PSYB20 - Midterm 1

development

systematic changes and continuities in the individual that occur between conception and death

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developmental continuities

ways in which we remain stable over time or continue to reflect our past

maturation

developmental changes in the body or behavior that result from the aging process rather than from learning, injury, illness, or some other life experience

biological unfolding of inheritance

ie. seeds to plants

2 critical developmental processes

maturation and learning

learning

A process through which experience produces lasting change in behavior or mental processes.

ie. practice basketball become better

Development is a joint function of...

maturation, learning, and the active individual (reacting to situations differently)

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normative development

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developmental changes that characterize most or all members of a species; typical patterns of development

ie. baby to adult

ideographic development

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individual variations in the rate, extent, or direction of development

ie. identical twins differing

Goals of developmentalists

describe: normative or ideographic

explain: why does it occur in a certain way

optomize: how can this info be used to optimize development (practical)

The goal of optimization depends on

the larger culture the developmentslists are placed in.

ie. gender roles may define optimal female development

To be plastic means

the capacity to change in response to positive and negative life events

developments from ___________ are particularly important

birth to age 12

characteristics of development

lifelong process - across lifespan

holistic - physical growth, cognitive growth, and psychosocial growth all work together

plasticity - capacity to change in response to positive and negative life events

Historical/Cultural Context - development is influenced by society, culture, and societal events such as social movements and wars

Thomas Hobbes Original Sin

children are inherently selfish egoists that much be restrained by society and taught to channel their selfish interests into socially acceptable outlets

parents should control their kids to channel selfish interests

Jean-Jacques Rousseau innate purity

Children are born with an intuitive sense of right and wrong that society often corrupts

parents should give kids freedom to follow inherently positive inclinations

John Locke Tabula Rasa

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Mind of a child is a blank slate written on by experiences

children have no in born tendencies

Parental discipline child to encourage good habits and prevent bad habits

baby biography

a detailed record of an infant's growth and development over a period of time

first systematic studies of development

Biased by authors assumptions and often found what they were looking for​

Darwin views on development

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young, untrained infant's share traits with non human ancestors

studied his son

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Theory

a set of concepts and propositions designed to organize, describe, and explain an existing set of observations

hypothesis

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predictions about some aspect of experience

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reliability

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consistency

similar results across measurements

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validity

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accuracy

measures what is it supposed to measure

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structured interview/questionnaire

a research procedure in which all participants are asked to answer the same questions

can't be used with very young children

clinical method

participants response to each question determines what the investigator will ask next

more flexible than structured interview. Researchers may be biased to which questions they ask, it may also be hard to make comparisons

naturalistic observation

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observing people as they engage in everyday activities or natural habitats

limitations of naturalistic observation

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some behaviors are rare or socially undesirable and hars to view in natural environments

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observer influence

the tendency of participants to react to an observer's presence by behaving in unnatural ways

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mitigating observer influence

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videotaping from concealed location

gettung participants accustomed to being observed before testing

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time sampling

a measurement of the presence or absence of behavior within specific time intervals

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structured observation

a method that involves presenting an identical situation to each child and recording the child's behavior

allows for more control than naturalistic observation

may not correlate with everyday life due to unnatural environment

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case study

an observation technique in which one person is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles

analyze individuals life events and history

may lack generizability

Ethnography

the scientific description of the customs of individual peoples and cultures.

may live amongst culture to make extensive observations

highly subjective to researchers own cultural values

psychophysical methods

research that focuses on the relationship between physiological processes and behavior

can study perceptions, cognition and emotional responses.

affected by mood, fatigue, etc so can be inaccurate at times

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correlational research

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studies the strength of association between variables

Developmentalist

any scholar, regardless of discipline, who seeks to understand the developmental process

can be historians, sociologists, anthropologists, etc.

cross-sectional study

subjects from different age groups studied at same point in time.

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cohort

A group of individuals of the same age who are exposed to similar culture and history growing up.

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cohort effect

age-related difference among cohorts that is attributable to cultural/historical differences in cohorts' growing-up experiences rather than to true developmental change

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longitudinal study

research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period

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drawbacks of longitudinal research

practice effects

selective attentions

nonrepresenatative sample

practice effects

Improvements in performance resulting from opportunities to perform a behavior repeatedly so that baseline measures can be obtained.

can occur with longitudinal studies

selective attrition

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nonrandom loss of participants in study resulting in nonrepresentative sample

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nonrepresentative sample

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subgroup that differs from larger popular of interest.

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cross-generational problem

the fact that long-term changes in the environment may limit conclusions of a longitudinal project to that generation of children who were growing up while the study was in progress

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sequential design

Combination of cross-sectional and longitudinal designs involving repeated study of different cohorts over time.

Selects participants of different cohorts over time

benefits of sequential design

more efficient - requires less time for full data set

can determine if cohort effects are present between cohorts - ie compare 8 years olds now vs 6 years olds 2 years later.

make longitudinal and cross secrional comparisons

microgenetic study

Participants studied intensively over a short period of time as developmental changes occur

attempts to see how or why changes occur

ie. going through puberty

cross cultural comparison

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a study that compares the behavior and development of people from different cultural or subcultures backgrounds

guards against overgeneralization

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informed consent

an ethical principle that research participants be told enough to enable them to choose whether they wish to participate

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Protection from harm

the right of research participants to be protected from physical or psychological harm

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benefits to risks ratio

a comparison of the possible benefits of a study for advancing knowledge and optimizing life conditions versus its costs to participants in terms of inconvenience and possible harm

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minimal risk

term used when assessing risk in ethics reviews that refers to risks that are no greater than those one would encounter in daily life

ie. bodily harm vs boredom

Characteristics of good theories

parsimonious - concise, few assumptions

falsifiable- generate predictions that can be disconfirmed

heuristic - theory that continues to build on existing knowledge

what does it mean for a theory to be heuristic

build on existing knowledge by generating new testable hypotheses

psychosexual theory

Freud said maturation of the sex instincts underlies stages of personality development

manner in which parents manage children's instinctual impulses determines traits of child

issues with freud

no evidence, just waffled

when do id, ego, and super ego emerge?

id - birth, basic desires

ego - 1 year, compromise

super ego - 3-6, moral compass

psychosocial theory

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Erikson's proposal that personality development is determined by the interaction of an internal maturational plan and external societal demands

revised version of Freuds theory

issues with Eriksons psychosocial theory

explains the what, but not the how or why

just describes conflict, not mechanism or relevance

Karen Horney

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Neo-Freudian; offered feminist critique of Freud's theory

Behaviorism

the science of behavior that focuses on observable behavior only

rather than speculation about unconsious drives and unobservable phenomena

habits

well-learned associations between stimuli and responses that represent the stable aspects of one's personality

core of behaviorism - baby albert conditioned to fear rat

skinner

operant conditioning

bandura

Observational learning; Bobo dolls; social learning theory

social learning theory

we learn social behavior by observing and imitating and by being rewarded or punished

Bandura

observational learning

learning by observing others; also called social learning

we observe models

information processing theory

a perspective that compares human thinking processes, by analogy, to computer analysis of data, including sensory input, connections, stored memories, and output

cognitive development is continuous and not in stages

Konrad Lorenz

ethology perspective; studied imprinting and critical periods in geese

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Ethology

the study of the evolutionary bases of behavior and development

belief in critical period

Classic Ethology

behaviors are programmed by genes and serve an evolutionary purpose

focus on responses all members of species share and may steer them along simar paths

sensitive period

a point in development when organisms are particularly susceptible to certain kinds of stimuli in their environments, but the absence of those stimuli does not always produce irreversible consequences

ie. language development

Evolutionary Theory

the study of the evolutionary bases of behavior and development, with more focus on genes than the individual

evolutionary Theory vs ethology

evolutionary Theory says adaptations occur to ensure safety of genes not individual.

explains why parents will sacrifice life for child

Nature vs. Nurture

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name for a controversy in which it is debated whether genetics or environment is responsible for driving behavior

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Active/Passive issue

a debate among developmental theorists about whether children are active contributors to their own development or, rather, passive recipients of environmental influence

Hobbe is active

Rousseau is passive

continuity-discontinuity issue

the debate about the extent to which development involves gradual, cumulative change (continuity) or distinct stages (discontinuity).

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positional stability

stability of an individual's relative position in a group of people with regard to a psychological characteristic

ie. babies who cry a lot being emotionally stable adults

position terms of emotionality is stable as the develop, even though they change.

absolute stability

no change in a person's attribute over the course of development

quantitative changes

changes in degree, or amount. Individual is fundamentally same

ie. height

qualitative changes

transformations that fundamentally change being.

Ie. tadpole to frog, infant learning language

holistic nature of development

awareness that development is a holistic process even when being studied as a segmented, separate process.

Even though we may study, social development and cognitive development separately, they are interconnected processes

critical period vs sensitive period

Critical period: a specific time during which development of a skill must occur or else that skill might never develop.

ie. geese imprinting

Sensitive Period: a specific time during which development of a skill occurs more easily. The developmental of that skill can occur later though it might be harder later.

ie. language development

simple dominant-recessive inheritance

a pattern of inheritance in which one allele dominates another so that only its phenotype is expressed

ie. Aa, shows only A phenotype

Codoninance

situation in which both alleles of a gene contribute to the phenotype of the organism

ie. red + white = red + white

incomplete dominance

Situation in which one allele is not completely dominant over another allele

ie. red + white = pink

polygenic inheritance

combined effect of two or more genes on a single character

ie. height and weight

Epigenetics

the study of influences on gene expression that occur without a DNA change

Ie. methylation

prenatal development

development from conception to birth

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period of the Zygote (geminal period)

conception to implantation

anout 14 days

period of the embryo

organs form, heart beats

3 cell layers

weeks 3-8

3 cell layers

ectoderm - skin, hair, NS

mesoderm - bones, muscles, circulatory

endoderm - digestive, urinary, vital organs, lungs

period of the fetus

organ function and growth

9th week to birth

amnion

Innermost membranous sac surrounding the developing fetus

cushions

chorion

Outermost layer of the two membranes surrounding the embryo; it forms the fetal part of the placenta.

placenta

organ that nourishes the fetus

formed from chorion and uteral lining

gas and nutrient exchange

neural tube

a groove formed in the top layer of differentiated cells in the embryo that eventually becomes the brain and spinal cord

forms from ectoderm in first month

indifferent gonads

the undifferentiated gonads of the early mammalian fetus, which will eventually develop into either testes or ovaries

presence of Y chromosome triggers male at 7th week

first month of pregnancy

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neural tube formation

heart beat

facial structures

arms and legs bud

second month of pregnancy (week 5-8)

ears form

rudimentary skeleton

limbs

brain develops

indifferent gonads