PSYCH 2AA3 Final Exam

intelligence

-ability to think, learn from experience, solve problems, adapt to new situations

-Related to successful educational, occupational and economic outcomes

-Assessments concern individual differences in cognition, whereas cognition broadly refers to the capacity of the human brain

stanford binet test

-Alfred binet (and henry simon) constructed first intelligence test to differentiate students who could or would not benefit from french schools

-intelligence a measure to compare individuals

-questions that only some get right: those who get right are usually loved by teachers, thrive

-Revised version created so that the average child scores 100, with a standard deviation of 15 points

-Verbal and nonverbal subscales to assess knowledge, quantitative reasoning, visual-spatial processing, working memory, fluid reasoning

intelligence quotient

-Child's mental age/ chronological age x 100

-Ie 6 year old thinks like an 8 year old, IQ= 8/6 x 100= 133

-Now, base IQ off of set of questions

wechsler scales

-david wechsler: pre/primary school, children, adult

-addresses verbal comprehension, working memory, processing speed

-verbal subscale: similarities (ie in what ways are tigers and lions alike), comprehension (what is the advantage of keeping money in the bank?)

-nonverbal subscale: recreate image w cubes

school/developmental psychologist

-Administered Intelligence test

-Observes child to determine ease with which rapport can be established, child's enthusiasm and interest, extent to which anxiety impacts performance, child's degree of tolerance for frustration

sternberg's triarchic theory of intelligence

-analytical, creative and practical

-Analytical skills= better academic outcomes

-wisdom= high analytical and practical intelligence

gardner's multiple intelligence theory

-8 sets of abilities better describes a person's intelligence

-Verbal, mathematical, spatial, kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, nature

-do not just prioritize verbal and math skills!!

intelligence associated with?

-Universally, higher intelligence scores associated with longevity, academic success, work success

-Not just western phenomenon

-Lower intelligence scores associated with illness, chronic disease, criminal behaviour

not captured by intelligence tests

-CONTEXT!!

-Motivation to succeed

-Physical and mental health

-Lack of sleep

-Interpersonal skills

-Temporary and chronic stressors

-Stereotype threat: performance decrement caused by the knowledge of cultural stereotypes that work against the individual (negative self-fulfilling prophecy).. Additional cognitive effort to control the thoughts/ emotions triggered by the anxiety of being in a threatening environment

historical misuse of intelligence tests

-Many early findings were culturally biased

-Urban vs rural families, Upper vs middle vs lower socioeconomic status

-Is tester similar to child being tested? do they talk and look like what they are used to?Disconnect as disadvantage?

-Western cultures value reasoning and thinking; kenyan children might know hundreds of herbal treatments for illnesses but not US presidents

pygmalian study (rosenthal and jacobson): self-fulfilling prophecy and confirmation bias

-Teachers were told fabricated stories about 'growth spurts' in their class

-Students labeled as growth sputters received higher grades than those they believed to be non-spurters

heritability of cognition

-Executive function is highly heritable: Parents and offspring have similar executive function, MZ twins have higher correlations than DZ twins

-Also influenced by environment: Physically fit children performed better at allocating attention resources

heritability of intelligence

-Genetic influence is most indirect

-Parents genes dictate how they behave towards children and the kind of environment they provide (passive)

-Child's genes dictates how others respond to them and which environments they choose (evocative and active)

effect of environment on intelligence

-Higher SES homes associated with children with higher IQ and academic achievement

-Socioeconomic status: family income, parents occupational status, years of parental education

-SES correlated with home environment (value of education), friend selection, neighbourhood income (ie gang activity), academic expectation, academic opportunities (job connections, volunteering)

-Greater negative effect of low SES in children who experience perinatal stress (physiological stress around time of birth: difficult birth, sick immediately after birth)

familial studies of intelligence

-Adoption studies: no genetic relationship between parents and children, so to the extent that they are similar, reveals impact of shared environment

-Twin studies: MZ twins are more genetically related, impact of genetic influences

-Collectively: although correlations increase as genetic similarity increases between individuals, best estimate of heritability of intelligence 50%

-Because they both interact and influence each other, can never separate the two effects

-Prenatal environment may be more influential than previously believed

scarr and weinberg: paradoxical adoption study

-Average IQ of african american children adopted into white MC families was 20 points higher than comparable african American children who were not adopted

-Correlation was higher between children and their biological mothers r = 0.31 than with adoptive mothers r =0.22

-This is why we cannot just base our understanding on whether or not this is significant!!!

-Correlation doesn't say anything about the absolute score

-Classroom of kids w various IQs, children are 10 points higher than their mom's IQ- strong correlation

-Then perform intervention to make kids smarter, kids IQ jump by another 10 points

-Still perfect correlation, 20 points higher. Just shows the relationship between two variables, But cannot predict, does not reveal absolute scores!!!

hymovitch 1952: influence of early experience on intelligence

-Rats in three environments

-4 groups, varied experience during days 30-75 vs daisy 75-100 (adolescent)

-Free environment-> stovepipe, stovepipe-> free environment, Free environment only, Control group- normal cage (most deprived)

-DV: tested on cognitive task in 12 point maze- number of errors

-free-> stovepipe: 161

-stovepipe-> free: 248

-Free: 152

-Cage: 221

-Having free environment experience early led to best cognitive outcome, similar to those who had free environment the whole time. Enriched environments better than no harm done!

naturalistic observations of intelligence

-Many studies conducted where researchers visit the infants/kids at home, then correlate their observed variables with iQ

-Lower IQ associated with low SES, lack of stimulating play materials, and unresponsive parenting (ie does not respond appropriately to individual's behaviour)

cumulative deficit effect

-Number of risk factors absolutely matter- poor neighbourhood, lack of stimuli

-linearly proportionately worse intellectual outcomes with more risk factors

romanian orphans

-Romanian leader had policy to increase romania's population (abortion illegal, contraceptives banned)

-Children abandoned in orphanages and turned over to state care

-Adverse conditions of orphanages because of insufficient funding:Overcrowding

Inadequate care, abuse

-Effects of institutionalization

-Physical effects: decreased height, weight, head circumference

-Cognitive effects: lower IQ, often in range of intellectual disabilities

chugani et al 2001: effects of institutionalization

-Reduced cortical activity everywhere

-Prefrontal cortex (executive function), temporal lobe, hippocampus (memory) and amygdala (emotions)

-Less white matter (myelination) in pathways between limbic system and frontal lobe

-Adults after these orphanages

plasticity and institutionalization

-Some effects of deprivation may be reversible

-Children removed from orphanages within first 2 years of life had normal development

-Intervention must be early!!

khundrakpam et al 2017: neural correlates of intelligence

-Early research suggested prefrontal cortex as being important in intelligence

-More recent research suggests that efficiency of processing in neural pathways may be more indicative of intelligence

- MRI scans (longitudinal) of participants aged 6-18 years examined for cortical thickness and correlates with verbal and nonverbal IQ

-No difference between low and high performative/non-verbal IQ individuals and cortical thickness

-Differences revealed when comparing low and high verbal IQ individuals

-No single region of brain importance to intelligence!

-Higher verbal IQ is correlated with cortical thickness in various areas

phonology

- the smallest units of sounds that are important in language

-Ie ba and pa and meaningfully different because park and bark different words

-Phonemic awareness is the number one predictor of reading ability!! (Ability to parse words into phonemes)

morphology

-Morphemes: smallest units that convey meaning

-rules for meaning

-Words can be single morphemes (ie car)

-Even letter can be morpheme (ie letter S)

-Prefixes and suffixes are morphemes (pre, ing, bi)

semantics

-meaning of words!

-Definitions, the meaning of signs, interpretation of such meaning

-social norms and conventions: Ie 'mental retardation'

ICD-10: impairment in intelligence VS 2022 intellectual disability

syntax

-rules for combining words

-Grammar

-Subject-verb object (english): Chinese, french, arabic, hebrew, 42% world

-Subject-object, verb: 45%, bengali, hindu, japanese, korean

-Verb object subject: biblical hebrew, classical arabic, filipino, irish

who hit who? (Syntax)

-Joshua hit marcus

-Can only understand what happened if you understand syntax

(Even young children understand syntax)

pragmatics

-Communicative functions of language; rules that lead to effective communication (Turn-taking)

-Nodding to indicate agreement/encouragement, Eye roll to indicate frustration

-Air quotes, shrugging, head-tilting

language in infancy

-Crying: at birth

-Cooing: 1-2 months, gurgling sounds

-Babbling: 6 months

(Ba ba, da da da)

-Infants recognize words before they learn to speak (or walk)

sensitivity to exposure- Jusczyk and aslin 1995

-After hearing a repeated word like bike, 7.5 months olds listen longer to sentences that contain the word bike compared to sentences without the word bike

- perceptual development and innate bias to attend to speech!

Juscsyk 2002

-8 month olds are sensitive to statistical regularities in speech sounds

-Method: exposure infant to nonsense words for 3 min

-Triplets (3 phonemes): created fake 'words' that contained 3 phonemes (bamuna, pokita, comida)

-Sound stream did not have natural pauses between words

-After 3 min, infants presented with random combination (ki-ta-co) or a nonsense 'word' (bamuna)

-Infants dishabituate to random combinations, but not to triplet words

-Indicating they had learned the 'words'

-Infant brains can extract statistical regularities in the speech sounds they hear; infants are parsing sounds from speech into words!!

9 month olds: st and sd phonemes

-'St" is a combination that can be found at the beginning, middle and end of words, in between words

(' this top is cute')

-Not a good regularity cue as it is everywhere

-"Sd": usually in between words

-9-month-olds can learn to identify new word more easily if it starts with "d" than "t" when preceding sound is "s" because there is no ambiguity with d and t!!!

-(this top vs the stop= ambiguous)

-extract statistical irregularities

babies: symbolic communication

-gestures!

-8-12 months see emergence of gestures

-Wave bye bye

-Nodding

-Turning head sideways, pointing

joint attention and language

-Parents encourage learning of words by pointing to object and naming it

-Although it emerges around same time at which first words are spoken and facilities communication, it's not necessary for language

Examples

-chat GPPT cannot think like human, arranges word in order most common for given context

-AI chess: computer is not reading mind of the opponent, it is simply doing what occurred most often in similar situation in previous game (statistical regularity)

-LOL- can use it from context, without knowing origin

vocabulary development

-1 word utterance (6-15 months; mean 13 months)

-About 50 words at 18 months

-2 word utterances; 'more want' (18-24)

-3 word utterances reveal grammar: he hit me!! (2-3 years)

-By 3-4 years, children can create novel word combinations correctly.. 'Emma didn't want to play with me because she was too full'

vocab spurt

-Stage in which infants learn new words much more rapidly than before

-10 words per week

-Occurs around 18-20 months

-Fast-mapping: connects new words to objects without considering all possible meanings; more a description of reference, not necessarily learning

word learning

-One to one mapping: one word per object

-Name refers to whole object

-If second name is presented for an object already learning, it is understood as subcategory

(Ie if you know dog, labradoodle is subcategory)

-Given many similar category members, a word applied consistently to only one of them is a proper noun (ie lala is my cat)

cross-cultural differences in learning language

-Infants learning Mandarin Chinese, korean, & japanese acquire more verbs earlier than infants learning english

(Primacy and recency effects, Cultural context)

-English SVO; asian language SOV

-Collectivist value verb, what happened

Individualistic values WHO did it

-In Japanese, often just the verb is used... 'coming?" instead of "are you coming?"

-English: nouns!

symbolic representations

-Are symbols that represent the actual person/object

-Recall: dual representation (pictures are being objects themselves as well as respecting the actual object)

-Scale models can only be understood when infants master symbolic representation

-Maps are an example of symbolic representation that even older children and adolescents find initially difficult

early language errors

-Under-extension: defining a word too narrowly (Daddy is your daddy, but other kids have daddys)

-Overextension: defining word too broadly (All 4 legged animals as dogs).. More likely when talking

-1-3 years, disappear as children master language

mastery of morphology

-Children in preschool and Gr1 reveal understanding of morphology

-Children understand the rules enough that they can apply them to new instances and new words

optimal learning!

1. Frequent exposure (read more books)

2. Interesting contexts

3. Responsive and interactive contexts

4. Meaningful contexts

5. Responsive parenting/teaching/ modelling

6. Diversity in both grammar and vocabulary

the matthew effect

-Only use what you have been given, need basic literacy skills to succeed in life (ie voting)

-used by sociologists describing the phenomenon of the rich get richer and the poor get poorer

-Good readers will enjoy reading, read more-> becoming better, while poor readers will dislike reading, hence become worse and this gap will continue to widen throughout the years

-Must understand phonemes!

phonemic awareness

-Knowledge that words consist of separable sounds

-Perceptual gaps between words as we know them, but auditorily, there are not gaps

-Cough: 'gh',Women: 'o', Nation: 'ti' = fish!!

-English: deep orthography: system for converting letters into sounds is irregular

-40 phonemes, 1120 letter combinations

-Italian: 25 phonemes, 33 letter combinations

-Phonemic awareness is number one predictor of reading ability (must be able to parse streams of sounds into combined units)

dyslexia

-Reading disability in which reading ability is significantly worse than what would be predicted for intellectual ability

-Phonological processing is key! (ie can understand 'Kika', even though not real word)

-Neurological basis is likely genetic- brain has difficulty parsing sentences into appropriate sounds

-depends on grapheme-phoneme correspondence in language... fewer cases of dyslexia in italians as there is more regularit matching sounds to letters

reading in japanese

-Symbol for 'ma' is consistent

-One system corresponding to perfect phonetics

-One system imported from chinese, one word conveys whole meaning

-Third system: foreign words (ie tomato)

gender and reading

-Girls tend to score higher on reading tests than boys (across studies and cultures)

-Although the sex difference is statistically significant, absolute difference is minor

-Dyslexia is more prevalent in boys

-Boys learning is more affected by interest than girls

learning a second language

-General rule: best if acquired before puberty (neural difference): Especially native fluency and accents

-Early acquisition-> same brain areas active when processing either language

-Children and adults learn language differently: Social aspect with kids, adults tend to memorize and repeat for practice

-Stronger interference from 1st language with more years of expertise: May trigger neural activation of L1 when trying to speak L2

critical period

- Specific experience is necessary during a developmental period for a behaviour to develop (ie imprinting geese will follow first animate object they see after hatching as 'mother'; happens only immediately after birth)

-Hubel and wiesel's experiments with cats and vision

-For bilingualism: the critical period is puberty!

critical period: first language

-Wild boy of aveyron: lived alone in woods (age 5-11); never learned to communicate effectively (1800)

-Genie: prohibited from interacting with others until abuse was discovered at 13

(Despite intense intervention never mastered language)

-Deaf children of hearing parents: better mastery of sign language if taught earlier (If learning sign after having another L1, harder to learn)

What is critical: Armstrong, Brunet, He, Nishumura, Poole, Spector 2006

-Is it really a neurological window of time in which the brain must receive relevant input?

-More recent studies suggest that interference from first language is what hinders learning more than a biological clock

-Even deaf children develop communicative gestures with their hearing parents before learning sign language- these gestures could interfere with later sign language acquisition if there is too much expertise

sensitive periods

-Flexible time window in which experience has optimal effect on behavior

-Behaviour can still be modified outside this window, time frame will expand or contract depending on individual experience

(Ie infrequent exposure may expand the sensitive period compared to no exposure, even if the child is not really learning the second language)

korean study on sensitive periods

-Korean children adopted into white french families in france

-when tested at 20-> showed other race effect like white 20 year olds

-But some parents tried to encourage kids to socialize with korean families-> did not show another race effect (Would have easier time with korean phonemes)

-Meaningful exposure as key!!

benefits of bilingualism

- attentional control

-concept formation,

-Analytical reasoning inhibition

-Cognitive flexibility, complexity, monitoring

-Anything with executive functioning

-Think of attrition: why do some siblings have better mastery of both languages? Genetics, some kids thrive with this, some have no interest

developmental myth buster about bilingualism

-Previously believed that exposing infants and young children to two languages simultaneously would harm development

-Anecdotal evidence from teachers when children have immigrated to canada or US from a non-english country: No way to differentiate not understanding english vs low comprehension

-Some studies show bilingual children start speaking a few months later than monolingual children

(But not impact on academic/intellectual development)

-No empirical evidence that bilingual kids have language (or cognitive) deficits later as adults!

students from non-english homes

-Recent evidence shows that using the student's native language and english is more successful teaching strategy than using exclusively english

-Learning should be meaningful!

-Takes 4-7 years for most students to become proficient in English

-language= communication! Not to punish

-When kids feel misunderstood, school is not fun & Learning is worse when not fun!!

behaviourist perspective on language

-Skills are learned via classical and operant conditioning

-Infants and kids imitate what they hear-> reward for using words correctly (with attention, conversation, help accomplish goals)

-No reward or attention if infants and children do not speak-> encourages vocalization

limitations of behaviorist perspective on language

-Cannot explain novel combinations and uses of words (Tiger age 5: i know two swear words starting with s='stupid')

-Cannot explain underextension and overextension

-Parents rarely correct grammar of their children

nativist perspective on language

-Noam chomsky

-Humans are born with neural circuits that allow for acquisition of grammar, the language acquisition device (LAD)

-Semantic bootstrapping theory: brain is ready to categorize the world into nouns and verbs. innate knowledge about the world allow for language acquisition

-Universal grammar: every language has subject, verb and object. This system allows infants to acquire grammar with minimal guidance!

bootstrapping

-Bootstrapping: using existing resources to benefit you

-Semantic bootstrapping: if you already know that words tend to be things and actions, you can use this knowledge to learn new words

support for universal grammar: regions for processing language

-Specific regions for processing language, including grammar

-When damaged:

Broca's aphasia- difficulty with speech production

-Wenicke's aphasia: difficulty with meaningful speech or fluent aphasia (Words are flowing but without meaning)

-In healthy brain, two areas work in unison to produce meaningful

animal communication

-Animals have a variety of communicative methods: Vervet monkeys have different alarm calls to signal the approach of leopards, eagles and snakes! (Not uniques in communicating nouns)

-Apes: Many efforts 1970s to teach apes language (dr sue savage-rumbaugh) ->Sign language and use of lexicons (symbols) because their vocal apparatus does not provide fine control over voice

-smartest bonobo ape, kanzii, learned hundreds of lexicons and could understand and produce english words

-Bonobos use 2-word sentences: Mostly action-object sentences!! (Combining 3 words is how we know kids understand syntax!)

support for universal grammar: only humans learn regularly

- language is unique to humans!

-non -human animals can learn words, as in associations between symbols and actual things/actions (one to one mapping)

-No animal has shown mastery of syntax VS By 4 years children, use syntax correctly without explicit instruction

-Kanzi's mastery of language is said to be about a 3 year old level

support for universal grammar: Children develop language with little/no formal input (deaf kids)

-Sign language has a morphology and syntax (not just symbols)

-Babies learn sign language from their deaf parents in the same way as hearing children who learn spoken language (Begins with babbling-> waving around of hands and finger), then 1 word signs and eventually 2 and 3 word utterance (3 word utterance has proper syntax)

-Brain designed for language, does not have to be auditory!

If modality doesn't matter, seems to support innate LAD!

support for universal grammar: Children develop language with little/no formal input (visually impaired)

-blind kids go

through same developmental step of acquiring language as sighted children, despite visual cues

-Interesting difference in interpretation: Blindfolded typical infants will tilt their head up, VS Blind infants will raise their hands up in the air

-Sadato et al 1996: Blind individuals reading braille with their fingers show activation in visual cortex

-Tactile discrimination activates visual cortex because fine discriminations of letters and holistic interpretation of letters into words is best served by visual cortex

support for universal grammar: critical learning period

-Recall stories of wild boy of aveyron and genie

-Isabelle, a 6 year old rescued from deprivation, but one year later, was speaking as well as her peers

-Inability to learn language after 13-14 years of deprivation suggests innate LAD

support for universal grammar: grammar development tied to vocab

-Children not only learn new words, but learn the position of words simultaneously

(You do it, not 'do it you')

-Bilingual children's vocab and grammar are correlated within each language, but not across languages

-Bilingual children do not confuse the grammar of two languages

cognitive perspective & language

-Cognitive development allows infants and kids to extract statistical regularities from their perceptual environments

-Statistical inference is a manifestation of powerful cognitive abilities, not a universal grammar

-Evidence: infants vocab improves as memory improves

-Limitation: cannot explain williams syndrome (low intelligence but high expressive verbal ability)

social perspective on language

-Children master language in social interactions

-Note: adults learn a new language best when their romantic partner is native speaker of that language (motivation!)

-Can incorporate behaviorism, nativist and cognitive perspectives

(Not in isolation)

-Provides a different level of analysis, overarching

emotions

-Feeling or affect, triggered in situations that are important to you

-Communicative!! (If you were stranded on an island by yourself...

do not need to convey emotions to anyone)

-Controlled by limbic system, especially amygdala

-Maturation of cerebral cortex, (prefrontal cortex) allows for regulation and improved communication

basic emotions

-Happy, anger, surprise, disgust, sadness, fear, (interest in textbook)

-experienced universally

-Subjective feeling!

-Physiological changes: increase in blood pressure, face flushing red

- Overt behaviours: facial expressions, tone of voice

development of emotions

-1 month: infants smile (maybe reflex); can convey pleasant vs unpleasant feelings

-2-3 months: social smiles- in response to others/ smiling at them

-4-6 months: anger

-6 months: fear

Stranger anxiety (distress in the presence of unfamiliar adult)

-Least understood: disgust, somewhere after 6 months!

complex emotions

-Self-conscious or secondary emotions

-Pride, shame, guilt, embarrassment, empathy, despair, jealousy

-feelings of success when standards/expectations are met; failure when they are not

-18-24 months: requires development of self (how can you disappoint others if you and others are all same consciousness?)

words and emotions

-Understanding of self vs others is helped by understanding labels to categorize (me, I =, baby's name) separately from others

-Understanding of self-conscious emotions requires words to describe abstract reactions in others

-When parents talked more with young children about mental states, children had better understanding of emotions (tompkins et al, 2018)

later development and emotions

-Through childhood and adolescence, complexity of emotions increased (as does prefrontal cortex maturation and ability to think abstractly)

-Regret and relief develop around age 9

(Requires ability to think about what could have been, what you should have done differently)

-Context of emotions changes: Shame and guilt are felt for different actions in young vs old children

(4 year cares more about winning the game- pride, Older- see disappointed face of friend who has lost, feel guilt)

cultural differences in emotions

-Same emotions are experienced universally

-Cultures differ to extent which expression is encouraged

-In many asian cultures, restraint is favoured over outward displays

-European american 11 month olds cried and smiled more often during observed time than chinese infants

-Janet werker has commented that japanese infants cried less compared to canadian babies in her studies on phonemic awareness

-Different contexts for pride, embarrassment, shame

recognizing emotions

-By 6 months infants can differentiate happy faces from sad faces

-Social referencing: in unfamiliar situations, infants look to their caregiver to interpret whether this is good or bad situation

-12 month olds less likely to play with new toy if caregiver looks afraid

-18 month olds less likely to play with a toy shown by adult 1 if adult 2 says 'that's really annoying' compared to something neutral (that toy is blue)

regulating emotions

-Ways in which one controls one's emotions

-Infants capable of showing some regulation (Thumb-sucking, holding security blanket, looking away from unpleasant scene)

-2 way communication system develops in which infants signal distress-> care-giver responds by soothing-> distress is reduced-> -parent has modelled how to soothe unpleasant emotions!

cognitive development and emotional regulation

-Attention: divert attention of other less emotional stimuli, thoughts, feelings

-Use strategies to reappraise the meaning of the event so that it is interpreted as less emotional, or the negative feelings are re-interpreted in a positive way (ie i'm nervous because i'm a serious athlete)

-With greater cognitive skills, greater emotion regulation!

-At any age, some individuals regulate emotions better... Those that cannot regulate emotions have adjustment problems

temperament

-Infant's emotional reactivity and regulation

-Easy child: happy, adjusts well to new situations, can stick to regular routines for eating,sleeping, toileting (40%)

-Difficult child: usually unhappy, irregular in eating/sleeping, responds intensely to unfamiliar situations (10%)

-Slow to warm up child: low activity level, low intensity of mood (15%)

- thomas and chess 1977: from infancy to childhood- -now categories not as helpful, instead use dimensions!

kagan's behavioral inhibition

-Introverted, timid, sociable VS Extraverted, bold

-Inhibition to the unfamiliar: initial avoidance, distress or subdued affect, beginning- 7-9 months and consistent up to 7 years

rothbart 3 dimensions of behavioral inhibition

-extraversions /surgency: happy, active, seeks interesting stimulation

-Negative affect: angry, fearful, frustrated, shy, not easily soothed

-Effortful control: focus attention, not easily distracted, can inhibit responses

support for rothbar

-Cross-cultural evidence: belgium, china, japan, netherlands, US-> Supports biologically based differences in determining temperament

-Parenting application: respond to your baby's temperament!

-Shy baby: needs more encouragement, explanations, modelling

-Active baby: provide more opportunities for exploration

heredity of temperament

-MZ twins more similar in temperament than DZ twins

-Slightly different depending on dimension and age

-Inhibited temperament may be associated with heart rate, cortisol and frontal lobe activity; (also role of amygdala and serotonin)

-Negative affect more influenced by heredity

-Temperament in childhood shows higher heritability than in infancy

goodness of fit

-How well does a child's temperament meet the environmental demands?

-Training can be helpful for parents of distress-prone infants (ie more likely to cry and be irritable)

-Note that new parents may not realize that their infants were born with specific temperament (over-believe in parenting strategies, may blame themselves)!!

heredity and biology: temperament

-Role of DRD4 gene: implicated in regulating attention, motivation, reward and novelty seeking in adults-> likely involved in temperament

-variants of DRD4 gene make individuals more susceptible to environmental effects

cultural differences in social circles- kitayama et al 2014

- had to drew their social circles

-American drew themselves 6mm bigger than others

(Independence is virtue)

-Europeans drew themselves 3.5mm bigger than others

-Japanese dress themselves slightly smaller than others

(Interdependence as virtue)

kitayama et al 2014: DRD4 gene X culture

-How does the DRD gene interact with cultural norms/standards?

-ID: i feel it is important for me to act as an independent person

-IDP: i will sacrifice my self-interest for the benefit of the group

-While most europeans were independently oriented and most asians were interdependently oriented, some of both ethnicities at baseline levels

-Those at zero more genetically influenced, those high on one orientation more so influenced by culture

temperament: gene X environment

-Temperament makes some children more sensitive to environmental influences

-Think of evocative effects on environment!!

-Genetic predisposition evokes certain type of reaction from others, may be more susceptible to reaction on basis of genes

-Genes mediate how we think-> interaction with others-> changes gene expression-> changes our behaviour-> forever loop

attachment

-Social-emotional relationship between baby and caretaker

-Lack of attachment has long-term detrimental effects

-Infants raised in institutions during WW2 showed impaired mental development; often were withdrawn and listless, despite receiving adequate nutrition and healthcare

-touch seems to be the foundation for socio-emotional development!

John Bowlby on attachment

-Pre attachment 0-2 months: recognize mother's sound, smell; smiles and cries to engage caregiver (reflexes improve survival)

-Attachment in the making 2-7 months: infants behave differently to familiar vs unfamiliar adults; recognition of adults

-True attachment 7-24 months: specific attachments with regular caregivers

-Reciprocal relationships >18 months: growing cognitive and language skills allows for true social relationship

attachment and development

-Quality of attachment to caregiver= internal working model of a social relationship

-influences later responses to other people, emotion understanding, conscience development and self-concept

-Attachment is not an instinct or reflex; is complex dynamic process by which the relationship evolves, depending on social-cognitive abilities of both caregiver and infant

strange situation: types of attachment

-Secure: baby may cry when mom leaves, but when mom returns, baby is relieved (60-65% of north american babies)

-Avoidant attachment: baby not upset when mom leaves and when mom returns, may ignored her by looking/turning away (20%)

-Resistant attachment: baby upset when mom leaves, but remains upset or shows anger when mom returns; difficult to console (10-15%)..Needs to learn emotional regulation

-Disorganized: baby seems confused and or disoriented when mom leaves and when they return (5-10%)

cultural differences in attachment

-most babies have secure attachment, but insecure attachment may differ by culture

-German parents value independence: avoidant> resistant

-Japanese parents value interdependence and rarely leave infants alone with strangers: resistant> avoidant

developmental outcomes and attachment

-correlation between infant attachment style and the quality of interpersonal skills later in life

-Secure infants have better friendships, romantic partnerships, positive emotional health, high self-esteem

-Insecure attachment is associated with behavioral difficulties

-Disorganized associated with externalizing problems (aggression)

neural mechanisms of attachment

-Oxytocin: hormone that supports maternal behaviors (released during birth, breastfeeding, contact and warmth)

-Dopamine: nucleus accumbens releases in response to rewarding stimuli

-Stress-related areas (HPA axis) release cortisol when activating fight or flight response: stress response system develops irregularly with chronic stress and absence of nurturing environment

-Irresponsive parents feed into development of HPA axis-> less able to productively handle stressful situations

fathers and attachment

-mothers are more likely to engage in parenting and spend more hours with infants

-Global measures of attachment do not differ between moms and fathers

(if securely attached to mom, likely securely attached to dad)

-insecure attachment with fathers was associated with increased likelihood of externalizing behaviors, similar to previous findings with mothers

-Individual, familial, cultural views impact family dynamics, however, no evidence that fathers are inherently different than mothers (may engage in more physical play)

-Secure attachment is always with the primary caregiver!!!

trust

-secure attachment= must develop an expectation that when they distressed, caregiver will respond and come to their rescue

-Learned helplessness: if infants learn that caregivers are unreliable, then this in their internal working model of people and impacts later social relationships

-Not just in infancy: patients respond better to treatment if they trust therapist, students learn more when they trust their instructor

parent x infant relationship-> attachment

-Maternal sensitivity involved with attachment

-Secure infants tend to have caregivers that are responsive and available

-Insecure infants tend to have caregivers that are unavailable /rejecting or interact in an irritated way; responsiveness is inconsistent

-Think of passive and evocative effect: less sensitive and responsive parents share genes with the infants who may also be less sensitive and responsive than a typical infants