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PSYC111 > Developmental Psychology > Flashcards

Developmental Psychology Flashcards

1
Q

Genotype

A

Total complement of genes inherited by the organism

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2
Q

Gene

A

Molecules on the chromosomes that transmit the hereditary blueprint

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3
Q

Chromosomes

A

Threadlike structure made up of genetic material - in humans, there are 46 chromosomes in every cell (except sperm and ova)

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4
Q

Sex cells (gametes):

A

Sperm and ova (these cells have 23 chromosomes)

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5
Q

Twin studies

A

Carried out to determine whether character is due to genetics or environment; found that similarities in character became clearer over time (as people get older, they can choose their own environment)

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6
Q

Cooper & Zubek 1958

A

Found that Maze Bright rats (genetic) had fewer errors in standard environment, but similar number of errors to Maze Dull rats in enriched and impoverished environments

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7
Q

Genes and environment (intelligence)

A

Genes determine range of possible IQs, while environment determines where the individual ends up on that range

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8
Q

Genes and environment (schizophrenia)

A

Influenced by both genes and environment (higher risk of developing schizophrenia for both close genetic family and adopted)

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9
Q

Teratogen definition

A

Agent that causes some sort of deviation during development (pregnancy)

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10
Q

Teratogen: Thalidomide (late 1950s and early 1960s)

A

Prescribed during the first trimester of pregnancy for nauseau; affects limb development by preventing new blood vessel growth

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11
Q

Critical period

A

Time in development when specific biological or environmental events have dramatic and irreversible effects on development (humans: 18 to 60 days from conception)

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12
Q

Teratogen (alcohol)

A

Reduces oxygen supply to foetal brain and interferes with hormone metabolism –> foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) - caused by carrier ingesting high amount of alcohol during foetal period (week 10 to birth)

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13
Q

Konrad Lorenz (imprinting)

A

Found that grey geese have a critical imprinting period of 13 to 16 hours after hatching

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14
Q

Social development in non-human primates (consequences of isolation): Henry Harlow (experimented from 1957-1963)

A

Found that:
1. Social isolation increases self-directed and stereotypic behaviour (rocking, biting, etc.)
2. Causes deficits in social behaviour directed at others

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15
Q

Social development in non-human primates (rehabilitation): Henry Harlow (experimented from 1957-1963)

A

Found that pairing isolates and normal, younger monkeys allowed isolates to experience physical affection without negative consequences, and allowed the isolate to recover socially; evidence against a critical period for social behaviour (or critical period may be longer than 12 months)

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16
Q

Complete social isolation of a human child: Oxana Malaya

A

Born in 1983, discovered at age eight after having spent six years of her life living with dogs (growled, barked, etc.), has been somewhat rehabilitated but is still not fully ‘normal’; argues for a window of opportunity where the brain has the capacity to form connections

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17
Q

Bowlby 1948

A

Found that children in foster homes displayed increased attention-seeking behaviour, apathy and withdrawal from social situations, as well as cognitive and language impairments (little opportunity for brain to develop in those areas due to lack of exposure to human language)

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18
Q

Harold Skeels (1930s)

A

Found that children who were adopted out of a foster home were more likely to be ‘successful’ and have normal family lives and IQs, while those who stayed had lower IQs and were more likely to remain in an institution; compared IQs before being taken out of foster care and after

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19
Q

Dennis 1973

A

Found that the earlier that children were taken out of social isolation (adopted), the better their IQ outcome

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20
Q

Critical period

A
  1. Period during development when the organism is particularly susceptible to the effects of a particular experience
  2. Effects are dramatic and irreversible
  3. Sharp onset and offset points
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21
Q

Sensitive period

A
  1. Period during development when the organism is particularly susceptible to the effects of a particular experience
  2. Harmful effects can be altered by later events; effects are less dramatic
  3. Begins and ends gradually
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22
Q

Perry 2002

A

Found that the earlier children were removed from situations of neglect and placed in foster care, the greater their brain volume (frontal-occipital circumference/ FOC)

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23
Q

Substance abuse and child abuse

A

Children of substance abusers are more likely to be abused and neglected

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24
Q

Cycle of abuse

A

People abused as children are more likely to abuse their own children

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25
Q

Age of abuse

A

As children get older, the rate of abuse goes down

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26
Q

Age of fatalities

A

Highest for children of less than one year; younger children are overrepresented in abuse fatalities

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27
Q

Poverty and child abuse

A

Financial pressure creates stress → more prone to becoming frustrated with child

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28
Q

Silverman, Reinherz, & Giaconia 1996

A

People who have suffered abuse are more likely to experience mental health issues/ disorders

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29
Q

Child abuse and health

A

People who have suffered abuse are more likely to experience health problems in middle-age

30
Q

Shaken baby syndrome

A

Brain injury when baby is violently shaken (usually younger than two, but can be up to five years); occurs due to weak neck muscles and large, heavy head (brain bounces back and forth inside skull causing bruising, swelling, tissue damage, etc.)

31
Q

Keran Henderson 2005

A

Convicted of violently shaking 11-month toddler to death

32
Q

Prognosis of shaken baby syndrome:

A

Retinal damage –> blindness; majority of infants have a mental disability, possibly not evident before six years of age

33
Q

Chen et al. 2002

A

If they’ve ever smoked cigarettes, what are the odds that they drank alcohol in the last 30 days → found that people who have smoked before are more likely to have drank in the past 30 days

34
Q

Torabi et al. 1993

A

Teens who smoke a pack or more of cigarrettes a day are at increased risk of using illegal drugs

35
Q

Gateway drug hypothesis

A
  1. Sequencing: One substance is regularly initiated before another
  2. Association: One substance increases likelihood of second substance
  3. Causation: Use of first substance actually causes use of second substance
36
Q

Gateway drug hypothesis: Perceptions of risk

A

Initial decision to accept risk of tobacco makes risk with other drugs seem less severe

37
Q

Portugal and cannabis

A

Decriminalisation of drugs resulted in the same cannabis use as before, and lower use of other previously illegal drugs; drug-induced deaths decrease (evidence against gateway drug hypothesis)

38
Q

Vaginal delivery

A

During vaginal birth, the birth-giver releases the hormone oxytocin, which stimulates maternal behaviour

39
Q

Swain et al. 2008

A

Found greater responsiveness in the brain to sound of own baby crying for people who gave birth vaginally as compared to people who had a C-section, but greater responsiveness was also linked to higher rates of depression in birth-givers

40
Q

Wittfoth-Schardt 2012

A

Found that oxytocin given to fathers increased contact with children and led to more affectionate parenting

41
Q

Language (learned in part in the womb): At birth, what can infants do?

A
  1. Prefer forward-going speech to backward-going speech
  2. Prefer their own language
  3. Can discriminate function words from content words on the basis of different acoustic properties
  4. Prefer birth-giver’s voice to others’ voices
  5. Discriminate most sound contrasts used in today’s languages
42
Q

Language: By one year of age, what can infants do?

A

Can only make contrasts present in their own language

43
Q

Noam Chomsky

A

‘Nativist’, argued that certain aspects of language are innate due to poverty of the stimulus (language input to child typically insufficient to be learnable); believed in a universal grammar all languages share

44
Q

Behaviourist theory: Language

A

Argued that parents reward children for grammatical utterances and punish them for incorrect grammatical utterances, but this does not occur

45
Q

Learning theory: Language

A

Language isn’t learned through reward (approval) and punishment (disapproval) –> must be innate

46
Q

What do learning theorists believe today?

A

Language can be learned using general learning mechanisms such as statistical learning, which allows for the learning of patterns

47
Q

Statistical learning: Language

A
  1. Grammatical categories occur in predictable positions in sentences; infant quickly identifies a pattern
  2. Brain is specialised for statistical learning, which assists in language learning - statistical learning allows for the identification of a ‘word’
  3. Babies use transitional probabilities (how likely a syllable/ syllables are to be followed by another certain syllable/ syllables; example: ‘mum’ is consistently followed by ‘my’) to figure out what a word is
48
Q

Teinonen et al. 2009

A

Found that newborn infants’ brains respond differently to new and old words even when asleep; familiarity is used to group together sounds into words. This was seen through measured brain activity.

49
Q

Baldwin et al. 2001

A

Found that infants paid greater attention to predictable actions stopped halfway through than completed predictable actions; indicates that infants learn to predict patterns in behaviour and therefore find it unusual when the behaviour is not completed (they work out the mental states behind the behaviour later)

50
Q

Effects of impaired statistical learning:

A

Specific language impairment (SLI): Affected individuals use short sentences, have small vocabularies, word-finding problems, and difficulty learning new words; high proportion go on to experience reading difficulties, develop dyslexia

51
Q

Evans et al. 2009

A

Found that typically-developed children had better-than-chance statistical learning, while children with SLI were not generally above-chance for statistical learning; within each group, those who were better on statistical learning task with words were better on a measure of language ability

52
Q

Autism definition

A

Neural disorder characterised by qualitative deficits in social interaction, communication, and imaginative ability; can be inherited

53
Q

Autism and statistical learning

A

Typically-developing kids can distinguish between pattern syllables and non-pattern syllables, unlike autistic kids, who do not learn about the pattern

54
Q

Michael & Zucker 1995

A

Found that lesbians reported a higher rate of cross-sex typed behaviour in childhood than straight women, and the same was true for gay men

55
Q

Green 1987

A

Found that boys identified as ‘feminine’ were more likely to be gay later in life

56
Q

Kinsey rating scale

A

Measured sexuality with only two options: straight or lesbian

57
Q

Diethylstilbestrol (DES) and sexuality

A

Synthetic oestrogen; exposure to it in foetal development impacted on sexual orientation

58
Q

Ward 1972

A

Found that stress during pregnancy impacted testosterone present in the developing brain of foetus (hormone caused by stress blocks it)

59
Q

Dorner et al. 1983

A

Interviewed people regarding stress levels during pregnancy → found that severe stress of the birth-giver was associated with greater rates of offspring being homosexual or bisexual

60
Q

Ellis et al. 2001

A

Found that greater psychological stress of the pregnant person was associated with a higher possibility of offspring being gay (in male people) or bisexual (female)

61
Q

Maternal smoking and sexuality

A

Maternal smoking → male bisexuality and female homosexuality

62
Q

Manning 2001

A

Claimed one in seven gay men owe sexual orientation to their birth order

63
Q

Blanchard et al. 1995

A

Found that gay men are often born later and have older brothers; this is because antibodies are developed by the birth-giver to respond to being pregnant with a male foetus (antibodies attack protein only made in males) –> antibodies build up in the birth-giver’s blood with each male foetus they carry, resulting in a decrease in protein only produced in males (acts as ‘switch’ for so-called gay gene)

64
Q

Savic & Lindström 2008

A

Found that for gay men and straight women there was not difference in brain volume between left/ right halves of the brain, while for lesbians and straight men the right side was bigger; differences in brain lateralisation likely to do with environment of the womb during foetal development

65
Q

Geschwind & Galaburda 1985

A

Found that foetal testosterone compromises development of left hemisphere and facilitates right hemisphere functioning

66
Q

Fruit flies and sexuality

A

Stronger synapses in fruit flies associated with increased homosexual activity

67
Q

Roselli & Stormshak 2009: Gay sheep

A

Found that volume of the area of the hypothalamus associated with sexuality is determined by exposure to testosterone and estradiol around the time of birth (the perinatal period); larger volume of the area for straight rams

68
Q

What controls sexuality in rams and humans?

A

Hypothalamus

69
Q

Zietsch et al. 2008: Explanation for why queer genes stay in the gene pool

A

Argued that the same genes that produce same-sex behaviour also produce some degree of non-stereotypical personality –> when such an individual is heterosexual, they have more sexual partners (‘gay’ gene gives a mating advantage)

70
Q

Other explanation for why queer genes stay in the gene pool:

A

Female relatives of gay men have more children

71
Q

Shaken baby syndrome (what proportion of child abuse deaths does it account for)

A

Accounts for up to half of child abuse deaths in the U.S.

PSYC111 (5 decks)

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