Chapter 2: The complexity of psychological development Flashcards
Define development
Psychological or physical change in an organism that occurs over time
What are the four areas of development?
- Social
- Cognitive
- Emotional
- Physical
Which of the four areas of development are psychological?
social, cognitive and emotional
What influences development?
hereditary and environmental factors
Define heredity, and give some examples
Heredity involves the transmission of characteristics from biological parents to their offspring via genes at the time of conception. E.g personalities, intelligence, talents
Define environmental, and give some examples
All the experiences, objects and events to which we are exposed throughout our entire lifetime. E.g. friendships, health habits, nutrition, parenting style
What do environmental and hereditary factors effecting development link to?
The nature vs nurture debate
What is the nature vs nurture debate?
A debate between psychologists whether our environmental (nurture) or genes (nature) afrects development. Psychologists who had a viewpoint on nurture thought that the way we were raised is the only thing that can affect our development whereas those who development the viewpoint of nature thought that genes predetermined our development
Explain the biopsychosocial model in relation to how people development
The biopsychosocial model explains our development through three sections, the social, biological and psychological sections.
- Biological factors involve physiologically based or determined influences that affect our development
- Psychological factors involve all those internal mental processes and influences affecting development
- Social factors that affect development involve influences from the external social environment in which we interact with others
What is the biopsychosocial model?
The biopsychosocial model is an approach to describing and explaining psychological development and wellbeing through the interaction of biological, psychological and social factors
Give examples of what factors could fall under the biopsychosocial model
Biological factors:
- Genes
- Age
- Male/female
- Race
- Brain chemistry
- Nervous system activity
- Hormones
- Disease
- Sleep patterns
- Bodily responses to stress
Social factors:
- Interpersonal relationships
- Access to social support
- Social media
- Educational background
- Employment history
- Economic circumstances
- Access to health care
- Social stressors
- Ethnicity
- Cultural values and traditions
Psychological factors:
- Effects of prior experience
- Learning and memory
- Ways of thinking
- Attitudes and beliefs
- Perceptions
- Emotions
- Resilience
- Coping skills
There is often an overlap between factors influencing development and developmental changes
Define emotion
An emotion is a complex reaction pattern to a personally significant event or matter that involve a mixture of physiological response, subjective feelings and expressive feelings.
What are the three parts of an emotion?
- Physiological response
- Subjective feeling
- Expressive feeling
Define attachment
An attachment if the bond formed between an infant and another person
What are the two purposes of attachment
Healthy relationships and survival
Describe the 8 stages of the Strange Situation test
Stage 1. Experimenter leaves caregiver and infant to play
Stage 2. Caregiver sits while infant plays
Stage 3. Stranger enters and talks to caregiver
Stage 4. Caregiver leaves; stranger lets infant play offers comfort if needed
Stage 5. Caregiver returns greets infant offers comfort if needed; stranger leaves
Stage 6. Caregiver leaves
Stage 7. Stranger enters and offers comfort
Stage 8. Caregiver returns greets infant offers comfort lets infant return to play
What are the four attachment types?
- Secure attachment
- Insecure avoidant attachment
- Insecure resistant attachment
- Disorganised attachment
What is secure attachment?
An infant who has formed a secure attachment shows a balance between dependence and exploration. Their caregiver is a ‘safe base’ and 65% of one-year-olds are securely attached
What is insecure avoidant attachment?
The infant does not seek closeness or contact with the caregiver and treats them much like a stranger. Their infant rarely cries upon separation with caregiver. 20% of one-year-olds are insecure avoidant may be due to abusive or neglectful caregives
What is insecure resistant attachment?
An infant appears anxious even when the caregiver is near. They become very upset when separated from the caregiver and when the caregiver comes back, the infant approaches for contact and once receives it, tries to fight free of the contact. 12% of one-year-olds are insecure resistant may be due to the caregiver is not responsive to the babies needs
What is disorganised attachment?
An infant shows inconsistent or odd and contradictory behaviours during separation and reunion with their caregiver. The infant may respond to reunions in fear.
What are the four characteristics which need to be present to form an attachment?
- Proximity maintenance
- Safe haven
- Secure base
- Separation distress
Describe the four characteristics that need to be present to form an attachment
Proximity maintenance: the infant’s desire to be next to the caregiver
Safe haven: the ability to return to the attachment figure for comfort when feeling scared or unsafe
Secure base: the ability to perceive the caregiver as a base of security in which the baby can explore
Separation distress: the infant feeling anxious when the caregiver leaves or is absent
List and describe Harry Harlow’s two experiments
- Cloth mum, wire mum: the experiment involved 8 rhesus monkeys that were separated from the mothers immediately after birth. Harlow wanted to find out whether food or contact comfort is more important in the formation of infant-caregiver attachment. All monkeys were in separate cages with a cloth mum and a wire mum. 4 cloth mums provided food and 4 wire mums provided food. Although the monkeys went for the food, they all spent more time with the cloth mother for contact comfort.
- Privation experiment: there were 4 groups in this experiment. Rhesus monkeys were isolated from mothers and other monkeys. One group was isolated for 3 months, one or 6, one for 12 and the control group of no months. The 3 month group were crouched in the corner avoiding social interaction, and when with other monkeys they eventually went back to normal. The 6 month group became being self destructive by ripping out hair and biting themselves. After going back with the other monkeys, they went back to normal but took longer than the three month group. The 12 month group also became destructive but extremely impaired. When with the normal monkeys behaviour improved but not in all areas.
What is cognitive development?
Cognitive development is the changes that occur in one’s mental processes
Describe Piaget’s theory of cognitive development
Piaget viewed cognitive development as a process of adaptation to the changing world around us. On a daily basis, adaptation involves taking in, processing, organising and using new information in ways which enable us to adjust to changes in our environment. According to Piaget, this happens through two closely related processes which he called
assimilation and accommodation.
Describe how adaptation occurs
Adaptation occurs through two processes; assimilation and accomodation.
Assimilation: the process of taking in new information and fitting it into and making it part of a pre-existing mental idea about objects or experiences
Accommodation: changing a pre-existing mental idea in order to fit new information
Describe what a schema is
A schema is a mental framework that helps people organise and interpret information. Schemata are formed through assimilation and accomodation
What are the four stages of cognitive development that Piaget described?
Stage 1. Sensorimotor stage
Stage 2. Pre-operational stage
Stage 3. Concrete operational stage
Stage 4. Formal operational stage
Describe the sensorimotor stage and list key cognitive accomplishments with examples
The sensorimotor stage is the first stage of cognitive development and spans from the age of birth to two years old. Infants learn and explore through their senses and movement in this stage. Infants develop:
- Object permanence: understanding that objects still exist even if they cannot be seen, touched or heard
- Goal-directed behaviour: to perform and successfully complete a sequence of actions with a particular purpose in mind
Describe the pre-operational stage and list key cognitive accomplishments with examples
The pre-operational stage starts from the age of 2 to and ends at the age of 7. This marks the end of infancy and is when a significant amount of language acquisition has occurred. Some key cognitive accomplishments include:
- Symbolic thinking (increase): the ability to use symbols to represent objects that are not physically present (e.g imaginary friends)
- Egocentrism (decrease): the tendency to view the world solely from one’s own point of view, unable to see things from someone elses perspective (e.g covering there eyes so they can’t see anyone meaning that no one can see them)
- Animism (decrease): the belief that everything that exists has a consciousness (e.g a rusty bike means it’s sick)
- Centration (decrease): ability to focus on only one quality of feature of an object or event at one time (e.g a child focusing solely on the height of a liquid in a tall, thin glass compared to a short, wide glass)
- Transformation (understand): understanding that something can change from one state to another (e.g ice turning into water)
- Reversibility (understand): ability to mentally follow a sequence of events or line of reasoning back to its starting point (e.g understanding that a deflated ball can be
pumped up again and put back into play)
Describe the concrete operational stage and list key cognitive accomplishments with examples
The concrete operational stage starts from the age of 7 and ends at the age of 12. In this stage the child is capable of logical thinking and can do mental ‘operations’. Key cognitive accomplishments include:
- conservation: understanding that certain properties of an object can remain the same even when its appearance changes
- classification: ability to organise information or events into different categories based on features
Describe the formal operational stage and list key cognitive accomplishments with examples
The formal operational stage begins from the age 12 and continues throughout life. Thinking becomes more sophisticated and thought process becomes more complex. Key cognitive accomplishments include:
- Abstract thinking: a way of thinking that does not rely on being able to see, experience, manipulate it in order to understand something
- Idealistic thinking: ability to see alternatives to current issues ad strive to be the best version of yourself
What is a critical period? Give an example
A critical period
may therefore be defined as a specific period in
development during which a person is most vulnerable to the deprivation or absence of
certain environmental experiences. E.g development of grammar
What is a sensitive period? Give an example
A sensitive period is a period of time during
development when a person (or animal) is
more responsive (‘sensitive’) to certain types of
environmental experiences or learning. Within this
period of time, we can most rapidly acquire a particular
skill or characteristic. Outside this period of time, they can still learn the skill. E.g playing an instrument.
Erik Erikson’s 8 stages
