Growth and Lifespan Dev Flashcards
What is development (current definition)?
Process in which individual differences in several domains (cognitive, social, emotional, physical, etc) interact in complex ways.
Define genotype vs phenotype
Genotype = set of genes inherited from parents (23 pairs of chromosomes)
Phenotype = observable characteristics that are the result of interaction between genetic and environmental influences
Explain trait models of dev, environmental models of dev, and interactional models of dev. Which is dominant today?
Trait models (aka medical models) of development predict later outcomes from earlier traits, which can be innate (genetic, temperament) or other processes or attributes. Ex is personality theory. Research does not support predicitivity of many trait models.
**Environmental models **view development as the environment acting on the individual. Ex are learning theories and behaviorism.
**Interactional models **view individual and environment as active agents that influence one another. These are prevalent today.
Describe the 5 principles of development (Steinberg)
- Development is the results of constant interactions between environment and biology (ex, only a few traits are genetically determined)
- Development occurs in a multilayered context (ex, Bronfenbrenner)
- Development is dynamic and reciprocal (children influence the environment and vice versa)
- Development is cumulative (builds on itself)
- Development occurs throughout the lifespan
What is a critical period? When in development are there true critical periods?
Critical Period: Period of development where something must occur (or not occur) for development to proceed normally.
Truly critical periods are in prenatal stage.
What is a sensitive period?
Sensitive Period: Time in development when we are more sensitive to certain environmental stimuli such that having (or not) a particular experience has a stronger effect on the individual. After that time, there is a smaller chance that the experience will cause change or a more significant experience is required.
What is plasticity?
The ability of a developing system to take on a different function as a result of experience, or the degree to which a developing structure is modifiable due to experience. Some aspects of development are more fixed vs more plastic.
What is continuous vs discontinuous development?
Continuous development is a gradual, continuous process of change (quantitative change).
Discontinuous (stage-wise) development has periods of rapid change during which new forms of thought and behavior emerge (qualitative change).
Define the following terms of human development:
Risk
Risk factor
Protective factor
Resilience
Risk: any characteristic associated with a higher chance of an undesired outcome
Risk factor: predictor of an undesirable outcome in a population.
Protective factor: conditions or traits that buffer against risk.
Resilience: individual differences in how people adapt and fuction following a traumatic/threatening/negative experience.
- What is a model of development that views the child as passive and the environment as active?
- What is a model of development that views the child as active and the environment as passive?
- Operant conditioning/behaviorism
- Piaget’s Cognitive-Developmental theory
Broadly describe Piaget’s cognitive-developmental theory. List the four stages in order.
A stage theory of development where children are “little scientists” who actively construct their understanding of the world through exploration and manipulation. They go from a concrete/perceptual understanding of the world to a conceptual/symbolic understanding of the world.
Stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational
Define the following terms in Piaget’s theory:
Adaptation
Assimilation
Accommodation
Equilibration
Adaptation: Children build schemas through interaction with the environment to organize new information
Assimilation: Incorporate new information into existing schemas (even if it’s wrong)
Accommodation: Adjust existing schemas to take into account new information.
Equilibration: Children try to create a balance between assimilation and accommodation.
Broadly describe Piaget’s sensorimotor stage and its 6 substages.
During the sensorimotor stage (birth - 2), children learn (build schemas) through interacting with the environment.
Substages:
1. Simple reflex substage (birth - 1 month)
2. First habits (reflexes repeated without stimulus) and primary circular reactions (repeat event that occurred by chance, does not result in effective goal-directed behavior), (1-4 months)
3. Secondary circular reactions (4-8 months), cirucular reactions involving objects with an aim at making things happen
4. Coordination of secondary circular reactions (8-12 months)- actions become more purposeful and outwardly directed and achieve desired goal, develop object permanence
5. Tertiary circular reactions, novelty and curiosity (12-18 months)- explore various properties of objects and things that can happen to them. ex, dropping it from diff heights and using it to move another object
6. Internalization of schemata (18-24 months)- able to use simple symbols and form mental representations
Describe Piaget’s preoperational stage and its two substages.
During the preoperational stage (2-7 years), children can use mental representations (words, images) but they cannot complete operations (reversible mental actions not done physically) and their thinking is egocentric and magical.
Substages:
Symbolic function (2-4 years): can mentally represent an object that is not physically there, still errors in perception (three mountains perspective task)
Intuitive thought (4-7 years): begin to use simple reasoning and ask why questions.
Describe Piaget’s concrete operational stage and define conservation and decentration, classification, and seriation.
In the concrete operational stage (7-11 years) children are able to perform operations, and reason logically with concrete examples. They understand conservation (object maintains its properties even when things are done to it). This is partly due to decentration (ability to focus on several aspects of the object, ex not just height). They can also classify objects into broader categories and subcategories and perform seriation (order objects along quantitative dimension).
Describe Piaget’s formal operational stage.
The formal operational stage (emerges 11-15 years), adolescents can reason abstractly and logically and use hypothetical-deductive reasoning.
Describe the criticisms of Piaget’s theory and what recent research has found.
- No attention to environmental factors, cultural factors, individual differences.
- Development is more gradual and continuous than Piaget thought
- Cognitive development is not a general process (skills in one area may not translate to others)
- Piaget underestimated children’s abilities- when given real-world tasks they perform better than Piaget thought
Describe Vygotsky’s sociocultural cognitive theory, define zone of proximal development & scaffolding, and describe criticisms of the theory.
Sociocultural cognitive theory says children actively construct understanding of the world through social interactions. Instruction vital for cognitive development.
Zone of proximal development: tasks the child can complete with assistance of skilled child/adult.
Scaffolding: when an instructor changes the level of support for a task based on the child’s performance.
Criticisms:
* not specific enough about age-related changes
* no explanation about how socioemotional development impacts cognitive development
* overemphasizes role of language
Describe Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory and the levels of environmental systems from innermost to outermost, define chronosystem.
Ecological systems theory says that environmental factors and systems neslted within one another influence the individual’s development, and the individual and environment influence one another.
Microsystem: settings the individual is present in (ex school, work, home)
Mesosystem: interactions between microsystems (parent’s relationship with child’s teachers)
Exosystem: social settings or systems that do not contain the individual but influence their development
Macrosystem: broader social influences like cultural values, SES, etc.
Chronosystem: time (invididual’s life and historical)
Criticisms are that it does not consider biological or cognitive factors.
Describe Thelen’s Dynamic Systems Theory
Child’s mind, body, and physical and social worlds are a dynamic (always changing), integrated system.
Change in one part of the system causes regoranization in the other parts. Ex, child starts walking –> new exploration for cognitive dev, parents adapt the environment to make it safe.
Describe Baltes’ selective optimization with compensation (SOC) model.
Three factors critical to successful aging are selection of desired goals or strategies, optimization of actions and abilities to achieve these goals, and compensation (aka adjustment of goals and strategies in response to losses in capacity. Using SOC helps mitigate effects of losses in functioning.
Define meiosis, gametes and zygote.
Meiosis: Process of cell division in which a cell divides twice to produce four gametes (cells each with 23 chromosomes aka half genetic material, sperm & ovum). During crossing over (recombination) pairs of chromosomes line up and exchange slices of alleles.
Zygote: cell formed by combining sperm and ovum during conception.
Describe the germinal period, embryonic period, and fetal period.
Germinal period weeks 1-2; conception, zygote travels down fallopian tube, blastocyst is formed, blastocyst is implanted into uterus lining, placenta & umbilical chord develop
Embryonic period weeks 3-8; structures form which will become organs and systems (ectoderm, mesoderm, endoderm), internal organs start to form, neurogenesis (neurons formed)
Fetal period weeks 9-birth; organs, muscles and nervous system organize, most neurons in place, mother can feel movements, more sensory and behavior development.
Prenatal influences on development
What is the impact of folic acid deficiency?
What is the impact of maternal stress?
Define teratogen (and list examples/types).
- Folic acid deficiency increases risk of birth defects and ASD
- Maternal stress increases risk of premature birth
- Teratogen is any substance that can be harmful to fetus, includes prescription & illegal drugs (ex retinoids, cocaine), tobacco, alcohol, infectious diseases (ex, HIV), radiation, environmental pollution.
What is fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)?
What are fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD)?
FASD are syndromes caused by maternal consumption of alcohol, the more alcohol the more severe the symptoms.
FAS is the most severe and symptoms include slow physical growth, facial abnormalities, brain injury (cognitive deficits)
What are some risks of preterm birth (<37 weeks)?
- Low birthweight (<5.5 lbs)
- Immature lungs & respiratory distress syndrome
- Digestive problems
- Lower cognitive & academic achievement
What is the Apgar scale and what are the main classification scores?
Rating scale used to assess physical health of baby, taken 1 and 5 minutes after birth.
7+ healthy
4-6: needs breathing & other assistance
3 or below: needs emergency medical assistance
What is Failure to Thrive (FTT)?
When a child fails to gain weight or height according to standard medical growth charts.
What is epigenesis?
The theory that characteristics of an organism, both physical and behavioral, arise from an interaction between genetic and environmental influences rather than from one or the other.
