Dev Psych Unit 4 - Joanna Weaver Northeastern University

excluding a few things like parenting styles, divorce, family dynamics

naive psychology

commonsense level of psychological understanding, which is crucial to normal human functioning 

false belief problem

is an issue in which another person believes something to be true that the child knows is false  - (3-5yrs old)

The three concepts we all use to understand human behavior: 

1. Desires

2. Beliefs

3. Actions

• Important that the three concepts are:

1. invisible mental states

2. psychological concepts are linked to one another in cause effect relations

3. They develop early in life

theory of mind

organized understanding how mental processes influence behavior

• Understanding the connection between other people’s desires and their actions emerges by end of first year

  • Improved by brain development 

nativists view of theory of mind

Believe that early understanding is possible only because children are born with a basic understanding of human psych

Empiricists view on theory of mind

Believe that experiences with other people and general info processing capacities are the key sources of the early understanding of other people 

aspects of psychological understanding that emerge during the second year of life

1. A sense of self, in which children explicitly know they are distinct from others

2. Joint attention, in which 2+ people focus intentionally on the same referent

3. Intersubjectivity, the mutual understanding that people share during communication

4. Understanding that desires lead to actions

our psychological understanding by age 3

• Recognize the relation between beliefs and actions 

• False belief problem

• Question is whether the child thinks the other person will act in accord with their false belief or with the child’s correct understanding of the situation 

  • Studies show that children know they will follow what they believe over the objective truth

theory of mind module

hypothesized brain mechanism devoted to understanding other human beings

• Nativist 

• Argue that in typical children exposed to typical environments the TOMM matures over the first 5 years producing an increasingly sophisticated understanding of people’s minds. Experience is super important

empiricists on theory of mind dev:

Emphasize the role of learning from experience with physical situations and other people 

Emphasize the growth of general information processing skills to understand other people’s minds

• Ability to reason about counterfactual statements is important for false belief problems

  • As is the ability to inhibit behavioral propensities

Dev of brain regions, experiences that build understanding of perception and cognition, human interaction, improved info processing capacities all lead to a basic, but useful, theory of mind by age 5

pretend play

 is make believe activities in which children create new symbolic relations

• An early milestone in dev of play (between 12 and 18m of age)

• Engage in object substitution where they ignore many characteristics of an object to pretend they are something else 

Dual representation emerges around age 3

adult teaching in play helps us by

• Pointing out similarities of symbols to real world

• Giving experiences with maps, photos, drawings, and make believe play

Becomes less real life and less self centered and becomes more sophisticated which leads into sociodramatic

sociodramatic play

play where they enact miniature dramas with other children or adults - toddlers

• More sophisticated when playing with parent of older sibling who can scaffold the play sequence than when playing with a peer

Children who partake in more pretend play

greater understanding of others thinking and emotions and predicts their cognitive capacities

Frequent pretend play and high levels of social understanding may be caused by parents who promote both and thus maybe high levels of play are not really related to increase social understanding

knowledge of living things

• By year 1 we can distinguish people from other animals 

• By age 4 or 5 children have a hard time understanding artifacts and living things, as well as biological knowledge of what is alive and what is not

• Through ages 5 and 6 though many children deny people are animals

• Preschoolers understand that plants grow, heal, and die, but until ages 7-9 years old they do not realize plants are living things 

  • Main issue is they think animals move, and do not see plants as being able to move, despite being able to bend 

  • Growing up in rural areas they know they are alive earlier than city or suburb kids

preschoolers understanding of inheritance

 Understand physical characteristics can be passed down by parents 

• Older preschoolers know parts of dev are determined by heredity rather than by environment

  • Believe mom’s desires can play role in their children’s inheritance of physical qualities 

• May over or underplay importance of heredity v environment 

Essentialism is the view that living things have an essence inside them that makes them what they are. This is very important to understanding how children view biology

nativists 3 points in support of biology module

• During earlier period of evolution, it was crucial for human survival that children learn quickly about animals and plants

• Children throughout the world are interested by plants and animals and learn about them quickly and easily

• Children globally organize info about plants and animals in similar ways (in terms of growth, reproduction, inheritance, illness, and healing)

Empiricists believe children’s biological understanding comes from:

Personal observations and from info received by others

• Asking questions lead to them then finding out more 

• Cultural influence 

• Learn more quickly about something they are interested in 

• Nature and nurture

nativists debate on numbers - CKT

• Children are born with a core concept of number that includes special mechanisms for presenting and learning about the relative numbers of objects in sets, counting, and approx + and -

empiricists debate on numbers

• Kids learn about numbers though experiences 

• Big differences in understanding among kids in diff cultures - contribution of instruction, language, and cultural values

numerical equality

is idea that all sets of N objects have something in common

• Newborns understand this in nonlinguistic (nonsymbolic) sense

• we get better at discriminating as we dev

preschoolers acquire understanding of five principles underlying counting

1. One-one correspondence: each object must be labeled by a single number word

2. Stable order: The number should always be recited in the same order 

3. Cardinality: The number of objects in the set corresponds to the last number stated 

4. Order irrelevance: Objects can be counted left to right, right to left, or any other order 

Abstraction: Any set of discrete objects or events can be counted

basic trust v mistrust (first year)

need caregivers who show/are

• Responsiveness

• Sympathetic, loving balance of care

Autonomy vs shame and doubt (second year)

 need caregivers who show/are

• Suitable guidance and responsible choices

• Reasonable expectations for impulse control

Initiative vs guilt (preschool years)

need caregivers who show/are

• Support for exploration

• Avoidance of harsh threats, criticism, and punishment

emotional development

Combination of physiological and cognitive responses to thoughts or experiences - more complicated than simply sensation or reactions 

components of emotions

Neural and physiological responses and subjective feelings, emotional expressions (motivating behavior - desire to act)

six primary emotions

1. Happy

   1. Social smile emerges at 6-7 weeks of age

2. Sad

3. Fear

   1. Separation anxiety 

   2. Self conscious emotions - shame, guilt, pride, envy

4. Anger

5. Surprise

6. Disgust

The first step for kids to develop an understanding of emotions is to____

recognize different emotions in others 

• By 3m can distinguish facial expressions of happiness, surprise, and anger 

• By 7m can distinguish between fear, sadness, and interest 

• 12-14m children have a harder time associating emotions with objects than 16-18m

social referencing

•  is the use of a parent’s or other adults facial expressions or vocal cues to decide how to deal with a situation - 8-10m 

  • We are better at social referencing if we receive both vocal and facial cues but on their own vocal is more effective than visual 

  • Helps toddlers evaluate surroundings, choose actions, and understand others 

Emotional intelligence

is an individual's ability to cognitively process info about emotions and use that info to guide both their thoughts and behaviors 

• Important to understand their own and other’s emotions 

display rules

• are social or cultural group’s informal norms about when, where, and how much one should show emotions and when and where emotions should be suppressed 

  • Simulating an emotion, usually to be nice

  • Masking an emotion as self protection

    • As we age we get better at masking emotions and tricking 

  • Linked to cognitive capacities as well as society 

  • By 3 they know that people do not always show what they feel

  • By 5, false emotions improve more 

  • We have higher cognitive capacity when we learn these rules

emotional regulation

is a set of conscious and unconscious processes used to monitor and modulate emotional experiences and expressions 

• Develops gradually - emerges as motor and language skills develop 

• End of year 2 - vocab forms for talking about emotions, but unable to manage them and tantrums occur

coregulation

is the process where caregivers provide the needed comfort or distraction to reduce the infant’s distress 

• At first distraction and soothing is all a parent can do but after a few months vocalizations can help calm 

self comforting behaviors

 are repetitive actions that regulate arousal by providing a mildly positive physical sensation

self distraction

•  involves looking away from upsetting stimulus to regulate levels of arousals 

  • In the first year we use less SC and more SD behaviors - more mature frontal lobe and different expectations from adults on kids

Young kids use _____ strategies to regulate while older kids use ______ strategies and problem solving to adjust to emotionally difficult situations 

behavioral, cognitive

social competence

derives from a set of skills that help people achieve goals in social interactions while keeping positive relationships 

• Children who can inhibit inappropriate behaviors, delay gratification, and use cognitive methods for controlling behavior and emotions are well adjusted and liked 

  • Kids like other kids who aren’t disruptive, are positive, etc

• EQ is affective social competence

  • Better predictor of how well people will do in life than IQ 

    • Motive oneself - when we are bored

    • Persist in face of frustration

    • Control impulses

    • Delayed gratification in situation - marshmallow experiment

emotional socialization

direct and indirect influences parents have on their children’s standards, values, and ways of thinking and feeling

• Parents socialize their kids to help them express and regulate emotions 

• Children around more positive emotions feel more positive emotions

parents influence on emotional dev

• Parents can help kids understand emotions by talking about two arousal states - attraction and withdrawal and helps us to organize and label our emotions

• Parents reactions to their kids emotions directly influence how the kid will express them and it influences their social competence and adjustment - emotional supportive parents are really good for children's emotional and social competence 

emotional coaching

parents help children learn ways to cope with their emotions and express them appropriately. Benefits their ability to display emotional understanding

temperment

is the individual differences in emotions activity level, and attention that are exhibited across contexts and that are present from infancy; they are genetically based

• becomes more stable 3-6 than 0-3 yrs old and remains consistent across situations 

  • Labeled by emotional reactivity

    • How come some students are better at motivating themselves or aren’t as sensitive as others 

• Neurotransmitters are relevant to voluntary attentional processes 

• Teratogens and the behaviors of the parents influences it 

• Involves: 

Effortful control: negative affectivity, and extraversion all influenced by genes and environment - when environment is suited for their temperament they can flourish

how we respond to emotions is influenced by:

• Quality of parent child relationship 

• Parents’ emotional expression 

  • Still face experiment!!

• Parents reaction to children's emotions

• Teaching display rules

parental depression and child dev

• Parent child relationship suppers

• Maternal depression (chronic or postpartum)

  • Affects infants sleep, attention, and stress hormones

  • Hinders motor and cognitive dev and emotion regulation 

Infants by Thomas and Chess’s Model of Temperament (between person)

1. Easy baby (40%) - adjust to new situations, quickly establish daily routines, and generally are cheerful and easy to calm

2. Difficult baby (10%) - slow to adjust, react negatively and intensely to novel stimuli and events, and were irregular in their daily routines and bodily functions 

3. Slow to warm up babies (15%)- difficult at first but easier over time when they had repeated contact with new objects, people, and situations 

4. Unclassified (35%) - problem with between person structure 

^^  between person approach but now we use within person approaches where every child has some level of each dimension of temperament 

Rothbart’s model of temperament (within person approach)

• Reactivity

  • Activity level

  • Attention span/persistence

  • Fearful distress

  • Irritable distress

  • Positive affect

• Self regulation

  • Effortful control: predicts favorable adjustment

    • Marshmallow test and tolerating people they aren’t comfy with

Genetic influence on temperament

• Responsible for half of individual differences

• Vary with trait and age

• Gender and ethnic differences

• Short 5 HTTLPR

  • Interferes with inhibitory neurotransmitter serotonin 

  • Increased risk of self regulation difficulties 

• DRD4 7 repeat genotype

  • Linked to more over reactive behavior

environmental influence on temperament

• More influential as they age and have been parented longer

• Nutrition

• Quality of caregiving

• Cultural variations 

• Gender stereotyping

  • “Boys will be boys” will affect self regulating strategies 

• Parental distinctions among siblings

  • Showing favoritism

differential susceptibility theory

 the same temperament characteristics that put some children at high risk for negative outcomes when exposed to a harsh home environment also causes them to blossom when their home environment is positive 

• Within a family unit there is usually both

• In average good environment, orchid child will surpass all children

• Dandelion: weed that is very easy to grow, environment doesn't matter

goodness of fit model

the degree to which an individual’s temperament is compatible with the demands and expectations of his or her social environment

• Encourages an effective match between child rearing and child’s temperament

  • Need to raise the child you have, not the child you want

• Children have unique dispositions that adults must accept

• Successful child rearing: may need diff parenting styles for diff siblings

  • Responsive to child’s temperament

  • Simultaneously encourages more adaptive functioning

stress

is a physiological reaction to some change or threat in the environment

• Periodic stress is beneficial and help mobilize kids to take action to reduce or manage exposure to the stimulus in the environment that provokes the anxiety

• Importance of coregulation

toxic stress

children who experience high levels of stress without adults to help mitigate it experience this

• When the stress response system is overworked the parts of the brain involved (amygdala and hippocampus) become overloaded and the neuron dendrites atrophy and shrink which can lead to long term changes in response to stress and stress related chronic disease in adults 

equifinality

concept that means various factors can lead to the same mental disorders

multifinality

is the quality which refers to the fact that certain risk factors do not always lead to a disorder

rumination

is when people engage in thinking about a stress event without engaging in efforts to remedy the situation

co rumination

is the extensively and almost exclusively discussing and self disclosing emotional problems with others

ACES - adverse childhood experiences

• Injury 

  • Traumatic brain injury, fractures, burns

• Mental health

  • Mental health illnesses

• Maternal health 

• Infectious disease 

• Chronic disease

• Risky behaviors

• Opportunities 

^^ important neurons in certain areas could die and affect individual

vital signs of ACE’s

• Public health priorities

• Strengthen families’ financial stability

• Promote social norms that protect against violence 

• Help kids get a good start 

• Teach healthy relationship skills

• Connect youth with caring adults and activities 

• Intervene to lessen immediate and long term harms

attachment serves as

1. Enhancing changes of survival by keeping the caregiver in close proximity

2. Makes child feel emotionally secure

3. Serves as corregulation

ethology

the study of behavior within evolutionary context 

• Attempts to understand behavior in terms of its adaptive or survival value 

• Conrad Lorenz the father of modern ethology

  • Ethological theory imprinting/attaching - attachment develops from interaction between species specific learning biases and infants experience with his or her caregiver

evolutionary psychology

 with the evolutionary history of our species, certain genes predisposed behavior

• These behaviors solved adaptive challenges (obtaining food, avoiding predators, establishing social bonds)

  • Improved survival 

They allowed them to mate and reproduce, passing along their genes

parental investment theory

stresses the evolutionary basis of many aspects of parental behavior

• Including the extensive investment parents make in their offspring

is attachment is experience expectant or dependent?

expectant

behaviorists

proposed that the infant mother bond is classically conditioned as the mother provides nourishment to the child

harry harlow rhesus monkey

babies preferred to be fed by the cloth mom than the wire mom and were more comforted by the cloth mom and were felt safest when cloth mom was there

Bowlby’s theory of attachment

children are biologically predisposed to develop attachments to caregivers as a means of increasing the chances of their own survival. His theory was based on Freud but instead of saying a needy dependent infant he thought they were competence motivated infants who used their caregiver as a secure base. 

Secure base presence of a trusted caregiver provides an infant or toddler with a sense of security that makes it possible for the child to explore the environment

4 kinds of unresponsive care

1. Occasional inattention

   1. Benificialent neglect

2. Chronis understimulation

   1. When offered a lot of new opportunities later they should be able to catch up to peers

3. Severe neglect in a family context 

   1. Not meeting basic needs

   2. More severe deficits that are hard to fix

4. Severe neglect in an institutional setting

internal working model of attachment

 a mental representation of self, attachment figures, and relationships in general 

• Constructed because of experiences with caregivers 

• Guides childs interactions with caregiver and other people they interact with in infancy and older ages

Ainsworth and the strange situation baby types

1. Secure 50-70%

• Positive working model of self and others

• Caregiver’s communication patterns:

  • Caregiver consistently exhibits caregiver attachment behaviors 

• Show better social adjustment and have good social skills and emotional expression and communication 

2. Insecure /resistant 10-20%

• Negative working model of others

  • “No one loves me”

• Caregiver’s communication patterns:

  • Inconsistent or awkward in reacting to child’s distress, seems overwhelmed with tasks of caregiving
    

• Insecure avoidant 10-20%

• Negative working model of self

• Caregiver’s communication patterns:

  • Insensitive to childs signals and avoids close contact 

• Show inhibitive emotional responsiveness and do not seek comfort from others 

4. disorganized/disoriented 5-10% 

• they are dazed and may freeze in their behavior. Fearful smiles as they want to approach their caregiver but also are fearful so they withdraw

• Caregiver’s communication patterns:

  • Intrusive and emotionally unavailable, may be harsh or abusive and confuses or frightens the child

parent factors with attachment

• Parent factors 

  • Quality of the parenting during the first year of life determines the type of attachment that is formed

  • Infants are just as likely to form secure attachments with fathers as mothers

• Infant factors  

  • Attachment is a two way relationship

    • Preemie babies can make it even harder for parents to attach

• Cultural factors

  • Values of the larger culture influence parental behaviors. Some cultures discourage dependence (Germany) and while others encourage it (Japan)

probabilistic relationships

• We get a set of expectations from our early attachment 

  • Influence parenting behavior 

  • Predict romantic relationships in adulthood

• Partner attributes also influence working model and intimate ties

• Internal working models continuously “updated”

personal fable

 is a form of egocentrism where adolescents overly differentiate their feelings from those of others and come to regard themselves and their feelings as unique and special

imaginary audience

is the preoccupation of with what others think of them as 

identity achievement

is the resolution to the identity crisis in which there is an integration of various aspects of the self into a coherent whole that is stable over time and across events

• exploration and committment

acculturation

is the process of taking on behaviors and values of a new culture

identity foreclosure

individual does not explore potential identities and choses one based on the choices or values of others

• no exploration but there is committment

moratorium

individual explores various identities and hasn’t made a clear commitment to any

identity diffusion

individual is not making progress towards exploring or committing to an identity

milesstones in developing self awareness

• Beginning of self awareness

  • newborn capacity for intermodal perception (if we dont wanna taste something we can hold our nose)

  • Discriminate own limbs and facial movements

• Self recognition (18m - age toddlerhood)

  • Point to self in photos

  • Refer to self by name or by pronoun

  • Recognize own shadow

  • Rouge test!!  - kids want to figure out how to get rid of the rouge at 26 ish months 

• Empathy 

  • Communicate concern when others are distressed

  • Offer others what they consider comforting 

• Perspective taking

  • Cooperative in resolving  dispute over objects

  • Aware of how to upset others

mirror self recognition in different cultures

in places that have autonomous childbearing goals then they were able to recognize themselves sooner on - shows impact of culture on dev of self

Between 18 and 30 months we can categorize ourselves by our

age, physical characteristics, goodness vs badness 

• Use these traits to organize their behaviors 

Self concept in preschool

• Observable characteristics (by age 3)

• Typical emotions and attitudes (by age 3.5)

• Statements that coincide with material reports (age 5)

Not yet reference personality traits 

self concept in childhood

• becomes complex as children get older

• based on direct and indirect evaluations of others

• dev of self conscious emotions (guilt, pride, envy)

• With more social comparison we become better at accurately describing ourselves and our conceptions of self change - elementary school time

social comparison

process of comparing aspects of ones own functioning to that of others in other to evaluate oneself

sources of self esteem

• Age: high in childhood, drops in adolescence, and heightens in adulthood

• Physical attributes

• Gender: boys have higher self esteem than girls

• Parental approval and support

• Peers (and their acceptances)

• Schools and neighborhoods

What does self esteem influence: emotional experiences, future behavior, long term psychological adjustment

• Contributes to initiative 

• Child usually overrated ability, underestimates task difficulty

• Supported by parent scaffolding and praise of effort

culture and self esteem

• Western cultures: self esteem is related to individual accomplishments and self promotion

• Asian cultures: self esteem is defined more by contributing to the welfare of the larger group

Erikson identity versus role confusion

• Identity: formed in love, work, and ideology

  • Defining who you are, your values, and your direction in life

  • A process of exploration followed by commitment: to ideals, vocation, relationships, sexual orientation, ethnic group

• Role confusion: failure to establish commitments in these areas

  • Earlier psychosocial conflicts not resolved

  • Lack of direction and self definition

  • Society restricts choices

  • Unprepared for challenges of adulthood 

dev a negative identity/have identity crisis if they do not get to explore identity

influences of identity dev

• Personality characteristics

• child rearing practices

• close friends, diverse peers

• School, communities

• Culture

• Societal forces

identity dev among ethnic minority and adoescents

• Secure ethnic identity linked to higher self esteem, academic motivation, school performance, and resilience

  • Factors that can pose challenges to its positive formation

    • Acculturative stress

    • Parental restrictions due to fear of assimilation

    • Discrimination

    • Biracial parents

    • Same ethnicity peers

sexual minority youth

young people who experience same sex attractions

sexual identity

first recognition, test and exploration, identity acceptance

bidirectionality

is mutual influence of interactions that reinforce and perpetuate behaviors 

• Key factor in parent-child relationships that exhibit a pattern of xyz which result in either good or bad behaviors out of each other

Identity dev among ethnic minority and adolescents

• Secure ethnic identity linked to higher self esteem, academic motivation, school performance, and resilience

  • Factors that can pose challenges to its positive formation

    • Acculturative stress

    • Parental restrictions due to fear of assimilation

    • Discrimination

    • Biracial parents

Factors supporting ethnic identity achievement

• Effective parenting and family ethnic pride 

• School supporting native language; quality education 

• Same ethnicity peers

family structure

is number of and relationships among the people living in a household 

internalization

is the permanent change in the child's behavior because the child learned and accepted the reasons for the desired behavior

Other oriented induction, or reasoning focused on the effects of a behavior on others is very effective

Bronfenbrenner ecological model

micro, meso, exosystem, and macro systems

microsystem

is immediate environment that child personally experiences and participates in

mesosystem

 is the interconnection among immediate or microsystem, setting (between family and school, between peer group and church)