PSYC 500 - Human Growth and Development Flashcards
Accommodation
Accommodation is a Piagetian concept of modifying schemas in order to take new information and experience into account.
- Involves changing a schema to incorporate new information.
- Happens when the existing schema (knowledge) does not work, and needs to be changed to deal with a new object or situation.
Example: A child grows up in a house in which people from Mexico are stereotyped as lazy and incompetent. This information helps the child form a schema about Mexicans until he gets his first job. The child works with several people from Mexico and finds them to be hard-working and smart. He accommodates his schema for Mexicans to include this new information.
Assimilation
Developmental psychology; a Piagetian term describing when children use their existing schemas to deal with new information or experiences; when an event fits their schema.
Example: A little boy encounters a coyote at a zoo. He has an existing schema for dogs which includes information like “has 4 legs” and “is furry.” The boy uses this existing schema, points to the coyote and says, “DOG.”
Continuity vs. Non-continuity
Regarding development psychology; the debate about whether development is continuous (a process of gradual, cumulative change) or discontinuous (a set of distinct stages).
Piaget’s stages purport that individuals move through distinct, qualitatively unique stages of development, an example of a theorist who has landed closer to discontinuity in the debate. Behavioral theorists, on the other hand, stress that development is happening constantly and continuously.
- When evaluating developmental issues, most developmentalists acknowledge that development is not all-or-nothing
Example: Sharon has a patient who reports feeling depressed and anxious. After several sessions, Sharon discovers that her patient is struggling with his sexual and gender identity. Believing development to be non-continuous, she believes he may have been under or overstimulated during adolescence. According to Freud and Erikson, adolescence is a key time for gender and identity development.
Correlational Research
Correlational research is used to explore and describe the relationships between two or more variables. Correlations look at whether or not variables vary together. Correlations are expressed using a correlational coefficient (f) which is a number between -1 and 1. The higher the correlational coefficient (whether positive or negative), the stronger the relationship between the variables.
Example: A researcher is interested in exploring the relationship between socio-economic status and marital satisfaction. They collect survey data to see if the two variables very together and find a moderate positive correlation of r=.41. They don’t know if lower SES causes lower levels of marital satisfaction or if low levels of marital satisfaction somehow lead to lower levels of SES or if some other variable moderates or mediates the relationship.
Control Group
In an experimental study a control group is composed of participants who do not receive the experimental treatment or drug- everything else remains the same.
- People are randomly selected to be in this group.
- Experimenters compare the experimental group to the control group to determine if the treatment had an effect. This allows researchers to isolate the independent variable.
- Control groups are critical components of determining if a relationship is causal.
EXAMPLE: In an experiment investigating the effects of caffeine on test scores, the control group was told not to consume any caffeine and then asked to take a math test. The experimental group consumed 3 cups of coffee and then took the same math test. Experimenters compared the scores from the control group to the scores of the experimental group to see if caffeine had any effect on the test score.
Genotype
Genotypes are part of the biological determinants of human growth and development. They include information (DNA) encoded in our genes which we inherit from our parents. Different genotypes can be expressed in different ways depending on epigenetic and environmental influences.
- a range of phenotypes (observable characteristics/traits) can be expressed for each genotype
- Three types of genotypes: AA (homozygous dominant), Aa (heterozygous), and aa (homozygous recessive) - based on alleles
- Genotypes can only be discovered through biological testing
EXAMPLE: An individual inherits an allele for blue eyes from one parent and an allele for brown eyes from the other parent. Those two alleles form a gene and are part of an individual’s genotype.
Phenotype
The way an individual’s genotype is expressed in observable characteristics
- Includes physical characteristics (height, hair color, etc) and psychological characteristics (intelligence, personality, etc).
- A range of phenotypes can be expressed for each genotype
- Phenotypes provide clues to a person’s genetic makeup and these expressions are impacted by epigenetic and environmental influences.
EXAMPLE: Fred has come to therapy because he is convinced his wife is cheating on him, even though she vehemently denies it. He says he has suspected her ever since their child was born. Fred explains that he and his wife both have brown hair, but their child is now 5 years old and he has blonde hair. The therapist explains that both parents may have the recessive gene for light hair which is not expressed in the phenotype of either parent but was passed down to their child.
Genotype-environment relationship
The complex interaction between a person’s genetics and the environment around them. Environmental factors can influence the potential trait expression by genes
3 types:
- Passive: Parents create a home environment that is influenced by their own genetics
- Evocative: child’s heritable characteristics elicit certain responses from the environment
- Active/Niche-picking: child actively seeks out certain environments or activities as a result of their genotype
Example: An individual inherits a gene that gives them the genetic potential for being tall. However, that person grows up in an environment without access to healthy food and, thus, that genetic potential for height is not realized.
Attachment
Developmental psychology; a close emotional bond between two people.
- Many theories of attachment in found psychology: Freud: infants become attached to the person that provides oral satisfaction; Harlow: contact comfort preferred over food; Erikson: trust arises from physical comfort and sensitive care; Bowlby: newborns are biologically equipped to elicit attachment behavior from caregivers
- Attachment is formed in phases and specific attachments developed by 7-24 mos
- Early attachment can foreshadow later social bx
- Things that affect attachment include genetics, temperament, cultural differences
- Strange situation is an observational measure of infant attachment; infant experiences a few introductions, separations, and reunions with caregiver and adult stranger.
Example: A one-year-old child is playing with their mother at a par when one of the mother’s friends approaches. The child has never met this friend. The mom asks that her friend watch the child while she visits the restroom. The child shows distress when the mother leaves and when the mother returns. But, after receiving and some encouraging words the child calms down quickly and resumes happily playing near the mother. According to Attachment Theory, this child is securely attached.
Proximodistal development
Part of developmental psychology; the sequence in which growth starts at the center of the body and moves toward the extremities; pattern of near to far development observed in children; parts of the body closest to the trunk develop motor skills before parts of the body further away.
EXAMPLE: A child will develop gross motor skills like waving an arm before developing fine motor skills like writing legibly.
Modeling
Modeling is a type of learning defined by Albert Bandura in the development of Social Cognitive Theory. Modeling is when an individual learns a behavior by observing others performing the behavior. Modeling expanded on other learning theories that purported learning happened via classical and operant conditioning.
Example: A child, Ana, goes to a friend’s house to play. The child’s friend, May, has a pogo stick. May jumps up and down on the pogo stick and says, “come on” to Ana and points to another pogo stick. Ana watches May for a few minutes, then grabs the other pogo stick and tries to bounce on it.
Child abuse
Developmental psychology and ethics; an act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caregiver which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation
- Includes neglect which is the most common, about 46% of cases
- Can cause a myriad of developmental consequences such as attachment issues, poor emotion regulation, depression and delinquency, etc.
- Children who experience abuse and neglect are also at a higher risk for problems in adulthood including substance abuse, employment-related difficulting, relational difficulties and anxiety and depression.
- Young children, special needs children, and ill children are most at risk.
- Abusers tend to be previous victims of abuse– cycle of abuse
- Therapists are mandated reporters and it is important to pay attention to any signs.
EXAMPLE: The therapist noticed bruises on his client that remained over the course of several weeks. She also noticed the child appearing more withdrawn. The child eventually admitted that his parents would hit him if he made a mistake and would threaten to put him up for adoption. The therapist decided report this as child abuse
Critical period
Part of lifespan development; a fixed time period during which certain experiences or events can have a long-lasting effect on development
- a maturational stage during which the nervous system is especially sensitive to environmental stimuli.
- If, during this period, the person does not receive the appropriate stimuli required to develop a given function, it may be difficult or even impossible to develop that function later in life
- Most commonly associated with language development
- There is a critical period of development for fetuses in which the fetus is vulnerable to teratogens and other environmental factors that can interfere with normal development
EXAMPLE: A parent brings their adopted child to therapy because the parent is worried about the child’s development. The child is struggling in kindergarten to engage and learn things the other children are learning. After speaking to the parent, the therapist finds out that the child was born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. The therapist explains to the parent that the child may be struggling to engage and learn things because the child’s birth mother drank alcohol during a critical period of fetal development.
Cross-sectional design
A cross-sectional research design is a strategy that compares individuals of different ages in order to determine if any group differences in a dependent variable are the result of age. This type of design is advantageous in the study of human growth and development because it is cost effective and efficient. However, this design can obscure trends in development as it does not trace variables over time, but takes a snapshot.
Example: A researcher is interested in how stress levels of individuals change over the course of a lifetime. They have a short timeframe and a small budget to conduct their research and opt for a cross-sectional design which will allow them to capture and compare stress levels of individuals of many ages in a relatively short period of time.
Defense mechanism
Defense mechansims are a part of psychoanalytic theory and were originally developed by Freud and his daughter Anna. They are unconscious strategies that reduce unpleasant feelings that arise when the parts of our psyche - the id, ego and superego - are in conflict. They can allow people to navigate painful experiences or channel energy. They can become problematic when applied too frequently or throughout an individual’s development.
Example: Mike hates his gym teacher. The experience of hatred and the thoughts and feelings that accompany it are abnormal for Mike and produce a lot of discomfort. His ego unconsciously protects him from this experience by projecting his feelings of hatred onto the gym teacher. Mike believes that his gym teacher hates him.
Egocentrism
Egocentrism is a key concept in Piaget’s theory of development. It is the inability to distinguish between one’s own perspective and someone else’s. This quality is present in children who are in the preoperational stage of development which lasts from about age 2-7.
part of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development; an inability on the part of a child in the preoperational stage of development to see any point of view other than their own. Egocentrism disappears in the next stage of development - concrete operational stage
EXAMPLE: Sam is taking part in a study on egocentrism in preschool aged children. He is 4 years old. He is seated at a table and shown a model of a town with a small child doll in it. The researcher moves the doll around the model and asks Sam to select from a set of pictures of the model which picture best represents the doll’s perspective or view of the town. He selects his own view of the town. He is unable to put himself in the place of the doll.
Habituation
Habituation is the name given to a decreased responsiveness to a stimulus (sight, sound, smell) after repeated presentations of the stimulus.
- This is an important concept for researchers interested studying infant perceptions and preferences, because infants are incapable of self-report.
- Robert Fantz pioneered some of these studies in the 60s.
- Researchers have demonstrated that certain behaviors are associated with novel stimuli. For example, infants will look longer at newer visual presentations, stop sucking when presented with a novel sound. As they become habituated to these stimuli, their behavior changes (they look for less time or keep sucking).
EXAMPLE: A mother gives her infant a new mobile above his crib. At first the infant stares at it for long stretches of time (8-10 minutes), which allows the mother to fold his clothes and put them away. After a few days, the mobile no longer holds the infants attention - the infant has become habituated to the visual stimuli. Therefore, the mother twirls it a few times before beginning her laundry and this new stimuli keeps the infant’s attention. For a few days, that is.
Heterozygous
A type of genotype that includes one type of each allele- one dominant, one recessive. The dominant trait is expressed as phenotype.
EXAMPLE: Couple comes to counseling because they discovered that someone in their family has a history of a genetic disorder. The client and her husband were tested and found out that they are both heterozygous (carriers) of the disorder. The couple is having problems coping with there being a chance that their offspring may be affected.
