Psychology test 3

What happens to growth at early childhood?

It slows

Grows how many inches per year in early childhood?

2-3 inches

Gains how many pounds per year during early childhood?

6-7 lbs.

Skeletal growth determined by

Ossification (cartilage to bone)

Average child needs how many calories

1600

About 12 million preschool children malnourished (10% of households) 1 in 6 children under 3 live in poverty

Not the main reason for malnutrition

In most cases malnutrition is

Preventable

Children are growing up in “toxic food environment”

Many kids overfed but not enough nutrients is in their food

Foods are high in

Fat, sugar, salt, calories (lunchables)

Bad foods are aggressively marketed to kids

Danimals, alcohol bc its hard to break a habit, fast food restaurants and candy heavy advertised not vegetables

Increase in obesity due to

High fat

High sugar

Sugar acts on the brain in similar ways

Drugs do like morphine

Ways to combat child obesity

Increase physical activity (fun activities, limit TV, computer)

Decrease sugar consumption

Reduce portion sizes

Provide healthy food choices

Eat meals at scheduled times

Pack healthy school lunches

Reduce exposure to unhealthy foods

Brain development occurs at

Slower rate than in infancy

Brain grows faster

Than rest of the body

80% of adult brain size and weight reached by

Age 3

Attained 90% of adult brain size and weight by

Age 5

Some increase in size and weight in brain is due to

Increase in number and size of nerve endings within and between areas of the brain

Age 3-6 most rapid growth takes place in

Prefrontal cortex and frontal lobe (attention, impulse, planning)

Myelination of frontal lobe not complete until

End of adolescence (25)

Increased gross motor skills in early childhood

Walking, running, hopping, skipping, jumping, throwing a ball

Substantial improvement in fine motor skill development

Drawing, coloring, using fork and spoon, tying shoes

Motor development in early childhood

Balance improves

Child needs lots of physical activity to help develop

Operations (Piaget pre-operational thought)

Internalized logical thinking

Pre operational (logical)

Kids are pre operational because they havent developed these mental skills like 2+2 mental math

Symbolic function (substage of Piaget)

Mental representation of objects, events, individuals (symbol systems)

Symbolic function occurs at

2-4 years old

Symbolic function child gains the ability to

Create mental images of things and store them for later use

Example of symbolic function

Drawing a pic in preschool of family cat while at school because they can hold mental memory of the cat

Intuitive thought (substage of Piaget)

Showing logic/reasoning without understanding how they know they are right

Intuitive thought happens at ages

4-7 years old

Symbolic representation leads to (key achievement)

Language development (displaced reference)

Internal problem solving

Deferred imitation

Make believe play

Symbolic play

Displaced reference

Use of words to refer to objects and individuals not present

Limitations of pre-operational thought

Egocentrism

Animism

Contraction

Irreversibility

Appearance-reality distinction

Unawareness of false beliefs

Egocentrism

Failure to distinguish between child’s perspective and that of another

Example of egocentrism

Hide behind their face, thinking you cant see them

Or not keeping secrets

Animism

Human qualities given to inanimate objects

Animism example

Upset when their doll gets hurt

Centration

Attention focused only on one dimension

Centration example

Grouping blocks together by color rather than shape

Centration contributes to

Lack of conservation (ability to understand glasses of water are same size)

Irreversibility

Inability to mentally reverse operations

Irreversibility example

Couldn’t retrace steps if they lost something

Appearance-reality distinction

Things are as they appear to be to child

Appearance-reality distinction example

Kids afraid of Santa, or clown

If they are in a Superman costume they are Superman

Unawareness or false beliefs

Child doesn’t understand that others can believe something different from what they believe or know (due to lack of theory of mind, understanding their own and other peoples mental activities)

Awareness generally develops at age

4

Example of unawareness of false beliefs

Sally Ann task (thinks Sally would somehow know the marble was moved bc they know)

Vygotsky sociocultural theory

Children’s social and cultural experiences strongly influence cognitive development

Social interaction as key to advancing cognitive development

Zone of proximal development

Proximal = potential

Difference between child’s current level of development and potential development under guidance

Zone of proximal development example

Without help, child reads at 2nd grade level

If teacher helps they can now read at 4th grade level

ZPD for reading would be two grade levels

Scaffolding

Adjusting guidance in learning setting based off child’s abilities (support more in beginning, help less as they learn)

Way to advance cognitive development through ZPD

Vygotsky emphasized learning through

Peer collaboration and assisted discovery

Piaget emphasized

Solitary learning and independent discovery learning

Vygotsky thought

Language development propels cognitive development

Piaget thought

Cognitive development propels language development

Vygotsky believed in what speech

Private speech

Piaget believed in what speech

Egocentric speech

Memory

Recognition memory is far superior to recall memory in early childhood

Short term memory span increases

Two to four item span in 2-3 year old children

Five-item span in 7 year old children

Long term memory skills begin to develop in early childhood

May be due to brain maturation

Erikson stage 3rd stage (Socioemotional development)

Initiative vs guilt

Initiative

Assertiveness, carrying out activities on ones own (getting themselves dressed)

Emotional Development (socioemotional development)

Emotional language

Begin to talk about their own and others emotions

Preconventional level (Kohlberg theory)

Early childhood

Moral behavior based on consequences

Only do right things because of societies consequences

Example of preconventional level

(Don’t have understanding of rules and intention)

kid who broke more plates accidentally is responsible rather than the kid who broke one plate on purpose because they broke more plates

Conventional level

Most people

Middle childhood

Rules are unchangeable and must be followed in an inflexible, absolute manner

Conformity to societies rules

Example of conventional level

Kids make it known when someone is doing something wrong (seatbelt when pulled over)

Tattle tail

Hypocritical

Postconventional level

Most people dont reach this stage

Intentionality is primary basis in evaluating behavior

Rules are seen as flexible social agreements

Universal ethical principles

Postconventional level example

Preacher lives by the same rules that they push

Kohlberg evaluation

Stages are invariant (never changing)

Research supports idea that children need prerequisite cognitive abilities in order to form the basis for moral reasoning (perspective taking)

Support consistency in moral reasoning (children typically solve most moral problems from within a single stage)

(Moral reasoning can differ from ones more conduct meaning not all morally high people act in moral ways)

Kohlbergs theory criticized for

Being gender biased (carol gilligan, justice vs caring orientations)

Sex

Biological characteristics of being male or female

Gender

Social aspects associated with being male or female, including one’s public persona as a man or woman (interaction of biological, social, and psychological factors)

Gender identity

Internal sense or self perception of being male or female (transgender)

Gender roles

Set of social and cultural expectations that prescribe appropriate behaviors for males and females (masculine or feminine)

Gender typing

Adopting cultural beliefs and standards regarding appropriate gender roles for ones biological sex

(Usually developed by age 3)

Psychoanalytic theory (freuds identification theory)

Identification with same sex parents

Childhood events effect behaviors and development

Social learning theory

gender types behaviors rewarded or punished by people

reinforcement, observation, self regulation

children receive social approval for gender typed behaviors and self regulate to conform with gender roles

cognitive developmental theory

children must become aware of their own sex before they act like that gender

Gender constancy stages

gender identity

gender stability

gender constancy

gender identity

aka gender labeling

child able to categorize themselves by their biological sex

age 2-3

gender stability

child sees biological sex as stable over time but if they saw a boy in a dress they would think its a girl

age 4-5

gender constancy (consistency)

child understands biological sex is irreversible

child begins to act like their sex

by age 6

gender schema

developed by sandra bem

combines social learning and cognitive developmental perspectives

“only girls play with dolls”

biological factors

initiate and direct gender differences

peer interactions

important foe normal social development

interactions with peers occurs primarily through play

(learn to share)

play

most important and the best way they can learn

benefits of play

physical, cognitive, social development

physical development

muscle development

motor coordination

skeletal growth

stress/tension release

cognitive development

creativity

imagination

development of social skills

affiliation with peers

affiliation with peers

emotional regulation

conflict resolution

following rules

cooperation

children are getting 8 hours less of play bc of

TV, technology, activities

younger children and girls like

smaller groups to play in (smaller groups are more creative and have more conversation)

older kids and boys like

larger groups to play in

partens categories of play

unoccupied

solitary

onlooker

parallel

associative

cooperative

unoccupied

random movements with no objective

typically occurs in infants

solitary

playing independently

may be unaware of prescience of other children playing nearby

typically occurs in older infants and toddlers

onlooker

child observes other children playing with no attempt to join in

more common in toddlers and young children, but can occur throughout childhood

(baseball)

parallel

children playing side by side with similar or different toys or play materials, but with different goals and little interaction

typically occurs in toddlerhood to early childhood

(literally side by side playing)

(different goals)

(little interaction)