Ch.1/Lectures 1-2

Question 1

Discontinuous versus Continuous Development

Answer 1

Discontinuous development is associated with “stage” theorists, there is a marketed QUALITATIVE difference through development. Really large shifts (caterpillar to butterfly)

Continuous development is a gradual process of adding more skills in a QUANTITATIVE way. Just adding more and more of interested trait (Tree growing taller)

Question 2

Describe Freud’s take on development

Answer 2

Psychoanalytical approach, the child is passive in their development as it is mainly determined by interactions with others.  Receive inputs
Discontinuous, there are stages:
-oral
-anal
-phallic
-Latency
-Genital

failure to properly satisfy any stage leads to personality as an adult (oral –> smoker)

Nature and Nurture
-nature and inborn drives

Question 3

Psychanalytical Theory of Erikson

Answer 3

similar to freud in that there are stages, discontinuous

passive

• development understood in relation to culture
• child rearing is in response to competencies valued and needed by child’s society

Question 4

Vygotsky

Answer 4

• psychosocial theory
• development happens through socialazition and dialogues with older members

Nature and nurture
-heredity and dialogue

Discontinuous and continuous

• acquiring language –> stagewise changes
• dialougues–> stagewise changes

Question 5

Bronfenbrenner

Answer 5

Development is dynamically based upon multiple interconnected environments.

• microsystem(child, close person influences)
• mesosystem(family, neighborhood)
• exosystem(media, worklplace, ext family)
• macrosystem(gov’t, resources, culture)

dynamic interplay between circles

Question 6

Chronosystem

Answer 6

refers to the time portion of Bronfenbrenner’s model,

time is not static

ever changing history that changes with age

Question 7

Esther Helen

Answer 7

Dynamic systems theory approach

nested time scales

• real time
• developmental time
• evolutionary time
• can’t escape temporal histories

development is probabilistic NOT deterministic

Question 8

Self-Organization

Answer 8

Related to the Dynamic systems theory approach

A web of pathways for development social, cognitive, social/emotional

Nonpreformationism
-developmental info is not pre-formed/limited to genes

Context-sensitivity and Contingency
-right place, right time to produce behavior

Multi-Causality
-causal power resides in contingent relationship between nodes

Question 9

3 principals of dynamic systems theory

Answer 9

Complexity
-multiple paths vs. singular path
CHANGE IN 1 SYSTEM&raquo_space; CHANGE IN ANOTHER SYSTEM

Continuity in time

• changes are always happening,
• what happens yesterday, determines development

Dynamic stability

• not completely predictable
• interdeterminism

Question 10

Behaviorists

Answer 10

Watson

• classical conditioning
• nurture
• passive

Skinner

• Operant conditioning
• active
• nurture

Based on behaviors that can be measured

Question 11

Activity Vs. Passivity

Answer 11

Activity

• contribute to our own life
• attention of infant»plays active role in development

Passivity
-shaped by environment and genes

Question 12

Freud Revolutionary

Answer 12

Drove field to recognize we are driven by motives we are unaware of

personalities are largely driven by early experiences

we CAN’T test Freud’s theories

Question 13

Jon Locke

Answer 13

Tabula rasa

continuous development

passive

Nature&raquo_space; environment shapes who we are, we start out as a clean slate

Question 14

19th century

Answer 14

Social reform movements
_children working in factories»treated badly

adverse experiences having consequences for development

Question 15

plasticity

Answer 15

humans have longer developing periods and more developmental periods to allow for plasticity

brain is constantly responding to our environment

changes in neural pathways and synapses due to changes in behavior, environment, neural processes, thinking, emotions, changes from injury

Question 16

developing brain

Answer 16

has ore plasticity than adult brain

all go through discrete moments of plasticity&raquo_space; hierarchical development

sensory
motor/language
higher cognition

Question 17

hierarchical development

Answer 17

each stage is more complex than the preceding stage

a certain level of competence that is necessary for each stage

Question 18

stretched out parenting period

Answer 18

new periods inserted (early/middle childhood/adolescent period)

parent = a person decided as caretaker
a learned and flexible relationship

payoff is that brains have incredible plasticity= ability to change

we are human BECAUSE of our childhood

Question 19

periods of development

Answer 19

1. prenatal(conception to birth)
2. Infancy and toddlerhood( birth-2):
   - beginnings of language
   - intimate ties to others
3. early childhood(2-6)
   - motor skills refined
   - make-believe play
4. Middle childhood( 6-11)
   - participation in organized games with rules
   - advances in understanding of self and morality
5. Adolescence(11-18)
   -puberty
   -thought becomes abstract
   -
6. Emerging Adulthood(18-25)
   -still dependent on parents

Question 20

key issues

Answer 20

1. physical development
2. perceptual development
3. cognitive development
4. emotional development
5. social development

Question 21

Non-preformationism

Answer 21

development is not pre-formed and dependent on genes

Question 22

Context sensitivity and contingency

Answer 22

whether resources come together at the right time for development

right place at the right time

Question 23

Multi Causality

Answer 23

no one thing causes development

development is based on relationship between these things

Question 24

Characteristics of DST

Answer 24

-nature of life is dynamic
-biological processes operate by continually creating new structures(phenotyoes)
-these structures are hierarchical and non-reducibly related to previous structure
-