Chapter 12 - Development over the Lifespan Flashcards
Developmental Psychology - Issues and Methods: Developmental psychology
Developmental psychology examines changes in biological, physical, psychological, and behavioural processes over age
Developmental Psychology - Issues and Methods: Four issues guide developmental research
*Nature and nurture *Critical and sensitive periods **Critical period ? an age range during which certain experiences must occur for normal development **Sensitive period ? an optimal age range for certain experiences, but no critical range *Continuity versus discontinuity *Stability versus change
Developmental Psychology - Issues and Methods: Five developmental functions
*No change ? an ability from birth remains constant over life span *Continuous ? an ability that develops gradually and then remains constant *Discontinuity ? an ability that progresses in stages *Inverted U-shaped function ? an ability that peaks at a certain age, then decreases *U-shaped function ? an ability that disappears temporarily
Developmental Psychology - Issues and Methods: Different designs used to research
*Cross-sectional design ? research design that compares people of different age groups at same point in time **Drawback in that different age groups (cohorts) grew up in different periods *Longitudinal design ? repeatedly tests same cohort as it grows older
Prenatal Development: Consists of three stages
*Germinal stage ? first two weeks, zygote (fertilized egg) is formed *Embryonic stage ? second to eighth week, zygote becomes embryo (placenta and umbilical cord form, organs form) *Fetal stage ? after nine weeks, embryo becomes fetus (bodily systems develop, eyes open at 24 weeks, attains age of viability at 28 weeks)
Prenatal Development: Genetic and Sex Determination
Y chromosome contains TDF (testis-determining factor) gene which initiates development of testes at around 6-8 weeks
Prenatal Development: Environmental Influences
*Various environmental influences can affect development **Teratogens ? environmental agents that cause abnormal development *Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) ? is a group of sever abnormalities that result from prenatal exposure to alcohol.
Infancy and Childhood: The Amazing Newborn - Newborn sensation and perception
*Vision is limited by poor acuity, lack of coordinated eye movements, and tunnel vision *Newborns orient to significant stimuli *Prefer patterned and more complex images
Infancy and Childhood: The Amazing Newborn - Newborn learning
*After repeated exposure to certain sound, infants begin to stop turning to see source of sound, but would turn towards new sound *Rapidly acquire classically conditioned responses
Infancy and Childhood: Sensory-Perceptual Development
*Visual field expands to almost adult size by six months, acuity continues to develop afterwards *Sound localization disappears in second month of life, returns after four or five months
Infancy and Childhood: Physical, Brain, and Motor Development - Maturation
genetically programmed biological process that governs growth
Infancy and Childhood: Physical, Brain, and Motor Development - Physical and motor development follows principles
*Cephalocaudal principle ? reflects tendency for development to proceed in head-to-foot direction *Proximodistal principle ? states that development begins along innermost parts of body and continues outward
Infancy and Childhood: Physical, Brain, and Motor Development - The Young Brain
Brain matures from inner parts (that govern basic survival functions) to cortex
Infancy and Childhood: Physical, Brain, and Motor Development - Motor Development
*Reflexes ? automatic, inborn behaviours elicited by specific stimuli *Motor control develops in a stage-like fashion **N.B., individual differences
Infancy and Childhood: Physical, Brain, and Motor Development - Environmental and Cultural Influences
*Physical and motor development are also influenced by experience and environment **Regularly massaged infants gain weight more rapidly and show fast neurological development **Visual deprivation can damage visual abilities
Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development - Piaget?s Stage Model
*Piaget believed that development results from maturation and experience, and that thinking changes qualitatively with age **Brain builds schemas (organized patterns of thought) **Two processes involved in acquiring new schemas ***Assimilation ? process by which new experiences are incorporated into existing schemas (child who sees a horse for first time may call it a ?big dog?) ***Accommodation ? process by which new experiences cause existing schemas to change (child will realize the ?big dog? isn?t a dog)
Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development - Piaget?s Stage Model - Four major stages of cognitive growth - Sensorimotor stage (Birth to 2)
*children understand their world primarily through sensory experience and physical interaction **Around eighteen months, achieve object permanence (ability to understand that an object continues to exist even out of sight) **Pseudoimitation (child can imitate actions just produced) present
Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development - Piaget?s Stage Model - Four major stages of cognitive growth - Preoperational stage (2-7)
*children represent the world symbolically through words and mental images, but do not understand basic mental operations **Cannot understand concept of conservation (principle that basic properties of objects, such as mass and volume, stay the same despite change in outward appearance) **Exhibit egocentrism (difficulty in viewing world from someone else?s perspective ? children believe that others perceive world as they do) **Animism: attributing lifelike qualities to objects **Egocentricism: difficulty in viewing the world from other?s perspective.
Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development - Piaget?s Stage Model - Four major stages of cognitive growth - Concrete operational stage (7-12)
children can perform basic mental operations concerning problems that involved concrete objects and situations
Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development - Piaget?s Stage Model - Four major stages of cognitive growth - Formal operational stage (12+)
*children are able to think logically and systematically about concrete and abstract problems **Formal thinking increases through adolescence
Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development - Assessment of Piaget?s Theory - Piaget?s Universality Principle
*Universal tests show that the general cognitive abilities associated with the four stages appear to occur in the same order across cultures (Piaget is only a partial dumbass) **Culture has been found to influence cognitive development **Cognitive development within each stage seems to proceed inconsistently
Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development - Assessment of Piaget?s Theory - Early understanding of the physical world
Children acquire skills at earlier ages than Piaget suggested
Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development - Vygotsky: The Social Context of Cognitive Development
Zone of proximal development ? the difference between what a child can do independently and what the child can do with assistance from adults (social interaction affects development) Ex: effect of having older siblings present
Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development - Brunner?s Theory
*Provided data which indicated children are more flexible and adaptable that Piaget?s theory allows for *More recent work by Bruner & colleagues has shown that neonatal are not simply passive receivers of stimuli. *They can control stimulus presentation by altering suckling responses *Suckling will increase to allow examination of more novel stimuli or less novel stimuli, (I.e., whichever the infant prefers)
Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development - Brunner?s Theory - Key differences between Piaget and Brunner
*Brunner does not believe stages are invariant *Brunner argues for the inclusion of cultural and anthropological evidence relevant to children?s development
Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development: Information Processing Approaches
*Children?s information processing improves in several ways **Better information-search strategies **Better information-processing speed **Better memory capabilities **Development of metacognition ***Awareness of own cognitive processes ***Or ?Thinking about Thinking?