Unit 3- Developmental Psychology

Developmental psychology

Out physical, cognitive, and social emotional development across the lifespan

cross sectional studies

comparing people of different ages

longiudinal studies

following people across time

Nature and nurture

How our genetic inheritance affects our experience

continuity and stages

which aparts are gradual and which stages are abrupt

stability and change

which of our traits persist through life

zygotes

the first stage of being a fertilized egg and fewer than half survive the first two weeks

After the zygote it becomes the germinal stage and then what

splits into embryo and placenta

embryo is

the inner part of the clump of cells

placenta

outercells which are the life link that transfers nutrients and oxygen from mother to embryo

fetus

young one after 9 weeks of conception

teratogens

agents such as viruss and drugs that can damage an embryo or fetus.

habituation

decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to stimulus their interest wanes and they look away sooner.

maturation

the orderly sequence of biological birth

critical period

an optimal period early in the life of an organism when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produce normal development

fetal alchohol syndrome

physical and cognitive function deficits in children caused by their birth mother’s heavy drinking during pregnancy.

Where is the most rapid brain growth from 3 to 6?

frontal lobes

Where are the last cortical areas to develop?

those linked with thinking, memory, and language

malnourishment

less food during pregnancy

maternal illness

sickness from moms side

genetic mutations

mutations that are genetic as a child

The developing brain enables what?

fine motor and gross motor

Twins tell us that identical twins is based on nature

twins begin walking on the same day

infantile amnesia

rapid neuron growth disrupts the circuits that stored old memories

Adolescence

the years spent morphing from child to adult

What does adolescence begin with?

puberty

rooting reflex

When something touches a babies touch they turn toward that touch and open their mouths

imprinting

a fast learning that occurs in the critical period

puberty

triggers a surge of hormones which may intensify moods and trigger a series of bodily changes

menarche

the first menstrual period

spermarche

male’s first ejaculation

selective pruning

what happens to unused neurons during adolesence

What part of the brain continues to develop?

prefrontal cortex

What explain’s teen’s impulsiveness, risky behaviors, and emotional storms

Maturation of the prefrontal cortex lags behind that of the emotional limbic system puberty’s hormonal surge and limbic system development

What happens when one turns 25?

Ones brain will become better connected with their limbic system and will be more mature

When do our physical abilities peak?

About 2 years of 27

Physical vigor has less to do with age than

With a person’s health and exercise habits

menopuase

the time of natural cessation of menstruation; also refers to the biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reporoduce

Has life expectancy increased or decreased

from 50 73 it increased

Throughout life men are more prone to

death

What are the things that happen as we age?

visual sharpness diminishes,muscle strength, reaction and stamina dimishes

What is the bad news about getting older?

The body disease fighting immune system weakens making older adults more susceptible to life threatening ailments such cancer pneumonia and covid

What is the good news about getting older

thanks partly to a lifetime’s accumulation of antibodies, people over 65 suffer fewer short erm ailmens such as common flu and cold viruses.

What do we do better as teens than older people?

We process information with greater and greater speed

What is sex?

In psychology the biologically influenced characteristics by which people define male, female, and intersex

Gender

in psychology the attitudes and feeelings and behaviors thata. given culture associates with a person’s biological sex

How many of the chromosomes are unisex?

the same for everyone

Sexual Orientation

Who one is attracted to emotionally romantically, or sexually attracted

role

expected behaviors tied to a specific position or socity

gender role

societal expectations for how males and females should behave

gender identity

a persons inner sense of their own gender

social learning theory

learning behaviors by observing and imitating others

gender typing

learning and adopting behaviors considered appropriate for one’s gender

androgyny

displaying a mix of both masuline and feminine traits

social script

culturally expected behaviors for specific social situations

cognition

all the mental activiites associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

Piaget

scientist who saw intelligence at work

schemas

concepts that enable us to organize our experiences and that they actively construct and modify their understanding of the world through the processes of assimilation and accommodation

assimilation

interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas

accomodation

adapting our current schemas to incorporate new information

primary sex characteristics

reproductive organ related traits

secondary sex characteristics

non reproductive traits

What are the four major Piaget stages?

sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational

sensorimotor stage ages

0-2

sensorimotor stage

babies take in the world through their senses and actions through looking hearing touching mouthing and grasping

If babies live completely in the present what stage are they in?

sensorimotor they are out of sight out of mind

object permanence

the awareness that objects continue to exist when not perceived and is not there until about month eight.

When is the preoperational stage?

From age 2 to about 6-7

Preoperational stage

able to represent things with words and images but too young to perform mental operations

conservation

the principle that quantity remains the same despite changes in shape.

egocentric

they have difficulty perceiving things from another’s perspective

concrete operational stage

Given concrete physical materials they begin to grasp more complex operations such as spatial and mathematical relationships

formal operational stage

to think from actual experience o instead using symbols or imagined realities

what age is concrete operational

7-11

what age is formal operational

age 12 through adulthood

Lev Vygotsky

scientist who studied how children think and learn

scaffold

giving children help

zone of proximal development

zone between what a child can and can’t do

theory of mind

people’s ideas about their own and others’ mental states–about hteir feelings

Phonemes

smallest distinctive sound units in a language for example for that it is th a t

morphemes

are the smallest language units that carry meanign for example read and er

grammar

a language’s set of rules that enable people to communicatee

semantics

sounds

syntax

sentences

universal grammar

our inborn ability to pick up grammar from a language

receptive language

their ability to understand what is said to and about htem

babbling stage

the stage in speech development beginning around four months during which an infant spontaneously utters various sounds that are not at all related to the household language

One word stage

They find out that the sounds carry meaning and they are able to say one word

telegraphic speech

the early speech in which a child speaks like a telegram

aphasia

impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to Broca’s area or to Wernicke’s area

Broca’s aphasia

impaired speaking

Wernicke’s aphasia

impaired understanding

overgeneralization

they might say things such as tooths instead of teeth

linguistic determinism

Hypothesis that language determines the way we think

linguistic relativism

the idea that language influences the way we think

ecological sysems theoty

a theory of the social environments influence on human development using five nested systems

chronosystem

life stage and related events

macrosystem

cultural influences

exosystem

environments that indirectly affect a person

mesosystem

relationships between microsystem groups