EXAM 3 Flashcards
Are there more than one type of estrogen?
Yes
Stability and Change
Temperament and mood are pretty stable
Biggest smilers in childhood are most likely to be happy as adults (bigger smiles predict happier marriages)
Social attitudes are less stable (especially in late adolescence)
Most people mature after adolescence
Zygotes
Fertilized eggs
Fewer than half survive past the first two
Embryo
Inner zygote cells
Placenta
Outer zygote cells
Fetus
9 weeks after conception
By 6 months there is a good chance of survival outside the womb
Teratogens
Viruses and drugs – why pregnant women shouldn’t drink or smoke
Environmental Factors
The placenta filters out harmful substances, some slip by
Alcohol reduces CNS activity for both mother and baby
Drinking while pregnant can make baby like alcohol more (not good)
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
Low birth weight, birth defects, future behavioral issues, lower intelligence
Epigenetic Effect
Chemical marks on DNA
Alcohol = switches genes on and off abnormally
Smoking = weakens ability to handle stress
Newborn Reflexes
We are equipped with reflexes
- Withdraw limbs away from pain
- Move things that interfere with breathing
- Feeding - sucking
- Startle reflex
- Grasping reflect
Habituation
Getting used to something and not finding it interesting
Newborns…
Turn towards human voices
Look longer at face like images
Prefer faces 8-12 inches away
Prefer smell our caretakers used
Still face study
baby angry when mothers face is still
Brain Development
Neural networks expand
We are born with almost all the brain cells we have – the wiring is what develops
Infant brain size increases rapidly in the days following birth
When is the most rapid growth in the frontal lobe?
3 to 6 months
What are the last to develop?
Association areas
Motor development
Brain development allows for physical coordination (cerebellum)
Babies roll before sitting, crawl before walking (even blind babies)
Bowel and bladder control can’t happen before their brain matures enough
What percent walk before 1 years old?
50%
What percent walk by 15 months?
90%
Which countries massage babies and accelerate walking?
Africa, the Caribbean, India
Sensorimotor stage
Object permanence (peek-a-boo)
Baby physics - stare longer at impossible or unexpected things (car passing through a solid object)
Preoperational stage
Lack of the concept of conservation
Present play and symbolic thinking
Egocentrism
Difficulty seeing others’ points of view
Theory of mind
Ideas about your own and others’ mental states
Secure attachment
Comfortable with intimacy and autonomy in close relationships, self confident
Preoccupied attachment
Overly invested and involved in close relationships (depending on others)
Dismissing attachment
Compulsively self-reliant, distant in relationships
Fearful attachment
Dependent on others, but avoids intimacy due to fear of rejection
Permissive parenting style
High responsiveness, low demandingness
Neglectful parenting style
Low responsiveness, low demandingness
Authoritative (IDEAL)
High responsiveness, high demandingness
Authoritarian
Low responsiveness, high demandingness
Puberty
Sexual maturation
Early maturation
Can lead to more popularity, self assurance, and independence
More high risk behaviors
Physical Development
Sequence of changes is more predictable than timing
Bullying is common at this time
Teenage brains
Pruning of unused neurons
The brain is behind puberty’s hormonal surge and the limbic system (impulsiveness, risky behaviors, emotional tantrums)
Myelin increase in frontal lobes
Better judgement, impulse control and long term planning
Moral Intuition
Our morality is rooted in gut feelings
Get good feelings from being moral
Trolley problem
Moral action
We can be influenced by powerful situations
Moral development requires impulse control to do the right thing
Marshmallow delay gratification
Kids who waited had higher college completion rates and incomes and less often suffered addiction
Parent and peer relationships
We seek to fit our groups
Teens pull away from parents
Selection effect
Teens are herd animals
Teens network rapidly (social media)
Exclusion and bullying is very painful
Personalities are not easily sculpted by parents
Selection effect
Kids seek out peers with similar attitudes and interests
Emerging adulthood
Historically, adolescent was much shorter (ended shortly after sexual maturity)
Now, adolescents take more time to establish themselves
US gov. allows for dependents up to 26 for health insurance
What age are emerging adults?
18-mid 20s (the not yet settled phase of life)
Sex hormones
Estrogens and testosterone
Hormones and sexual behavior
Direct development of sexual organs prenatally
Surge rushes us into adolescence during puberty
After puberty, they facilitate sexual behavior
Erectile disorder and female orgasmic disorder
Low desire
Viagra helps men, but can’t find anything to help women
Paraphilias
Unusual sexual interests
When is paraphilia considered a disorder?
They experience distress
They entail harm or risk of harm to self or others
Predicting sexual restraint: high intelligence
Consider more negative consequences
More focused on achievement than pleasure
Predicting sexual restraint: Religious engagement
Wait for adulthood and long term relationships
Predicting sexual restraint: Father presence
Having a close family
Both parents matter
Predicting sexual restraint: service learning participation
Possibly reduces free time – less chances for sex
Males are more easily sexually excited than females
True
We are typically attracted to health “fertile” looking people because …
Women have more at stake (pregnancy and child birth)
Men can get women pregnant and have absolutely nothing at stake in terms of survival
Intimacy is ___
social
Sex and human relationships
The brain areas for reward overlap for love and sexual desire (familiar partners can be more satisfying)
Most modern cultures have gender roles that are slowly merging
Social learning theory
Children acquire their gender identity based on the influence of other people (particularly their immediate family)
What type of conditioning is used in the social learning theory of gender?
Operant conditioning
What are the 5 aspects of the social learning theory?
Observation
Memory
Imitation
Motivation
Learning
Gender identity
Who you are and know yourself to be
Gender Expression
How you present and communicate your Gender Identity
Sex assigned at birth
Category that medical institutions assigned a body at birth based almost solely upon genitalia
Parts of gender …
exist on a SPECTRUM
Psychodynamic Theory (Freud)
Human behavior that is a dynamic interaction between your conscious mind and unconscious mind
Originally from “psychoanalysis”
Internal conflicts from gender roles
Projective Test
Personality test with ambiguous images that bring out “inner feelings”
Usually used to identify the way a person may perceive situations
ex. Rorschach Inkblot Test
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Self-actualization
Esteem
Love and belonging
Safety needs
Physiological needs
Self-actualization
Desire to become the most that one can be
Esteem
Respect, self-esteem, status, recognition, strength, freedom
Love and belonging
Friendship, intimacy, family, sense of connection
Safety needs
Personal security, employment, resources, health, property
Physiological needs
Air, water, food, shelter, sleep, clothing, reproduction
The Big 5 (personality)
Openness
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism
How stable are these traits? (big 5)
Change over time but stabilize with age
How heritable are they? (big 5)
40%
Do they reflect different brain structures? (big 5)
Some correlate with brain size and location
Do the reflect birth order? (big 5)
no
Do they apply to other cultures? (big 5)
yes
Do they predict behavior? (big 5)
Yes
Instincts and evolutionary theory
There is a genetic basis for unlearned, species-typical behavior
ex. birds building nests or infants rooting for a nipple
Drive reduction theory
Physiological needs create an aroused state that drives us to reduce the need
ex. eating or drinking
Arousal theory
Our need to maintain an optimal level of arousal motivates behaviors that meet no physiological need
ex. our yearning for stimulation and our hunger for information
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
We prioritize survival-based needs and then social needs more than the needs for esteem and meaning
