Human Development Flashcards
What is the prenatal period?
From conception until bird, 9 months of pregnancy
What are the three phases of the prenatal period?
- Germinal stage (first 2 weeks)
- Embryonic stage (2 weeks to 2 months)
- Fetal stage (2 months to birth)
What happens during the germinal stage?
The zygote travels down the fallopian tube into the uterus, after about a week it begins to try and implant into the uterine wall, which also takes about a week
The placenta begins to form
Less than 1/2 of zygotes successfully implant
What is the placenta?
A structure that allows oxygen and nutrients to pass into the fetus from the mothers bloodstream and for the fetus waste to pass out to the mother
What happens during the embryonic stage?
The vital organs and bodily systems start forming, only about 2.5 cm but it starts devolving arms, legs, feet, fingers, eyes, ears etc
If anything interferes with the formation during this phase it can have very bad consequences (most miscarriages and birth defects happen during this time)
What happens during the fetal stage?
Bones and muscles start to form, continue growing rapidly, sex organs start to develop 3rd month, during the last three months the brain cells quickly multiply and fat is developed to be insulation and the heart and lung system matures
Preparing for life outside uterus
What is the threshold of viability?
The age where a baby can potentially survive in the event of a premature birth
23-25 weeks
What are teratogens?
Any external agents, like drugs or viruses, that can harm an embryo or fetus
Why is maternal nutrition important?
Babies need variety of nutrients to develop and they get them from mom, severe maternal malnutrition increases the risk of birth complications and neurological deficits
What is the problem with maternal drug/alcohol use?
Can slip through the membrane of the placenta and get to the fetus
What can fetus exposed to cannabis cause?
Cognitive and academic difficulties in childhood, impulsivity and attention deficits, later substance use
What can smoking do to a fetus?
Cause stillbirth, miscarriage, premature delivery, and SIDS
What is FASD? What are some symptoms?
Fetal alcohol syndrome, collection of congenital problems associated with excessive alcohol use during pregnancy
Small head, flat nose, flat philtrum, heart defects, irritability, delayed motor devolpment, impaired cognitive development
What effect can stress have on a fetus?
Elevated prenatal stress can be associated with stillbirths, impaired immune response, heightened vulnerability to infectious disease, slow motor development
Can disrupt the hormonal balance that fosters healthy prenatal development
What illnesses can the placenta not prevent from affecting the fetus?
HIv/AIDS, measles, rubella, syphallis, chickenpox
What effects can environmental toxins have on a fetus?
Impairment in cognitive development, increased risk for obesity, deficits in social competence and self regulation
How can you describe physical growth during infancy? Why?
Rapid and uneven
Sudden bursts of growth
What was early progress in motor skills originally attributed to? What does recent research suggest?
Maturation (development that reflects the gradual unfolding of one’s genetic blueprint)
Infant exploration
What is motor development?
The progression of muscular coordination required for physical activities
Is the pacing for motor develop the same across cultures? What does this demonstrate?
No, demonstrates the potential importance of learning
What is attachment?
Close emotional bonds that develop between infants and caregivers
What did Harlow’s study with baby monkeys show?
They prefer comfort over food, will spend more time with cushioned fake mom then mom with food
What are the three categories of infant-mother attachments?
Secure, anxious ambivalent, avoidant
Infants with a secure attachment style generally grow up to be?
Resilient, competent toddlers with high self esteem
What does Erikson’s theory propose?
Individuals evolve through eight stages over the life span, each stage is marked by a specific psychosocial crisis
What do stage theories assume?
Individuals progress through stages in a particular order, progress is strongly related to age and new stages being major changes
What are the stages in Erikson’s theory that occur during childhood?
Trust vs mistrust
Autonomy vs shame and doubt
Initiative vs guilt
Industry vs inferiority
What did Piaget propose?
Children evolve through 4 stages of cognitive development
What are Piagets four stages?
Sensorimotor (birth to 2)
- development of object permanence
Preoperational (2 to 7)
- marked by centrism, animism, irreversibility, and egocentrism
Concrete operational period (7 to 11)
- develop ability to perform operations on mental representations
Formal operational stage (11 onward)
- thought becomes systematic, abstract, and logical
What did Piaget not account for in his stages?
Mixing of stages and the impact of culture
What does Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory say?
Children’s cognitive development is shaped by social interactions, language progress, and cultural factors
Why do some theorists believe that basic cognitive abilities are wired into human brains?
Infants understand complex thoughts without being taught
Ex addition
What does Kohlberg’s theory say?
Individuals progress through three levels of reasoning
Preconvential, congenital, and postconventional
What type of reasoning is each of Kohlberg’s stages?
Preconventional: focus on consequences (if I get it trouble it’s bad)
Conventional: focus on rules and law (it’s bad if it’s against law)
Post conventional: working out personal code of ethics
When does the adolescent growth spurt typically occur? What brings it on?
9-10 in girls and 10-12 in boys
Change in hormones
What is puberty?
The stage where the primary sex characteristics develop fully
Do adolescents go into puberty earlier? What are the possible reasons?
Yes
Better nutrition and healthcare
What two age groups for girls and boys are at a greater risk for psychological and social issues because of puberty?
Girls who develop early and boys who develop late
What area of the brain is the last to fully mature? When does this happen?
Prefrontal cortex
Early adulthood (25)
What is the main challenge of adolescence according to Erikson’s?
Sense of identity
What did Marcia believe that adolescents deal with the identity crisis?
Foreclosure (unquestioning adoption parental or societal values)
Identity diffusion (no struggle for identity)
Identity achievement (successfully getting identity)
Moratorium (actively struggling with identity)
What is the relatively new developmental stage?
Emerging adulthood
What do the adult years tend to bring increasing of?
Agreeableness, openness to experience, and conscientiousness
What are Erikson’s three stages for adulthood?
Intimacy vs isolation
Generatively vs self absorption
Integrity vs despair
What can help ease the transition into marriage? What are downsides?
Optimism
Also associated with steep decline in well being
Living together before getting married used to be a good assign that the marriage would work out why isn’t it anymore?
More people move in together and the. Get married
What are some changes than could happen during adulthood in terms of sensory problems?
Loss of vision and hearing
Can be helped with glasses or hearing aids
When do brain tissue and weight tend to normally decline?
After 60
What percent of people experience dementia? Is tho normal aging?
15-20%
No not normal aging process
What are development norms?
The median age that individuals display various behaviour s or abilities
What is temperament?
Characteristic mood, activity level, and emotional reactivity of a person
What is the difference between a longitudinal and cross sectional design?
Longitudinal is when investigators observe one group of people repeatedly over a period of time
Cross sectional is when vestigators compare different groups of people at different ages at the same time
When does cohort effects happen?
When differences between age groups are because of them growing up in different time periods
