Untitled Flashcards Set

Developmental Psychology

The study of how people grow and change throughout their lifespan (e.g., how children's cognitive abilities develop).

Nature-Nurture Debate

Discussion on whether genetics (nature) or environment (nurture) mainly influences psychological traits (e.g., intelligence influenced by both genes and education).

Continuity vs. Discontinuity

Continuity suggests development is gradual, while discontinuity indicates stage-like changes (e.g., walking vs. puberty).

Stability vs. Change

Refers to whether personality traits remain constant or can change over time (e.g., a shy child may become more outgoing as an adult).

Cross-Sectional Design

Research that compares different groups at one point in time (e.g., comparing cognitive skills of 5, 10, and 15-year-olds).

Longitudinal Design

Research that follows the same group over a long period (e.g., tracking a group of people from childhood into adulthood).

Cohort-Sequential Design

Combines cross-sectional and longitudinal methods to study different cohorts over time (e.g., studying different generations of students over several years).

Cohort Effects

Differences among groups due to their shared experiences or historical events (e.g., attitudes of people who lived through a war).

Temperament (Infant Types)

Inborn traits affecting how infants interact with their environment; types include easy (calm), difficult (fussy), and slow to warm up (cautious).

Maturation

Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior (e.g., walking as a natural progression).

Cephalocaudal Trend

Development from head to toe; infants gain control over the head before the legs (e.g., a baby can lift its head before it can sit up).

Proximodistal Trend

Development from center of the body outward, where the torso develops before limbs (e.g., a baby can use its trunk to sit before grasping items).

Gross Motor Coordination

Large movements using arms, legs, and whole body (e.g., running, jumping).

Fine Motor Coordination

Small movements using hands and fingers (e.g., writing, buttoning a shirt).

Prenatal Stages of Development

Stages include zygote (fertilized egg), embryo (developing human), and fetus (growing baby; zygote to embryo in 2 weeks, to fetus in 8 weeks).

Teratogens

Substances that can cause birth defects; e.g., alcohol can lead to Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, characterized by developmental delays.

Critical Period

Specific time during development when a particular skill or ability is most easily learned (e.g., language acquisition in early childhood).

Age of Viability

Age at which a fetus can survive outside the womb, typically around 24 weeks (e.g., premature babies born at this stage can often survive with medical help).

Newborn Senses

Newborns can see (limited), hear, smell, taste, and touch; they prefer familiar scents like their mother's milk.

Visual Cliff

An experiment to test depth perception in infants using a glass surface (e.g., seeing if infants will crawl over a perceived drop).

Reflexes

Automatic responses to certain stimuli; e.g., grasping (grabbing a finger), rooting (turning head towards touch), sucking (for food), Babinski (toes curl when foot is stroked), Moro (startle reflex), diving (closing eyes when submerged).

Piaget

Psychologist known for his theory of cognitive development in children (e.g., assessing children's understanding of objects).

Schema

A mental framework for organizing information (e.g., a child's schema for 'dog' includes four-legged animals with fur).

Assimilation

Incorporating new experiences into existing schemas (e.g., calling a cat a dog because it has four legs).

Accommodation

Changing schemas based on new information (e.g., learning to call a cat by its own name after realizing it’s not a dog).

Sensorimotor Period

Piaget's first stage (0-2 years) where infants learn through senses and actions (e.g., shaking a rattle).

Object Permanence

Understanding that objects continue to exist even when not seen (e.g., an infant searching for a toy hidden under a blanket).

Preoperational Period

Piaget's second stage (2-7 years) characterized by symbolic thinking but lacking logic (e.g., using a broom as a horse).

Animism

Belief that inanimate objects have feelings and intentions (e.g., thinking a stuffed animal is sad).

Egocentrism

Inability to see things from another's perspective (e.g., a child covering their eyes thinking they are invisible).

Theory of Mind

Ability to understand others' thoughts and beliefs (e.g., realizing friends can have different opinions).

Centration/Decentration

Focusing on one aspect of a situation vs. considering multiple aspects (e.g., a child only remembers the color of a car, ignoring its size).

Classification

Ability to group objects by shared characteristics (e.g., sorting buttons by color).

Conservation

Understanding that quantity remains the same despite changes in shape (e.g., recognizing that reshaping clay doesn't change its amount).

Reversibility

Understanding that objects can be changed and then returned to their original form (e.g., knowing that water can freeze and then melt).

Concrete Operational

Piaget's third stage (7-11 years) where logical thinking about concrete events occurs (e.g., solving math problems involving physical objects).

Formal Operational

Piaget's fourth stage (12+ years) where abstract thinking and reasoning develop (e.g., solving hypothetical problems in math).

Criticism of Piaget

Some argue his stages are too rigid or overlook cultural influences (e.g., varying educational practices affecting development).

Leo Vygotsky

Psychologist known for his theory on social development and the importance of culture (e.g., learning through social interaction).

Zone of Proximal Development

The range of tasks that a child can perform with help but not yet independently (e.g., a child learning to read with assistance).

Imprinting (Konrad Lorenz)

Rapid learning occurring in a specific time frame; e.g., ducklings follow the first moving object they see, often their mother.

Strange Situation (Ainsworth)

A procedure to observe attachment relationships between a caregiver and a child (e.g., seeing how infants behave when separated from their mother).

Attachment Types

Different styles include secure (comforted by caregiver), avoidant (indifferent to caregiver), anxious (resistant to comfort), and disorganized (confused behavior).

Contact Comfort (Harlow)

Importance of physical comfort in attachment; demonstrated with baby monkeys preferring soft surrogates to wired mothers when frightened.

Separation Anxiety

Distress experienced by infants when separated from caregivers (e.g., a toddler crying when a parent leaves).

Diana Baumrind’s Parenting Styles

Authoritarian (strict, high demands), authoritative (responsive, supportive), permissive (lenient, few demands).

Gender

Social and cultural characteristics linked to being male or female (e.g., societal expectations of behavior based on sex).

Gender Identity

Personal perception of oneself as male, female, a blend, or neither (e.g., identifying as a transgender individual).

Gender Stereotypes

Oversimplified beliefs about characteristics of men and women (e.g., believing all nurses are female).

Gender Roles

Expected behaviors and tasks associated with being male or female (e.g., men are expected to be the primary breadwinners).

Puberty

Physical changes during adolescence; includes primary (reproductive organs) and secondary (body hair) sex characteristics (e.g., voice changes in boys).

Identity Crisis

A period of personal exploration and questioning one's sense of self (e.g., a teen struggling to define their interests and beliefs).

Menarche/Spermarche

Menarche is the first menstrual cycle; spermarche is the first ejaculation (e.g., typically occurring in early adolescence).

Adolescent Egocentrism

Heightened self-consciousness in adolescence, leading to the imaginary audience and personal fable (e.g., thinking everyone cares about their outfit).

Imaginary Audience

Belief that others are always watching and evaluating us (e.g., feeling embarrassed by a small mistake in front of peers).

Personal Fable

Belief that one’s experiences are unique and not understood by others (e.g., thinking their problems are more intense than anyone else's).

Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Reasoning

Three levels: pre-conventional (self-interest), conventional (social rules), post-conventional (abstract principles; e.g., understanding why laws exist).

Carol Gilligan

Critic of Kohlberg, emphasizing the importance of care and relationships in moral development (e.g., valuing empathy in decision-making).

Syntax

Rules for sentence structure in language (e.g., knowing to say 'the cat sat on the mat' instead of 'cat the mat on sat').

Semantics

Meaning of words and sentences (e.g., understanding that 'dog' refers to a type of animal).

Receptive vs. Productive Language

Receptive: understanding language (e.g., comprehending spoken instructions); Productive: speaking or writing language (e.g., telling a story).

Stages of Language Development

Phases include babbling (cooing sounds), single words (e.g., 'mama'), two-word phrases (e.g., 'want juice'), and complex sentences (e.g., 'I want to go outside').

Telegraphic Speech

Early speech using only essential words; e.g., 'Want cookie.'

Parentese

Simplified language used by adults when talking to infants (e.g., using a sing-song voice with exaggerated vowels).

Overregularization

Applying regular grammatical rules to irregular verbs; e.g., 'goed' instead of 'went'.

Overgeneralization

Extension of word meanings beyond their proper use (e.g., calling all four-legged animals 'dog').

Chomsky’s Nativist Theory

Suggests humans are born with an inherent ability to learn language (e.g., kids learning languages quickly at young ages).

Language Acquisition Device

Hypothetical brain mechanism for language learning proposed by Chomsky (e.g., innate grammar understanding).

Behavioral Theory of Language Development

Language learned through reinforcement and imitation (e.g., children repeating words they hear from parents).

Interactionist Theory of Language Development

Language development influenced by both biology and social interaction (e.g., social cues helping language learning).