developmental psych

Question 1

what is developmental psychology?

Answer 1

• the study of human behaviour as a function of age
• how and why we change
• change as a function of:
  1. physical maturation
  2. cognitive development
  3. social experience

Question 2

areas of study

Answer 2

physical development
- body changes, motor skills, puberty, physical signs of aging
cognitive development
- perception, language, learning, memory, problem solving
psychosocial development
- personality, emotions, gender identity, moral behaviour, interpersonal skills, roles

Question 3

change and continuities

Answer 3

change
- systematic changes are orderly, patterned, and relatively enduring
- eg crawling to walking
- developmental milestones
continuities
- ways in which we remain the same or consistent over time
- eg attachment from infancy to adulthood
- personality

Question 4

early experience

Answer 4

1. egg and sperm
2. zygote
3. blastocyst
4. embryo
5. foetus

Question 5

egg and sperm

Answer 5

genes from mother and father combine

Question 6

blastocyst

Answer 6

a. cluster of cells divide and multiply
b. days 5-9

Question 7

embryo

Answer 7

a. early stage
b. formation of body structure, tissues, organs
c. 8 weeks

Question 8

foetus

Answer 8

a. unborn offspring
b. major body organs, not fully developed

Question 9

developmental theories

Answer 9

• framework to organise thinking
• lens that guides collection of new facts
  1. can also limit which facts we notice
• different theories dominate at different times

Question 10

major theories of development

Answer 10

• psychoanalytic theory (Freud and Erikson)
• cognitive developmental theory (Piaget and Kohlberg)
• social cognitive theory (early behaviourist theories through to Bandura’s)
• ethological theory (attachment theories of ainsworth and Bowlby