Developmental Psychology Flashcards
developmental psychology
study of how people change over time
3 domains of development
- physical
- psychosocial
- cognitive
how is culture acquired?
culture is socially acquired and not inherited.
individualism
cultures that place emphasis on independence, individual achievements, and self-expression.
collectivism
cultures that place emphasis on social harmony, contributing to the good of a group (family, community, etc.), obedience, and conformity.
Gender
set of cultural beliefs, values, attitude, behaviours, communications associated with being a man or a woman
Erik Erikson’s psychosocial theory
- an expanded theory based on Freud’s theory of development. Describes 8 stages of development each associated with a crisis to be resolved.
- states that conflicts arent usually completely resolved; but if not sufficiently resolved will have negative impact at later stage of development.
- development was reversible
8 stages of Erikson’s psychosocial theory
infancy = trust vs mistrust
toddlerhood = Autonomy vs shame and doubt
early childhood = initiative vs guilt
middle childhood = industry vs inferiority
adolescence = identity vs identity confusion
early adulthood = intimacy vs isolation
middle adulthood = generativity vs stagnation
late adulthood = ego integrity vs dispair
crossing over
during meiosis genes are exchanged between chromosomes inhereted from each parent
trisomy
extra chromosome
monosomy
missing chromosome
teratogens
any agent that can cause abnormality following fetal exposure during pregnancy
meiosis
a special type of cell division of germ cells that creates sexually-reproducing organisms that produces gametes such as eggs and sperm
gamete
a reproductive cell of an animal or a plant
prenatal development periods
- germinal
- embryonic
- fetal
germinal period
occurs at 1-2 weeks (first trimester), zygote divides and forms blastocyst, which implants in the uterus, and begins forming the amnion, placenta, and umbilical cord.
embryonic period (3-4 weeks)
synaptic pruning
unused neurons die, efficiency increases due to synaptic pruning
infant brain growth rate
1% per day; by age 2 it will reach 70%
exuberance
dendritic connections multiply
myelination
axons become encased in a myelin sheath
neurons (brain development)
they specialize in different regions of the brain for certain action and purpose
cerebellum (brain development)
doubles in size in the first 90 days; is purposed to muscle coordination, and movement
hippocampus (brain development)
slowest growth, increases only 47% in the first 90 days and is purposed to memory
plasticity
- development is flexible and responds to environmental circumstances
- adaptable to overcome damage, but young brains are more plastic (early intervention is important to help address damage as the brain is more able to reorganise and adapt itself)
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)
- infants between 2-4 months at highest risk
- no clear cause but risk factors: sleeping on stomach instead of back, low birth weight and APGAR score, smoking, soft bedding.
gross motor development
- includes whole body movements like crawling
- children tend to develop motor skills in sequence
- sequence has genetic beginnings with environmental influences
major accomplishments of fine motor skills
include reaching and grasping
maturation (piaget)
development occurs due to an innate, biological program
schemes (piaget)
cognitive structures that allow us to process and organise information
assimilation (piaget)
cognitive processes for altering new information to fit an existing scheme
accomodation (piaget)
cognitive processes for changing a scheme to suit new information
simple reflexes (sensorimotor stage 1)
birth - 1 month: sucking grasping, but still inspires learning
first habits and primary circular reactions (sensorimotor stage 2)
1-4 months: adaptions of reflexes, learn to repeat body motions (hand to mouth)
secondary circular reactions (sensorimotor stage 3)
4-8 months: repetition and awareness, loop involving people and objects (rattle makes sound when baby shakes it)
coordination of secondary schemes (sensorimotor stage 4)
8-12 months: goal-directed behaviour (go looking for object)
object permanence
objects continue to exist even when not aware of them.
- <4 mo: no understanding
- 4 to 8 mo: some uncertainty about existence
- 8 to 12 mo: developing awareness
- lack of understanding of sense of self could contribute to this
- will still make A not B error
habituation (attention)
gradual decrease in attention
dishabituation (attention)
revival of attention with a new stimuli
social attention
how much attention is motivated or directed by social interaction
temperament
predictable pattern of reacting to people and events, pattern of arousal and emotion (precursor to personality)
dimensions of temperament
- activity level
- attention span
- emotionality
- soothability
- sociability
- adaptability
- quality of mood
goodness-of-fit
- a good fit between temperament of child and environmental demands
- cultures values different traits leading to cultural goodness-of-fit
primary emotions
- basic emotions we share with other animals
- distress, interest, and pleasure in first weeks of life
secondary emotions
develop later and are called socio-moral emotions, require experience to development (embarrassment, shame, guilt)
- sadness is rare unless mothers are depressed
stranger anxiety
fear unfamiliar adults, emerges as infant has attachments to familiar caregivers
infants emotional perceptions
- infants perceive emotions by hearing before seeing
- emotional contagion
- infants quickly learn to expect certain emotional reactions
- by 7 mo infants can match auditory to visual emotions
- social referencing
social referencing
observing others emotional reactions to figure out how to react, emerges about 9 to 10 mo
bodily growth age 1-2
- lose baby fat, become leaner
- around 6 mo solid food can be introduced to diet
- nutritional deficiency can impact cognitive and physical development
- growth is tracked to detect any areas of concern
toddler brain development
Early brain development is marked by two key developments:
- synaptic density
- synaptic pruning
synaptic density
- density of synaptic connections among neurons
- frontal cortex heavily impacted
synaptic pruning
- connections between neurons become fewer but more efficient
- increases efficiency by allowing used synapses to wither away
when does the greatest synaptic density occur in early childhood?
- synaptic connections increase through the first 2 years, but its at its greatest density at the end of toddlerhood
how much of the brain is developed at age 3?
- 70 %
what 4 parts of the brain have increased myelination by age 3?
- corpus callosum
- cerebellum
- reticular formation
- hippocampus
impact of increased myelination in the corpus callosum
- coordination between two hemispheres of the brain
- increase in speed of functioning through the cerebral cortex
impact of increased myelination in the cerebellum
- part of the brain involved in balance and motor movement
- further development of gross and fine motor skills
conservation
principal that the amount of a physical substance remains the same despite changes in appearance.
what does an inability to understand conservation reflect?
it reflects 2 cognitive characteristics:
- centration
- lack reversibility
impact of increased myelination in the reticular formation
- part of the brain involved in attention
- increased attention span
impact of increased myelination in the hippocampus
- involved in transfer of information from short term to long term memory
- myelination complete by age 5 - autobiographical memory improves
centration
focusing on one aspect of an object
lack reversibility
the ability to reverse an action mentally
egocentrism (cognitive limitations)
inability to distinguish between your own perspective and another person’s perspective
animism (cognitive limitations)
giving animals and objects human feelings and abilities
classifications (cognitive limitations)
younger children have limited ability to understand that objects can be simultaneously apart of more than one group or class
what are some inconsistencies in Piaget’s theory of preoperational stage?
- underestimation of children’s cognitive capabilities
- development as more continuous, and less-stage like
- underestimation of the role of sociocultural factors in fostering cognitive development
theory of mind
the ability to understand thinking processes in one’s self and others
false belief tasks
a research method to test how children understand the way they think and how others think.
how many words and at what age do children have a language explosion
at age 6 and on average around 2500 words
cultural differences in language development stages
- western languages learn nouns more than verbs
- eastern languages learn more verbs than nouns
language development complexities
- grammar is introduced and becomes more complex due to structure and rules. but some over genralizations may occur
- pragmatics improve: ability to adapt language to socio-cultural context (ie: using humour)
emotional development (early childood)
advances in emotional self regulation and understanding the emotions of others.
difficulties in emotional regulation
overcontrol
internalising problems eg: anxiety and depression
undercontrol
externalising problems eg: aggression
moral development (early childhood)
- further development of empathy
- ability to understand the perspective of others
- rudiments of moral reasoning
- more understanding of cultural rules/expectations