Development Flashcards
What is development?
The sequence of age related changes that occur as a person progresses from conception to death.
What four broad categories is our lifespan divided into?
Prenatal, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.
Prenatal development is further broken up into phases, what are the phases and how long do they last?
Germinal (the first 2 weeks). Embryonic (from 2 weeks to 2 months). Fetal (2 months until birth).
When does the germinal phase begin?
At fertilization, when the sperm and the egg make a zygote.
How long does it take for cell division to begin?
36 hours.
At what point does the mass of cells implant in the uterine wall?
Around the 7th day.
What happens in the embryonic phase?
The vital organs and most bodily systems begin to form in what is now referred to as an embryo.
When does the embryo begin to look human?
In the end of the embryonic stage, it has arms, hands, fingers, feet, toes, and eyes that are all discernible.
When do most miscarriages and structural birth defects occur?
The embryonic stage.
When does the fetus reach the age of viability?
Some time between 22 and 26 weeks.
What are teratogens?
Any external agents that can harm an embryo or fetus.
When is the most vulnerable stage for an embryo?
The three week mark.
How do effects of substances such as tobacco, recreational, and prescription drugs reach the fetus?
Through the placenta.
What are some examples of diseases that are particularly deadly to fetuses if the mother has it?
Genital herpes and AIDS.
AIDS contraction between mother and fetus has gone down substantially over the past couple decades, what is this mostly attributed to?
Medical advances.
What can prevent transmission of genital herpes to a baby during birth?
A C-section.
What has recent research indicated about maternal emotions as they relate to prenatal development?
Research indicates that anxiety and depression in pregnant women are associated with an increased prevalence of various behavioural problems int heir offspring.
What psychological disorder is indicated to be more prevalent as a result of prenatal malnutrition?
Schizophrenia.
What prenatal deficiency has been linked with heart disease later in life?
Low birth weight.
What does motor development refer to?
The progression of muscular coordination required for physical activities.
What are the two trends in motor development?
The cephalocaudal trend and the proximodistal trend.
What is the cephalocaudal trend?
The trend where motor development progresses from the head to the feet - in that order.
What is the proximodistal trend?
The trend where children gain control of their torso before their extremities.
What is progress in motor development in infants attributed to?
Their experimentation and memory of the consequences of their activities.
What are developmental norms?
Norms that indicate the median age at which individuals display various behaviours and abilities.
When should developmental norms become a cause of concern for parents?
When their children start to fall very far behind the norms (when they are in the lower 10%)
Does the amount of special practice/training in motor skills after birth speed up development of these skills?
Yes, but only to an extent.
E.g., the Kipsigis people train their babies hard, and they can only make their children develop a month before North American children.
Is it also possible to delay motor development?
Yes.
E.g., the Ache, nomadic people, don’t let their children venture far from their mothers. This delays walking by about a year from North Americans.
What are the two types of studies involved in researching development?
Longitudinal and cross-sectional.
What are longitudinal studies?
In these, researchers observe a group of participants repeatedly over a period of time.
i.e., comparing the same people at different stages in life.
What are cross-sectional studies?
In these, researchers compare groups of participants of differing age at a single point in time.
e.g., comparing 50 six year olds, 50 eight year olds, etc.
Which are the advantages of cross-sectional studies?
Cheaper, faster to conduct.
What is the main disadvantage of cross-sectional studies?
Changes that appear to be relict are actually just the cohort effect.
What is the cohort effect?
When differences between age groups are due to the groups growing up in different time periods.
What is temperament?
Characteristic mood, activity level, and emotion reactivity.
What did Thomas and Chess (1977) observe in a major longitudinal study?
They found evidence suggesting that temperamental individuality is fixed by the time an infant is 2 or 3 months old.
What are Thomas and Chess’ three types of temperament?
Easy children, slow-to-warm-up children, and difficult children.
Is it possible to change temperament?
It is not impossible, but it is very rare.
Which type of temperament tend to be the most well-rounded? Which have the highest rate of emotional problems?
Easy children are most well-rounded, difficult children have the highest rate of emotional problems.
What did Kagan et al. find about infants that displayed inhibited vs. uninhibited temperaments?
Around 15-20% of children were inhibited, and around 25-30% were uninhibited. Inhibited children were found to be more likely to develop anxiety disorders.
What is a major indicator of temperament?
Heredity and genes.
Are temperaments universally distributed?
No. The proportion of children with inhibited temperaments may be higher in some parts of the world than others.
E.g., Chinese babies are more inhibited than NA babies.
What is attachment?
Refers to close, emotional bonds of affection that develop between infants and their caregivers.
What is the first attachment that an infant makes?
Normally it is their mother.
How long does it take for infants to begin showing preferences for either parent?
About 6 - 8 weeks, and it is normally for the mother.
What is separation anxiety?
Emotional distress seen in many infants when they are separated from people with whom they have formed an attachment.
When does separation anxiety tend to emerge, peak, and decline?
Around 6 - 8 months of age, and it peaks around 14 - 18 months old. Then it declines.
What is the trend of separation anxiety across cultures?
It seems to be culturally universal.
What did behaviourists believe about attachment between mother and child?
Mothers were associated with the power positive reinforcement of being fed.
Harlow tested the behaviourist theory of attachment, what did his studies involve?
Giving a baby rhesus monkey a choice between a cold wireframe “mother” that provided food, and a soft cloth “mother” that provided no food.
What did Harlow find about rhesus monkey’s preference for mother figure?
They much preferred the cloth mother that provided comfort than they preferred the food giving mother.
What is Bowlby’s attachment theory?
His view is that infants are biologically programmed to emit behaviour that triggers an affectionate, protective response from adults - who are also programmed to be captivated by the behaviour.
E.g., cute factors such as smiling, cooing, clinging, etc.
What was Ainsworth’s patterns of attachment theory?
That attachment emerges out of a complex interplay between infant and mother, and that attachment can be divided into four categories.
What are Ainsworth’s four categories?
Secure attachment, anxious-ambivalent attachment, avoidant attachment, and disorganized-disoriented attachment.
What is secure attachment?
When children play and explore comfortably when the mother is present, and become visibly upset when she leaves.
What is anxious-ambivalent attachment?
When children appear constantly anxious, even when their mother is near. When the mother leaves, they protest excessively. They are not particularly comforted when she returns.
What is avoidant attachment?
When children seek little to no contact with their mother, and don’t give a rat’s ass when she leaves.
What is disorganized-disoriented attachment?
Children appear confused about whether they should approach or avoid their mother, and are especially insecure.
Who is responsible for the nature of the attachment between mother and infant?
Both the mother and the child play important roles.
What traits tend to express themselves in securely attached infants?
Resilience, competence as toddlers, and high self-esteem. Persistence, curiosity, self reliance, leadership in preschool. Positive moods, healthier coping, fewer hostility problems in mid-childhood.
Which trait is dominant throughout the world?
Secure attachment.
Who put forward the first psychological theory of personality?
Freud.
What was Freud’s theory of personality?
That it was set in stone by age 5.
What was Erik Erikson’s major change to Freud’s theory of personality?
He agreed that childhood played a large role, but Erikson believed that personality was dynamic over time.
What is a stage theory?
A theory that assumes that individuals must progress through specified stages in a particular oder because each stage builds upon the previous stage.
What is Erikson’s stage theory?
The theory that the lifespan is made up of 8 stages, each of which brings a psychosocial crisis that involves transitions in important social relationships.
How does Erikson’s stage theory suppose people’s personalities are formed.
How people resolve struggles between opposing tendencies determines their personality.
