Chapter 11 Flashcards
Developmental psychology
The scientific study of how people change physically, cognitively, socially, and emotionally from infancy through old age
Stages
Distinct segments of an organism’s life with sharp differences or discontinuities between them
Maturation
A series of biological growth processes that enable orderly growth, relatively independent of experience
Cross-sectional design
A methodological approach to studying development that compares participants of different age groups to one another
Longitudinal design
A methodological approach to studying development that tracks participants across time and compares each participant at different time points
Attrition
Participants withdrawing from the study before it is finished
Sequential design
A methodological approach to studying development that tracks multiple age groups across time and compares different age groups to one another, as well as compares participants to themselves at different time points.
Zygote
A fertilized egg, formed by the union of a sperm and an egg
Embryo
An unborn, developing offspring, identified in humans between the 2nd and 8th week of pregnancy
Germinal stage
Where the cells of the zygotes multiply rapidly
Blastocyst
The little ball of cells created two weeks after conception
Embryonic stage
Where the inner cells of the blastocyst form the embryo
Placenta
A mushy, slab-like structure on the wall of the uterus. Represents a collaboration between the pregnant person and the embryo
Endoderm layer
Will form the gut and digestive system
Mesoderm layer
Will form the skeletal system and voluntary muscles
Ectoderm layer
Will become the cells of the nervous system and outer skin
Neural tube
A tubular structure formed early in the embryonic stage from which the brain and spinal cord develop
Neurons and glia
Cells of the developing brain
Neural migration
The process where the neurons and glia become distinct and begin to work together
Fetus
An unborn, developing offspring, identified in humans between the ninth week of pregnancy and birth
Fetal stage
Follows the embryonic stage, begins at the 9th week and continues until birth
Full-term
The brain, lungs, and liver are developed enough for life outside the womb. Begins 37 weeks after conception
Down syndrome
A developmental disorder caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21. It is characterized by intellectual disabilities, delays in motor development, and increased risk for a range of health problems.
Teratogens
Environmental agents that can interfere with healthy fetal development
Fetal alcohol syndrome
A developmental disorder that affects children exposed to alcohol during prenatal development. Its effects include a range of learning and behavioral challenges and differences in physical size and facial characteristics.
Microglia
Special cells that produce immune molecules within the central nervous system and play a crucial role in brain development
Reflexes
Automatic patterns of motor responses that are triggered by specific types of sensory stimulation
Habituation
A simple form of learning that involves a decreased response to a repeated stimulation
Dishabituation
An increase in responsiveness to something novel following a period of habituation
Motor development
Changes in the ability to coordinate and perform bodily movements
Cognitive development
Changes in all of the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating
Schemas
Concepts or mental models that represent our experiences
Assimilation
In Piaget’s theory, the process of using an existing schema to interpret a new experience
Accommodation
In Piaget’s theory, the process of revising existing schemas to incorporate information from a new experience
Sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years)
Children develop knowledge through their senses and actions but cannot yet think using symbols, namely language. During this stage, children learn that objects continue to exist even when the objects are hidden.
Preoperational stage (2 to 7 years)
Children master the use of symbols but struggle to see situations from multiple perspectives or to imagine how situations can change. During this stage, children classify objects, but only according to a single feature, such as color or shape.
Concrete operational stage (7 to 12 years)
Children become capable of using multiple perspectives and their imagination to solve complex problems, but they are able to apply this thinking only to concrete objects or events.
Formal operational stage (12 years and up)
Adolescents become able to reason about abstract problems and hypothetical propositions
Object permanence
The awareness that objects continue to exist even when they are temporarily out of sight
Neural proliferation
The creation of new synaptic connections
Synaptic pruning
The trimming back of unnecessary synapses according to a “use it or lose it” principle—connections that get used are maintained, and unused connections are eliminated
Myelination of axons
The process of insulating axons in myelin, which speeds their conductivity and allows information to move more rapidly through the brain and body
Social referencing
A process of using others’ facial expressions for information about how to react to a situation
Attachment
The strong, enduring, emotional bond between an infant and a caregiver
Imprinting
A mechanism for establishing attachment early in life that operates according to a relatively simple rule of attaching to the first moving object an organism sees.
Secure attachment
Secure attachment. Children who have a secure attachment relationship with their caregiver use that caregiver as a secure base. They explore, play with the toys, and even make wary overtures to the stranger, so long as the caregiver is present. Whenever the caregiver leaves, these infants show minor distress. When the caregiver returns, the infants show great enthusiasm and are quickly reassured.
Insecure attachment
When the child doesn’t use a caregiver as a secure base and is not reassured after a separation, the child has an insecure attachment style to the caregiver. There are two patterns of insecure attachment.
Insecure/avoidant attachment
They act distant and aloof while the caregiver is present, and although they sometimes search for them in their absence, they typically ignore them when they return. Critically, although these infants look unruffled on the surface, their apparent calmness is actually a mask for distress: Their heart rates accelerate when their parent leaves and remain high when they return
Insecure/ambivalent attachment
They do not explore, even in the caregiver’s presence, and they become quite upset when the caregiver leaves. Upon reunion, they act ambivalent-crying and running to the caregiver to be picked up, but then kicking or slapping and struggling to get down.
Temperament
A person’s characteristic patterns of emotion and behavior that are evident from an early age and argued to be genetically determined
Childhood
The period of life spanning the end of infancy (about age 2) and the start of adolescence
Symbolic representation
The use of words, sounds, gestures, visual images, or objects to stand for other things
Operations
In childhood, the manipulation of schemas
Conservation
The idea that the physical properties of an object, such as mass, volume, and number, remain constant despite superficial changes in the object’s shape or form.
Egocentrism
In Piaget’s theory, the difficulty that preoperational children have with thinking about how objects or situations are perceived by other people
Theory of mind
The understanding that we and other people have minds, that these minds represent the world in different ways, and that these representations can explain and predict how others will behave.
Sociocultural view of development
Lev Vgotsky’s proposal that the child’s mind grows through social interaction with knowledgeable others
Scaffolding
A process of promoting cognitive development by actively challenging and supporting children as they attempt things that are beyond their current capabilities.
Sex
The biological and anatomical differences that make a child male or female
Intersex
Have both male and female sex organs
Gender identity
The physiological identity of being male, female, or nonbinary
Cisgender
To have a gender identity that matches their biological sex
Gender socialization
The process by which people internalize social expectations and attitudes associated with their perceived gender
Gender schema
A mental representation for the concept of gender that includes assumptions about how people with different genders are supposed to think, feel, and act.
Transgender
Identifying with a different gender than the sex they were born with
Gender constancy
A person’s gender identity is consistent regardless of how they may act or dress, so acting like a boy won’t turn a girl into one
Authoritarian parents
Low on responsiveness and highly demanding
Permissive parents
High on responsiveness and low on the demanding scale
Authoritative parents
Both very responsive and very demanding
Disengaged parents
Neither responsive or demanding
Adolescence
The period of transition between childhood and adulthood
Puberty
The period of sexual maturation during which males and and females become capable of reproduction
Primary sex characteristics
Bodily structures, such as ovaries, testes, and external genitalia, that make sexual reproduction possible
Secondary sex characteristics
Non-reproductive body structures, such as hips, torsos, voices, and body hair that make the body look more “adult”
Preconventional stage
In Kohlberg’s theory, a period in moral development in which people make moral judgments based on self-interest, such as avoiding punishments and gaining rewards.
Conventional stage
In Kohlberg’s theory, a period in moral development in which people make moral judgments based on caring for others and upholding social roles and rules.
Postconventional stage
In Kohlberg’s theory, a period in moral development in which people make moral judgments based on ideals and broad moral principles.
Social identity
A sense of identity that is rooted in group memberships
Emerging adulthood
The period between adolescence and adulthood, roughly the ages of 18 to 25, when people take time to finish schooling, gain financial independence from their parents, and establish careers and families.
Social clocks
A set of norms that govern the typical timing of milestones like marriage, parenthood, and retirement
Menopause
The natural end of menstruation, occurring in middle adulthood
Alzheimer’s disease
A degenerative brain disorder characterized by the progressive and widespread loss of nerve cells, leading to memory problems, disorientation, and eventually total helplessness.
Socioemotional selectivity theory
Laura Cartensen’s theory that our perception of how much time we have left in life leads us to value emotional over informational goals
Disorganized/Disoriented attachment
When a child exhibits behavioral disorganization or disorientation in the form of wandering, confused expressions, freezing, undirected movements, or contradictory (i.e. “unorganized”) patterns of interaction with a caregiver
Understanding “wanting”
Different people want different things, and to get what they want, people act in different ways.
Understanding “thinking”
Different people have different, but potentially true, beliefs about the same thing. People’s actions are based on what they think is going to happen.
Understanding that “seeing leads to knowing”
If you haven’t seen something, you don’t necessarily know about it (ex. the Dad on the telephone). If someone hasn’t seen something, they will need extra information to understand.
Understanding “false beliefs”
Sometimes people believe things that are not true, and they act according to their beliefs, not according to what is really true.
Understanding “hidden feelings”
People can feel a different emotion from the one they display.
archetypes
tropes or characters that represent aspects of the
collective unconscious (e.g., “the hero”).
the collective unconscious
an innate series of patterns and symbology that reflect universal truths of the human existence.
The Trauma of Birth
A book written by Otto Rank which described his theory that the shock of going from an unconscious to a conscious state (i.e., pre-birth to alive and in the world) was something that people spend their whole lives trying to overcome. He believed it was the root of various psychological problems that occur later in adulthood.
rooting
Babies turn their heads towards location of nipple or other food source with their mouths open
Sucking
How we get food as a baby, babies suck on objects placed in their mouths
Grasping
Babies grasp onto things placed in their hand. Theorized to be an evolutionary tactic in monkeys
head to toe
most infants are able to pick up and coordinate movement of their head before they are able to coordinate movement in their feet (i.e. walking).
internal to external
infants are first able to coordinate movement in their torso before they can coordinate movement of their legs and arms.
Cloth mother in Harlow’s experiment
did not offer food but did offer physical comfort
Wire mother in Harlow’s experiment
offered food but was not physically comfortable
Id
Pleasure principle: present since birth
Ego
Reality principle: develops at around 6 months of age
Superego
Greater sense of morality: begins to develop at around age 5
Freudian slips
The belief that accidents don’t happen, therefore when you make a mistake while speaking, it is indicative that you truly meant it
Defense mechanisms
The ways the ego copes with desires of the Id
Displacement
Emotion is redirected to new target (scapegoat)
Projection
When you assign your own unfavorable qualities to another person
Suppression
When your ego forcefully keeps the unfavorable emotion in the unconscious mind (related to denial)
Psychosomatic symptoms
A mind/body connection. Psychological distress manifests as physical symptoms
Microsystem
Your immediate environment and people
Mesosystem
The bridge in between microsystem and other systems
Exosystem
Society factors, like political and economic situations
Macrosystem
Broad cultural factors, includes prevailing attitudes and beliefs
Chronosystem
Time, historical period
Dual-Systems:
Reward processing (sensitivity to rewards) and cognitive control systems (ability to control; sense of control)
Striatum
key component of reward system, RELEASES DOPAMINE
Socioemotional selectivity theory
Knowing time is LIMITED, older adults will SEEK EXPERIENCES that make them feel good, which LEADS TO INCREASED WELL-BEING
Denial
A defense mechanism in which the ego prevents the perception of a painful or threatening reality as it is occurring
