Developmental psychology Flashcards
Domains of development
physical, social +emotional and cognitive
Prenatal period
9month from conception to birth
Infancy
0-1 year
toddlerhood
1-2 year
Early childhood
2-6 years
Middle and late childhood
6-11 years
Entering adulthood
11-18 years
Adulthood
20+ years
Old age
60+ years
Nature
genes and hereditary factors, physical appearance, personality characteristics
Nuture
childhood experiences, social relo’s and upbringing
Critical periods
evidence to suggest that some key skills are acquired at certain stages
Genes
Dominant, recessive and polygenic
Epigenetics
area of research that shows how enviro influences a Childs experiences- actually effects the expression of their genes
Teratogens
chemical substances that can cause damage to the embryo or foetus during development
Why theories are important
allow you to make predictions and interpret data
Maturationism
Development happens in terms of certain- “maturational timetables” caterpillar>butterfly
Behaviourist approach
that behaviour is learned through experience and interaction with the enviro
Cognitive development
Theory seeks to bridge genetic and social accounts
egocentricity
a pre operational Childs inability to appreciate the possibility of a perspective other than their own
Centration
exclusive focus on one salient aspect of a problem
Lack of reversibility
can’t grasp that the effects of events are reversed when a process is reversed
Conservation
a recognition that some properties of an object remain fundamentally unchanged even if there are external changes in appearance
Concrete operations
being able to focus on more than one feature of a situation at a time
Formal operations
occur at 11+ formal, abstract and rational thought, hypothetical thinking
Assimilation
adding of info to existing structure
accommodation
reorganising the structure to take account for new, inconsistent info
