Developmental Psych Exam 2

Social Reflexes

How infants are prepared for social exchanges

• Signaling needs

• Tracking cause in effect (when I cry, does someone help?)

• Attracted to social stimuli

• Synchronized with caregiver’s behavior (serve and return)

Social Smiling

• Baby smiles on reflex

• Caregiver assigns meaning to it

• Baby recognizes that smiling is a good thing to the caregiver, and it becomes intentional around two months

Temperament

An individual infant’s general style of behavior across contexts.

How much stimuli can you take before getting overwhelmed?

High Temperament

More reactive to stimuli

Low temperament

Less reactive to stimuli

Differential susceptibility/Biological sensitivity to context

• Stress reactivity up-regluates under high stress with little support, OR in high support with little stress

• In a middle ground, it down-regulates 

• Both genes and the environment interact to determine this

  • Make sure we aren’t super reactive in an environment where we don’t need to be, or are super reactive when that’s to our advantage

Harlow’s Monkey Research

Freud thought infants only engage with their caregivers for drive reduction

However, Harlow showed that even though the wire mom provided food, they found comfort in the cloth mom, showing that they loved them.

Infant contribution to attachment

• Singals (crying, smiling, reactions)

• Proximity seeking (reaching, facing toward caregiver)

• Secure base exploration (Exploring new environments close to caregiver, showing them their new experience)

Caregiver Contribution to attachment

• Sensitive care

• Attunement

Sensitivity

Caregiving style that responds and attends to infant's needs promptly and effectively

Attunement

Caregivers adjust stimulation in response to signs from the infant

What kind of support does the child need?

Recognizing when the child is about to get dysregulated before it starts

The Strange Situation Procedure

• Series of separations and reunions between caregiver and child

• Measures quality of:

  • Child’s play and exploration

  • Child’s distress behaviors

  • Caregiver’s soothing (sensitivity and attunement)

  • Reunion behaviors 

Secure Attachment

• Infant is confident that CG will be available and responses

• CG is base for exploration

• CG is sensitive and attuned

Anxious-Resistant Attachment

• Infant separates reluctantly but shows ambivalence afterward

• CG is inconstant, soothing is sometimes ineffective

• Infant tries to figure out how to get CG to respond, usually by crying louder

Anxious-Avoidant Attachment

• Infant reaily separates, and avoids contact afterwards

• CG is indifferent, emotionally unavailable, or harsh

  • Infant learned not to show emotion if they want to be close

Romantic Relationship: Anxious

• Fears of rejection and abandonment

• Hypervigilant of low partner support

• Needs reassurance, care, and availability

Romantic Relationship: Avoidant

• Fears of vulnerability and dependence 

• Hypervigilant of emotional demands and lack of autonomy

• Need space, low stakes, low drama

 Preoperational Period Limitations

Unable to use logical operations

• Appearance Reality Distinction

• Centration

• Attention and Memory

Appearance Reality distinction

Defines reality on superficial terms

ex) it looks like that thing, so it is. Why would it be more complex? That’s not a spiderman costume, that IS spiderman.

Centration

Lack of ability to see things from multiple perspectives

Takes one piece of info into account at a time

Attention and memory

Info. processing problems

Small neurological bandwidth and attention span

Cant store a lot of things in long term memory or process quickly.

Conservation errors

Caused by preoperational period limitation

• The same amount of water in two different containers, but they think it changed

• When items are moved farther apart, there must be more of them

• Splitting cracker in half makes two crackers, not two halves

Egocentrism

tendency to focus on own vs. others perspectives

Perceptual Egocentrism

Not differentiating own perceptual experience from someone else’s.

ex) everyone else has the same thoughts and sights that I have

Cognitive Egocentrism

Failing to take into account someone else’s cognitive perspective

ex) a kid getting a pony for their dads birthday because thats what they would want themselves

Three Mountain task

Can they tell if someone at a different point in the table sees a different view than what they see?

Used to test perceptual egocentrism

Theory of Mind

An understanding of the mind & mental operations.

Development of Self-constancy

A sense that the self endures despite temporary disruptions in relationships.

• ex) I am myself. People can come and go, but I am the same person no matter where they are and what I do

• Early Childhood

Gender Socialization

Parents, teachers, and peers supporting “gender-appropriate” play and disapprove of “gender-inappropriate” play

Behaviors such as gender related toy preferences and behavior are learned

Self regulation

I can manage and direct myself based on environmental and internal cues

ex) knowing when I can yell and scream, and when I can be quiet and calm

Effortful control

Ability to suppress strong impulses

Part of self regulation

Emotional Development (Early Childhood)

After realizing themselves in a social context, they can now feel the emotions of jealousy, pride, embarrassment, and shyness

They still have trouble telling others genuine vs false emotions (appearance-reality distinction)

Emotional Regulation

Promoted by

• Brain

• Cognitive

• Social

Early childhood kids cant hide their own emotions

Middle Childhood Dev. Achievements

• No more centration, egocentrism, or appearance-reality distinction

• Theory of Mind -> Metacognition

• Overcoming centration -> Classification

• Memory advances

Metacognition

Thinking about thinking

• Appears in middle childhood

• Theory of mind makes it possible

• Paves the way for new cognitive complexity

Understand:

• Different viewpoints

• Reality and appearance may differ

• Different problem-solving and memory strategies

Metamemory

knowledge about memory and memory processes

• How to remember

• Your own strengths and weaknesses

• Monitoring your memory performance

Hierarchical classification

Hierarchy of superordinate and subordinate classes.

Matrix Classification

Categorized simultaneously along two independent dimensions, such as shape and color.

Friendships

• Reciprocal (both like each other)

• Frequent interactions

• Coordinated Behaviors (interdependence)

Peer Groups

• A network of several kids

• Clusters of friendships

• They know each other and aren’t strangers, but not quite friends

Friendship Quality Predicts:

• Quality of romantic relationships

• Conflict resolution skills

• Attachment behaviors with romantic partners

Peer Competence predicts:

• Number of romantic relationships

• Dating opportunities

• Job competence (working in groups)

Sociometric

Measuring peer status

Accepted Children

Well-liked, accepted by peers

Rejected Children

Disliked; viewed as aggressive or mean

(Socially) Neglected Children

Overlooked; neither liked nor disliked

Controversial Children

Liked by peers; also viewed as anti-social or aggressive. Popular kids often fall into this.

Erikson’s theory of social development

Psychosocial crises drive developmental change

Industry vs. inferiority

Children gain skills that they work hard and try to get better at, that are valued by society

• When encouraged, they develop ____

• When they are discouraged and criticized, they struggle with _____