Developmental Psychology

Question 1

Genotype

Answer 1

Total complement of genes inherited by the organism

Question 2

Gene

Answer 2

Molecules on the chromosomes that transmit the hereditary blueprint

Question 3

Chromosomes

Answer 3

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

Question 4

Sex cells (gametes):

Answer 4

Sperm and ova (these cells have 23 chromosomes)

Question 5

Twin studies

Answer 5

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)

Question 6

Cooper & Zubek 1958

Answer 6

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

Question 7

Genes and environment (intelligence)

Answer 7

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

Question 8

Genes and environment (schizophrenia)

Answer 8

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

Question 9

Teratogen definition

Answer 9

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

Question 10

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

Answer 10

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

Question 11

Critical period

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Teratogen (alcohol)

Answer 12

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)

Question 13

Konrad Lorenz (imprinting)

Answer 13

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

Question 14

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

Answer 14

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

Question 15

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

Answer 15

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)

Question 16

Complete social isolation of a human child: Oxana Malaya

Answer 16

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

Question 17

Bowlby 1948

Answer 17

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)

Question 18

Harold Skeels (1930s)

Answer 18

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

Question 19

Dennis 1973

Answer 19

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

Question 20

Critical period

Answer 20

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

Question 21

Sensitive period

Answer 21

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

Question 22

Perry 2002

Answer 22

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)

Question 23

Substance abuse and child abuse

Answer 23

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

Question 24

Cycle of abuse

Answer 24

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

Question 25

Age of abuse

Answer 25

As children get older, the rate of abuse goes down

Question 26

Age of fatalities

Answer 26

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

Question 27

Poverty and child abuse

Answer 27

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

Question 28

Silverman, Reinherz, & Giaconia 1996

Answer 28

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

Question 29

Child abuse and health

Answer 29

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

Question 30

Shaken baby syndrome

Answer 30

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.)

Question 31

Keran Henderson 2005

Answer 31

Convicted of violently shaking 11-month toddler to death

Question 32

Prognosis of shaken baby syndrome:

Answer 32

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

Question 33

Chen et al. 2002

Answer 33

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

Question 34

Torabi et al. 1993

Answer 34

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

Question 35

Gateway drug hypothesis

Answer 35

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

Question 36

Gateway drug hypothesis: Perceptions of risk

Answer 36

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

Question 37

Portugal and cannabis

Answer 37

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)

Question 38

Vaginal delivery

Answer 38

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

Question 39

Swain et al. 2008

Answer 39

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

Question 40

Wittfoth-Schardt 2012

Answer 40

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

Question 41

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

Answer 41

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

Question 42

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

Answer 42

Can only make contrasts present in their own language

Question 43

Noam Chomsky

Answer 43

'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

Question 44

Behaviourist theory: Language

Answer 44

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

Question 45

Learning theory: Language

Answer 45

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

Question 46

What do learning theorists believe today?

Answer 46

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

Question 47

Statistical learning: Language

Answer 47

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

Question 48

Teinonen et al. 2009

Answer 48

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.

Question 49

Baldwin et al. 2001

Answer 49

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)

Question 50

Effects of impaired statistical learning:

Answer 50

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

Question 51

Evans et al. 2009

Answer 51

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

Question 52

Autism definition

Answer 52

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

Question 53

Autism and statistical learning

Answer 53

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

Question 54

Michael & Zucker 1995

Answer 54

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

Question 55

Green 1987

Answer 55

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

Question 56

Kinsey rating scale

Answer 56

Measured sexuality with only two options: straight or lesbian

Question 57

Diethylstilbestrol (DES) and sexuality

Answer 57

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

Question 58

Ward 1972

Answer 58

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

Question 59

Dorner et al. 1983

Answer 59

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

Question 60

Ellis et al. 2001

Answer 60

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)

Question 61

Maternal smoking and sexuality

Answer 61

Maternal smoking → male bisexuality and female homosexuality

Question 62

Manning 2001

Answer 62

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

Question 63

Blanchard et al. 1995

Answer 63

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)

Question 64

Savic & Lindström 2008

Answer 64

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

Question 65

Geschwind & Galaburda 1985

Answer 65

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

Question 66

Fruit flies and sexuality

Answer 66

Stronger synapses in fruit flies associated with increased homosexual activity

Question 67

Roselli & Stormshak 2009: Gay sheep

Answer 67

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

Question 68

What controls sexuality in rams and humans?

Answer 68

Hypothalamus

Question 69

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

Answer 69

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)

Question 70

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

Answer 70

Female relatives of gay men have more children

Question 71

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

Answer 71

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