LIFESPAN PSYCHOLOGY FULL SET

aim of Strange Situation

to identify and catergorise attatchment

Type A attatchment

insecure-avoidant, ignored their mothers

Type B attatchment

secure, mothers serve as a secure base

Type C attatchment

insecure-resistant, resisting mothers but still clinging to them

type of study of Strange Situation

non-experimental study due to observance

Strange Situation subjects

infants aged between 12 to 18 months from 100 middle class American families

Strange Situation method

8 stages lasting three minutes - baby and mother, added stranger, stranger and baby, mother and baby, baby, baby and stranger, baby and mother

4 behaviours forming the basis for attatchment styles

separation anxiety, stranger anxiety, reunion behaviour, resistance to contact/comfort

year of Strange Situation

1978

attatchment definition considered by Bowlby

that it is a two-way process driven by biological need for survival and infant care

4 pillars of Bowlby's theory

sensitive period, monotropy, maternal deprivation, internal working model

sensitive period definition

ages 0 to 5, where reciprocal attachment is initiated when infant signals for proximity, parents biologically programmed to respond, infant knows caregiver is safe

critical period cause

begins abruptly from sudden stimuli after sensetive period

imprinting definition

or reciprocal, the infant and mother require contact for survival

monotropy definition

the emotional need to attach to one person who is more important than others

maternal deprivation definition

separation or disruption from attatchment relationship

consequences of maternal deprivation

social, emotional, or cognative difficulties later in life

internal working model definition

quality of attachment that guides future social and emotional behaviour, and is a cognative representation of a prototype for all future relationships

purpose of the internal working model

helps to understand self value, trustworthiness, and effective interactions as oneself

strengths of the theory

maternal deprivation supported by Harlow, internal working model supported by Ainsworth

limitations of the theory

evidence suggests attatchment is not only to the mother, no differentiation between deprivation and privation

application to psychology in relation to Ainsworth

secure children develop a positive internal working model while insecure-avoidant children develop a negative model

year of Bowlby’s theory

1969, 1988

socialisation agents role

act upon us at different stages of life

family role as a socialiation agent

from infancy to young adulthood, provides safety, reinforces values, and models behavious

media role as a socialisation agent

from childhood to adulthood, enforces stereotypes, cultural measures of value/beauty/success

government role as a socialisation agent

from adolecense to adulthood, sets boundaries, determines punishment, introduces sociopolitical ideologies

school role as a socialisation agent

from childhood to young adulthood, determines curriculum, influences social groups

attatchment definition

the close bond formed between an infant and primary caregiver

attatchment during the critical period

from ages 0 to 5, attatchment is most important to seek closeness with the caregiver, and is necesary for both their survival

consequence of poor attatchment

difficulty establishing future attatchment, poor emotional developmental outcomes, aggression tendancy, emotional regulation issues, delinquancy

learned behaviour definition

children associate comfort and satisfaction with the caregiver, reinforced by food

examples of attatchment having evolutionary advantages

babies are exposed to responsiveness and rejection, able to predict caregiver behaviour from experience, increases survival chances, reproductive maturity and continuation of genes

aim of the rhesus monkeys experiment

to test whether the provision of contact comfort or food were more important in the development of attatchment

variables in the rhesus monkey experiment

IV = feeding milk by wire or cloth mother, DV = the amount of time each monkey cried for their biological mother, CV = age of removal, amount of food given to each

key findings of the rhesus monkey experiment

infants consumed equal amounts of food and growth rates, but cloth mother was favoured, indicating physical contact is important

rhesus monkey experiment contributions to psychology

social workers undersotood the rise of neglection, children at risk may benefit with economic implications

criticism of the rhesus monkey experiments

cruel and unethical, limited contribution to human infants, many monkeys failed to reproduce

year of the rhesus monkey experiment

1958

neurogenesis

(before birth) nervous tissue grows

proliferation

stage 1: neurons are produced before birth

migration

stage 2: cells move to their final destination in the body

synaptogenesis/circuit formation

stage 3: connections between neurons are formed (synapses)

synaptic pruning

stage 4: unused or inefficient connections are removed

mylenation

stage 5: axons are insulated by the myelin sheath, speeding up transmission (starts at around age 5)

sensorimotor stage

(stage 1, ages 0-2), exploring through senses and repetitive stimulus responses, starting to coordinate behaviour, learning object permanence

invisible displacement

test for object permanence during the sensorimotor stage: hide a toy and if the child looks for it they have passed

preoperational stage

(stage 2, ages 2-7), language development, object representation, symbolic play (inc. animism), centration (focusing on one variable), egocentrism

three mountains task

tests egocentrism during the preoperational stage: ask the child what the person/doll opposite them sees when looking at the mountain model in front of them

concrete operational stage

(stage 3, age 7-11), engaging in logical thoughts, ordering and catergorising objects, conservation

conservation task

tests centration during concrete operational stage: different shaped glasses with the same amount of liqud or spreading out the same number of coins

formal operation stage

(stage 4, age 11-15), engage with hypothetical ideas, creative solutions and reasoning, complex concepts like ethics or morality, systematic experimentation

pendulum problem

tests systematic experimentation/thinking during formal operation stage: ask the child how to make the pendulum swing faster

amygdala in adolescents

increases in size, leading to more stress, anxiety, risk-taking and making peer-based decisions

developmental stages

how changes to an organism impact thoughts, feelings, and behaviours

physical development

changes to body/systems, happen orderly, often observable, may be qualitative/quantitative (eg. writing)

cognitive development

the ability to think, understand, and apply logic (mental abilities eg. reasoning, language)

social/emotional development

changes to an individual's relationships, how they experience, express, and interpret feelings

plasticity

used to replace lost or damaged functions, changing the shape of the brain

neuroplasticity

the brain's ability to respond to change and experience, allowing us to learn and remember information

developmental plasticity

when an infant brain rapidly changes function/structure as they age, gets denser

adaptive plasticity

when a particular area of the brain changes in response to experience, at any age

lymbic system

a network of structures that process memories and emotions

amygdala

almon-shaped structure in the temporal lobe that helps regulate emotions and processes stimuli

frontal lobe/prefrontal cortex

handle executive functions and inhibition (eg. fear as a response to PTSD), is remodelled about every 25 years from synaptic pruning

parietal

top of the brain that handles movement and spacial concepts

occipital

back of the brain that processes visual information

plasticity in adolescents

less consistent decision-making and behavioural control (due to myelination), more connections between amygdala and PFC

stage theory

describes developments as a linear, age-based, and qualitatively distinct progression

Jean Piaget

theory describes cognative development as increasing in complexity, published in 1936

4 core concepts of Piaget's theory

schemas, assimilation & accomodation, equilibrium & disequilibrium, stage theory

schema

Organise knowledge of collected concepts and responses, influenced by social interaction.

assimilation

taking new information and knowing how to act based on the schema

equilibrium

being able to use a schema to explain past events or predict new ones

disequilibrium

needing to adapt with A/A to account for new information, feels uncomfortable

psychology

the study of behaviour and mental processes

gross motor skills

reliant on large muscles/movements (eg. walking, jumping)

fine motor skills

reliant on small muscles/movements (eg. writing, pinching)

temporal lobe

bottom of the brain that processes auditory information

accomodation

adjusting/changing an exististing schema to account for inconsistencies and new information