Developmental Psychology Flashcards

Unit 3 Developmental Psychology

This unit explores how individuals change physically, socially, cognitively, and morally throughout their lives, essentially studying "YOU from womb to tomb."

Core Questions

• In what areas do we develop?
• Are you the same person as you were at age 10? Will you be the same in 10 years? Why?
• How do parents identify a baby's hunger?
• How can bad habits be replaced with better ones?

Nature vs. Nurture

Throughout this unit, consider:

• Nature: Are you who you are because of the way you were born?
• Nurture: Are you who you are because of the way you were raised?

Research Methods

• Cross-Sectional Studies: Studying participants of different ages at the same time.
• Longitudinal Studies: Studying the same group of people over a period of time.

Physical Development

This section focuses on physical changes that occur over time.

Prenatal Development

• Conception begins with the release of about 200 million sperm and the drop of an egg.
• A sperm attempts to penetrate the egg's surface.
• Once a sperm penetrates the egg, it becomes a fertilized egg called a zygote.

Zygote

• The first stage of prenatal development, lasting about two weeks.
• Involves rapid cell division.
• Less than half of all zygotes survive the first two weeks.
• About 10 days after conception, the zygote attaches to the uterine wall.
• The outer part of the zygote becomes the placenta, which filters nutrients.

Embryo

• Develops from the zygote after two weeks and lasts about six weeks.
• The heart begins to beat, and organs begin to develop.

Fetus

• Develops after nine weeks.
• By the 6th month, the stomach and other organs have formed enough to potentially survive outside the mother.
• The baby can hear and recognize sounds and respond to light.

Teratogens

• Chemical agents that can harm the prenatal environment.
• Examples:
  • Alcohol (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome or FAS)
  • Prescription/non-prescription medications
  • STDs like HIV, Herpes VS1 & VS2, and Genital Warts

Healthy Newborns

• Turn their head towards voices.
• Can see 8 to 12 inches from their faces.
• Gaze longer at human-like objects from birth.

Reflexes

• Inborn automatic responses:
  • Rooting
  • Sucking
  • Grasping
  • Moro
  • Babinski

Maturation

• Physical growth, regardless of environment.
• The sequence of growth is almost always the same, though timing may vary (lift head, roll over, sit up, pull up, walk, run).

Depth Cues

• Eleanor Gibson and the Visual Cliff Experiment demonstrated depth perception.
• If old enough to crawl, old enough to perceive depth.
• Two categories of cues:
  • Monocular Cues (one eye)
  • Binocular Cues (two eyes)

Social Development

• Infants generally do not mind strangers until about a year old.
• Around a year, infants develop stranger anxiety.

Attachment

• The most important social construct an infant must develop is attachment (a bond with a caregiver).
• Lorenz discovered that some animals form attachment through imprinting.
• Harry Harlow's monkey experiments showed that monkeys need touch to form attachment.
• Critical Periods: The optimal period shortly after birth when exposure to certain stimuli produces proper development. Deprivation of touch can lead to trouble forming attachments later in life.

Types of Attachment (Mary Ainsworth's Strange Situation)

1. Secure (Type B): Upset when the mother leaves, happy to see her return, easily comforted (70% of children). Mothers are typically very interested in their child's play and actively communicate during play.
2. Avoidant (Type A): Shows indifference when the mother leaves and avoids contact upon her return (20% of children). Not afraid of strangers. Mothers tend to be insensitive and uninterested in their child's play.
3. Anxious/Ambivalent (Type C): Very upset when the mother leaves, has difficulty being soothed upon her return, seeks comfort but also rejects it (10% of children). Mothers tend to be inconsistent in their reactions.

Puberty

• The period of sexual maturation during which a person becomes capable of reproducing.

Primary Sexual Characteristics

• Body structures that make reproduction possible (penis, testes, vagina, ovaries).

Secondary Sexual Characteristics

• Non-reproductive sexual characteristics (widening of hips, deeper voice, breast development, body hair).

Landmarks for Puberty

• Menarche for girls: first monthly cycle.
• Spermarche for boys: first ejaculation.

Adulthood

• Physical abilities peak by the mid-twenties.
• Cardio fitness declines with age: A fit 55-year-old is in slightly better shape than an average 35-year-old. An out-of-shape 55-year-old is similar to an average 65-year-old or a fit 75-year-old.

Physical Milestones

• Menopause: The decline and cessation of a woman's menstrual cycle; many women experience various symptoms.
• Men can reproduce until death.

Gender Development

• Gender Roles: How we're expected to act, speak, dress, groom, and conduct ourselves based upon our assigned sex.
• Children around two years old can correctly label their own or another person's sex or gender (gender identity).
• The development of gender identity is a step towards assuming a gender role. Children develop gender constancy around age seven.
• Whiting & Edwards (1973) – 6 country study showed gender differences in socialization pressures.
  • In many societies, older girls were required to perform “nurturing tasks,” such as looking after younger siblings.
• Gender Fluidity: A modern concept where a person may identify as male one day, female the next, both, or neither.

Biological Explanation

• Testosterone & estrogen may have a masculinization/feminization effect on the brain, influencing behavior and gender identity (theory of psychosexual differentiation).

Cognitive Development

• Jean Piaget revolutionized the understanding of cognitive development, showing that kids learn differently than adults.

Schemas

• Children (and adults) view the world through schemas, which are ways we interpret the world around us. Schemas are basically what you picture in your head when you think of something.

Assimilation

• Incorporating new experiences into existing schemas.

Accommodation

• Changing an existing schema to adapt to new information.

Stages of Cognitive Development

1. Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 years):
   • Experience the world through senses.
   • Do not have object permanence.
2. Preoperational Stage (2-7 years):
   • Have object permanence.
   • Begin to use language to represent objects and ideas.
   • Egocentric: cannot look at the world through anyone's eyes but their own.
   • Do not understand concepts of conservation.
3. Concrete Operational Stage:
   • Can demonstrate concept of conservation.
   • Learn to think logically.
4. Formal Operational Stage:
   • Abstract reasoning.
   • Manipulate objects in our minds without seeing them.
   • Hypothesis testing.
   • Trial and Error.
   • Deduction & Induction.
   • Metacognition.
   • Not every adult gets to this stage.

Criticisms of Piaget

• Some say he underestimates the abilities of children.
• The Information-Processing Model suggests continuous growth rather than distinct stages.
• Studies show attention span grows gradually over time.

Social Cultural Theory (Lev Vygotsky)

• Cognitive development must consider the child's social environment or culture.
• Culture teaches what and how to think.
• Babies are born with "elementary mental functions" (attention, sensation, memory, and perception).
• Child develops through interaction with a “more knowledgeable other.”
• "Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)"
• Scaffolding: assistance on tasks just out of reach.
• Play: imagination & role playing