Human Development and Culture Flashcards

Flashcards covering human development, attachment styles, risk factors, resilience studies, culture, enculturation, and research approaches.

Self

How someone sees, thinks, and feels about themselves, which includes self-awareness, self-concept, self-esteem, and identity.

Self-concept in Early Childhood (3-5 years)

A self-view focused on physical features, possessions, and basic abilities using simple, observable traits (e.g., "I am tall") evaluated positively.

Self-concept in Middle Childhood (6-10 years)

A self-view developed using social comparisons with friends or classmates to understand personal strengths and weaknesses and incorporating feedback from others.

Self-concept in Adolescence (10-20 years)

A complex self-view where individuals explore and combine their beliefs, values, and life goals, which can sometimes result in internal conflict.

Attachment

A close, mutual emotional bond between a child and caregiver.

Bowlby (1988) Attachment Theory

The view that the bond between an infant and mother is a biological need, facilitated by natural connecting behaviors like smiling, babbling, grasping, and crying.

Freud’s Cupboard Theory of Attachment

The theory stating that an infant becomes attached to a caregiver because the caregiver provides food and satisfies hunger, placing nourishment before love.

Classical Conditioning in Attachment

The process where an infant associates the caregiver with food and pleasure, learning over time that the caregiver equals comfort even without food.

Operant Conditioning in Attachment

The process where a caregiver reduces hunger and discomfort, providing rewards that encourage the baby to repeat behaviors to stay close to them.

Harlow’s Attachment Theory

Demonstrated through baby rhesus monkeys that attachment is based on comfort, warmth, and security rather than nourishment alone, as monkeys preferred a soft cloth mother over a wire mother with food.

Internal Working Model

A mental framework proposed by Bowlby explaining how early relationships and attachment to caregivers shape how an individual perceives themselves, others, and the world.

Secure Internal Working Model

A model developed when caregivers are consistent, responsive, and sensitive, creating the schema: "I am lovable, others can be trusted."

Insecure Internal Working Model

A model developed when caregivers are not caring, loving, or reliable.

Type A: Avoidant Attachment

An attachment style where the child does not seem upset when the mother leaves, avoids her upon return, and shows little fear of strangers, representing 20\text{\null}\% of children.

Type B: Secure Attachment

An attachment style where the child is upset when the mother leaves, happy upon return, and easily calmed by a caring mother, representing 70\text{\null}\% of children.

Type C: Ambivalent Attachment

An attachment style where the child gets very upset when the mother leaves, and wants comfort but pushes the mother away upon return, representing 10\text{\null}\% of children.

Type D: Disorganized Attachment

An attachment style where the child lacks a clear reaction when the mother leaves or returns, appearing confused or unsure; often linked to abuse or depressed/stressed caregivers.

Theory of Delayed Cognitive Development (Kar et al., 2008)

Suggests that poor nutrition during infancy and early childhood causes delays in memory, attention, and visual-spatial skills, but proper nutrition and support can allow for recovery.

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

Potentially traumatic events in childhood including physical abuse, sexual abuse, exposure to domestic violence, having a substance-abusing parent, deprivation, and trauma.

Genie Wiley

A child discovered in 1970 at age 13 who experienced severe neglect and isolation with minimal language exposure; her limited language recovery suggests early stimulation is critical for cognitive development.

Izidor Ruckel

A child raised in a Romanian orphanage with minimal individual care or stimulation whose developmental progress improved after adoption into a supportive family environment.

Resilience (Luthar et al., 2000)

The process of avoiding adverse outcomes or doing better than expected when confronted with major assaults on the developmental process.

Resilience (Rutter, 1990)

Maintaining adaptive behavior in spite of serious risk factors.

Kauai Longitudinal Study (Werner & Smith, 2001)

A study following $698$ children born in $1955$ on Kauai, finding that one-third of high-risk children developed into competent, resilient adults due to protective factors like supportive caregivers and good social skills.

Culture

A dynamic system with set guidelines and rules involving values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors that differs between groups and creates belonging.

Cultural Norms

Shared expectations about behavior within a specific culture, influenced by traditional values, beliefs, and practices.

Social Norms

Expectations about behavior within a specific group, situation, or society, which do not necessarily connect to a specific culture.

Enculturation

The process of learning and internalizing the beliefs, values, behaviors, and schemas of one's culture explicitly through teaching or implicitly through observation.

Acculturation

The process of learning or adopting elements of another culture through direct or indirect contact with it.

Vertical Cultural Transmission

Learning cultural values, traditions, and language directly from one's parents.

Oblique Cultural Transmission

Learning culture from older non-parental figures such as teachers, religious leaders, or media figures.

Horizontal Cultural Transmission

Learning culture from peers of the same age group.

Direct Tuition

Explicit instruction where an individual is directly told or taught what behavior to perform.

Indirect Training

Learning cultural behaviors through observation and subtle environmental messages without direct instruction.

Filial Piety

A cultural value common in collectivist and East Asian cultures emphasizing respect, care, obedience, and responsibility towards parents and elders.

Etic Approach

A cross-cultural research approach that examines human behavior using universal concepts and standardized measures to allow global comparisons.

Emic Approach

An inductive research approach that studies a culture from the inside, relying on local knowledge, immersion, and culturally adapted tests to address specific context-bound problems.