PSYC1030 - CONTENT QUIZ 3

what is developmental psychology

• investigates how people grow, change and adapt throughout their lifespan.

• the aim is to understand transformation in behaviour, cognition, and emotions over time

what are the three components of developmental psychology

1. physical development

2. cognitive development → changes in thinking, problem solving etc. from infancy to adulthood

3. social and emotional development → attachment and relationships, personality, emotional regulation

why do we study developmental psychology

1. insight into human growth

2. improving quality of life → inform educational practices, parenting approahces

3. broader impacts → promote healthier childhood development

4. connection to other fields → overlaps with clinical and social psychology

what is infancy and what occurs to the body during this time

• infancy is the first two years of live → where we start off in a very primitive state and develop rapidly

• across these two years our weight triples and length increases by 50%, our brain grows 80%, and cortex doubles in surface area

why do we study infancy and examples

1. foundations of later cognition, personality, and health → helps us predict future abilities

2. shows period of maximal neural and behaviour plasticity (ie. deaf infants who receive cochlear implants before 12 months can develop normal speech intelligibility)

3. practical relevance → parenting, clinical screening (ie. kangaroo mother care → skin to skin contact)

what is the nature perspective (plato)

everything the adult will become is already in there, development is mostly maturation, things like capabilities, skills, personality is genetically encoded

what is the nurture perspective (Locke and James)

infants are a blank slate bombarded with sensory information, development is make sense of the information by forming associations

how do nature and nurture combine together

1. gene environment interactions → impact of genes on behaviour depends on the environment that the behaviour develops (is seen in psychopaths)

2. nurture via nature → genetic predispositions drive us to seek or create particular environments that then enhance the behaviour (ie. musical abilities)

3. gene expression → genes turn on in response to specific environmental events (ie. nutrition and cognitive development)

4. epigenetic → genes dynamically respond moment to moment to environmental conditions (maternal care and stress)

how do sensory systems work in infants

• all 5 systems function but unevenly mature

• vision is least developed; touch and smell most advanced

• early biases tune infants to caregivers and nutrition (ie. newborns track top heavy, face like patterns and they have a bias against bitter tastes)

explain vision in infants

• new born acuity = 20/500 (profound impairment)

• fixed focal distance is perfect for face to face bonding

• accommodation begins to emerge 8-10 weeks; adult like dynamic focusing is reached by 6-7 months

• adult level acuity and binocular depth by 8 months

• synaptic density in primary visual cortex overproduces to 150% of adult levels by 4-8 months

• redundant connections for experience driven refinement → rapid pruning as crawling begins

explain hearing in infants

• cochlea is mature by 24 gestational weeks; womb filters high frequencies

• late gestation EEG shows rhythm encoding of speech like patterns

• categorical speech perception present at birth - general - but by 8-12 months sensitivity narrows to native language only (shown in Eimas et al study → 2 syllables ba and pa)

• music: preference for consonant over dissonant intervals by 3 months

• sound localisation accurate by 6 degrees by 5 months

explain touch in infants

• significant touch development before birth

• dense mechanoreceptors → cutaneous receptors first appear along the lips at 7-8 gestational weeks and cover the entire body by 20 weeks

• reflexes triggered by tactile cues

• newborns can detect object shape and texture by mouthing

• feel pain but descending inhibition immature

• birth → big change from fluid to air → rapid recalibration of circuits in first weeks

• by 9 months integrate touch with vision and proprioception.

explain taste and smell in infants

• critical for feeding and protection

• essentially mature at birth

• taste → innate sweet for energy and bitter for toxins

• fetal and breast milk exposure to flavours leads infants to later accept those foods more rapidly

• smell → day 1 orientation to maternal breast pas odour, by 1 month can distinguish mother’s scent from a stranger’s

what is the level of development of each sense at birth

1. smell → mature at birth

2. taste → mature at birth

3. touch → reflexes, shape discrimination, pain at birth, body representation at 9 months

4. hearing → preference for human sounds, categorical speech, favour native language, mother’s voice, course-localisation at birth, hearing reaches adult like thresholds at 6 months

5. vision → clear at 20cm, can track faces, see some colour, has depth, 20/40 vision by 8 months

explain infants motor reflexes

• present at or within days of birth → built in motor circuits

• reflexes solve immediate survival problems while cortex is immature

• includes:

1. feeding - rooting and sucking

2. protection - moro (startle)

3. attachment - palmer

• these should fade within about 4 months

explain infants’ voluntary motor programs

• head control → 6 week (prone lift), antigravity by 3 months

• goal directed reach emerges 3-4 months as vision hand mapping stabilises

• rolling → crawling → crushing sequence between 4-10 months

explain emotional stages within infancy

• birth- 2 months: two global states → distress/excitement vs contentment

• 2-4 months → discrete joy and surprise appear

• 5-7 months → anger, fear, sadness identifiable in facial action coding

• 9-12 months → social referencing to caregivers emotional cues

what is infancy temperament

• temperament is biologically based individual differences in reactivity and self regulation

• temperament captures early life individuality → observable long before personality traits can be measured

what did Thomas and Chess find

1. 40% of babies were easy

2. 10% were difficult

3. 15% were slow-to-warm

explain temperament in infancy

• caregiving and later self control can amplify or mute early tendencies

• behavioural inhibition at 4 months → introverted, anxiety prone adults

• under controlled 3 year olds had poorest health and finances later in life

• temperament sets initial parameters, environment fine tunes emotional style

what kind of care do difficult vs easy babies need 

• optimal development when caregiver response matches child temperament:

1. difficult babies need consistent sensitive routines

2. easy babies still need stimulation

how can we study infants

• no instructions or verbal reports → must rely on natural behaviours and reflexes

• measures: looking, sucking, reaching

• changes in these correlate with things of interest → infer thoughts from actions

• indirect inference, sensitive to fatigue/state changes, require converging methods for firm conclusions

what physiological measures can we look at in infants

• we can also look at physiological additions → confirm and extend behavioural findings:

1. heart rate deceleration: sustained attention

2. pupil dilation/skin conductance: arousal

3. EEG/ERP & fNIRS: cortical localisation

what did Fantz study 

studied preferential looking → infants look longer at face like, high contrast patterns,

what is attachment 

attachment is a lasting emotional bond between individuals → first forms in infancy (preference for caregiver, desire for closeness, distress upon separation)

what kind of attachment do infants show

infants show a clear preference for their primary caregiver → emerges around 6-9 months. Drives behaviours such as crying when distressed, seeking comfort and safety, and maintaining proximity

what is the evolutionary history of attachment

• humans and many animals develop focused, selective attachments → Lorenz’s geese (imprinted). This selectivity suggests a deep evolutionary process and is not just about food

• A baby’s safest bet is consistency → one reliable caregiver provides stable protection

• one caregiver = predictable, secure base, whereas spreading bonds = risky, no guarantee of consistent care

• attachment evolved to maximise survival by keeping the infant close to someone interested in their survival

what is Freud’s dependency theory

• Freud’s dependency theory suggested that babies are helpless and the caregiver is consistently associated with need of satisfaction; hunger → food, cold → warmth, discomfort → comfort.

• face and presence become linked with relief from discomfort

• attachment explained as a learned association. And theorises that as long as physical needs are met, any caregiver will do.

how was the dependency theory tested and what did they find 

• This was explained in orphanages → biological needs met but emotional needs ignored. Doing this they found:

1. children lagged physically

2. struggled psychologically

3. performed poorly academically

• even with food and shelter they lacked healthy attachments

what did Lorenz and his Geese study found

• found that geese attach to the first big moving object they see;

1. in nature → mother

2. in experiment → Lorenz

• bonds form instantly → not through repeated feeding and no association needed which disproved Dependency Theory

what did Harlow’s Monkey study find 

• reared rhesus monkeys in isolation but meet biological needs → found terrible outcomes

• they then added surrogates → wire with food and soft cloth but no food

• found that the monkeys went to wire to feed but spend most time with soft cloth

• therefore, they prioritise comfort and security over food → disproving Dependency Theory

What was Bowlby’s Attachment theory

• this theory emphasises the infant’s need for security and safety rather than just biological needs. Babies love their caregiver because caregivers provide security and safety.

• attachment is about proximity to a trusted caregiver. It is innate.

• the evolutionary advantage is that staying close = higher chance of survival

• set goal is to maintain proximity to caregiver.

• this theory shifted the focus from biological needs → emotional security

What was the control system Bowlby proposed 

1. if separated from caregiver → system activates (crying, clinging, following)

2. when reunited → system deactivates (baby calms)

what is the development stages of attachment in infancy

• attachment behaviours appear in the first year:

1. preference for mother’s voice, face etc.

2. stranger anxiety (~9 months)

3. constant social referencing of caregiver when exploring

4. strongest activation when infant becomes mobile and vulnerable

what was the critical period that Bowlby identified for attachment development

• Bowlby argued that attachment must form in the first 2-3 years (critical period)

• failure leads to lifelong social/psychological problems

• supported by how children in institutions showed persistent difficulties → lack of early support. However, later evidence showed that this is not absolute → some recovery is possible (ie. peer re-socialisation and adoption)

What did Mary Ainsworth find 

• extended on how attachment differs between children → focused on individual differences

• operationalised this through a strange situations test

• children balance two motivations:

1. security → staying close to caregiver

2. exploration → learning about environment

• a secure caregiver allows a balance of both motivations

what was the strange situations test

• the strange situations test is where the baby (12-18 months), mother, and stranger observed in a sequence:

1. exploration with mother present

2. stranger enters

3. mother leaves

4. mother returns

• the interest is in how the baby reacts to separation and reunion

what did they find in the strange situations test

• they found 3 broad patterns of attachment:

1. secure (type B) → 60%

2. anxious-avoidant (type A) → 20%

3. anxious-ambivalent (type C) → 20%

• attachment system is intact in all infants → differences are shaped by environments

explain secure - type b 

• uses mother as a secure base to explore

• distressed when mother leaves but quickly comforted when she returns

• outcome → balanced security and independence → trust

• caregiver is sensitive, responsive, and consistent

explain anxious-avoidant (type a)

• explores freely, shows little concern for caregiver

• minimal distress when mother leaves and avoids or ignores mother on return

• outcome → appears independent, but attachment needs suppressed.

• the caregiver dislikes closeness, encourages independence consistently

explain anxious-ambivalent (type c)

• very clingy; little exploration

• extreme distress when mother leaves; on return seeks contact but resists it

• may show anger

• outcome; insecure, inconsistent comfort

• caregiver is inconsistent and unpredictable

what are the critiques of Mary Ainsworth’s study

• this method is too focused on mother and overlooks infant temperament

• assumes cultural universality (ie. in Germany there are higher rates of anxious avoidant attachment → due to cultural value on independence and in Japan there are higher rates of anxious ambivalent → cultural norm of constant mother infant closeness)

• babies are not all the same → some infants are:

1. naturally shy or bold

2. more irritable by face to face play

explain lifespan attachment 

• attachment patterns don’t vanish after childhood. It influences:

1. adolescence → friendships, peer bonds

2. adulthood → romantic relationships, parenting style

3. old age → need for security etc. are still present

explain secure, avoidant, and ambivalent adults 

• secure adults are comfortable with intimacy and independence

• avoidant adults are distant, difficulty trusty others

• ambivalent adults are clingy and have fear of abandonment

what is secure attachment linked to

1. lower stress and anxiety

2. greater resilience to adversity

3. better relationship satisfaction

what is insecure attachment linked to 

1. higher rates of depression/anxiety

2. difficulties in social functioning

what is morality and moral codes

• morality → organised system of values, rules, and feelings guiding behaviours

• moral codes (determining what is right and wrong)→ more about what is acceptable and not

explain moral development

• moral development typically evolves from simple adherence to rules to complex ethical judgement

• newborns (no moral code) → children (rule bound) → adults (motives, rights, obligations)

what are the three theories to moral development 

1. social learning

2. cognitive development

3. parenting style

explain Bandura’s Bobo doll experiment

• sit 72 nursery school children in a room with adult and Bobo → there were 3 conditions (aggressive model (adult did 10 minutes of physical and verbal assault to the doll), non-aggressive model, and no model)

what were the findings of the bobo doll study

• they found that children exposed to the aggressive model were more than twice as likely to do physical and verbal assault to the doll → and 32% invented new attacks. The non-aggressive modelling suppressed aggression below no modelling.

• study found that observation alone created generalised aggression. Flexibly recombined observed elements into new acts → modelling can inhibit aggression

what were Bandura’s 4 steps to social learning

1. attention → notice and focus on the model’s behaviour and context

2. retention → behaviour encoded and stored symbolically

3. motor reproduction → physical and cognitive ability to translate stored code into action (ie. includes practice and feedback)

4. motivation → reason to perform the behaviour (ie. anticipated reward)

how does modern media intensify social learning

• the idea is that modern media intensifies two levers:

1. scale and repetition (can see whatever you want whenever you want)

2. interactivity

• shown when Bandura expanded on the experiment → he filmed a cartoon cat with the three conditions (no other changes) → all three versions showed the aggressor unpunished → found a reliable correlation between exposure and aggression (short lived effect)

what were the differences between Bandura and Piaget’s theories 

bandura showed what children copy, Piaget asks how they think about rules

what did Piaget propose

• Suggests that moral development is a by-product of broader cognitive change going from egocentrism → perspective-taking

• there are two stages:

1. heteronomous stage (4-8 years)

2. autonomous stage (>8 - adult)

explain the heteronomous stage 

(4-8 years) → moral realism → young children have limited perspective-taking, rules are fixed properties of the world, handed down by authority, rule-breaking automatically brings punishment, focus is on consequences not intent (eg. cups experiment)

explain the autonomous stage

(>8 - adult) → moral relativism → schooling and peer interaction leads to perspective-taking, rules are social contracts shaped by mutual agreement, rules can change to serve group goals, reciprocity and fairness emerge, focuses on intent, not just outcome (eg. cups experiment)

what are the issues with Piaget’s theory

not all adults are the same (can reach different stages at different ages), there can be finer grained shifts through adolescence and adulthood

what did Kohlberg introduce

Kohlberg introduced a more experimental approach → did a moral-judgement interview (6 moral dilemmas) and retested them every 3-4 years for 20 yrs.

what were Kohlberg’s six stages

1. morality is externally controlled (obedience)

2. self-interest with fairness (exchange → may receive something back)

3. interpersonal relationships; social roles and expectations (approval of others)

4. broader society; societal expectations (law and order)

5. social contract; fair procedures for interpreting and changing the law

6. universal principles; personal conscience

• as you go through each stage is goes from pre-conventional → conventional → post conventional

explain the three approaches to parenting style and moral development

• imitation and cognitive development do not happen in a vacuum → influenced by daily parent-child exchanges supply:

1. moral models

2. opportunities for reason-giving dialogue

3. Baumrind’s two axes, four parenting styles

explain the authoritative parenting style

• authoritative is the gold standard → however there are cultural variations to this model

• uses induction → how did doing this make you feel

• warm and firm

explain the authoritarian parenting style

rules without reasons → relies on power assertion → shows more externalising problems → children stay focused on (1/2 stage in Kohlberg)

strict and cold 

explain the indulgent (warm and lax) and neglectful (uninvolved) parenting styles 

under-socialised → linked to poorer perspective-taking, weaker obligation to reciprocal fairness → behaviour often impulsive

what are the practical implications of parenting style

1. parents and educators → model the behaviour you hope to see, pair rules with reasons, facilitate perspective taking debates

2. policy and media → design prosocial content, limited rewarded violence

what is genetic epistemology 

• the study of how we develop knowledge. 

what was Piaget’s cognitive development theory

• a constructivist theory → based on the idea that children actively construct knowledge as they manipulate and explore their world

• believed that it is children’s ability to explore the world that allows them to construct their knowledge → not teaching by instructions  

• the basis of this theory is that we all develop schema (infants have schema as well)

what were Piaget’s 4 main stages to cognitive development 

1. sensorimotor stage (0-2 years)

2. pre-operational stage (2-7 years)

3. concreted operational stage (7-11 years)

4. formal operational stage (~11 years)

• he claimed that children cannot skip through any of these stages 

what was Piaget’s disequilibrium idea 

• our basic knowledge or schema differs from new experiences 

how do we deal with disequilibrium

1. assimilate the experience into our current knowledge

2. create a new concept to accommodate the new experience

explain the sensorimotor stage

• infants are exploring the world through their sense and motor abilities

• at the beginning of this stage explorations are accidental and by the end they become intentional

• begins with reflexes → explorations start with their own body (ie. sucking thumb) → by 4-8 months they start to sit up on their own to explore environment

• the develop the concept of object permanence and at the end of this period they develop mental representation

what is object permanence

• the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they are not visible

• children develop this by 8-12 months → however it develops gradually over the sensorimotor period

what is mental representation

• by the end of the sensorimotor period children can form images about the world inside their heads 

how can we test for mental representation

• children engage in pretend play OR

• through a deferred imitation task → Piaget proposed that children pass this test at around 18-24 months

explain the pre-operational stage

• during this stage children develop their ability to engage in representational or symbolic activity

• the most important symbolic tool developed in this stage is language → this is also important in building children’s schema as language is a way children engage in assimilation and accommodation processes

• children also develop concept of symbols (ie. using banana as a phone) which is shown through pretend play

• demonstrate centration and egocentric speech

• at the beginning of this stage they are quite egocentric and cannot take the perspective of someone else

what do children struggle with in this stage

• in this stage, children struggle with coordinating multiple conflicting representations → this is show on their performance on theory of minds tasks (ie. the false belief task)

• it isn’t until 5-6 years they start to develop a theory of mind 

what is egocentric speech

• children talk to themselves a lot → fixated on their own view

what is centration and how can we test this

• where children fixate on one aspect of a situation

• this is tested for on Piaget’s conservation tasks which shows that children fixate on one aspect → usually appearance → and cannot think about the physical properties of that aspect.

explain the concrete operational stage

• in this stage children develop logical thinking

• by this stage children would pass all the conservation tasks and they develop this in sequence

• it is not until around 8-10 years children grasp the concept of conservation of weight

• children also understand reversibility of events at this stage (however, they can only do this when they’re faced with concrete information that they can perceive directly)

• they cannot reason for abstract situations → can test this through the line test or a verbal situation

explain the formal operational stage

• in this stage children start to develop a more abstract sense of logical thinking

• they can think about hypothetical thoughts

• their thinking becomes more scientific and systematic → shown through the pendulum task

• they can entertain different possibilities to conclusions

what are the critiques to Piaget’s cognitive development theory

• children’s performance on the conservation tasks are based solely on task demands → the high reliance on language in the task may have resulted in Piaget underestimating some children’s abilities

• some suggest that Piaget may have underestimated cultural influences (ie. parents, teachers)

• it is possible that Piaget based his conclusions on an educated sample that may have differed in their level of developmental trajectory compared to the general population

• education may be needed to assist children in their development → especially at the formal operational stage

what did Baillargeon and DeVos suggest

• contradicted Piaget by suggesting that by 3.5 months children develop object permanence → as shown in the possible vs impossible events test 

what did Kearin’s study find

• Indigenous children placed objects back correctly twice as much as non-indigenous children → this was likely due to differing lifestyles. With indigenous culture placing an emphasis on knowing and watching land

explain language 

• language is specific to human beings → humans communicate in lots of ways, but our primary mode of communication is spoken language

• there is a critical period for language development → but there is no clear way to characterise this yet

explain KoKo the gorilla 

• KoKo was a gorilla taught to use American sign language → however even after years of training she still only had the proficiency of a three year old.

• this showed how complex the human language system is

explain language learning in babies

• language learning occurs in the first year of life → babies come into the world tuned to language

• they have a preferences for the language they’re going to speak (ie. intonation and phonetic distinctions)

• as babies approach their first birthdays they become less sensitive to universal phonetic distinctions outside their language

• infants are sensitive to features of linguistic input → we talk to babies in a register known as infant-directed speech 

• babies are born babbling and making lots of sounds. Towards their first birthday their babbling sounds like their mother tongue

• all babies point spontaneously

what is infant directed speech and its benefits

• where we talk to babies slowly, repetitively, and we use high/low intonations

• we do this because babies prefer it. It also helps segment speech so that babies can figure out word boundaries

why do babies babbling sound like their mother tongue closer to their first birthday

• because the babies tongue has become tuned to the consonant vowel pairings common to their language 

how do babies make sense of language

• through association → infant directed speech helps link words with objects

• you need to also be in a rich social context to learn language (ie. school)

what are problems with the association theory

• often babies will be looking at one things whilst the speaker is talking about something else 

what is joint attention

• when babies turn around and look at the speaker to figure out what the speaker is looking at. They follow the speakers line of regard to understand the new word

what is the first word 

• the first word is nearly always a noun. This is because their early vocabulary is nouns and pragmatic functions (ie. bye-bye)

what is the one-word stage

• from 12 months -1.5 years.

• where infants point and utter single word nouns

• in this stage they often make errors

• experience naming explosion

what are the two errors children make in the one-word stage

1. overextension errors → have a word that means one things but the baby overextends it (eg. blowed up) → this is very common in the two word stage and can last until ~8 years

2. under-extension error → a common noun that the baby treats as a proper name

what are the three theories for the overextension error

1. children make overextension errors because they have such a limited vocabulary and they just want to be involved

2. up until about 18 months → babies still don’t understand how language works. They have not figured out the problem of reference

3. this error is just children mapping a word to its referent → they over apply grammatical errors/irregulars.

what is naming explosion and why does it exist

• when babies stop making errors and start picking up around 9 words a day

• this may be due to a biologically based phenomenon or just nurture curiosity

what age do children have around 12-14,000 words in their vocabulary

6 years 

explain the two/three-word stage

• children make very few word order/grammatical errors

• when children make errors at this stage, it can be quite telling about underlying processes

what are the two main views to language learning 

1. language is innate → this is the nature view

2. language is learned → through association and social learning → this is the nurture view

what are the arguments for the nature view

• points to the developmental regularity of language acquisition (ie. universally the first word occurs around 12 months) 

• another argument is the poverty of the input → input is not varied enough to explain everything children say is due to social learning