development Flashcards
qualitative vs. quantitative developmental progress
- qualitative: abrupt changes in stages, moving from one stage to the next
- quantitative: gradual, continual change throughout development
prenatal environmental effects
tetragens: environmental agents that can interfere with healthy fetal development
novelty
- newborns show interest in new stimuli
- habituation:
- a form of learning
- infants become less responsive to a repeated stimulus
- dishabituation:
- the recovery of a response that has undergone habituation, typically because of a new stimulus
motor development
- the ability to coordinate and perform bodily movements
- motor skills emerge in sequence:
- from the head to the feet
- from the center outward
- huge variation in pace of development
cognitive development
changes in all of the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating
jean piaget
stages of cognitive development
stages of cognitive development
- sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years)
- preoperational stage (2 to 7 years)
- concrete operational stage (7 to 12 years)
- formal operational stage ( 12 years and up)
sensorimotor stage
- knowledge through senses and actions
- no symbols or language
- no object permanence
preoperational stage
- symbols, simple object classification (colour, shape)
- struggles to see situations from multiple perspectives
- struggle to imagine how situations can change
concrete operational stage
- can use multiple perspectives and imagination to solve complex problems
- can apply this thinking to concrete or events
formal operational stage
- adolescents can reason about abstract problems and hypothetical propositions
critiques of piaget’s theory
- underestimates children’s abilities
- oversimplifies the process of cognitive development
- cognitive development is more continuous rather than stage-like
biology of development
- neural proliferation: the creation of new synaptic connections
- synaptic pruning: the trimming back of unnecessary synapses according to a “use it or lose it”\
- myelination of axons: the process of insulating axons in myelin, which speeds their conductivity and allows information to move more rapidly through the brain and body
___ areas of the brain mature fastest, ___ lobes mature more slowly
sensory, frontal
social referencing
using others’ facial expression for information about how to react to a situation
attachment
the strong, enduring, emotional bond between an infant and a caregiver
imprinting
attaching to the first moving object an organism sees
harry harlow attatchment
- thought human infants attach to those who provide food
- study of infant monkeys and cloth vs. wire mothers
john bowlby attachment
- comfort, not nutrition, is crucial for human attachment
- caregiver = secure base
mary ainsworth’s three attachment styles
- secure attachment
- insecure/avoidant attachment
- insecure/ambivalent attachment
temperament
- a person’s characteristic patterns of emotion and behaviour that are evident from an early age and argued to be genetically determined
- irritable temperaments
- associated with a higher likelihood of developing insecure attachment
symbolic representation
the use of words, sounds, gestures, visual images, or objects to stand for other things
- capacity begins in early childhood
- symbolic schemas: language, imaginative play
egocentrism
difficulty that preoperational children have thinking about how objects or situations are perceived by other people
theory of mind
understanding that we and other people have different minds that represent the world in different ways, and that this knowledge can explain and predict how others will behave
sociocultural view of development
- lev vygotsky
- the child’s mind grows through social interaction with knowledgable others
scaffolding
promoting cognitive development by actively challenging and supporting children as they attempt things that are beyond current capabilities
authoritative parenting style
the parents are nurturing, responsive, and supportive, yet set firm limits for their children
authoritarian parenting style
rigid rules with no explanation, and expect their children to obey them without question or face severe punishment
permissive parenting style
parents who are responsive to their children, but lack rules and discipline
disengaged parenting style
neither demanding nor responsive, and they provide little to no emotional support, guidance, or attention to the child’s needs
adolescence and the brain
- burst of synaptic growth just before puberty
- followed by a second wave of synaptic pruning
- myelination increases
kohlberg’s levels of moral reasoning
- preconventional stage: moral judgements are based on self-interest, such as reward and punishment
- conventional stage: moral judgements are based on caring for others and upholding social roles and rules
- postconventional stage: moral judgements are based on ideals and broad moral principles
identity and erik erikson
- stages of social development across lifespan
- each stage has a developmental task, and a potential psychosocial crisis
- adolescent stage: identity vs. role confusiont
social clock
norms that imply a typical timing of life milestones like marriage, parenthood, and retirement
- deviations from the social clock can cause stress
two tasks of adulthood according to erikson
love and work
marriage/romantic partnership
- married people live longer and have better well-being
generativity (contributing to the world)
- more positive emotions
- greater satisfaction with life and work
- individual differences in timing and strength of desire
parenthood
- may decrease well-being, marital satisfaction, and life-satisfaction
- may increase:
- happiness
- postive emotions
- sense of meaning in life
late adulthood: cognition
- most intellectual abilities get worse
- crystalized intelligence gets better
- risk of disorders of cognitive decline
predictors of later-life physical and cognitive health
- exercise
- more intellectual, leisure, and social activities
- education and complex jobs
- healthy diets
