Ch 3- Developmental Psychology Flashcards
Developmental psychology
Examine effects of nature and nurture on our psychical, social-emotional and cognitive spectrums
Psychical changes (general dev)
Biological (brain , body and hormone levels)
Social-emotional changes
How we regulate our emotions in relation to our surroundings (understanding of ourselves and in turn- others)
* (or other way around)
Cognitive changes (general)
Thought processes, reasoning skills and communication efficiency
Prenatal development PERIODS
Germinal, embryonic, and fetal
Germinal period (2 weeks after conception)
Zygote (fertilized egg) —two weeks- implants in uterus wall -> placenta (feeds it)
PROBS: miscarriage
Embryonic period (3-8 week- no months)
IMP for spinal, brain dev, and ALL internal organs (heart, lungs, kidneys, liver )
PROBS: birth defects (mom no eat enough nutrient folic acid during first month- spina bifida) MOST RISKY PERIOD
3- Fetal period (9 week to birth)
16 weeks-Move muscles
6 months- eyes and eyelids
Organs finished
FINALLY- grows in length and weight
Brain processes SENSORY input and output
PROBS during prenatal period
Affects Psychological dev- deficits in cognitive, emotional or social functioning
Teratogens: Placenta filters out the bad but FAILS to a lot
KW: (139) living outside the womb) 28 weeks
Premature birth
Fully developed at 28 WEEKS
MAYBE caused by nutrition, environment or genetics
DEFINITELY smoking, drinking, and drugs (opioids- withdrawal symptoms in newborns and LIKELY for infant death syndrome)
Will likely die if premature, but also cerebral palsy , breathing/ hearing deficits AND long term->intellectual, ADULT social relationship problems
Teratogens (prenatal dev)
Drugs, infections (syphilis), environment (x-rays and mercury)
effects of these vary by exposure TIME, when exposure happens, and amount
Effects: language, reasoning, attention, behavior, emotional disorders
Even smallest exposure has huge effects
KW: 4.4% of moms use drugs
* natural selection- our life experiences are passed along in sperm (fathers too) as epigenetic info
Affects of drugs (babies)
Weed- psycho problems - socio-emotional and cognitive functioning
Alcohol- fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)- small head (microcephaly, deformed limbs, face, abnormal brain dev. ALSO behavioral probs
- dads sperm weakened by alcohol natural selection thing
Zika virus
Transmitted through sexual activity-> fetus gets it-> microcephaly (most impactful during 1st trimester)
Brain dev in babies (NVN!!)
- SYNAPTIC CONNECTIONS!!(there was no neuron at first, just neuron?)
- REGIONS of brain communicate- process info and form COMPLEX neuron friendships
- brain grows 80% of full potential at age 4 ( _ myelination and connections PARTICULARLY in frontal lobes!!! )
- (neural pruning)
- less neural pruning/ less connections made -> are not able to explore the external world and aren’t AMPLY stimulated (poverty) really early
- effects: process complex info LATER than average baby, health problems, addiction, criminal activity
Motor dev
Innate survival skills- rooting reflex: when stroke corner of their mouth, they turn and open mouth to find food-> sucking reflex
Grasping reflex: stroke palms- curl fingers
LATER ON-> maturation of motor skills are both nature and nurture _ nurture - cultural and parental practices (cribs vs strapped to moms back)
Some babies skip steps of maturation (MS)
Sensory dev
Some sensory abilities (see, touch, taste, smell, hear) are already there from birth (the survival ones)
Hear and taste well- recognize moms voice and so they learn to prefer specific sounds over unusual ones
Sight- high contrast patterns (black and white)
They develop their sight by focusing mostly on breast and faces for social information
These all get better with RICH experience and development (auditory cortex (6months hear, brain and eye dev) - N and N
Piagets theory of cognitive dev/ schemas
When we form new schemas, we change HOW we think
Schemas: unique and natured perceptions of world through understanding functions (through accommodation and assimilation)
EX; schema= filing cabinet thats filled up with our interpretations which we then sift through
Generalized neural connections/ thinking processes
Constant schema building (assimilation and accommodation)-> complex schemas overtime
!!!! Cognition develops when schemas are created and change overtime
Assimilation (schemas)
Alter pre-existing schemas _ we gained new and more experiences being exposed to the schemas source
EX: butterfly’s cant be birds _ they don’t have beaks
- when explaining things to children, explain in simplest terms (things they can easily distinguish- beak, not insect)
Early attachment
Even babies with disabilities, they all SEEK and NEED emotional bonding
Attachments- emotional connections that babies monopolize to increase their care, protection and social support 4 SURVIVAL
EX: Caregivers give this with parentese FE (high pitched voices) which causes baby to maintain eye contact-> motivates more parentese
Social- practice makes progress
Monkey expiriment
Babies seek love and care, MORE than food
Reveals our ubiquitous purpose in life and value in living
Psychological comfort is more necessary to human survival than anything- toxic masculinity (socio-emotional dev)
* maybe this created beauty standards? Soft things over harsh things from birth?
Separation anxiety
When babies cant SEE their attachment figures- distress (up to age 1)
- we NEED to spoil them at this age (no baloney about teaching them independence) _ if they feel even once that they wont get your attention when they ask for it, they’ll become ambivalent or insecure
Strange-situation test (Mary Ainsworth)
Show various attachment styles (infant)
Secure attachment (strange test)
Happy with caregiver and stranger-> Distress when caregiver is gone, comfort when they show up again
!!! Secure enough to cry cuz they know that they’re dad is securely gonna come right away
(Better social-emotional functioning, self-control and peer relations in childhood)
(60-65%)
* do babies really love us or just need to survive/ biological reaction or survive off psychological comfort
Avoidant attachment (insecure attachment)
(30-35%)
May avoid caregiver when they return, play with stranger
Emotionally neglected or actively rejected so they expect caregiver to not ALWAYS be available
Ambivalent attachment (insecure)
Cries when leaves, but seek or reject when back (ambivalent)
Emotionally neglected or actively rejected so they expect caregiver to not ALWAYS be available
Flaws in research (attachment styles)
Focus mainly on western cultures
Different societal norms determine what we view as normal attachment styles in and WITHIN our selves
Accommodation (schemas)
New info doesn’t fit in pre-existing schema
New info- new schema
No interaction with pre-existing
So they change up their WHOLE understanding to better fit their environment
Sensorimotor stage (birth- 2)
Learn things through their innate motor reflexes (their first schemas which then become guiding principles to set against the continued use of that motor function)
- object permanence (up until 9 months)- objects disappear behind my back
Socialization
When peopel are socialized in a small community, they were never exposed to difering styles of socialization/ talking styles, everyone was raised the same with peopel who were raised the same- they don’t comprehend things out of the norm (close-minded to different peoples)
Especially in the days with no internet where you can observe the differences in people easily and become more empathetic
Immediately when I first got instagram i was able to spark some ideas of use how different peopel carried themselves because of their profiles.
Pre operational stage (2-7)
Aware of things to form thoughts about them, but no logical connections made abt outcomes
(instead-> follow intuition with superficiality)
Also symbolically-> stick is sword
Egocentrism (next card)
Centration: focus on height instead of both height and width to compare volumes
Egocentrism (preop)
If i cant see you, you cant see me (no empathy)
Concrete operational stage (7 to 12) - concret manipulation needed to operate ( cant think outside of that)
Logical thought
Understand NOWW that things have same quantity if nothing has been added to it but through illusion it appears different
(Can’t think logically about the deeper ways in which they could possibly be different)
Categorize things based on characteristics
Reverse operations
Dementia
Lose mental ability (thinking behavior) and personality
Causes: small strokes (affect brains blood supply) and Alzheimer’s disease (GENETIC memory disease)
Young ppl: alcoholism and HIV
Playing active role in their dev will ease the transitions (Exercise + regular cognitive stress)
Formal operational
Abstract thought w/o dependence on CONCRETE manipulation
Marriage (middle adulthood)
Happier (w/o= depression)
Nowadays - later
Men benefit more than woman _ we are supportive like that
Correlational findings: Unhappily married or more at risk for health than the lonelies (women especially)
Good marriage-> sense of generativity
NVN on girls periods
Menstruate earlier if has insecure attachment (body feels threatened, so body wants to spread genes faster)
Endocrine system
Primary sex characteristics
DIRECTLY involved in sex (sexual maturation and able to reproduce)
Secondary sex characteristics
Not directly related to reproduction :
Body hair (pubic, armpit)
Boys - jaws, voices deepen
Girls- lose belly fat, get curves
Growth spurt (hormones)
Hormone levels increase launching you into maturation (physical- height and weight aren’t sex characteristics but still change)
(Primary secondary, cognitive)
Brain reorganization (puberty)
Synaptic connections strengthen
Frontal lobes dev. To help them with identity and empathy but 25
Limbic system (emotion and reward system/ impulsivity) developed (active) more than frontal cortex (risky behavior)
Are still able to understand their behavioral consequences/ think critically but its HARD (boosted if loving people support them)
Fun fact: teenage screen time affects their vision and control parts of cognitive structures
Kohlberg
We get our morals from our cognitive processes, not emotions (shame pride, guilt)
Some regard social consequences, but other regard the deeper implications it has on meaning of life/ state of society
Generativity vs stagnation (Erik)
Integrity vs despair (Erik)
it’s integrity because Oder adults no longer have to perform their happiness with life, so it’s TRUE (integrity) or depressed/ acting happy about end of life (despair)
Industry vs inferiority
Intimacy vs isolation
Identity vs role confusion
Trying different social roles for a SOLID identity
Babble
Intentional focalization within no meaning- goo goo Gaga (7-8 months)
One word stage (8- 18 months)
Combine phonemes into morphemes to label items, action words, quantities (no more), adjectives, byes and hellos, internal stages (boo hoo)
All important to them
18-24 months telegraphic speech
Put together bare bone words according to correct syntax (throw ball= i threw the ball)
Overregulariztion
Adding -ed to end of words
Grammatical rule to all situations even where they shouldn’t be
Morpheme
Smallest unit of WORD that still has meaning
WITHIN this is phonemes
(Asked= ask and ed )
Phonemes
Sounds you make when you say a word
(Asked= a/s/k/t
Permissive
Kids will be kids
Authoritative
Temper higher expectations with warmth and reasoning
Neglectful parental style (teens)
No limits or expectations
Authoritarian
Exert control but DONT responds warmly
Brain dev is not cognitive dev
It’s physical dev
Modern research for Piaget
Children can be developing skills in the different stages of cognitive dev AT ONCE
Old age myths
People report well-being (cognitive wisdom)
More memory decline (30%) in those that hold onto negative memories more than positive and live 7.5 years longer
Continually challenge yourself, embrace life-long learner attitude for longer life
* how can they happily recite positive memories without feeling sad that they can’t recreate new ones?
* when we neglect negative memories is that not a sign of fear for going into death with positive mind in fear of death
Infancy years
18-24 months
Childhood years
2 years- 11/14 years
Sensitivity during puberty
Drift away from family in search of social and internal identity
- emulate characteristics of our peers like a survival skill expect its social survival (or truly biological survival because of our NEED for human acceptance)
Literally scars teen girls’ self esteem INTO adulthood, however although its HIGJLY social, th e puberty aspect is the primary driver (cognitive changes) so this should motivate us to move forward and dont let the neural changes affect us anymore to the frequency they have been (know they are there and will stay, but dont let them steamroll you)
Moral dev
Pre conventional - self interest
Conventional- social interest (law)
Post conventional - value of life’s deeper meaning interest (better of all- breaking law)
problems: dont include moral emotions like guilt, shame, pride and gratitude
Emerging adulthood (18-25)
Ends physical and sexual maturity
Decline in muscle mass, bone density, hearing and eyesight
Older adulthood (
11% over 65 get Alzheimer’s
Take longer to process info but when they do, they think just as efficiently as we do
Seek out LASTING happy experiences, not BRIEF ones anymore
Intimacy vs. isolation- having optimism
Integrity vs. despair - accept life as its been or have regrets
Generativity vs stagnation- leaving behind positive LEGACY (also for middle adulthood)
Stages of grief
Denial
Anger at death itself
Bargaining for ANYTHING but this
Depression at LOSSES
Acceptance of inevitable
- can you skip any of these steps?
