Unit 3 Part 1: Development & Learning

Developmental Psychology

• Studies how people grow cognitively, morally, and socially.

Courses

• PSY 311: Psychology of Adolescence

  • Prerequisites: PSY 103, permission of instructor.

  • Course Description: Introduces psychological change between childhood and adulthood.

• PSY 215: Psychology of Aging

  • Prerequisites: PSY 101 Introduction to Psychology

  • Course Description: A study of development in adulthood and old age.

Research Methods

• Cross-Sectional Studies:

  • One point in time

  • Different samples

  • Snapshot of a given point in time, change at a societal level

• Longitudinal Studies:

  • Several points in time

  • Same sample

  • Change at the individual level

Teratogens

• Substances that damage fetal development.

  • Examples: drugs, infections, physical agents, environmental toxins, maternal health conditions.

Critical Period

• An early stage in life when an organism is especially open to specific learning, emotional, or socializing experiences that occur as part of normal development and will not recur at a later stage.

Motor Skills

• Gross Motor Skills: involve larger muscle groups for movements like walking, running, jumping, and throwing, which require greater body coordination.

• Fine Motor Skills: refer to the coordinated movements of small muscles, primarily in the hands and fingers, used for precise actions like writing, buttoning clothes, or grasping small objects.

Baby Reflexes

• Babinski Reflex: A baby fans her toes out as a pediatrician strokes the bottom of her foot.

• Startle Reflex (aka Moro Reflex): A baby flings out his arms, arches his back & fans his fingers as his dad tips him back to help him burp after feeding.

Attachment

• Konrad Lorenz: Earliest studies on attachment (1966).

• Imprinting: Goslings would form an attachment with the 1st moving object they saw.

• Harry Harlow: His monkeys showed that comfort & security were as important as food.

Development Stages

• Adolescence: The transitional period between childhood and adulthood.

• Puberty: the period of physical maturation during which a child experiences hormonal changes and develops secondary sexual characteristics

• Emerging Adulthood: a developmental stage typically spanning from the late teens to the mid-twenties, characterized by identity exploration.

• Early Adulthood: The developmental stage following adolescence, typically spanning from around the late teens to the mid-30s

• Middle Adulthood: The developmental stage typically spanning from around ages 40 to 65.

• Late Adulthood: The developmental stage that typically begins around age 65 and extends until death.

Menopause

• The natural biological stage in a woman's life when her menstrual cycle ceases due to declining levels of estrogen and progesterone

Maturity

• Maturity: Capacity to respond to the environment with awareness, wisdom, and equanimity.

Dementia

• A generalized, pervasive deterioration of memory and at least one other cognitive function.

  • Huntington’s Disease: progressive, rare condition results in the death of brain cells, which causes dementia, and a loss of physical and mental capabilities.

  • Vascular Dementia: Caused by reduced blood flow to the brain due to strokes or other vascular conditions.

  • Lewy Body: Shares symptoms with both Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.

  • Frontotemporal: Affects cognitive functions, behavior, and motor skills.

Assimilation and Accommodation

• Assimilation: Attempting to interpret new information within the framework of improving existing knowledge.

• Accommodation: Making small changes to that knowledge to cope with things that don't fit those existing frameworks.

Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development

• Sensorimotor (0-2 yrs.): Object permanence, stranger anxiety.

• Preoperational (2-7 yrs.): Pretend play, egocentrism, language development.

• Concrete Operational (7-11 yrs.): Conservation, mathematical transformations.

• Formal Operational (11-Adolescence): Abstract logic, potential for moral reasoning.

Object Permanence

• Understanding that objects/people still exist even when they can’t be seen, heard, or touched.

Separation Anxiety

• Healthy adaptive response occurs in children aged 4 until the age of 3 or above and goes away with time and doesn't cause difficulty in functioning.

• Separation Anxiety Disorder can persist for many years and causes significant impairment in daily functioning.

Play

• Parallel play is when children play side by side but do not interact directly. They are aware of each other and may observe each other's activities, but they do not engage together.

Conservation

• Understanding that things like volume stay the same even when the appearance changes.

Reversibility

• The ability after age 2 to 7 years old to mentally reverse a sequence of events or logical operation.

Formal Operational Stage

• Personal Fable: Feeling that what you think & experience is unique.

• Imaginary Audience: An individual believes that people around him are enthusiastically watching him.

Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory

• Microsystem: The immediate environments that directly interact with an individual, such as family, school, and peers.

• Mesosystem: the interactions between the microsystems (ex: parents' relationship with teacher, family's relationship with church, family's relationship with friends)

• Exosystem: The larger social system in which the child does not function directly, but indirectly. Ex.: Parent workplace schedules.

• Macrosystem: The overarching cultural, societal, and economic influences & values that shape individuals' lives within their environments.

• Chronosystem: Encompasses both micro-level events, like family changes, and macro-level events, such as wars or economic shifts, that occur over time.

Vygotsky's Cognitive Development

• Zone of Proximal Development: A bridge between what the child cannot do and what they can do.

• Scaffolding: Supporting or coaching students as they work toward more complex tasks

Language Structure

• Phonetics: Speech sounds

• Phonology: phonemes

• Morphology: words

• Syntax: phrases and sentences

• Semantics: literal meaning of phrases and sentences

• Pragmatics: meaning in context of discourse

Telegraphic Speech

• Characterized by short simple sentences made up primarily of content words

• No function words, tense endings on verbs and plural endings on nouns

Animism

– Belief that objects that are inanimate (not living) have feelings, thoughts, and have the mental characteristics and qualities of living things.

Observational Learning

• Occurs when people observe and imitate the behaviors of others.

Parenting Styles

• Permissive or Indulgent: lots of love and attention, few limits and constraints

  • Positive consequences: good self-esteem, free, creative, open and rarely prone to depression

  • Negative consequences: weak/average high school results, less responsible and independent, lack self-control

• Authoritative Parenting:

  1. Firm Rules

  2. Reasonable Demands

  3. Listens to Children

  4. Insists on Responsible Behavior

• Authoritarian Parenting:

  1. Rigid Rules

  2. Strict Punishments

  3. Rarely Listens to Kids’ Views

Temperament

• Temperament in psychology refers to a set of innate or inborn traits that organize a child's approach to the world

  • Easy/Flexible: People with an easy temperament tend to adapt quickly to new situations and generally maintain a positive mood.

  • Cautious: People with a cautious or 'slow-to-warm-up' temperament may exhibit an initial withdrawal or hesitance in new situations.

Theory of Mind

• This is the ability to understand that others have beliefs, desires, intentions, and perspectives that are different from one's own.

Egocentrism

• This leads people towards believing in the personal fable & imaginary audience.