Child and Adolescent Development - Cumulative Final Study Guide

FOUNDATIONS OF DEVELOPMENT

• Key Themes in Development

  • Nature vs. Nurture: The ongoing interaction between an individual's genetic predispositions (nature) and environmental influences (nurture) shapes development. This is not an either/or situation, but a complex interplay.

  • Continuity vs. Discontinuity: Considers whether development is a gradual, continuous process (like a ramp) or occurs in distinct, stage-like steps (like stairs).

  • Active Child: Recognizes that children are not passive recipients of experiences but actively contribute to their own development through exploration, curiosity, and interaction with their environment.

  • Socioeconomic Status (SES): SES significantly impacts development by affecting access to resources (e.g., healthcare, nutrition), parenting styles, and educational opportunities. Low SES can create significant challenges for children's development.

Scientific Methods in Developmental Research

• Correlational Research:

  • Identifies the strength and direction of relationships between variables.

  • Cannot determine causation (i.e., whether one variable directly causes changes in another).

  • Example: A correlation might show that children who read more have higher vocabularies, but it doesn't prove reading causes a larger vocabulary.

• Experimental Research:

  • Involves manipulating one or more variables (independent variables) to determine their effect on another variable (dependent variable).

  • Allows researchers to establish cause-and-effect relationships.

  • Requires control groups and random assignment to ensure that any observed effects are due to the manipulated variable.

• Reliability vs. Validity:

  • Reliability: The consistency of a measurement. A reliable measure produces similar results under similar conditions.

  • Validity: The accuracy of a measurement. A valid measure assesses what it is intended to measure.

Research Techniques

• Observations:

  • Naturalistic Observation: Observing behavior in a natural setting without intervention.

  • Structured Observation: Observing behavior in a controlled environment where specific situations are created.

• Interviews:

  • Structured Interviews: Use a standardized set of questions.

  • Clinical Interviews: More flexible, allowing the interviewer to adjust questions based on the participant's responses.

• Standardized Testing: Administering tests with established norms to compare an individual's performance to a larger group.

• Longitudinal vs. Cross-Sectional Studies:

  • Longitudinal Studies: Follow the same individuals over time to track developmental changes.

  • Cross-Sectional Studies: Compare different age groups at a single point in time.

BIOLOGICAL BEGINNINGS: Genetics and Prenatal Development

• DNA, Genes, Chromosomes:

  • DNA: The genetic material that carries hereditary information.

  • Genes: Segments of DNA that encode instructions for specific traits.

  • Chromosomes: Structures made of DNA that contain genes. Humans typically have 23 pairs of chromosomes.

• Trisomy 21 (Down Syndrome): A genetic disorder caused by an extra 21st chromosome, leading to intellectual disability and characteristic physical features.

• Huntington’s Disease: A genetic neurodegenerative disorder that affects muscle coordination and leads to cognitive decline, typically with onset in middle age.

• Blastocyst & Trophoblast:

  • Blastocyst: An early stage of embryonic development consisting of an inner cell mass (which becomes the embryo) and an outer layer of cells.

  • Trophoblast: The outer layer of cells in the blastocyst that provides nutrients to the embryo and develops into part of the placenta.

• Teratogens:

  • Harmful substances (e.g., alcohol, drugs, certain medications, environmental toxins) that can negatively affect prenatal development, leading to birth defects or developmental problems.

  • The effects of teratogens depend on the dose, timing of exposure, and genetic susceptibility.

• Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD): A range of effects caused by alcohol exposure during pregnancy, including physical, cognitive, and behavioral problems.

• SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome): The unexplained death of an infant, often occurring during sleep. Risk factors include premature birth, exposure to cigarette smoke, and unsafe sleeping environments.

• Dutch Hunger Winter:

  • A period of famine in the Netherlands during World War II that demonstrated the long-term effects of prenatal nutrition on later health outcomes.

  • Babies born during this time were more likely to develop health problems later in life.

• Apgar Scale:

  • A standard assessment used to evaluate a newborn's health at 1 and 5 minutes after birth.

  • Assesses five criteria: Appearance (skin color), Pulse (heart rate), Grimace (reflex irritability), Activity (muscle tone), and Respiration (breathing effort).

BRAIN DEVELOPMENT & SENSATION

• Brain Development

  • Neurogenesis: The formation of new neurons, primarily occurring during prenatal development and infancy.

  • Synaptogenesis: The formation of synapses, the connections between neurons, allowing for communication.

  • Synaptic Pruning: The elimination of unused or weak synaptic connections to improve efficiency and strengthen important connections.

  • Plasticity: The brain's ability to adapt and change in response to experience or injury.

• Sensory Abilities

  • Newborn Preferences: Infants show preferences for certain stimuli, such as faces, sweet tastes, and their mother’s voice.

  • Visual Cliff: A classic experiment used to assess depth perception in infants. Infants are placed on a surface that appears to have a drop-off, and their willingness to cross the "cliff" is observed.

  • Habituation: A decrease in response to a repeated stimulus. Used to study infant perception and memory.

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

• Stages

  • Babbling (6-10 months): Production of repetitive consonant-vowel sounds.

  • First Words (10-15 months): Typically, simple nouns and verbs.

  • Holophrases: Use of a single word to represent a whole phrase or idea.

  • Telegraphic Speech: Two-word combinations that convey basic meaning, omitting unnecessary words (e.g., "want milk").

• Critical Periods

  • Case of Genie: A case study of a girl who was severely neglected and isolated during her early years, highlighting the importance of early language exposure for language development.

• Infant-Directed Speech

  • A style of speech characterized by a higher pitch, melodic intonation, slower tempo, and exaggerated emotional expressions, used by adults when talking to infants.

• Brain Areas

  • Broca’s Area: Involved in language production.

  • Wernicke’s Area: Involved in language comprehension.

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

• Piaget's Theory

  • Sensorimotor (0-2 yrs): Infants learn through sensory experiences and motor actions. Key achievements include object permanence (understanding that objects continue to exist even when out of sight) and motor exploration.

  • Preoperational (2-7 yrs): Children develop symbolic thinking but struggle with logical reasoning. Key characteristics include egocentrism (difficulty understanding others' perspectives) and lack of conservation (inability to understand that the quantity of an object remains the same despite changes in appearance).

  • Concrete Operational (7-12 yrs): Children develop logical reasoning skills but primarily apply them to concrete objects and situations. They understand conservation and can perform mental operations.

  • Formal Operational (12+): Adolescents develop abstract and hypothetical thinking, allowing them to reason about possibilities and engage in scientific reasoning.

• Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory

  • Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD): The gap between what a child can do independently and what they can achieve with guidance and support from a more knowledgeable other.

  • Scaffolding: Temporary support provided by adults or peers to help a child learn and master a new skill.

  • Private Speech: Self-directed speech used by children to regulate their behavior and guide their thinking.

• Information Processing

  • Mind = computer: The information-processing approach views the mind as a system that processes information like a computer.

  • Focuses on improvements in processing speed, working memory capacity, and the use of strategies.

• Core Knowledge Theory

  • Posits that infants are born with innate domains of knowledge that are essential for survival, such as face recognition and understanding basic numerical concepts.

EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

• Basic Emotions:

  • Joy, sadness, anger, surprise, fear, and disgust are considered basic emotions that are universally recognized and expressed.

• Self-Conscious Emotions:

  • Guilt, shame, embarrassment, and pride emerge later in development (around 15-24 months) and require self-awareness and an understanding of social standards.

• Emotion Regulation:

  • The ability to manage and control emotional responses. Initially, emotion regulation is caregiver-led, but children gradually develop self-regulation strategies.

  • Preschoolers use cognitive strategies such as distraction to manage their emotions.

• Temperament

  • Individual differences in emotional, motor, and attentional reactivity and self-regulation.

  • Easy, Difficult, Slow-to-warm-up (Thomas & Chess): Three broad temperament categories.

  • Rothbart’s dimensions: Fear, activity level, attention span, etc.

MORAL DEVELOPMENT

• Piaget

  • Morality of Constraint: Children view rules as fixed and unchangeable, focusing on the outcome of actions rather than intentions.

  • Autonomous Morality: Children understand that rules are flexible and can be changed through social agreement, considering intentions when judging actions.

• Kohlberg

  • Preconventional: Morality is based on self-interest, avoiding punishment, and seeking rewards.

  • Conventional: Morality is based on social approval and maintaining social order.

  • Postconventional: Morality is based on universal principles and social contracts, recognizing that rules can be unjust and should be changed when necessary.

• Aggression & Antisocial Behavior

  • ODD (Oppositional Defiant Disorder): A pattern of negativistic, defiant, and disobedient behavior.

  • CD (Conduct Disorder): A more severe pattern of behavior characterized by violation of rules and the rights of others.

  • Fast Track Program: A preventive intervention program designed to address risk factors for antisocial behavior in at-risk children.

IDENTITY & GENDER DEVELOPMENT

• Erikson's Theory

  • Identity vs. Role Confusion: A stage of psychosocial development that occurs during adolescence, where individuals explore their identity and try to determine their place in society.

• Marcia's Identity Statuses

  • Diffusion: No commitment or exploration.

  • Foreclosure: Commitment without exploration.

  • Moratorium: Exploration without commitment.

  • Achievement: Commitment after exploration.

• Gender Development

  • Gender Identity (~2 yrs): Awareness of being male or female.

  • Gender Stability: Understanding that gender is consistent over time.

  • Gender Constancy (5-7 yrs): Understanding that gender remains the same despite changes in appearance or behavior.

  • Gender Schema Theory: Children develop mental frameworks (schemas) for understanding gender roles and expectations, influencing their behavior and attitudes.

• Biological Contributions

  • CAH (Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia): A genetic condition in which girls are exposed to higher levels of androgens during prenatal development, leading to more male-typical behavior.

• Parental & Media Influence

  • Gender-essentialist statements, role modeling, and stereotype reinforcement contribute to gender development.

THE FAMILY

• Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems

  • Microsystem: Immediate environment (e.g., family, school, peers).

  • Mesosystem: Interactions between microsystems (e.g., the relationship between home and school).

  • Exosystem: Indirect influences (e.g., parents' workplace).

  • Macrosystem: Culture and laws.

  • Chronosystem: Historical context and changes over time.

• Parenting Styles (Baumrind)

  • Authoritative: High control and warmth.

  • Authoritarian: High control, low warmth.

  • Permissive: Low control, high warmth.

  • Neglectful: Low control and warmth.

• SES Influence

  • Low SES: More authoritarian parenting.

  • High SES: More authoritative parenting.

• Divorce & Stepfamilies

  • Key influences: Parental conflict, child age, custody quality.

  • Stepchildren: More conflict, higher risk of adjustment issues.

PEERS & MEDIA

• Peer Status (Sociometrics)

  • Popular, Rejected (Aggressive/Withdrawn), Neglected, Controversial, Average.

• Friendships

  • Provide support, buffer against stress.

  • Linked to long-term social adjustment.

• Media Effects

  • Positive: Education, prosocial behavior (e.g., Sesame Street).

  • Negative: Displacement of activities, desensitization to violence.

  • Social Learning: Bandura’s Bobo doll study on modeling aggression, demonstrating that children can learn aggressive behavior through observation and imitation.

CHILD WITNESSES & PSYCH/LAW

• Memory Development

  • Encoding, Storage, Retrieval

  • Free Recall: Most accurate.

• Suggestibility Risks

  • Repeated questions, leading language, peer pressure.

• Disclosure of Abuse

  • Often delayed.

  • Influenced by fear, relationships, threats.

  • Types: No disclosure, delayed, recanted, partial.

• Interviewing Techniques

  • Avoid suggestive questions.

  • Use open-ended prompts.

  • Establish ground rules.