FINAL EXAM Flashcards
What is the psychoanalytic theory of human development?
development and behaviour are the result of interplay of inner drives, memories, and conflicts we are unaware of and cannot control
(1) Freud’s Psychosexual Theory: behavior is driven by unconscious impulses outside our awareness
(2) Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory: role of social world, society, and culture in shaping development
What is the behaviourist - operant conditioning theory of human development?
behavior becomes more or less probable depending on its consequences (from Behaviorist Learning Theory)
What is the behaviourist - social learning theory of human development?
people actively process information, and their thoughts and feelings influence their behavior
(1) observational learning: people learn through observing and imitating models
(2) reciprocal determinism: individuals and environment interact and influence each other
What is the cognitive theory of human development?
development and behavior are the result of thought or cognition
(1) Piaget’s Cognitive-Developmental Theory: children and adults are active explorers of their world; organization of learning results in cognitive schemas or concepts, ideas, and ways of interacting with the world
(2) Information Processing Theory: views thinking as information processing
(mind works in ways similar to a computer: information enters and is manipulated, stored, recalled, and used to solve problems)
What is the sociocultural theory of human development?
emphasizes the role of sociocultural context in development; people are inseparable from the cultural beliefs and societal, neighborhood, and familial contexts in which they live
(1) Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Systems Theory: examines how culture is transmitted from one generation to the next through social interaction
(2) Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Systems Theory: addresses both the role of the individual and that individual’s social interactions
What are dominant genes?
some genes are always expressed regardless of the gene it is paired with
- we get one gene from each parent
What are recessive genes?
some genes will express only if paired with another recessive gene
Maternal Characteristics
How does age affect pregnancy?
older = can be more problematic
- pregnancy over 35 is strongly related to miscarriages, stillbirths, increase risk of Down Syndrome
Maternal Characteristics
How does nutrition affect pregnancy?
- poor mothers lack adequate access to proper nutrition, which can lead to complications in pregnancy, birth process, and baby
- mothers should consume 2000-3000 calories a day to sustain pregnancy
Maternal Characteristics
Mothers who are poor live in non-industrialized countries likely don’t receive Vitamin B9 (folic acid). What is Vitamin B9 deficiency linked with?
linked with spina bifida (failure of neural tube)
Maternal Characteristics
Where do mothers get Vitamin B9?
inside prenatal vitamins
Maternal Characteristics
How do mothers’ emotional well-being affect pregnancy?
mothers exposed to chronic and severe stress during pregnancy, it poses risk to the fetus
Maternal Characteristics
How do highly stressed mothers affect pregnancy?
more likely to low birth weight, premature, and require longer hospital stay after being born
- when stressed, stress hormones cross over the placenta which raises fetal heart rate and activity level, which is problematic for the fetus
Maternal Characteristics
How does high-level stress in mothers affect children?
can produce long-term effects on children
child will later on exhibit symptoms of anxiety, ADHD, and aggression in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood
Maternal Characteristics
What is prenatal care?
basic set of services provided to improve pregnancy outcomes
- nutritional advice
- prenatal vitamins
- regular check-ups with doctor
Maternal Characteristics
Describe the ethnic and socioeconomic disparities of prenatal care.
- ethnic groups are less likely to seek early prenatal care because minorities are more likely to be low socioeconomic groups
- lack of transportation to get to the doctor
- job has limited opportunities to leave work in the middle of the day to go to a doctor’s appointment
Maternal Characteristics
Why might a woman not seek prenatal care?
- many do not have health insurance, and less likely to seek out prenatal care
- when a woman is pregnant, but not sure they want to be, they will not seek prenatal care because then they are acknowledging the pregnancy
- women with negative experiences in health care system are less likely to voluntary to put themselves in the system
What are the 4 main maternal characteristics and behaviours that affect pregnancy?
age
nutrition
emotional well-being
prenatal care
What are the 3 main contextual influences on pubertal timing?
nutrition
stress
SES
How does nutrition affect pubertal timing in females?
ovulation and menstruation is triggered by specific level of protein called leptin found in fat
- as that protein increases, it increases the production and secretion of hormones which will then trigger the onset of puberty and the release of an egg
- fat leads to menarche
How does stress affect pubertal timing?
linked with earlier onset of puberty
ie. sexual abuse, poor family relationships, harsh parenting, family stress and conflict, parental marital conflict, high level of anxiety
How does socio-economic status (SES) affect pubertal timing?
- living within a poor family is linked with earlier onset of puberty, particularly in girls
- link between low SES and poor nutrition → overweight and obese
Psychosocial Effects of Early and Late Puberty
What is early off-timed puberty?
before 8 (girls) or 9 (boys)
Psychosocial Effects of Early and Late Puberty
What is late off-timed puberty?
after 13 (girls) or 14 (boys)
Psychosocial Effects of Early and Late Puberty
What are the effects of off-timed puberty?
linked with anxiety, depression
Psychosocial Effects of Early and Late Puberty
What type of off-timed maturation is more problematic?
early maturation linked with more problems than late maturation
Psychosocial Effects of Early and Late Puberty
What are the effects of early off-timed puberty particularly for girls?
typically, they are done with puberty by age 12
early-maturers:
- likely to feel bad about their bodies because they’re changing faster than their peers
- self-consciousness is more likely to lead to anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, negative body image, eating disorders
- more likely to be victims of rumour spreading about being sexually active, sexually harassed
Psychosocial Effects of Early and Late Puberty
What are the effects of early off-timed puberty particularly for boys?
more popular and confident
Psychosocial Effects of Early and Late Puberty
What contextual factors influence the effects of pubertal timing?
early-maturing boys and girls have a tendency to seek relationships with older peers who are more similar to them in physical maturity
- more likely to get engaged in age-inappropriate behaviour (ie. smoking, drug and alcohol use, sexual activity)
- more likely to not make good decisions, put themselves at risk
- girls have higher levels of teen parenting/abortion/birth, and STIs
Risk Factors for Child Maltreatment
What are parent characteristics that are risk factors for child maltreatment?
- some parents perceive normal child behaviour as being stubborn and non-compliant, therefore they feel like they need to get them in shape (coming from parents who don’t have knowledge of standard child development, and have expectations of how their child should be)
- bad impulse, coping skills
- marital instability, substance abuse
Marijuana Use in Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood
Canada Atatistics
- average age of first use: 14 years old
- 24% of 15-24 year olds report using cannabis in the last 3 months
- statistics have not changed from prior to after legalization\
- males use cannabis more often, perceive it as less risky, and more likely to drive a car afterwards
Marijuana Use in Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood
What are some short-term negative effects?
- brain is fully developed until the age of 24
- individuals who regularly use cannabis have impaired executive function (responsible for problem solving, abstract thinking and judgment), impaired memory, impaired recall, impaired attention
Cognitive Change: Vygotsky
What is guided participation?
more skilled partner is attuned to needs of the child and helps her accomplish more than she could do alone
Cognitive Change: Vygotsky
What is the zone of proximal development?
gap between a child’s competence level (what she can do alone) and what she can do with assistance
Cognitive Change: Information Processing System
What is sensory memory?
holds incoming sensory information in its original form
- attention: awareness of information
Cognitive Change: Information Processing System
What is working memory (short-term memory)?
holds and processes information that is being “worked on”: manipulated, encoded (transferring into long-term memory), or retrieved (recalling it from long-term memory)
Cognitive Change: Information Processing System
What are the two parts of the working memory?
central executive
executive function
Cognitive Change: Information Processing System
What is the central executive?
control processor that directs the flow of information and regulates cognitive activities such as attention, action, and problem-solving
- determines what is important to combine new and previously stored information (“directing traffic”)—tells information where to go
Cognitive Change: Information Processing System
What is executive function?
cognitive process of understanding information, making decisions, and solving problems
- carries out working memory (makes sense of the information): involved in goal setting, inhibiting impulses
Cognitive Change: Information Processing System
Where does all cognition take place?
in the working memory, very active
Cognitive Change: Information Processing System
What is long-term memory?
unlimited store that holds information indefinitely
Cognitive Change: Information Processing System
What does the Information Processing System suggest?
we are all born with the system in place; we just need to be exposed to the information, which then moves through the system
Information Processing in Adolescence
How do adolescents think when it comes to risk-taking behaviours?
adolescents often don’t think about the practicalities associated with each action
Information Processing in Adolescence
What are adolescents more responsive to?
positive feedback
they are less responsive to negative feedback (ignores advice not to do something)
Information Processing in Adolescence
How do adolescents weigh risk-taking behaviours?
place more importance of benefits of risk-taking behaviour, than estimating the potential cost or risk
Information Processing in Adolescence
What is the limbic system?
linked to emotional arousal
- lag time of development of prefrontal cortex compared to the system of the limbic system, which interferes with decision-making ability
- limbic system is upfront, prefrontal cortex is sitting in the background
- neurological research supports the findings: adolescents show heightened activity in brain systems that support reward processing, and reduced activity in areas responsible for inhibitory control (opposite for adults)
Intelligence
What is the Flynn effect?
widespread increases in IQ over the last 100 years
- fluid IQ: continuing to increase due to: (1) increase in access to education, (2) increase in experiencing more challenging socioenvironmental experiences
- crystallized IQ: started to level off
Intelligence
What is fluid IQ?
underlying capacity to make connections among ideas and draw inferences
- information processing
Intelligence
What is crystallized IQ?
one’s knowledge base acquired through experience, education, and living in a particular culture
SES Contextual Difference in IQ
Are differences in IQ based on SES inborn?
no
- infants in low SES environments do not show any differences on measurements that can predict intelligence (ie. habituation)
- differences emerge over time as a result of growing up in low SES environments
SES Contextual Difference in IQ
In what groups does SES account for differences in IQ scores?
accounts for many ethnic differences in IQ scores
SES Contextual Difference in IQ
In what groups does SES account for differences in IQ scores?
accounts for many ethnic differences in IQ scores
SES Contextual Difference in IQ
How does SES contribute to IQ?
contributes to IQ through differences in culture, nutrition, living conditions, school resources, intellectual stimulation, and life circumstances
5 Components that Underlie All Languages
What is phonology?
knowledge of sounds used in a given language
- learning how to detect, discriminate and produce speech sounds
- humans are capable of generating many more sounds than any one - language uses
languages have different phonologies
5 Components that Underlie All Languages
What is morphology?
understanding the ways that sounds can be combined to form words
- infants learn that sounds can be combined in meaningful ways
- taking consonants and vowels, and sticking the sounds together
5 Components that Underlie All Languages
What are semantics?
meaning or content of words and sentences
- growing vocabulary signals an increase in semantic knowledge
5 Components that Underlie All Languages
What is syntax?
knowledge of the structure of sentences
- rules by which words are to be combined to form sentences
5 Components that Underlie All Languages
What are pragmatics?
understanding how to use language to communicate effectively
- ie. speaking differently with adults, peers, and children
- intonation at the end of a sentence when asking a question