midterm 2 - psych 223 - ualberta

obesity

bodyweight that is more than 20% higher than average weight for a person of a particular age and height

• prevalence has increased over past 20 years

what is the greatest risk to preschoolers?

accidents

• 55% injuries during sports and leisure activities

• 73% occur at home

• boys higher rate

options for early education

1. child care centers

2. family run child care centers

3. preschools

characteristics of high quality care

1. well trained providers

2. perfecct ratio of providers for children

3. planned curriculum

4. rich language environment

what are the 2 ways the brain develops

1. number of interconnections increases — facilitates development of cognitive sills

2. amount of myelin increases — facilitates the speed of neural processing

what does the corpus collosum do during growth

becomes thicker to facilitate coordination between hemispheres

lateralization

each hemisphere develops specialized functions

• left - verbal, logical tasks

• right - nonverbal, creative tasks

gross motor skills

preschool children will engage in activities that require degree of coordination

• eg. bike, ski, climb ladders — practice and brain dev. play critical role

• boys: muscle strength, girls: limb coordination

fine motor skills

involve delicate and smaller body movements

• eg. using a spoon

toilet training: signs of readiness

• staying dry for 2+ hours

• waking up dry

• regular/predictable bowel movements

handedness

the preference for using one hand over the other

• 90% right haded - more boys than girls are left handed

piagets preoperational stage

children acquire symbolic function

• during this stage — children use symbols proficiently

sensorimotor play

infants and otddlers explore the world through their senses and physyical movement

constructive play

goal oriented, hads on activities wher children createm build or assemble objects

substitute pretend play/object substitution

the cognitive ability to use one object to represent another

centration

where young children focus on only one salient aspect of a situation, object, or problem while igorning other relevant dimensions

egocentrism

belieef amongst young children that eberyone sees and experiences thart world the way they do

centration

the tendency among young children to think of the world in terms of one variable at a time

conservation

The understanding that the quantity or amount of a substance remains the same even when its appearance or shape changes.

If a child "conserves," they realize that moving water from a tall glass to a wide bowl doesn't change how much water there is.

• three arguments

three types of arguments from conservation

1) identity — personal values, self concept

2) compensation — taking into account, increasing sophistication in intellectual property

3) reversibility — they understand it is reversible

information processing theory

A theory that explains how the brain receives, processes, stores, and retrieves information, similar to how a computer process

1) understanding the numbers

autobiographical memory - becomes increasingly accurate throughout preschool years

eg. A student listens to a lecture (input), thinks about and understands the material (processing), stores it in memory, and later recalls it during an exam (retrieval).

forensic developmental psychology

A field of psychology that studies how development across the lifespan (especially in childhood and adolescence) — relates to criminal behaviour and the legal system.

long term memory

relatively permanent and unlimited type of memory

short term memory

retention of infor for up tp 15-30 seconds without rehearsal and information

working memory

A short-term mental system that temporarily holds and manipulates information while we perform tasks such as reasoning, learning, or problem-solving.

• multicomponent working memory model

sociocultural theory: primitive stage

learns primarily through conditioning until language develops

sociocultural theory: naive psychology stage

learns to use language to communicate, but still does not completely understand symbols

sociocultural theory: egocentric speech stage

uses language as a guide to solving problems

sociocultural theory: ingrowth stage

internalization of speech routines

theory of mind

the ability to understand what others are thinking — sometimes assessed using a false belief task

• 3 yo often fail

• 4 yo often succeed

psychosocial development

development that captures the changes in the understanding that an individual has for themselves within the context has their society as well as the meaning that they ascribe to the. behaviour of others

• initiative v guilt - ages 3-6 erik erikson

playground is also known as a:

gender school

psychoanalytic theory of gender

sigmund freud - proposed that children develop their gender identity through the unconscious psychological processes and identification with the same sex parent — especially during phallic stage

rooted in freudian psychoanalytic theory: electra and oedipus complex — kinda

5-6 children renounce attraction from opposite sex parent because of anxious feelings

• but identifies with same sex parent and unconciously adopts same sex parents' characteristics

evolutionary psychological view of gender

a theory suggesting that differences in behaviour between males an females developed through evolution because they helpedf out ancestors sutvive and reproduce

social congitive theory of gender

children’s gender developmen occurs through observation and imitation

• rewards and punishments shape gender appropriate behaiour

• difference between female and male “punishments”

types of play

parallel, onlooker, assocaitive and co-operative play

parallel play

will play beside someone but will not interact — minding their business

onlooker play

watches others play but does not join

associative play

will play with @ least 1-2 others (sharing toys) — no common goal yet

co-operation play

children interact with each other, taking turn etc — being friends

peer relationships: preschool

shared toys and activities

peer relationships: primary school

shared experiences and fun!

peer relationships: latechildhood and adolescents

friends’s traits, trust, communication, intimacy (SEL)

diana baumrind and critiques on the classification system

parents are not always consistent in how they interact with their children — interactions strongly dependant upon context

• important cultural differences as well

child abuse and psychological maltreatment

1-2% of children abused — prevalent in families living under stressful environments

cycle of violence hypothesis

abuse and neglect that children sugger will predispose them to engage in the same habits with their children — js rmb: why are you afraid of having YOUR own kids???

childhood maltreatment

results in reduction of size of amygdala and hippocampus

resilience

when indivs are able to overcome circumstances that place them at risk for psychological or physical damage

moral development

change in indivs sense of right ad wrong an in their behaviour related to moral issues

piagets theory: children view rules as unchangeable (laws of the universe)

• social learnin theory associated

empathy

having an understanding of each another individual is feeling — emerges VERY early in dev

hostile aggression

acting in a way to cause intentional harm to another

emotional self regulation

the ability to adjust the quality and intensity of emotions

instrumental aggression

aggression stems from the desire to reach concrete goal

relational aggression

nonphysical aggression that is inteneded to hurt another individual emotionally

how does aggression build up?

1. instinctual drive - human nature, may be adapted for the protection of resources

2. social learning - violent tv viewing and aggression

3. cognitive approaches: behaviour largely contingent upon interpretation of the behaviour of others

IPP/IEP

Individualized Program Plans

• legal written document tailored for students with special/diverse learning needs

SLD - specific learning disorders and communications

indivs who have specific learning disorders and have performance in one or more academic domain that is significantly lower than expected for their age, level of intelligence or schooling

domains usally affected:

reading

written expression

MATH

dyslexia

difficulties in reading

• typically apparent by the 4th grade

• the most common SLD

• challenges in math and written expression

difficulties with a learning disorder

children tend to struggle with low academic performance

• often put extremely high levels of effort for average ass grades (do u have this bro no way)

because of challenges: become demoralized and disruptive

communication disorders

characterized by persistent challenges in acquiring the use pf language and other forms of communication

common communication disorders include

language disorder

speech sound disorder

childhood onset fluency disorder — stuttering

social commmunication disorder

childhoood onset fluency disorder

3-5% prevalence before 10 years of age

• doubled for males

• 80% tend to recover by 16

social communication disorder

difficulties in the use of verbal and nonverbal codes of communication

causes of learning and communication disorders

genetic factoes

abnormalities in brian structure and functioning

many environemntal factors have been implicated

ADHD : 3 subtypes

1. combined

2. predom, inattentive

3. oredom hyperactive/impuslive

adhd: percentages

3.4-6& school aged children

males 2x more likely to be diagnosed in childhood and adolescence

ADHD correlations

correlated with -

challenges in school performance

difficulties in peer relationships

adhd biological factors

ADHD: highly heritable

genes impact dopamine, noradrenaline and serotonin may have abnormalities among indivs. with ADHD

• prenatal and birth complications are associated with adhd as well ( some gender specific)

adhd: psychological and social factors

• parents engage in hostile and sometimes aggressive behaviour

• parents engage in substance abuse

adhd treatments: drugs

stimulants

side effects: reduced appetite, insomnia, edginess, GI upset, frewq. of tics

antidepressants

prescribed for adhd since the big three tend to be quite common in association with ADHD

adhd treatments

behavioural therapies

• use of reward and punishment

ASD: challenges

2 behavioural domains

1. social interacitons and communications

2. restricted and reptitive patterns of behaviours/activities/interests

ASD: when does it appear

sometimes first appear in infant and toddler interactions with caregivers - early onset

25-30% people with asd do not develop useful speech by school age

ASD: characteristics

1. tend to be preoccupied with one feature of object

2. routine and rituals important

3. stereotyped and repetitive behaviours

contributions to ASD

leo kanner: first described autism

biological factors

neurological factors

asd: located abnormalities in brain

cerebellum

cerebrum

amygdala

hippocampus

CCAH

asd treatments

drug treatments to improve symptoms:

overactivity , sleep disturbances, tension

• use of drugs for asd as mixed reaction

psychosocial therapies : behavioural techs

piaget’s concrete op. stage

constructs schemes that allow children to think logically about objects and events in the real world

concrete operations: decentration

thinking that takes more than one variable into account

concrete operations: reversibility

having the understanding that physical actions and mental operations can be reversed

concrete operations: inductive logic

reasoning in which general principles are inferred from specific experiences

concrete operations: deductive logic

reasoning based on hypothetical, requires prediction of a specific outcome from a general principle

• thinking super hard ig… predict an OUTCOME

info-processing in mid childhood

short term and working memory to help brain capacity

infoprocessing in mid childhood: metamemory

thinking about memory

infoprocessing in mid childhood: memory improvement

strats like dual coding - encoding info in two forms to retain info

when does language develop

middle and late childhood\

• children organize mental vocab — by age 7: categorize

• vocab increase

• metalinguistic awareness

• advances in syntac and pragmatics

constructivist approach

learner centered

emphasis on student constructing knowledge

teacher as guidance

direct institution approach

teacher centered

emphasis on structure where teacher has both direction and control — to maximize student learning time

self esteem

emotionally salient global evalutations of self — generally high in middle childhood and decreases around age 12

autonomous orality : piaget

10+ years old — children gain understanding that rules and laws are created by people — consider intentions and consequences

kohlberg theory

lvl1: pre-conventional : stage 1: heteronomous morality

stage 2: individualism, instrumental purpose

lvl2: conventional : stage 3: mutual expectations for relationships and interpersonal conformity

stage 4: social systems

lvl3: postconventional stage 5: social contract/utility of rights

stage 6: universal ethical principles

peer status

popular - many social skills

average

neglected - engage in low rates of interaction

rejected- severe adjustment problems

controversial

PANRC

body growth and change