Development (Ch. 11) Exam 3 Flashcards
developmental psychology
examines how people change through time (infancy - old age)
questions of developmental psychology?
Q: does development occur in stages of continuous?
A: both
Q: nature or nurture?
A: naturation, genetically determined biological processes which lead to orderly growth require building blocks from the environment
cross-sectional design
compares participants of different ages to each other at one point in time
(ex. 6-month baby vs. 12-month baby, changes can be attributed to a change in age, but with older people and greater age differences, hard to tell)
drawbacks of cross-sectional design
-hard to attribute change directly to age
-cohort effect- differences due to members of an age group sharing a set of common life experiences
longitudinal design
tracks participants at different times and sees the difference between
(ex. tracking a single group of infants from 6 months to age 2)
benefits and drawbacks of longitudinal design
+ : confident that people are changing over time
- : requires more time and resources, danger of attrition (people withdrawing before the study is completed)
sequential design
tracks multiple age groups across multiple time points
(ex. compares reading skills of 40-year-old vs. 50-year-old, then test the group again in 50 years)
benefits of a sequential design
-increases confidence that the observed changes are because of development and not cohort effect
-takes less time than longitudinal
conception of an egg
- mature egg released from ovary
- one sperm meets egg and fuses, all other sperm then shut out
- nuclei of egg and sperm fuse to form a zygote (new combo of 23 chromosomes)
germinal stage
- zygote cells multiply creating a blastocyst, which is implanted in the uterus (most don’t make it this far and get flushed out)
embryonic stage
(2-8 weeks)
5. placenta forms (the channel between mother and embryo)
- cells begin to differentiate
- endoderm layer (gut), mesoderm layer (skeletal and voluntary muscles), and ectoderm (nervous system and outer skin) form
fetal stage
(9-36 weeks) “fetus”
6. by 17th week ears begin to function, by 26th week, eyes open
“full-term”
(37 weeks)
7. developed enough for life outside the womb
how does a brain develop in an embryo?
rapidly develops starting a month after conception
1. neural tube
2. neural migration
neural tube
(1 month after conception, during the embryonic stage)
STEP #1: 3 pts develop (brainstem, cerebellum, spinal cord)
- initially no distinction between cells and types
neural migration
STEP #3: cells differentiate into neurons and glia
- glia guidewires & chemicals move neurons into position
- neurons organize into two layers (inside and outside) based on the time of arrival
- genes provide a “wiring diagram” to help neurons migrate
what happens when genes and chromosomes are disrupted at conception?
- if specific genes are disrupted: sickle-cell, cystic fibrosis, PKU
- extra copy of chromosome 21: down syndrome, delay in motor skills, intellectual disability
what happens when there are disruptions in the prenatal environment?
teratogens: environmental agents that interfere with healthy developing fetuses (mother and baby share placenta so travels from mother to baby) (ex. lead, mercury, carbon monoxide, etc.)
fetal alcohol syndrome
alcohol during pregnancy leads to developmental disorders, psychological problems and physical abnormalities
newborn reflexes
(automatic motor responses triggered by sensory stimulus)
- automatically open mouth when cheek touched as if expecting to suck nipple for milk
- grasp hand when touched (probably inherited from apes carrying babies on their back)
what developmental insights can we gain from newborn reflexes?
recognize mothers voice bc when they speak, babies tend to suck harder
newborn head, eye, facial movement control
- gaze longer at human faces
- newborns can imitate facial expressions (instructors made funny faces and babies could replicate)
habituation/ dishabituation
habituation - lower response to repeated stimuli (get bored).
dishabituation - greater response to a new stimulus
checkerboard habituation study
shower babies checkerboard of a single style for a while until looking time decreased, then showed a new pattern and looking time increased
baby motor development
- emerges from head to feet (can control hands before feet, so can catch themselves when they fall)
- emerges from center of body outwards (core strength before finer motor skills)
what is the impact of culture on baby development
(ex. some Caribbean cultures massage infants which can lead to them learning to walk faster more quickly)
(ex. sometimes put babies on their backs to sleep which can lead to slower motor development)
- simply need opportunities to practice
violation of expectation method study
a baby is shown an object moving in a radial pathway on a table. A block is then added such that you would expect the object to stop at the block, but the babies are presented with two possible outcomes. Either the object passes through the block (false floor and it falls in) which is impossible or it stops at the block which is possible. When it sees the possible action looking time doesn’t change, but when they see the impossible action looking time increases.
social referencing
relying on facial expressions of caretakers or other adults as a source of information on how to react. (but specific to humans, study had claw pick up object but only reacted when human picked up object)
what does separation anxiety indicate about an infant?
that they formed attachment (emotional bond) with their caretakers
what does separation anxiety look like in ducks?
imprinting (attached to organisms that they first see)