Developmental Flashcards
Longitudinal Studies
repetitive studies of the same people over time to understand their changes
advantages
- measure age-related changes
- stronger conclusions
disadvantages
- time consuming, expensive, attrition (loss of participants)
- generational effects - generalising results over culturally-influenced time periods
- practice effects from repeated measures
- difficulties in determining the data
Cross-Sectional Design
people from different age groups are measured at the same time
advantages
- measures age-related differences
- less time consuming/expensive
disadvantages
- cohort effects: effects of societal change, third variable can confound data of the age
- hyperspecific
Genotype
genetic blueprint; DNA passed from parents to child
Phenotype
observable physical or psychological attributes
Homozygous or Heterozygous
describes allele pairs, two identical alleles are homozygous, bearing two different alleles is heterozygous
Heritability
the degree to which variation in a particular trait among individuals is due to genetic differences among those individuals
Monozygotic and Dizygotic Twins
monozygotic - twins split the zygote in two, 100% of genes are identical
dizygotic - share 50% of their genetic makeup
G x E Interactions
gene –> phenotype –> environment –> (triangle)
Limitations Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
- overestimates adults ability, underestimates ability in children
- conservation of ideas may vary depending on the child, which is not viewable in Piaget’s lack of depth
- task demands: where to devote your attention and resources, distractor involved, level of focus
Prenatal Development
- conception to birth
- formation of a zygote in fallopian tube
- roughly 266 days for one-celled zygote to fetus
Prenatal Development - Germinal Period
- conception through implantation, 14 days
- zygote travels towards uterus
- divides and forms blastocyst
- 16 to 64 cells
Prenatal Development - Embryonic Period
- 3rd to 8th week
- formation of major organs (not functional) at 8 weeks, facial structures fuse
- blastocyst implants in uterine wall
- layers of cells differentiate and become parts of the body
Prenatal Development - Fetal Period
- from 9th week until birth (38 weeks)
- organ and brain systems begin to function
- at 6 months they are able to hear, sound level 75db, hear their mother’s voice and heartbeat are best heard
- limit of viability = 24 weeks
- more responsive
- 6 months, capable of responding to light
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)
a cluster of abnormalities that appear in the offspring of mothers who drink alcohol heavily during pregnancy
- microcephaly, brain damage, cognitive/learning delays
- malformations of face
- congenital heart disease
- joint anomalies
Critical Period
period of time during development when certain experiences are crucial for a particular feature of development to emerge
Sensitive Period
period of time during which experience is optimal for the development of a particular function, but is not critical
Visual Acuity
measure of the ability of the eye to distinguish shapes and the detail of objects at a given distance
babies improve over first few months, newborns all see colour but have difficulty distinguishing them if they are equally bright
Tests of Monocular Deprivation
absence of visual experience makes it so development doesn’t occur, thus causing a failure to recover
Attachment
infants form with attachment with primary caregiver
John Bowlby Attachment Theory
- attachment in early childhood is important for life
- long-term impact, adaptive bond, safe bond,
development of attachment
- newborns recognise their mother’s voice in utero, infants recognise mothers face in first few days, separation anxiety, familiarity preferences
Measurement of Attachment - Mary Ainsworth
- Secure Attachment - welcomes return, seeks closeness, comforted
- Insecure-Avoidant Attachment - not phased by leaving, ignores on return
- Insecure-Anxious Attachment - very upset leaving, rejecting on return, desires closeness
- Disorganised Attachment - behaviour is contradictory
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
- constructivist approach, thought that children construct knowledge by mixing their experiences with their own ideas
- schemas interpret experiences
- accommodation (adjusting schemas to fit with reality)
- assimilation (fitting reality into existing schemas)
Sensorimotor Stage (Piaget)
- think with hands, mouths and senses, limited high order reasoning
- sensing and acting
- object permanence milestone
Preoperational Stage (Piaget)
- symbolic thought: can imagine without action, still egocentric, limited high order reasoning, lack perspective
- centration: fixate on a single feature of an object, fail conservation tasks, fail dimensional card sorting tasks
