Final Exam Flashcards
body growth
- slow, regular pattern
- 2-3 inches in height; 4-5 lbs per year
- appear long-legged (lower portion of body grows faster)
boys vs girls body growth
- height and weight: girls are shorter and lighter than boys until about 9 years old
- fat-muscle ratio: girls have slightly more body fat but after 8 years old - they accumulate fat at faster rate (pre-puberty)
secular trend
- change in body size across generations
- industrialized countries: larger and heavier
- due to faster rate of physical maturity: improved health and nutrition
Skeletal Growth
- bones lengthen and broaden
- ligaments aren’t attached allowing flexibility
teeth
- betwen 6 and 12: 20 primary teeth are lost/replaced
- 50% of school-aged kids have at least some tooth decay (low SES more at risk)
Maloclussion
- misalignment of the teeth
- upper and lower teeth don’t meet
- affect 1/3 of school aged children
- causes: heredity, thumb sucking, extra teeth
Brain Development
- brain weight increases by 10% (adult weight reached)
- white matter and gray matter
white matter (brain)
-myelinated nerve fibers in frontal lobes of cerebral cortex increases (acquire complex abilities)
gray matter (brain)
neurons and supportive material declines
lateralization
greater in both hemispheres
-synaptic connections and myelination occur at same time as synaptic pruining
neurotransmitters
- permit communication
- neurons become selective and thinking becomes flexible
- specific neurotransmitters may affect cognition (thinking, social/emotional adjustment)
hormones
- influences changes in brain functions
- changes in behavior
myopia
-near-sightedness
-can see close but not far away
Causes: genetics, early biological trauma (low birth weight), experience (reading and close work/computer)
Otitis Media
- ear infections decrease
- eustachian tube: longer, narrower, slanted
- chronic, untreated: hearing loss
Malnutrition leads to…
- stunted growth
- low IQ
- poor motor coordination
- inattention
Obesity
- BMI
- overweight: BMI > 85th and 95th percentile same age/sex
-In the US, there are about 30% of children who are overweight and 17% are obese
BMI
“body mass index”
- measure of body fat based on weight and height
- calculated using the ratio of weight to height
- BMI does NOT measure body fat directly but it is a reasonable indicator of body “fatness” for children
Causes of Obesity
- genetics
- environment
- sleep
- undernourished
- feeding practices
- external stimuli
- physical activity (lack of)
Bedwetting
-common health problem
-“nocturnal enuresis”
-occurs in about 10% of school-aged children
Causes: muscular response to inhibit urination fails, hormonal imbalance allows urine to accumulate, difficulty awakening to a full bladder
Treatment: antidepressant drugs (short-term fix) or urine alarm (conditioning to wake child)
most common chronic illness?
ashthma
Gross motor improvements
- balance improves
- agility
- flexibility
- force
fine motor improvements
- writing: legibility and accuracy
- drawing: organization, detail, depth
physical play
- child organized games (informal)
- adult organized games (formal)
Child organized games
- informal
- games with rules common
- invented games
- gains in perspective taking
- participation = understands fairness
Adult organized games
-formal
-50% (60% boys;37% girls) participate
Advantages: increase self-esteem and social skills
Disadvantages: emphasizes competition, criticisms can cause anxiety, early exposure = loss interest
Physical Education in schools
- 15% of US schools provide physical education to students 3 times a week
- leads to poor health (lack phys ed) - only 49% (b) and 35%(g) exercise for 1+ hours a day
- solution: more frequent physical edu and/or change content
Recess in schools
- 7% of US schools no longer provide recess and many others have recess once a day
- Benefits: boost children’s learning capability, regular and unstructured recess fosters children’s competence
Unintentional injuries
Most common: motor vehicle accidents, bikes, and pedestrian -boys more at risk Prevention: - school based education -- teach safety - model safe behavior -require helmets -watch high-risk children
individual differences in motor development
Genetics:
- body build
- Child’s sex: boys are better with gross motor (i.e., throwing and kicking) and girls are better at fine motor skills and flexibility
Environment:
- parent encouragement/expectations
- family income (limits access to lessons/equipment)
- school/community lessons (may make resources available)
Development of memory strategies
- Rehearsal (early grade school)
- Organization
- Elaboration
**school promotes using these strategies
Rehearsal (mem strategies)
repeating info to oneself
Organization (mem strategies)
- grouping related items together
- gain in processing capacity – use several strategies
- test strategies: determine which works best and how to combine effectively
Elaboration (mem strategies)
- creating a relationship between pieces of information not in the same category
- meaningful chunks of information
Long-term memory knowledge based
arrange knowledge in larger, organized, elaborate hierarchically structured networks
-know more about a topic: makes new information more meaningful/familiar; easier to store and revive
Theory of Mind
- beliefs about mental activities
- Metacognition
- knowledge of cognitive capacities: allows skills to monitor progress, sees mind as an active, constructive agent
Metacognition
- awareness of thought processes
- becomes more elaborate and refined
- reflect on their own mental life
Cognitive Self-Regulation
(not very good)
- monitoring progress toward a goal
- checking outcomes
- redirecting unsuccessful effort
To promote:
- point out important features/demands of tasks
- suggest effective learning strategies
- emphasize monitoring progress and vale self-correction
factors that contribute to Reading
- phonological awareness
- information processing speed increases
- visual scanning and discrimination
- practice
How to teach reading?
- whole language: expose to text in complete form; reading parallels natural language
- phonics: coach on the basic rules for translating written symbols in sounds
Mathematics
-learn facts and skills through practice, reasoning, and strategies
Debate: drill vs. “number sense”
- number senses: understand numbers and use them to explain and solve quantitative problems
Individual differences in cognition
- Defining and measuring IQ
- IQ represents general intelligence and reasoning
- intelligence: many mental capacities (not on tests)
Group Tests (IQ test)
- require little training
- allow large group testing
- instructional planning
- identify students who need individual testing
Individual Tests (IQ test)
- examiners need training and experience
- identifies highly intelligent and children with learning problems
Stanford-Binet (IQ test)
- general knowledge
- quanitative reasoning
- visual-spatial reasoning
- working memory
- information processing
Wechsler Scales (IQ test)
- WISC-IV (6-16 yrs); WIPPSI-III (2.5-7yrs)
- verbal reasoning
- perceptual (or visual-spatial) reasoning
- working memory
- processing speed
Language Development
grammar, vocab, and pragmatics
Vocab (language develop)
- increases fourfold during school year: 20 new words a day
- understand multiple meaning (bright); metaphors (jump in shower)
Grammar (language develop)
- mastery of complex constructions (passive)
- advanced understanding of infinitive phrases (anxious)
Pragmatics (language develop)
- adjust to people and situations
- phrase requests to get what they want
bilingual development
- learn both languages at the same time
2. learn one language after the other
bilingualism
-improved selective attention, analytical reasoning, concept formation, cognitive flexibility
Educational Philosophies
- traditional
- constructivist
- social constructivist
Tradition Educational Philosophies
Teacher: authority of knowledge, rules, and decisions
Students: passive, listen, respond, complete tasks
Constructivist Educational Philosophies
i.e., Montessori Schools
Teacher: guides, supports children’s needs
Students: construct their own knowledge, evaluated their progress by their own development
Social Constructivist Educational Philosophies
Teacher and children learn together (partners in learning)
Good Teachers
caring, helpful, stimulating
- too many use repetitive drills
- better achievement in stimulating classrooms
Individual differences in teacher-student interactions
- well-behaved, high-achievers get more attention
- more impact of attention on low SES
- educational self-fulfilling prophecy: children adopt to teachers positive and negative views and start to live up to them
Grouping Practices in Elementary Schools
-Homogeneous ability groups: widens gap
-multigrade classrooms:
more favorable academics, peer tutoring, cooperative learning
Computers
Educational Software:
- practice basic skills, solve problems
- acquire new knowledge
Word Processing
-write freely and experiment with letters and words
Programming Skills
Homework
Industry (erikson)
(vs. Inferiority)
Positive Resolution
- develop a sense of competence at useful skills/tasks
- school provides many opportunities
- leads to positive, realistic self concept, pride in accomplishment and moral responsibility
Inferiority (erikson)
(vs. Industry)
Negative Resolution
- pessimism and lack of confidence in ability to do things
- family environment, teachers, peers contribute
self-concept
- general dipositions
- social comparisons
- ideal and real self
- reference social groups
General dispositions (self-concept)
- emphasize their competencies
- “I’m a good swimmer”;”I’m nice”
Social Comparisons (self-concept)
-more realistic, balanced self
Ideal and Real Self (self-concept)
expectations and comparisons help ideal evaluate real
Reference Social Groups
need feedback from peers
Self-esteem
Drops first few years in school, then rises
By 6-7 years old: Hierarchical structure: -Athletic (physical) -Social (social/emotional) -Academic (cognition) -Physical Appearance (physical)
Influences on Self-Esteem
Culture
Parents’/Teachers gender sterotype
Child rearing Practices
Attributes
Culture (self-esteem)
- asian culture: lower in self-esteem (emphasize comparison)
- african american: higher self-esteem (warm family)
Parents’/Teachers’ gender stereotypes (self-esteem)
- girls: language arts, social acceptance
- boy: math, science, athletic
Child-Rearing practices
warm, accepting: children feel competent and worthwhile
Attributes
- common explanations for causes of behavior
- mastery-oriented
- learned helplessness
Mastery-Oriented
Reason for success: ability
Reason for failure: controllable (external) factors (“i should have studied more); can be changed by working hard
children focus on learning goals and seek information about how to increase ability through effort
Learned Helplessness
Reason for success: external factors (“The test was easy”)
Reason for failure: ability (“I just can’t do it”); CANNOT be changed by working hard
children focus on performance goals and obtain positive and avoid negative evaluation of their ability
influences on achievement-related attributes
Parents
Teachers
Gender differences
Cultural values
Parents (achievement)
- too-high standards
- believe child incapable
- trait statements (“you’re so smart”)
Teachers (achievement)
learning vs. performance goals
Gender Differences
girls tend to blame poor performance on ability
Cultural values
attend to failure, not to success
self-conscious emotions
Pride: motivates further challenges
Guilt: wants to make amends and strive for improvements
Shame: result of insensitive reprimand – causes withdrawal, depression, and anger
emotional understanding
- explain emotion using internal thoughts
- understand mixed emotions
- rise in empathy
- supported by cognitive development and social experience
- can reconcile contradictory cues (i.e., happy tears)
emotional self-regulation
- motivated by self-esteem and peer approval
- emotional self-efficacy
problem-centered coping
- situation is seen as changeable
- difficulty is identified
- devision made on what to do
emotion-centered coping
- used in problem-centered coping does not work
- internal, private and aimed at controlling distress when little can be done about an outcome
- goal is emotional self-efficacy
Selman’s stages of Perspective Taking
level 0: undifferentiated (3-6y) level 1: social-informational (4-9y) level 2: self-reflective (7-12y) level 3: third-party (10-15y) level 4: societal (14 to adult years)
Level 0 (selman)
undifferentiated (3-6y)
recognize different thoughts and feelings, but they confuse them
Level 1 (selman)
social-informational (4-9y)
understand that different perspectives result because people have different information
Level 2 (selman)
self-reflective (7-12y)
take another’s perspective and realize other’s can too
Level 3 (selman)
third-party (10-15 y)
can imagine how self and other are viewed by someone else
Level 4 (selman)
societal (14+)
3rd party perspective can be influenced by societal values
Distributive Justice
-how to divide fairly
Strict Equality (5-6y)
Merit (6-7y) :extra reward for exceptional or hard work
Benevolence (8+y): special consideration for disadvantaged
Moral Development
- more flexible understanding of moral rules
- lying not always bad; truth not always good (white lies to spare feelings)
3 types of moral “rules”
- moral rule: how people should behave toward each other
- social convention: agreed upon to rules
- personal preference: behaviors in the private sphere
friendships
become very important
- complex and psychological based
- important components: trust, personal qualities
- similar to self
Peer acceptance
- how child is viewed as worthy social partner
- Acceptance = predictor of (current/later) adjustment
Popular-prosocial
-combine academic and social competence
perform well in school, communicate with peers in friendly and cooperative ways, and solve social problems constructively
Popular-antisocial
- “tough” boys: athletically skilled but poor students who cause trouble and defy adult authority
- relationally aggressive boys and girls who enhance their own status by ignoring, excluding, and spreading rumors about other children
Rejected-agressive
- show high rates of conflicy, physical and relational aggression, and hyperactive, inattentive, and impulsive behavior
- interpret innocent behaviors by peers as hostile and blame others for their social difficulties
Rejected-withdrawn
- passive and socially awkward
- overwhelmed by social anxiety, hold negative expectations for treatment by peers, and worry about being scorned and attacked
Controversial children
- display a blend of positive and negative social behaviors
- hostile and disruptive but also engage in positive, prosocial acts
Neglected Children
- well-adjusted
- engage in low rates of interaction, most are just as socially skilled as peers
gender stereotypes
- personality traits (i.e., tough, gentle) increases during middle childhood
- achievement areas (i.e., math and art) become “feminine” (art) and “masculine” (math)
parent-child family relationships
- time decreases with autonomy
- child-rearing becomes “easier”
- coregulation: cooperative supervision
Siblings
- rivalry increases with comparison especially same-sex siblings that are close in age
- companionship and assistance in academic and peer challenges
- need parental encouragement
Families with one child
- high in self-esteem, achievement, motivation, and academics
- close relationships with parents (pressure for mastery)
- peer acceptance may be a problem due to lack of conflict resolution
Divorced families
-60% of first marriages divorce and 40% have children
it’s a transition: new living space, financial changes, and family roles/responsibilities change
Immediate consequences of divorce
Conflict: division of property and custody
Stress: disorganized, drop in income
Parenting: harsh/inconsistent discipline
Adjustment: stress, depression, anxiety
Long-term consequences of divorce
Adjustment: improves after 2 years
Problems: boys and difficult temperaments
Education: less likely to continue education (financial)
Father involvement: affects adjustment
How to help
- protect from conflict
- use authoritative parenting
Authoritative parenting
high acceptance, high involvement, adaptive control, and appropriate autonomy
Authoritarian parenting
low acceptance, low involvement, high control, and low autonomy
permissive parenting
hight acceptance, too low or too high involvement, low control, and high autonomy
uninvolved parenting
low acceptance, low involvement, low control, indifferent to autonomy
Never-married single parent families
- involved in early pregnancies and may use/abuse drugs
- does poorly in school and less likely to go to college
- engage in delinquent acts and aggressive
- difficulty obtaining employment after they finish education
- emotional and personality problems
Blended families
- most common is mother and stepfather
- boy adjust quickly but girls tend to be resistant
- girls don’t adapt quickly to stepmothers but can warm up
- noncustodial father remarry can result in reduced contact
- custodial father remarry often negative
-older children have a more difficult time with both circumstances
Gay and Lesbian parents
- no evidence of abnormal sexual identity
- no differences in adjustment
- social relationships may suffer from being teased by peers but overall these kids are fine
- no reason to believe there’s sexual abuse
benefits of maternal employment
- self-esteem is higher
- relationships with family and peers are positive
- fewer gender stereotypes
- academic achievement is higher
- girls have more achievement and more career oriented
drawbacks of maternal employment
- risk of ineffective parenting
- reduced parental sensitivity, fewer joint activities
- poorer cognitive development
Moral imperatives
Rules and standards that protect people’s rights and welfare
- seen as worse (I.e., hitting and stealing) than social conventions (i.e., eating ice cream with your fingers)
- moral violations would still be wrong even if an adult didn’t see them
Social conventions
Customs setters mines solely by consensus
- i.e., table manners and politeness rituals (saying please and thank you)
- societal views on how one should act/dress/talk/etc.
Personal choice
- choice of friends, hairstyle, and leisure activities
- doesn’t usually break any social conventions or moral rules
Social learning theory in Gender identity
An approach that emphasizes the role of modeling, also known as imitation or observational learning, in the development of behavior
- social learning theory comes before self-perceptions
- preschoolers first acquire gender typed responses through modeling and reinforcement and only later organize these behaviors into gender linked ideas about themselves
Cognitive developmental theory in Gender Identity
Maintains that self-perceptions come before behavior
-over the preschool years, children squire a cognitive appreciation of the permanence of their sex (gender constancy)
Gender schema theory in Gender Identity
Information processing approach to gender typing that combines social learning and cognitive development features
-explains how environmental pressures and children’s cognitions work together to shape gender-role development
“Masculine” and “feminine” categories based on stereotypes
