Psyc 3400 Exam 3

What is Toddlerhood?

A transitional stage from 1 year old to 2.5 years old defined by an intense attachment to caregivers and an urgent need to become independent.

What is social development?

Creating relationships with caregivers and others, and learning to communicate, engage, cooperate, and participate socially.

What is emotional development?

Creating a sense of self, experiencing and expressing emotions, recognizing others’ emotions, and developing emotion regulation.

What did Freud say about early childhood development?

Sexual interest and pleasure expressed first in the oral stage then the anal stage.

What did Erik Erikson say about early childhood development?

Developmental crises involve trust versus mistrust, followed by autonomy versus shame and doubt.

What are the earliest basic emotions and arousal states?

Attraction to pleasant stimulation and withdrawal from unpleasant stimulation

What is happy or content emotional development in infants?

6 weeks: social smile

3 months: laughter, curiosity

4 months: full, responsive smiles

What is angry or sad emotional development in infants?

3-6 months: a healthy response to frustration and distressed systems, it is more reflexive and response.

The latter indicates withdrawal.

What is fearful emotional development in infants?

8-14 months: afraid of strangers and separation

12 months: scared of unexpected sights and sounds

What is pride or shame emotional development in infants?

18 months: self-awareness, embarrassment, pride, shame

What is emotional self-regulation?

The process used to modify, manage, or recover from arousal; depends a lot on coregulation and caregivers

What happens to emotional self-regulation at around 6 months?

Infants change emotional expression every 9 seconds.

How do infants experience emotions?

Very intensively and variably, because their experiences are limited and they don’t have deep emotional attractor states. They expect others to participate in regulation.

What is the still face paradigm?

If a caregiver doesn’t match an infants expectation of coregulation, they will go through all of their emotions and regulation actions to try and get their caregiver’s attention in any way possible.

What are tantrums?

Emotional outbursts by young kids without good regulation skills. How parents respond impacts impacts duration and severity.

What is the best way to respond to tantrums?

Make a command and be quiet while waiting for them to comply. Do not try to reason, level, explain, or give in.

What is social learning?

Learning by observing what people do and how others react to those people’s behaviors.

What is an example of social learning?

BoBo Doll Study

What is the importance of Social Interaction, as shown in Romanian Orphans?

After the dictator of Romania made everyone have at least 5 kids, over 170,000 kids who could not be cared for ended up in orphanages. This significantly impacted their IQ, Brain structure, Attachment, Psychiatric diagnoses, and physical differences.

Those that were institutionalized had the lowest IQ, it was slightly better for those placed into foster care. The former were more likely to have ADHD, autism, and other significant disorders. The latter were more likely to have disorders like anxiety and depression.

The institutionalized children had less development of both brain matter and those in foster care had slightly better developed gray matter compared to control kids.

In foster care, kids had a chance to develop secure attachment but didn’t do as well as control kids.

Their brains, weight, head size, and height were all underdeveloped.

Overall, they did receive somewhat adequate nutrition.

What was the sensitive period of IQ development as shown in the Romanian orphans?

2 years of age.

What is the concept of being indiscriminately friendly?

Kids in institutions tried to use anyone and everyone as an attachment figure to meet their needs and this is bad because they could never have one secure person.

What did Harry Harlow do?

Used cloth vs wire + food monkeys to test attachment.

What did John Bowlby look at for socioemotional development?

44 juvenile thieves.

What is a working internal model?

In cognitive theory, a set of assumptions that the individual uses to organize perceptions and experiences.

What is attachment?

The powerful bond of love between a caregiver and their child. For it to form, the child needs a primary figure to be the closest person in their life.

What is attachment in the making?

When infants around the age of 6 weeks old enter a transitional period where they develop a slight preference for their primary caregiver.

At what age do infants demonstrate clear-cut attachment?

6-8 months of age

What researcher was a huge name in attachment research?

Mary Ainsworth

What is the strange situation?

A laboratory setting to test how babies with different attachments responded to their parents leaving the room, a stranger entering/leaving, and the parent returning. It had 8 main steps:

Parent and baby introduced to playroom

Parent sits while baby plays with toys

Stranger enters, is seated, talks to parent

Parent leaves; stranger offers comfort if baby is upset

Parent returns, greets baby, offers comfort, stranger leaves

Parent leaves

Stranger enters, offers comfort

Parent returns, greets baby, offers comfort, tries to reinterest baby in toys

What four patterns of attachment did the strange situation introduce?

Insecure-avoidant, secure, insecure-resistant, and disorganized.

What did insecure-avoidant attachment infants do in the strange situation?

In the play room, the child plays happily

When the mother leaves, the child continues playing

When the mother returns, the child ignores her

This was 10-20% of toddlers

What did secure attachment infants do in the strange situation?

In the play room, the child plays happily

When the mother leaves, the child pauses playing and becomes upset

When the mother returns, the child welcomes her and returns to playing

This was 50-70% of toddlers

What did insecure-resistant attachment infants do in the strange situation?

In the playroom, the child is clingy and preoccupied with the mother

When the mother leaves, the child is unhappy and stops playing

When the mother returns, the child is angry and my hit/cry/cling at her

This was 10-20% of toddlers

What did disorganized attachment infants do in the strange situation?

In the playroom, the child is cautious

When the mother leaves, the child may stare or yell and get scared or confused

When the mother returns, the child acts oddly; may scream/hit self/through things

This was 5-10% of toddlers

How is secure attachment facilitated?

Sensitive caregiving, also known as interactional synchrony

An appropriate working model in the caregiver, meaning that they also had a secure attachment and have a framework to pass that connection

Infant behavior/temperament

What is temperament?

Inborn differences between people in emotions, activity, and self-regulation. It can predict future behaviors.

What are the four main categories of temperament?

Easy, 40%

Slow-to-warm-up, 15%

Difficult, 10%

Unclassified, 35%

What were Jerome Kagan’s temperament styles?

Inhibited and Unhibited

How does temperament change in infants that were inhibited at 4 months old?

42% were inhibited at 9, 14, 24, and 48 months

12% were uninhibited at every later age

44% were variable, sometimes inhibited and sometimes not

How does temperament change in infants that were uninhibited at 4 months old?

5% were inhibited at every later age

80% were uninhibited at 9, 14, 24, and 48 months

15% were variable

What is goodness of fit?

The ideal parenting strategy that involves arranging children’s environment to suit their temperaments, minimizing their vulnerabilities, and accentuating their strengths.

What is socialization?

The process by which children are taught to obey the norms of society and to behave in socially appropriate ways. Children are not born knowing how to share, take turns, or wait patiently.

How can children be socialized?

Modeling social skills, teaching through play, practicing with family, arranging a playdate, and getting involved in the community.

What is self-awarness?

The realization that one is a distinct individual.

What is the rouge test?

After placing a red dot on babies noses, you have them look in the mirror. At 9 months old they do not recognize that what they see is themself, and they won’t try to wipe the red off of their own face but off of the mirror. At 20 months old, they do recognize that it is them and they will try to wipe the red off of their own face, not the mirror.

What age range is early childhood?

Age 3 to 5 or 6 (kindergarten)

What age range is middle childhood?

Ages 6 to 11 (elementary school)

What gross motor skills develop in early childhood?

Walking, running, jumping, catching, swinging, riding, balance improvement, smooth and rhythmic gate, upper and lower body coordination, greater speed and endurance

What fine motor skills develop in early childhood?

Self-help like dressing with buttons and zippers and eating using utensils, drawing, printing, and writing

What do boys generally excel in?

Skills using force and power

What do girls generally excel in?

Skills using balance and agility

Why does motor coordination improve in middle childhood?

Gains in size and strength as well as more efficient information processing and reaction times.

What gross motor skills develop in middle childhood?

Flexibility, balance, agility, force, need for exercise.

What does physical fitness in middle childhood predict?

Later memory development and academic performance

What are the factors of childhood obesity?

Poor food choices, poor quality sleep, health issues

What is body mass index (BMI)?

Ratio of height to weight that was normed in the 1970s. It shows that averages have increased in the last 50 years.

What is the marker of childhood obesity?

A BMI at or above the 95th percentile compared to the U.S. norms.

What is the marker of childhood overweight status?

A BMI at or above the 85th percentile.

How many children in the U.S. were obese in 2023?

1 in 7 children.

What health risks does obesity pose?

High blood pressure, diabetes, cognitive issues, problems with delay of gratification

Where is obesity more prevalent?

Poor and rural communities

What factors contribute to kids becoming obesity?

Overly busy or distracted parents, stress, large portions of/and restaurant meals, generally low-cost/high-calorie foods.

How does the brain development from ages 2-6?

The brain grows from 75% of the adult size to 90%.

What is the prefrontal cortex?

The outer layer of the brain that performs executive functions; like planning, selecting, and coordinating thoughts. It finishes forming much later in life.

What is the auditory cortex?

Part of the temporal lobe, it is the conscious processing of sounds.

What is the visual cortex?

Part of the occipital lobe, it is the conscious processing of sight and contributes to movement.

What is the cerebral cortex?

Part of the outer layer, it is the brain’s ultimate control and information processing center.

What is the amygdala?

Neural centers in the limbic system linked to emotions, it is more internal in the brain.

What is the hippocampus?

A structure in the limbic system that is linked to memory and spatial understanding.

What is the hypothalamus?

Controls maintenance functions such as eating; helps govern endocrine systems; linked to emotion and reward.

What is lateralization?

The specialization in certain functions by each side of the brain, with one side dominant for each activity.

What is corpus callosum?

A long, thick band of nerve fibers that connects the left and right hemispheres of the brain and allows communication between them.

What is preoperational thinking?

The type of cognition characteristic of children aged 2 to 7, marked by an inability to step back from one’s immediate perceptions and think conceptually. He believed that kids passed this stage and went to the operational stage when they could pass conservation tasks.

What are Piaget’s Conservation Tasks?

When looking at rows of things, when one row is tightened or stretched out, they can’t tell that it remains the same number as before or as the untouched row. They don’t have the conceptual ideas to think about it.

A 4.5 year old can count, but perceptually, if something is more spread out or appears longer, even if it is the same number, they will always perceive it as more. A 5.5 year old can perceive the numbers as equal, no matter how spread out they are.

The same 5.5 year old cannot pass the conservation of liquid test. If the cup is taller, they will think it is more, even though it is the same amount of juice. At 7.5 years old, a child can tell that the amount of liquid stays the same despite the shape or height of the cup.

In what order do children understand conservation tasks?

Number, then mass, then liquid, then weight.

What is reversibility?

The idea that an operation or procedure can be repeated in the opposite direction.

What is centration/centering?

Interpreting things based on what is seen first, rather than taking in the entire visual array.

What is class inclusion?

The knowledge that a general category can encompass subordinate elements.

What are Piaget’s Class Inclusion Problem?

He asked children if there were more red flowers or total flowers. Preoperational kids said that there were more red flowers because they didn’t see both colors as included in the category of “flowers.”

What is rule switching?

Children have a much harder time sorting things one way after having already sorted them a different way.

What is information-processing theory?

Things go from sensory memory to short-term/working memory to long-term memory.

What is elaboration?

Encoding strategies, creating a relationship between information of things from different categories.

What is rehearsal?

A learning strategy where people repeat information to embed it in memory. This includes selective attention.

What are executive functions?

Skills used to manage our memory and direct information flow. Includes managing emotions and cognitive flexibility.

What is episodic memory?

The memory of autobiographical events that can be explicitly stated or conjured. It is the collection of past personal experiences that occurred at a particular time and place. People can retrieve these memories and know that they are theirs, not something else they’ve acquired over time.

What are autobiographical events?

Times, places, associated emotions, and other contextual information like who, what, when, where, and why knowledge.

What improves with cognitive and conversational skills?

Episodic memory

What is selective attention?

A learning strategy where people manage their awareness so as to attend only to what is relevant and to filter out unneeded information.

What is identity constancy?

The understanding that a person’s core self stays the same despite changes in external appearance.

What is an example of identity constancy?

A kid thinking that a boy in a girl character costume is a girl.

What is animism?

The belief that an inanimate object is alive.

What is an example of animism?

A kid saying that their doll is crying or hurt.

What is artificialism?

The belief that humans make everything in nature.

What is an example of artificialism?

A kid thinking that someone lit the sun on fire to make it glow.

What are some characteristics of egocentrism?

Failure to distinguish others’ viewpoints from one’s own

Animistic thinking and magical beliefs

Prevents reflecting on and revising faulty reasoning

What is the three mountains perspective taking task?

A young toddler can only picture in their minds what THEY see, and if they switch sides, they can’t remember what the researcher is now seeing. In middle childhood, kids are able to observe and retain that information.

What is theory of mind?

Children’s first cognitive understanding, which appears at about age 4, the idea that other people have different beliefs and perspectives than their own.

What is the false belief task?

An animated dog puts a bone into a blue bowl. While he's gone, a cat moves it to a red bowl. A researcher asks kids where they think the dog will look for the bone. If they have accomplished theory of mind, they will say the red bowl because they can recognize that the dog has a different perspective.

What is concrete operational thinking?

In Piaget’s framework, this is the type of cognition characteristic of children aged 8 or 11, marked by the ability to reason about the world in a more logical and adult way.

What is an example of concrete operational thinking?

Shown a chihuahua, and beagle, and a great dane. The great dane is taller than the beagle, and the beagle is taller than the chihuahua. Then, the kids are asked who is taller, the great dane or the chihuahua. According to Piaget:

A 9-year-old: has reached concrete operational thought, and will probably answer correctly that the great dane is taller.

A 4-year-old: cannot yet think with logic, so this question would stump the child.