Chapter 9 - Developmental Psychology Flashcards
Developmental Psychology
a sequence of age related changes that a person progresses through from conception to death
Theories of Development:
- nature v nurture
- continuity v stages
- stability v change
Developmental Theories: nature v nurture
we are who we are based on genetics or based on our environment, life experiences and upbringing
○ They are both as equally important however there are nurture factors which impact development § Gender § Culture: normals, values, beliefs and traditions passed down § Peer vs parental influence: parents teach us authority while peers teach cooperation § Prenatal environment
Developmental Theories: Continuity v Stages
(continuous v discontinuous): do we see development as one smooth process or in well-defined linear stages
Theory of Developmental Stages: stability v change
- Stability and change: says personality is associated with one’s age or your personality changes over time as a result of nurture and the ability to adapt
Newborn(Birth-2yrs): physical development
- Rapid brain developments
- Head develops faster than body
- Control over head is developed faster than body
- Motor development is in a universal sequence but individual timing
Brain Developments in a NewBorns Physical Development
- Neural pathways develop rapidly
- The frontal lobes grow
- Neural pathways supporting language and agility continue growing into puberty
- A critical period where exposure to certain stimuli is needed for proper development
Motor Skill Development in a Newborns Physical Development
○ develop as nervous system and muscles mature
○ Develop universally in sequence but not in timing
○ Are guided by genes(nature)
Reflexes newborns develop in motorskill development
Rooting reflex: the involuntary muscular responses to stimulation in their mouth
- Grasping reflex: Involuntary muscular response in the hand when something is placed there
- Stepping reflexes(nurture): when they are held upwards, their legs involuntarily walk
Newborns(birth-2yrs): Social Development:
- bonds of attachment: emotional relationship between an infant and their caregiver
○ Secure:
○ Insecure:
§ Avoidantly attached: not noticing or caring parents departure or return
§ Anxiously attached: cling to mothers and cry when they leave - Stranger Anxiety: fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months
○ Children have schemas for familiar faces
○ Protects babies who evaluate unfamiliar people and possible threats - Temperaments: the nature of a person which affects their personality
○ Difficult: irritable, intense and unpredictable
○ Easy: cheerful and relaxed
○ Slow to warm up
Newborns(birth-2yrs): Cognitive Development:
Sensorimotor: experiencing the world through senses
Abilities of Sensorimotor:
- Object permanence: the awareness that objects and people continue to exist even when not perceived
- Kids don’t understand this yet
- Stranger Anxiety: fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months - Children have schemas for familiar faces Protects babies who evaluate unfamiliar people and possible threats
Early Childhood(2-7yrs): Social Development
- Play:
navigates through these 3 distinct processes○ Solitary: by them selves ○ Parallel: by themselves but side by side of others ○ Cooperative: with others
Early Childhood(2-7yrs): cognitive development:
Preoperational stage: thinking is illogical, symbolic thought, imaginary friends
Abilities in the preoperational Stage:
- Pretend play: enjoyed by children who can think in symbols
- Egocentrism: a child's difficulty in taking in another point of view Kids can't put themselves in another peoples shoes
Middle Childhood(7-11yrs): Social Development
- Still close to parents
- Peer relationships become more important
Middle Childhood(7-11yrs): Cognitive Development:
Concrete Operational Stage: they can’t think abstractly and can only think in things that are tangible
- Can only think about things they can see or put their hands on
Abilities in the Concrete Operational Stage:
- Conservation: properties such as mass, volume and numbers remain the same despite changes in shape
○ Two same amounts of milk were poured into different shaped glasses
○ Piaget’s tested this and the visually preoperational child is unable to understand the principle of conversion but the concrete operational stage can
- Mathematical Transformation: wouldn’t know that 3x5 is the same as 5x3
Adolescents(12-adulthood) Physical Development:
- Primary sex characteristics: development of sex organs
○ E.g. growth and dropping of testicles- Secondary sex characteristics: external signs of development
○ E.g. voice deepens, hair growth
- Secondary sex characteristics: external signs of development
Adolescents(12-adulthood): Social Development: parental relationships
- issues stem around forging your own identity
- parent child arguments increase
○ Normally gender related- Parents have influence in shaping religious and political views
- Choosing college and major
Adolescents(12-adulthood): Social Development: Peer relationships
- Select others similar to them
- Sort themselves into likeminded groups
- Focus more on immediate rewards and discount the future
- Talk, dress and act like their peers
Adolescents(12-adulthood): cognitive Development:
- Formal Operations: Develop reasoning power
○ Can apply new abstract thinking ○ Reason logically ○ Search for spirituality and a deeper meaning of life
Early Adulthood(20’s-30’s): physical Development:
- Muscular strength, reaction time and sensory keenness and cardiac output peak in their mid-twenties
Early Adulthood(20’s-30’s): Social Development:
Intimacy V Isolation:
- Young adults struggle to form close relationships and to gain the capacity for intimate love, or they feel socially isolated
Early Adulthood(20’s-30’s): Cognitive Development
Peak time for learning and memory
Middle Adulthood(30’s-65): Physical Development
- Physical vigor is more closely linked to health and exercise than age
- Physical decline and infertility are gradual
○ Women experience menopause
○ Men experience a gradual decrease in sperm count, testosterone level and speed or erection and ejaculation
- Physical decline and infertility are gradual
Middle Adulthood(30’s-65): Social Development
- Generativity V Stagnation
- People discover a sense of contributing to the world, usually through family and work, or they may feel a lack of purpose
Middle Adulthood(30’s-65): Cognitive Development:
Greater decline in recalled information compared to memory recognition
Late Adulthood(65-): Physical Development:
changes in vision
○ Difficulty in seeing fine details and eyes take longer to adapt to different light levels
- Changes in the brain ○ Small and gradual net loss of brain cells ○ Affected memory, impulsivity and ability to solve complex problems - Changes in perception ○ Smell, hearing and distance perception
Late Adulthood(65-): Social Development:
- Integrity V Despair
- Reflecting on their lives, older adults may either feel a sense of satisfaction or failure.
Late Adulthood(65-): Cognitive Development:
- Characterized by better retention of meaningful information
- Terminal decline of cognition occurs in last 4 years of life
Piaget Perspective:
that a child’s mind develops through stages and that children are active thinkers trying to construct a more advanced understanding of the world
Criticisms of Piagets Perspective
- Underestimates children’s abilities
- Underestimates genetic and social cultural influences
- Does not take into account genetic and cultural differences
Stagesin Piagets Stages of Cognitive Development
Birth-2yrs:
- Sensorimotor: experiencing the world through senses and actions
- Object permanence: the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived
2-7yrs:
- Preoperational: represent things with words and images using intuitive rather than logical reasoning
○ Pretend play and egocentrism
7-11yrs:
- Concrete Operational: thinking logically about concrete events, grasping concrete analogies and performing arithmetical operations
○ Can only think about things they can see or put their hands on
○ Conservation
○ Mathematical transformations
12-adulthood:
- formal operational: reasoning abstractly
○ Thinking like adults in every capacity
○ Abstract logic
○ Potential for mature moral reasoning
Sociocultural theory of Cognitive Development(Vygotsky):
views human development as a socially mediated process in which children acquire their cultural beliefs, values, and problem solving strategies with more knowledgeable members of society
- developed by Vygotsky who believes sociocultural influences on thoughts rather than internal schemas in childrens cognitive development
- Believed adults play an instructor role in children’s development
- Children from the age of 7 are able to internalize their cultures language and rely on inner speech.
- Childrens minds grow from interactions with the social environment and parents/others provide temporary scaffolds to facilitate a child's higher level of thinking.
Vygotsky’s Theories: ZPD
the area between what a person can accomplish on their own and what they can accomplish with the help of others who are more competent.
- The range of abilities that an individual can perform with assistance but cannot yet perform independently - Proximal skills: skills an individual is close to mastering but needs more guidance and practice in order to perform these independently.
Factors essential to the learning process of ZPD
- The presence of someone with the knowledge and skills to guide the learner
- Scaffolding guides the learner through the ZPD
- Social interactions allowing the learner to observe and practice their skills
Vygotsky’s Theories: Scaffolding
- Goal of the educator is to get the student to become an independent learner and problem solver.
- Teachers provide the scaffolds so that the learner can accomplish certain tasks they wouldn’t normally be able to.
by giving children new words and mentoring them, parents, teachers and others provide children with steps to higher levels of thinking.
Attachment
an emotional tie with a person
Origins of Attachment:
- Infants become attached to people who are comfortable and familiar
Types of Attachment
- Secure: sensitive and responsive mothers have infants who are securely attached
○ In their mothers presences, infants play comfortably and explore their new environment
○ When she leaves, they become upset
○ When she returns, they seek contact- Insecure: Marked by anxiety or avoidance of trusting relationships due to insensitive and unresponsive mothers
○ Infants are less likely to explore their surroundings
○ Less likely to notice or care about the mother leaving and returning
- Insecure: Marked by anxiety or avoidance of trusting relationships due to insensitive and unresponsive mothers
Attachment Styles on Future Relationships
- Secure leads to a sense of basic trust
- People with secure relationships with their parents tend to enjoy secure friendships
- Anxious attachment can annoy relationship partners
- Avoidant style decreases commitment and increases conflict
Deprivation of Attachment
the failure to attach early on in life contributing to adverse consequences
- Individuals are often withdrawn and frightened - Extreme childhood trauma impacts the brain - Abuse victims can suffer from depression, substance abuse, binge eating or aggression
Parenting Styles and outcomes associated with them: Authoritarian:
sets rules, expects obedience but doesn’t explain why
- children have lower social skills and self-esteem, and their brain overreacts when they make mistakes - Leads to a rebellious adult
Parenting Styles and outcomes associated with them: Permissive:
lets the kid do whatever they want to do and how they do it
- children are more aggressive and immature
- Can have difficult with time, place and manner restrictions
Can also be super creative and problem solvers as they are allowed to think and have the freedom to do what they want
Parenting Styles and outcomes associated with them: Authoritative:
the one who sets the rules, expects obedience and explains why
- children have the highest self esteem, self reliance, self regulation and social competence.
Erik Eriksons theory for Stages of Psychosocial Development
a theory that states that in life and for each developmental stage, you will experience a psychosocial crisis which will affect your personality development and how you navigate the world socially
- Can be either positive or negative outcomes - Psychosocial in nature as it involves psychological needs of the individual conflicting with needs of society - Successful completion of each stage can result in a healthy personality
Stages in Erik Eriskons Psychosocial Development:
Infancy(0-1yr):
Trust v Mistrust
If needs are dependably met, infant develops a sense of basic trust(secure attachment)
Stages in Erik Eriskons Psychosocial Development: Toddlerhood(1-3yrs):
Autonomy V Shame and doubt
○ Toddlers learn to exercise their will and do things for themselves, or they doubt their abilities
○ How adults let kids work things out and exercise free wills can lead to the feeling confident in trying or doubtful in themselves
Stages in Erik Eriskons Psychosocial Development: Preschool(3-6yrs):
initiative V guilt
○ Preschoolers learn to initiate tasks and carry out plans or they feel guilty about their efforts to be independent
Stages in Erik Eriskons Psychosocial Development: Elementary School(6-puberty):
competence V inferiority
○ Children learn the pleasure of applying themselves to tasks, or they feel inferior
Stages in Erik Eriskons Psychosocial Development: Adolescence(teen-20’s):
Identity V Role confusion
○ Teenagers work at refining a sense of self by testing roles and then integrating them to form a single identity, or they feel socially isolated
Stages in Erik Eriskons Psychosocial Development: Middle Adulthood(40’s-60’s):
Generativity V Stagnation
○ People discover a sense of contributing to the world, usually through family and work, or they may feel a lack of purpose
Stages in Erik Eriskons Psychosocial Development: Young Adulthood(20’s-40’s)
Intimacy V Isolation
○ Young adults struggle to form close relationships and to gain the capacity for intimate love, or they feel socially isolated
Stages in Erik Eriskons Psychosocial Development: Late Adulthood(60’s onwards):
Integrity V Despair
Reflecting on their lives, older adults may either feel a sense of satisfaction or failure.
