DEP - Exam 1

Nativism

“Nature”, Built-in, what' you’re born with

Empricism

“Nurture,” environment

Nativism vs Empiricism

• Thinks in terms of percentages

• There’s no definite cut-off between nature vs nurture

  • the womb can be an environment

  • puberty occurs after birth (biological)

Similarities

What makes us the same

Differences

What makes us different

• human variability

• Ex:

  • babies may talk or walk at different times (no concrete value but there’s an average)

  • maturation, timing when one goes through puberty

Quantitative development

amount that changes

Ex: memory (storage capacity), # of words in vocabulary

Qualitative Development

changes in function, ability, use

Ex: adults can use their memory more efficiently/differently than children (use strategies to retrieve information)

Lifespan perspective

looking at the entire lifespan not just childhood

• development doesn’t stop at puberty

• There are (+) and (-) changes as one ages

  • biological (brain keeps developing), behavioral

Why do we study lifespans?

• People have been living a lot longer

  • Covid decreased this by months

There more ____ people than we’ve ever had in history

elderly

infant mortality rates

• # out of 1000 infants that die before 1

• it’s gotten better but there’s still a long way to goo

  • Ex: in 1950, 30/1000 would die, now it’s less than 10

Age at retirement

• getting older in the U.S. (65-67)

• most people don’t retire completely (part-time job)

• some Hispanics people may retire late (don’t have as much money)

Family size

• related to where you live

  • larger in Africa, smaller in Europe

• Family sizes are shrinking around the world

• China revoked it’s only child policy (4M:1F)

• Japan and Korea have low fertility rates

Male/Female ratio

• in nature 103M:100F to account for the males that die (so there’s enough for breeding)

• Each pregnancy a woman has a boy the likelihood of her having another one goes up slightly

  • age of mom may also be a factor

Medical Advantages

• we can save more kids than we used to be able to

• kg kid → over 95% will survive now

• Super premature kids (22 weeks), usually can’t do as much as other kids (very small)

Conceptions of Childhood → Decartes

• babies are born perfect, have a sort of “godliness” to them, then society corrupts them

• they also have some knowledge of how the world works “built-in” (physics, math)

  • infants have a general idea of numbers and space

Conceptions of Childhood → John Locke

• babies have blank slate “Tabula Rasa”

  • the world “writes” on it - knowledge comes from experience

  • Behaviorism: a child can be turned into anything through reward, punishment, and environment

Teaching is based on theory that we just “______”

pour into brains

• we actually have to change those “naive” theories and views on the world

• we’re not blank slates

Conceptions of Childhood → G. Stanley Hall

• famous psychologist influenced by Darwin’s Theory of Evolution

• recapitulation theory → by looking at one individual you get how the history of how that species evolved

  • if we evolve physically, we may evolve mentally and behaviorally

    • if you look at a child's development, it reflects the stages of human evolution, suggesting that childhood is a significant phase in understanding human nature

• gave us the idea of adolescence and pushed child labor laws

• thought males and females should be educated seperateley

• worried about the “evils” of the world corrupting young minds (pool halls, comic books)

What are kids interests?

• climb → apes

• plants → agraian (growing plants)

• animals → husbandry

• machines → “industrial revolution” (gears)

• virtual → virtual worlds, computers

Observation

no manipulation, watch subjects in natural environment

Ex:

• kids start acting different when adult come in the room - our behavior changes depending on who’s around us

Experiment

• observation + manipulation + observation again

• IV: what’s manipulated

• DV: what’s measured

• subject variables: aspect of participants that we can’t manipulate because it’s built-in

  • Ex: sex/gender, age

Construct

idea that is being manipulated or measured

• Ex: how we drive when distraction (driving video game)

Operationalism

The practice of defining constructs in measurable terms, allowing researchers to quantify variables and assess their relationship

• actual manipulation/measure

correlation

A statistical measure that expresses the extent to which two variables change together, indicating the strength and direction of their relationship

• 1 variable varies, the 2nd variable also varies

• correlation ≠ causation

• Ex: as age increases so does conservatism (actually has to do with different generations)

longitudinal study

follow same participants over time (as they age)

• get to see the deveopment of the same people

flaws:

• attrition - people move or die

• cohort effect

cross-sectional design

• follow participants at same point in time (but are all different ages)

• fast, can collect data quickly

• flaw: cohort effect

Cohort effect

People born around the same time experience some of the same things influencing their behavior

• Some things may be attributed to development, when it could just be something like the political climate

• different generations and cohorts are different, not necessarily people themselves

Time-lag design

A research design that compares different cohorts at the same point in time to assess changes over time without the influence of age, often by measuring the same individuals at different ages.

• gold standard form of research - controls cohort affects

• Ex: comparing the intelligence of 20-year-olds in 2000, 2010, and 2020 to see how a generation's capabilities change

experimenter bias

The influence of a researcher's expectations or beliefs on the outcome and interpretation of their study. It can lead to skewed results and affects the objectivity of the research

• they imply what they want

Ex: hint that smart kids talk early

subject bias

The tendency of participants in a study to alter their responses or behavior based on their perceptions of the research or the expectations of the experimenter. This can distort the findings and compromise the integrity of the research.

Ex: telling the experimenter their kids talked super early (meaning they’re smart)

Sigmund Freud

• A psychologist known for developing psychoanalysis, focusing on unconscious motives and childhood experiences.

• psychoanalyzed his daughter

• great observer and reminded us that childhood is important (abuse is bad)

• 5 stages of psychosexual development

  • oral stage (0-2)

  • anal stage (2-3)

  • phallic stage (3-4)

  • latency period (4-12)

  • genital stage (12+)

Oral stage (0-2)

• mouth (pleasure) → sucking, nursing, drinking, talking

  • adults will succumb to smoking, drinking etc. if they don’t go through this stage

Anal stage (2-3)

anal pleasure → potty training, kids are interested in their anus (biggest achievement)

• very anal as an adult if not successful

phallic stage (3-4)

kids interested in sex

• boy interested in phallus - looking, touching

• girls wondering they don’t have one (penis envy)

• Oedipal complex vs. Electra Complex - dependent on the idea that child lives in 2 parent heterosexual household

Oedipal Complex

boy love mom, jealous of dad

• resolution: realizing they can have their own as adult

Electra Complex

• girl want dad because he has a penis

• resolution: get own “dad”/penis an adult (bf)

Latency period (4-12)

• not interested of any previous forms of pleasure from other stages for awhile

  • “trauma” from experiencing those stages

Genital stage (12+)

• actual sexuality, sexual urges, puberty

Jean Piaget

• theories are based on observing his 3 children

• coined the term schema → everthing we use to organize knowledge and understand the world

• He proposed stages of cognitive development

  • sensorimotor (0-2)

  • preoperational (2-5/7 shift)

  • concrete operational (5/7-12)

  • formal operational (12+)

• he emphasized not rushing kids - natural unfolding, can’t be rushed (de’collage)

Schema

organized knowledge base - everything we know about a topic

How knowledge is built (based on schemas/piaget)

Equilibration → adjusting mental schemas to fit new experiences

• Assimilation → not changing schema

  • sub-type: letting something in, but saying it’s a bad example

• Accommodation → change schema

  • Ex: balls come is many different shapes and sizes

Sensorimotor period (0-2)

coordinating senses + motor movement

• piaget’s strongest stage

Pre-operational (2-5/7)

• kids will have a lot of false beliefs about the world

Concrete operational (5/7-12)

• around 5/7 kids will become more logical - correlates with going to school

  • only about things that are in front of them

Formal operational (12+)

• kids are logical and can reason abstractly

• Piaget’s weakest stage

  • he acted like kids were adults at this stage

De’collage

unevenness in development

Lev Vygotsky

• Marxism shaped his thinking

• work is influence by Piaget (wrote letters to each other)

• interest in langauge, culture, and social aspects + how they influence cognition and how we think

  • emphasized the role of social interaction in cognitive development, proposing that children learn through guided interactions with more knowledgeable others. His concepts of the Zone of Proximal Development and Scaffolding illustrate how support can facilitate learning

Vygootsky’s Stages of Language and Speech

• Social stage (0-3) - kids talk to get things done (want something)

• Egocentric speech (3-7) - talking to themselves, externalization of thinking, giving themselves directions

• Inner speech (7+) - external speech goes inside mind (internal dialogue)

  • it’s been proven that not everyone has an internal dialogue

Language = Thought - very much related/develop together

Scaffolding

parents, teachers, caregivers etc. can give children higher support to reach further to help build them up

• teach them to do things they wouldn’t be able to do without help but within reason (Zof PD)

Zone of Proximal Development

skills that are coming soon (naturally), a little boost will help them get there

• The Zone of Proximal Development refers to the range of tasks that a child can perform with guidance but not yet independently. It highlights the significance of scaffolding in education, where support is provided to bridge the gap between what a learner can do alone and what they can achieve with assistance

• teachers will model these skills - can’t over or under teach

Ethology

The study of animal behavior in natural environments, emphasizing the evolutionary basis and adaptations of behaviors

• some things happens in nature and humans are animals so some of the things apply to us

• Ethologists: Konrad Lorez, Eric Lenneberg, John Bowlby

Konrad Lorenz

studied Geese and is known for his research on imprinting/attachment, demonstrating how young animals recognize and follow their caregivers

• Geese follow the first thing they see after their born, if theres nothing after 24 hrs they follow nothing

There’s a critical period where something must happen or it never will

Eric Lenneberg

There’s a critical period with language (puberty)

Ex: Genie Wiley - never learned how to talk or develop language

John Bowlby

• children must attach to parents in the first few years or they won’t be able to attach to anyone late in life

Sensitive period

A developmental window during which an individual is particularly receptive to certain environmental stimuli, significantly impacting learning and attachment

• easier to develop skills during this time

The brain and critical periods

• the brain constantly has critical periods

• may individual differences on when these critical periods close or if they do at all

Lateralization of the brain

• 2 sides of the brain do 2 different things

  • most research is done on right-handed people without familial sinistrality

  • ambidextrious people migt have longer critical periods

High socio-economic status could people = longer ________ _____

critical periods

• supportive environment, don’t have to mature as quickly

Ecological systems theory - Urie Bronfenbrenner

framework for understanding the various systems that influence human development, including immediate environments, social interactions, and broader societal factors over time.

1. Microsystem

2. Mesosystem

3. Exosystem

4. Macrosystem

5. Chronosystem

Microsystem

direct impact on person of interest (parent, friend, teacher, pet etc.)

Mesosystem

members of microsystem interact without person, indirectly influencing them

Ex: parent-teacher conference

Exosystem

interactions with microsystem, external environmental settings that indirectly influence the person, such as a parent's workplace or community services

Macrosystem

reigning cultural time period

Ex: where you live, political climate

Chronosystem

how much change you have - the dimension of time that encompasses changes over the life course, including life transitions and socio-historical events

• change affects us

• Ex: pre-ww2 births vs post-ww2 births

Genes

smallest unit of inheritance

• dominant vs. recessive

Chromosomes

• groups of genes

  • 22 autosomes and 2 sex chromosomes (1 from mother, 1 from father)

  • 46 total

Genotype

genes we have

Phenotype

expression of genes + environment - “what we get”

Epigenetics

the study of how environmental factors influence gene expression without altering the DNA sequence

• extra “note” that say which genes we should use or express

• Ex: Holocaust, Dutch Famine

Huntington’s Disease

• dominant gene

• doesn’t manifest until late 30’s early 40’s

• destroys brain - eats white matter

  • progressive motor and cognitive decline → early death

• can be tested for its

Sickle Cell Anemia

• misshaped or “sickled” red blood cells

• cells don’t carry enough oxygen, gets stuck in blood vessels

• recessive trait - caused by mutation in hemoglobin gene

• more common in those of African or South American descent

• sickled cells can’t carry malaria

Phenylketonuria (PKU)

• mutation in the PAH gene

• inability to break down phenylalanine (a protein)

  • can result in severe intellectual disability if untreated - accumulates in brain, loss of skills

  • managed through a strict diet low in phenylalanine

Tay-Sachs

• caused by a mutation in the HEXA gene

• inability to break down certain sugars

• accumulates in brain, no cure - leads to neurodegeneration and early death in infancy

  • lose movement, language

  • die before age of 3 - multi-organ failure

• more common in Jewish and Middle Eastern descent

Muscular Dystrophy

• muscles fail to develop

  • affects walking + moving

Spina Bifida

• spine/neural tube doesn’t close completely

  • spinal fluid may leak out, spinal nerves may form a sac

• treatment:

  • folic acid as a preventative measure

  • prenatal surgery - shoves it back in

Retinoblastoma

• cancer in retina

  • starts very young

  • abnormal eye - doesn’t “look full”

  • death if untreated - reaches brain

Trisomy

extra chromosome - 3 instead of a pair

Deletion

loss of a chromosome segment, resulting in missing genetic material

Translocation

chromosome in the wrong spot - a chromosome segment is moved from one chromosome to another

Mosacism

abnormal chromosome set - individual has two or more genetically different cell lines, resulting from mutations during early cell division

• only some cells affected

• Ex: variability with down syndrome

Chimerism

2 sets of DNA - an individual has two or more genetically distinct cell lines originating from different zygotes. This can result from the fusion of embryos or blood transfusions

Ex: Lydia Fairchild “not related” to biological kids, absorbed twin in utero resulting in a mixture of cells with different genetic compositions.

Down Syndrome (Trisomy 21)

• extra chromosome on 21st pair

• related to age of egg - “zipper doesn’t work as well” at older age

• a lot variability - mosaicism (Hannah)

• markers:

  • wide set eyes

  • thin, long smile

  • some have heart problems or hearing difficulties

  • mental slowness

_______ is always affect when having an extra chromosome

intelligence

Trisomy 9/16

• complete is incompatible w/ life

• mosaic forms minimal problems

Edwards Syndrome (Trisomy 18)

• condition caused by an extra chromosome on the 18th pair

• often results in severe developmental delays and physical abnormalities

  • extreme mental slowness

  • misformed crest

  • difficulty flexing

• associated with low birth weight and a small head

• die very young

Patau Syndrome (Trisomy 13)

• genetic disorder caused by an extra chromosome on the 13th pair

• leads to severe intellectual disability and physical abnormalities

• live for mins-hrs

fragile x phenomenon

• a lot of disorders/ailments are carried on the x chromosome - affects males more severely

Turner Syndrome

• female - XO (deletion on 23rd pair)

• drop in IQ + spacial skills

• physical markers:

  • webbed neck

  • extremely short

  • wide-set nipples

  • discolored spots

  • sterile

Klinefelter’s Syndrome

• male - XXY (duplication)

• markers:

  • less masculinized

  • breast development

  • wider hips

  • female hair growth patterns

  • poor quality sperm (low motility)

  • drop in intelligence

Supermale Syndrome

• Male - XYY

• random mutation

• markers:

  • very tall

  • more acne

  • drop in intelligence (lower average)

    • make bad decisions, end up in jail

XXX Syndrome

• Female

• slight drop in intelligence

• minimal symptoms, might be taller

Androgen Insensitive Females

• Genetic males (XY)

• androgen receptors do not respond to male hormones (insensitive to androgens), resulting in female reproductive anatomy

• normal female external characteristics but lack a uterus

• markers:

  • tall

  • thin

  • large breasts

  • less body hair

  • don’t get period/sterile

• technically intersex but identify as female

Guevedoces (Penis 12 Syndrome)

• Inbreeding (small breeding population) → Dominican Republic, New Guinea

• raised as a girl, penis formed at 12

  • undescended penis (hidden)

  • sex reassigned at 12

• 95% identify as hetero males

Prenatal Testing

• older mom cut-off is at 35 - be offered genetic testing for fetal abnormalities such as Down syndrome

• currently recommended to give all pregnant women testing regardless of age

• amniocentesis → remove cells, tell them, done at 20 weeks

• chorionic villus sampling → only done for huge genetic risk, 45+ mothers