Developmental Psychology Flashcards

Flashcards to review key concepts in developmental psychology.

What is developmental psychology?

The study of how we change physically, socially, cognitively, and morally over our lifetimes.

What topics should AP students in psychology be able to discuss regarding developmental psychology?

The interaction of nature and nurture, conception and gestation, maturation of motor skills, influence of temperament, maturation of cognitive abilities, models of moral development, maturational challenges in adolescence, influence of parenting styles, development of decisions related to intimacy, physical and cognitive changes that emerge as people age, influence of sex and gender, and key contributors in developmental psychology.

What is developmental psychology?

A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span.

What is development?

Sequence of age-related changes that occur as a person progresses from conception to death.

What are the three main debates in developmental psychology?

Nature vs. Nurture, Continuity vs. Discontinuity, and Stability vs. Change.

What are the two big questions related to the nature vs. nurture issue?

How much weight does heredity and environment wield, and how do they interact?

What are two effective ways to study the nature-nurture interaction?

Twin studies and adoption studies.

How do twin studies help in understanding the nature-nurture interaction?

Identical twins have the same genotype, and fraternal twins have an average of 50% of their genes in common.

How do adoption studies help in understanding the nature-nurture interaction?

Similarities with the biological family support nature, while similarities with the adoptive family support nurture.

What is the continuity vs. discontinuity debate?

Whether human development is a gradual and continuous process or a series of discrete stages.

What does the continuity view state about human development?

Change is gradual.

What does the discontinuity view state about human development?

Development is more abrupt, with a succession of changes producing different behaviors in different age-specific life periods called stages.

What developmental theories support discontinuity?

Freud's psychosexual stages, Piaget's stages of cognitive development, and Erikson's theories of development.

What are developmental stages?

Periods of life initiated by distinct transitions in physical or psychological functioning.

What is the stability vs. change debate?

Whether personality traits that are present in an individual at birth remain constant or change throughout the life span.

What do psychoanalysts say about personality development in relation to the stability vs. change debate?

Personalities are developed in the first five years of life and then stay.

What do change theorists say about personality development?

Personalities are modified by interactions.

What do developmental psychologists say about stability vs. change?

Temperament and outgoingness stay stable, but social attitudes can change.

What are the developmental periods to know?

Prenatal period, Neonatal period, and Infancy.

What is the prenatal period?

The developmental period before birth.

What is the neonatal period?

Birth to 1 month.

What is infancy?

1 month to 18/24 months.

What is the role of the genetic plan in prenatal development?

Determines how all of the organs will be formed.

What is differentiation in prenatal development?

Stem cells that are capable of forming into any organ in the body.

What is mitosis?

The process during which the zygote divides first into two cells, then four, then eight, and so on till the mass of the cells becomes a baby.

What is Age of Viability?

Age at which baby can survive premature birth – 5.75-6 months

What is Placenta?

Structure that allows oxygen & nutrients to pass into fetus from mother’s bloodstream & bodily waste to pass out to the mother

What are Teratogens

Agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm

What is Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)

Physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman’s heavy drinking. Symptoms include facial disproportions

What is a Zygote?

The fertilized egg by sperm. A one-celled organism containing chromosomes & genes with genetic info

What are the three phases of the Prenatal Period ?

Germinal Stage, Embryonic Stage, Fetal Stage

What is Habituation in newborns?

Decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation; newborns become bored with a repeated stimulus, but renew their attention to a slightly different stimulus.

What do studies show about newborns' abilities?

Newborns have innate abilities to find nourishment, interact with others and avoid harmful situations.

What are reflexes that help infants survive?

Grasping, Moro (startle), Rooting, Stepping, and Sucking.

What are babies in the Neonatal Period (Birth to one month old) capable of doing?

Responding to stimulation from all of their senses.

What is Infancy Period: 1 mo. to 24 mo characterized by?

It is a period of rapid development, but is still heavily reliant on reflexive behavior.

What are the six motor milestones in childhood?

Raising head and chest, rolling over, sitting up with support, sitting up without support, crawling, walking.

What is Cephalocaudal Trend?

Head to foot direction of motor development, gaining control of upper part of body first.

What is Proximodistal Trend?

Center-outward direction of motor development, gaining control of torso before extremities.

What are Fine Motor Skills?

The coordination of small muscles, in movements-usually involving the synchronization of hands and fingers-with the eyes.

What are Gross Motor Skills?

Larger movements your baby makes with his arms, legs, feet, or his entire body.

What is the neuron count in an infant's brain at birth?

At birth, an infant's brain has over 100 billion neurons.

Which sensory abilities are fairly well developed at birth?

Touch, smell, and taste.

What are methods to help gauge an infant's sensory abilities?

Preferential looking and Habituation.

What does the preferential looking method assume?

The longer an infant spends looking at a stimulus, the more the infant prefers that stimulus over others.

What is habituation?

The tendency for infants (and adults) to stop paying attention to a stimulus that does not change.

What are some examples of how youngsters begin to exploit their abilities for learning during infancy?

Crying, cooing, smiling, etc.

What is child-directed speech?

A child's style of speaking is influenced by the way adults and older children talk to infants and very young children, with higher pitched, repetitious, sing-song speech patterns.

What is temperament?

Behavioral and emotional characteristics that are fairly well established at birth.

What is known as 'Easy' temperament.

Regular in their schedules of waking, sleeping, & eating , adaptable to change, happy babies, easily soothed when distressed

What is known as 'Difficult' temperament.

Opposite of easy ones; irregular in their schedules, unhappy about any kind of change, are loud, active, and tend to be crabby

What is known as 'Slow to warm up' temperament.

Less grumpy, quieter but slow to adapt to change; if change is introduced gradually, they warm up to new people and new situations

What is attachment?

Social-emotional relationship between a child and parent or caregiver.

What is imprinting?

A powerful attraction that occurs between infants and the first moving object or individual they spend time with.

What is a critical period?

Specific time during which an organism has to experience stimuli in order to progress through developmental stages properly.

What are the traits described as 'Secure attachment'.

Children show some distress when parent leaves, seek contact at the reunion, explore when parent gone, play and greet when parent present.

What are traits of children with secure attachment?

Explore happily; upset when mother departs, but easily soothed upon her return.

What are traits of children with avoidant attachment?

Willing to explore, don't "touch base," react very little to mother’s absence or return.

What are traits of children with ambivalent attachment?

Clinging, unwilling to explore; upset when mother leaves, angry with her on her return.

What are traits of children with disorganized-disoriented attachment?

Unable to decide reaction to mother’s return, approach mother with their eyes turned away from her, avoid eye contact.

What is stranger anxiety?

Fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age.

What is Separation Anxiety

Extreme emotional agitation, fear, and distress particularly in infants when object/loved one leaves Peaks between 14 and 18 months.

What is the Cupboard Theory?

Infants become attached to those who provide the "cupboard" containing the food supply.

What was Harlow's Findings regarding infant monkeys?

Infants need more than food, they need contact comfort too.

What is Maturation?

The orderly sequence of biological growth by which an organism develops over time, both physically and mentally.

What key ideas was Piaget’s theory based on?

Schemas, Assimilation and accommodation, and Stages of cognitive development

What are schemas

Mental structures that guide thinking; building blocks of development.

What is Assimilation?

Process that modifies new information to fit with existing schemas or with what is already known; New information fits our existing view of the world

What is Accommodation?

Process of restructuring or modifying schemas to incorporate new information; Changes our views to fit new information

What is the Sensorimotor Stage and its ages?

Uses senses & motor abilities to interact with environment, uses reflexive responses with very little thinking involved; from Birth to age 2

What is Object permanence

Knowledge that objects exist independently of one’s own actions or awareness.

What is symbolic thought

Ability to represent objects in one’s thoughts with symbols such as words

What is the Preoperational Stage and its ages?

A stage marked by well-developed mental representation and the use of language; ages 2 to 6/7 years of age

What is Egocentrism

A self centered focus that causes children to see the world only in their own terms.

What is Animistic thinking?

Believing inanimate objects have life and mental processes.

What is centration?

An inability to understand an event because the child focuses their attention too narrowly.

What is Irreversibility?

An inability to think through a series of events or steps and then reverse course.

What is Artificialism?

Believing all objects are made by people.

What is the Concrete Operational Stage and its ages?

Child develops the abilities of irreversibility, conservation and mental operations; ages 7 to 11 years

What are mental operations

The ability to solve problems by manipulating images in one’s own mind.

What is Conservation

The principle that quantity remains the same despite changes in shape.

What is the Formal Operational Stage and its ages?

People begin to think about issues like being more accepted by peers, and abstract issues like love, fairness and our reason for existence; ages 12 to adulthood

What is Theory of Mind

The ability to infer (understand) other’s mental states, and know they may be different than our own

What is Zone of Proximal Development

The difference between what a child can do alone and what that child can do with the help of a teacher

What problems in adulthood results from Fixation at Oral Stage?

Dependency or aggression; Problems with drinking, smoking, eating, nail biting

What problems in adulthood results from Fixation at Anal Stage?

Anal-expulsive (messy, wasteful, destructive) vs. Anal-retentive (orderly, rigid, obsessive)

What problems in adulthood results from Fixation at Phallic Stage?

Fixation can result in sexual deviancies or confused sexual identity

What happens in the stage Trust vs. Mistrust?

Babies learn either to trust or to mistrust that others will care for their basic needs

What happens in the stage Autonomy vs. Self-doubt?

Children learn either to be self-sufficient in many activities or to doubt their own abilities

What happens in the stage Initiative vs. Guilt

Children want to undertake many adult-like activities, sometimes overstepping the limits set by parents and feeling guilty.

What happens in the stage Competence vs. Inferiority?

Children busily learn to be competent and productive or feel inferior and unable to do anything well

What happens in the stage Identity vs. Role Confusion

Adolescents try to figure out, "Who am I?" They establish sexual, ethnic, and career identities, or are confused about what future roles to play.

What happens in the stage Intimacy vs. Isolation?

Young adults seek companionship and love with another person or become isolated from others.

What happens in the stage Generativity vs. Stagnation?

Middle-age adults are productive, performing meaningful work and raising a family, or become stagnant and inactive

What happens in the stage Ego-identity vs. Despair

Older adults try to make sense out of their lives, either seeing life as a meaningful whole or despairing at goals never reached and questions never answered.

What do Freud and Erik Erikson maintained about the development of personality

Personality develops in a predetermined order

What is the big challenge Erikson singles out for young adults?

Establishing close relationships with other adults.

What are the four distinct styles of parenting?

Authoritative, Authoritarian, Permissive, and Uninvolved.

What are the traits of Authoritative parent?

Parent is warm, attentive and sensitive to child’s needs and interests

What are the traits of Authoritarian parent?

Parent is cold and rejecting; frequently degrades the child