Psychology 311 Exam 1

Development

is the pattern of movement or change that begins at conception and continues through the human life span. Includes both growth and decline.

Importance of studying children’s development

o   Helps prepare us to take responsibility for children

o   Gives us insight about our own lives

o   Raises some provocative issues

Context

refers to the settings in which development occurs

Culture

encompasses the behavior patterns, beliefs, and all other products of a specific group of people which are passed on from generation to generation

Cross-cultural studies

compare aspects of two or more culturesE

Ethnicity

is rooted in cultural heritage, nationality, race, religion, and language

Socioeconomic status (SES)

refers to a person’s position within society based on occupational, educational, and economic characteristics.

gender

is a key dimension of children’s development; it refers to the characteristics of people as males and females

Each of these dimensions of the sociocultural context helps to mold how children develop

culture, ethnicity, SES, and gender

Some children develop confidence in their abilities despite negative stereotypes about their gender or their ethnic group, and some children triumph over poverty or other adversities. They show what?

resilience

Social policy

a government’s course of action designed to promote the welfare of its citizens

The U.S. figure of ___% of children living in poverty in 2016 is much higher than figures in other industrialized nations

18

A study of the effects of the Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP) found that ____ in the incomes of working poor parents were linked with benefits for their children

increases

Biological processes

produce changes in the individual’s body

Socioemotional processes

involve changes in the individual’s relationships with other people, changes in emotions, and changes in personality

Cognitive processes

are changes in the individual’s thought, intelligence, and language

Developmental cognitive neuroscience

explores links between development, cognitive processes, and the brain

Developmental social neuroscience

examines connections between socioemotional processes, development, and the brain

prenatal period

conception to birth

Infancy

birth to 18 or 24 months

Early childhood

end of infancy to about 5 or 6 years

Middle and late childhood

6–11 years

Adolescence

approximately 10–12 years of age and ending at 18–19 years of age

cohort

group of people who are born at a similar point in history and share similar experiences as a result, such as growing up in the same city around the same time

Cohort effects

due to a person’s time of birth, era, or generation but not to actual age

Millennials

The generation born roughly between 1980 and 1999

Millennial characteristics include their connection to technology and their ethnic diversity.

nature–nurture issue

focuses on the extent to which development is mainly influenced by nature (biological inheritance) or nurture (environmental experiences)

continuity–discontinuity issue

focuses on the extent to which development involves gradual, cumulative change (continuity) or distinct stages (discontinuity)

early–later experience issue

focuses on the degree to which early experiences (especially in infancy) or later experiences are the key determinants of the child’s development

scientific method

1) conceptualize the problem to be studied,

2) collect data,

3) analyze the data to reach conclusions,

4) revise research conclusions and theory

theory

an interrelated, coherent set of ideas that helps explain and make predictions.

hypothesis

a specific assertion or prediction that can be tested

Psychoanalytic theories

describe development as primarily unconscious (beyond awareness) and heavily colored by emotion

Freud’s Theory

Developed psychoanalytic theory

Our adult personality results from the way we resolve crises in the five stages of psychosexual development, which he named oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital

Many of today’s psychoanalytic theorists believe that Freud overemphasized sexual instincts. Instead, they place more emphasis on cultural experiences as determinants of an individual’s development

Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory

o   Trust vs. mistrust

o   Autonomy vs. shame and doubt

o   Initiative vs. guilt

o   Industry vs. inferiority

o   Identity vs. identity confusion

o   Intimacy vs. isolation

o   Generativity vs. stagnation

o   Integrity vs. despair

Evaluating the Psychoanalytic Theories (Contributions)

o   Developmental framework

o   Family relationships

o   Unconscious mind

Evaluating the Psychoanalytic Theories (Criticisms)

o   Lack of scientific support

o   Sexual underpinnings are given too much importance (Freud).

o   Too much emphasis on the unconscious mind

o   These theories present a negative image of children (Freud)

Cognitive Theories

Cognitive theories emphasize conscious thoughts

Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental Theory

States that children go through four stages of development as they actively construct their understanding of the world

Two process that underlie this are organization and adaptation

To make sense of our observations and experiences, we must organize them in some meaningful way

We also adapt our thinking to include new ideas and experiences

o   Sensorimotor stage

o   Preoperational stage

o   Concrete operational stage

Formal operational stage

Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Cognitive Theory

Believed that children actively construct their knowledge

Through social interaction, especially with more skilled peers and adults, children learn to use the tools that will help them adapt and be successful in their culture

Information-Processing Theory

Emphasizes that individuals manipulate information, monitor it, and strategize about it

Individuals develop an increasing capacity for processing information in a gradual way, rather than in stages

Evaluating Cognitive Theories (Contributions)

o   These theories offer a positive view of development.

o   There is an emphasis on the active construction of knowledge and understanding.

o   Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theories underscore the importance of examining developmental changes in children’s thinking.

o   Information-processing theory offers detailed descriptions of cognitive processes.

Evaluating Cognitive Theories (Criticisms)

o   Skepticism exists about the timing and manner of development according to Piaget’s stages.

o   Little attention is given to individual variations in cognitive development.

o   Information-processing theory does not provide an adequate description of developmental changes in cognition.

Some theorists argue these theories do not give enough credit to unconscious thought

Behaviorism

holds that we can study scientifically only what can be directly observed and measured

Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning

a neutral stimulus produces a response originally produced by another stimulus

Skinner’s Operant Conditioning

The consequences of a behavior produce changes in the probability of the behavior’s occurrence

If a behavior is followed by a pleasant consequence, it is more likely to recur, but if it is followed by an unpleasant consequence, it is less likely to recur

Rewards and punishments that occur in the environment are the most important influences that shape development

Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory

holds that behavior, environment, and cognition are the key factors in development

Observational learning

occurs through observing what others do

Evaluating Behavioral and Social Cognitive Theories (Contributions)

o   They provide an emphasis on the importance of scientific research.

o   They focus on the environmental determinants of behavior.

o   Bandura identifies and explains observational learning.

Social cognitive theory includes person/cognitive factors

Evaluating Behavioral and Social Cognitive Theories (Criticisms)

o   Pavlov and Skinner give too little emphasis on cognition.

o   Too much emphasis is given to environmental determinants.

o   Inadequate attention is given to developmental changes.

There is inadequate recognition of human spontaneity and creativity

Ethological Theory

stresses that behavior is strongly influenced by biology, is tied to evolution, and is characterized by critical or sensitive periods

Evaluating ethological theory (Contributions)

o   It provides an increased focus on the biological and evolutionary basis of development.

o   Ethological theory promotes the use of careful observations in naturalistic settings.

It emphasizes sensitive periods of development

Evaluating ethological theory (Criticisms)

o   The critical period and sensitive period concepts may be too rigid.

o   The emphasis on biological foundations is too strong.

o   Cognition receives inadequate attention.

o   The theory is better at generating research with animals than with humans.

Ecological Theory

emphasize the impact of environmental contexts on development

Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory

Consists of five interacting environmental systems, ranging from direct interactions with social agents to cultural influences.

o   The microsystem is the setting in which the individual lives, including direct interactions with the person’s family, peers, school, and neighborhood.

o   The mesosystem involves relations among microsystems or connections among contexts. Relations of family experiences to school experiences, school experiences to church experiences, and family experiences to peer experiences would be included in this system.

o   The exosystem is involved when experiences in another social setting, in which the individual does not have an active role, influence what the individual experiences in an immediate context.

o   The macrosystem involves the culture in which individuals live.

The chronosystem involves the patterning of environmental events and transitions over the life course, as well as sociohistorical circumstances

Evaluating ecological theory (Contributions)

o   A systematic examination of macro and micro dimensions of environmental systems

o   Attention to connections between environmental settings (mesosystem)

o   Emphasis on a range of social contexts beyond the family

Evaluating ecological theory (Criticisms)

o   Inadequate attention to biological and cognitive processes

Eclectic theoretical orientation

does not follow any one theoretical approach. Rather, it selects and uses, from each theory, whatever is considered the best in it

case study

is in-depth look at a single individual

Physiological measures

include such things as hormone levels, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and so on

independent variable

is the manipulated or experimental variable

dependent variable

is the factor that is measured in an experiment, sometimes called the test or outcome variable

cross-sectional approach

Individuals of different ages are compared at one time.

This time-efficient approach does not require time for individuals to age.

It provides no information about how individuals change or about the stability of their characteristics

Longitudinal Approach

The same individuals are studied over time.

This provides information regarding stability and change in development and the importance of early experience for later development.

The approach is expensive and time consuming, but it has the advantage of eliminating the cohort effect.

There is potential for subjects to drop out due to sickness, loss of interest, or moving away.

The subjects that remain in the study could bias the results because they may be dissimilar from the ones that dropped out

Conducting Ethical Research (APA’s ethical guidelines)

1.       Informed consent: Participants in research are told what their participation will entail and any risks that might be involved.

2.       Confidentiality: All data are kept completely confidential and anonymous.

3.       Debriefing: Upon completion, participants are informed of the purpose and methods used in the study.

4. Deception: Knowing the purpose of a research study may cause participants to behave differently than they would otherwise. Thus, researchers often use deception to hide the true purpose of a study and to promote natural behavior in participants. Deception should only be used if participants are protected from harm. The use of deception is a debated issue, but if it is employed, participants should be told about the true purpose of the study as soon as possible after the study is completed

Ethnic gloss

involves using an ethnic label such as African American or Latino in a superficial way that portrays an ethnic group as being more homogeneous than it really is

Natural selection is the evolutionary process, proposed by _________, that favors individuals of a species that are best adapted to survive and reproduce

Charles Darwin

Evolutionary psychology emphasizes the importance of?

adaptation, reproduction, and “survival of the fittest” in explaining behavior

Humans have an extended childhood period evolved because

humans require time to develop a large brain and learn the complexity of human societies

threadlike structures that contain the genetic substance deoxyribonucleic acid

Chromosomes

complex molecule that contains genetic information. The double helix shape looks like a spiral staircase

DNA

short segments composed of DNA. They help cells to reproduce themselves and to assemble proteins

Genes

Completion of the Human Genome Project has led to

the use of the genome-wide association method to identify genetic variations linked to a particular disorder

the goal is to discover the location of one or more genes in relation to a marker gene (whose position is already known), is often used in the search for disease genes

Linkage analysis

What six factors can influence gene expression

stress, exercise, nutrition, respiration, temperature, and sleep

Certain genes can also be turned off or on as a result of ____ and ___ through the process of methylation

exercise and diet

Mitosis

the process by which each chromosome in the cell’s nucleus duplicates itself

Meiosis

the process by which cells divide into gametes (testes/sperm in males, ovaries/eggs in females), which have half the genetic material of the parent cell

During fertilization, an egg and a sperm fuse to create a single cell, called a?

zygote

The 23rd pair of chromosomes differs in males and females. In males, the 23rd pair is __, whereas in females it is __

males is XY

females it is XX

genotype

all of a person’s genetic material

phenotype

the external, observable characteristics

Genetic Imprinting

This occurs when genes exert different influences based on whether they are inherited from the mother or the father

Polygenic Inheritance

When a characteristic is the product of interaction of many different genes, it is said to be polygenically determined

Chromosomal Abnormalities

occur when the sperm or ovum does not have its normal set of 23 chromosomes

Down syndrome

is a chromosomally transmitted abnormality caused by the presence of an extra chromosome (approximately 1 out of 700 live births). An individual with Down syndrome typically has a round face, a flattened skull, an extra fold of skin over the eyelids, a protruding tongue, short limbs, and intellectual and motor disabilities. Maternal age may contribute to this syndrome

Sex-Linked Chromosomal Abnormalities

occur when there is a deviation from the typical XX or XY combination of sex chromosomes

Klinefelter syndrome

is a genetic disorder in which males have an extra

X chromosome, making them XXY instead of XY (approximately 1 in 650 live male births). Males with this disorder have undeveloped testes and enlarged breasts and are tall

Fragile X syndrome (FXS)

is a genetic disorder that results from abnormality in the X chromosome (it becomes constricted and breaks). Mental deficiency is the primary outcome, including cognitive deficits in inhibition, memory, and planning. It is more common in males than in females

Turner syndrome

is a chromosome disorder in which females are missing an X chromosome, making them XO instead of XX. These females (1 in 2,500 live births) are short in stature and have webbed necks. They may be infertile and have difficulty in mathematics, while their verbal ability is often quite good

XYY syndrome

is a disorder in which the male has an extra Y chromosome. Despite assumptions, XYY males are no more likely to commit crimes than are XY males

Phenylketonuria (PKU)

is an easily detected genetic disorder in which the individual cannot properly metabolize an amino acid. If left untreated, intellectual disability and hyperactivity result. It occurs about once in every 10,000–20,000 live births

Sickle-cell anemia

which occurs in 1 of 400 African Americans, is a genetic disorder affecting the red blood cells and often results in early death. Recent research strongly supports the use of hydroxyurea therapy for infants with sickle-cell anemia beginning at 9 months of age

Ultrasound sonography

is a prenatal medical procedure that allows one to see the fetus’s inner structures. It can be used to detect many structural abnormalities and the baby’s sex

Fetal MRI

is a tool that can be used to diagnose fetal malformations and provides more detailed images than an ultrasound can provide

Chorionic villus sampling (CVS)

can detect genetic defects and chromosome abnormalities by testing a small sample from the placenta

Amniocentesis

can detect chromosome and metabolic disorders by testing a sample of amniotic fluid

Maternal blood screening

can identify the risk of some disorders such as spina bifida and Down syndrome

Infertility is experienced by ____% of couples in the United States.

10%–15%

The most common technique of high-tech-assisted reproduction for infertile couples is

vitro fertilization (IVF), in which eggs (ova) and sperm are combined in a laboratory dish. If eggs are successfully fertilized, one or more is transferred into the women’s uterus