UWRF Psych: Developmental psychology

Developmental psychology

A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the lifespan

Stability

Aspects of ourselves that remain consistent over time

Change

How we grow and evolve throughout our lives

Continuous development

Gradual steady changes over time

Discontinuous development

Distinct stages with clear shifts

Zygote

The fertilized egg

Blastocyst

Cluster of dividing cells made by a fertilized egg, early stage of embryo, produces HCG implantation

Embryo

2-8 weeks

Heartbeat

6 weeks

Fetus

9 weeks

Full term

36 weeks

Placenta

An organ in the uterus of a pregnant mammal that nourishes and maintains the fetus through the umbilical cord

Teratogen

Things that can cause harm to an embryo or fetus

APGAR test

Activity (muscle tone), pulse, grimace (reflex irritability), appearance (skin color), respiration

Developmental disorder

A severe, chronic disability of an individual who has a mental or physical impairment

Habituation

Decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation

Maturation

Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior

Physical development

Involves changes in the body, nervous system, senses, and motivational drives related to growth and aging

Two levels of physical development

Gross motor and fine motor

Gross motor

Big muscle movement, things you do with larger parts of your body

Fine motor

Smaller movement, things you do with fingers

Infantile amnesia

The inability for adults to remember episodic memories from before age 2

Adolescence

The transition from childhood to adulthood

Primary sex characteristics

Reproductive organs, genitalia, hormones associated with reproductive organs

Secondary sex characteristics

Other physical traits such as deeper voice and body shape changes

Andropause

Men have a decrease of testosterone which leads to changes in energy level, muscle mass, irritability, depression

Gender

The socially constructed roles and characteristics by which a culture defines male and female

Gender role

A set of expected behaviors for males and females

Social learning theory

We learn by observing and imitating, we are rewarded for doing what’s approved and punished for what isn’t

Gender typing

Taking on the particular gender role assigned to you

Gender dysphoria

Differences in someone’s experienced/expressed gender and assigned gender

Gender expression

How feminine or masculine someone looks

Piaget’s sensorimotor stage

1st stage (birth-2 years), infants know the world through senses and movement

Piaget’s preoperational stage

2nd stage (2-7 years), learns to use language but doesn’t have logical thinking

Egocentrism

In Piaget’s theory the preoperational child can’t take on another person’s point of view

Theory of mind

Being able to see the world through someone else’s perspective

Piaget’s concrete operational stage

3rd stage (6-11 years), children can think logically about concrete events

Piaget’s formal operational stage

4th stage (age 12+), people can think logically about abstract concepts

Zone of proximal development

The area between what a child can and can not do; what they’re capable of doing with support

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI)

Noticeable cognitive decline beyond normal aging, doesn’t largely impact daily life

Alzheimer’s disease

A progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by memory loss, confusion, and impaired thinking

Vascular dementia

Cognitive decline caused by reduced blood flow to the brain

Lewy body dementia

A progressive disorder with symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and cognitive decline

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD)

Affects personality, behavior, and language more than memory in early stages because of frontal and temporal lobe degeneration

Five systems of the ecological systems theory

Microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, chronosystem

Microsystem

Groups that have direct contact with the person

Mesosystem

The relationship between groups in the microsystem

Exosystem

Indirect factors in someone’s life

Macrosystem

Cultural events that affect someone and others around them (norms)

Chronosystem

The dimension of time like life events and historical changes

Critical period

The period of early life of an organism when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces normal development

Imprinting

The process by which animals form strong attachments during an early life critical period

John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth

Did attachment studies

4 types of attachment

Secure attachment, avoidant attachment, resistant attachment, and disorganized attachment

Secure attachment

Balance between exploring and closeness

Resistant attachment

Distressed apart from parent but avoid when they return

Avoidant attachment

Not distressed when apart from parent and avoids when they return

Disorganized attachment

Unpredictable and least secure

Temperament

A person’s characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity

Diana Baumrind

Did research on parenting styles

Parenting styles

Authoritarian, permissive, uninvolved, authoritative-democratic