Psych Developmental Psychology Piaget and Vygotsky Week 1

Developmental Psychologist

studies physical, cognitive, and social changes throughout the human life span

Nature/Nurture

how do genetic inheritance and experience influence our behavior?

Continuity/Stages

is development a gradual continuous process or a sequence of separate stages?

Stability/Change

do our early personality traits persist through life, or do we become different persons as we age?

How does prenatal development occur

from zygote to birth, development progresses in an orderly, though fragile, sequence

Zygote

fertilized egg that's becoming increasingly diverse

Embryo

developing human organism/anything 2 weeks after fertilization until the 8th week

Fetus

@ 9 weeks, developing human organism , often responds to sound, early formation of organs: increased survivability of the fetus

APGAR test

quick initial assessment of the newborn after birth
- 1, 5, 10 minutes after birth
- Activity: muscle tone
- Pulse
- Grimace: irritability
- Appearance: of skin tone---> oxygen flow
- Respiration: making sure it is breathing

Teratogens

chemicals/viruses that cant enter the placenta and harm the developing fetus
- heroin addiction in mother
- alcohol =, drugs, hormones, nicotine, lead, mercury, zika
- if mother has aids the baby may also

FAS

fetal alcohol syndrome: physical/cognitive abnormalities in children who had mothers that abused alcohol during their pregnancy
- severe cases: facial disproportions
- depresses activity in CNS, kills brain cells

Zika in pregnancy

an cause microcephaly: brain/skull deformation

Autism Spectrum Disorder

marked by significant deficiencies in communication: repetitive behavior/fixed interests
(sometimes due to poor connection among brain cells)

Temple Grandin

professor who was diagnosed with autism at the age of 2

William James

developmental psychologist: said that the newborn experiences a "blooming bussing confusion"
- people believed this until he was proven wrong

Competent Newborn

reflexes aid in survival, including rooting and crying

Habituation

decreased responsiveness with repeated stimulation

ZPD

the space between what a learner can do without assistance and what a learner can do with adult guidance/in collaboration

Piaget's Stages

SPCF:
- Sensorimotor stage (birth-2)
- Preoperational stage (2-7)
- Concrete Operational stage (7-11)
- Formal Operational stage (12-adulthood)

Sensorimotor stage

babies take in the world by looking, hearing, touching, mouthing, and grasping
- live in present: what is out of sight is out of mind
- younger than 6 months do not grasp object permanence
stranger anxiety

Concrete Operational Stage

understand conservation and math problems

Formal Operational Stage

reasoning ability, use symbols and imagined realities to systematically reason (formal operational thinking)

Object Permanence

the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived

Preoperational stage

too young to preform mental operations
- lack concept of conservation
pretend play, egocentrism, language development

Conservation

the principle that quantity remains the same despite changes in shape

secure attachment style

when mother leaves the baby shows distress and when she returns they seek contact

insecure attachment style

when mother leaves the baby cries and acts the same way whether or not she comes back or leaves

Cognition

all mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

Volume

the different glasses filled with same amount of liquid

Area

breaking the chocolate bar

Length

Play-do snakes

Schemas

concept of framework that organizes and interprets information

psychological development in infants is

reliant/depends on their biological development

Maturation

biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, uninfluenced by experience

motor development in infants

roll over --> sit unsupported --> crawl --> walk
experience has little effect on this sequence, it cannot be taught

Memory in infants

earliest ago of conscious memory is around 3 1/2 years": infantile amnesia
5 year old has sense of self and increased long term memory, thus organization of memory is different from 3-4

cognition

all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communication

Jean Piaget

believed that a child's mind isn't a miniature model of an adult's
believed that a child's mind developed through a series of stages
explained the driving force behind intellectual progression is our struggle to make sense of our experiences

Assimilation

interpreting one's new experience in terms of one's existing schemas

Accommodation

the process of adjusting and modifying a schema

Egocentrism

when a child cannot perceive things from another's perspective/point

Theory of Mind

people's ideas about their own and other's mental states. feelings, perceptions, thoughts, and behaviors

what do today's researchers believe?

development is a continual process, children express their mental abilities and operations at an earlier age, and formal logic is a smaller part of cognition

Vygotsky

most notable for ZPD
- this peer/model influence helps the child move through the development zone to the next level of understanding

Scaffold

framework that offers children temporary support as they develop higher levels of thinking