Developmental Psychology Flashcards
What is a cross-sectional study?
compare groups of subjects at different ages
What is a longitudinal study?
specific group of people over a period of time
What is a sequential cohort study?
several groups of different ages are studied over a period of time
What is a case study?
in depth study about a particular child
What initiated the study of genetics?
Gregor Mendel
What was RC Tryon’s contribution to psychology?
studied the inheritance of maze-running ability in rats; used selective breeding to differentiate between maze-bright and maze-dull rats; difference between the two increased over the generations; only out-performed maze-dull rats at mazes, not other tasks
What are monozygotic twins?
Identical
What are dizygotic twins?
Fraternal
What is downs syndrome?
extra 21st chromosome; parents’ age seems to be associated
What is phenylketonuria (PKU)?
degenerative disease of the immune system; can’t digest an amino acid found in milk; can control with diet; first genetic disease that could be tested in large populations
What is Klinefelter’s Syndrome?
males have an extra X chromosome; sterile; mental retardation
What is Turner’s syndrome?
females with only one X chromosome; no secondary sex characteristics; physical abnormalities including short fingers and unusually shaped mouths
What is a zygote?
fertilized egg
Describe the germinal period.
Cell divides into 2, 4, 8, 16, etc.
Cell mass moves down fallopian tubes, implanted into uterine wall
What is the embryonic period?
8 weeks following germinal period; embryo increases in size by 2 million percent; begins to take on human characteristics
What is the fetal period?
begins in the third month; measurable electrical activity in the fetus’ brain
What is rooting?
infants automatically turn their heads in the direction of stimuli applied to the cheek (breastfeeding)
What is moro?
infants react to abrupt movements of their heads by flinging out their arms, extending their fingers, and bringing their arms back to their bodies and hugging themselves
What is babinski?
infant toes automatically spread apart when the soles of their feet are stimulated
What is grasping?
infants close their fingers around objects place in their hands
What is a schema?
organized patterns of thoughts/behaviors
What is assimilation?
add to schema
What is accommodation?
change schema
What is adaptation?
assimilation or accommodation
Describe Piaget’s 4 stages of development
- Sensorimotor: primary and secondary circular reactions; object permanence develops
- Preoperational: ego-centrism; doesn’t understand conservation
- Concrete operational: masters conservation; trouble with abstract thought
- Formal operation: ability to “think like a scientist”
What is the sensorimotor stage?
Piaget
primary and secondary circular reactions; object permanence develops
What is the preoperational stage?
Piaget
ego-centrism; doesn’t understand conservation
What is the concrete operational stage?
Piaget
masters conservation; trouble with abstract thought
What is the formal operational stage?
Piaget
ability to “think like a scientist”
What is the zone of proximal development?
Vygotsky
skills and abilities that have not fully developed but are in the process of developing
What is phonology?
sounds of language
What is categorical perception?
ability to discern sounds that denote differences in meaning from those that are not
What are phenomes?
Smallest unit of language
there are ~40 phenomes or speech sounds in English
What is semantics?
word meanings
What is syntax?
how words are put together to form sentences
What is pragmatics?
efficient use of language
Lennenberg, Rebelsky, Nichols (1965)
babbling begins at the same age for hearing children and deaf children with any kind of parents; for hearing children: steady increase with peak 9-12 mos
Deaf: stops almost immediately
Petitto and Marentette (1991):
deaf children with parents using sign language babble with their hands
What is a language acquisition device?
Chomsky believes children have an innate capacity for language development: language acquisition device; thought to be triggered by exposure to language
Critical period: 2-puberty
Genie = unfortunate test case; isolated from human contact 2-13; struggled with language
Describe Erik Erikson’s theory of development
Believed that development is a sequence of central life crises; development occurs through resolutions of conflicts between personal needs and social demands
- Trust vs. Mistrust (0-1)
- Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt (1-3)
- Initiative vs. Guilt (3-6)
- Industry vs. Inferiority (4-6)
- Identity vs. Role confusion (adolescence)
- Intimacy vs. Isolation (young adulthood)
- Generativity vs. Stagnation (middle age)
- Integrity vs. Despair (old age)
Thomas and Chess
Studied temperamant: individual’s pattern of responding to environment – somewhat inheritable; emerges in infancy, stable over time, pervasive across situations
Proposed three categories of infant emotional and behavioral style
- Easy: positive; easily adapts
- Slow to warm up: withdraws; then adapts
- Difficult: negative; withdraws
Wolff
3 types of crying:
- Hunger cry
- Anger cry
- Pain cry – even non-parents react with heart rate acceleration to pain cry
Social smiling: at first, any face; 5 mos, only familiar faces
Fear response: at first undifferentiated to increasingly specific (notable changes after one year)
Bowlby
Studied children brought up in institutions where needs met but not a lot of contact – more timid
Identified phases of attachment process:
- First weeks: infant reacts identically to every smiling face
- 3 mos: able to discern familiar and unfamiliar faces
- 6 mos: seeks out and responds to mom
- 9-12 mos: stranger anxiety
- 2nd year: separation anxiety
- 3rd year: okay
Ainsworth
strange situation” to study attachment style
- A. insecure-avoidant
- B. resistant
- C. secure
Lorenz
imprinting: rapid formation of an attachment bond between and organism and an object in the environment
- critical periods conducive to this
- others critique
Stages of Moral Development
- Preconventional morality: right and wrong defined by punishment and reward (defined by punishment and obedience, instrumental relatives stage; orientation toward reciprocity)
- Conventional Stage: based on social rules (good girl stage – seek approval from others; law and order orientation – rules as defined by authority)
- Post-Conventional Morality: social contract orientation – moral rules seen as a convention designed to ensure the greater good; universal ethical principle
Heinz Dilemma
Kholberg’s Gender Stages
- Gender labeling (2-3 years): achieve gender identity
- Gender stability (3-4 years): can predict will still be x gender when grown up but superficial and based on physical characteristics
- Gender consistency (4-7): understand permanency of gender
What is gender schematic processing?
(Martin and Halverson): as soon as children are able to label themselves, they being concentrating on those behaviors that seem to be associated with their gender and pay less attention to those they believe are associated with opposite gender
Diana Baumrind
Parenting Styles
- authoritarian: high standards/cold
- authoritative: high standards/warm
- permissive
- authoritative = most well-adjusted
Presence of HY antigen vs. absence
presence causes testis to form; absence causes ovaries
Neonate
newborn
Palmar reflex
grasping/hand-holding
Androgen
testosterone
Circular reactions
repeated behavior intended to manipulate environment; typical of babies in sensorimotor stage of Piaget’s developmental theory
Rachel Gelman
showed that Piaget might have underestimated the cognitive ability of preschoolers
Piaget: Moral Development
a. 4-7 years; imitates rule-following behavior; doesn’t question that rules exist
b. 7-11 years: understands rules and follows them
c. 12+ years: applies abstract thinking to rules; can change rules if all parties agree
John Watson
behavioralist approach to development asserted that children were passively molded by the environment and that their behavior emerges through imitation of their parents
Arnold Gessell
believed nature only provided blue-print for development through maturation; environment or nurture filled in details
Symbolic play
1-2 years old – pretend roles
Parallel play
2-3 years old
Holophrastic speech
when a young child uses one word (holophrases) to convey a whole sentence
Chomsky
Transformational grammar
a. Surface structure: way that words are organized
b. Deep structure: underlying meaning
Roger Brown
researched the areas of social, developmental and linguistic psychology. He found that children’s understanding of grammatical rules develops as they make hypotheses about how syntax works and then self-correct with experience.
Katherine Nelson
found that language really begins to develop with the onset of active speech rather than during the first year of only listening
William Labov
studied ebonics and found that it had its own complex internal structure
Charles Osgood
studied semantics. Created semantic differential charts, which allowed people to plot the means of words on graphs. People with similar backgrounds and interests plotted words similarly. Suggests that words have similar connotations for cultures or subcultures.
Binet and Simon
Intelligence as an objective away to identify children in public schools who need extra classroom help
Terman and Wechsler
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale – most widely used
a. Verbal comphrension
b. Perceptual reasoning (nonverbal)
c. Working memory
d. Processing speed (nonverbal)
William Stern
developed idea of intelligence quotient
a. Mental Age/Chronological Age (no longer used)
b. Instead: IQ computed by comparing a particular person to average of other people who are same age
Spearman’s G Factory
General factor
Positive correlations among scores on different types of mental tests indicate the existence of a single underlying intellectual capacity
When perform a task, draw upon g and s (specific factor)
IQ scores depend mostly on g
Thurstone’s Primary Mental Abilities
Intelligence consists of 7 separate primary mental capacities
Fundamental abilities that are the components of intelligence and are distinct from other abilities
Ex: verbal comprehension; spatial visualization
Catelli and Horn
Fluid and Crystallized Intelligence
Fluid intelligence: underlies the creation of novel solutions to problems; ability to reason without relying heavily on previously learned knowledge or procedures
Crystallized intelligence: relies on knowing facts and having the ability to use and combine them
As age, fluid intelligence decreases
Develop at different rates during childhood
Rely on different brain structures
Not equally heritable
Different facets of academic achievement are predicted by the 2 forms of intelligence
Carroll’s Three-Stratum of Cognitive Ability
a. Sythesis of earlier theories
b. Most widely accepted theory
c. 3 Striate hierarchy: G; 8 broad cognitive abilities (include fluid and crystallized intelligence); Narrower/related abilities
Emotional Intelligence
Ability to understand and regulate emotions: Perceiving emotion; Facilitating thought with emotion; Understanding emotion; Managing emotion
Gifted
IQ = 3 standard deviations away from normal
Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences
a. Linguistic
b. Spatial
c. Music
d. Logical-Mathematical
e. Bodily-Kinesthetic
f. Intrapersonal
g. Interpresonal
h. Naturalist
Existential??
Evidence:
a. brain damage – inhibit some, not all
b. Learn at different rates
c. Prodigies in X, average at other things
