Lifespan-Developmental Flashcards
Attachment Theory (Bowlby)
Bowlby (1969) was one of the first researchers to explore the theory of attachment among early ages. He indicated that evolutionary processes predispose individuals to form emotional attachments with their caregivers from very early ages that then influences their psychosocial development. Bowlby (1969) theorized this predisposition arises from the need for infants to be kept safe by caregivers for survival. Caregivers that provide sensitive and attentive responses to their infants can strengthen their emotional bond and emotional development. This quality of attachment between an infant and caregiver might have particular consequences on the infant’s later relationships and other outcomes. For instance, social and personality concerns might arise for infants that do not develop attachments before two years old. As attachment systems will influence the infant’s expectations about relationships, the attachment quality they received might inevitably influence their interpretations, guidelines, values, and beliefs towards later relationships.
(HF) Assimilation vs. Accommodation (Piaget Accommodated an Ass at his dinner party)
Piaget posited that individuals hold internal cognitive models, or schemes, in which they follow procedural behaviors in specific situations (e.g., sucking, banging, grasping in toddlers). He hypothesized that new experiences can be assimilated into existing schemes to strengthen developmental growth, primarily when this experience is similar to the functions that already exist. For example, a young child familiar with cats might learn about lions and assimilate the new creature into their existing scheme of house cats. Assimilation is more difficult if the new experience is too different from an existing scheme (e.g., the child is faced with an alligator, which doesn’t look like a mammal nor a fish). On the other hand, Piaget hypothesized that accommodation assists an individual in their developmental growth by changing the scheme when new information is acquired. In the prior example, accommodation might occur for the young child as they adjust their cat scheme to include larger and more dangerous cats that they can’t take home with them as pets.
(HF) Parenting Styles (all)
Four parenting styles lie, low or high, on two dimensions: warmth (e.g., love, care, attention) and control (e.g., over behavior, needs). In the 1960’s-70’s, Baumrind coined three parenting styles including authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive parenting while Maccoby and Martin (1983) coined a fourth style: neglectful or uninvolved parenting.
Authoritarian parenting is characterized by high control and high warmth, spanking as discipline, and a parent’s high value on obedience and power over their children while childhood outcomes include peer rejection and poor performance in school and self-esteem.
Authoritative parenting is characterized by low control and high warmth, valuing teaching children moral wrong and rights, will maintain expectations while responding to children’s needs, and results in children’s higher self-confidence, self-esteem, achievement, altruism, and friendliness.
Permissive parenting is characterized by low control and high warmth, tolerating maladaptive and disruptive behaviors, enacting fewer disciplines, and can result in children exhibiting aggressiveness, impulsiveness, immaturity, and a lack of independence.
Neglectful parenting is characterized by low control and low warmth, acting emotionally cold, holding little to not expectations or interaction with their children, being disengaged, and can result in children who exhibit insecure attachments, impulsive and antisocial behaviors, poor social relationships, and lower achievement.
(HF) Adolescent Egocentrism
Elkind (1968) expanded on Piaget’s work by describing how the growing metacognitive abilities among adolescents likely lead to greater self-focus on introspection that can result in egocentrism. Egocentrism relates to both an adolescent’s imaginary audience (i.e., self-consciousness) and personal fable (i.e., a sense of invulnerability). In an imaginary audience example, an adolescent, Jeremy, begins to assume that other individuals are just as interested and concerned about him; he might adjust his behaviors and attitude when imagining what this audience is thinking about him by changing his hairstyle three different times before heading to school. In a personal fable example, Jeremy begins to believe that his life and his actions are greatly important, unique, and special and that his life will play out the way he constructs it; he might make the decision to drink and drive one night, believing that “Drunk driving accidents happen to other people, not me.” However, some research states that this egocentrism might be exacerbated by anxiousness and continue well into adulthood.
Inductive Discipline
This method is more commonly used by authoritative parents as they attempt to explain their punishments and the wrongness of the child’s behaviors. Using inductive discipline has shown to result in children who display greater self-control and perspective-taking. However, this method has been shown to be less effective for children whose temperaments reflect more risk-taking and hyperactive and impulsive attitudes. For example, Bobby might be especially prone to difficulties paying attention and climbing on furniture; Bobby’s father may have difficulty combatting Bobby’s impulsivity with explanations as to why it is wrong and might benefit more from other behavioral techniques (e.g., rewarding on-task behavior).
(HF) Changes in Moral Development and Moral Reasoning; Kohlberg Obeyed his Individual Desire, went to a Social party for Authorities, then filled a Rights Contract for the Universe
Kohlberg (1984) investigated the moral reasoning of individuals from childhood to adulthood. By using a moral dilemma of Heinz stealing medicine for his wife, he found that there were three levels of moral reasoning with two stages each. First, he explained that preconventional morality is usually held by schoolchildren as they believe what is ‘right’ is what conforms to what avoids punishment, and what serves oneself. Second, he explained that conventional morality is held by adolescents as they believe what is ‘right’ depends on others’ beliefs and on what will maintain social order. Third, he explained that postconventional morality is held by adults as they believe what is ‘right’ depends on social contracts and fairness and their belief in universal principles of justice. Kohlberg believed that typically, individuals will progress though each stage, but this process might be affected by one’s social environment, not all reach postconventional morality, and these stages are not defined by specific ages.
(HF) Generativity vs Stagnation (Erik Generated a Stag)
Within Erikson’s psychosocial stages of development, generativity is described as motive driven by productivity and creativity that fills a need to contribute to others, society, and the culture. He described that this drive for meaningfulness in life is typically experienced within middle adulthood where major life changes are occurring (e.g., possible retirement, children moving out of the home) but can be experienced by young adults who have a generative desire to be successful at work. People high in generativity have been shown to express life stories full of redemption and growth while also expressing a stronger sense of self and resilience after setbacks. On the other hand, individuals lower in generativity are described by Erikson as experiencing stagnation. These individuals might express self-absorption, indulgence, and a lack of self-growth while describing more negative and ‘contaminated’ stories of their lives. Overall, generativity is related to mental health among middle-aged individuals, life satisfaction, work satisfaction, and better emotional well-being.
(HF) Language-Acquisition Device (LAD)
The language-acquisition device (LAD) is described by Chomsky as an innate language processer that allows humans to understand language because it contains basic and universal grammatical structure. This processor allows for children to quickly learn the unique rules of their culture’s language. Chomsky argued that the LAD functions best during childhood, likely before the age of 10. The LAD theory is supported by some evidence; for instance, creole languages are a mix of language cultures that develops over time that implies children and newer generations utilize innate grammar rules to develop new languages. In a second example, Deaf Nicaraguan children were shown to develop their own sign language over multiple years when they were provided no formal education.
(HF) Social Referencing
Social referencing is a process infants utilize by examining a caregiver’s emotions, facial expressions, and tone of voice. This feedback from a caregiver allows the infant to both discern meaning in events and learn emotional regulation. This process is especially helpful in novel situations, such as when an infant is curious about playing with a new toy and seeks feedback and approval from the caregiver. Additionally, a caregiver’s emotional response might drive the infant to also respond similarly due to social referencing. For instance, an infant might begin to cry more intensely if their caregiver begins to show anger and upset at their crying.
(HF) Programmed Senescence Theory (also Primary and Secondary Aging)
Senescence, or primary aging, is described as a “growing down” process in which individuals begin to age biologically, with graying hair, wrinkles, and declines in vision and cardiovascular functioning. Adults might become more aware of primary aging when they reach approximately 40-50 years of age. The programmed senescence theory postulates that species-specific genes are evolutionarily responsible for these declines and have a built-in clock. The theory also states that these genes ‘switch-on’ after reproductive age to prevent older adults from becoming biological parents when they might soon be unable to care for them.
Secondary aging is described as other non-biological influences on aging including health habits, environmental factors (e.g., pollution), and disease that affects every adult differently. “Effects of low SES are stronger for older than younger adults. For instance, people who live in neighborhoods may be fearful of crime, which prevents them from exercising which leads to poorer health as they age. Primary aging contributes to frailty (weakening function of various organs and body systems), but secondary aging plays a larger role through an unhealthy lifestyle and chronic diseases.”
(HF) Successful Aging
Successful aging refers to a paradigm of understanding how lifetime decisions and patterns of behavior go on to influence late adulthood. Successful aging has five components: good physical health, retention of cognitive abilities, continuing engagement in social and productive activities, and life satisfaction - all of which improve life satisfaction or a sense of personal wellbeing.
Staying healthy: Lifelong health habits and individual’s response to a health crisis contribute to one’s aging process (e.g., Older individual that breaks hip and complies with rehabilitation will be better off than one who resists);
Retaining cognitive skills: One’s level of education and being “cognitively adventurous”/having a willingness to learn new things is important, as learning enhances neuronal connections which may protect against deterioration;
Social engagement: Social connectedness and participation in productive activities is linked to successful aging because it provides older individuals an opportunity to give and receive help and reduces loneliness;
Productivity: Contributing to a social network, volunteering, venturing into new pursuits (or hobbies) is good for aging as it gives one a purpose in life;
Life satisfaction: one’s own sense of health and well-being can be highly predictive of life satisfaction compared to objective measures. Life satisfaction might also be enhanced when one sees others as worse off than they are.
Visual Cliff
Developed by Gibson and Walk. An apparatus is used to test how early an infant can judge depth and what cues they use. The apparatus consists of a large glass table with a sort of runway in the middle. On one side of the runway is a checkerboard pattern; immediately below the glass on the other side - the “cliff” side - the checkerboard appears to be several feet below the glass. The baby can judge depth here by several means, but it is primarily kinetic information that is useful. If the baby has no depth perception, they should be equally willing to crawl on the other side of the runway, but if they can judge depth, they should be reluctant to crawl out on the cliff side. The experiment shows that 6-month-olds do have some depth perception.
Critical Period
The critical period refers to the specific timing of a developmental event where an experience must occur or its absence results in some lack of development. With imprinting, animal research has shown that ducklings who are not exposed to a moving object within the first few days of life will consequently fail to imprint and not develop a following response. Timing (critical period), the stimulus feature (characteristics of mother, generally), and behavioral response (following) are all genetically prepared in interactions with the environment that promote the adaptive function of staying near the mother.
Piaget’s Stages (Piaget Sensed a Pre-Con-Form)
Piaget’s four stages of child development: Piaget developed a theory on childhood cognitive development. His primary tenet was that children learn through operating on their world - and behave like little scientists. Through their exploration and manipulation of objects, they develop new schemes. According to Piaget, cognitive development occurs in a stage-wise fashion. In order for a child to achieve milestones within the next stage, the child would have to mount the next step by achieving all milestones within the stage they are currently in; there was no vacillating between stages.
Sensorimotor (Birth – Age 2): Infants are limited to acting on objects that are present in their environment, unable to think about things out of sight; They cannot symbolically represent their experiences yet; Emphasis on development of motor skills and sensory acclimation; Objects the child explores becomes assimilated into schemes for sucking, shaking, banging, squeezing, etc. Eventually the schemes develop in ways that the child can use them as mental symbols to represent particular objects or classes of objects in their absence; Object permanence develops at the end of this stage
Preoperational (Age 2 – Age 7): Think beyond the present and expressed through language, including symbolizing objects/events; Cannot think about reversing sequence of event (irreversibility) and is intuitive (not logical); Early representational thought is slower and focuses on one piece of information at a time; Egocentrism (cannot understand others’ views); Conservation (materials moving from one container to another are not equivalent in amount); Centration (inability to think about other aspects, concentrating on one core facet of situation)
Concrete-Operational (Age 7 – Age 12): Symbolic and logical; Understanding of operations (reversible actions); Can think of multiple things at one time; Logical relationships between pieces of information are starting to strengthen; Understanding physical principles based on concrete schemes through experience; Conservation of objects and cause-effect relationships, limited to past experiences so not abstract thinking
Formal-Operational (Age 12 – Adulthood): Understand that physical principles are general principles that can be applicable in theoretical or abstract situations; Hypothetical thinking and logical reasoning by testing hypotheses; introspection on their own thought process
(HF) Strange-Situation Test
Ainsworth. Method of assessing attachment. Caregivers (mothers) were brought into a room with their infant. Then, the infant is left with the caregiver, left alone, or with a stranger. Ainsworth studied the responses of the infants and classified their responses to 3 different attachment styles: 1) Secure (~70%): Explored the toy with ease when caregiver was present, became distressed when mother left, explored less when caregiver was absent, and showed pleasure when caregiver returned. Caregivers that have frequent contact care with infants respond promptly to infant and interact with infant in an emotional sync manner are more likely to develop a secure attachment (e.g., secure base). Secure attachment has been positively correlated with children who are more confident, better at problem solving, more emotionally healthier, and more sociable than those with insecure attachment. 2) Avoidant (~20%): Acts indifferent when caregiver leaves and avoids caregiver/acts coldly when caregiver returns. 3) Anxious (~10%): Is inconsolable when caregiver leaves and continues to be in distress when caregiver returns and tries to comfort. Disorganized attachment developed after the original study. 4) Disorganized attached children show confusion and apprehension when mother returns and often engage in contradictory behaviors (i.e., moving toward mom while keep gaze averted)
