Developmental Psychology Flashcards

Question

How do we move into adulthood from adolescence?

Answer 1

- Experience stands in contrast with our ‘theory’ – that people are overly interested in us, etc. - A clash between inner beliefs or predictions and reality

Answer 2

Become more aware of one’s own inner world Realisation that thoughts are thoughts not reflection of reality Thoughts come into focus as an object of reflection Excessive focus on one’s own mental life

Answer 3

- 69 pp’s completed fMRI scanning and during the scan the pp’s were told that the camera was embedded in the scanner - Camera cycled through 3 settings (off, warming up, on) - When camera was ‘on’ pp’s were told that a peer of same age and sex was monitoring the camera feed - Adolescents reported greater feelings of embarrassment compared to children and adults and heightened levels of physiological responses - Greater brain activation in areas thought to be related to social cognition so adolescents were more self-conscious compared to other age groups

Answer 4

- Investigated how metacognitive ability develops in adolescence - 56 pp’s performed a perceptual task and after each trial they were asked to rate how confident they were that they chose the right answer - Ability to identify accuracy levels in the perceptual task increased with age - Metacognitive ability may relate to increased egocentricity, sense of self and developing self-awareness

Answer 5

- 119 students and measures personal fable (invulnerability & speciality) and risk-taking - Personal fable scores increased with age - Males scored higher than females in invulnerability dimension of personal fable - Significant positive correlation between personal fable and risk-taking

Answer 6

- Numerous studies critique the imaginary audience theory - Are adaptive coping mechanisms used by adolescents in their attempts to deal with the stressful developmental ai of separation- individuation - Females might be more likely to have stronger social pressures, experience objectification, have more extreme focus on mental health issues

Answer 7

- 563 pp’s were presented with some risk scenarios and asked to rate how risky those were - Pp’s were then shown rating of other people for the dame scenarios and then were asked to re-rate the risk scenarios - Initial ratings: children rated scenarios more risky compared to the other age groups. Adolescents and adults did not differ in risk ratings - Social influence: all age groups influenced by others’ ratings (children influenced by more adult ratings, adolescents were more strongly influenced by other adolescent ratings)

Answer 8

- Pp’s completed a driving stimulation game alone or in the presence of a peer (adolescents, youth and adults) - Alone condition: all age groups took similar risks - Peer condition: adolescents and young people took more risks compared to alone. Adult performance was the same - Findings consistent with the idea that peer acceptance and fitting in may play a crucial role in risk-taking behaviour in adolescents - Findings in line with real world data

Answer 9

- Adolescents show higher risk-taking behaviour than children and adults - Show higher sensitivity to reward than adults - Limbic system: collection of structures in the brain related to emotion, memory, feelings of pleasure, reward - The dual system model (Steinberg 2010): adolescent characteristics such as risk-taking and sensitivity to reward are due to these brain development changes

Answer 10

Intelligence Quotient is an index of an individual’s intelligence score (WISC – Wechsler intelligence scale for children, WASI – Wechsler adult scale for intelligence)

Answer 11

- Francis Galton: reasoned that intelligence is a product of natural selection and is genetically determined. Saw potential in theory of evolution for planned human betterment (could lead to selective breeding) - Binet & Simon: developed 1st IQ tests to measure student abilities for education purposes - Lewis Terman & Maud Merril: devised the Stanford-Binet scale. Did a longitudinal study on ‘gifted children’. Highly intelligent individuals are healthy/ stable and not weak/ a misfit - Lewis Terman: used alpha and beta test on soldiers to test their abilities during WW1 and promoted selective breeding to create desirable characteristics (Eugenics) - Cyril Burt: advised British government to use aptitude tests to determine what children should go to grammar school (research suggested than social class was determined hereditary levels of intelligence) - Other issues: discriminate against less privileged racial, ethnic or social groups (Cultural bias)

Answer 12

- Genotype: genetic make-up of an organism - Phenotype: refers to the observable physical properties of an organism with environmental influences

Answer 13

- Degree of genetic relatedness: looking at people with various degrees of relatedness can give us an understanding of the genetic basis of a concept - Atheoretical definition of intelligence = intelligence is what IQ tests measure - Correlation: relationship between 2 or more variables

Answer 14

- Generalised intelligence: single construct that influences all cognitive functioning and is demonstrated through correlations of performances of different tests (Stanford-Binet, Raven’s progressive standard matrices)

Answer 15

- Fluid intelligence: cognitive functioning component not influenced by the environment, fixed throughout lifetime - Crystallised intelligence: stored factual information, benefits from schooling can change through life span (correlations between FI and CI

Answer 16

- Twin studies: are valuable to examine genetics characteristics but is hard to separate genetic and environmental factors - Degree of genetic relatedness: examining individuals with varying levels of shared genes can help us pick apart genetic influences

Answer 17

- Mother played with child, child gets out of house, mother shouts at child, etc - Children were observed at 6 and 24 months, their IQ were tested at 3 and 4.5 years - Rating of a family when child was 24 months correlated with IQ at 3 years: 0.7 - Rating of family when child was 6 months correlated with IQ at 4.f years: 0.44 - (Estimates of heritability are based on population data and these don’t necessarily apply neatly to individual cases)

Answer 18

studied 6yrs where 50% took a vitamin everyday for 3 months and 50% took a placebo. IQ measured before and after study and children in the experimental group had a greater IQ increase compared to control. (Only observed children with poor diets as children that have a healthy lifestyle and rich diet didn’t benefit)

Answer 19

11,430 pp’s for a 6-week period. Five cognitive domains: reasoning, memory, planning, visuospatial skills and attention. Results: pp’s became better at the cognitive tasks they trained on but these effects dint transfer to everyday life tasks

Answer 20

- Zajonc (1976): first born children spend more time with intelligent adults - Blake (1981): first child spends significant time with adults, gets more attention - The Flynn effect: IQ has increased overtime due to improvements in education., nutrition and supportive parenting styles

Answer 21

Theory of mind is the ability to attribute states to us and others, including: - Thoughts - Beliefs - Intentions - Desires - Knowledge - The contents of other minds are unobservable so we use different strategies to understand them: - We can track the beliefs of others based on their history - We can make mental state inferences about observable actions - We can take the perspective of Somone else and see things from their point of view

Answer 22

Core features of social cognition: - Predict future actions/ behaviours - Reasons about past behaviours - Communicate with ithers effectively - Gift purchasing

Answer 23

1. Apes – asses the visual perspective of others and use this knowledge to decide which food to compete for. Will base decisions on their dominance in group (Hare et al 2000) 2. Birds – (Western Scrub-Jays) cache food and re-cache based on whether they were observed. They know that other birds could be observing them so adjust their behaviour to hide their food (Dally et al 2006) 3. Dogs – could be used for sheep dog purposes - However, this theory if mind in animals is controversial as we cannot direct ask them about their behaviour and is it as fully developed as it is in humans

Answer 24

- Beliefs: understanding other’s mind (Dennet 1978), people hold beliefs and their beliefs predict their behaviour - Unexpected transfer test (Wimmer & Perner 1983) - A fundamental shift towards understanding other minds

Answer 25

- Explicit tasks: children are asked to explicitly report the contents of another mind - Implicit tasks: children imply that they are aware of other minds through their behaviour

Answer 26

- Three-year-old children told convincing lies about doing something that was forbidden (Lewis et al 1989) - 2-5 yrs children destroyed tell-tale evidence to present a competitor finding hidden treasure (Chandler at al 1989) - 3-4 yrs children changed the content of a familiar container in order to trick the experimenter (Sulliban & Winner 2993)

Answer 27

- Early studies seem to provide evidence that children rapidly acquire this ‘belief’ around their 4th bday - If this was the case, we should predict: consistency across studies, perfect performance in older children/adults, universal ‘flip’ in performance

Answer 28

- Early theorists argued for radical conceptual change in Theory of Mind development a approx. 4yrs - Adjustments to tasks could improve performance in younger children - Meta-analysis of 274 studies showed performance flips form below-chance to above-chance at age 4

Answer 29

1. Culture – the rate of development is similar across cultures, but the timing was different. Universal stage-like development but different onset times (Liu et al 2008) 2. Parenting – single parenting, parental distress and poor economic situations, associated with poorer Tom performance (Cole & Mitchell 1998) 3. Family size – children with more siblings, especially older, are developmentally advantaged I passing a test of false belief compared with singletons (Perner at al 1994)

Answer 30

- Divergence from typical development, identified in childhood - Often lifetime, but can cancel out in adulthood - Can include atypical cognitive, social, behavioural, language or motor development - 1 in 10 children have developmental differences

Answer 31

1. Have a known genetic bases and so they can be inherited or due to a random mutation (e.g. Down’s Syndrome, Turner Syndrome, etc) 2. Have a putative genetic basis so researchers assume there is a genetic basis because of circumstantial evidence (e.g. Autism, ADHD, language disorders) 3. Some differences have an environmental cause like features of the home environment, nutrition and access to therapy (e.g. Cerebral Palsy) - Usually parents take their children to the GP when they have concerns and there the child can be referred to specialist assessment services (histories, observations, questionnaires, standardized assessments)

Answer 32

- First described in the mid 20th century (Leo Kanner 1943 & Hans Asperger 1944) - Marked by differences in social interaction, communication and repetitive behaviours and restricted interest - Lifelong differences that are maintained into adulthood - 1 in 44 children in the US have autism - Putative genetic cause - Heterogeneous presentation: can present in people with high IQ, more common in boys than girls, approx. 40% autistic people are nonverbal

Answer 33

children completed an unexpected transfer test where autistic children performed worse than verbal and nonverbal-ability matched groups

Answer 34

propped to account for non-social differences and perceptual strengths seen in autism, they were faster and more accurate on the embedded figures task & block design task

Answer 35

- First recognise in the early 1990s - Marked by differences in attention (unresponsive yet distractible), hyperactivity (impossible to sit still), impulsivity (unwilling to queue) - Occurs in 8 in 100 people and is more common in boys than girls - Some children remit whereas other maintain diagnoses into adulthood - High heritability estimates 75% but affected by environmental factors (e.g. diet) - Barkley (1997) primary differences in executive functioning - Sonuga-Barke (2005) primary differences with reward and motivation. Difficulty with delayed gratification

Answer 36

- Prevalence about 7 in 100 people and is more common in boys than girls - Common in both Broca’s and Wernicke’s area - Developmental dyslexia: difficulty in reading and spelling. Although it has a genetic basis, it is also affected by environmental factors

Answer 37

Medical: - the individual is the problem Social: - society has the barriers

Answer 38

- Differences not disability - Neurological differences are respected by any other human variation and this view celebrated different forms of communication and self-expression - Not searching for a cure

Answer 39

- An understanding of the difference between ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ - Intuition vs reason - Theories of mortal development: Piaget’s theory (moral realist vs moral subjectivist) & Kohlberg’s stage theory

Answer 40

- Children made judgments about the relative naughtiness of two boys (good intentions but large damage & bad intentions but small damage) - Moral realists: children below 7, pre-operational stage, judgements based on the scale of the damage - Moral subjectivists: children above 7, concrete operational stage, judgements based on the intention of the protagonist - Issues: may be seen as limited (e.g. graffiti could be morally good or bad), has moral development dully developed by age 7?

Answer 41

- E.g. man stole drugs from pharmacy to save his dying wife Stages: 1. preconventional morality punishment = wrong reward = right 2. conventional morality consider intentions obedience to authority 3. postconventional morality morally vs legally right consider multiple views

Answer 42

- Moral dilemmas are rare in everyday life - Deciding between selfish vs selfless actions is more common - Helping, sharing, altruism (costly helping)

Answer 43

- Experiment 1: 6- and 10-month-old infants preferred the helper over the hinderer. - Experiment 2: Preferences disappeared when the eyes of the agent were removed. - Experiment 3: Preference for helper and aversion to hinderer returned when compared to a neutral condition - 18-month-olds will help an adult - Infants seem to understand others’ helping behaviors before they can help. - They evaluate helpers more positively (by approaching helpers)

Answer 44

- Norms vs actions - 3-8 yrs children given 4 stickers - Young children understand that it is ‘right’ to share equally - Children don’t adhere to fairness principles until 7-to-8-years - Perhaps sharing is more costly than helping - Perhaps sharing requires more reasoned thought, whereas helping is based on intuition

Answer 45

- Meta-analysis of twin and adoption studies aimed to tease apart the genetic and environmental influences on antisocial behaviour - 32% variation due to genetic influence. - 43% variation due to environmental influences

Answer 46

- Style of parenting – coercive cycles (Patterson et al 1992) - Child attachment to parent - Peer group influences (Harris 1995)

Answer 47

- Longitudinal study of 8 yrs followed u at age 19 and 30 - Initial findings: 8 yr olds who stated that they liked violent TV programmes were rated by peers as being most aggressive and the most aggressive children rated violent programmes as being more lifelike. - Later findings: Watching violent programmes at age 8 correlated with ratings of aggression at age 19 and correlated with various antisocial behaviours at age 30: (Drink-driving offences, Criminal convictions, Domestic violence) - 5- 9-yr old children either watched violent TV or a similarly exciting sporting event and then played without supervision. Those who watched violent TV were more aggressive and violent in their play (Liebert & Barron, 1972) - 9 yr olds watched either violent or non-violent TV and then witnessed a staged fight between 2 other children. Those who watched the violent TV responded less emotionally, suggesting they had been de-sensitized (Thomas et al, 1977)

Answer 48

- Social learning theory (imitation) - Bandura et al (1962)

Answer 49

- Attachment: is the bond that an infant forms with their primary caregiver and is characterized by proximity and feelings of being comforted and content - This bond can take different forms called attachment styles - Which attachment style a child has is examined by looking at their responses to different situations (attachment behaviours)

Answer 50

- Humans are born into the world being extremely vulnerable as babies are born long before their brain development is complete (need for intensive proximal care during early childhood, a LONG childhood period, 12 yrs. until puberty, continuing brain development even at 25 yrs.)

Answer 51

- Time until sexual maturity (Gorilla 7-8yrs, Baboon 5-8yrs, Lemurs 20months, Humans 13-17yrs) - As brain/body proportion increases, so does the time taken until sexual maturity - Later sexual maturity = elongated childhood = more care by adults - Many family members care for a growing human infant (motivation to be ‘likeable’ to all potential carers)

Answer 52

- Mothers fulfilling the child’s primary needs - Influenced by empirical findings that there is an evolutionarily ancient urge in animal to bond with a caregiver (not simply due to ‘cupboard love’) - Lorenz with imprinting with geese and established a critical period - Harlow with monkeys’ attachment to wire vs cloth mother

Answer 53

1. First few months: orienting towards people indiscriminately 2. 5-7 months: orienting and preferentially engaging with the caregiver 3. 7-9 months: going to the caregiver and expressing distress when separated from them 4. 2-3yrs: goal-corrected partnership, whereby the child also accommodates the caregiver’s needs 5. 4 years upwards: switch from physical proximity to the more abstract emotional closeness

Answer 54

- Bowlby proposed that the primary attachment creates an internal working model of attachment, (early childhood experiences determine their future – Freud) - In contrast, a revisionist perspective suggests that early attachment representations can be revised in face of new life experiences (Lewis, 1997) - Evidence: attachment style at 12 months does indeed predict attachment later in life

Answer 55

- Strange situation procedure defined 3 attachment types - secure - insecure avoidant - insecure resistant

Answer 56

- The universality hypothesis: When given an opportunity, most infants will become attached to at least one specific caregiver - The normativity hypothesis: Most infants are securely attached in contexts that are not inherently threatening to human health and survival - The sensitivity hypothesis: Attachment security depends on sensitive and prompt responses to the infant’s signals - The competence hypothesis: Secure attachment leads to positive child outcomes

Answer 57

- Western middle-class assumption that signs of healthy maturity is individual autonomy - Differences in socialisation goals and wide variety in caregiving arrangements - Universality hypothesis (i.e., that infants have an attachment figure) holds true in all examined cultures - Normativity hypothesis (i.e., that most infants are securely attached) holds true in most cultures - Varied support for sensitivity (i.e., that parental responsiveness determines attachment) and competence (i.e., that attachment has long-term impact on development) hypotheses - Definition of sensitivity is critical – culture-specific behaviours and engagement styles must be considered

Answer 58

- Longitudinal studies following up participants from infancy into childhood have found that secure attachment at infancy is associated with: - More curiosity and problem solving at age 2 (Oppenheim et al., 1988) - Social confidence at age 3 and empathy at age 5 (Oppenheim et al., 1988) - Fewer internalising and externalising behaviours at age 3 (McCartney et al., 2004) - Social competence, internalising and externalising behaviours similarly in male’s vs females and high/middle SES vs low-SES children (Groh et al., 2017) - Despite the global scope of this research, cross-cultural evidence is scarce

Answer 59

1. Development has a specific, universal timeline 2. Development follows a consistent procedure 3. Methods used to study development are appropriate in different cultures - Issues: ethnocentric – evaluating other cultures according to preconceptions, standards, and customs of one’s own culture

Answer 60

- “It can be said that much developmental psychology is the science of the strange behaviour of children in strange situations with strange adults for the briefest possible periods of time”

Answer 61

- (WEIRD = Western Educated Industrialised Rich and Democratic) - Nielsen et al (2017) reviewed 1582 articles published in top Developmental Psychology journals between 2006-2010 (90% WEIRD)

Answer 62

- Culture = an umbrella term which encompasses social behaviour and norms of human society - Relatively stable over time, yet variable across communities - Cumulative = knowledge, skills and social conventions passed from one generation to the next - Shaped by social learning

Answer 63

- Young children make use of multiple strategies to learn about culture. These are all features of social learning: - 1. Emotion learning - 2. Natural pedagogy - 3. Questioning - 4. High-fidelity imitation

Answer 64

1. Imitation (learning to do an act from seeing it done) 2. Mimicry (a person unwittingly imitates the behaviour) 3. High-fidelity imitation or over imitation (coping actions, despite visible evidence that its unnecessary) - e.g. chimpanzees copy everything on the opaque but sole the puzzle efficiently in the transparent box. Whereas children copied everything despite it being unnecessary - Learning social convention can sometimes be more important than learning about physical causality - Horner & Whiten (2004)

Answer 65

- Are the children just overimitating when being watched (Demand characteristics) Children and adults engage in over imitation “in the wild” (Whiten et al., 2016) - Social selectivity? Some evidence to suggest children imitate ingroup over outgroup (Krieger et al, 2020) - Global phenomenon? Over imitation has now been demonstrated in children from many countries around the world (including rural Africa, hunter-gatherer societies, other indigenous groups) - Maintenance? Children protest when a puppet fails to perform the unnecessary actions (Kenward et al, 2011)

Answer 66

how we relate material possessions can reflect cultural values (extent of wealth, generosity, political ideals) - 176 3-5yrs from 7 distinct socio-cultural environments (USA, China, Brazil). Two dolls, who are friends, took a walk together and ended up fighting for possession of an object and they were asked ‘whose is it?’ - Conditions: first contact, familiarity, creation, rich poor, neutral - Results: by age 5, children in all cultures gave ownerships in the creation and familiarity conditions. Children from USA and China were more likely to assign ownership to the poor puppet (Rochat et al 2014)

Answer 67

(Blake et al 2015) - Children play in pairs; one child is the ‘actor’. Sweets are unfairly distributed, and the actor can accept or reject the candy. Rejecting an offer led to zero payoffs for everyone - Results = older children tend to reject unfair offers when they are disadvantaged by the distribution of resources. In USA/Canada/Uganda, older children reject unfair offers when they are advantaged but in Mexico/China, children are unlikely to reject unfair offers which advantage them

Answer 68

(Weltzien et al 2019) - Level of cultural specificity: country level differences, family level differences - 7-8 yrs Indian children completed a priming interview designed to promote independence or interdependence - Sharing game where they could choose to either take two for self or divide resources equally - Results = independence priming made children choose the selfish option more frequently. Interdependence priming only worked to make children more prosocial if they came from an extended family