Psych Exam 2

Psych 107

Development

a pattern of change throughout a lifespan

Physical development

biological changes

Cognitive development

changes in thoughts or intelligence

psychosocial development

emotions, personality, or social relationships

Disputed issues in development

continuous vs. discontinuous

Prenatal development

conception, zygote, germinal, fetal and embryonic stage

germinal period

0-2 weeks, cell division, zygote clings to uterus

Embryonic period

3-8 weeks, spinal chord, eyes, heart, arms, legs, intestines, placenta forms

Fetal period timeline

2-9 months

Fetal period 5th month

hears sounds, sleep patterns

fetal period 6th month

eyes and eyelids form, grasping reflex

fetal period 7th month

slowed growth

fetal period 8th month

senses functioning, prep for birth

teratogens

agent that damages fetus

infancy reflexes we lose

rooting (touch and turn), sucking, Palmer’s grasping, moro reflex (spread arms and legs), stepping, Babinski (foot stroke)

blooming in infancy

increase in dendrites and myelinated axons

early childhood

growth rate slows, gross and fine motor skills increase, ages 3-6: rapid growth in frontal lobe

late childhood

age 10: brain is 95% of adult weight, smoother more coordinated action, cognitive milestones and brain pruning

brain pruning

neural connections are reduced to help the brain operate more smoothly

Jean Piaget

children actively construct their world through schemas; proposed 4 stages of cognitive development and assimilation and accommodation

schema

framework or concept in our mind that organizes and interprets info

assimilation

incorporate new info into existing knowledge

accomodation

adjust schemas to new info

Piaget’s stages

sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational

sensorimotor stage

0-2 years, experiences the world through senses and actions, object permanence (develops between 5-8 months)

Preoperational stage

2-7 years, represent things with symbols, cannot preform operations, egocentrism

Concrete operational

7-11 years, perform operations, develop conservation skills, use logical reasoning in concrete situations, can focus on more than one aspect of a problem at a time

Formal operational

12 and up, thinking more idealistic, abstract and logical, use hypothetical-deductive reasoning

Problems with piaget’s stages

continuous development is more supported now, ignores individual differences and culture and education, no stage after formal operational

Erik Erickson

(1902-1994) emphasized life-long development

stage 1 of psychosocial stages

trust vs mistrust (0-1.5 yrs) develop sense of basic trust

stage 2 of psychosocial stages

autonomy vs shame and doubt (1.5-3 years) develop independence and self confidence

stage 3 of psychosocial stages

initiative vs guilt (3-5 years) develop initiative, more responsibility

stage 4 of psychosocial stages

industry vs inferiority (6 years-puberty) mastering knowledge and intellectual skills

stage 5 of psychosocial stages

identity vs. identity confusion - if people don’t have the opportunity to try things yourself you’ll be confused

henry harlow

cloth vs. feeding monkey experiment; contact comfort

john bowlbly

attachment theory - infants instinctually form attachments and 1st year of life is important for forming it

mary ainsworth

“strange situation”, secure attachment

konrad lorenz

imprinting - animal forms attachment to first object it sees; sensitive period - has to happen in a specific period of time; worked with geese

Baumrind’s parenting styles

authoritative, authoritarian, indulgent, rejecting

authoritative parenting style

high control, high warmth

authoritarian parenting style

high control, low warmth

indulgent/permissive parenting style

low control, high warmth

rejecting/neglectful parenting style

low control, low warmth

physical development in adolescence

puberty, brain development - amygdala before prefrontal cortex

cognitive development in adolescence

egocentrism, cognitive empathy

psychosocial development in adolescence

ethnic identity, parents vs. peers

Emerging adulthood

identity exploration, instability, self-focused, feeling in between

early adulthood

20-40 yrs, healthiest, more bad habits

middle adulthood

40-60 years, visible signs of aging, menopause, shift in height

late adulthood

60+ years, reaction time slows, muscle and brain strength diminishes

intimacy vs isolation

20-30 years

generativity vs. stagnation

40-50 years, assist younger gen

integrity vs. despair

60+, reflecting on life

activity theory

more active and more involved, more satisfied

socioemotional selectivity theory

narrowing of social contacts and increase in positive emotion

Transduction

sensory info is converted to neural impulses; physical stimulus to psychological response to psychological experience

absolute threshold

minimum amount of energy that can be detected

noise

irrelevant and competing stimuli

below threshold stimuli

subliminal perception - detecting info below conscious awareness

difference threshold

minimum difference you need to detect that a stimulus has changed

weber’s law

to perceive difference, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage, not a fixed amount

bottom up processing

processing that starts with sensory receptors

top down processing

processing starts with cognitive in the brain

attention

is selective and shiftable

sensory adaption

diminished sensitivity because of constant stimulation

signal detection theory

decision making about stimuli in presence of noise

amplitude

height of the wave - determines brightness

wavelength

length of a wave from one peak to the next - determines frequency

parts of the vision system

eye, visual cortex, neural pathways

sclera

protects and helps maintain the shape of eye

cornea

bends and focuses light waves

pupil

size based on amount of light available, iris regulates size

lens

focuses light into an image on the retina, changes shape based on distance of an object

retina

begins processing of visual info, fovea - small area where vision is best

nearsightedness

lens does not become flat enough, light rays from distant objects focus in front of the retina

farsightedness

lens does not become spherical enough

receptor cells in the retina

responsible for transduction in the eye; contain rods and cones

rods

detect black, white and gray

cones

detect color, require light

bipolar cells

activated by rods and cones

ganglion cells

long axons on these cells cluster to form the optic nerve

the optic nerve

blind spot is where the optic nerve is leaving the eye

optic chiasm

point in brain where optic nerve fibers divide, half cross over midline of the brain

visual cortex

in occipital lobe

shorter wavelength

blue color

long wavelength

red color

great amplitude

bright color

low amplitude

dull color

trichromatic theory

young - hemholtz, 3 types of cones in retina that are sensitive to red, green and blue

opponent-process theory

hering, color is coded in opponent pairs, red-green, blue-yellow, black-white

gestalt theory

integrates pieces of information into meaningful wholes

gestalt principles of organization

proximity, similarity, continuity, connectedness, closure, figure-ground

binocular cues

input from both eyes is integrated

retinal disparity

difference between image in two eyes

monocular cues

input from one eye

audition

sense of hearing

frequency of sound waves

number of wavelengths that pass through a point in a given time - pitch

amplitude of sound waves

amount of pressure produced by a sound wave - measured in decibels and perceived as loudness

outer ear

pinna: funnel to concentrate sounds