Child Development Exam 1

Chapter 1

Individualistic vs. Collectivistic Values

• Individualistic: developed countries, value independence and self-expression

• Collectivistic: developing countries, value obedience and group harmony

“Emerging adulthood” definition

• Emerging adulthood: new stage of life between adolescence and young adulthood, lasts from around age 19 through mid-20s

Does emerging adulthood exist in both developed and developing countries?

• Reflects that most people in developed countries continue their education into their 20s

• Minority of people in developing countries who experience anything resembling emerging adulthood

• Exists only for the wealthier parts of society (mainly urban middle class), rural poor have no emerging adulthood and little adolesce because the enter adultlike work at an early age and begin marriage and parenthood early

Research measurements

• Questionnaire: participants complete printed or written questions

~Closed question format: provided with specific responses to choose from, used in large-scale surveys, easier to collect data, range is specified

~Open-ended question format: state their response in their own words following the questions

• Interviews: participants answer questions asked directly by the researcher 

~Provides individuality that questionnaires lack

~Qualatative data: nonnumerical, includes data from interviews and descriptive observations, video recordings, and photographs

~Quantatative data: numbers

~Interviewers have limitations

• Naturalistic observation: observations take place in the natural environment

• Structured observation: observations take place in a laboratory setting

• Biological measures: research on the genetic basis of development, hormonal functioning, and brain functioning

~EEG: Electroencephalogram, measures the electrical activity of the cerebral cortex

~fMRI: Functional magnetic resonance imaging, requires a person to lie still inside a machine that uses a magnetic field to record changes in blood flow and oxygen use in the brain in response to different kinds of stimulation (such as music)

~fMRI can detect activity in any part of the brain, not just the cerebral cortex

Research designs

• Natural experiment: a citation that exists naturally, researcher does not control it

• Ethnographic research: researchers spend time with the people they wish to study, often by living among them, information comes from observations, informal conversations, and interviews with the people they are studying

• Case study: entails the detailed examination of a particular person, group, or situation over time

Chapter 2

Sex Chromosomes

• Male = XY

• Female = XX

• Sex of child is determined by sperm (each sperm cell carries an X or Y chromosome; all eggs contain an X chromosome)

Epigenetics 

• The study of how genetic activity responds to environmental influences

Example:

• Girls begin menstruating between the ages of 11 and 16

• Timing influenced by environmental changes

• Severe weight loss = stop menstruating

• Nutritional intake improves = menstruating starts again

• Menstruation “turned on” genetically as a part of puberty and “turned off” if environmental conditions are dire, turned on again if nutritional environment improves

Treatments for Infertility

• Artificial insemination: involves injecting the man’s sperm directly into the woman’s uterus, timed to coincide with her ovulation

• In vitro fertilization (IVF): after fertility drugs are used to stimulate the growth of numerous follicles in the woman’s ovaries, the ripe ova are then removed from the woman’s body and combined with the man’s sperm so that fertilization will take place

~Test tube babies…

Chapter 3

Low Birth Weight 

• term for neonates weighing less than 5.8 pounds

• Rates – 15% worldwide; 8% in US

• Causes – malnutrition, teratogens (maternal smoking is a primary cause), poor prenatal care

Treatments:

Kangaroo care: mothers and fathers are advised to place their preterm newborns skin-to-skin on their chests for 2-3 hours a day during the early weeks of life

~Helps newborns stabilize and regulate bodily functions (heart rate, breathing, body temperature, and sleep-wake cycles)

Infant massage: intended to relieve the neonate’s isolation, triggers the release of hormones that promote weight gain, muscle development, and neurological development

1/24 Day 2

Chapter 1: Key Themes in Child Development, Why Study Child Development?

Definition

• The ways individuals grow and change until adulthood

~Physical development (what happens in the body? (genetics/genes)), changes that happen and how that affects behaviors, moods, development in general, etc.

~Cognitive (how do we think?)

~Emotional (how do we feel?)

~Social (who is around you and who do you interact with?) communities

~Moral (how do you make decisions?)

Terms and age ranges:

• Prenatal development: conception to birth

• Infancy: birth to 12 months

• Toddlerhood: 12 to 36 months

• Early childhood: 3 to 6 years

• Middle childhood: 6 to 9 years

• Adolescence: 10 to 18 years

~People focus on the negatives of this…it is always a time of “storm and stress”, all of the changes that come with puberty and social life, etc.

~Looks at risk factors (ex. teen pregnancy, binge drinking, having sex too early, etc.)

~Not everybody goes through a time of “storm and stress”, not everyone experiences extreme stress

• Emerging adulthood: 19 to 25 years

~Not everybody goes through this, some people after highschool have to start working…college isn’t the end all be all

~Once you hit 18 you have adult responsibilities (ex. contributing to the household, etc.)

Why study Child Development?

• Want to optimize child development 

• Help with policy

• Trying to find what experiences lead to adverse development

~Ex. screen time

Key Themes in Child Development

• Nature and Nurture

~Whether genetics is more important, or nurture…it’s both!

• Genetics can influence how you behave, your personality, how you respond to things

~Ex. If you know that there is someone in your family who may be an alcoholic, that gene may manifest

• Environment can influence what you do, how you respond, and can alter your brain

~Ex. How poverty can affect brain development

• Sociocultural Context of Child Development

~Social: people around you that you interact with

~Cultural: the culture that you were born in, what does it say on how to raise a child, gender expectations, religion

Child Development Worldwide: A Cultural Approach

• Culture: the total pattern of a group’s customs, beliefs, art, and technology

Developed vs. Developing Countries

• Developed (ex. US, Sweden, Australia)

• Developing countries (ex. Morocco, Panama, Brazil)

• Within each country there are different contexts that children grow up in

~Ex. Rich, poor, middle class, rural areas/urban areas, differences in environments in geographical areas, etc.

Variation across AND within countries

• Majority culture that sets most of the norms and standards, people in this culture hold positions of power (politics, more intellectual, hold media power) can influence development 

• Minority cultures have to contend with their culture and the majority culture (ex. Immigrants born in a different country and move to a new one with a new culture)

• Socioeconomic status (SES), risk of infant and maternal mortality

• Gender, different expectations for boys and girls

• Ethnicity, cultural origins, traditions, race, religion, language

Key Themes in Child Development (cont.)

• Childrens role in their own development

~Engaging in activities (ex. Sports and books) child who likes books may develop a bigger vocab than peers who like sports

• Continuity/discontinuity of development

~Discontinuous: qualitative changes, happen in stages, qualities in stage 1 are different than stage 2, etc.

~Continuous: quantitative changes, slow and gradual, building upon skills over time, do not possess new skills but build upon them for them to become more advanced 

• Individual differences in child development

~Genetic differences, environment, culture, 

• Research and Children’s Welfare

~Affect policy so changes can be made (ex. Do we give universal healthcare so children can access medicine if they need it?)

1/29 Day 3

Chapter 1: Ethics in Child Development Research

Steps of the Scientific Method

1. Identifying a research question

~Can come from previous research, theory, or personal experience

2. Propose a hypothesis

~One possible answer to the main research question

3. Chose a research measurement and design

~Includes questionnaires and interviews

~May involve one point in time or many

4. Collect data

~Sample should represent well the population of interest

5. Draw conclusions

~Data is analyzed and published, leads to new hypotheses and to the development of theories

Research

• Variables: behaviors, events, or other characteristics that can change, or vary in some way

• Variables in developmental psychology:

~Geographic location (countries, rural/urban, etc.)

~Home life

~Academic achievement

~Language development

Research Measurements

• Questionarres

~ Close-ended: only so many answers you can give

~Con; while you get a lot of data, you don’t get a lot of depth and context

~ Open-ended: gives participants the freedom to answer however they want

~Pro; will give you more depth, information, and clarification

• Interviews

~Go even more in depth

~The more depth you get from a question, the longer it will take to analyze that

~You can ask follow up questions

• Observations (naturalists or structured)

~Observing someone

~Observing people and taking note of things that you see

~Naturalistic: not doing anything to manipulate the environment

~Structured: usually happens in a lab (ex. babies)

~Probelm; theres a possibility that knowing that you are being observed, that will change your behavior

• Biological

~Anything that has to do with genes, the brain, sometimes using medical equipment

~EEG: researchers observe the firing of electricity in the brain

~FMRI: bloodflow

Reliability and Validity

• Reliability: the extent to which a measurement generates consistent results

• Validity: the extent to which a measurement asses what it claims to measure

~Ex. The SATs, standardized tests don’t necessarly measure intelligence, instead measure socioeconomic status

Research Designs

• Experimental

• Natural experiment

• Correlational

• Ethnographic

• Case study

Correlational Design

• The relationship between two sets of variables is examined to determine whether they are associated, or “correlated’

~Ex. Is there a correlation between age and weight? Is there a relationship between sleep and grades?

• Positive correlation: if one variable goes up the other will also go up, if one goes down the other goes down

• Negatve correlation: if one variable goes up the other will go down, if one goes down the other goes up

• Correlation coefficient: the farther it is from 0, the stronger the correlation is, doesn’t matter whether it is negative or positive

• Correlation does not imply causation

• Two problems

~Directionality: Does A cause B or does B cause A?

~Third-variable

Experimental Design

• Involves comparing and experimental group to a control group

~Intependednt variable is manipulated

~Dependent variable is measured

Strategies for Assessing Developmental Change

• Cross-sectional

~Quicker, easier to do, cheaper, and don’t lose participants

~Cohort effect: characteristics shared by people growing up in a specific social or historical context

~Comparing different people

• Longitudinal 

~Should have at least 2 time points

~Testing the same person, seeing the differences in real time

~Very hard, very expensive, a lot of participants stop participating after a while (ex. If you are doing something that is 10 years long)

1/31 Day 4

Chapter 1: Ethics in Child Development Research

Ethical Guidelines

• Protection from physical and psychological harm

• Informed consent 

~Participants know what they are doing, what the study is about, what the potential risks are, etc.

• Confidentiality

~Collecting data, only one person should have this, to protect the data

~Don’t want any of their data to be linked back to them

~Other people should not be able to see the data

• Deception and debriefing

~Tells participants one reason at the start, but reveals that it was for a different reason at the end

~People may change their behavior based on what they know about the study

~May change their answers based on what they think you want them to say

Little Albert Experiment

Summary

• Tested classical conditioning

• Was exposed to stimuli (including a white rat, a rabbit, a monkey, masks, and burning newspapers)

• Paired the rat with a loud noise and he got scared

Results

• Found that classical conditioning can be used to create a phobia

• Albert associated the rat with the loud noise, and it was found after that he also associated the noise with any other fuzzy object, so he became scared of all of them

Ethical Concerns

• Could not provide informed consent because he was too young, 9 months old

• Was never deconditioned, they did not reduce or eliminate the conditioned response

• Caused psychological harm to an innocent child

Baby Book Important Dates

March 5, Wednesday: Check-in

March 19, Friday: Complete pages 1-5 (cover page, about parent, about my birth, all about me, and home sweet home)

April 2, Wednesday: Check-in

April 11, Friday: Final baby book and reflection due

Pre-Parenting Class Notes

Chapter 2: Genetics and Prenatal Development

Genetic Basics

• Genotype: set of genetic traits a person inherits

• Phenotype: the observable expression of the genotype

• Environment: every aspect of the individual and the surroundings other than the genes

What is expressed?

• Traits with single-gene dominant recessive inheritance 

~Ex. Curly hair (C) vs. straight hair (s)

~CC = curly hair (25%)

~Cs = wavy hair (50%)

~ss = straight hair (25%)

HOMEWORK
1. If two people are carriers for cystic fibrosis (an autosomal recessive disease), what is the likelihood that their child will have cystic fibrosis?

25%

2. Curly hair is dominant, and straight hair is recessive. If a mother with curly hair (she has two dominant genes for curly hair: genotype CC) has a child with a father with straight hair (he has two recessive genes: genotype ss), what is the likelihood that their child will have straight hair?

0%

3. Huntington's disease is a rare autosomal dominant disorder that causes the progressive breakdown of nerve cells in the brain. If you have 1 dominant HD allele, you will have the disease. If a father has 1 dominant HD allele and 1 normal allele and a mother has 2 normal alleles, what is the likelihood that their child will inherit Huntington's disease?

50%

4. Red-green color blindness is an example of an X-linked disorder. If a normal father and a carrier mother have a child, what is the likelihood of that the child will be color blind? Will this child be a boy or a girl?

25% color-blind boy

Polygenic Inheritance

• Interaction of multiple genes

~Creativity, height, intelligence, depression, etc.

Genes and the Environment

• Epigenetics: the study of hw genetic activity responds to environmental influences

• Genes can be “turned on” or “turned off” in reaction to environmental influences

~Ex. Men and women who smoke during pregnancy have children at greater risk of asthma

• The Theory of Genotype – Environment Effects

~Passive-genotype → environmental effects

~Evocative genotype → environmental effects

~Active genotype → environmental effects

2/7 Day 6

Chapter 2: Genetics and Prenatal Development

Prenatal Development

• Gestational age: measured in weeks, from the first day of the woman’s last menstrual cycle to the current date

~A normal pregancy can range from 37 to 41 weeks

~Infants born before 37 weeks are considered premature

Three Stages of Prenatal Development

Germinal (0-14 days)

• When zygote (fertilized egg) travels down the fallopian tube and implants on the uterine wall

Embryonic (2-8 weeks)

• Formation of body organs and system

~Endodrm: digestive and respiratory

~Mesoderm: muscles, bones, repreoductive system, circulatory

~Ectoderm: skin

• Support system (amniotic sac, placenta, umbulical cord)

• Beginning of brain development

~Nervous system begins functioning during the 6th week

• Very susceptible to teratogens

Teratogens

Lead

• Lead poisoning causes a wide rage of effects:

~Higher risk for misscarriage

~Pre-term and/or low-brith weight

~Damage kidneys, nervous system, and more

~Learning or behvaior problems

Flint, Michigan

• Flint is 57% black, 37% white, 4% Latino and 4% mixed race (US Census)

•  Flint is the poorest city of its size in the nation. Nearly 39 percent of the city's residents and 60 percent of its children are living in poverty (US Census Bureau, 2017).

•  The national average of children living in poverty is 21 percent (National Center for Children in Poverty)

• In 2014, the city changed its water source to the Flint River to save money

• They did not take steps to ensure that the old underground pipes would not leach lead…so they leached lead

• “Study: Fetal deaths spiked 58%, fertility dropped during Flint water crisis”

•  “Flint’s children suffer in class after years of drinking the lead-poisoned water”

•  “Flint, Michigan: Did race and poverty factor into water crisis?

Why is it difficult to study the effects of teratogens?

• Correlational research

~Correlation does not mean causation 

• Multiple risk model

~Possible that there are multiple reasons why development is affect, can’t just isolate one factor

• Dose-response relation

~Can’t tell how much of something actually causes damage

• Individual differences

~Everyone being studied is different

• Sleeper effects

~Effects that you may not see until years later

• Sensitive period

~Stage where any taratogen that the child comes into contact to will have profound and lasting effects

Fetal (8 weeks to birth)

• Growth in size

• Organs begin to function

• Quickening – fetal movements felt

• Not as susceptible to teratogens

• The fetal experience and learning

Prenatal Care

• Cultural differences in customs and beliefs

~Reflects collected wisdom that is passes down through generations – based on experience

• Different people experience different care

~Effect of racism on maternal and prenatal health

2/12 Day 7

Chapter 2: Genetics and Prenatal Development

Chromosomal Disorders

Sex chromosome disorders

• Extra or missing sex chromosome

• Could lead to cognitive deficits (intellectual disability, learning disorders, develop speech impairments), abnormalities in reproductive system

• Probelms can be treated with therapy, counseling, etc.

Down syndrome

• Trisomy-21

• 21st chromosome (3 instead of 2)

• Distinct features, cognitive deficits, physical development problems (hearing impairments, heart defects)

• Social development differences, varies widely (some may not smile as much, have a hard time keeping eye contact, and socializing with others, some are more happy and loving)

• Supportive and encouraging parents lead to better development than those who are less supportive

• Life expectancy is shorter (~50 years)

• Age faster, develop ailments earlier in life (cancer, alzheimers, heart disease)

Often linked to parents’ age

• The older a woman decides to have children, the older her eggs are

• 35+ years is considered old (in terms of pregnancy)

• Some women freeze eggs, will slow the aging of the eggs, very expensive procedure

• More risk to mother and baby the longer she waits to have a child

• Older men have older sperm, may cause birth defects

Prenatal Testing

• Monitoring the growth and health of the embryo/fetus; detect prenatal problems

Ultrasound

• Use of sound waves to obtain a representation of the fetus

• Can be used to detect down syndrome in the fetus (~13 weeks)

• Looking at he development of multiple fetuses, if there is more than one (sometimes one child develops less favorably than the other)

Amniocentesis

• Amniotic fluid is withdrawn via a syringe; cells are examined for genetic disorders

• Not recommended for all people

• Used for people with a history a prenatal problems in their family, and 35 years or older

• Small change of triggering a miscarriage, injecting and grabbing fluids from the amniotic sac

Chorionic villus sampling (CVS)

• Done at 5-10 weeks

• Taking a sample of hair-like projections (villi) from placenta, which contains fetal cells

• Higher risk for miscarriage

• Only do this if they do blood sampling and they need to find out more, used as a follow up

• Used for people with a history of problems, and 35 years or older 

Genetic Counseling

• Genetic counseling involves analyzing family history and genotypes of prospective parents to identify possible risks

• Will allow you to make decisions about whether or not you want to get pregnant if genetic disorders are a possibility

• Go a different route and not go through with pregnancy (ex. adoption)

Implications of Infertility 

Psychological

• Frustration, sadness, distress, loss

• Strain or strengthen relationship

Social

• Deeply stigmatized in collectivist cultures

~Carry on family legacy (having sons) and traditions, worshiping andcestors (falls onto the oldest son in some cultures)

~Motherhood is essential to identity

~Being a mother is the one thing they can do themselves in limited cultures

• Women are usually blamed 

• Grounds for divorce, encourage the man

• Man may find a second wife that can get pregnant

• Could go through medical means, get donor eggs or sperm, usually very expensive

• Spiritual cultures go through spiritual or supernatural remedies (witch doctor or priest, etc.)

2/14

Chapter 3: Birth and Newborn Child

Stages of The Birth Process

1. Labor: contractions increase in duration, frequency, and intensity, causing the cervix to dilate

~12-hour average to be in labor

~Longest and most taxing stage

2. Delivery: the mother pushes, and the baby crowns and then exits the birth canal and enters the world

~Still contractions, but less frequent

~Pushing comes from the mother

~Baby’s head is the first to come out during a normal birth

3. Expelling of Placenta and Umbilical Cord: contractions continue as the placenta and umbilical cord are expelled

Birth Complications

• Failure to progress (takes too long)

~Mother did not dilate enough, or body is not ready to expel the baby

~Oxytocin (pitocin)...will stimulate contractions to help the baby along

• Breech presentation

~Complications with umbilical cord…not getting enough oxygen (leads to brain damage)

~Broken bones

~Can massage the abdomen to try and avoid breech position

• Cesarean delivery (C-section)

~ usually only done in cases of complication

~Cut the abdomen of the mother and retrieve the baby directly from the uterus 

Cultural Variations in Neonatal and Maternal Morality

• Black infants have 2.3 times the infant mortality rate at White infants

• When cared for by White physicians, Black newborns were about three times more likely to die in the hospital than White newborns

~The disparity dropped significantly when the doctor was Black

Measuring Neonatal Health

• APGAR Scale

~Score the appearance (skin color), pulse (heart rate), grimace (reaction and reflex), activity (muscle tone), and respiration (breathing)

~Done 1 and 5 minutes after birth, sometimes even 10 minutes after if the score is less than 7

• Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assesment Scale

~Performed a day after birth to 2 months after

~Checklist of behaviors that the baby does 

~Use it to look at differences in developing babies across different cultures

~Looks at parenting practices and how they affect the development of the baby

Low Birth Weight

• Term for neonates weighing less than 2,500 grams (5.8 pounds)

• Rates

• Causes

~Developing countries: Mothers being malnourished and have poor health, little to no prenatal care

~Developed countries: Smoking, multiple births (twins), drugs and alcohol during pregnancy, teratogens, low or advanced maternal age

• Consequences

~At higher risk for infant death within the first year

~Low birth rate 2nd most common cause of death in infancy in developing countries 

• Treatments

~Kangaroo care: parents will take turns placing the baby on the chest skin to skin to help the baby with stabilizing functions, gives the mother more confidence and less stress (leads to more success in breastfeeding)

~Infant massages: increases weight gain in premature infants

2/19

Chapter 3: Birth and the Newborn Child

Sleep

• On average neonates sleep for 16-17 hours per day (3-4 hours at a time)

• They spend more time in REM sleep than adults (probably promotes brain development)

~Get into REM (rapid eye movement) way quicker than adults

~For adults, when we start to dream, memories are consolidated

~For babies, promotes brain development

• Individual and cultural differences

~Where the baby sleeps (different room, same room, same bed, etc.)..co-sleeping

~“Force” baby to sleep and create schedule, or let baby sleep when they want to

~Mothers wrap baby around body, bring them wherever they go, baby sleeps whenever, able to bond and quickly respond to the baby

~Finland: babies sleep outside in strollers

Reflexes

• Involuntary movement in response to touch, light, sound, or other stimulation

~Some are survival mechanisms (nursing, feeding, eating)

~Some lead to voluntary movements (prepping body to do things when they are older)

~Some have no purpose

Sensation and Perception

• Sensation: the activation of the sense organs by a source of physical energy

• Perception: the interpretation, analysis, and integration of stimuli involving our sense organs and brain

Touch

• Earliest sense to develop (2 months gestation)

• Doctors used to think that babies did not feel pain even though touch is the earliest to develop, and most advanced sense organ babies have…didnt use anesthetics for babies surgeries

• Babies have a higher pitched cry when they are in pain

• Release stress hormones that interfere with sleep and feeding when in pain

Sight

• Doesn't develop well until later in life

• Visual acuity: clarity of vision

How is visual acuity measured?

• Adults: eye exam (ex. Snellen chart)

~Normal 20/20

~Blindness 20/200

~Neonates 20/400ish

• Preferential looking: present two stimuli and measure where infant is looking

• Developed by Robert Fantz

• Babies are more interested in looking at patterns, and things that look like faces

• Depth perception: how far and how deep something is

Taste and Smell

• Well developed at birth

• Preference for mother’s amniotic fluid

~Has a flavor whatever the mother had recently eaten 

• Food preferences

~Prefenerences for what the mother ate while she was pregenant

Hearing

• Well developed at birth

• Preference for mother’s voice and language

• Enjoy music…begins prenatally

~Heaing it while they were in the womb

~A big part of humans lives and their cultures

• Sound localization is poor at birth

~Figuring out where the sound is coming from

The Nurse-Family Partnership

• Consists of nurses making visits to the homes of low-income, first-time mothers. They focus on:

~Healthcare, including prenatal case

~How to provide quality care

~Education/work (financial stability)