2 - prenatal development Flashcards
teratogens
- virus or chemical that can reach embryo and cause harm
- can be deliberate or accidental
- e.g. alcohol
- not all drugs have equally negative consequences, nor are the best indicator
fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD)
- drinking while pregnant
- often causes issues with learning, executive jydgement
- also physical deformities
newborn abililities
- arrive with automatic reflex responses that surrport survival (instincts?)
- arrive with a number of important capacities developed or on the way
- possess a biologically rooted temperament
newborns’ preference for faces
prefer things that are face-like
infancy and childhood: physical brain development
- birth: neuronal growth spurt
- 3-6 months: Rapid frontal lobe growth
- 1 year: most neurons you’ll have, and a messily wired brain
- Development: synaptic strengthening (relavant ones) and pruning (removing connections)
- Early childhood: “Critical” period for some skills (e.g. vision, language)
- Throughout life: Learning changes brain tissue
brains as baby abilities
§ Brain maturation and infant memory
§ Infants are capable of learning and remembering (mobile experiment, Rovee-Collier)
§ Infantile amnesia in one domain (explicit) and not other (implicit)
- babies are learning from day one!!
Social Development of babies
- Infant attachment (babies are chill to everyone for first 6-8 months of life)
- Stranger anxiety (happens 8 months in)
- Attachment based on:
- Gratification of biological needs? (Freud)
- Comfort/familiarity/responsivity? (Harlow)
harlow’s monkeys
is it what’s nourishing you that you determine as mother or comfort?
- two “mothers”, one that’s soft, one that has wire but also gives food
- the monkey will go to the wire one for food, but then return to the soft monkey
showed that Feelings of comfort and security are the critical components to maternal-infant bonding, which leads to healthy psychosocial development.
familiarity as a key to attachment
- Imprinting (e.g. birds; Lorenz, 1937)
§ “Critical” period (usually a sensitive period)
both are basically that it’s best to from bonds in first six months
studying attachment in social development
strange situation experiments
§ Attachment styles: reflect both child’s individual temperament and parents’ responsiveness
§ Early attachment impacts later relationships
attachment styles persist
Secure attachment
- Ainsworth
- majority, healthy
- the toddler prefers his parent over a stranger.
- The attachment figure is used as a secure base to explore the environment and is sought out in times of stress.
- distressed when their caregivers left the room in the Strange Situation experiment
- when their caregivers returned, the securely attached children were happy to see them.
- Securely attached children have caregivers who are sensitive and responsive to their needs.
insecure attachment
- anxious
- avoidant
- less healthy
anxious insecure attachment
super upset when mother leaves and not easily consoled by parent when they come back
avoidant insecure attachment
not upset when parent leaves nor when they come back
§ The toddler reacts to the parent the same way she reacts to a stranger.
□ the child is unresponsive to the parent
□ does not use the parent as a secure base
□ does not care if the parent leaves.
§ When the parent does return, the child is slow to show a positive reaction.
§ theorized that these children were most likely to have a caregiver who was insensitive and inattentive to their needs
issues with attachment styles?
always like to criticize the mother
change is normal, and there’s only modest predictive validity
§ child’s temperament may have a strong influence on attachment
§ attachment varies from culture to culture
Temperament
Difficult
§ Easy
§ Slow-to-warm-up
- Temperament refers to innate traits that influence how one thinks, behaves, and reacts with the environment.
difficult temperment
○ difficult temperaments demonstrate negative emotions and have difficulty adapting to change and regulating their emotions.
easy temperment
○ easy temperaments demonstrate positive emotions, adapt well to change, and are capable of regulating their emotions.
slow-to-warm-up
lower then usual activity levels, NEOPHOBIC (fear of new things), but okay with them after repeated exposure
impact of parenting programs?
Can improve
attachment security
deprivation of attachment
Important note: we are resilient, we bounce back quickly
§ Higher risk for attachment problems, substance abuse, other poor outcomes (BUT see above)
romanian orphanages
horrific deprivation of attachment
really bad proportions – one caregiver per dozen children
Self-Concept in baby
Emerges gradually
* 6 months: self-recognition
* 15-18 months: face schema
* School age: grouping by gender/traits/peers/etc.
* 8-10 years old: stable
Parenting styles (Baumrind)
Authoritarian
§ Permissive
§ Authoritative
§ Early descriptions definitely sound WEIRD-centric
Authoritarian parenting styles
§ the parent places high value on conformity and obedience.
§ The parents are often strict, tightly monitor their children, and express little warmth.
§ style can create anxious, withdrawn, and unhappy kids.
§ it is important to point out that authoritarian parenting is as beneficial as the authoritative style in some ethnic groups
permissive parenting styles
- kids run the show and anything goes.
- Permissive parents make few demands and rarely use punishment.
- They tend to be very nurturing and loving, and may play the role of friend rather than parent.
- children raised by permissive parents tend to lack self-discipline, and the permissive parenting style is negatively associated with grades
- They tend to have higher self-esteem, better social skills, and report lower levels of depression
authoritative parenting styles
- the parent gives reasonable demands and consistent limits, expresses warmth and affection, and listens to the child’s point of view.
- Parents set rules and explain the reasons behind them.
- They are also flexible and willing to make exceptions to the rules in certain cases
- one that is most encouraged in modern American society.
Children tend to have high self-esteem and social skills.
Germinal
- Weeks 1-2
- Conception occurs when sperm fertilizes an egg and forms a zygote
- During the first week after conception, the zygote divides and multiplies, going from a one-cell structure to two cells, then four cells, then eight cells, and so on.
Conception
when sperm fertilizes an egg and forms a zygote
zygote
- A zygote begins as a one-cell structure that is created when a sperm and egg merge.
Embryonic stage
- Weeks 3-8
- The mass of cells attach itself to the lining of the mother’s uterus
- Basic structures of the embryo start to develop into areas that will become the head, chest, and abdomen.
- During the embryonic stage, the heart begins to beat and organs form and begin to function.
- The neural tube forms along the back of the embryo, developing into the spinal cord and brain.
embryo
once the cells attach itself to the lining of the mother’s uterus
placenta
structure connected to the uterus that provides nourishment and oxygen from the mother to the developing embryo via the umbilical cord.
Fetal stage
- Weeks 9-40
- When the organism is about nine weeks old, the embryo is called a fetus.
- From 9–12 weeks, the sex organs begin to differentiate.
prenatal care
medical care during pregnancy that monitors the health of both the mother and the fetus
- routine prenatal care is important because it can reduce the risk of complications to the mother and fetus during pregnancy.
newborn reflexes
- All healthy babies are born with newborn reflexes: inborn automatic responses to particular forms of stimulation.
○ The rooting reflex
○ The sucking reflex
○ grasping reflex - The Moro reflex
○ The rooting reflex
is the newborn’s response to anything that touches their cheek: When you stroke a baby’s cheek, the baby naturally turns the head in that direction and begins to suck.
○ The sucking reflex
is the automatic, unlearned, sucking motions that infants do with their mouths.
○ grasping reflex
, in which a baby automatically grasps anything that touches the palms.
○ The Moro reflex
the newborn’s response to the sensation of falling. The baby spreads the arms, pulls them back in, and then (usually) cries.
Blooming
- vast majority of neural connections and pathways occur during the first few years of a child’s life
pruning
neural connections are reduced.
It is thought that pruning causes the brain to function more efficiently, allowing for mastery of more complex skill
Baillargeon’s
suggest that very young children have an understanding of objects and how they work
cognitive mildstone in middle/late childhood (6-11)
- Thought processes become more logical and organized when dealing with concrete information
- Children at this age understand concepts such as the past, present, and future, giving them the ability to plan and work toward goals.
- Additionally, they can process complex ideas such as addition and subtraction and cause-and-effect relationships.
language acquisition in children
○ order in which children learn language structures is consistent across children and cultures
○ children possess a biological predisposition for language acquisition.
○ Starting before birth, babies begin to develop language and communication skills.
○ Children communicate information through gesturing long before they speak, and there is some evidence that gesture usage predicts subsequent language development
coo
□ one-syllable combination of a consonant and a vowel sound
- babies do this almost immediately
Babbling
repeating a syllable
§ “vocabulary spurt”
○ children’s vocabulary increases at a rapid pace
John Bowlby
developed the concept of attachment theory.
○ He defined attachment as the affectional bond or tie that an infant forms with the mother
○ An infant must form this bond with a primary caregiver in order to have normal social and emotional development.
○ Thought attachment was an all-or-nothing process
○ two things are needed for a healthy attachment:
§ The caregiver must be responsive to the child’s physical, social, and emotional needs;
§ the caregiver and child must engage in mutually enjoyable interactions
John bowlby
secure base
○ secure base is a parental presence that gives the child a sense of safety as he explores his surroundings.
John bowlby
ainsworth
- wanted to know if children differ in the ways they bond,
- attachment styles!!
○ used the Strange Situation procedure
resistant attachment
§ children tend to show clingy behavior, but then they reject the attachment figure’s attempts to interact with them
§ These children do not explore the toys in the room, as they are too fearful.
§ During separation in the Strange Situation, they became extremely disturbed and angry with the parent.
§ When the parent returns, the children are difficult to comfort.
- Resistant attachment is the result of the caregivers’ inconsistent level of response to their child.
○ disorganized attachment
§ behaved oddly in the Strange Situation.
§ They freeze, run around the room in an erratic manner, or try to run away when the caregiver returns
§ This type of attachment is seen most often in kids who have been abused.
uninvolved style
- parents are indifferent, uninvolved, and sometimes referred to as neglectful.
§ They don’t respond to the child’s needs and make relatively few demands.
§ This could be because of severe depression or substance abuse, or other factors such as the parents’ extreme focus on work.
§ These parents may provide for the child’s basic needs, but little else.
§ children raised in this parenting style are usually emotionally withdrawn, fearful, anxious, perform poorly in school, and are at an increased risk of substance abuse
adrenarche
maturing of the adrenal glands
gonadarche
maturing of sex glands
- Primary sexual characteristics
are organs specifically needed for reproduction, like the uterus and ovaries in females and testes in males.
- Secondary sexual characteristics
are physical signs of sexual maturation that do not directly involve sex organs, such as development of breasts and hips in females, and development of facial hair and a deepened voice in males.
menarche
- Females experience menarche, the beginning of menstrual periods, usually around 12–13 years old
spermarche
- males experience spermarche, the first ejaculation, around 13–14 years old.
cognitive development during adolescence
- More complex thinking abilities emerge during adolescence.
○ Some researchers suggest this is due to increases in processing speed and efficiency rather than as the result of an increase in mental capacity
§ due to improvements in existing skills rather than development of new ones- teenagers move beyond concrete thinking and become capable of abstract thought.
○ formal operational thought.
- teenagers move beyond concrete thinking and become capable of abstract thought.
fraternal birth order effect
if you are a dude, the more older brother you have, the more likely it is that you are gay
Behaviour & knowledge about sexual behaviour
~50% of teens having sex
§ “The talk”: absent or too late
§ Parents: underestimating kids’ behaviour
§ Sex ed: poor, absent, sketchy, abstinence-based
Abstinence sex ed
- JUST NO SEX BRO
- leads to more STD, more pregnancy
sexual orientation
used to be in the domain of parenting
- biology plays a predominant role…
- NOT parenting
- NOT early sexual encounters
- twin studies: identical vs fraternal -> strongest correlation between twins! so biological disposition
- conditions in the womb also have effect (fraternal birth order effect)
- strong evidence that it cannot be changed
Adolescence onset and endpoint
§ Adolescence: “biological onset, social endpoint”
- cultures wil say different times for when adolescence ends
newborn abililities
- arrive with automatic reflex responses that surrport survival (instincts?)
- arrive with a number of important capacities developed or on the way
- possess a biologically rooted temperament
sense of self in children
the primary psychosocial milestone of childhood is the development of a positive sense of self.
- Mirror test!!
- Children from 2–4 years old display a great increase in social behavior once they have established a self-concept.
- Development of a positive self-concept is important to healthy development.
○ Children with a positive self-concept tend to be more confident, do better in school, act more independently, and are more willing to try new activities - Adolescents who have achieved identity formation are capable of contributing positively to society
