (motion, light, sound) and activity (head turning, leg flexing, breathing, swallowing, sucking, alternating between activity and inactivity)

Why is fetal activity important?

Crucial to neuronal development,

Can fetuses learn before they are born?

• What are some examples?

• How do we know?

Learn the sound of mother's voice, taste and smell. Babies prefer these things at birth

List the six general principles that apply to all teratogens.

1. Susceptibility of the organism depends on its developmental stage.

2. A teratogen's effects are likely to be specific to a particular organ.

3. Individual organisms vary in their susceptibility to teratogens.

4. The mother's physiological state influences susceptibility to teratogens.

5. The greater the concentration of a teratogenic agent, the greater the risk

6. Teratogens that have little or no effect on the mother can seriously effect the developing organism.

When is a developing organism most vulnerable? (overall and for specific functions like the CNS or upper and lower limbs)

Embryonic period.

Week 3 - week 6: CNS

Mid week 3 to week approx: Heart

Mid week 4 to week 8: Arms

Mid week 4 to mid week 8: Eyes

Mid week 4 to week 8: Legs

End of week 6 to end of week 8: teeth

End of week 6 to approx end of week 9: palate

Mid of week 7 to mid of week 12: external genitalia

Mid week 4 to approx week 11: ears

In what ways can a mother's nutrition affect prenatal development?

Malnutrition: The imbalance between the body's needs and the intake of nutrients. Poor maternal nutrition can lead to low birth weight and even miscarriage. Increased risk for heart disease, strokes, and diabetes.

Undernourishment: may cause a process of overcompensation

Over nourishment: women are more susceptible to diabetes and can pass sensitivity to insulin and blood sugar levels

Which sensory systems and abilities are available before birth?

Sensing motion, seeing, hearing, tasting.

How do we assess the Baby's viability?

APGAR scale: used to assess the newborn's physical condition by measuring heart rate, respiratory effort, reflex responsivity, muscle tone, and color.

Brazelton Neonatal Assessment Scale: Used to assess a newborn's neurological condition. Tests reflexes, motor capacities, muscle tone, capacity for responding to objects and people, and capacity to control their own behavior and attention

What are some complications associated with pre-term birth?

Immaturity of lungs; digestive and immune systems; sometimes have difficulty coordinating sucking, swallowing, and breathing.

What is low birth weight and what problems is it associated with?

The term used to describe babies weighing 5 lbs 8 oz or less at birth, whether or not they are premature. At increased risk for developmental difficulty. Common outcomes: decrease in coordination and intellectual capacities. Medical complications. Long term: performed more poorly on tests or motor coordination, intelligence, and arithmetic.

What does it mean to be small for gestational age and why does it matter?

Newborns whose birthweight falls in the lowest 10% for their gestational age bc they have not grown at the normal rate. Can help identify developmental problems in the future

Define: Teratogen

Environmental agents that cause deviations from normal development and can lead to abnormalities or death

Define: Cortisol (what is it and what is it generally associated with?)

Hormone caused by stress. If it passes through placenta, it can have a measurable effect on the fetus's motor activity. Effects can be long lasting - children whose mothers were more stressed were more aggressive in childhood.

What are the functions of early reflexes?

To practice sucking, grasping, stepping, blinking, rooting - all except stepping are to help with nursing. Stepping and grasping - help with motor skills. Indicators of healthy development.

If newborns are born with most of the neurons they will ever have, how does the child's brain increase dramatically in size (and ability) over the first three years?

Increased size results primarily from an increase in the connections among neurons and from myelination, which insulates axons and speeds the transmission of impulses

Identify which major senses are available at birth. How can we measure these perceptual abilities in newborn infants?

Vision, taste and smell; hearing. Preference and habituation studies.

Give an example of how a specific reflex can form the building blocks for a more complicated, coordinated form of behavioral organization.

Talking - from pitches, to forming shapes of sounds, to words. Gets more complex from there

Explain the relationship between mothers' responsiveness and infants' crying.

Infants' crying is a primitive means of communication that evokes a strong emotional response in adults and alerts them that something may be wrong. Infants tend to cry less in cultures with caregiving practices, such as prolonged holding and frequent feeding. Certain distinctive patterns of early cries may indicate difficulties.

List (and describe) at least six temperamental traits.

1. Attention control: the capacity to focus attention as well as to shift attention when desired.

2. Inhibitory control: the capacity to plan future action and to suppress inappropriate responses

3. Perceptual sensitivity: detection or perceptual awareness of slight low intensity stimulation in the environment.

4. Low intensity pleasure: Pleasure derived from activities or stimuli involving low intensity, rate, complexity, novelty, and incongruity

5. Frustration: negative effect related to interruption of ongoing tasks or goal blocking

6. Fear: negative effect related to anticipation of stress

Compare and contrast: Preferential Looking Study / Habituation Study

Preferential studies: observe which item a baby stares at longer to tell us what they focus on and whether they can tell the difference between objects

Habituation: Introducing a baby to a sight, sound, or smell, and record their response until they get bored.

Define: Neurons

Nerve cells, pass messages from brain to body

Define: Synapse

A tiny gap between axon of one neuron and dendrite of another

Define: Neurogenesis

Formed before babies are born. Creation of new neurons.

Define: Synaptogenesis

Forming more connections between neurons. Connections are what make up grey matter. Continues through adolescence.

Define: Myelination

Addition of myelin sheath. Makes the brain function more efficiently, but more plastic in developing new skills

Define: Synaptic Pruning

Death of unused neurons and synapses. Streamlines signal processing

Intermodal Perception

The ability to perceive an object or event by more than one sensory system simultaneously.

Reflexes

Specific, well-integrated, automatic response to a specific type of stimulation.