Human Development: Life Span + Chapter 11 Flashcards
How is sex determined?
If there are 2 X chromosomes the baby will be female, if there is an X and a Y chromosome the baby will be male.
Y chromosome determines sex, sex is decided at 6 weeks
SRY also has to be present for the baby to be male, if it’s not the baby may have schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease
List the 3 stages a fetus undergoes before birth
1) Germinal stage: First stage lasts 2 weeks after conception, rapid cell division and the zygote implants itself into the uterine wall
2) Embryonic stage: Second stage lasts from 2 weeks to 2 months and during this vital organs and systems form
3) Fetal stage: Third stage lasts from 2 months till birth. Rapid body growth, movement and brain cells multiply, during age of viability at 22-23 weeks baby can survive out of the body but survival is slim, at 26-28 weeks the survival rate grows to 85%
What is the cephalocaudal trend?
Refers to the head-to-foot direction of motor development. Babies gain control of upper body before lower body
What is the proximodistal trend?
Centre-outward direction of motor development. Babies gain control over their torso before legs and arms
What do developmental norms indicate?
The median age at which a child displays behaviours and abilities
What are longitudinal and cross sectional designs?
Longitudinal design sees that investigators observer groups of participants repeatedly over a long period of time.
Cross sectional design sees that investigators compare groups of participants of differing age at a single point in time.
What did Thomas, chess and birch study in terms of temperament qualities?
Studied his temperamental qualities influence adjustment throughout life, rated infants on 9 characteristics to see how they fit in at school at at home.
They found 3 main temperaments:
1) Easy temperament
2) Slow-to-warm-up temperament
3) Difficult temperament
What is early emotional development?
Attachment refers to the close emotional bond made between mother and child
Harlow monkey experiment: monkeys always preferred the mother with a soft cloth rather than one with food
What did Ainsworth find in the strange situation study?
Infants were exposed to many scenarios in a controlled laboratory setting, such as having a stranger enter the room with the baby was playing, having a parent leave and come back a few times as well as having a parent move away to study the quality of their attachment
She found 4 different attachment types:
1) Secure attachment: 65% of sample group
2) Anxious-ambivalent: 10%
3) Avoidance: 20%
4) Disorientated: 5-10%
What is Eriksons stage theory?
He stated that our life span is divided into 8 stages, each of which involves a psychological crisis which has to be overcome. Each features 2 opposing tendencies e.g. Trust v.s. Mistrust
What is Jean Piagets stage theory?
Proposed that youngsters go through patterns of thinking, reasoning and remembering:
1) Sensorimotor period before birth to age 2- things only exist only when child has direct contact with it
2) Proportinonal period from age 2 to 7- failure to adopt another persons viewpoint
3) Concrete operational from age 7 to 11- decentration and reversibility
4) Formal operation from 11 to adulthood- logical thinking
What did pascual-leone find?
Developed the m-capacity, a concept that suggests that an increase in information processing capacity is one of the attributes that forms the basis of cognitive development
What did Vygotsky find in terms of cognitive development
Emphasizes that children’s cognitive development is fuelled by social interactions with teacher parents and other kids, language is crucial
What is the zone of proximal development?
Gap between what a learner can accomplish alone and what he or she can accomplish alone or what they can with guidance
What did Kohlberg find in terms of right and wrong?
Moral reasoning explains how youngsters develop a sense of right and wrong, they look at reasoning not behaviour. There was 3 levels:
1) Preconventional: Right and wrong, right and wrong determined by reward
2) Conventional: Right and wrong determined by close others approval or disapproval
3) Postconventional: Right and wrong determined by society’s rules and ethics
