Human growth and dev't DSA Flashcards
Emotional Well-Being
Affection is as vital as food for healthy physical growth.
Growth faltering (failure to thrive) applies to infants whose weight, height, and head circumference are substantially below age-related growth norms.
- Infants are withdrawn and apathetic.
- Often a result of disturbed parent–child relationship
- Unhappy marriage or parental psychological disturbance may be at fault.
- May cause lasting cognitive and emotional difficulties
Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory
Epigenetic Model
Development occurs throughout the life cycle
Normative crises occur at each stage
Adequate resolution necessary for optimal development
Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory Epigenetic Model of Development: Infancy
Crisis: Basic trust vs basic mistrust
Strength: Hope
According to Erikson, the period during which infants develop a sense of trust or mistrust, largely depending on how well their needs are met by their caregivers
Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory Epigenetic Model of Development: Early childhood
Crisis: Autonomy vs shame and doubt
Strength: Will
The period during which, according to Erikson, toddlers (aged 18 months to 3 years) develop independence and autonomy if they are allowed the freedom to explore, or shame and self-doubt if they are restricted and overprotected
Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory Epigenetic Model of Development: Play Age
Crisis: Initiative vs guilt
Strength: Purpose
According to Erikson, the period during which children aged 3 to 6 years experience conflict between independence of action and the sometimes negative results of that action
Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory Epigenetic Model of Development: School Age
Crisis: Industry vs Inferiority
Industry: Developing a sense of competence at useful skills and tasks
School provides many opportunities.
Inferiority: Pessimism and lack of confidence in own ability to do things well
Family environment, teachers, and peers, can contribute to negative feelings
Strength: Competence
Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory Epigenetic Model of Development: Adolescence
Crisis: Identity vs Role confusion
Identity: Defining who you are, what you value, and your direction in life
Commitments to vocation, personal relationships, sexual orientation, ethnic group, ideals
Resolution of “identity crisis” or exploration
Role Confusion Lack of direction and definition of self Restricted exploration in adolescence - Earlier psychosocial conflicts not resolved - Society restricts choices Unprepared for stages of adulthood
Strength: Fidelity
Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory Epigenetic Model of Development: Young adulthood
Crisis: Intimacy vs isolation
Strength: Love
Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory Epigenetic Model of Development: Adulthood
Crisis: Generativity vs Stagnation
Strength: Care
Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory Epigenetic Model of Development: Old age
Crisis: Integrity vs despair
Strength: Wisdom
Stranger anxiety
The caution and wariness displayed by infants when encountering an unfamiliar person (usually seen at 8-10 months)
Separation anxiety
The distress displayed by infants when a customary care provider departs (usually first seen at 6-8 months and peaks at 14-18 months)
Stranger anxiety and separation anxiety represent important social progress.
Object Permanence
The understanding that objects continue to exist when out of sight
Usually partially complete by 8-12 months and established by 12-18 months
Incomplete at first: Children will only look for the item where it was last seen instead of using inference to find where it has been moved
Attachment
The positive emotional bond that develops between a child and a particular individual
When children experience attachment to a given person, they feel pleasure when they are with them and feel comforted by their presence at times of distress.
As children become more independent, they can progressively roam farther away from their secure base.
Ainsworth Strange Situation
A sequence of staged episodes that illustrate the strength of attachment between a child and (typically) his or her mother
Secure attachment pattern
A style of attachment in which children use the mother as a kind of home base and are at ease when she is present; when she leaves, they become upset and go to her as soon as she returns
Toddlers - 18 months to 2 years
Goal is to start to move away from the primary caregiver
Run off but quickly return to the Mom- Mahler called this rapprochement
2 year olds say “NO” (The terrible twos)
levels of infant attachment
avoidant
secure
ambivalent (like secure by resists contact with caregiver)
disorganized-disoriented (inconsistent)
Reactive Attachment Disorder of Infancy / Early Childhood
Exposed to really poor care or abuse
Inhibited Type - Child is withdrawn or unresponsive
Disinhibited Type - Child approaches and cuddles up to strangers
Goal of treatment is to try to help them form a bond to one caregiver
Temperament
Patterns of arousal and emotionality that represent consistent and enduring characteristics in an individual
Temperament refers to how children behave, as opposed to what they do or why they do it.
Infants show temperamental differences in general disposition from the time of birth, initially being largely due to genetic factors, and temperament is fairly stable well into adolescence.
However, it is not fixed and unchangeable.
dimensions of temperament
activity level approach-withdrawal adaptability quality of mood attention span and persistence distractibility rhythmicity (regularity)- basic functions intensity of reaction threshold of responsiveness
Categorizing Temperament: Easy, Difficult, and Slow-to-Warm Babies
Easy babies Babies who have a positive disposition; their body functions operate regularly, and they are adaptable
Difficult babies Babies who have negative moods and are slow to adapt to new situations; when confronted with a new situation, they tend to withdraw
Slow-to-warm babies Babies who are inactive, showing relatively calm reactions to their environment; their moods are generally negative, and they withdraw from new situations, adapting slowly
Goodness-of-fit
The notion that development is dependent on the degree of match between children’s temperament and the nature and demands of the environment in which they are being raised
Research suggests that certain temperaments are, in general, more adaptive than others.
Temperament seems to be at least weakly related to infants’ attachment to their adult caregivers.
Cultural differences also have a major influence on the consequences of a particular temperament.
The Biological Basis of Temperament
From the behavioral genetics perspective, temperamental characteristics are seen as inherited traits that are fairly stable during childhood and across the entire life span.
These traits are viewed as making up the core of personality and playing a substantial role in future development.
Preschooler’s types of play
functional- simple, repetitive
constructive- more sophisticated. Produce or build something.
Parallel play
onlooker play
associative play
cooperative play
Make-believe play
is a major means by which children grow cognitively and learn about important activities in their culture.
Toddlers need encouragement to participate in imaginative make-believe play.
Mothers and siblings play an important role in modeling make-believe play.
Preschoolers’ Theory of Mind
Children increasingly can see the world from others’ perspectives.
Even children as young as 2 are able to understand that others have emotions.
By the age of 3 or 4, preschoolers can distinguish between something in their minds and physical actuality.
By the end of the preschool years, most children easily solve false belief problems.
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development: Four factors influencing cognitive behavior
Maturation of the nervous system
Experience
Social transmission of information
Equilibration (innate tendency for mental growth to progress toward increasingly complexity and stability)
Cognitive Development: SENSORIMOTOR STAGE ( first 2 yrs)
Reacting to environment Manipulating the environment Ends/Means relationship Object permanence Infers cause and effect Assimilation/Accommodation
Cognitive Development: PREOPERATIONAL STAGE
(2-6 yrs) Language acquisition Symbolic reasoning Egocentrism Transductive thinking Magical thinking
Cognitive Development: CONCRETE OPERATIONS
(6-11 yrs) Logical cause /effect thinking Reversibility of events Social speech Ability to take others point of view Conservation of volume & quantity Rigid interpretation of the rules
Cognitive Development: FORMAL OPERATIONS
(11+ yrs) Abstract reasoning More elaborate information processing Metacognitive capacity Can grasp probabilities Hypothetical thinking
Piaget’s Stage of Preoperational Thinking: Preoperational stage
During this stage, children’s use of symbolic thinking grows, mental reasoning emerges, and the use of concepts increases
Piaget saw the preschool years as a time of both stability and great change. He suggests that the preschool years fit entirely into a single stage of cognitive development—the preoperational stage—which lasts from the age of 2 years until around 7 years.
At this stage, children are not yet capable of operations: organized, formal, logical mental processes.
It is only at the end of the preoperational stage that the ability to carry out operations comes into play.
Symbolic function
symbolic function
According to Piaget, the ability to use a mental symbol, a word, or an object to represent something that is not physically present
Piaget: Relation Between Language and Thought
Symbolic function is at the heart of one of the major advances that occurs in the preoperational period: the increasingly sophisticated use of language.
Piaget suggests that language and thinking are tightly interconnected.
Even more important, the use of language allows children to think beyond the present to the future.
Piaget: Concept of Centration
The process of concentrating on one limited aspect of a stimulus and ignoring other aspects
Preschoolers are unable to consider all available information about a stimulus. Instead, they focus on superficial, obvious elements that are within their sight.
These external elements come to dominate preschoolers’ thinking, leading to inaccuracy in thought.
Piaget: Concept of Conservation
The knowledge that quantity is unrelated to the arrangement and physical appearance of objects
Preschoolers can’t understand that changes in one dimension (such as a change in appearance) does not necessarily mean that other dimensions (such as quantity) change.
The lack of conservation also manifests itself in children’s understanding of area.
Piaget: Transformation
Transformation The process whereby one state is changed into another
Children in the preoperational period are unable to envision or recall successive transformations.
Basically, they ignore the intermediate steps.
Piaget: Egocentrism
Egocentric thought Thinking that does not take the viewpoints of others into account
Egocentric thought takes two forms: the lack of awareness that others see things from a different physical perspective and the failure to realize that others may hold thoughts, feelings, and points of view that differ from theirs.
Egocentrism lies at the heart of several types of behavior during the preoperational period.
Piaget: Intuitive Thought
Intuitive thought Thinking that reflects preschoolers’ use of primitive reasoning and their avid acquisition of knowledge about the world
In the late stages of the preoperational period, children’s intuitive thinking has certain qualities that prepare them for more sophisticated forms of reasoning.
Children also begin to show an awareness of the concept of identity.
School Age -7 to 11 years
Freud - Latency years - an easy time for most kids (Few sexual issues)
They develop the ability to think logically.
State of CONCRETE OPERATIONS - Helps one do math, & reasoning
Piaget said children develop the concept of conservation. (1 thing can have 2 meanings)
school age and illness
Most do well at this age coping with illness.
Ones who don’t often ACT OUT.
They understand the finality of death.
Self-Concept in Middle Childhood
More refined self-concept
- Social comparisons
- Emphasize competencies, both positive and negative
Cognitive development affects structure of self-concept.
- Perspective-taking
Social and cultural development affect content of self-concept.
- Real self v. ideal self
Fears and Anxieties in Middle Childhood
Fears of dark, thunder, lightning, supernatural beings persist.
Fear of real-life personal harm
School phobia
- 5 to 7 years: separation from home
- 11 to 13 years: particular aspects of school
Harsh environments contribute to anxieties.
Piaget’s Theory: Formal Operational Stage
Hypothetical-deductive reasoning
Deducing hypotheses from a general theory
Propositional Thought
Adolescents can evaluate the logic of verbal propositions.
Children can evaluate the logic of statements only by considering them against concrete evidence in the real world.
Consequences of Adolescent Cognitive Changes
Self-consciousness and self-focusing
- Imaginary audience
- Sensitivity to criticism
- Personal fable
Idealism and criticism
Planning and decision making
- Rely on intuitive judgments
- Overwhelming options
- Far more likely than adults to choose short-term over long-term goals
