The Science of Psychology: An Appreciative View [Chapter 9: Human Development]

development

the pattern of continuity and change in human capabilities that occurs throughout the course of life

changes occur on three levels:

-physical processes

-cognitive processes

-socioemotional processes

physical processes

involve change in a person's biological nature

inherited genes, hormonal changes of puberty and menopause, changes throughout life in brain, height, weight, and motor skills

such biological growth processes are called maturation

cognitive processes

involve changes in an individual's thought, intelligence, and language

socioemotional processes

involve changes in an individual's relationship with other people, in emotions, and in personality

cross-sectional studies

people of different ages are assessed at one point in time, and differences are noted

problem with this study is cohort effects

cohort effect

difference between individuals that stem not from their ages but from the historical and social time period in which they were born and developed

longitudinal study

asses the same participants multiple times over a lengthy period

nature

refers to an individual's biological inheritance, especially his or her genes

nurture

refers to the person's environmental and social experiences

phenylketonuria (PKU)

genotype says they gots PKU, phenotype says the got irreversible brain damage.

HOWEVER

if those with PKU eat a special diet, they wont get brain damage, meaning environment can change a phenotype associated with a genotype

for each genotype, a range of phenotypes may be expressed, depending on environmental factors

resilience

person's ability to recover from or adapt to difficult times

Updating

refers to the ability to track information and replace old information with never information

teratogen

any agent that causes a birth defect

sensory capacities

being able to see or hear the object

motivation

wanting to grasp the object

attention

being able to focus on a particular thing, among all the other interesting things in the baby's world

bodily control

having the ability to control posture, manage head movement, and calibrate the movement of one's arms

learning

getting positive reinforcement for the experience of attaining the objecting of their desire

preferential looking

technique involves giving infant a choice of what object to look at

if an infant shows a reliable preference for one stimulus over another when repeatedly present in differing locations, we can infer the infant can tell the two images apart as early as 7 days old

nature and nuture

work together to promote the development of the child's brain

cognitive development

refers to how thought, intelligence, and language processes change as people maure

cognition

refers to the way individuals think and also to their cognitive skills and abilities

schema

a mental concept or framework that organizes and provides a structure for interpreting information

assimilation

one of two processes responsible for how schemas develop

assimilation occurs when individuals incorporate new information into existing knowledge

person's schemas did not change, person simply uses existing schema in a new way

accommodation

one of two ways schemas develop'

accommodation occurs when individuals adjust their schemas to include new information

brand-new ways of interacting with the world emerge as a function of new and different experiences

difference between assimilation and accommodation

if a person takes a new experience and incorporates it into their existing assumptions and way of doing things, that is assimilation

if new experiences require the person to revise what they think they know about the world, that is accommodation

sensorimotor stage

first of piaget's stages

based on the very limited capacities of the baby: sensation and movement

in this stage, infants construct an understanding if the world by coordinating sensory experiences with motor actions

at the end of this stage, 2 yr olds show complex sensorimotor patterns and are beginning to use symbols or words in their thinking

object permanence

Piaget's term for the crucial accomplishment of understanding that objects and events continue to exist even when they cannot directly be seen, heard, or touched

operations

mental representations of changes that are reversible

recognizing that if you fold a sweater smaller it doesnt stay small, goes back to original size?

Preoperational stage

Piaget's second stage of development

children have difficultly understanding reversing an action may restore the original conditions from which the action began

conservation

understanding the permanence of some attributes of objects despite superficial changes

concrete operational stage

Piaget's third stage

involves using operations and replacing intuitive reasoning with logical reasoning in concrete situations

Formal Operational stage

4th and final of Piaget's stages

this stage continues through the adult years

formal operational thought is more abstract and logical than concrete operational thought

thinking about things that are not concrete, making predictions and using logic to come up with hypotheses about the future

hypothetical-deductive reasoning

type of problem solving seen in adolescents but not elementary school aged children, denotes ability to develop hypotheses about ways to solve a problem and ability to systematically deduce conclusions using logic

nativist approach

belief that infants possess primitive expectancies about events and objects that are less dependent upon experience

empiricist approach

emphasizes role of experience in the world as the central driver of cognitive and perceptual developement

points out that even if very young infants show an understanding of object permanence, the capacity mught still originate from very early experience

Vygotsky's idea on development

children interacting with adults, apprentice thinkers learning from expert thinkers

interactions provide scaffolding that allows child's abilities to be built higher and higher

information-processing theory

focuses on how individuals encode information, manipulate it, monitor it, and create strategies for handling it

working memory

that mental workspace that is used for problem solving, is linked to many aspects of children development. children with better working memory are more advanced in reading comprehension, math skills, problem solving, and social thinking than their counterparts

executive function

higher-order, complex cognitive processes, including thinking, planning, and problem solving

involves managing one's thoughts to engage in goal-directed behavior and to exercise self-control

temperament

an individual's behavioral style and characteristic ways of responding

infant attachement

the close emotional bond between an infant and its caregiver

strange situation test

test used to measure chldrens attachment

in this procedure, caregivers leave infants alone with a stranger and then return

Secure attachment

the ways that infants use their caregiver as a secure base from which to explore the environment

insecure attachment

infants do not use the caregiver as a secure base from which to explore; instead, they experience their relationship with the caregiver as unstable and unreliable. The two types of insecure attachment are avoidant and anxious/ambivalent

avoidant infant might not even notice the mother has gone

anxious/ambivalent infant responses with intense distress, only to rage at the mother when she returns

Three main shortcomings of the attachment theory

1. does not adequately account for cultural variations. In some cultures, infants show strong attachments too many people, not just their primary caregiver

2. fails to take differences in infant temperament into account. some babies are simply more difficult than others and their personalities may color the attachment relationship

3. fails to acknowledge that caregivers and infants likely share genetic characteristics, attachment relationship could be a product of these shared genes

Erikson's four childhood stages of development:

1. trust v. mistrust

trust is built in infancy when baby's basic needs are met by responsive, sensitive caregivers. infant depends on caregivers to establish sense that the world is a predictable and friendly place

2. autonomy v. shame and doubt

in toddlerhood, children can develop positive sense of independence and autonomy or negative feelings of shame and doubt

3. initiative v. guilt

preschoolers forge own interests and friendships and take on responsibilities. child may want to help with whatever the adult is doing or they may feel guilt

4. industry v. inferiority

middle and late childhood, 6 to puberty, can achieve industry by mastering knowledge and intellectual skills and feel inferior when they dont.

authoritarian parenting

a restrictive, punitive style in which the parent exhorts the child to follow the parent's directions. firmly limits and controls the child with little verbal exchange

authoritative parenting

a parenting style that encourages the child to e independent but still place limits and controls on behavior

neglectful parenting

distinguished by lack of parental involvement in child's life

permissive parenting

characterized by the placement of few limits on the child's behavior, lets the child do what they want

Kohlberg's stages of moral development's three general levels:

1. Preconventional: moral reasoning based on the consequences of behavior and punishments and rewards from the external world

2. Conventional: abides by standards learned from parents or society

3. Postconventional: recognizes alternative moral courses, explores the options, and then develops an increasingly personal moral code

Five moral foundations people consider when they are making moral judgements:

1. Care:

People consider kindness and compassion towards others as well as avoiding harm to others

2. Fairness:

People think about just outcomes and seek outcomes that will be fair to all involved

3. Loyalty:

People consider their allegiances to groups and being true to the groups to which they belong

4. Authority:

People consider what their leaders believe and seek to obey them

5. Purity:

People base moral judgements on whether they find a behavior to be noble or, in contrast, disgusting or animalistic

prosocial behavior

behavior that is intended to benefit other people

puberty

a period of rapid skeletal and sexual maturation that occurs mainly in early adolescence

androgen

class of sex hormones that predominate in males

estrogen

class of sex hormones that predominate in females

Order of brain development in adolescence

earlier development focuses on the amygdala, which involves emotion, and later development on the prefrontal cortex, which involves reasoning and decision making

identity confusion

Erikson's term for what who those who are unable to resolve their identity crisis in their adolescence are suffering from

expresses in one of two ways, either individual withdraws from peers and family or seeks anonymity within a crowd

identity status

Marcia's proposed concept to describe a person's progress in developing an identity

exploration

one of two dimensions of identity according to Marcia

refers to investigating various options for a career and for personal values

commitment

one of two dimensions of identity according to Marcia

involves making a decision about which identity path to follow and making a personal investment in attaining that identity

vigilant care

idea that captures the ways that parents mist allow adolescents to explore while keeping an eye out for signs of problems

emerging adulthood

the transitional period from adolescence to adulthood, spanning approximately 18 to 25 years of age

Five main features of emerging adulthood (according to Arnett):

1. Identity exploration, especially in love and work: Emerging adulthood is a time of significant changes in identity for many individuals

2. Instability: Residential changes peak during emerging adulthood, a time during which there also is often instability in love, work, and education

3. Self-focus: Emerging adults "are self-focused in the sense that they have little in the way of social obligations, and little in the way of duties and commitments to others, which leaves them with a great deal of autonomy in running their own lives."

4. Feeling "in between": Many emerging adults consider themselves neither adolescents nor full-fledged adults

5. Age of possibilities, a time when individuals have an opportunity to transform their life: Arnett escribed two ways in which emerging adulthood is the ge of possibilities: 1 Many emerging adults are optimistic about their future; and 2 for emerging adults who have experienced difficult times while growing up, emerging adulthood presents an opportunity to guide their lives in a positive direction

selective optimization with compensation

means that older adults match their goals with their current abilities and compensate for declines by finding other ways todo the things they enjoy

cellular-clock theory

theory cells can divide a maximum of about 100 times and that, as we age, our cells become less capable of dividing

each time a cell divides, the telomeres protecting the ends of the chromosomes shorten. after about 100 replications, the telomeres are drastically reduced and the cell can no longer reproduce

Free-Radical Theory

states that people age because unstable oxygen molecules known as free radicals are produced inside their cells. these molecules damage DNA and other cellular structures, which can lead to a range of disorders like cancer and arthritis

Hormonal Stress Theory

argues that aging in the body's hormonal system can lower resistance to stress and increase the likelihood of disease

as individuals age, the hormones stimulated by stress stay in the bloodstream longer than is the case for younger people. These prolonged, elevated levels of stress hormones are linked to increased risk dor many diseases

Lateralization

the specialization of function in one hemisphere of the brain or the other

changes in lateralization are one type of adaptation in aging adults to deal with age related changes

example is younger adults needing only one hemisphere to engage in mental tasks, whereas older adults need both

decreased lateralization in older adults may help maintain the mental abilities of older adults

Gottman's four principles at work in successful marriages:

1. Nurturing fondness an admiration: Partners sing each other's praises. When couples put a positive spin on their talk with and about each other, marriages tend to work

2. Turning toward each other as friends: Partners see each other as friends and turn toward each other for support in times of stress and difficultly

3. Giving up some power: Bas marriages often involve one partner who is a powermonger. Healthy relationships involve each person giving up some power.

4. Solving conflicts together: Couples work to solve problems, regulate their emotion during times of conflict, and compromise to accommodate each other

socioemotional selectivity theory

says that older adults are selective in their social interactions in order to maximize positive, meaningful experiences

older adults embrace present moment- focus on satisfying relationships and activities in the present

maximize positive meaning in the present because of limited time