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Psych1001 > Developmental Psych > Flashcards

Developmental Psych Flashcards

1
Q

What is development

A

Learning, something changing, growth, behaviour changes, understanding,

Physical, language, cognitive, social (understanding of how society works), brain, emotional development.

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2
Q

Characteristics of developmental change

A

Orderly (happens in a predictable sequence)

Cumulative (children build on skills and this gets more complex as they get older)

Directional (building on skills forward usually)

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3
Q

Why do we study development

A

Basic science:
Study how psychological things in adulthood work through understanding things in childhood.
E.g. how clinical disorders can manifests themselves in adolescence.

Applied science:
Also by understanding development, psychologists can apply it to different fields

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4
Q

Goals of development psychology

A

To describe:
They observe how human beings change over time

To explain:
They want to understand what causes developmental change

To apply:
They try to use their knowledge to optimize developmental outcome

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5
Q

Longitudinal studies

A

E.g. Get a big group of babies and test them. Come back at 12 months old. Then 18 months. Then 24 months etc. Infants develop quickly so can see a change quickly.

Measures age-related changes

Basically longitudinal studies that a rlly long time. Test same subjects in their development over a long time.

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6
Q

Disadvantages of longitudinal studies

A

Very time consuming, expensive and worry about attrition (pple dropping out)

Worry about generation differences (social conditions have changed so results from the experiment may be effected by this)

Practise effects from repeated measures (need to make sure that participants are getting better at the task bc of development NOT bc of practice effect)

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7
Q

Cross sectional design

A

Easier to run than longitudinal designs
E.g. group of 6 month babies, a group of 18 month etc. and then compare the different groups of babies.

Participants from different age groups are studied at the same time

Less time consuming/expensive

Cross sectional designs measure DIFFERENCES across different age groups rather than CHANGES (which is longitudinal studies)

Take a snapshot in time

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8
Q

Disadvantage of cross sectional design

A

cohort effects (mistake a age related difference are due to some other factor other than age) There are other differences other than age that can be in the different groups e.g. race, environment, experiences

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9
Q

Example of cross sectional vs longitudinal study

A

Pascalis, de Haan, & Nelson (2002)- Cross sectional design of 3 groups

6 month olds could distinguish both monkey and human faces
9 months could only distinguish human
And adults could only distinguish human faces too.
THUS some time between 6-9 months, babies lose the ability to distinguish monkey faces

SO, he tried a Longitudinal design to see if he could help babies to continue to recognise monkeys.

Infants were tested at 6 months and 9 months
Some were trained during the 3 months and some were not.
At 9 months, only infants that had monkey training could distinguish the faces.

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10
Q

Nature vs nurture

A

INTERACTION of biological and environmental factors

Is it all about your genes OR does the environment you grew up in make a difference

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11
Q

Chromosomes

A

threadlike structure found in nucleus

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12
Q

Genes

A

instructions for making particular proteins (the basic blueprint)

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13
Q

DNA

A

double stranded molecules that make up chromosomes

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14
Q

ZYGOTE

A

a single cell (sperm- 23 chromosomes + eggs- 23 chromosomes)

each parent contributes half of your genetic make-up

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15
Q

ALLELES

A

Same gene has different forms called ALLELES
You have 2 alleles for every gene- 1 from each parent

If ur 2 alleles are the same form –> HOMOZYGOUS
If ur 2 alleles for gene are different forms –> HETEROZYGOUS

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16
Q

When is a gene ‘expressed’

A

A gene is ‘expressed’ if it has been turned on to make its specific protein

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17
Q

Genotype

A

genetic blueprint, DNA passed from parents to child

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18
Q

Phenotype

A

observable physical or psychological traits or qualities

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19
Q

Behaviour genetics

A

where researchers try to understand how genetic and environmental factors combine to produce individual differences in behaviour (phenotype)

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20
Q

Heritability

A

the extent to which variation in particular traits (IQ, shyness, schizophrenia etc.) can be attributed to genetic differences among the population

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21
Q

Kinship studies

A

family, twin and adoption studies

We can use what we know about degree of relatedness (how far related the family member is) to work out the relative contribution of genes and environment to a particular phenotype

E.g. Degree of relatedness: the probability of sharing genes among relatives
Identical twins (MZ) have 1 degree of relatedness
Fraternal twins (DZ) have 0.5 degree of relatedness
Siblings have 0.5 degree of relatedness
Adopted siblings have 0 degree of relatedness

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22
Q

Twin studies

A

MZ and DZ twins share 100% vs 50% of genes
Compare how similar a trait is between MZ twins and DZ twins. If it is more similar in MZ twins, then we can say the trait is heritable

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23
Q

Heritability estimates have been obtained for many human traits like?

A 
Physical characteristics (e.g. 80% height) 
Mental illnesses (e.g. 50% schizophrenia)
Developmental disabilities (e.g. autism 64-91%) 
Intelligence
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24
Q

Genes and environments

A

Certain genes are expressed at certain times in response to certain environmental influences (environment factors ‘turn on’ genes)

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25
Q

Dunedin Multidisciplinary Study

A

Recruited 1000 individuals from age 3 and recorded every little detail of them (violence, drug use, domestic violence, blood pressure, stressors) throughout childhood and adolescents
They are now looking at how interactions between genetic dispositions might interact with experiences during early adulthood to predict mental health outcomes

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26
Q

MAOA gene and childhood maltreatment on conduct disorder

A

VARIABILITY: Maltreatment is a risk factor for antisocial behaviour
MAOA is stuff in the brain that metabolises neurotransmitters in the brain. Low MAOA is associated with aggression in animals.
See if low MAOA vs high MAOA gene can create differences in conduct disorder depending on their experiences with maltreatment

RESULTS: if you experience low maltreatment there is lower risk of conduct disorder for both low and high MAOA activity. But if you experience severe maltreatment, people with low MAOA activity have very high risk for conduct disorder.

The risk only plays out if you have low gene and high maltreatment

27
Q

FADS2 gene and breastfeeding in IQ

A

Fatty Acids in breast milk are important in brain development, FADS2 is involved in fatty acid metabolism
Hypothesis that breast milk is so good for you because it contains fatty acids

VARIABILITY: Children who are breast fed have higher IQ than those who are not

They grouped kids into homozygous (cc or gg) and heterozygous (cg) and looked at difference in IQ depending on whether they were breast fed or not

RESULT: Breast fed children had higher IQ but only in children who carried the c allele.

28
Q

Prenatal development

A

Development occurs between conception and birth
Begins in fallopian tube where sperm penetrates the egg forming a ZYGOTE
Takes about 9 months for cell to turn into baby

29
Q

Germinal period

A

(1-2 weeks) before you know you are pregnant
From conception through implantation (14 days)
Zygote travels towards uterus
Then divides from 16 to 64 cells
By the time it reaches the uterus, we call it a blastocyst

After it implants itself into the uterus, the germinal period is over

30
Q

Embryonic period

A

3-8 weeks
The blastocyst implants itself in the uterine wall.
The 64 cells keep splitting in two and eventually separate into layers to become different parts of the fetus

Fetus is connected to mother by umbilical chord and placenta (Placenta serves as a food and oxygen source) and a barrier against infections etc.
The embryo is in a sac of amniotic fluid

Between 4-8 weeks the important things develop (lots of things happen here). E.g. gender, bones, brain
The major organs form first:
- Brain is formed in first 3 weeks
- Heart starts beating around 24 days gestation
Neural tube defects (very rare these days bc pregnant ladies take folic acid vitamins):
- Anencephaly is where a baby has no brain (and will die within a few hrs of being born) bc top half of head doesn’t close
- Spina bifida is where baby’s spinal cord fails to develop properly (part of their spinal chord is visible out their back) bc bottom half doesn’t close. This usually results in paralysis or movement issues.

If things go wrong in this period, things go REALLY wrong
Can have miscarriage. Either from genetic abnormality or the fetus calls it quits.
Difference from embryonic to fetal period is that the cartilage gets replaced by real bone

31
Q

Fetal period

A

8-38 weeks/last 7 months
9th week until birth
A period of rapid growth/refinement of organ and brain systems
Organ systems begin to function, organism grows
Baby simply puts on weight so that it can survive

At 12 weeks the baby begins to move around but its not big enough for mother to feel it yet.

At 18 weeks: begins to make sucking movements, acting like baby, pretends to use lungs.

Fetus becomes viable between 22-28 weeks (the baby can survive reasonably if it was born early)
- For a baby born at 24 weeks, there is a 50% chance they will survive

At 6 months: begins to respond to outside world, capable of responding to light, hear sounds.

At 7 months (third trimester): fetus begins to put on weight and is running out of room in the mother’s stomach
AND THEN BORN!

32
Q

Teratogens

A

disease, drug or other environmental agent that can harm a developing embryo or fetus
Effects depend on:
- Timing, dose, duration

33
Q

Teratogen examples

A

Pregnant women taking drugs for morning sickness lead to abnormality in the pre-born baby
Zika virus in Brazil, babies were born with small heads –> underdeveloped brain (mentally retarded people)
Microcephaly (having a small brain)

34
Q

Fetal alcohol syndrome characteristics

A

exposed to alcohol during pregnancy
Small eye openings
Epicanthal folds
Flat midface
Upturned philtrum (nose)
Thin upper lip
Underdeveloped ears
Flat nasal bridge
CAUSES MASSIVE BRAIN DAMAGE (their brain is much smaller)
These children have trouble with cognitive learning later on
These weird facial characteristics is bc alcohol was exposed during EMBYRONIC PERIOD when these features are forming

35
Q

Effect of teratogens in three periods of pregnancy

A

Germinal period means only 64 cells are exposed which leads to miscarriage.

Embryonic period can lead to heart problems, face/brain abnormalities, issues with limbs etc.

Fetal period can be less risky but is more likely to result in some brain damage since brain is still developing

36
Q

Early experience vs later experience

A

extent of which early experience shape later functioning.

37
Q

Wild boy Aveyron

A

raised by wolves until 7 years old
He did kind of learn to communicate but he never learnt the full extent of human language
So they found that you have to be exposed to language early on to actually be able to communicate normally

38
Q

Critical period

A

When certain experiences are crucial for a particular feature of development to emerge.
If necessary experience is not had during this time window, function will not develop.

E.g. Imprinting birds (whatever moving object they see first, they will follow it as a mother and if they don’t imprint in the first few hours, they will wander off and get eaten by wolves)

39
Q

Sensitive period

A

Where experience is optimal for development of particular function but not critical
For Perceptual development and Socio-emotional development
E.g. children raised in the orphanage developed disordered attachment. However, if they were removed and put into foster care later on they were able to compensate for these attachment issues.

40
Q

World to an infant

A

Babies cant tell us so we need to design ways to let them show us through their behaviour

41
Q

Visual scanning and fixation patterns

A

Infants always looking for contrast and edges
This is because everything looks fuzzy to a baby
New born attention is very sticky (they get focused on a particular part and can’t pull their attention away)

By 2 months, babies already scan the object like how we normally would by scanning the whole things
By looking at how babies scan objects, we can see how their acuity/attention is changing and how they learn to attract useful info

42
Q

Habituation

A

If babies can tell difference between two things
E.g. measuring amount of times a baby sucks on a dummy while looking at visual stimulus.

Habituation is when baby sees something again, they will look at for less time as it is uninterested.
Can use this to see if they can differentiate between things

43
Q

Visual preferences

A

Babies prefer patterned over plain stimuli the more complex the better
They like to look at faces over everything else
Babies prefer real faces over scrambled faces

44
Q

Visual acuity

A

They can’t perform a normal visual test as they can’t speak.
So we show them pairs of objects- have a black and white striped square compared to a grey square with same brightness .

Babies always look for contrast, so they would look longer at the striped square than the grey one
The stripes then get thinner and thinner until the baby can’t tell the difference between the striped square and grey square.

So as babies get older, they will stare at the striped square for longer and that’s how we measure their acuity

Babies visual acuity improves over the first few months
Newborns can see all colour but have difficult distinguishing them if they are equally bright.

45
Q

perceptual development

A

Vision is one of the only senses that develops post-natally

Infants visual abilities are immature at birth but improves rapidly over first months of life.

46
Q

Other race effect (Pascalis)

A

Adults have a hard time telling faces apart in other races.
Babies are born to differentiate between different races of people but tend to lose that as they get involved in their environment.

In a cross-sectional study they brought babies of 3, 6 and 9 months in to study faces of Chinese, middle east and Caucasian faces.

By 6 months they would lose the ability to distinguish between races they weren’t exposed to in their environment (e.g. Chinese)

47
Q

what happens to visual development when early experience is NOT TYPICAL?

A

Problem: is that its not ethical to deprive children of typical experiences
Solution:
Animal models:
- Hubel and Weisel kitten experiment where they sewed a kittens eye shut for a few weeks and saw how their eyes developed over a few weeks. (Binocular deprivation)
- After unsewing the eye, the brain-eye connection did not develop normally.

  • Carlson et al, 1987 where they deprived monkeys of vision from both eyes.
  • But when the monkeys could see again, the damage was permanent and the monkeys never used vision to find their way around (sneaking around the floor and walls)

Clinical studies:
Congenital cataracts
- Which is a clouding of lens (similar to sewing the eye shut)
- Rare in young infants
- If cataracts are not removed early, infant can have permanent vision impairments and be unable to see depth.

48
Q

Attachment

A

Really strong relationship that infants form with primary caregiver
▪ Want to be close to caregiver
▪ Seek security
▪ Exhibits distress when caregiver is away

49
Q

Attachment example Harlow

A

had infant rhesus monkeys raised by inanimate mothers

  • One wire monkey with bottle
  • One soft monkey with no bottle
  • (to check why infants cling to a mother)-> comfort or food

Result: Baby monkeys spend most of their time clinging to soft mother
Chose comfort over food
So attachment is more about security and comfort rather than food source

50
Q

Attachment theory

A

analogy of human attachment and animal imprinting

John Bowlby:

  • Attachment in humans is like imprinting in animals –> adaptive bond
  • Attached to our caregiver and becomes a safe base from which children can explore the world.
  • Disruptions to attachment may have long term impacts on emotional and cognitive development
51
Q

How does attachment relationship develop?

A

Newborns recognise mothers voice/face and shows visual preference for faces over objects
Infants recognise mothers face within first few days

52
Q

Separation anxiety

A

when infant becomes very upset when mum leaves them
- First seen in 6-7 months
- Peak is in second year of life.
Across all cultures

53
Q

measuring attachment

A

Secure attachment
- welcomes return, seeks closeness, comforted

Insecure-avoidant attachment
- Not phased by mum leaving, ignores on return

Insecure anxious attachment
- Very upset on leaving, angry/rejection on return, desires closeness but is difficult to sooth

Disorganised attachment
- Behaviour is contradictory e.g. approach mother but look away.

It is the behaviour when mum comes back which is most telling about what relationship mum and baby have.

54
Q

What happens when early social/emotional experience is not typical?

A

Problem is that it is not ethical to experimentally derive children

Solution was ‘experiments of nature’
Orphans raised in institutions

55
Q

Romanian institutions vs foster care/community

A

In institutions: very loud, very little one on one time, small spaces, not a lot of attention. Caregivers were ignoring children who were distressed. Lack of touch and responsiveness. The kids don’t form good relationships with caregivers.
Consequences: mostly in physical growth- psycho-social dwarfism, stunted growth, intellectual delay, behaviour problems, hyperactivity, autism symptoms, disturbances of attachment

To measure attachment: Whether children instituted show indiscriminate behaviour (friendliness to strangers) more than children who haven’t. Also whether placement in foster care makes a difference.

Stranger at the Door: ‘stranger’ knocks at door, and says to the child ‘come with me’
Measure the percentage of kids who leave with the stranger

EIG (ever institutionalised group): first part of life in institution before moving into foster care group (FCG) or stayed in care as usual group (CAUG). They were compared to kids that were never institutionalised (NIG)

EIG said ‘yeh ill come’ to the Stranger at the door experiment
So kids which had been institutionalised were more likely to go with stranger

56
Q

Continuity VS Discontinuity

A
  • Continuous
    ○ change is gradual, uniform, quantitative (quantity or amount of skill, behaviour)
    ○ E.g. Rovee-Collier’s theory of infant memory development
  • Discontinuous
    ○ Change is abrupt, step-like, qualitative (quality or kind of skill, behaviour)
    E.g. Piaget’s stage theory of cognitive development
57
Q

Infants are born into the world with an innate knowledge (they understand gravity, breathing etc.)
- OR

A

they learn very rapidly and begin with knowing nothing (a blank slate) about the world

58
Q

Piaget’s Constructivist approach

A

Piaget thought that children construct knowledge by mixing their experiences with their own ideas

59
Q

schemas

A

Piaget argues that infants form schemas (mental structure that allows us to interpret our experience into how something works) based on interactions with the world.
E.g. at a resto, you know you have to wait to be seated, order and call back waiter etc.

Sometimes, the schema doesn’t account for your experience. During development, infants adapt to meet the demands of the environment

  • Assimilation (fitting reality into existing schemas)
  • Accommodation (adjusting schemas to fit with reality)
  • Learning only occurred when infants were constantly accommodating their schemas
  • E.g. Baby without teeth will suck on food and that’s their schema for eating. But when they grow teeth, they will still try to suck on harder foods without progress. They realise they will need to change their schema for eating food where they need to use their teeth
60
Q

Sensorimotor stage (Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive development)

A

0-2 years
Infants ‘think’ with their hands, mouths and senses
Sensing and acting, little reasoning (no cognitive thinking)
Egocentric (unable to imagine that someone else imagines the world different to them)

Milestone (object permanence)
- E.g. peek-a-boo when you hide your face the infant actually thinks you disappear

Lack of object permanence: don’t understand that objects continue to exist
- Late in the first year, infants begin to search for hidden objects but their behaviour is inflexible

The a not b error (they will search in the same place as b4 even though they watched the experimenter hide it somewhere else)
By 11-12 months, babies start to search for objects they can’t see

61
Q

Preoperational stage (Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive development)

A 
2-7 years 
This stage is where 'thinking' begins 
Symbolic thought (BUT still egocentric)
- Use words to represent objects
- Can imagine without action 
- E.g. three mountains problem (children have a really hard time picking the view that the doll sees)

Centration (fixate on a single feature of an object)
Fail conservation task (e.g. spread a number of coins and ask child to judge which line has more coins, volume of water)
- Conservation of water, volume, length, number
- Kids fail this task bc they use a single attribute to make their decision (they use centration)
Fail dimensional card sorting task (e.g. sorting by colour then by shape)
- They have a hard time inhibiting rules that they learned before

62
Q

Concrete stage (Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive development)

A

7-11 years
Think more abstractly
Perform mental operations but only for physical objects

63
Q

Formal operations stage (adolescence) (Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive

A

Perform complex reasoning in hypothetical situations
Make decisions based on reasoning
Understand relationships between actions and consequences

64
Q

Criticism of Piaget’s theory

A

Children are at a particular ‘stage’

  • Problem: thinking can be domain specific (conservation number earlier than mass and volume)
  • You can pass a conservation volume test while failing a mass/number test

Theory underestimates infants and young children

  • New methods show evidence of objects permanence much earlier
  • Dissociations between children’s knowledge and action

Psych1001 (10 decks)

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