Chapter 10 Sections 1 + 2 Flashcards
Why do we study infancy and childhood
a. Childhood experiences affect people later in life
b. Studying early stages help psychologists learn about developmental problems
c. Look at physical development, social development and cognitive development
Developmental psychology
Field in which psychologists study how people grow and change throughout their lifespan
Heredity and environment
Debate of nature (heredity) vs. nurture (environment)-which is more influential?
Longitudinal method
Select a group of participants and observe, same group over long period of time
Advantage of longitudinal method
Observe same people; long period of time, so more better data.
LERNCE, “MORE BETTER” IS A HORRIBLE PHRASE AN DOES NOT MAKE SENSE.
Disadvantage of longitudinal method
Long period of time; both time consuming and expensive, also study may alter behavior
Cross-sectional method
Select a sample that includes people of different ages
Advantages of cross-sectional method
Less-time consuming; less expensive
Disadvantages of cross-sectional method
People may not represent same characters
Nature
Heredity; your genes
Nurture
Environment; what you grew up in
Maturation
Automatic and sequential process of development that results from genetic signals (happens automatically and on genetic time table) basically puberty
Critical period
Stage or point in development during which a person is best suited to learn a particular skill or behavior pattern
Arnold Gesell
Felt maturation played most important role
John Watson
Focused on behaviorism
John Locke
Thought infants were like blank slates( tabula rosa )
Stages
Like climbing stairs (each step is distinct level)
Continuity
Walking up an incline (gradual increase to top without levels)
Jean Piaget
Cognitive development (every develops in 4 stages)
Erik Erickson
Role of social relationships (8 stages to master)
Stages points
Period or level in development that is distinct from other levels
Such as sitting crawling standing then walking
Continuity points
Can occur almost unnoticed
J. H. Flavell
Cognitive development is continuous
Infancy
Period from birth to two years
Childhood
Period from two years to adolescence
Reflex
Involuntary reaction or response
a. Not learned, disappear when no longer needed
b. Such as breathing, sneezing, coughing, yawning, blinking, exc.
Rooting reflex
Babies turn toward a stimuli that touch cheeks or mouth (leads to sucking and swallowing)
Moro reflex
Babies withdraw from painful stimuli or loud noises
Babinski reflex
Babies raise big toes when soles of feet are touched
Motor development
Development of purposeful movement
Types of motor development
Gross motor development and fine motor development
Gross motor development
a. Coordinating major muscle groups
b. Examples: rolling over, sitting up, crawling and walking
Fine motor development
a. Coordination of the hands, face and other smaller muscle
b. Four months=babies can grab and shake toys
c. Nine months=babies can pick up small objects between thumb and index finger
d. One year=may stack blocks or turn pages of book
Perceptual development
Process by which infants learn to make sense of the sensations they are exposed to
( prefer new and interesting stimuli )
Robert Fantz
Infants preferred pictures of human faces to other pictures
Perceptual preferences for 5-10 weeks
Look at complex patterns
Perceptual preferences for 15-20 weeks
Stare longer at face-like petterns
Visual cliff
Special structure with checkerboard pattern and sheet of glass with pattern a few feet below
Depth perception of visual cliff in young infants
Unafraid when placed on drop off
Depth perception in infants by 9 months
Respond with fear to drop off
Depth perception by the time they learn to crawl
Refuse to move on to glass part
Hearing
a. More developed then eyesight at birth
b. Babies respond more to high-pitched sounds
c. Babies are soothed by low-pitched sounds
