Chapter 10 Flashcards
developmental psychology
the study of how behavior and mental processes change over the lifespan
post hoc fallacy
error of assuming that because A comes before B, A must cause B
post hoc theory example
- children who are shy are more likely to become engineers as adults; argument: shyness leads to an intrest in engineering
- 100% of serial killers drank milk as children therefore drinking milk causes serial killers
developmetal influences are _______
bidirectional
bidirectional
childrens experiences influence their development, but their development also influenes their experiences
unidirectional explinations
those that attempt to explain development in terms of a one-headed arrow
cross sectional design
a design in which researchers examine people of different ages at a single point in time
- obtain an “smapshot”
what is the major problem of cross sectional designs
done control for cohort effects
cohort effects
effects due to the fact that sets of people who lived during one time period, called cohorts, can differ in some systematic way from sets of people who lived during a different time period
what are the 2 myths concerning development
- infant determinism: widespread assumption that extremely early experiences are almost always more influential than later experiences in shaping us as adults
- child fragility: children are delicate little creatures who are easily damaged
what are the nature-nurture intersetions
- gene enviorment interactions
- nature via nurture
- gene expression
gene enviorment interactions
the impact of genes on behaviour depends on the environment in which the behaviour develops
nature via nurture
genetic predisposition can drive us to select and create particular enviorments, leading to the mistaken apperance of a pure effect of nature
gene expression
some genes can “turn on” only in response to specific environmental events
genes and the enviorment are _______
confounded
example of gene enviorment interaction
enzyme monoamine oxidase (MAO)
- those who posses this enzyme are at heightened risk for developing into violent criminals when there is a history of mistreatment
gene expression example
children with genes that predispose them to anxiety may never become anxious unless a highly stressful event, like the death of a parent early in development, triggers these genes to become active
when sperm cell fertilizes an egg it produces a
zygote
in the germinal stage, the zygote begins to devide and double, forming a ________
blastocyst
once the cells start to assume different functions the blastocyst becomes an ______
embryo
when is the embronic stage
from the 2-8th week of development
embryonic stage
limbs, facial features, and major organs begin to take shae
fetal stage
embryo becomes a fetus
when does the human brain begin to develop
18 days after fertilization
when doe neurons begin to develop
between the 18th day and the end of the 6th month
what are the obstacles to normal fetal development
- exposure to hazardous enviormental influences
- biological influences resulting from genetic disorders or errors in cell duplication during cell division
- premature birth
a full term baby is born after __ weeks of pregnancy
40
when are preterm babies born
at fewer than 36 weeks
viability point
the point in pregnancy at which infants can typically survive
what is the viability point
25 weeks in most cases
sucking reflex
automatic response to oral stimulation
rooting reflex
eating
motor behaviours
bodily motions that occur as a result of self initiated force that moves bones and muscles
what are the major motor milestones
sitting up (6months), crawling (9months), standing unsupported (11 months), and walking (13months)
Micheal hermanussen found that mini growth spurts occur
every 33 to 55 days in children ages 3-16
our bodies dont reach full maturity till
adolesence
adolscence
the transitional period between childhood and adulthood commonly associated with the teenage years
- time of many profound physical changes
spermarche
the first ejaculation
when does spermarche usually occur
around the age of 13
what is the first sign of sexual maturation in males
enlargement of the testicles and penis and growth of facial hair
the timing of puberty in both sexes is ________ influenced
genetically
when do most people reach peak strenght, coordination, speed of cognitive processing and physical flexibility
early 20s
female fertility declines rapidly during
their 30s and 40s
cognitive development
how we aquire the ability to learn, think, communicate, and remeber over time
what are the three core ways that cogntive development theories differ
- some propose stage-like changes in understanding; other more continuous changes in understanding
- some adopt a domain general account of development, other a domain specific account
- differ in their views of principal source of learning
how was piaget a stage theorist
he believed that childrens development is marked by radical reorganizations of thinking at specific transition points -stages- followed by period during whihc their understanding of the world stabilizes
Piaget beleived that the end point of cogntive development is
achieving the ability to reason logically about hyopthetical problems
piaget theory
- stage theorist
- domain general, slicing across all areas of cognitive development
piaget proposed that cognitive change is marked by
equalibrium (maintaining a balance between our experience of the world and our thoughts about it
what two processes did piaget suggest that children use to keep their thinking abou the world in tune with their experiences
assimilation and accomadation
assimilation
process of absorbing new experiences into current shemas
- can be used to aquire new knowledge within a stage
when a child can no longer assimulate experiences into their exsisting knowledge structures, they are forced to engage in
accommodation
accommodation
altering of a schema to make it more compatible with experience
what are the 4 stages of cognitive development iss Piagets theory
- sensorimotor
- preoperational
- concrete operations
- formal operation
as a result of piaget, psychologists today have reconceptualized cognitive development by
- veiwing children as diffrent in kind rather than degree from adults
- characterizing learning as an active rather than passice process
- exploring general cognitive processes that may cut across multiple domain of knowledge, thereby accounting for cogntive development in terms of fewer underlying problems
in what stage do children lack object permanence and differed imitation
sensorimotor stage
horizontal decalage
cases in which a child is more advanced in one cogntive domain than the other
scaffolding
Vygotskain learning mechanism in which parent provide intial asistance in childrens learning but gradually remove structure as children become more competent
Vygotsky identified the
zone of proximal development
zone of proximal development
phase of learning during which children can benefit from instruction
differences in the theories
Piaget
- empasized physical interaction with the world
Vygotsky
- no domain general stages
- empasizes social interaction with the world
example of psychomythology
the mozart effect
Baillargeons findings
- infants possses a basic understanding ofsome other aspect of how physical objects behave, called naive physics
at what age do infants posses a sense of self
3 months
theory of the mind
childrens ability to reason about what other people believe
what is the test of theory of the mind
false belief task
according to David Elkind, adolescent behavioural problems stems in part from
personal fable
- teenageers feelings of profound uniqueness and of living out a story that others are watching
- feelings of “specialness” cane sometimes lead to a sense of invincibility
What cogntive ability improve with age
- although free recall declines with age, cues recall and recognition remains intact
- show relatively little decline when asked to remember material that pertinent to their everyday lives
- older adults preform better on vocabulary and knowledge tests than younger adults
- crystalized intelligence tends to stay the same
