Development Flashcards
Nativism
children are born with specific abilities or those that they gain automatically with maturity
Empiricism
children MUST acquire certain skills with experience and practice
Domain-generality
all aspects of the mind are connected into a unified whole, development of one ability means the development of all others (like “g”)
Domain-specificity
development of one ability is independent of the development of others (like multiple intelligences)
Stage theories
children develop through a series of universal stages that must be completed in succession, different abilities come from different stages; Abrupt qualitative stages
Continuous theories
each child develops according to their own path and any ability can emerge at any time depending on the child’s experiences/genetics; Continuous quantitative change
Cross-sectional design
Developmental methodological design where many participants of different ages/cohorts are observed in parallel and compared to each other at one point in time
Cohort effects
a third variable problem where differences among younger and older participants may be attributed to changes in socialization, life events, nutrition, or experience rather than age
Longitudinal Design
Developmental methodological design where the same person/cohort is observed doing the same study multiple times over their lifetime and scores are compared to their past selves
Sequential design
Combines the cross-sectional and longitudinal approaches; Can compare different age groups to each other and to themselves across time
Instinctual behaviors
babies do tasks where we measure their natural/evolutionary behaviors
Looking preference
measuring where and for how long babies look to determine what they are thinking, since their perceptual systems develop early
Searching and foraging
capitalizing on children’s curiosity for foraging and searching for things once they crawl
Embedding into games
capitalizing on children’s gravitation towards playing by creating tasks that seem to be games
Habituation
decreased response to repeated stimulation but dishabituates when shown a new and different stimulus
Searching ability of babies
Toddlers remember up to 3 objects, children’s memory gets more precise with age, memory capacity and spatial development undergo dramatic changes
Children’s propensity to play games and figure out rules
When an adult instructs a child how to play with a toy, the child is likely to do just that and spends less time exploring new functions
Germinal stage
first 2 weeks of zygote, cells multiply rapidly into a blastocyst, which implants itself in the uterus
Embryonic stage
2-8 weeks; inner cells of blastocyst form the embryo and placenta forms where outer cells of blastocyst meet the uterus wall, which acts as a channel between mother and embryo
Teratogens
Chemical agents that impair or alter prenatal development usually by changing the expression of various genes
Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)
disorder caused by exposure to ethanol alcohol during the prenatal period through the placenta
Down Syndrome
neurodevelopmental disorder caused by a third copy of chromosome 21; Symptoms: physical changes and delays in motor skills, moderate intellectual disability; A domain-general disorder
Williams syndrome
caused by deletion of about 26 genes on chromosome 7; Symptoms: changes in facial appearance (nasal bridge, wide mouth), problems in IQ and visuospatial abilities; A domain-specific disorder as language and social skills remain unaffected
Puberty
period of sexual maturation during which males and females become capable of reproduction
