Lifespan Development Flashcards
Early Maturation in Girls
No Pros
Cons
- poor self-concept
- be unpopular with peers
- dissatisfied with their physical development
- low academic achievement
- more likely to engage in sexually precocious behavior
- drug and alcohol use
- increased risk for depression and eating disorders
Early Maturation in Boys
Pros
- greater popularity with peers
- superior athletic skill
Cons
- dissatisfaction with body image
- increased risk for drug and alcohol use
- delinquency
- depression
Early Life Brain Development
The cerebral cortex is largely undeveloped at birth but shows dramatic growth during the first two years of life primarily as the result of an increase in interconnections between neurons and myelination of nerve fibers.
During the first few months of life, the primary motor and sensory areas of the cortex undergo substantial development, while the prefrontal cortex continues to mature through childhood and adolescence and may not be fully developed until the early or mid-20s.
Post 25 Brain Development
By about age 30, the brain starts to gradually shrink as the result of the atrophy of neurons, and there is an acceleration of this cell death after age 60. However, there is evidence that the brain attempts to compensate for neuronal loss by forming new interconnections between neurons and neural pathways and by creating new neurons (neurogenesis) in the hippocampus and possibly other areas of the brain.
Effects Of Age On Memory
Several aspects of memory show age-related declines, especially recent long-term (secondary) memory. Deficits in secondary memory are believed to be due primarily to a reduced spontaneous use of effective encoding strategies. The working memory aspect of short-term memory also exhibits substantial age-related decline.
Turner Syndrome
Turner syndrome occurs in females and is caused by the presence of a single X chromosome. Females with Turner syndrome are short in stature, have characteristic physical features (e.g., drooping eyelids, webbed neck), have retarded or absent development of the secondary sex characteristics, and may exhibit certain cognitive deficits.
Social-Cognitive Factors and Aggression
The research on social-cognitive factors has found that aggressive children differ from their less aggressive peers in terms of self-efficacy beliefs (they are more likely to say that it is easy to perform aggressive acts but difficult to inhibit aggressive impulses) and beliefs about the outcomes of their behaviors (they expect that aggression will be followed by positive consequences including reduced aversive treatment by others).
Aggression has also been linked to a hostile attribution bias, which is the tendency to misinterpret the positive or ambiguous acts of others as intentionally hostile.
Horizontal Decalage
As described by Piaget, horizontal decalage refers to the gradual development of an ability (e.g., conservation) within a particular stage of development.
Stages of Language Acquisition (Crying, Babbling, First Words, Telegraphic Speech)
Language development occurs in a predictable sequence of stages.
Infants initially produce three distinct patterns of crying: a basic (hunger) cry, an anger cry, and a pain cry. Babbling begins at about four months of age and consists of the repetition of simple consonant and vowel sounds (e.g., “bi-bi-bi”).
General vs Language-Specific Babbling
Early babbling includes sounds from all languages; but, between nine and 14 months of age, babies narrow their repertoire of sounds to those of their native language.
27 months verbal milestone
While these phrases initially contain only nouns, verbs, and adjectives, by 27 months, prepositions and pronouns have been added.
First words
what month
Most infants speak their first word between the ages of 10 and 15 months and, by 18 months, speak about 50 words.
First words are most often nominals, or labels for objects, people, or events, although action words, modifiers, and personal-social words (e.g., please) also occur.
telegraphic speech
By 18 to 24 months of age, children exhibit telegraphic speech - i.e., they string two or more words together to make a sentence (e.g., “me go,” “more juice”).
Child Sexual Abuse
- no consistent gender differences
- the outcomes are worse for females than for males
- less severe when the abuse was committed by a stranger than by a family member or other familiar person.
Malnutrition During Prenatal Development
Malnutrition during prenatal development is associated with:
- miscarriage
- stillbirth
- low birth weight
- suppression of the immune system
- intellectual disability
Severe Malnutrition in 3rd trimester
Severe malnutrition in the third trimester (especially protein deficiency) is particularly detrimental for the developing brain and can lead to a
- reduced number of neurons
- reduced myelinization
- neurotransmitter abnormalities
Effects Of Divorce On Children
Child’s Age, Sleeper Effect, Parental Conflict
preschool children exhibit the most problems immediately after the divorce
long-term consequences may be worse for children who were in elementary school at the time of the divorce.
Boys exhibit more problems than girls initially, but there may be a “sleeper effect” for girls who do not exhibit negative consequences immediately after the divorce but exhibit problems in adolescence and early adulthood.
The negative consequences of divorce are reduced when the conflict between parents is minimized.
Coercive Family Interaction Model
Patterson
children initially learn aggressive behaviors from their parents who
- rarely reinforce prosocial behaviors,
- rely on harsh discipline to control their children’s behavior, and
- reward their children’s aggressiveness with approval and attention
over time, aggressive parent-child interactions escalate. They developed the Oregon model of parent management training (PMTO) to help stop this coercive cycle by teaching parents effective parenting skills and providing parents with therapy to help them cope more effectively with stress.
Visual Changes In Adulthood
Over 65
- presbyopia (loss of near vision)
- loss of visual acuity
- reduced perception of depth and color
- increased light sensitivity
- deficits in visual search
- dynamic vision (perceiving the details of moving objects)
- speed in processing what is seen
Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory (Zone of Proximal Development, Scaffolding)
first interpersonal (when the child interacts with an adult or other teacher) and then intrapersonal (when the child internalizes what he/she has learned).
zone of proximal development
the discrepancy between a child’s current developmental level (the level at which the child can function independently) and the level of development that is just beyond his or her current level but can be reached when an adult or more experienced peer provides appropriate scaffolding (instruction, assistance, and support).
Goodness-Of-Fit Model
Thomas And Chess
According to Thomas and Chess’s goodness-of-fit model, behavioral and adjustment outcomes are best for children when parents’ caregiving behaviors match their child’s temperament.
Androgyny
The research has found that, for both males and females, androgyny (which combines masculine and feminine characteristics and preferences) and, to a lesser degree, masculinity were associated with higher levels of self-esteem than was femininity.
Androgyny has also been linked to greater flexibility when coping with difficult situations, higher levels of life satisfaction, and greater comfort with one’s sexuality.
Early Reflexes
Reflexes are unlearned responses to particular stimuli in the environment.
- Babinski reflex: toes fan out and upward when soles of the feet are tickled
- Moro reflex: flings arms and legs outward and then toward the body in response to a loud noise or sudden loss of physical support
Empty Nest Syndrome
Contrary to what is commonly believed, adults do not usually experience distress and a sense of loss (i.e., the “empty nest syndrome”) when all of their children come of age and leave home. Instead, the studies suggest that they usually experience an increase in marital satisfaction and other positive changes.
Effects Of Maternal Employment
Research investigating the effects of maternal employment has found it to be associated with
greater personal satisfaction for the working mother (especially when she wants to work) and,
in terms of the children:
- fewer sex-role stereotypes
- greater independence.
For lower-SES boys, maternal employment is associated with better performance on measures of cognitive development; but for upper-SES boys, it may result in lower scores on IQ and achievement tests.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Effect
Research by Rosenthal and Jacobson found that teachers’ expectations about students can have a “self-fulfilling prophecy effect” on their academic performance, motivation, and self-esteem of students.
Relational Crisis (Gilligan)
Gilligan proposed that, in early adolescence, girls experience a relational crisis due to pressures to conform to cultural stereotypes of femininity. As a result, they become disconnected from themselves (e.g., they experience a “loss of voice”).
Contact Comfort (Harlow)
infant’s attachment to his/her mother is due, in part, to contact comfort, or the pleasant tactile sensation that is provided by a soft, cuddly parent.
Memory Strategies of Children
Preschoolers sometimes use non-deliberate memory strategies but do so in an ineffective way, while children in the early elementary school years use somewhat more effective techniques but are often distracted by irrelevant information.
In addition, when taught rehearsal or other memory strategies, young children may apply them to the immediate situation but do not subsequently use them in new situations.
By age nine or ten, children begin to regularly use rehearsal, elaboration, and organization, and, in adolescence, these strategies are “fine-tuned” and used more deliberately and selectively.
Precausal Reasoning (Magical Thinking/Animism):
As described by Piaget, the preoperational stage of cognitive development is characterized by precausal (transductive) reasoning, which reflects an incomplete understanding of cause and effect.
One manifestation of precausal reasoning is magical thinking (the belief that thinking about something will cause it to occur); another manifestation is animism (the tendency to attribute human characteristics to inanimate objects).
Klinefelter Syndrome
XXY
Klinefelter syndrome occurs in males and is due to the presence of two or more X chromosomes along with a single Y chromosome. A male with this disorder has a small penis and testes, develops breasts during puberty, has limited interest in sexual activity, is often sterile, and may have learning disabilities.
Sexual Activity In Late Adulthood
The research has generally confirmed that sexual activity in mid-life and earlier is a good predictor of sexual activity in late adulthood.
For example, Landau et al. (2007) found that sexually active adults 57 to 85 years of age reported a frequency of sexual activity similar to the frequency reported in an earlier study of adults ages 18 to 59. However, their survey results also indicated that the number of older adults identifying themselves as “sexually active” decreased with increasing age
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