Human Development & Emotion And Motivation Flashcards
What are the stages of prenatal development?
1) Egg and sperm create a zygote, which experiences cell differentiation in 2 weeks.
2) After 2 weeks to 2 months an embryo forms their essential organs (heart, lungs) and their nervous system.
3) Then embryo becomes a fetus.
What process causes the brain to develop in the prenatal stage? Where and when?
Myelination - the act of myelin sheaths forming around nerve fibers. Forms on the spinal cord in the 1st trimester and neurons in the 2nd.
At what age does the human brain grow to about 80% of adult size?
4 years old.
What is synaptic pruning?
The way neurons preserve or remove brain functions/connections.
What is the name for agents that harm an embryo or fetus? Give examples.
Teratogens, such as alcohol, bacteria, viruses.
What is the Dynamics System Theory?
The theory that behavior emerges from the consistent interaction between biological, cultural and situational factors.
Is imitation an evolutionary (innate) trait? Why?
Yes, because babies imitate.
At what age do infants have an understanding of faces? And adult level hearing?
3 months and 6 months old.
What is visual acuity, preferential-looking technique and habituation technique? (Infant testing concepts and methods)
Visual acuity is the ability to distinguish differences among shapes, patterns and colors. This can be through preferential-looking, where infants are tested based on what they look at more. Habituation techniques are tested similarly but to study how infants categorize.
What is infantile amnesia?
The inability to remember early childhood events (below 4 years old).
What is attachment?
A strong, intimate, emotional connection among people that persists over time and across situations.
What is Bowlby’s Attachment Theory (1982)?
Infants have innate attachment behaviors that motivate adult attention.
Secure: children are distressed when a caregiver leaves but seeks immediate comfort.
Insecure/avoidant: children are not distressed when a caregiver leaves and avoids the attachment figure.
Anxious/ambivalent: children are inconsolably upset when a caregiver leaves but seeks and rejects the attachment figure.
What is the Cupboard theory? However, what is Harlow’s monkey study show about attachment?
Humans have an attachment to a mother due to care benefits (such as providing nutrition). However, Harlow’s study showed that monkey’s preferred physical comfort than biological needs (e.g. food).
What hormone promotes attachment and how do babies do that?
Oxytocin increases in women when infants suck their milk.
Is attachment innate? Why?
Yes, because infants have behaviors that increase attachment in adults, increasing feelings of security.
What is the nativist, empirists, and Piaget’s claim on children?
Nativists think children are miniature adults. Empirists think children are adults who need to learn. Piaget claims children are qualitatively different from adults.
What is assimilation and accommodation in terms of schemes?
Assimilation is when new experiences are places into an existing scheme. Accommodation is when new schemes are created or an existing scheme is dramatically altered.
What is Piaget’s 1st Stage of Development? And criticisms in this stage?
Sensorimotor (occurring at birth to 2 years old):
Infants acquire information through senses and motor exploration.
At 9 months they grasp object permanence, which is the understanding that an object exists without being in view. BUT research shows this can occur as early as 3.5 months.
AND they have higher cognitive skills than though based on tests like the Rods-and-block.
What is Piaget’s 2nd Stage of Development? And criticisms in this stage?
2) Pre-operational (2 to 7 years old):
Children think symbolically and perform intuitively.
They don’t think operationally or logically.
They have no concept of quantity (Law Conservation of Quantity) BUT they actually can when there’s motivation.
They are egocentric (meaning, they view the world in their perspective).
