Developmental Psychology Unit Review

Nature

Any similarities we see between identical twins may be due, in part, to genetics. (Ex: some people are genetically programmed to weigh more than others)

Nurture

Any differences we see may be due, in part, to different environmental experiences. (Ex: when there is more high-calorie food available, people are more likely to be obese than when there is less available food)

Infancy

the developmental stage that begins at birth and continues to 1 year of age

Childhood

the period between infancy and the onset of puberty.

adolescence

the years between the onset of puberty and the beginning of adulthood

Stages of adulthood

emerging, early, middle, and older adulthood

Conception occurs

when an egg from the woman is fertilized by a sperm from the man.

Ovulation

when an ovum, or egg (the largest cell in the human body), which has been stored in one of the woman’s two ovaries, matures and is released into the uterine tube (formerly referred to as the fallopian tube). Occurs about halfway through the woman’s menstrual cycle and is aided by the release of a complex combination of hormones

Zygote

a fertilized ovum

Monozygotic twins

Identical twins result from a single zygote splitting into two separate zygotes. Because the twins come from the same zygote, they have the same genes, making them identical

Dizygotic twins

(fraternal twins) result from two different eggs that happened to be released at the same time being fertilized by two different sperm, creating two different zygotes. Because the twins come from two different egg/sperm combinations, fraternal twins have different genes.

Embryo

The status of a zygote once it is implanted in the uterine wall.

Embryonic Phase

During this 6 weeks phase, the major internal and external organs will begin to form, each starting at the microscopic level, with only a few cells.

Amniotic sac

the fluid-filled reservoir in which the embryo (soon to be known as a fetus) will live until birth, and which acts as both a cushion against outside pressure and as a temperature regulator.

Placenta

the specialized organ produced by the mammalian embryo that attaches to the wall of the uterus to permit removal of waste products and to provide nutrients, energy, and gas exchange for the fetus via the maternal circulation

Umbilical Cord

links the embryo (then the fetus) directly to the placenta and transfers all material to the fetus.

Beginning in the 9th week after conception, the embryo becomes a

fetus

The defining characteristic of the fetal stage is

growth

Teratogens

substances that can harm the fetus including general environmental factors, such as air pollution and radiation, but also the cigarettes (including secondhand smoke), alcohol, and other drugs that the woman may use.

fetal alcohol spectrum disorders

a group of conditions that can occur in a person who was exposed to alcohol before birth. These effects can include physical problems and problems with behavior and learning

The most vulnerable period for many of the fetal organs is

very early in the pregnancy—often before the woman even knows she is pregnant.

Genome

the complete set of genes present in the cells of an organism

Epigenetics

changes in gene function that are heritable and that are not attributed to alterations of the DNA sequence

Our epigenome can be thought of as

a set of switches that turn genes on and off.

Ideally, babies are born sometime between

37 and 42 weeks of pregnancy

Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, pre-term births (births before 37 weeks) ______ in Western European, high income countries, but maternal deaths and stillbirths _______ in low and middle income countries.

decreased, increased

Nearly 85 percent of brain growth occurs between

birth and the age of three. During this period one million neural connections per second are formed.

Babies are born by Cesarean section (C-section) _____ of the time worldwide and ____ in the United States.

21%, 31%

Rooting reflex

Stimulus: The baby’s cheek is stroked.

Response: The baby turns its head toward the stroking, opens its mouth, and tries to suck.

Significant: Ensures the infant’s feeding will be a reflexive habit

Blink reflex

Stimulant: A light is flashed in the baby’s eyes.

Response: The baby closes both eyes.

Significant: Protects eyes from strong and potentially dangerous stimuli

Withdrawal reflex

Stimulant: A soft pinprick is applied to the sole of the baby’s foot.

Response: The baby flexes the leg.

Significant: Keeps the exploring infant away from painful stimuli

Tonic neck reflex

Stimulant: The baby is laid down on its back.

Response: The baby turns its head to one side and extends the arm on the same side.

Significant: Helps develop hand-eye coordination

Grasp reflex

Stimulant: An object is pressed into the palm of the baby.

Response: The baby grasps the object pressed and can even hold its own weight for a brief period.

Significant: Helps in exploratory learning

Moro reflex

Stimulant: Loud noises or a sudden drop in height while holding the baby.

Response: The baby extends arms and legs and quickly brings them in as if trying to grasp something.

Significant: Protects from falling; could have assisted infants in holding onto their mothers during rough traveling.

Stepping reflex

Stimulant: The baby is suspended with bare feet just above a surface and is moved forward.

Response: Baby makes stepping motions as if trying to walk.

Significant: Helps encourage motor development

Habituation technique

the decreased responsiveness toward a stimulus after it has been presented numerous times in succession.

Results of a Habituation Procedure

Infants spend less time looking at faces they have seen before and spend more time looking at new faces.

During his research, Jean Piaget became intrigued

not so much by the answers that the children got right, but more by the answers they got wrong. He believed that the incorrect answers that the children gave revealed specific ways of thinking unique to the children’s developmental stage.

These insights—that children at different ages think in fundamentally different ways—led to Piaget’s

stage model of cognitive development.

Schemas

patterns of knowledge in long-term memory—that help us remember, organize, and respond to information.

Assimilation

incorporate new information into an existing schema. (Ex: If children have learned a schema for horses (four legs, two ears, tail), then the child may call any animal with those characteristics a horse. Cows, sheep, and dogs may all be called “horse.”)

Accommodation

when we change our schemas based on new information. (Ex: When an adult says, “No, honey, that’s a cow, not a horse,” the child may adapt the schema to fit the new stimulus, learning that there are different types of four-legged, two-eared, one-tailed animals, only one of which is a horse)

Sensorimotor

Approximate Age Range: Birth to about 2 years

Characteristics: The child experiences the world through the fundamental senses of seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling.

Stage Attainments: Object permanence

Preoperational

Approximate Age Range: 2–7 years

Characteristics: Children acquire the ability to internally represent the world through language and mental imagery. They also start to see the world from other people’s perspectives.

Stage Attainments: Theory of mind; rapid increase in language ability

Concrete operational

Approximate Age Range: 5–7 to onset of puberty

Characteristics: Children become able to think logically. They can mentally manipulate imagined objects.

Stage Attainments: Conservation

Formal operational

Approximate Age Range: onset of puberty to adulthood

Characteristics: Adolescents can think systematically, can reason about abstract concepts, and can understand ethics and scientific reasoning.

Stage Attainments: Abstract logic

object permanence

the child’s ability to know that an object exists even when the object cannot be perceived. Children under the age of eight months lack this.

Example of Sensorimotor Stage

When a toy is suddenly covered with a blanket, children who are younger than eight months of age act as if the toy has disappeared completely—they never try to find it under the blanket but nevertheless smile and reach for it when the blanket is removed.

Example of Preoperational Stage

a researcher showed children a room within a small dollhouse. Inside the room, a small toy was visible behind a small couch. The researchers took the children to another lab room, which was an exact replica of the dollhouse room, but full-sized. When children who were 2.5 years old were asked to find the toy, they did not know where to look—they were simply unable to make the transition across the changes in room size. Three-year-old children, on the other hand, immediately looked for the toy behind the couch, demonstrating that they were improving their ability to manipulate objects mentally.

egocentric

unable to readily see and understand other people’s viewpoints.

theory of mind

The ability to take another person’s viewpoint and the ability to do so increases rapidly during the preoperational stage.

Example of Theory of Mind

a researcher shows a child a video of another child (let’s call her Anja) putting a ball in a red box. Then Anja leaves the room, and the video shows that while she is gone, a researcher moves the ball from the red box into a blue box. As the video continues, Anja comes back into the room. The child is then asked to point to the box where Anja will probably look to find her ball. Children who are younger than four years of age typically are unable to understand that Anja does not know that the ball has been moved, and they predict that she will look for it in the blue box. After four years of age, however, children have developed a theory of mind—they realize that different people can have different viewpoints, and that (although she will be wrong) Anja will nevertheless think that the ball is still in the red box.

Conservation

the understanding that changes in the form of an object do not necessarily mean changes in the quantity of the object. (Ex: Children’s abilities to understand that although the milk looks different in the different glasses, the amount must be the same.)

There is a _____ correlation between education and formal operations skills: the more education a person has, the stronger their formal operations skills tend to be.

positive

Piaget’s Ideas that have been refined:

• it is now believed that object permanence develops gradually, rather than more immediately, as a true stage model would predict, and that it can sometimes develop much earlier than Piaget expected

• babies were aware that the object still existed even though it was hidden behind the screen, and thus that they were displaying object permanence as early as three months of age, rather than the eight months that Piaget predicted

• Piaget’s theory understated the contribution of environmental factors to social development because children progress to new ways of thinking and retreat to old ones depending on the type of task they are performing, the circumstances they find themselves in, and the nature of the language used to instruct them.

• Sociocultural theory of the Russian scholar Lev Vygotsky, argue that cognitive development is not isolated entirely within the child but occurs at least in part through social interactions. These scholars argue that children’s thinking develops through constant interactions with more competent others, including parents, peers, and teachers.

Studies by the Developmental psychologist John Bowlby showed that

Children raised in institutions, on the whole, are shorter (most likely due to the excess amount of stress hormones), are easily distracted, and have difficulty making friends, among other issues. For the majority of children, these issues disappear after they have been adopted.

The Harlows’ studies supported

the idea that babies have social as well as physical needs. Both monkeys and human babies need a secure base that allows them to feel safe.

Attachment

the emotional bond infants develop with their primary caregiver

Strange Situation

a laboratory test that measured an infant’s attachment to their caregiver conducted in a context that is unfamiliar to the child and therefore likely to heighten the child’s need for their caregiver.

Secure attachment style

The child explores freely while the caregiver is present and engages with the stranger. The child may be upset when the caregiver departs but is also happy to see the caregiver return

ambivalent (sometimes called insecure-resistant) attachment style

The child is wary about the situation in general, particularly the stranger, and stays close or even clings to the caregiver rather than exploring the toys. When the caregiver leaves, the child is extremely distressed and is ambivalent when they return. The child may rush to the caregiver but then fail to cling to them when they pick up the child.

avoidant (sometimes called insecure-avoidant) attachment style

A child will avoid or ignore the caregiver, showing little emotion when the caregiver departs or returns. The child may run away from the caregiver when they approach. The child will not explore very much, regardless of who is there, and the stranger will not be treated much differently from the caregiver.

disorganized attachment style

The child seems to have no consistent way of coping with the stress of the strange situation—the child may cry during the separation but avoid the caregiver when they return, or the child may approach the caregiver but then freeze or fall to the floor.

Temperament

the basic foundation of personality, usually assumed to be biologically determined and present early in life, including such characteristics as energy level, emotional responsiveness . . . and willingness to explore

longitudinal research designs

research designs in which individuals in the sample are followed and contacted over an extended period of time, often over multiple developmental stages.

cross-sectional research design

age comparisons are made between samples of different people at different ages at one time

Cohort effects

refer to the possibility that differences in cognition or behavior at two points in time may be caused by differences that are unrelated to the changes in age. The differences might instead be due to environmental factors that affect an entire age group.

Puberty

a developmental period in which hormonal changes cause rapid physical alterations in the body, culminating in sexual maturity

The average age of pubertal onset in the United States is between

8 - 13 years old for girls

9 - 14 years old for boys

Puberty begins when the pituitary gland begins to stimulate the production of the hormone ______ in boys and the hormones _____ and ______ in girls.

testosterone, estrogen, progesterone

Primary sex characteristics

the sex organs concerned with reproduction.

Secondary sex Characteristics

features that distinguish the two sexes from each other but are not involved in reproduction

Menarche

the first menstrual period, which typically occurs approximately two years after the onset of puberty, between the ages nine or ten and 15

As teenagers mature, the _____, the area of the brain responsible for reasoning, planning, and problem solving, also continues to develop.

prefrontal cortex

Self-concept

a schema that contains knowledge about ourselves, including our beliefs about our personality traits, physical characteristics, abilities, values, goals, and roles.

Identity distinctiveness

We identify what makes us different from others.

Identity coherence

We feel like we are the same person, regardless of context. For example, we feel like the same person whether we are with family or with friends.

Identity continuity

Our identity has stabilized. While our identity may change with time, we no longer feel like it is changing radically from week to week.

authoritarian parenting style

demanding but not responsive. They impose rules and expect obedience, tending to give orders (“Eat your food!”) and enforcing their commands with rewards and punishment, without providing any explanation of where the rules came from, except “Because I said so!” (High demandingness, low responsiveness)

permissive parenting style

make few demands and give little punishment, but they are responsive in the sense that they generally allow their children to make their own rules. (low demandingness, high responsiveness)

authoritative parenting style

demanding (“You must be home by curfew”), but they are also responsive to the needs and opinions of the child (“Let’s discuss what an appropriate curfew might be”). They set rules and enforce them, but they also explain and discuss the reasons behind the rules. (High demandingness, high responsiveness)

rejecting-neglecting parenting style

undemanding and unresponsive overall (low demandingness, low responsiveness)

Menopause

the cessation of the menstrual cycle for a full year

crystallized intelligence

general knowledge about the world, as reflected in semantic knowledge, vocabulary, and language.

fluid intelligence

The ability to think and acquire information quickly and abstractly.

Neurocognitive disorder

(formerly known as dementia) is defined as a progressive neurological disease that includes loss of cognitive abilities significant enough to interfere with everyday behaviors.

Alzheimer’s disease

A form of neurocognitive disorder that leads to a loss of emotions, cognitions, and physical functioning and is ultimately fatal

Alzheimer’s produces

a gradual decline in functioning of the brain cells that produce the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Without this neurotransmitter, the neurons are unable to communicate, leaving the brain less and less functional.