Developmental Psychology Flashcards
1
Q
What is Developmental Psychology?
A
- study of changes in behavior and mental processes over the life course
- prenatal to aging
- caught in Nature-Nuture dichotomy
- how development happens scientifically
2
Q
Early Development
A
- focus today
1. Prenatal
2. Infancy: neonatal reflexes, early social interactions, attachment, temperament
3
Q
Prenatal Development
A
- a huge amount of development takes place before birth
1. Zygote: weeks 1 and 2
2. Embryo: weeks 3 - 8
3. Fetus: weeks 9 - 38 or birth
4
Q
Teratogens
A
- substances that negatively impact development that are int he environment
- Lead: found to be toxic; in water, paint, saw dust, metal
- cigaret smokes, pharmaceuticals, insecticides
- alcohol: causes flat nose and no upper lip
- PCB’s: stabilizer that stays in your system
5
Q
Neonatal Reflexes
A
- important reflexes that babies develop naturally
- breathing, sucking, swallowing
- rooting: if you touch a baby around the mouth, they will turn its head to the object
- moro: if you pretend to drop the baby, its arms and legs extend out to grab onto something
- grasping: if you place you finger in their palm, they will grasp it
- lack of reflexes may indicate neurological problems
- many reflexes disappear over the first few months; you start to develop to the adapt to the environment
6
Q
Early Social Interaction
A
- asks the question: are very young infants ready to be social? is it natural?
- evidence that babies imitate reactions
- the older they get, the more sophisticated their imitations
- starts as early as hours after birth
7
Q
Attachment
A
- mother-infacnt bi-directional bond
- why do infants become attached?
- is it because their mother is the source of food?
- studies found that satisfaction and comfort leads to emotional attachment
8
Q
Harry Harlow and Attachment
A
- showed that comfort is what babies seek
- attachment doesn’t come from feeding
9
Q
Konrad Lorenz and Attachment
A
- said attachment is instinctive behaviors
- proximity seeking: babies will attach to anyone near them
10
Q
Human Attachment Experiment
A
- mom and infant in a lab room
- a stranger enters and greets them
- stranger and mom leave
- child cries in protest and the mother enters again to comfort the child
- the child either accepts the moms comfort and calms down OR keeps crying even with the return of their mom
11
Q
Secure vs. Insecure
A
- the quality of the child reaction to the return of their mother shows the relationship they have with their mom
- Secure: mom is always there to respond, confident relationship, comfort
- Insecure: mom is unreliable to always respond; sometimes there, sometimes not there; confused
12
Q
Infant Temperament
A
- stable traits that predict aspect of personality in babies
1. Prevailing mood
2. Intensity of emotional response
3. Threshold of response
4. Extroversion/Introversion
13
Q
Jerome Kagan and Infant Temperament
A
- children who seek less social input lead to them being more introverted
- children who seek more social input lead to them being more extroverted
14
Q
Early Cognitive Development: Innate Ideas
A
- Jean Jacques Rousseau
- we are born with a sense of the world
- innate knowledge about the world
- fundamental properties of geometry, basic object properties (identity, permanence, transformation)
- categorical structures: animate, inanimate, liquids, solids
15
Q
Early Cognitive Development: Learned Ideas
A
- John Locke
- all concepts and knowledge are construction the baby has discovered
- the world could be radically different depending on where you grow up
