Lifespan Psychology Flashcards
What are the developmental stages across the lifespan
prenatal, infancy, childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, middle age, older age
What are the changes across developmental stages
Cognitive, Physical, emotional and social
What is plasticity
The way in which the brain changes due to stimulation from the environment/ the synapses being modified
Types of plasticity
Developmental- the Development and consolidation of neural pathways in babies, children and adolescents
Adaptive- Ability of the brain to change, adapt and grow throughout life
What are the stages of Plasticity
Proliferation, migration, circuit formation, synaptic pruning, Myelination
What is proliferation?
-The first stage in the development of NS
-Involves the division and multiplication of unborn babies cells that will become neurons
What is Migration?
Newly formed neurons move outward to their destined location
What is circuit formation?
When axons of new neurons grow out to target cells and form synapses with them
What is synaptic pruning?
Involves the elimination of excess neurons and synapses that haven’t formed connections
What is myelination?
Process were the axons of the neurons in a child’s brain become insulated by myelin
Myelin = white fatty substance that coats axons
What is the stage of adolescence
the developmental period between childhood and adulthood
The effect of changes in brain structures on behavior and emotions
During adolescence, there is a large amount of development in structures of the brain
What effect does the changing of the cerebellum have on behavior and emotion
There is an increase in the number of neurons and synapses in the cerebellum, the part of the brain that is responsible for balance, muscle tone and the performance of motor skills
What effect does the changing of the amygdala have on behavior and emotion
The amygdala becomes more active during adolescence the amygdala tended to increase across all emotional expressions during this developmental transition into adolescence
What effect does the changing of the corpus callosum have on behavior and emotion
The corpus callosum is thickens and there is an increase in the number of connections between the two hemispheres
What effect does the changing of the Frontal lobe have on behavior and emotion
The frontal lobe is responsible for motor movement and higher order thinking
The effect of changes in frontal lobe development on behaviour and emotion
theory of cognitive development – Piaget (1936)
Is the theory of cognitive development explains how a child constructs a mental model of the world.
Processes of schema formation
Assimilation, Accommodation, Equilibrium and disequilibrium
What is Assimilation?
The process of taking in new information from the world and applying it to existing schemas. Eg. having a simple schema of a ball that has incorporated everything round as a ball
What is Accommodation?
When new situations, objects, or information are encountered and the persons schema is modified or adjusted. This occurs when existing schemas do not work. Eg. seeing a plane and calling it a bird
What is Equilibrium?
How children incorporate new information into their previously formed frameworks. Eg. Learning a new language that uses the same alphabet as you
What is Disequilibrium?
Our inability to fit new information into our schemas.
Stages and Developmental changes
Sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational stage
Sensorimotor
The first two years of a child’s life. Infants learn about their world through senses and emotions
Preoperational
Children continue to develop as they use symbols, images, and languages to represent their world. At this point, however, mental operations are not sophisticated.
Concrete operational
Thinking still tends to be very concrete, but children become much more logical and sophisticated in their thinking during this stage of development.
Formal Operational
Children are able to think logically and methodically about physical and abstract problems
What was the point of the invisible displacement task?
is the understanding that objects exist even when they cannot be directly perceived
What was the point of the three mountains task?
to test whether a child’s thinking was egocentric, which was also a helpful indicator of whether the child was in the preoperational stage or the concrete operational stage of cognitive development.
What was the point of the conservation task?
To test a child’s ability to see that some properties are conserved or invariant after an object undergoes physical transformation.
What was the point of the pendulum problem task?
to reveal differences between concrete operational and formal operational thought.
study: emotion over physiological needs with Rhesus monkeys
Conducted experiments to measure the Development of attachment of infant rhesus monkeys to their mother
The theory of attachment BOWLBY
Bowlby believed that the earliest bonds formed by children with their caregivers have a tremendous impact that continues throughout life.
Attachment definition
Attachment refers to a deep and enduring emotional bond that connects one person to another across time and space
The evolutionary theory
This theory suggests that people are born with a need to forge bonds with caregivers as children. These early bonds may continue to have an influence on attachments throughout life.
monotropy, critical and sensitive periods, maternal deprivation, internal working model
This is what he called primary attachment, monotropy. Bowlby suggests that there is a critical period for developing attachment (2.5 years). If an attachment has not developed during this time period, then it may well not happen at all.
Strange situation to measure attachment (Ainsworth, 1978)
It tests how babies or young children respond to the temporary absence of their mothers.
The types of attachments
Type A – insecure avoidant attachment- don’t become distressed by absence of care giver
- Type B – secure attachment- distressed by absence of caregiver not by being alone
- Type C – insecure resistant attachment- distressed by absence of caregiver not by being alone and will continue to be anxious and distressed when caregiver returns
findings about cross cultural patterns of attachment according to van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988)
Carried out analysis of other studies involving 32 samples from 8 diff. countries; look for sims. and diff. within and between cultures
Calculated the average % for different attachment styles in each country
Types in different countries
Type A: more common in western European countries
Type B: most common type in all countries
Type C: more common in Japan and Israel
