Unit 3: Developmental Psychology and Learning

Dr. Eaker's AP Pysch

Developmental psychology's major issues

Nature and nurture

Continuity vs stages (escalator vs ladder; continuous vs discontinuous)

Stability and change

Cross-sectional studies

research that compares people of different ages at the same point in time

type of correlational study; development

Longitudinal studies

research that follows and retests the same people over time

type of correlational study; development

Teratogens

agents that can reach the embryo/fetus and cause harm

• Chemicals, viruses, drugs, alcohol, etc

Fetal alcohol syndrome

physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman's heavy drinking

Maturation

Natural way people develop / biological growth processes without the influence of nurture (culture, community)

Fine motor skills

Big motor coordination movements

• whole body, crawling, walking

Gross motor skills

Small, intricate motor coordination movements

• fingers/toes, picking things up

Infant reflexes

shows healthy development of neural systems

• rooting

• moro / startle

• crawl

• sucking

• grasp

Rooting

turning of the head, looking for nourishment

(when corner of mouth is touched or stroked)

Moro / startle

extension of arms with palms up then move arms back to body

(when feeling sensation of falling; loud noise near ear)

Crawl

moving of arms and legs in a crawling-like motion

(when infant placed facing down on a flat surface)

Sucking

sucking

(when something touches top of infant's mouth)

Grasp

hand or toes closing around finger/object

(when object placed in hand / feet)

Visual cliff

1960 study

→hypothesized the babies did not walk off the drop-off because they were scared of heights

Learned depth perception

Depth perception

ability to perceive objects in 3 dimensions and to judge distance

as locomotion develops (crawling, walking, etc), there are different learning curves

Critical periods

a specific time during development when an organism is most sensitive to environmental influences or stimuli

Language acquisition stages

Babbling

One-word

Telegraphic

• Generalization

Babbling speech stage

~4 months; goo, ah; unrelated to household language

One-word speech stage

12-18 months; speak in one word

Telegraphic speech stage

2+; nouns and verbs, follows syntax

Overgeneralization

Rules of grammar are applied to broadly beyond exceptions (EX: "he eated" it)

Phoneme

Smallest distinctive sound units in a language

EX: Cat has 3 phonemes

Morpheme

Smallest language units that carry meaning

EX: Greeters has 3 morphemes

• Greet - to say hi

• er - a person

• s - plural

Schema

Concept or framework that organizes and interprets information

Assimilation

Interpreting new experiences in terms of existing schema

• A child owns a poodle. They see a cat and notice it looks like a poodle. They point at the cat and say “That's a dog!”

Accomodation

Adapting current schemas to incorporate new information

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

Sensorimotor

Preoperational

Concrete operational

Formal operational

Sensorimotor stage

0-2 years; experience the world through senses/actions

• Object permanence, stranger anxiety

Object permanence

Ability to know an object exists, even though they cannot see/hear it

Stranger anxiety

Distress experienced when left with unfamiliar people

Pre-operational stage

2-6/7 years; representing things with words/images, using intuitive and imaginative reasoning rather than logical reasoning

• Pretend play, egocentrism

Concrete operational stage

7-11 years; Thinking logically about concrete events, grasping concrete analogies and performing arithmetical operations

Asking specific questions, higher skepticism

• Conservation, mathematical transformations

Conservation

Understanding that the amount of a substance does not change even when it changes

Formal operational stage

12-adulthood; Abstract reasoning and theoretical concepts

• Personal fable, imaginary audience

Personal fable

Belief that you and your experiences are unique to yourself

Imaginary audience

Tendency to believe that you are under constant attention and evaluation

Ecological systems

Explains how human development is influenced by a variety of environmental systems

Attachment Theory

Powerful survival impulse that keeps infants close to caregivers

• Based on familiarity formed during a critical period

Harry Harlow: Rhesus monkeys

Harry Harlow

Rhesus Monkeys experiment

Cloth mother vs wire mother with milk

→ Monkeys preferred tactile comfort of cloth mother

Strange Situation

Mary Ainsworth

Measured avoidance or resistance to proximity, contact-seeking, and contact-maintaining

Secure v Insecure

Attachment Styles

Secure

Ambivalent/Anxious

Avoidant

Disordered

Mary Ainsworth

Studied attachment styles

Secure v Insecure attachment

Secure attachment

Infants greeted parents with positive emotions

Insecure attachment

Developed if unpredictable/unstable relationship with parent / inability to seek comfort from parents

Ambivalent/anxious attachment

Infants overly wary of strangers

Avoidant attachment

Infants avoid/punish parents when return

Something attachment

Infants exhibit confusion or apprehension

Parenting styles

Diana Baumrind

Describes interaction between warmth/responsiveness and demand/control

Diana Baumrind

Studied parenting styles

Authoritarian parenting style

Low response and high demand

Coercive, impose rules, expect obedience

Authoritative parenting style

High response and high demand

Exert control by setting rules, but encourage open discussion and allow exceptions

*Best

Negligent parenting style

Low response and low demand

Uninvolved, careless, inattentive, do not seek close relationship

Permissive parenting style

High response and low demand

Unrestraining, set few limits, use little punishment

Gender

The attitudes, feelings, and behaviors that a culture associates with a person’s biological sex

Gender identity

When binary, one’s personal sense of being male or female

Nonbinary - the feeling of being neither male nor female, or being somewhere in between

Social learning theory (gender)

Theory that we acquire our gender identity in childhood by observing others’ gender-linked behaviors and being rewarded/punished

Gender typing

Taking on a traditional male or female role

Androgyny

Taking on a role that is a mix of female and male

Gender schema

Organizes our experiences of male-female characteristics and helps shape our gender identity

Transgender

Gender identity that is different from the gender assigned at birth

Sex differences

Males more physically aggressive

Males have more social power

Females more socially connected

Sexual orientation

The direction to which we express our sexual interest

→ Influenced by biological, psychological, and social-cultural factors

• Trait, brain, genetic, prenatal influences

Identity Status theory

Explains intersection of commitment and exploration of identity options

• Diffusion

• Foreclosure

• Moratorium

• Identity achievement

James Marcia

Studied identity status

Diffusion (identity status)

No exploration and no commitment

May become socially isolated and withdrawn

Foreclosure (identity status)

Commitment, but no exploration

Based on parental ideas and beliefs that are accepted without question

Moratorium (identity status)

Exploration, but no commitment

In midst of a crisis, characterized by active exploration of alternatives

Identity Achievement (identity status)

Exploration and commitment

Experienced a crisis, undergone identity explorations, and committed

Diffusion → moratorium → identity achievement

Theory of Psychosocial Development

Erik Erikson

Describes how people progress through eight stages throughout their lives

8 stages:

• Trust v Mistrust

• Autonomy v Shame & Doubt

• Initiative v Guilt

• Industry v Inferiority

• Identity v Role Confusion

• Intimacy v Isolation

• Generativity v Stagnation

• Integrity v Despair

Erik Erikson

Studied and developed theory of psychosocial development

Infancy stage (Psychosocial Development)

Trust v Mistrust

Basic sense of trust that basic needs (nourishment and affection) will be met

Toddlerhood stage (Psychosocial Development)

Autonomy v Shame & Doubt

Develop sense of independence in doing tasks

Elementary school stage (Psychosocial Development)

Industry v Inferiority

Take initiative on some activities - may develop guilt when unsuccessful or boundaries overstepped

Adolescence stage (Psychosocial Development)

Identity v Role confusion

Experiment with and develop identity and roles

Early adulthood stage (Psychosocial Development)

Intimacy v Isolation

Establish intimacy and relationships with others

Middle adulthood stage (Psychosocial Development)

Generativity v Stagnation

Contribute to society and be part of a family

Late adulthood stage (Psychosocial Development)

Integrity v Despair

Assess and make sense of life and meaning of contributions

Social Clock

Specifies a proper/expected time for certain life events, determined by culture and society

Puberty

Period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing

• Follows a surge of hormones, which intensifies moods and triggers bodily changes

Primary sex characteristics

Reproductive organs and external genitalia (ovaries, testes, genitals)

Secondary sex characteristics

Nonreproductive traits (female breasts & hips, male voice, body hair)

Menarche

Female’s first menstrual period

Spermarche

Male’s first ejaculation, usually during sleep

Synaptic pruning

a natural process that removes unnecessary brain synapses and strengthen the ones that are needed

Menopause

Female; less or no more sex hormones produced, end of reproductive years

Andropause

Male; less or no more testosterone produced

→ depression, erectile dysfunction

Adult physical development

Mobility, flexibility, reaction time, sensory changes begin to decline in early adulthood (20s-30s)

Crystallized intelligence

Knowledge and skills that a person has acquired over time and stored in their memory

• General knowledge

• Vocabulary

Fluid intelligence

Ability to solve new problems and process new information without relying on prior knowledge

• Reasoning ability

• Generate, transform, manipulate novel information in real time

Peaks around 20 years old, declines slowly

Neurocognitive disorders

EX: Alzheimer’s, dementia

Exercise greatly reduces risk of memory loss and cognitive decline

Classical conditioning

Involuntary pairing of two things that were not associated before, and thus reacting

Usually connected to senses

Associative learning

The process by which living things learn to connect stimuli or responses to form associations

• Two stimuli (Classical)

• Response & consequence (Operant)

Acquisition

The initial period of learning is known as acquisition

When an organism learns to connect a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus

Unconditioned stimulus (UCS) & unconditioned response (UCR)

UCS: Stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers a response

UCS: Natural, unlearned behavior to a given stimulus

• Smell of food → feeling of hunger

Neutral stimulus (NS)

Stimulus which initially produces no specific response

Conditioned stimulus (CS) & conditioned response (CR)

CS: Neutral stimulus that becomes CS when it produces a conditioned response

CR: Response that occurs after a CS is presented

• Sound of whistle → dog salivates

Extinction

When a conditioned stimulus no longer triggers a conditioned response

Spontaneous recovery

The reappearance, after a pause, of a conditioned response

Stimulus discrimination

Learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and other stimuli

EX: Only being scared of your neighbor’s cat, and not any other cat