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.
