Chapter 11

Developmental Psychology

Examines how people change—physically, cognitively, socially, and emotionally—from infancy through old age.

Development

Occurs either qualitatively or quantitatively

Nature

Biological tendencies

Cross-Sectional Design

A research method that compares participants of different ages at one point in time.

Longitudinal Design

A research method that tracks individuals over time to observe changes in their development.

Sequential Design

A research method that tracks multiple age groups across multiple time points to reduce cohort effects.

Cognitive Development

Refers to changes in all mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

Schemas

Mental structures that represent experiences

Assimilation

Using existing schemas to interpret new experiences.

Accommodation

Adjusting schemas to include new information.

Sensorimotor Stage

(0-2 years) where knowledge develops through sensory experiences and actions and achieve object permanence

Object Permanence

The understanding that objects continue to exist even when out of sight.

Social Referencing

Observing a caregivers' facial expressions for guidance on how to react to unfamiliar situations

Symbolic Representation

The use of words, sounds, gestures, and objects to represent other things in cognitive development.

Egocentrism

The preoperational tendency to perceive situations only from one's own perspective.

Theory of Mind

The understanding that others have different mental representations of the world that guide their behavior.

Scaffolding

Adults provide support to children to help them with tasks.

Nurture

Influences from environment and experiences

Preoperational Stage

(2-7 years) master the use of symbols and classify objects by single features but struggle to see multiple perspectives

Concrete Operational Stage

(7-11 years): see from multple perspectives, think logically and understand conservation

Formal Operational Stage

(11+) think logically about abstract and hypothetical situations

Violation of Expectation Method

Measures infants understanding of physical laws by observing how long they stare at events that violate natural expectations

What are the three brain development processes?

Neural proliferation
Synaptic Pruning
Myelination

Neural Proliferation

The creation of synaptic connections

Synaptic Pruning

Elimination of unused synapses

Myelination

Insulation of axons to speed up information processes

From 4-7 months…

Babies can distinguish between emotions

At 6 months old…

Babies can predit a behavior

Childhood

Refers to the time span between the end of infancy and the start of adolescence

Imaginative Play

Childrens pretend that objects, places, and roles are something else

Symbolic Schemas

Use of symbols to represent things

Operations

Refers to the ability to mentally manipulate schemas

Princple of conservation

Physical properties remain unchanged despite changes in shape or form

Vygotsky’s Principle

Learning from sociocultural world drives cognitive development