L6

Question 1

Development and perspective of it

Answer 1

1. the sequence of age-related changes from conception to death
   - directional and cumulative
2. age period (infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood)
3. development aspects
   - physical, cognitive, moral, social, emotional, personality, language etc
4. examples
   - milestones in motor development in baby

Question 2

questions/issues about development

Answer 2

1. nature vs nurture
   - how do genetics and environmental influences shape development
2. critical vs sensitive period
   - to what extent do early experiences shape later psychological functioning
3. stage vs continuous processes
   - is development characterized by stages or by continuous growth

Question 3

Nature - Genetics

Answer 3

1. identical twins etc
   - identical twins are used for comparison since their DNA are 100% same
2. intelligence: more genetic based
3. personality(extraversion): more nurture based

Question 4

Nature-nurture interdependency

Answer 4

1. nature: reaction range (i.e. potential your ability will go)
2. nurture: set point (picture nature is range and nurture place u on a point)
3. top (nature) to bottom (nurture)
   - biological approach (focus on genetic, hormonal and neurochemical explanations of behaviors)
   - psychoanalysis (innate drives of sex and aggression/nature. social upbringing during childhood/nurture)
   - cognitive psychology (innate mental structures such as schemas, perception and memory and constantly changed by the environment)
   - humanism (Maslow emphasized basic physical needs. Society influences a person’s self concept)
   - behaviorism (all behavior is learned from the environment through conditioning)

Question 5

early experience - critical vs sensitive period (def)

Answer 5

1. critical period
   - a limited time frame during which certain development can occur
2. sensitive period
   - a window of time where development is more easily achieved

Question 6

early experience - critical vs sensitive (elaborate)

Answer 6

1. critical period
   - the brain cell connections are plastic and receptive to the influence of a certain kind of life experience during this period only
   - lacking certain experiences in this period of life can have a profound effect on developing neural connections
2. sensitive period
   - neural circuits are relatively more plastic and more sensitive to the influence of experience
   - new synapses can still form for an extended period of time outside of the sensitive period despite being harder

Question 7

critical vs sensitive - examples (cat)

Answer 7

1. cat experiment by Blakemore and Cooper (1970)
2. special cylinders are made
   - 1 with only vertical stripes inside
   - 1 with only horizontal stripes
3. new-born kittens are placed in one of the cylinders in their first few months
4. kittens that only perceive vertical lines for the first few months of birth could only see vertical lines (but not horizontal lines) for the rest for their life (return to normalcy)

Question 8

critical vs sensitive - general examples
(blue wildebeest, romanian orphanage)

Answer 8

1. Blue wildebeest
   - the calves of blue wildebeest can stand up within 7 minutes from birth and have to run within 2 hours
   - they will be left in the wild if they do not develop this ability
2. romanian orphanage
   - only orphans who were adopted by foster families before the age of 2 were able to develop emotional regulation skills comparable to those never institutionalized children

Question 9

early experience - case of genie

Answer 9

1. background
   - was discovered in 1970
   - spent nearly 13 years and 9 months locked inside a bedroom naked and tied o a potty chair
   - 14 - 20 months of age were found to be developmentally delayed and possibly mildly retarded
   - genie’s father beat her if she vocalized and he barked at her like a dog to keep her quiet
   - he also rarely allowed his wife and son to leave the house or even to speak to Genie
   - by 13, genie was almost entirely mute commanding a vocabulary of about 20 words and a few short phrases (nearly all negative), such as “stop it” and “no more”

Question 10

stage vs continuous process

Answer 10

1. continuous process - continuity
   - a matter of degree
   
   • quantitative change
   • e.g. physical change (height) in infant
     - a gradual accumulation of a behavior, skill or knowledge; each change builds on previous abilities (ability vs time linear)
2. stage process - discontinuity
   - change in type or kind
   
   • qualitative change
   • relatively discrete steps (e.g. capacity of reproduction in puberty)
     - stage: qualitatively distinct periods of development
     - behaviors or skills often change qualitatively across time, and that new organizations of behaviors, skills or knowledge emerge in a rather abrupt or discrete fashion (ability vs time staircase)

Question 11

Cognitive development - Overview of Jean Piaget’s Theory

Answer 11

1. Children’s active role in exploring the world
2. develop knowledge by inventing or constructing
3. Sensorimotor
   - birth-2
   - understand the world by coordinating the sensory input and motor response
4. preoperational
   - 2 to 7
   - development of symbolic thoughts and language
5. concrete operational
   - 7 to 11
   - logical mental operations applied to tangible objects and actual events
6. formal operational
   - 11+
   - logical mental operations on abstract ideas, systematic hypothesis testing

Question 12

mechanism of cognitive development

Answer 12

1. cognitive dissonance
   - disequilibrium between current knowledge and new experience
   e.g. a child may feel excited when a hairy animal “meow” instead of bark
2. assimilation
   - interpreting new experience with existing cognitive structures
   - e.g. a child knows a hairy animal “meow” called a cat
3. accommodation
   - restructuring existing cognitive structures
   - e.g. a child changes new concept about “not all hairy animals meow,but some bark”

Question 13

stage 1: sensorimotor stage

Answer 13

1. Dominated by innate reflexes
2. learn through sensory experiences
3. difficulty in object permanence
   - until 18 month old
   - object permanence: awareness that objects continue to exist even when they are no longer visible
   - but children in this stage tend to be “out of sight, out of mind”: no object performance yet

Question 14

stage 2: preoperational stage

Answer 14

1. animism
   - a belief of all things are alive
   - e.g. talking with dolls/toys
2. ecocentrism
   - limited ability to share other’s perspective
   - focus more on themselves
   - e.g. ask a girl whether her sister has a sister and she will say no

Question 15

egocentrism: Piaget’s three mountain task

Answer 15

1. the child is asked to pick out a picture that shows how the mountains look to her
2. then pick out a picture that shows how the mountains look to the doll
3. visual egocentrism
   - three mountains task
   - select the doll’s view from one of the 10 picture depicting different points of view
   - different landmarks in doll’s view than child’s view
4. pre-op child pick picture that shows own view

Question 16

Conservation tasks

Answer 16

1. the child agrees that beakers A and B contain the same amount of water
2. the child observes as the water from beaker B is poured into beaker C, which is shaped differently
3. the child is asked if A and C contain the same amount of water
4. Child in concrete operations tends to respond correctly
5. a pre-op child will usually answer the taller beaker contains more water
6. limitation in conservation task
   - children at this age have problems in doing conservation tasks
   
   • concentration: the tendency to focus on just one feature of an object neglecting other important factors
   • focusing on water level
     - irreversibility: inability to envision “ undoing” an action
   • e.g. pouring water back

Question 17

stage 3: concrete operational stage

Answer 17

1. mental operation applied to concrete events
2. conservation: an awareness of physical quantities remain the same even changes in appearance
   - a distinction between appearance and reality
   
   • e.g. a cat with a dog mask is still a cat
     - able to perform conservation tasks at this stage

Question 18

types of conservation

Answer 18

1. all are 6-7 years old except last one
2. conservation of number
3. conservation of liquid
4. conservation of mass
5. conservation of area (8-10)

Question 19

Piaget’s research about conservation tasks

Answer 19

1. piaget’s research involved several kinds of conservation tasks
2. classified children;s thinking as concrete operational with respect to a particular task if they could correctly solve the problem and provide a concrete operational reason for their answer
3. for example, if a child said” the two circles of marbles are the same because you didn’t add any or take any away when you moved them” the response was judged to be concrete operational
4. if a child said” the two circles are the same but i don’t know why” the response was not classified as concrete operational

Question 20

stage 4: formal operational stage

Answer 20

1. mental operation applied to abstract events
2. logical thinking
   - abstract, systematic and reasonable hypothesis testing (“if” problem)
   - e.g. what will happen if the climate change still has no improvements in the coming 2 years

Question 21

Personality development - overview of Eric Erikson’s theory

Answer 21

1. an interaction with biological (body), psychological (mind), and cultural (social) influences
2. totally 8 stages along the whole lifespan
3. a crisis or dilemma at each psycho-social stage
4. adaptive vs maladaptive consequences
   - extreme positive or negative characteristics in personality

Question 22

psycho-social stages

Answer 22

1. stage 1: trust vs mistrust (0-1)
   - care-giver as the safety centre of care
   - the infant’s basic sense of trust or mistrust develops as a result of consistent or inconsistent care
2. stage 2: autonomy vs shame and doubt
   - control own body & do things by themselves
   - the toddler strives for physical independence
   - e.g. toilet training, dressing and bathing
3. stage 3: initiative vs guilt (age 4-6)
   - function socially with siblings and parents
   - attempt to satisfy curiosity about the world
4. stage 4: industry vs inferiority (6-12)
   - function at school
   
   • social and intellectual skills
   • sense of competence and self-esteem
5. stage 5 (adolescence)
   - self-concept formation form: who am i
   - to find a consistent and clear sense of self and what one stands for
6. stage 6 intimacy vs isolation (early adulthood)
   - closeness and commitment to another -> ability to trust, share and care
7. stage 7: generativity vs self absorption (middle adulthood)
   - providing guidance to one’s children through parenting, or contributing to the next generation through career
8. stage 8: integrity vs despair (late adulthood)
   - life satisfaction
   - are there any regrets in life?
   - sense of wholeness that comes form having lived a full life

Question 23

Emotional & Social development

Answer 23

1. attachment (John Bwlby)
   - the emotional bonding of affection that develops between infants ad their caregivers)
   - promotes proximity or contact

Question 24

emo and soc: Harry Harlow’s monkey experiment

Answer 24

1. two groups of monkey infants
   - half fed by wire mother
   - half fed by a terry cloth mother
2. scared by a strange toy
3. results: both groups went to the terry cloth “mother” (even not fed by her)

Question 25

Strange situation (separation) + recaled the table

Answer 25

1. separation anxiety: an emotional distress related to attachment
   - e.g. crying and signs of fear seen in infants or children when they are separated from people who have been emotionally attached to
   - 2 to 3 months: not so intense
   - 6 to 8: increase
   - 14 to 18: peak then drop

Question 26

attachment styles of the experiment

Answer 26

1. secure
   - protests mother’s leave, accepts comfort from her
   - returns to exploration (upset but return to calm)
2. avoidant (insecure)
   - shows little to no signs of distress or responses at the mother’s presence or absence
3. ambivalent (insecure)
   - shows sadness to mother’s leaves but “warmth” to the stranger, with signs of anger and conflicts with mother’s return

Question 27

what attachment style are u?

Answer 27

1. secure
   - relatively easy to get close to others and am comfortable depending on them and having them depend on me
   - dont often worry about being abandoned or about someone getting too close to me
2. avoidant
   - somewhat uncomforable being close to others
   - find it difficult to trust them completely and depend on them
   - nervous when anyone gets too close
   - love partners want me to be more intimate than i feel comfortable being
3. anxious/ambivalent
   - i find that others are reluctant to get as close as i would like
   - i often worry that my parnter doesn’t really love me or won’t want to stay with me
   - want to merge completely with another person and this desire sometimes scare people away