Developmental Psychology Flashcards
Down’s Syndrome
Mental retardation stemming from an extra 21st chromosome
Turner’s Syndrome
Found in females with only 1 X chromosome
Stages of prenatal development
Zygote: Sperm fertilizes the egg and forms zygote.
Germinal stage: Fertilized egg goes down the fallopian tube and attaches to uterine wall.
Embryonic stage: 8 weeks after germinal period. Size increases by 20,000 times.
Fetal stage: Begins 2 months post conception with measurable electrical activity in the brain.
Neonatal reflexes
A behaviour that occurs automatically in response to a stimuli
Blinking - closing eyes in response to light
Sucking - sucks when object paced in mouth
Rooting - turns head in direction of stimuli when applied to the cheek
Moro - abrupt movement of the head causing arms to splay out, fingers fan out and then arms come back to the body & baby hugs itself
Babinski - toes automatically spread when soles are stimulated
Grasping - automatically closing fingers when object is placed in hand
Locomotor development in infants
Birth: fetal posture 1 month: lift head 2 months: lift chest 3 months: reach and miss 4 months: sit with support 5 months: sit on lap, grasp objects 6 months: sit in high chair 6.5 months: sit alone 8 months: stand with help, stand holding furniture, pull to stand 10 months: crawl 11 months: crawl up stairs, walk when led, stand alone 12 months: walk alone
Visual cliff experiment
Study by Gibson to test depth experiment on babies
2 month old show change in heart rate
6-7 month don’t go across
Assimilation & accommodation according to Piaget
Assimilation is the process of interpreting new information in terms of existing schemata.
Accommodation occurs when new information doesn’t really fit into existing schemata; it is the process of modifying existing schemata to adapt to this new information.
Stages of Piaget’s theory
Sensorimotor stage
Pre-operational stage
Concrete operational stage
Formal operational stage
Features of sensorimotor stage
0-2 yrs
Learns relationship between actions and external world; grasp idea of cause and effect
Primary and secondary circular reactions
Object permanence - object continue to exist even when not in field of vision
Features of pre-operational stage
2-7 yrs
Egocentrism - inability to understand that others perceive the world differently than they do
Symbolic play - decentration (others are recipient of playful action), decontextualization (objects can substitute others), integration (combining play actions into complex sequences)
Develop theory of mind - Understanding that human behavior is guided by mental representations of the world.
Lack conservation
Centration - children pay attention on one part of a stimuli to the
exclusion of all others
Lack seriation, reversibility and relational terms
Animism - Children’s belief that inanimate objects have
“lifelike” qualities
Features of concrete operational stage
7-12 yrs
Understand seriation and relational terms
Reversibility - many physical reactions can be undone by reversing the original action
Emergence of logical thought
Features of formal operational stage
Adolescence
Logical thinking
Abstract thinking
Hypothetico-deductive reasoning (formulating general theory and deducing specific hypotheses from it)
Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory
The theory that intelligence develops largely as a result of internalization, by children absorbing what they observe in the environment and making it a part of themselves.
Development occurs in part through a zone of proximal development, which distinguishes what children can do on their own (zone of actual development) from what they can do with the assistance of others (zone of potential development).
Stressed that culture and social factors play a role in cognitive development.
Reciprocal teaching, scaffolding, guided participation, play
Scaffolding
Mental structures child can use when learning new skills. Adjusting levels of support to meet child’s needs.
Eg: visual aid, model & demonstrating, practice time, explaining in diff ways
Kolhberg’s stages of moral development
PRECONVENTIONAL
1 - Punishment & obedience
2 - Naive hedonistic orientation
CONVENTIONAL
3 - Good boy/girl orientation
4 - Maintaining social order
POSTCONVENTIONAL
5 - Legalistic orientation
6 - Universal ethical principle orientation
Bowlby attachment style
Attachment: A deep and enduring emotional bond between two people in which each seeks closeness and feels more secure when in the presence of the attachment figure.
Phase 1: Infant reacts identically to every adult & smiling face
Phase 2 (3 months): Infant discriminates familiar & unfamiliar faces
Phase 3 (6 months): Specific attachment - Infant seeks out and responds to mother; emergence of separation anxiety
Phase 4 (9-12 months): Stranger anxiety - response to arrival of a stranger
Phase 5 (2 yrs old): Distress level when separated from carer, degree of comfort needed on return
Phase 6 (3 yrs old): Child can separate from mother without prolonged distress
Harry Harlow attachment theory
To study the early relationship between caregiver and infants
Studied Rhesus monkeys; took them away from mother 6-12 hours after birth.
Kept in cages with 2 types of surrogate mothers - one wire cylinder with feeding nipple attached & another cloth covered wooden cylinder with no feeding option.
Monkeys preferred the cloth mother; contact comfort.
Mary Ainsworth attachment style
Strange situation procedure to study quality of parent-child relationship
Child kept in unfamiliar room with mother and plays with toys. After 3 min, stranger enters room and talking to mother and child. Then mother leaves and stranger interacts with infant. Then mother returns and stranger leaves. Then infant is left alone. Then stranger returns and interacts with infant. Then mother returns and stranger leaves.
3 attachment styles
- Insecure avoidant
- Secure attachment
- Insecure resistant
Sequential cohort studies
Combination of longitudinal and cross-sectional study; diff groups of diff ages studied across several years
Private speech according to Vyogtsky
Language as a means of thinking of mental activities and behaviour; way of guiding oneself
Private changes to inner speech - whispers, silent lip movement
Increases when tasks are challenging, confused on how to process, when mistakes are made
Inverted V shape
Private speech in children with learning difficulties - higher rate; maybe compensation for impairments in cognitive functioning
Zone of proximal development
Range of tasks that are too difficult to accomplish by themselves; accomplished with assistance from adults or more skilled peers
Parents to keep task manageable and give prompts to make task manageable
Social interaction is key
Social referencing acc. to Bowlby
Degree that child looks at carer to check how they should respond to something new (secure base)
Critical vs sensitive periods
Critical periods: if a specific event doesn’t occur at a specific time, then it will have an impact on development. E.g. Imprinting in Konrad Lorenz and duckings
Sensitive period is the time where if an individual is presented with certain types of stimuli then they would be better at learning or performing certain kinds of behaviour.
Key developmental issues
Nature vs nurture
Continuity vs discontinuity
Qualitative vs quantitative
Stability vs change
Cephalocaudal principles of development
Development occurs from top (head) to bottom (legs)
Proximodistal principles of development
Development occurs from the center of the body
outward
Presbyopia
Deterioration in sight due to age
Presbycusis
Deterioration in hearing due to age
Primary Aging & Secondary Aging
PA - Aging due to change in chronological age accompanied
by body deterioration
SA - Aging due to lifestyle factors and diseases
Functional age
The measure of a person’s ability to function effectively in his or her physical and social environment in comparison with others of similar chronological age.
Gilligan’s 3 stages in women’s morality
- Orientation towards individual’s survival
- Goodness as self-sacrifice
- Morality of non-violence
Damon’s positive justice
Level 0 [Age 4-5]
- I should get everything
Level 1 [Age 5-9]
- Strict equality and reciprocity; merit is most sacred
Level 2 [Age 10+]
- Most aspects in life are relative
- Sometimes special needs must be considered while others deserving people must benefit
Social smiling develops about ____ age.
10 months
Empathy develops about ____ age.
2 years
Gender schema
Mental framework that categorizes the meaning of being male or female and the roles based on socialization
Goodness of Fit
Matching of the parent personality and the infants temperament
Phonology
Sound systems
Morphology
The study of the rules for combining morphemes
Syntax
The ways/laws/rules in which words are combined to form acceptable phrases and sentences
Criticisms to the nature vs nurture theory of language development
- Novelty of sentences and words
- Reinforcements exist even to half-correct words or sentences
- Can’t explain how most children develop language around the same age
Process of language development
- Pre-linguistic communication
- Babbling: making speech like sounds (3-12 months)
- First words: (10-14 months till 18 months); rapid increase in vocab; holophrase
- First Sentences: Around 18 months, linking two words together takes place to convey a single thought; telegraphic speech
Hayflick limit
Genes stop cellular growth after a certain limit
Autosome
Any chromosome that is NOT a sex chromosome
Fetal alcohol syndrome
A group of adverse fetal and infant health effects associated with heavy maternal alcohol intake during pregnancy.
Characterized by low birth weight and retarded growth, craniofacial anomalies (e.g., microcephaly), neurobehavioral problems (e.g., hyperactivity), and cognitive abnormalities (e.g., language acquisition deficits); intellectual disability may be present.
Teratogens
An agent that induces developmental abnormalities in a fetus. The process that results in these abnormalities is called teratogenesis.
Eg: Some medications, recreational drugs, tobacco products, chemicals, alcohol
Plantar reflex
The involuntary flexing of the toes of a healthy child when the sole of the foot is stroked. (toes curl)
The plantar reflex appears around age 2 and replaces the earlier Babinski reflex.
Range of reaction
Your genes provide the boundaries that define the minimum and maximum values for many of your characteristics. The space between these boundaries is called the range of reaction.
For example, your genes set an upper and lower limit on how tall you will be when you’re finished growing.
A newborn’s brain is only about ____% of its adult size.
25%
Define Motor development
The emergence of the ability to execute physical actions such as walking, crawling, reaching, and rolling.
Temperament
An individual’s characteristic pattern of emotional reactivity.
____ & ____ applied attachment theory to intimate relationships between adults. They found that there were many similarities between adult intimacy and caregiver-infant relationships.
Cindy Hazan & Phillip Shaver
Four attachment styles in adults
Secure - Able to form deep relationships with intimacy and commitment; believe they’re worthy of love; no problem being alone
Anxious-Preoccupied - Seek high levels of intimacy very quickly in relationships; constantly worry whether partner’s affection is reciprocated; fear being alone and have a low sense of self-worth
Dismissive-Avoidant - Place a large value on their independence and self-sufficiency; avoid entering relationships or engaging in intimate situations; defensive and unwilling to discuss feelings
Fearful-Avoidant - Survivors of a traumatic event, such as abuse; desire close relationships, but also fear the potential negative implications of a relationship; difficulty with trust and dependence on others.
Primary and secondary sex characteristics
Primary sex characteristics are bodily structures and processes directly involved with reproduction (such as the onset of the menstrual cycle).
Secondary sex characteristics are not directly involved with reproduction but that change dramatically during puberty based on sex (such as the development of male facial hair).
Socioemotional selectivity theory
Young adults tend to focus on acquiring information that will be useful to them in the future (recalling where they last left their keys), while older adults tend to focus on information that brings emotional satisfaction, such as thinking about their grandchildren.
