Developmental psychology Flashcards
Explore the five issues that guide developmental research
Nature and nurture: To what extent is our development the product of heredity (nature) and of environment (nurture)?
How do nature and nurture interact?
Sensitive and critical periods: Are some experiences especially important at particular ages? A sensitive period is an
optimal age range for certain experiences, but if those experiences occur at another time, normal development is still
possible. A critical period is an age range during which certain experiences must occur for development to proceed
normally or along a certain path (Arshavsky, 2009).
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Continuity versus discontinuity: Is development continuous and gradual, as when a sapling slowly grows into a tree, or is it
discontinuous, progressing through qualitatively distinct stages, as when a creeping caterpillar emerges from its cocoon as
a soaring butterfly? Can it be both continuous and discontinuous?
Stability versus change: How consistent are our characteristics as we age? Do extremely inhibited infants
develop into extremely inhibited adults or do they become less shy over time?
Normative versus non-normative events: How do life events change us? Age-related normative events are those that most
people experience at particular ages in the life span. Non-normative events are atypical or unexpected, such as a natural
disaster or the death of child. They potentially alter a person’s developmental trajectory.
Explain the different designs used to conduct developmental research
Using a cross-sectional design , we would compare people of different ages at the
same point in time. Thus, within a short period of time we could administer intellectual tasks
to 10-, 20-, 30-, 40-, 50- and 60-year-olds. We would test each person once and compare how
well the different age groups performed. Cross-sectional designs are widely used because
data from many age groups can be collected relatively quickly, but a key drawback is that the
different age groups, called cohorts, grew up in different historical periods.
longitudinal design repeatedly tests the same cohort as it grows
older. We could test a sample of 10-year-olds now and then retest them every 10 years, up to
age 60, thus ensuring that everyone is exposed to the same historical time frame.
Unfortunately, a longitudinal design can be time-consuming and, as the years pass, our
sample may shrink as people move, drop out of the study or die. Further, suppose we find
lower intelligence at age 60. Is this really due to ageing or to developmental experiences
unique to our particular cohort? Researchers can answer this question by using a sequential d
esign , which combines the cross-sectional and longitudinal approaches. For example, we
could test 10- through to 60-year-olds now, retest them every 10 years and then examine
whether the various cohorts followed a similar developmental pattern. This design is the most
comprehensive but also the costliest and most time-consuming.
Understand that development starts in the womb
The germinal stage
comprises approximately the first 2 weeks of development, beginning when a sperm fertilises
a female egg (ovum). This fertilised ovum is called a zygote. . Through repeated cell
division it becomes a mass of cells that attaches to the mother’s uterus 10 to 14 days after
conception.
The embryonic stage is next. The cell mass, now called an embryo , develops from the end
of week 2 through to week 8 after conception. Two life-support structures, the placenta and umbilical cord, develop at the start of this stage. Located on the uterine wall, the placenta
contains membranes that allow nutrients to pass from the mother’s blood to the umbilical
cord. In turn, the umbilical cord contains blood vessels that carry these nutrients and oxygen
to the embryo and transport waste products back from the embryo to the mother. Supplied
with nutrients, embryonic cells rapidly divide and become specialised, forming the different
organs and systems. By week 8, the heart of the 2.5 cm-long embryo is beating, the brain is
forming and facial features such as eyes can be recognised.
The final, foetal stage, lasts from week 9 after conception until birth. Muscles
strengthen and other bodily systems continue their development. At about 24 weeks the eyes
open and by 27 weeks (or several weeks younger, with top medical care) the foetus attains
the age of viability: it is likely to survive outside the womb in case of premature birth.
Describe how genes influence sex determination
ova and sperm
cells each have only 23 chromosomes. At conception, an ovum and a sperm cell unite to form
the zygote, which contains the 23 pairs of chromosomes found in other human cells. The
23rd pair determines the baby’s sex. A genetic female’s 23rd pair contains two X
chromosomes (XX), so called because of their shape. Because women carry only X
chromosomes, the 23rd chromosome in the ovum is always an X. A genetic male’s 23rd pair
contains an X and a Y chromosome (XY). The 23rd chromosome in the
sperm is an X in about half of the cases and a Y in the other half. The Y chromosome
contains a specific gene, the TDF (testis determining factor) gene that triggers male sexual
development. The union of an ovum with a sperm cell having a Y chromosome results in an
XY combination and therefore a boy. A sperm containing an X chromosome produces an XX
combination and therefore a girl.
Approximately 6 to 8
weeks after conception, the TDF gene initiates the development of testes. Once formed, the
testes secrete sex hormones called androgens that continue to direct a male pattern of organ
development.
Explain the effect of different teratogens in prenatal development
Teratogens are external
agents that cause abnormal prenatal development. The placenta prevents many dangerous
substances from reaching the embryo and foetus, but some harmful chemicals and diseases can pass through. For example, if the mother contracts rubella (German measles)—especially
when the embryo’s eyes, ears, heart and central nervous system are beginning to form early in
pregnancy—it can cause blindness, deafness, heart defects and mental retardation in the
infant.
Mercury, lead, radiation and many other environmental toxins can produce birth defects, as can many drugs, both recreational and prescribed. Foetal alcohol spectru m disorders (FASD) involve a range of mild to severe cognitive, behavioural and/or physical deficits caused by prenatal exposure to alcohol
Be able to explain how perception introduces the world
Newborns’ visual systems are immature. Their eye movements are not well coordinated and
they are very shortsighted. They see objects 30 cm away most clearly. This is the typical distance between their eyes and their mothers’ eyes while feeding. Newborns
actively scan their environment. Although objects look blurry to them, they can perceive
some forms only a few days after birth and they show clear visual preferences.
Infants
looked longer at—that is, preferred—complex patterns, such as drawings of a human face, to
simple patterns and solid colours. Within a few days of birth, newborns can
distinguish their mother’s face from that of a female stranger and prefer to gaze at the
mother’s face.
Newborns also distinguish different odours. Exposed to pads taken from inside the
bras of several nursing mothers, week-old infants orient toward their own mother’s pad.
Newborns can also hear fairly well. They prefer human voices to other sounds and can
distinguish their own mother’s voice from that of a female stranger describes, newborns seem to prefer sounds that become familiar
to them in their last weeks of foetal development, when they can hear sounds transmitted
through the womb.
Describe how physical development is influenced by biological, environmental and cultural influences
Driven by maturation , the genetically programmed biological processes that govern our
growth, in interaction with experience, our bodies and movement (motor) skills develop
rapidly during infancy and childhood.
Physical and motor development follow several biological principles. The cephalocaudal pri
nciple reflects the tendency for development to proceed in a head-to-foot direction. Thus,
as you can see in Figure 12.4 , the head of a foetus (and infant) is disproportionately large
because physical growth concentrates first on the head. The proximodistal principle
states that development begins along the innermost parts of the body and continues toward
the outermost parts. Thus, a foetus’s arms develop before the hands and fingers. pg 30.
No organ develops more dramatically than the brain. While most of the neurons that will be
found in the adult brain have been generated at birth, the newborn brain is only about 25 per
cent of its adult weight and lacks the functional organisation that underlies thought and
behaviour. As shown in Figure 12.11 , the neural networks that form the basis for
perceptual, cognitive, emotional and motor skills develop rapidly. The first areas to mature lie
deep within the brain and regulate basic survival functions such as heartbeat and breathing.
Among the last areas to mature is the frontal cortex, which is vital to our highest-level
executive functions.
At 5 years, the brain has reached almost 90 per cent of its adult size; however, brain
maturation is far from complete (Sowell et al., 2001). New synapses form, unused synapses
are pruned back, even lost, and streamlining of connections between neurons continues at
least until early adulthood as the association areas of the cortex mature and the cerebral
hemispheres become more highly specialised.
Physical development is driven by genes in interaction with experience. Diet is one obvious
example: chronic malnutrition stunts physical and brain development.
Enriched environments have their effect by enhancing age-related, genetically driven
developmental processes. However, the relatively new field of epigenetics suggests that
environmental factors can have an even more powerful effect.
Experience also has a clear influence on motor skill development. Anbarra
mothers in north-central Arnhem Land carried their infants sitting on their shoulders. The sooner an infant could sit, the sooner the mother could resume her usual
functions. Mothers encouraged their infants to sit by pulling them into, and propping them up
in, a sitting position. Not surprisingly, Anbarra infants sat with minimal support several
weeks earlier than European Australian infants.
Key:
Biology sets limits on environmental influences. For example, no infant can be toilet-trained before the nerve fibres that
help regulate bladder control have biologically matured.
Environmental influences set limits on biology. Impoverished environments can stunt growth. Nurturing environments
foster physical and psychological growth.
Biological and environmental factors interact. Environmental factors foster or inhibit development. This in turn enhances
or impairs a child’s ability to benefit from future experience. ps 33
Explain how Piaget emphasized stages of development
. To understand how children think, Piaget
observed them and listened to them reason as they tried to solve problems. He proposed that
children think in a different way from adults. Their thinking changes qualitatively with age as
a result of the interaction between the brain’s biological maturation and personal experiences.
He viewed children as natural-born scientists who seek to understand their world.
The brain builds schemas , or organised patterns of thought and action.
Assimilation is the
process by which new experiences are incorporated into existing schemas, a child who sees a possum for the first time may exclaim ‘kitty!’ After
all, the possum is about the size of a cat, is furry and has four legs and a tail, so he tries to
make sense of this new experience by applying his familiar schema: ‘kitty’
Accommodation is the process by which new experiences cause existing schemas to
change. , the child who calls a possum a ‘kitty’ will eventually
discover that this ‘kitty’ exhibits some behaviours not found in cats. This imbalance, or
disequilibrium, between existing schemas and new experiences ultimately forces those
schemas to change. The child’s ‘kitty’ schema also will change and he will begin to develop new schemas for ‘doggie’, ‘possum’ and so on.
Sensorimotor Birth to 2 Infant understands world through sensory and
motor experiences
Achieves object permanence
Begins to think symbolically
Preoperational 2 to 7 Child uses symbolic thinking (words and images) to
represent objects and experiences
Symbolic thinking enables child to engage in
pretend play
Thinking displays egocentrism, irreversibility and
centration
Concrete operational 7 to 12 Child can think logically about concrete events
Grasps concepts of conservation and serial
ordering
Formal operational 12-plus Adolescent can think more logically, abstractly and
flexibly
Can form hypotheses and systematically test them
pg 36.
Consider information-processing approaches to development
Piaget’s descriptions of children’s sometimes illogical behaviour remain current; however,
information-processing theories seem to provide better explanations. In contrast to Piaget’s
stage approach, many researchers view cognitive development as a continuous, gradual
process in which emerging information-processing abilities become more efficient over time.
As children develop, they can attend to and quickly organise increasingly complex forms of
information, which accounts for why older children can reason and solve problems more
effectively than younger children.
The speed at which children process information
increases with age. Notice that processing speed improves continuously, but changes rapidly
between 8 and 12 years of age before slowing during adolescence. Children’s attention span
and ability to inhibit impulsive responses to distracting stimuli also improve with age. Older
children are better able to focus their attention on the relevant details of a task and ignore
irrelevant information.
Explain the early knowledge infants have about the world
, researchers begin with the hypothesis that young infants possess a
certain concept—an expectation about how different aspects of the world work; for example,
an expectation about the addition of very small numbers of objects, such as ‘one object plus
another object equals two objects’. Then researchers show the infants an ‘impossible event’
that violates this expectation and a ‘possible event’ that does not violate this expectation, as
shown in. If the infants gaze longer at the ‘impossible’ event, then the
researchers take this as evidence that the infants understand the concept being tested. In other
words, just as you would look longer at a dropped pencil that suddenly stopped midair than at
one that fell to the ground, infants pay more attention to events that violate their
understanding of the world.
The results of these experiments suggest that young infants possess basic knowledge about
the physical properties of objects, such as that two solid objects cannot occupy the same
space at the same time, and about the addition and subtraction of small numbers of objects. . This approach is
not uncontroversial because, as critics note, researchers are making large inferences about.
Outline how children develop socially and emotionally
Understanding mental states The term theory of mind (ToM) refers to a
person’s beliefs about the ‘mind’ and the ability to understand other people’s mental states.
Piaget believed that, until they are 6 or 7, children have trouble recognising what other people
are thinking.
Around 18 months of age, infants begin to develop a sense of self, as illustrated by
their ability to recognise themselves in a mirror. Their growing self-awareness sets the stage
for envy, embarrassment and empathy to emerge.
After age 2, as toddlers learn about
performance standards and rules that they are supposed to follow, they begin to display pride
and shame. At around the same age, they also display guilt—as evidenced by avoiding eye
contact, shrugging shoulders and making facial expression
emotion regulation ,
the processes by which we evaluate and modify our emotional reactions. Young infants may
suck their thumbs, turn away from something unpleasant or cling to a caretaker to soothe
themselves. Toddlers may seek out a caretaker, cling to a doll or teddy bear. more on pg51
Describe how parental style can affect children’s well-being
Authoritative parents are controlling but warm. They establish clear rules, enforce them
consistently and reward compliance with warmth and affection. They communicate high
expectations, concern and support. This style is associated with the most positive childhood
outcomes. Children with authoritative parents tend to have higher self-esteem, to be higher
achievers in school and to have fewer conduct problems.
Authoritarian parents exert control within a cold, unresponsive or rejecting relationship.
Their children tend to have lower self-esteem, be less popular with peers and perform more
poorly in school than children with authoritative parents.
Indulgent parents have warm, caring relationships with their children but do not provide the guidance and discipline that help children learn responsibility and concern for others.
Their children tend to be more immature and self-centred.
Neglectful parents provide neither warmth nor guidance. Their children are most likely
to be insecurely attached, to have low achievement motivation and disturbed peer
relationships, and to be impulsive and aggressive. Neglectful parenting is associated with the
most negative developmental outcomes. 68
Evaluate the influence of heredity and environmental influences on behaviour and socialisation
As gender identity develops, children also acquire gender stereotypes, or beliefs about the
characteristics and behaviours that are considered culturally expected for boys and girls.
Every group, including family and cultural groups, has expectations about gender behaviour.
Parents, siblings, friends, the mass media and other socialising agents convey these
expectations daily. For example, even when their sons and daughters display equal interest
and aptitude in science, fathers and mothers are more likely to believe that their sons have the
greater interest and will find science easier.
Explain how moral thinking develops
harrys dilema, pg74
Kohlberg was interested not in whether people approved or disapproved of Harry’s behaviour
but rather in the reasons for their judgements.
Level 1: Preconventional
morality
Actual or anticipated punishments or rewards, rather than internalised values
Stage 1: Punishment obedience orientation
Obeying rules and avoiding punishment
Stage 2: Instrumental hedonistic orientation
Self-interest and gaining rewards
Level 2: Conventional
morality
Conformity to social expectations; adoption of values of significant others
Stage 3: Good-child
orientation
Gaining approval and maintaining good relationships with others
Stage 4: Law-and-order
orientation
Doing one’s duty, showing respect for authority and maintaining social order
Level 3:
Postconventional
morality
Moral principles that have been internalised as part of the individual’s belief
and value system
Stage 5: Social-contract
orientation
General principles agreed on by society that foster community welfare and
individual rights; recognition that society can decide to modify laws that lose
their social utility
Stage 6: Universal ethical
principles
Abstract ethical principles based on justice and equality; following one’s
conscience
Adapted from L. Kohlberg (1984), The Psychology of Moral Development: Essays on Moral Development.
Describe the physical changes that occur in adolescence and adulthood
During adolescence, puberty ushers in important bodily changes as the brain’s hypothalamus
signals the pituitary gland to increase its hormonal secretions. Pituitary hormones stimulate
other glands, speeding up maturation of the primary sex characteristics (the sex organs
involved in reproduction). Hormonal changes also produce secondary sex characteristics
(physical features, which are not directly involved in reproduction, such as breasts in girls and
facial hair in boys).
