Family Studies Final

What are psychoanalytic theories?

a perspective introduced by Freud that states that development and behavior is influenced by inner drives, memories, and conflicts of which an individual is unaware and cannot control

Who are the key psychoanalytic theorists?

Freud and Erikson

What is Freud’s Psychosexual Theory?

Freud’s theory that behavior is driven by unconscious impulses outside our awareness; there is a progression through a series of psychosexual stages, periods in which unconscious drives are focused on different parts of the body, making stimulation to those parts a source of pleasure

Why is Freud’s Psychosexual Theory important?

It was the first theory to emphasize the importance of early family experiences and especially parent-child relationships for development

What is Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory?

theory that included the role of the social world in shaping our sense of self; believes that throughout their lives, individuals progress through 8 psychosocial stages that include changes in how they understand and interact with others, how they understand themselves, and their roles as members of society; each stage presents a crisis or conflict or developmental task that must be resolved/worked through

What is the difference between Erikson and Freud’s theories?

Erikson placed less influence on unconscious motivators of development and focused more on the role of the social world, society, and culture; Erikson based his theory on larger and more diverse samples than Freud (who only used female psychotherapy patients); Freud’s was more internal and sexual while Erikson brought in social interaction and how one sees themself

What is a similarity between both Erikson and Freud’s theories?

They are both very internal

What are some critiques on Freud’s theory?

Unconscious drives and other psychosexual constructs are not falsifiable

What are some critiques on Erikson’s theory?

Difficult to test

Why is Erikson’s theory important?

It sparked research on specific stages

What are behaviorist theories/ behaviorism?

behaviorism examines only observable behavior; a theoretical approach that studies how observable behavior is controlled by the physical and social environment through conditioning; how development and behavior are influenced by the physical and social environment

What is the difference between the psychoanalytic theories and the behaviorist theories?

Behaviorist theories are not necessarily about thinking and feeling. They examine only observable behaviors.

What is B.F Skinner’s Operant Conditioning?

a form of learning in which behavior more or less probable depending on its pleasant or unpleasant consequences; includes reinforcement, behavior followed by rewarding or pleasant (desirable) outcome increases the likelihood of a response, and punishment, behavior followed by an aversive or unpleasant outcome that decreases the likelihood of a response

What is the big idea behind both Classical and Operant Conditioning?

Our environment can mold our behavior

What is Bandura’s Social Learning Theory?

people actively process observable information, and their thoughts and feelings then influence their future behavior; an approach that emphasizes the role of modeling and observational learning over people’s behavior in addition to reinforcement and punishment; advocated for thought and emotion as contributors to development

What is the difference between operant conditioning and social learning theory?

With operant conditioning, people live the experience and then decide while with the social learning theory, people watch what happens when other people live that experience then decide whether they want to do it or not

What experiment is associated with Bandura’s Social Learning Theory?

The Bobo doll experiment (an inflatable figure with sand in the bottom of it stands; adults play with it either lovingly or aggressively; the kids watch a video of their behavior; the kids behaved the same way they watched their parents behave)

What is reciprocal determinism?

how individuals and the environment interact and influence each other

What is observational learning?

learning that occurs by observing and imitating models, posited by social learning theory

What is the difference between behaviorist theorists and Bandura’s theory?

Bandura viewed individuals as active in their development rather than passively molded by their physical and social environments

What are Cognitive Theories?

the theory that development and behavior are the result of thought or cognition; some view as developing stages, others as a gradual increase in abilities

What is Piaget’s Cognitive-Developmental Theory?

children and adults use their ability to think to better understand their environment; organization of learning results in Cognitive schemas or concepts, ideas, and ways of interacting with the world

What are Piaget’s stages of cognitive development?

Sensorimotor, preoperations, concrete operations, and formal operations

What is the Systems Theory?

Theory that emphasizes the role of social context in development; People are inseparable from the familial, neighborhood, and societal contexts in which they live

What is Brofenbrenner’s Bioecological Systems Theory?

Theory that addresses both the role of the individual and that individual’s social interactions; development is the result of interactions among biological, cognitive, and psychological changes within a person and their changing context; emphasizes that individuals are embedded in, or surrounded by, a series of sociocultural contexts

How does the Bioecological model work and what does it include?

The more influential contexts are closer to the middle while those that are less influential are further outside; includes the individual (sex, age, health, etc), the microsystem that is interacted with very often (school, family, peers, church, health services), the mesosystem which is everything in the microsystem interacting with each other and the individual (e.g. friends playing at one’s house), exosystem which we don’t interact with on the daily but affects us in some way (e.g. social services, mass media, local politics, industry), and the macrosystem which are attitudes and ideologies of the culture

What is Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning?

When a person or animal comes to associate environmental stimuli with physiological responses

what is dominant-recessive inheritance?

a form of genetic inheritance in which the pair phenotype reflects only the dominant allele of a heterozygous pair; some genes are dominant meaning that they are always expressed regardless of the gene they are paired with while other genes are recessive meaning that they are only expressed if paired with another recessive gene (e.g. hair color, eye color, type of hair, color blindness)

what will the dominant gene be expressed as?

the phenotype

When is the recessive gene’s phenotype expressed?

When both the egg and sperm give the gene

What do pregnant women need nutrition wise? Why?

2-3 thousand calories/day while pregnant, lean protein, fruits, vegetables, and prenatal vitamins as lacking any of these affects baby development

What is folic acid linked to?

Spinal Bifida

What are maternal illnesses?

chicken pox, measles, mumps, rubella

what are examples of why a pregnant women may feel stress?

domestic violence, death of a loved one, unsafe living condition (like poverty or homelessness), and persistent discrimination (like racism or sexism)

Why are stressful experiences/living conditions harmful for babies?

They can build up stress hormones that are transmitted to developing embryo or fetus; increased stress hormones increases heart rate which is bad for the baby

What outcomes later in the baby’s life are strongly connected to significant stress during pregnancy?

the baby’s later struggles with ADD, ADHD, anxiety, and could have higher levels of aggression

How old are people who have babies now compared to before? What is likely the reason why?

More people having babies are older now than seen before because people are putting off marriage to finish education and establish themselves in a career

When someone is at this age their baby is automatically classified as a high risk baby:

35

What are people who have a baby at 40 years old or older classified as?

A geriatric patient because the older you are the higher risk you are

What is prenatal care?

A set of services provided for individuals who are pregnant

What is the outcome for individuals who have prenatal care?

Better birth outcomes

What is likely to happen if babies are born without prenatal care?

likely to have a higher risk of infant mortality (when a baby dies during their first year of life) and more likely to be born prematurely

How does Canada’s infant mortality rate compare to the U.S?

Canada has a lower infant mortality rate than the U.S because Canada’s healthcare is free

What group of people are more likely to be higher class? Which are more likely to be lower class?

White people are more likely to be higher class while people part of a visible minority are more likely to be lower class.

How does ethnicity and socioeconomic status affect prenatal care?

No transportation for visible minority people can hinder chances of getting access. they could have a lack of health literacy, and if people had terrible experiences within the healthcare system and were treated badly, they would not want to go back; in Canada, Indigenous people are less likely to have access to prenatal care

What are the contextual influences on pubertal timing?

Weight and nutrition, Stress, and Socioeconomic status

How does weight influence pubertal timing?

when there is more leptin (more fat) in a female, the body secretes estrogen, triggers ovulation, and 2 weeks later she menstruates therefore, there is a connection between being obese and overweight and having early menstruation

What does fast food availability contribute to?

the reduction of age for first menstruation in girls

When are children (females and males) with high stress more likely to go through menstruation?

Early instead of late

What are examples of why a child may feel stress that influences their pubertal timing?

could be household stress, absence of a father, girls with a stepfather instead of just their mom or bio dad, living in poverty

How is socioeconomic status related to pubertal timing?

low socioeconomic status is connected to stress; visible minorities have more stress because they face more discrimination

What age is considered early for puberty for girls? Late?

Early is before 8 years old. Late is after 13.

What age is considered early for boys? Late?

Early is before 9 years old. Late is after 14.

What is linked with more problems? Early or late maturation?

Early maturation is linked with more problems than late maturation

what are the psychosocial/emotional consequences of early maturation for girls?

low body image, low self-esteem, more likely to be victim of rumor spreading, more likely to be sexually harassed

What are behavioral consequences of early maturation?

for both early boys and girls, their cognition advances and they don’t want to hang out with their age peers so they hang out with older people. This leads to age inappropriate behavior (e.g. drugs, alcohol, risky/unprotected sexual activity), especially since they are not good critical thinkers yet. They have a higher risk of teen pregnancy.

when does synaptogenesis happen?

In infancy

what is synaptogenesis?

the formation of new synapses (synapses=the gap that separates neurons)

why is it crucial for infants to be exposed to new environments?

because each new environment builds new synapse as they process information from that environment

who has more synapses: adults or children? Why?

children because adults go through synaptic pruning

what is synaptic pruning?

the loss of unused neural connections; the brain getting rid of synapses if they are not used (a child may get rid of needed synapses if their environment is not stimulating them)

What do parents who abuse their children often perceive their children as?

parents who abuse their children often perceive the child as stubborn and noncompliant

what are characteristics of parents who abuse their children?

poor impulse control, poor communication, poor problem solving skills, no understand about normal child development, use drugs and alcohol, have an abusive relationship between them and the other parent, have marital instability (fighting and screaming leading to less patience)

How common is substance use in teens and young adults in Canada?

common but not the majority of people

How did Canada’s use rate of marijuana change after it was legalized in 2018?

Rates did not increase (probably decreased as self-reporters may have lied during the first survey)

How does marijuana and cigarettes effect adolescents’ brains? Why?

Adolescents do not have a fully developed brain so marijuana and cigarettes have a negative effect on the brain

Who is more likely to use substances: male or females? What are they likely thinking?

males are more likely to use compared to females. They are more likely to think it is not as harmful as it is (less likely to see it as problematic/risky) and drive a car after using it

What is Piaget’s concept of assimilation?

integrating a new experience into a preexisting schema; one of the ways we add information

what is an example of assimilation?

existing schema of dogs could newly include big dogs for a child who has only ever seen or known about small dogs

What is Piaget’s concept of accommodation?

modifying or creating a schema in light of new information

what is an example of accommodation?

a child who goes on a playdate with a classmate sees their cat and could learn that cats are different from dogs (creating a new schema of cats and could modify their animal schema to add cats to it)

How do our schemas change as we get older?

As we get older, our schemas get more complicated as we continue to assimilate and accommodate throughout life

What was Vygotsky’s sociocultural perspective?

we have to be a part of the world and interact with it in order to advance cognition and truly be a part of the world

What is Vygotsky’s guided participation?

When a more skilled partner (e.g. coaches, teachers) is attuned to the needs of the child and guides her/him to accomplish more than she could do alone

What is Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development?

the gap between a child’s competence level (what she can do alone) and what she can do with assistance; the idea that the more skilled partner guides the child through this zone

What is sensory memory? How does it work?

memory that holds incoming sensory information in its original form. Something stimulates one of the five sense and it is very temporarily remembered in sensory memory if it’s not paid attention to. Information fades quickly if something is not done with it.

What needs to be done for sensory memory to be part of permanent memory?

the information needs to be paid attention to (allows it to move to working memory) and it needs to be given meaning (allows it to be encoded to long term memory)

What is working memory?

memory that holds and processes information that is being “worked on”: manipulated, encoded, or retrieved. It labels what the memory means, retrieves things from long-term memory, and figures out what to do with processed information

What are the two parts of working memory?

The Central Executive and Executive Function

What is the Central Executive?

Control Processor that directs the flow of information and regulates cognitive activities such as attention, action, and problem-solving. It decides what we do with information and tells executive function what to do with the information. It decides if the new information is related to something in long-term memory (e.g. attention, action, problem solving)

What is the Executive Function?

the cognitive process of understanding information, making decisions, and solving problems. It does the bulk of the work of making sense of information to allow people to solve and make decisions. It manipulates information and combines it with information we already have.

How does executive function change as we get older?

The older we get, the more executive function is challenged because there is too much information in long-term memory

What is long-term memory?

unlimited store that holds information indefinitely

What type of feedback are adolescents more likely to respond to?

positive feedback; they are more likely to overemphasize positive feedback and underemphasize the negative

what part of the brain is associated with adolescent risk taking behaviors?

the limbic system; the prefrontal cortex helps rational decision making

How are average IQ scores changing over time?

they are going up

Why does each generation score higher and higher average intelligence scores?

groups of people are getting more formal education which facilitates the skills tested in intelligence tests, people are having advanced access to education, and the world and its problems are more complicated now meaning that the way to solve these problems are more complex and challenging

It’s hard to think of intelligence tests as standardized due to the increase that occurs with every generation so what is done to intelligence test results get a normal distribution?

the responses are evaluated so the mean remains at 100

Is it easier to predict group differences in intelligence by looking at social class or race/ethnicity?

social class

what is the best predictor of intelligence? Why?

socioeconomic status because racial/ethnic differences in IQ scores are accounted for while differences based on SES are not inborn

what can be done to predict IQ?

habituation and grouping tests

what do habituation and grouping tests predict about IQ scores?

that the differences in results are not because of genetics

How does SES contribute to IQ (no matter how high it is)?

through differences in cultures, nutrition, living conditions, school resources, intellectual stimulation, and life circumstances

What are the five basic components that underlie all languages?

Phonology, Morphology, Semantics, Syntax, and Pragmatics

Phonology

Knowledge of sounds used in a given language; learning how to determine, discriminate, and produce speech sounds (e.g. consonants, vowels); we are preprogrammed to learn language (we learn to repeat any phonology we hear)

Morphology

Understanding the ways that sounds can be combined to form words; infants learn that sounds can be combined in meaningful ways; beginning of actual communication through language; putting words together to make them understandable

Semantics

Meaning or content of words and sentences; growing vocabulary signals an increase in semantic knowledge; more words a toddler has, the more of an understanding they have on what the words represent; growing semantics=growing understanding of words (e.g. homonyms, synonyms, knowing tall and short are opposites, to vs too)

Syntax

knowledge of the structure of sentences; rules by which words are to be combined to form sentences; different languages have different syntax; understanding the order of things and where words go in a sentence (e.g. Eng: adjective is before the noun, Spanish: adjective is after the noun)

Pragmatics

understanding how to use language to communicate effectively (e.g. if you ask someone a question, there is usually a lilt at the end of the sentence; another example is an emoji)

How does poverty affect language development?

creates less developed language skills meaning that kids in poverty learn fewer words and lower income kids have less developed vocabulary, shorter sentences, and less developed syntax (e.g. lack of an understanding of past tense)