Exam 1 Flashcards
Chapter 1 - Chapter 4
Reasons for Studying Developmental Psych
Raising Children, Choosing Social Policies, Understanding Human Nature
Plato Basic Views
Nurture, Boys are particular challenge, Self-Control and Discipline as most important goals of education, children have innate knowledge
Aristotle Basic Views
Nurture, fitting child rearing to the needs of the individual child, all knowledge comes from experience
Rousseau Basic Views
Nature, maximum freedom from beginning, children learn from their own interactions with objects and people (not from instruction), no formal education before 12
Locke Basic Views
Nurture, tabula rasa, development largely reflects the nurture given by parents and society, avoid indulging child
Reliability
the degree to which independent measurements using the same instruments are consistent
Inter-Rater
the amount of agreement in observations of different raters who witness the same behavior
Test-Restest
the degree of similarity of a participant’s performance on two or more occasions
Validity
does the test measure what it is intended to measure
Internal
the degree to which effects observed within experiments can be attributed to the factor that the researcher is testing
External
the degree to which results can be generalized beyond the particulars of the research
Themes of Development
Nature & Nurture: environment vs genes
Active Child: what role individuals play in their own development
Continuity & Discontinuity: steady or fast changes
Mechanisms of Developmental Change: how and why does change occur
Sociocultural Context: physical, social, cultural, economic and historical circumstances
Individual Differences: possible sources of variation
Children’s Welfare/Social Policy: practical benefits of developmental research
Gastrulation
single layer embryo folds itself into 3 layers, U-shaped groove down center to top layer, folds at top of groove fuse creating neural tube, neural tube then develops into the brained spinal cord
Cell Division
zygote divides into two equal parts, then continues to divide, continues over course of 38 weeks
Cell Migration
movement of newly formed cells away from their point of origin
Cell Differentiation
cells start to specialize, cell’s location influences its future development via chemicals and cell to cell contact with neighboring cells
Cell Death
apoptosis, cell suicide, the formation of fingers depends on cell death
Cephalocaudal Development
Head before Body
Trunk before Legs
Hands before Feet
genotype
inherited genetic material
Phenotype
observable expression of the genotype, including body characteristics and behavior
Why so much REM sleep early on
high level of of brain activity that occurs during REM sleep may help to make up for the natural deprivation of visual stimulation. the jerking movements that occur during REM sleep may give infants opportunities to build sensorimotor maps
How much Cortex in Brian
80%
Occipital Lobe
Visual Information, Back
Parietal Lobe
Spatial Processing (where objects are in space), Middle/Top
Frontal Lobe
Cognitive Control (working memory, planning, decision making), Front
Temporal Lobe
Speech/Language and Hearing, Middle/Bottom
Neurogenesis
proliferation of neurons through cell division, begins 42 days after conception, almost complete midway point of gestation
Aborization
allows neurons to grow in complexity over the first couple years of life, main change in dendrites
Synaptogenesis
each neuron forms synapses with thousands of others
Synaptic Pruning
40% of synaptic superfluity is eliminated, occurs at different times in different areas of the brain
Use it or Lose It
the more often a synapse is activated, the stronger the connection between the neurons involved. when a synapse is rarely active it is likely to disappear
Experience-Expectant
basic experiences are “expected” by the brain. if expected experiences don’t occur, deficits may result and rewiring may occur
Experience-Dependent
neural connections are created and reorganized through life as a function of individual experience, expert skills (violin)
Best and Worst time Brain Damage
Best: early childhood (plasticity is at its highest, synapse generation and pruning are occurring)
Worst: earlier stages of prenatal development and in first year (affects neurogenesis and neuron migration)
Cell Body
contains basic biological material
Dendrites
Receive input from other cells and conducts it toward the cell body
Axon
fiber that conducts electrical signals away from the body to connective neurons
Synapses
where neurons communicate (junctions between axon terminals)
Glial Cells
form myelin sheath around axons
Why we have Theories
Provide a framework for understanding important phenomena
Raise crucial question about human nature
Lead to a better understanding of children
Assimilation
attempting to interpret new informatoin within the framework of existing information
Accommodation
making small changes to knowledge in order ot cope with things that dont fit those existing frameworks
Equilibration
balance assimilation and accommodation to create stable understanding
Weaknesses of Piaget Theory
vague about mechanisms that give rise to children’s thinking
Infants and young children are more cognitively competent than recognized
understates the contributions of the social world to cognitive development
stage model depicts children thinking as being more consistent than it is
A-not-B
Sensorimotor, once infants have found a hidden object in the same spot several times, they will look for it there even when watching it being hidden somewhere else
Defferred Imitaiton
sensorimotor, the repetition of others peoples behavior after it occurred
Conservation
Preoperational, changing the appearance or arrangement of objects does not change the amount or properties
Task Analysis
Goal -> Obstacle -> Strategy
Information Processing Theory
Child as Computational System
Major Motivation to be Problem-Solver
Overlapping Waves Theory: individual children usually use a variety of approaches to solve problems
Planning is difficult for young children because they tend to be overly optimistic
Core-Knowledge
Child as Product of Evolution
Innate, Domain-Specific Modules process information for survival
Informal Theories
Socio-Cultural Theories
Vygotsky
Child as Teacher and Learner, Child as Product of Culture
Guided Participation and Scaffolding
Joint Attention and Intersubjectivity
Guided Participation
a process in which more knowledgeable individuals organize activities in a way that allow less knowledgable people to preform the activity at a higher level than they could manage on their own
Scaffolding
process through which adults and others with greater expertise organize the physical and social environment to help children learn
Join Attention
infants and their social partners intentionally focus on a common referent in the external environment, enables infants to evaluate the competence of other people and to use those evaluations to see who to imitate
Intersubjectivity
mutual understanding that people share during communication. effective communication requires participants to focus on the same topic as well as on each others reaction to the information being communicated
Piaget’s Theory
Child as Scientist and Constructivist Theory
Assimilation, Accommodation, Equilibration
Stages
