Developmental Psychology Flashcards
Down’s Syndrome
Genetic anomoly in which the individual has an extra 21st chromosome. Results in varying levels of intellectual disability. Older parents (mothers and/or fathers) have an increased risk of having children with Down’s Syndrome.
Three research methods to investigate the degree of genetic influence on individual differences between people:
- Family studies: for example, the risk of developing schizophrenia for children of schizophrenics is 13 times higher than in the general population (for siblings, the rate is 9 times higher). A limitation is that family studies cannot distinguish shared environmental factors from genetic factors.
- Twin studies comparing monozygotic/dizygotic twins. The assumption is that twins share the same environment, so differences must reflect hereditary factors. However, this assumption may not be valid.
- Adoption studies (the “gold standard”): compare twins raised together with twins raised apart, or compare adopted children with their biological/adoptive parents.
Robert Choate Tryon
In 1942, published a study on maze-running ability in rats. Large number of rats were given an equal number of trials to become familiar with the maze. On the basis of their performance, Tryon divided the rats into 3 groups: “maze-bright,” “maze-dull,” and “intermediate.” Then bred maze-bright rats with other maze-bright rats, and maze-dull with other maze-dull. Repeated this selective breeding over several generations, and found that the difference between the maze-bright and maze-dull intensified from generation to generation. This provided evidence that learning ability has a genetic basis. Further research showed that the performance of the 2 groups was different only on mazes of the type Tyron used. On mazes of other types, the maze-bright were no better than the maze-dull.
Rubella
Also called German measles. Infants whose mothers contract rubella before the end of the 2nd month run a high risk of cataracts, deafness, heart defects, and intellectual disability. Other viral infections––measles, mumps, hepatitis, influenza, chickenpox, and herpes––have also been linked to various birth defects.
Maternal Malnutrition
Considered to be a leading cause of abnormal development. Protein deficiency can retard growth, lead to intellectual disability, and reduce immunities to disease.
Maternal Narcotic Addiction
Produces chemically dependent infants who must undergo a traumatic withdrawal syndrome. Regular cigarette smoking can lead to slowed growth, increased fetal heart rate, and a greater chance of premature birth. Daily use of alcohol leads to slowed growth and a slowed psychological development.
6 Reflexes of Newborns
- Rooting: Automatic turning of the head in the direction of a stimulus that touches the cheek.
- Sucking when an object is placed in the mouth.
- Swallowing
- Moro: Infants react to abrupt movements of their heads by flinging out their arms, extending their fingers, and then bringing their arms back to their bodies and essentially hugging themselves. Speculated that it may have developed when our pre-human ancestors lived in trees and falling could be prevented by instinctive clutching. Usually disappears after 4-5 months.
- Babinksi: Toes spread apart when sole is stimulated.
- Grasping: Fingers close around an object placed in hand.
Adaptation
Important principle in Piaget’s theory. According to Piaget, adaptation takes place through two complementary processes: assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation is the process of interpreting new information in terms of existing schemata. Accommodation occurs when new information doesn’t fit into existing schemata; it is the process of modifying existing schemata to adapt to this new information.
Criticism of Piaget
Piaget preferred clinical observation to statistical measures. His detractors say that such a method may be useful as a supplement, but that the true scientific study of a child demands empirical data that the clinical method cannot provide. Moreover, researchers have found that different types of concrete operational thought develop at different ages in different cultures. The understanding that cognitive development is dependent on the requirements placed on individuals by their cultural and physical surroundings, as well as the recognition that different styles of abstract thought exist in different cultures, has led to the criticism that formal operational thought is not particularly relevant to many people’s lives and thus should not be taken as the ultimate endpoint of cognitive development.
Lev Vygotsky
on Cognitive Development
For Vygotsky, the engine driving cognitive development is the child’s internalization of various aspects of culture––rules, symbols, language, and so on. As the child internalizes these various interpersonal and cultural rules and processes, the child’s cognitive activity develops accordingly. Vygotsky is known for his concept of the zone of proximal development.
Concrete Operational Stage
(Jean Piaget)
~ 7 – 11. Children can conserve and take the perspective of others, but are limited to working with concrete objects or information that is directly available. They have difficulty with abstract thought.
Errors of Growth
Around the age of 2.5 – 3 years, children begin producing longer sentences. As children begin to master complex general rules, we often see what are referred to as errors of growth, or overregulation. A child who once said, “I ran” will now say, “I runned to the store.” Many of these errors are universal and are not the result of environmental influence. For instance, almost all boys at this age use “hisself” instead of “himself,” even though children probably never hear the word “hisself” used by an adult. It is thought that children are generalizing some internalized rule. This suggests that language acquisition may not be the result of imitation and reinforcement, but the active application of a dynamic internalized set of linguistic rules.
Freud’s 5 Stages of
Psychosexual Development
- Oral (0 – 1 year): Libidinal energy centered on the mouth; fixation can lead to excessive dependency
- Anal (1 – 3 years): Toilet training occurs during this time; fixation can lead to excessive orderliness or messiness
- Phallic (3 – 5 years): Oedipal conflict resolved during this stage (Electra conflict for girls)
- Latency (5 – puberty): Libido is largely sublimated during this stage
- Genital (puberty through adulthood): If previous stages have been successfully resolved, the person will enter into normal heterosexual relations
The 8 Conflicts of Erik Erikson’s
Psychosocial Theory
- Trust vs. Mistrust (0 – 1)
- Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt (1 – 3)
- Initiative vs. Guilt (3 – 6)
- Industry vs. Inferiority (6 – 12)
- Identity vs. Role Confusion (adolescence)
- Intimacy vs. Isolation (20s through early 40s)
- Generativity vs. Stagnation (middle age)
- Integrity vs. Despair (old age)
Alexander Thomas
and
Stella Chess
Performed a longitudinal study to examine temperament. Based on their study, they proposed 3 categories of infant emotional and behavioral style: “easy,” “slow to warm up,” and “difficult.” The easy infant generally displays a positive mood, regularity in bodily functions, and easy adaptation to new situations. At the other extreme is the difficult child, who tends to have negative emotions and irregular bodily functions, and tends to withdraw in new situations. Between these two extremes is the slow-to-warm-up child, who initially withdraws but is soon able to adapt to new situations.
Smiling by Infants
One of the earliest social and communicative signals to appear in infants is the smile. At first, the smiling response is undifferentiated. Almost any stimulus is capable of producing what appears to be a smile. Then social smiling, or smiling associated with facelike patterns, develops. At first, almost any face is sufficient to elicit a smile. However, at about 5 months, only familiar faces tend to elicit smiles.
Development of the Fear Response
The fear response, like smiling, develops from undifferentiated to specific. At first, fear is evoked through any sudden change in level of stimulation. Turning on a light in a dark room or darkening a bright room have the same effect. During the first year, an infant may experience separation anxiety and stranger anxiety. By the end of the first year, however, the fear response is reserved either for the sudden absence of a specific individual (e.g., mother) or the presence of an object or person who in the past had been harmful to the child. Very often, the emotional response is context-dependent.
Martin and Halverson
Created Gender Schematic Processing Theory, which builds on Kohlberg’s theory of gender stages. This theory holds that as soon as children are able to label themselves, they begin concentrating on those behaviors that seem to be associated with their gender and pay less attention to those they believe are associated with the opposite gender.
Diana Baumrind
Conducted research on parenting style and discipline. She proposes 3 distinct parenting styles:
- Authoritarian: punitive control methods and lack of emotional warmth
- Authoritative: high demand for child compliance (but without punitive control methods), positive reinforcement, and emotionally warm
- Permissive: very low on control/demand measures
Children with authoritative parents tend to be more socially and academically competent. Children with authoritarian or permissive parents tend to have difficulties in school and with peers.
Cognitive Structuralists
In opposition to the behaviorists. Strongly influenced by the work of Jean Piaget (1896 – 1980), who believed that children are actively involved in their own development––constructing knowledge of the world through their experiences with the environment. Piaget’s theory posits the existence of logical-mathematical structures that direct the way the developing subject comes to know the world.
Phenylketonuria (PKU)
Genetic disorder and degenerative disease of the nervous sytem. Results when the enzyme needed to digest phenylalanine, an amino acid found in milk and other foods, is lacking. Today, infants are given tests for PKU and can avoid the severe effects of the disease with a strict diet. PKU was the first genetic disease that could be tested for in large populations.
Genetics at a
Molecular Level
Human genes consist of long strands of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Strands of DNA, together with proteins, form chromosomes. Humans have 46 chromosomes, organized into 23 homologous pairs, of which 22 pairs are autosomes (i.e. not sex chromosomes). The 23rd pair of chromosomes determines sex. If the 23rd pair is XX, the individual is female; if it is XY, the individual is male. In reproduction, the mother’s egg cell always contributes an X chromosome. The father, whose sperm cell contains either the X or the Y chromosome (but not both), can therefore contribute either an X or a Y.
Details of Molecular Genetics
The nucleus of each cell in the human body, except for sperm cells and egg cells, holds all 23 pairs of chromosomes. Somatic cells in the human body are diploid. That is, the chromosomes they contain always exist in pairs. The gametes (sperm and egg cells), however, are not diploid. These cells are haploid; they contain 23 single chromosomes. When the sperm and egg cells join during conception, the 2 haploid cells come together to make a full-complement diploid of 23 chromosome pairs. In this way, each parent contributes one gene for each trait. Because the offspring of sexual reproduction receive genes from both parents, the genetic variability is far greater than in asexual reproduction.
Sensorimotor Stage
(Jean Piaget)
From birth to 18 – 24 months. Three important concepts of the sensorimotor stage are primary and secondary circular reactions and object permanence. A primary circular reaction is when the infant tries to reproduce an event that happened by accident, e.g., sucking thumb. A secondary circular reaction involves more awareness of objects beyond the body, e.g., accidentally shaking a rattle and continuing to do so for the sake of satisfaction. Object permanence is when the child realizes that objects continue to exist even though the child cannot perceive their existence. Object permanence marks the beginnings of representational thought, which, together with creativity and insight milestones, signals transition to the preoperational stage.
Schemata
(singular form is Schema)
Coined by Piaget to refer to organized patterns of behavior and/or thought. Infants develop behavioral schemata, characterized by action tendencies; older children develop operational schemata, characterized by more abstract forms of cognition.
Freud’s Concept of Psychosexual Development
Hypothesizes 5 distinct stages. In each, children are faced with a conflict between societal demands and the desire to reduce libidinal tension. Each stage differs in the manner in which libidinal energy is manifested and the way in which the libidinal drive is met. Fixation occurs when a child is overindulged or overly frustrated during a particular stage of development. In response, the child then forms a personality pattern based on that particular stage, which persists into adulthood.
Percentage of genes in common between parent/child and siblings…
Children have an average of 50% of their genes in common with each parent. Full siblings, including fraternal twins, also have an average of 50% of their genes in common with each other. The number for identical twins is 100%.
Genotype vs. Phenotype
The total genetic complement (genetic makeup) of an individual is called the genotype. The total collection of expressed traits that constitute the individual’s observable characteristics is called the phenotype. Individuals with identical phenotypes can have different genotypes. Indentical genotypes can also produce different phenotypes due to variations in the environment.
Mandelian Genetics in Humans
Mendelian genetics states that parental genes are distributed randomly to all offspring. In humans, both parents contribute a gene for each trait. If both parents contribute a dominant allele, or if one contributes a dominant allele and the other a recessive allele, the dominant allele will be expressed. If both parents contribute a recessive allele, the recessive allele will be expressed.
Clinical Method, or Case Study Method
A detailed look at the development of a particular child (or person).
Nature vs. Nurture
Over the past several decades, the polarity between these two positions has largely disappeared. It is generally recognized that development is the result of a dynamic interaction between environmental and genetic factors.
Piaget vs. Erikson
Erikson built a theoretical framework of development across the whole life, while Piaget focused just from infancy to the late teenage years. While Piaget focused on cognitive development, Erikson focused on emotional development.
The Psychodynamic Perspective
Arose out of a clinical, rather than academic or research setting. Originating in the work of Sigmund Freud (1856 – 1939), these theories stress the role of subconscious conflicts in development.
Gender Differences
in Parental Behavior
Fathers tend to play more vigorously with their children than do mothers, while mothers tend to stress verbal over physical interactions. There are exceptions, but this is a pattern found in studies of behavior.
Gender Development
Researchers have found gender differences in personality and social behavior, as well as in cognitive abilities (mathematical, spatial, and linguistic). Sociobiologists believe that gender role differences should be understood according to an evolutionary perspective––that men and women develop gender-stereotyped behaviors because of the historical survival function of these behaviors. Social learning theorists point to the social environment and emphasize that children model their behaviors on those of adults and other children of the same gender. Cognitive developmental theorists stress the importance of cognitions that children have concerning gender.
