CH 9 PSY 120 Flashcards
Paul Baltes’ Framework
Development is lifelong
Development depends on history and context
Development is multidirectional and multidimensional
Development is plastic
Pre-natal Development
Only 10-20% of fertilized eggs survive two weeks to make it to implantation
The single cell zygote develops to an embryo, then to a fetus
Embryos are vulnerable, and chromosomal disorders can lead to spontaneous abortion (miscarriage)
Pre-natal Dangers
Proper maternal nutrition is vital; malnutrition can lead to birth defects, low birth weight and stillbirth
Maternal age outside of optimal range can pose difficulties
Both for teens and over age 35
Teratogens
Teratogens are external/environmental contaminants that can penetrate the maternal protections of pregnancy and cause harm to the fetus
Many affect the same things – heart rate, oxygen, nutrition, etc.
Medical Drugs
Examples:
Medical Drugs
Thalidomide and birth defects
Environmental pollution
Lead paints can affect cognitive development
Alcohol
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
Nicotine
Learning disorders, low birth weight, SIDS
Illegal drugs
Children born addicted
Capacities at Birth
sight-binocular depth perception by 4-5m, 20/20 by 6m.
Preferences on hearing, tastes and odors already present at birth
Reflexes are innate, unlearned, adaptive behaviors
Others include grasping, stepping, a basic swim reflex
Piaget’s Model of Cognitive Development
Driven by improving skills to organize information
First stage of Piaget’s Model
First stage is sensorimotor – learning and thought is centered on the senses and the motor skills
Babies develop more complex schemes (structures) for understanding the world
Lasts from birth until about 2 years old
No sense of object permanence
End goal is mental representation
Piaget’s Second Stage
Piaget’s Preoperational Stage (2-6y)
Follows the onset of mental representation at end of sensorimotor stage
Marked by advances and refinements based on this
Can now manipulate information in the mind, but with limitations
Preoperational Stage Limits
Centration – a tendency to focus on only one dimension of a problem
Can’t do conservation tasks
Egocentrism – a tendency to only be able to reason about a problem from one’s own viewpoint
Three Mountain Problem
Piaget’s Concrete Operations (7-12y)
Onset of logical, but not abstract thought
Greater aptitude in using mental representations
Now able to reason better in multiple dimensions
This improves conservation
Allows ability to use maps for finding directions
Allows greater aptitude with math
Main limitation is with respect to abstract thought
Child cannot fully comprehend non-concrete concepts
Piaget’s Formal Operations
Ability to think abstractly
Can now deal with abstract concepts without concrete representation
Life, death, the self, morality, abstract math
Able to deal with hypothetical-deductive reasoning
Evolution of “what if” ability for abstractions
Why the progress?
Brain maturation – synaptic pruning
Greater experience lead to shifts in schemes
Piaget’s Criticism
Criticism: Piaget’s model essentially stops at adolescence
However, there’s still more development to take place, as adolescent thought faces many barriers
Argumentativeness
Indecisiveness
Finding fault with authority
Self-consciousness – the imaginary audience
Assumption of invulnerability
Dangers with driving, recklessness, drugs, etc.
Piaget tended to underestimate the capabilities of young children
Tasks used were too abstract
Many skills arrive earlier, but Piaget didn’t have the methodology to test earlier
Behaviorism
gender identity is based on reinforcement and punishment
Development of Gender Identity
Cognitive – children categorize or develop gender schemata
Schemata will include propositions and prototypes
These are used to define sexes and expectations
Built on input from all aspects of the local environment
Parenting Styles
One’s style of parenting is a product of many things
Upbringing
Temperament - innate traits that influence how one thinks, behaves, and reacts with the environment
The child’s attachment style
Authoritarian
Everything related to authority, no reasoning
Demand strict conformity, no questioning
Strict punishment for rules violations
Children are more likely than peers to end up withdrawn, distrustful
Permissive
Value self-expression at the expense of structure
Not demanding, rarely punish
Children tend to be disruptive, immature, undisciplined
Authoritative
Mesh the two – firm, but loving
Emphasize social rules, but within context of individual values
Use reason in explaining punishments and rules
Children feel more secure, more self-confident and exploratory
Power assertion
reliance on authority
Physical discipline often stimulates aggression
More likely from fathers
Least effective for generalizing discipline to other situations
Induction
attempt to reason with the child
Better for extending discipline to social situations
Withdrawal of love
ignoring, isolation
Obesity rate increases
Increased consumption of high-fat foods
Less exercise
Anorexia and Bulimia
85-95% female
Boys via body-building, wrestling weight classes
Greater emphasis on body appearance
Uncertainty of how to deal with physical changes
Pressures to excel in certain activities
Ballet, gymnastics, etc.
Based in distortion of body image
Need for control
Also may have genetic component
Transitions of Adulthood
Many psychologists study how people make the transitions of adulthood
Single life
Couple life
Married
Children
Stages of career from entry to accomplished
Grandparenthood
Retirement
Middle Adulthood
Least studied, maybe least appreciated part of life
Hard to even define the ages (what do you think?)
Relatively recent term, partly because of extended life expectancy
Something people don’t look forward to
Declines in sensory/physical performance
Menopause
Is There a Midlife Crisis?
Emerged in the 70s
Research doesn’t support it
Some suggestion of a midlife review – much the same, though not so much a crisis
Reflected in and stemmed from normative crisis models (esp. Erikson’s stage of generativity vs. stagnation)
The Aging Population
85+ is fastest-growing population group
Lower infant mortality
Healthier lifestyles, better medical care
Smaller young families decrease proportion of young people (esp. post-2008)
Women on average live longer than men
Asian-Americans have longest life expectancy; they and Caucasians on average outlive African- Americans and Hispanic-Americans
By age 80, ratio of women:men = 2:1
Primary aging
Inevitable process of deterioration
Secondary aging
Product of abuse, disease, poor care
Leads to functional age – how old your abilities are relative to your chronological age
Dementia
Deterioration in cognitive functioning from physiological causes
Alzheimer’s Disease
A highly heritable, progressive, degenerative neurological disorder characterized by irreversible deterioration in memory, intelligence and awareness, leading to death
Effects appear in reverse order of brain development
More cases now because more people reach old age
Early signs often confused as just effects of aging
Diagnosed by testing, but only confirmed by autopsy
avoidant attachment
characterized by child’s unresponsiveness to parent, does not use the parent as a secure
base, and does not care if parent leaves
disorganized attachment
characterized by the child’s odd behavior when faced with the parent; type of
attachment seen most often with kids that are abused
resistant attachment
characterized by the child’s tendency to show clingy behavior and rejection of the
parent when they attempt to interact with the child
secure attachment
characterized by the child using the parent as a secure base from which to explore
secure base
parental presence that gives the infant/toddler a sense of safety as they explore their
surroundings
uninvolved parenting 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
