Developmental Psychology Flashcards
What is a cross-sectional study?
Cross-sectional studies compare groups of subjects at different ages.
Longitudinal studies study what?
They compare as specific group of people over an extended period of time.
What do sequential cohort studies study?
Sequential cohort studies combine cross-sectional and longitudinal research methods. Several groups of different ages are studied over several years.
What does the nature side of the nature/nurture controversy argue?
Human capabilities are innate (present at birth) and that individual differences are therefore largely an effect of the person’s genetic makeup.
What does the nurture side of the nature/nurture controversy contend?
Human capabilities are determined by the environment and shaped by experience.
What is each specific trait controlled by?
Alleles, an alternative form of a gene. Each variation was represented by an allele that was either dominant or recessive.
What is a genotype?
The total genetic complement (genetic makeup) of an individual.
What is the physical manifestation of a genotype?
A phenotype.
Where are genes located?
On chromosomes.
How many chromosomes do sex cells have?
23 chromosomes.
How many chromosomes are in the nucleus of each cell in the body (besides sex cells)?
46 chromosomes or 23 pairs of chromosomes.
What percentage of genes in common are children said to have with each parent?
50%
What did R. C. Tyron study?
Inheritance of maze-running ability in laboratory rats. Published in 1942.
What did R. C. Tyron find in his study?
Tyron found that learning ability has a genetic basis. He bred “maze-bright” rats with “maze-dull” rats and found that the “maze-bright” rats increasingly perfomed better in each generation.
Why can family studies not distinguish between environmental and genetic factors?
Families share both genetics and environments. The results of family studies cannot distinguish between these factors.
What do family studies study?
Genetics between members of families. Schizophrenia, for example, is known to be 13 times more likely for children to develop if their parents have it. This was found through family studies.
What are monozygotic twins?
Identical twins. Twins that share 100 percent of their genes.
What are dizygotic twins?
Share approximately 50% of their genes.
What are arguments against twin studies?
The assumption that MZ and DZ twin share their environments to the same degree may not be valid. Researchers have found that MZ twins are treated more similarly by people than DZ twins and that MZ twins tend to imitate each other more than DZ twins do.
What are adoption studes?
They compare the similarities between the biological parent and the adopted child to similarities between the adoptive parents and the adopted child.
What did researchers find about adopted children’s IQ in relation to their adopted and biological parents?
Researchers found that that adopted children’s IQ is more similar to their biological parents’ IQ than to their adoptive parents’ IQ.
Who studied a group of children with high IQ’s (135 and above) with groups of children typical of the general population, to discover similarities and differences?
Lewis Terman.
What genetic disorder involves an extra 21st chromosome?
Down’s syndrome. Individuals with Down’s sydrome often have varying levels of mental retardation. Older parents have an increased risk of having children with Down’s syndrome.
What is Phenylketonuria (PKU)?
A genetic disorder and a degenerative disease of the nervous system. PKU results when there is a lack of the enzyme needed to digest phenylalanine, an amino acid found in milk. PKU is now tested in infants and was the first genetic disease that could be tested in large populations
What disorder results from an extra X chromosome in males?
Klinefelter’s syndrome. These males have an XXY configuration, are sterile, and often are MR.
What disorder results when females only possess one X chromosome?
Turner’s sydrome. This results in a failure to develop secondary sex characteristics. Individuals have physical abnormalities such as short fingers and unusually shaped mouths.
What are gametes?
Human sex cells: ovum (egg cell) and sperm
What is a fertilized egg?
A zygote. This is created when the two gametes form a single cell.
When does the the germinal period occur?
Conception to two weeks pregnant.
What stage occurs after the germinal period and lasts approximately 8 weeks?
The embryonic stage. During this time, the embryo increases in size by about 2 million percent, or about 20,000 times. It grows to about an inch long and begins to develop a human appearance. Males begin to produce androgen. Nerve cells in the spine develop and movements of limbs occur.
What is the period that is marked by the beginning of measurable electrical activity in the brain, about 3 months into pregnancy?
The fetal period.
What determines if testes or ovaries to form in a embryo?
The presence or absence of the H-Y antigen. If the H-Y antigen is present, then testes will form, if absent, ovaries will form.
What illnesses in pregnant women are associated with birth defects?
Rubella (German measles), viral infections, measles, mumps, hepatitis, influenza, chickenpox, and herpes.
What is thalidomide?
A tranquilizer that was often prescribed in England during the 1950’s. Mothers who took this drug while pregnant often gave birth to babies with missing and malformed limbs and defects of the heart, eyes, digestive tract, ears, and kidneys.
What can lead to retarted growth, mental retardation, and reduce immunities to disease in fetuses?
Protein deficiency in pregnant mothers.
What is maternal narcotic addiction?
Pregnant women who are addicted to narcotics produce chemically dependent infants who must undergo a traumatic withdrawal syndrome.
Regular cigarette smoking in pregnant women leads to what in their infants?
Often leads to slowed growth, increased fetal heart rate, and a greater chance of premature birth.
What has prenatal exposure to X-Rays been linked to?
Retardation, defects of the skull, spinal cord and eyes, cleft palate, and limb deformities.
What is the automatic turning of the head in the direction of a stimulus that touches the cheek?
The rooting reflex.
What is the reflex called in which 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?
The moro reflex.
When does the moro reflex disappear in normally developing babies?
4 months. Its presence at one year is a strong suggestion of developmental difficulties.
What is the Babinski reflex?
The reflex that causes toes to spread apart automatically when the sole of the foot is stimulated.
What is the grasping reflex?
The grasping reflex occurs when the infant closes his or her fingers around an object placed in his or her hand.
According to Piaget, in infancy, how do children learn to interact with the environment?
Through reflexive behaviors. For example, based upon repeated experiences with the grasping reflex, infants learn that they can grasp things.
According to Piaget, how does adaptation take place?
Assimilation and accommodation.
What is assimilation?
The process of interpreting new information in terms of existing schemata (plural of schema).
What is accommodation?
Accommodation occurs when new information doesn’t really fit into existing schemata. This is the process of modifying existing schemata to adapt to this new information.
What is the main difference between assimilation and accommodation?
In assimilation, new info can fit into an existing schema, while in accommodation, a change to an existing schema.
What are Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development?
Sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational stages.
What is the first stage in Piaget’s cognitive stages of development? When does this occur?
Sensorimotor.
From birth to approximately 2 years old.
What are the concepts associated with the sensorimotor stage of development?
Primary circular reactions, secondary circular reactions, and object permanence.
What is it called when the infant begins to coordinate separate aspects of movement?
Primary circular reactions. This is the advent of goal-oriented behavior. For instance, when the infant is hungry, he or she will suck indiscriminately, trying to gain satisfaction from putting something in his or her mouth.
What are secondary circular reactions?
Motions directed toward manipulation of objects in the environment.
What is object permanence?
Object permanence occurs when the child realizes that objects continue to exist even though the child cannot perceive their existence. “Out of sight, out of mind” doesn’t apply to infants who acquire object permanence.
What is the preoperational stage of cognitive development?
Piaget’s 2nd stage lasting from about 2 to 7 years old. It is characterized as the beginning of representational thought. During this stage, children have the capacity to understand the concept that objects continue to exist even though they cannot perceive their existance.
What is centration? What stage of cognitive development is this associated with?
Centration is the tendency to be able to focus on only one aspect of a phenomenon. For example, children in the PREOPERATIONAL stage cannot take the perspective of other people and cannot understand their relationships are reciprocal.
What stage in cognitive development is egocentrism a characteristic of?
Preoperational
Are children in the preoperational stage able to understand the concept of conservation?
No.
What is conservation?
The notion that physical properties of matter (such as volume and quantity) do not change simply because the appearance of the matter changes.
What categorizes the concrete operational stage of development?
Children are usually between the ages of 7 and 11 and they can conserve and take the perspective of others into account, but are limited to working with concrete objects or information that is directly available. These children have difficulty with abstract thought.
What categorizes the formal operational stage of development?
With the approach of adolescence, children begin to “think like a scientist,” or think logically about abstract ideas.
According to Piaget, what is the relationship between language and thought?
Piaget believed that how we use language depends on which cognitive stage we are in. In other words, Piaget believed that it was the development of thought that directed the development of language.
What are some criticisms of Piaget’s theories?
Piaget used observation as a verse to statistical measures. He also has seen criticism in regards to his formal operational stage, which is not seen in all cultures. Some argue it is not a true end point of a desirable or relevant developmental process.
According to Lev Vygotsky, what drives cognitive development in children?
The internalization of various interpersonal and cultural rules and processes.
What is the zone of proximal development?
According to Lev Vygotsky, the zone of proximal development are those skills and abilites that have not yet fully developed but are in the process of development.
What are the four basic components of language?
Phonology, semantics, syntax, and pragmatics.
What is categorical perception?
The ability to distinguish between differences in sound that do not denote differences in meaning and those differences in sound that do denote differences in meaning.
What is phonology?
The actual sound stem of language. The systematic organization of sounds in language.
What involves learning of word meanings?
Semantics
What term refers to how words are put together to form sentances?
Syntax. This has to do with word order.
What does the term pragmatics mean?
The actual efficient use of a language. Often the same sentence will have two or more very different meanings depending on how it is spoken.
Who showed that babbling begins around the same time for hearing children and deaf children?
Lenneberg, Rebelsky, and Nichols (1965). While babbling for hearing children continues and reaches its peak at around 9-12 months, in deaf children, it ends soon after it begins.
In regards to language, what are children able to do at around 18 months?
The child may know dozens of words, but will usually utter them only one at a time. Depending on a child’s intonation or gestures, the child could be using the word “apple” to describe an apple, ask for an apple, to ask whether a particular object is an apple, and so on.
In regards to language, what are children around the age of 2.5 to 3 years able to do?
Children around the age of 2.5 to 3 begin producing longer sentences. Vocab increases rapidly.
What are errors of growth?
Overregulation of complex grammar rules by 2.5-3 year olds. For example, a child who once said, “I ran away” will now say “I runned away” even though they have never heard that said before. This suggests that language acquisition is not the result of imitation and reinforcement, but the active application of a dynamic internalized set of linguistic rules.
By what age is language substantially mastered by?
Age 5.
What is transformational grammar and who studied it?
Transformational grammar are rules that govern the ways in which changes in word order change meaning. Norm Chomsky studied it.
What is the language acquisition device (LAD)?
The innate capacity for language acquisition. Chomsky created this idea that language acquisiton is innate based on evidence that children learn to make changes in word order (transformational grammar) effortlessly at an early age.
When is the critical period for language acquisition? What does this mean?
The critical period for language acquisition is 2 years old to puberty. This means that if a child was not exposed to language durin this critical time, then being exposed to language later would be ineffective.
What were Freud’s five psychosexual stages of development?
Oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital stages
The what is the first stage in Freud’s theory of psychosexual development? What does it entail?
The oral stage (0-1 year). During this stage, gratification is obtained primarily through putting objects into the mouth by biting and sucking. Libidinal energy is centered on the mouth.
According to Freud, when does libido begin to be present at?
At birth. Libido is sex or life drive.
When does the anal stage occur, according to Freud?
Around 1-3 years. The libido is centered on the anus and gratification is gained through the elimination and retention of waste materials. Fixation during this period would lead to either excessive orderliness or sloppiness in adulthood.
According to Freud, what is fixation? And what happens if an infant becomes fixated at any particular stage in psychosexual development?
Fixation occurs when a child is overindulged or overly frustrated during a stage of development. In response, the child then forms a personality pattern based on that particular stage, which persists into adulthood.
What is the 3rd stage of psychosexual development and what occurs in this stage?
From 3 years to 5 years, the child passes through the phallic stage. This is when, according to Freud, the Oedipal conflict occurs in boys and the Electra conflict in girls.
What is the Oedipus conflict?
The child envies his father’s intimate relationship with his mother and fears castration at his father’s hands. He wishes to kill his father, but he feels guilty about this so he deals with his guilty feelings by identifying with the father, establishing his sexual identity and internalizing moral values. They then, subliminate (pushes down) labidinal energy.
What is the latency period?
The period when the libido is subliminated (which occured during the Oedipus conflict). This lasts until puberty.
What is the final stage of psychosexual development? What occurs during this stage?
The person should enter into healthy heterosexual relationships if prior development proceeded correctly. If sexual traumas of childhood have been unresolved, such behaviors as fetishism may result.
Erik Erikson’s theory of development is what kind of theory?
A psychosocial theory. His theory holds that development is a sequence of central life crises. Erikson believed that development occurred through resolutions of conflicts between needs and social demands; these conflicts occur in stages.
What is the first conflict in Erikson’s theory and when does it take place?
Trust versus mistrust and it occurs in the first year of life. If resolved successfully, the child will come to trust his or her environment as well as himself. If mistrust wins, the child will often be suspicious of the world, possibly throughout his or her life.
What is the second stage of Erikson’s theory?
Autonomy versus shame and doubt (1-3 years). The favorable outcome here is a feeling of will and an ability to exercise choice as well as self-restraint. Unfavorable outcome is a sense of doubt and lack of control.
What stage in Erikson’s theory is the initiative versus guilt stage? When does it occur?
The third stage and occurs in 3-6 years. Favorable outcomes include purpose, the ability to initiate activities, and the ability to enjoy accomplishment. If guilt wins out, the child will be so overcome by the fear of punishment that the child may either unduly restrict him or herself, or may overcompensate by showing off.
What is industry versus inferiority?
The fourth stage in Erikson’s psychosocial theory (6-12 years). If resolved favorably, the child will feel competent and able to exercise his abilities in the world.
What stage in Erikson’s theory is identity versus role confusion during adolescence?
Fifth stage. Encompasses what Erikson called the “psychological revolution.” The favorable outcome is the ability to see oneself as a unique and integrated person wit sustained loyalties.
When does Erikson’s idustry versus inferiority stage occur?
It’s the fourth stage of psychosocial theory and occurs between ages 6-12. If this stage is resolved favorably, the child will feel competent and will be able to exercise his or her abilities and intelligence in the world. Unfavorable resolution will lead to feelings of inadequacy.
When does identity versus role confusion occur? What occurs in this stage?
This fifth stage is the “psychological revolution.” It occurs during adolescence. When the favorable outcome is achieved, the individual is able to seetheirself as a unique and integrated person. Unfavorable outcomes result in identity confusion.
What is the main crisis of young adulthood and the sixth stage in Erikson’s psychosocial theory?
Intimacy versus isolation. Favorable outcomes are love and the ability to commit to a relationship. If this crisis is not resolved, there will be an avoidance of committment.
What is the seventh stage of Erikson’s theory, occurring in middle age?
Generativity versus stagnation. Successful resolution of this conflict results in a productive, caring, contributing member of society. Unresolved crisis results in self-indulgentness, boredom, self-centeredness.
What is the eighth and final stage of Erikson’s theory, occuring in old age?
Integrity versus despair. One reflects on his or her life with wither a sense of integrity or with a sense of dispair. If resolved favorably, people will see assurance in the meaning of life rather than their life itself. They are ready to face death. If not resolved, there will be feelings of bitterness about their life.
What is considered by many psychologists to be a central aspect of a person’s personality?
Temperament. It refers to an individual’s pattern of responding to the environment. It’s thought to be somewhat heritable.
Who perfomed a longitudinal study to examine temperament?
Alexander Thomas and Stella Chess.
What did Thomas and Chess propose in their famous study on temperament?
They proposed three categories of infant emotional and behavioral style: “easy,” “slow to warm up,” and “difficult.”
In what 3 ways is temperament measured?
(1) Parental reports of child behavior, (2) observations in naturalistic settings (at home), and (3) observations in laboratory settings.
Who studied crying in infants and what did he find?
Wolff identified 3 distinct patterns of crying: the BASIC CRY, ususally associated with hunger, the ANGRY CRY, associated with frustration, and the PAIN CRY, usually associated with a painful stimulus.
What is social smiling?
The smiling in infants that is associated with facelike patterns. At birth, almost any face is sufficient to elicit a smile. At 5 months, however, only familiar faces tend to elicit smiles.
How does the fear response change in babies over time?
At first, fear is evoked through any sudden change in the environment, such as a light shutting off and darkening a previously bright room, or vice versa. At around the first year of life, the fear response is reserved either for the sudden absence of a specific individual or a previously aversive stimulus.
What did Harry Harlow famously study?
Studied Rhesus monkeys and attachment. He observed that when having to choose between a wire figure resembling a mother monkey that gave them food and a more comfortable cloth-covered figure that gave them no food, baby Rhesus monkeys overwelmingly preferred to spend their time with the comfortable figure with no food.
What does the “surrogate mother” study by Harlow suggest?
“Contact comfort” is more essential in bond formation than providing for physical needs.
What did Harlow find when he raised monkeys with just wire mothers or just cloth mothers?
The wire-mother monkeys were less socially adept and took longer to socially integrate with other monkeys. He also raised monkeys in complete isolation and these monkeys were completely socially dysfunctional.
Who performed a more naturalistic study on children who had been brought up in foster homes and orphanages? What did he find?
John Bowlby. He found that while these institutions were physically well cared for, the children lacked intimate bodily contact and, as a result were often timid and asocial.
What is John Bowlby’s first stage of attachment?
The pre-attachment phase, lasting several weeks, it occurs when the infant reacts identically to every adult and smiling face.
What occurs by 3 months according to Bowby’s stages of attachment?
The second phase of attachment is reached when the infant discriminates between familiar and unfamiliar faces.
What’s the third phase of Bowby’s stages of attachment?
Only at 6 months do we see the infant seeking out and responding specifically to the mother.
What stage of attachment occurs from 9-12 months, when the bonding intensifies and the child begins expressing stranger anxiety?
The fourth stage.
What is it called when the child reacts strongly to the mother’s absense with protest?
Separation anxiety.
What is Mary Ainsworth famous for?
Development of the “strange situation procedure” in the study of attachment.
What did Ainsworth conclude as a result of the strange situation?
Three types of behavior in infants: the (1) insecure/avoidant attachment- not distressed when mom leaves, avoids her when she returns, (2) secure attachment- mildly distressed when mom leaves and happy when she comes back, or (3) insecure/resistant attachment- upset when mom leaves, avoids her when she returns.
Who is Konrad Lorenz and what did he study?
He’s an ethologist and he studied imprinting. Imprinting can be defined as the rapid formation of an attachment bond between an organism and an object in the environment.
What did Lorenz discover about imprinting?
That it must occur in critical periods of development. Lorenz imitated the strut of a jackdaw (a bird) and an infant jackdaw became imprinted to Lorenz, preferring human contact to that of its own species.
What is Lawrence Kohlberg famous for?
Developing a theory of morality.
What is the first phase in Kohlberg’s theory of moral development?
Preconventional morality. In this stage, right and wrong are defined by the hedonistic conequences of a given action (punishment and reward). Orientation toward punishment and obedience. In the second stage, but still under phase one, there is an orientation toward reciprocity- “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.”
What is the second phase of Kohlberg’s theory of moral development?
Conventional phase of morality. Based on social rules. Two stages in this phase: “good girl, nice boy” orientation looks for the approval of others. And “law-and-order” orientation in which morality is defined by rules of authority.
What is the third phase of Kohlberg’s theory of moral development?
Post conventional morality. Two stages in this phase: The first is social contract orientation in which moral rules are seen as a convention designed to ensure the greater good. The sixth stage, consists of acting according to a set of universal ethical principles.
What is the Heinz dilemma?
A test to determine the moral level of a given individual. The subject is given a moral dilemma and how they explain their reasoning to their decision, not necessarily the decision itself, will determine which stage they fall under.
What does Carol Gilligan argue about Kohlberg’s theory of moral development?
Males and females adopt different perspectives on moral issues. Kohlberg’s research was largely done on men and therefore should not be used to evaluate the moral development of females. She argues that women’s morality tends to focus more on caring and compassion.
What are Kohlberg’s three gender stages of development?
Gender labeling (2-3 years of age), gender stability (3-4 years of age), and gender consistancy (4-7 years).
What does Kohlberg’s first gender stage theorize?
In gender labeling, children achieve gender identity; they realize that they are a member of a particular sex and accept that they are a boy or a girl and will be able to label themselves as such.
What is Kohlberg’s second gender stage?
Gender stability. Children can predict that they will still be a boy or a girl when they grow up.
What is Kohlberg’s third gender stage?
Gender consistancy. Children understand the permanency of gender, regardless of what one wears or how one behaves.
What is gender schematic processing theory and who proposed it?
Martin and Halverson proposed gender schematic processing theory. It states 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 paying less attention to those they believe are associated with the opposite gender.
Who most famously studied parenting styles and discipline?
Diane Baumrind. She measured parental control, nurturance, clarity of communication, and maturity demands. She created 3 parenting styles: Authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive. Reseachers have found that parenting style affects a child’s behavior and is a major influence on a child’s development.
What is a main difference between fathers and mothers in play with children?
Fathers tend to play more vigerously with their children than mothers do, while mothers tend to stress verbal over physical interactions.
