Children's Developmental Psychology (Test Nov. 21st, 2024) Flashcards
Developmental psychology
The study of how people change physically and mentally throughout life.
Three major points of debate in human development
-Nature vs nurture: genes vs environment
-Continuity vs stages: Gradual development or clear stages
-Stability vs change: What changes and stays the same throughout the course of your life
Research methods
-Cross-sectional: Participants of different ages are studied at the same time
-Longitudinal study: One group of people is studied over the course of their lives
Twins
-Fraternal: Develop from two sets of eggs and sperm. Same or different gender.
-Identical: Develop from same egg and sperm. Same gender.
-Twins, particularly separated, are often used to study nature vs nurture (cross-sectional or longitudinal) and provide most of our knowledge in the field.
Teratogens
Any outside agent that interferes with prenatal development. Ex. alcohol
Congenital
Any issue one is born with.
Maturation
A human’s automatic and orderly mental and physical development. A poor environment can slow this, but a good one can’t speed it up.
Prenatal
The time before a child is born.
Neural maturation
You are born with all of your brain cells and your brain organizes them as you grow. Billions of neural pathways are formed as a child when exposed to knowledge and activities.
Pruning
Neural pathways that aren’t used are shut down.
By 15 months old
A child is typically able to roll over, crawl, and walk. Potty training varies.
Until age 3…
You don’t usually form permanent, conscious, recallable memories until age 3 (infantile amnesia). Subconscious learning develops faster.
Rooting reflex
Until about 3 weeks old, when you touch a babies mouth they will turn towards the contact (in search of the nipple). After 3 weeks, it becomes more voluntary.
Types of motor skills
Gross- Using large muscle movements. Ex. Jumping
Fine- Small muscle movements. Ex. Writing
Attachment
Humans attach by forming relationships, not imprinting on the first thing they see like animals.
Secure vs insecure attachment
You can achieve a secure attachment with a responsive mother. Unresponsive parents will cause insecure attachment. When a baby reacts to a smile or expects a response when upset, that means they have a healthier attachment.
Secure attachment style
Low avoidance and anxiety. Basic trust or mistrust is one of the first things a baby learns, showing them that the world can be predictable and reliable.
More exposure to things like the same shows and books can create fondness in a child.
Anxious/ambivalent attachment style
Low avoidance and high anxiety. Constantly craves acceptance but are always looking to be rejected.
Avoidant attachment style
Low anxiety and high avoidance. Maintaining distance from others.
Fearful attachment style
High avoidance and high anxiety. They believe they are unlovable and that others won’t accept them.
Average age of the abused child
9 years old and getting younger. It was 11 not long ago.
Temperment
The genetic predisposition to emotional intensity. It can make attachment difficult and isn’t necessarily the parents fault.
Harry and Margret Harlow
- They used rhesus monkeys to see if the infant monkey would spend more time with the wire surrogate mother that had milk or the mother with cloth that looked more like its real mother would.
Mary Ainsworth
The strange situation/observation- Experimented on stranger and separation anxiety in babies.
Schema/shemata
A mental classification categories. At 8 months schemata forms for familiar faces.
Stranger and separation anxiety
Stranger- When a face doesn’t fit a known category
Separation- When a child doesn’t trust that the parent will return.
Permissive parenting style
A parent wants to be liked so they give the child what they want. The child has less social skills and overreacts to mistakes.
Authoritarian parenting style
Focuses on obedience and uses punishment with no conversation. The child becomes more aggressive and immature.
Authoritative parenting style
Is the ideal parenting style. Enforces rules but there is a conversation, creating a more positive relationship. Focuses more on discipline. The child had high self-esteem, self-reliance, and social competence.
Uninvolved/negligent parenting style
Provides little guidance or attention. The child has poor academic/social performance and is unable to accept authority.
What are parenting styles effected by?
They can be effected by the child’s temperament as well as the culture and place. If you want different parenting as the child, try being a different child.
Discipline vs punishment
Punishment is more harsh and just for obedience while discipline is for learning and growth as well as obedience.
Jean Piaget
Developed the 4 Stages of Cognitive Ability idea. Its core is that mental progression throughout life is trying to make sense of new experiences, simple or complex.
Assimilate
Learn new experiences and put them into schemata we already know.
Accomidate
Learning a new procedure and schema with new information when assimilating into an old schema doesn’t work.
Lev Vygotsky
Created the sociocultural theory commonly used in education, specifically scaffolding. Schools operate in the zone of proximal development where teachers help students.
Things I can do on my own –> Zone of proximal development (can do with help) –> beyond my ability
Scaffolding
Building off of previously learned knowledge with help from an MKO (more knowledgeable other) based on what is within the students range.
Erik Erikson
Studied the stages of psychosocial development. Each step throughout life has something we need to learn.
Stage 1 of psychosocial development (Erik Erikson)
Stage 1- (Age 1-2) Basic trust vs mistrust that basic needs will be met.
Stage 2 of psychosocial development (Erik Erikson)
Stage 2- (Age 2-4) Autonomy vs shame. Developing independence with some tasks, feeling self-doubt when a sense of personal control over physical skills isn’t met, while success leads to feelings of autonomy (independence).
Stage 3 of psychosocial development (Erik Erikson)
Stage 3- (Age 4-5) Initiative vs guilt. Taking initiative in some activities, learning rules and consequences.
Stage 4 of psychosocial development (Erik Erikson)
Stage 4- (Age 5-12) Industry vs inferiority. Starts around the start of school. Developing confidence or inferiority in abilities, learning to compare themselves to others.
Stage 1 of the four stages of cognitive development (Jean Piaget)
Sensorimotor skills- (Birth-18 months) Learning occurs (often times through taste), crawling, going from gross to fine motor skills, infantile amnesia prevents implicit memories
Stage 2 of the four stages of cognitive development (Jean Piaget)
Preoperational- (2-7 years) Children are egocentric, begin to learn how to lie and what consequences are, begin to learn reversibility and conservation, and engage in two different types of play
Egocentric
For children, the world revolves around them, but not necessarily in a bad way like with narcissism.
Reversability
Being able to see relationships from other angles and situations from someone else’s perspective.
Conservation
Even if an object changes shape or is hidden from view, it holds the same properties as before.
Two types of play
Parallel- Playing in the same proximity as another child, but they’re not necessarily playing together.
Pretend- Playing by imagining that objects, actions, people, or ideas represent something else.
Stage 3 of the four stages of cognitive development (Jean Piaget)
Concrete operational stage- (Age 7-11) Seeing things as very literal, meaning they don’t understand humor and sarcasm as well. They begin to understand others perspectives and teamwork so it’s a good time to start team sports.
Stage 4 of the four stages of cognitive development (Jean Piaget)
Formal operation- (Age 11-12) They can do math beyond simple concepts, think creatively, use abstract reasoning, imagine outcomes, and begin to understand abstract concepts such as freedom and justice.
The effects of both parents on a child
Parenting is a two person job. The mother typically contributes to the child’s self-image, while the father typically effects how the child views authority.
Infantile amnesia
It prevents implicit memories from being formed as an infant.
Individualist vs collectivist
Individualist- Focuses on the individual rights of people and personal identity.
Collectivist- Stresses community, unity, family, and selflessness.
Ecological systems theory
We encounter different environments throughout our lifespan that influence our cognitive growth to varying degrees.
Microsystem
Relationships in a child’s immediate surroundings.
Exosystem
The environment and relationships of a child’s significant others.
Macrosystem
The culture that influences a child.
