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Psychology 102 > Chapter 10 > Flashcards

Chapter 10 Flashcards

1
Q

What is developmental psychology?

A

study of how behaviour changes over human life span

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2
Q

What are some issues confronting developmental psychology?

A

Post hoc fallacy: logical error where you assume A causes B just because B comes after A (problem because dev psych looks at effects over time)

Bidirectional Influences: human development is 2 way street, children development shapes their experiences in the same way children’s experiences influence their development, as people age they select own environments

Cohort effects: sets of people who lived during one period systematically differ from sets of people who grew up in different period (choosing b/w cross-sectional and longitudinal designs)

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3
Q

What is the difference between longitudinal and cross sectional research designs?

A

A longitudinal study may follow up on the findings of a cross-sectional study to investigate the relationship between the variables more thoroughly. The difference between these studies is the timeline and variable. In a cross-sectional study, researchers observe the same constant variable, and the study is carried out only once.

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4
Q

Why are infant determinism and childhood fragility flawed?

A

early input exerts significant impact on development but so does all other input throughout life

Children are more resilient than believed

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5
Q

What is infant determinism?

A

early experiences are profoundly influential

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6
Q

What is childhood fragility

A

children are more vulnerable to stress

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7
Q

What are the 3 arguments that shape the nature-nurture debate?

A

Nature via nurture: tendency of individuals with certain genetic predispositions to select environment that permit expression of those predispositions

Gene expression: activation of deactivation of genes by environmental experiences throughout development

Gene-environment interaction: impact of genes on behaviour depends on environment where behaviour develops

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8
Q

When do the most dramatic changes occur during development?

A

during prenatal development

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9
Q

What does prenatal mean

A

pre-birth period

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10
Q

What is a zygote:

A

formed when sperm cells fertilizes an egg

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11
Q

What happens before 3 stages of fetal development? What are the 3 stages of prenatal development

A

a zygote is formed when sperm fertilizes an egg,

Germinal, embryonic, fetal

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12
Q

What is the first stage of prenatal development?

A

Germinal stage:

zygote divides to form blastocyst

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13
Q

What is a blastocyst

A

ball of identical cells in early pregnancy that haven’t taken on specific function in a body part

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14
Q

What is the 2nd stage of prenatal development

A

Embryonic stage

middle of 2nd week, cells assume different functions and blastocyst becomes embryo where limbs, facial features, major organs and body take form

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15
Q

What is an embryo

A

unborn or unhatched offspring in the process of development, in particular a human offspring during the period from approximately the second to the eighth week after fertilization

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16
Q

What is the final stage of prenatal development

A

Fetal stage
9th week, major organs are established, heart begins to beat, physical bulking occupies rest of fetal development

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17
Q

Describe prenatal brain development

A

B/w day 18 and 6th month, 250,000 neurons generated per minute (more than fetus requires post birth)

fetal brain begins as long tube, develops into variety of structures with brain stem (controls basic functions) and cortical structures later in pregnancy

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18
Q

List 3 obstacles to development

A
  1. Premature birth
  2. Exposure to environmental influences
  3. Biological influences from genetic disorder or mutations
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19
Q

Describe environmental threats to development

A

teratogens: environmental factors that exert negative impact on prenatal dev.
- smoking etc
Alcohol consumption can lead to fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (learning disabilities, behaviour disorders, delayed growth, facial malformations)

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19
Q

Describe environmental threats to development

A

teratogens: environmental factors that exert negative impact on prenatal dev.
- smoking etc
Alcohol consumption can lead to fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (learning disabilities, behaviour disorders, delayed growth, facial malformations)

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20
Q

Describe the influence of prematurity on development

A

Prematurity (born prior to 36 weeks)

less time in utero, greater chance of complications

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21
Q

Infants are born with what? Provide examples

A

with large set of automatic motor behaviours - reflexes), sucking and rooting reflexes are essential for feeding

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22
Q

What are motor behaviours

A

bodily motions occurring as a result of self-initiated force that moves bones and muscle

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23
Q

List the progression of motor development in infants (motor milestones)

A

sitting without support, crawling, standing, cruising, walking without assistance, running

24
What influences motor development?
physical maturity, cultural and parenting practices, no matter set backs, motor milestones are always achieved in same sequence
25
What is adolescence
transitional period between childhood and adulthood
26
What is adolescence marked by?
Puberty: Emergence of primary sex characteristics and secondary sex characteristics, Menarche and spermarche
27
What is puberty
achievement of sexual maturation and ability to reproduce via hormonal release
28
How are hormones different between sexes?
Women have higher estrogens, men have higher androgens
29
What influences puberty onset
genes and environment
30
Define primary sex characteristics
physical features like reproductive organs and genitals that distinguish the sexes
31
Define secondary sex characteristics
sex differentiating characteristics that don't relate directly to reproduction (breast enlargement in females, deepening voice in males)
32
Describe physical changes as men age
sperm production and testosterone levels decline maintaining an erection and achieving ejaculation become challenging Risk of having children with dev. disorders is heightened
33
Describe physical changes as women age
fertility declines risk of birth effects in babies increases in 30s and 40s menopause
34
When do humans reach their physical peak, what are characteristics of physical peak
early 20s: strength, coordination, speed of cognitive processing, physical flexibility
35
When does physical decline occur in humans, what is this marked by
Shortly after early 20s" muscle, sensory, fertility declines
36
When does fertility decline for women, what is this called.
In 30s and 40s, menopause
37
What is menopause
termination of menstruation, marking end of female reproductive potential
38
State some changes in agility and physical coordination with age
- complex tasks show greater effects on age - elderly adults are less flexible in learning new motor skills - Some ind. display more age decline than others
39
What are theories of cognitive development
explanations of how we acquire ability to learn, think, communicate and remember over time
40
In what ways do Theories of Cognitive Development differ?
1. Stagelike vs gradual changes in understanding 2. Domain-general vs domain-specific 3. Principal source of learning (physical experience, social interaction or biological developments)
41
Who was Jean Piaget
Swiss psychologist who presented first account of cognitive development Stage theorist who believed skills were domain-general thought end point of cognitive development is ability to reason logically about hypotheticals
42
What was Piaget's Theory?
Children use assimilation techniques to acquire new knowledge within a stage (absorb knowledge into current structures) When one can no long assimilate new info, accommodation forces change b/w stages (process of altering belief to make it more compatible with experience
43
What were the stages of Piaget's theory
1. Sensorimotor (0-2 years): no thought beyond physical experiences "here and now", lack of object permanence 2. preoperational (2-7): Can't perform mental transformations, egocentric and can think beyond here and now, lacks conservation (despite changes in presentation of amount, amount remains the same) 3. Concrete formations (7-11): Can perform mental transformations on concrete objects 4. Formal operations (11-adult): Can perform abstract and hypothetical reasoning
44
Describe weaknesses in Piaget's theory
development is less general and more domain-specific development is continuous and less stage like Underestimated children's competence and overestimated adult's competence culturally biased methods (focused on Western educated samples)
45
Describe the Pros of Piaget's Theory
highly influential, helped change how we think about cognitive development children are not small adults learning is an active rather than passive process Exploring general cognitive processes that explain multiple domains of knowledge
46
What was Lev Vygotsky's theory
theory focused on social and cultural influences Scaffolding: parents structure environments for learning and gradually remove them as children improve Zone of proximal development: phase of learning during which children can benefit from instruction
47
What are the various Contemporary theories
general cognitive accounts sociocultural accounts modular accounts
48
Aside from accomplishments in perception, memory, language, name some others
Physical reasoning Categorizing concepts Self concept and concept of others Numbers + math
49
Describe physical reasoning in early dev
in infants involves: basic, innate, knowledge refinement of knowledge based on experience
50
concepts and categories
conceptual dev requires children to know how things look, are used, and what contexts they might appear
51
Self concept and concept of others
Self recognition becomes more sophisticated as kids move from understanding themselves as physical entities to understanding others have minds distinct from their own (theory of mind)
52
Numbers and mathematics
numerical dev. needs complex understanding of counting rules and nature of precise quantities develops slowly + easily disrupted ability to count doesn't appear in all cultures
53
Describe cognitive Changes in Adolescence
frontal lobes don't mature until late adolescence/early adulthood (implications for impulse control and risk-taking behaviour) risk-taking behaviour also affected by more opportunities when young, diff evaluation of risk) Personal fable, feeling unique and special
54
Describe cognitive functions in late adulthood
- aspects of cognitive decline (free recall of info, overall speed of processing) - BUT many stay stable or increase (cued recall and recognition, remembering pertinent info, vocab and knowledge tests
55
Describe Early social development
infants adopt interest in other quickly Stranger anxiety starts at 8-9 months but peaks at 12-15 months differences in children's social and emotional styles reflect differences in temperament (basic emotional style that appears in early dev and is largely genetic)
56
Describe temperament as it relates to children
appears early and largely genetic 3 major styles (easy 40%, difficult 10%, slow to warm up 15%) Approx 10% of children may be behaviourally inhibited
57
What did Konrad Lorenz discover and what is it?
Imprinting, once gosling imprints on something/someone, it is fixated on it and unlikely to bond with anything else
58
What is attachment

Psychology 102 (2 decks)

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