PSYC 500: Human Growth and Development Flashcards
Adverse Childhood Events
- Potentially traumatic experiences that occure before 18 years of age that have lasting negative effects on health, well-being and development.
- Abuse / Neglect / Household Dysfunction
- Important to understand bc they disrupt a child’s sense of safety and stability and impact how they see the world and develop as an adult
- Can lead to anxiety, depression, self-harm, substance abuse
Ex: 16 yr old girl is assulted but bc her home is so dysfunctional with partents who always fight, the child does not tell her parents what happenes bc she doesn’t want to make their life any harder. This child growns up to be an adult who never trusts others and believes she must do everything on her own in life to be safe and secure.
Accommodation
- Piaget’s theory of Cognitive Development.
- Process of adjusting one’s cognitive framework (schemas) to fit new information and experiences promoting change
- Works along Assimilation to facilitate learning and adaptation to support how individuals perceive and respond to their world.
- Important in therapy bc it promotes cognitive and emotional development and allows for continuity in undersanding and processing new informaiton as the developing brain creates schemes.
Ex: A toddler has learned the word “car” to identify the family vehicle. Early on, the toddler learns to call all moving objects on roads “cars”, even motorcycles and trucks. Over time, the child learns to recognize that not all moving objects on a road are “cars”, and accommodates this scheme to understand trucks and motorcycles as different vehicles.
Assimilation
- Piaget’s theory of Cognitive Development
- When a person encounters new information and experiences they uses their existing schemas to deal with new information and experience and incorporate this learning w/o changing their those schemas
- Works along accomodation to facilitate learning and adaptations to support how individuals perceive and respond to their world.
- Important in therapy bc it promotes cognitive and emotional development and allows for continuity in undersanding and processing new informaiton as the developing brain creates schemes.
Ex: A dog bites a child and now the child avoids all dogs to keep herself safe because she believe all dogs bite.
Androgyny
- When a person maintains a mix of both feminine and masculine characteristics
- In terms of behavior, appearance, self-identity or personality.
- Important in therapy in addressing issue related to gender/self-identity, societal expectations and early adolesent development.
- Gender expert Sandra Bem suggest androgyny promotes psychological well-being by allowing individuals to tap into assertive/powerful (masculine) and nuturing/sensative (feminine) traits, exhibiting high self-esteam and self-worth.
Ex: Althought a young girl is sometimes teased at school and called “a boy” because she is athletic and likes to play basketball with the boys, she is unphased by the teasing and considers herself lucky to have friends in both the “boy” and “girl” friend groups.
Attachment (Style)
- Developed by John Bowlby
- The close emotional bond between child and primary caregiver providing foundation for emotional, social and cognitive development.
- Important to understand bc attachment styles influence how we explore the world and form relationship with others (ie: healthy vs maladaptive)
- Behavior/bond can be learned as well as influenced by genetics, temperment and environment which is all directly related to emotional regulations
4 Main Attachment Styles :
1. Secure (trust and comfort with caregiver, allows for healthy relationships)
2. Anxious (inconsistency in caregiver responses leads to anxiety in the child)
3. **Avoidant **(avoids emotional closeness and intimacy due to a neglectfully caregiver)
4. Disorganized (unpredictable behavior associated with trauma or abuse from caregiver)
Ex: A toddler with secure attachment is being observed for day-care. The child is comfortable playing on their own and appears to be okay meeting unfamiliar people. The toddler does becomes upset when another child takes their toy causing them to seeks comfort with their mother. After some time of comfort, the child returns to playing well with others.
Child Abuse
- Intentional act or a failure to act by a caregiver that causes harm or risk to a child under 18
- Counselors must be on look out for signs of child abuse and report suspected abuse.
- Can be physical, sexual, psycological or emotional abuse or neglect.
- Impacts ability to development secure attachments, may lead to depression, anxiety, PTDS and substance abuse.
- Epigenetic effects on HPA Axis making the child more suseptible to stress (fight, flight, freeze)
- Early intervention and trama-informed care are crucial to healing and resilience in survivors. This is important, bc unless treated, most victems go on to commit their own acts of child abuse which can assimilate to later generations creating generational trama.
Ex: Lisa is 9 years old. Sometimes Lisa’s father gets drunk on his way home from work. By the time he arrives home, he is mad at the world and locks Lisa and her younger siblings in the baesment overnight without dinner. Lisa has to keep her younger siblings calm while her father screams at their mother upstairs. In the morning, when they wake up, their father acts as if nothing ever happened. This is psycological trama which can create a disorganized attachment style.
Critical Period
- Specifc window of time during early development when experiences or events have a long-lasting effect on development
- If the appropriate stimuli required to develop a function is lacking, it may be difficult to develop that function later in life bc of brain plasticity. Can impact language, vision and/or social attachemnt.
- Similarly, if a damaging stimulus is present, it can inhibit proper growth and development.
- It is important in therapy when addressing development delays or trama, to understand the importance of early experiences that shaped cognitive, emotional and phsyical development.
Ex: A young child does not receive age approriate exposure to speach, resulting in a limited vocabulary. Now in kindergarden, the child struggles to understanding words used to express reason and emotion, lacks critical thinking skills, is emotionally irrational bc they cannot express themselves, and has poor memory and attention skills.
Continuity vs Non-continuity
- Perspectives on devleopment as to whether developmental stages are continuous (gradual/nurture) or discontinuous (distinct/nature).
Continuity
- Suggets that develpoment is more fluid, steady and gradual, occurring over a lifetime, like a sead into an oak tree.
- Earlier behaviors and abilities evolve into more comples ones without significant or abrupt shifts.
Non-continuity
- Suggest that develpment occures in distinct stages at marked intervals like a catapillar into a butterfly.
- Abrupt shifts or transformatiosn in behavior and thining are triggered in stages.
Important in therapy for recognizign a clien’ts nuanced development and growth and their ablity to change.
Ex: Parents bring their son to therapy bc they believe he is not maturing through puberty quick enough. The therapist alligns with a continuous mindset and suggests that while puberty might seem abrupt in others, it is actually a gradual process that takes place over several years.
Developmental Level
- Stages of physical, socialemotional and cognitive growth relative to age and life expereinces.
- Can be continuous or non-continuous
- Concept informs Developmental theroists who recognizing that people progress through predicatable milestones but timing and quality of that progression will vary with each unique person
- This is important in therapy when tailoring interventions and creating case conceptuatlization especially when needing to understand unresolved develpmental challenges such as chidhood trama.
Ex: A client brings his 4-year-old daughter to therapy because she is not yet talking. After a physical examination, there is no physical explaination for this indicating there may be a developmental speach delay bc a child should be speaking when they enter Early Childhood.
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Egocentrism
- Piaget’s pre-operational stage of Cognitive Developmental, that lasts from ages 2 to 7.
- Accurs in child, as well as adults, who are preoccupied with thoughts centering around themselves and unable to differentiate between there own perspective and someone else’s
- Important to understand as a cognitive limitation that appears as failure to empathize or assuimng others understand your thoughts w/o clear communication. If beyond 7 years old, this may a behavioral concern to address.
Ex: A 4-year-old boy is with his family on a roadtrip. The family decides to stop and get hamburgers for dinner. The child does not want hamburgers and instead wants chicken nuggets becoming enraged when his family does not agree with him on what to eat. While he cannot understand that everyone else prefers to eat hamburgers, this is an age-appropriate resonce.
Genotype vs. Phenotype
Genotype
- Instruction encoded in our DNA with input of dominant and/or recessive genes inherited from biological parents.
- Genetic instructions that provide blueprint for potential traits but do not guarantee their expression.
Phenotype
- Observable expression of a genotype (traits: height, eye color, hair color) influenced by both genetic (genes) and environment (upbringing/ADDRESSING model).
Important in therapy when exploring and considering genetic predispostions for mental health as well as how environmental factors can influence the presentation of certain conditions.
Ex: Your client presents to therapy bc their mother has been diagnosed with Bipolar I and they want to know if testing can be done to determine the likely hood of developing the same disorder. You explain that while her diagnoses does increase a risk for developing Bipolar 1, there is no single “bipolar gene” and that not everyone with a genetic predisposition goes on to develop the disorder. You education your client on environmental factors within their control such as living a low-stress lifestyle, avoiding drugs and alcohol and how getting lots of good sleep will benefit them to further reduce risk.
Genotype-Environment Relationship
- Refers to the interaction between heredity genes and environment influences development including interaction that
- This is important in therapy bc how genetics and environment work together can shape a person’s characteristics such as health, intelligence and personality, as well as awareness of proposed risks for various disorders such as depression.
3 types of genotype-environment relationships:
**Passive **- child’s environment is influenced by the biological parents’ genetic traits therefor the child’s genotype is naturally suited for the environment (neutral reaction to environment)
Evocative - child’s genetic traits evoke specific responces from others within their environments (depression)
Active - child actively seeks out an environments that aligns with their genetically influenced abilities
Ex: A child that has extraverted parents, has a predispostion for cheerfulness and spending time in large groups. This genetic makeup “activly” influences their environment at school wehre they seek out a more social environment than a peer who tends to be more shy.
Heterozygous vs. Homozygous
- Refers to the genetic makeup of a person with respect to a particular gene and the alleles inherited from each parents and how that results in individual traits.
- Alleles are the reason for genetic diversity.
Heterozygous = you inherit two different alleles (one from each parent)
**Homozygous ** = you inherit two identical alleles (dominant or recessive)
- Important in couseling to understand genetic predispositions to traits and susceptibility to mental health disorders based on if your client is hetero/homozygous.
Ex: “Happy” and “Sad” Alleles
H (Happy) – Helps make lots of serotonin
S (Sad) – Makes less serotonin
HH (Two Happy alleles)
HS (One Happy, One Sad)
SS (Two Sad alleles)
Someone with HS or SS genes may be more likely to struggle with depression.
Myelination
- Biological process within the nervous system in which fatty myelin forms a protective layer around the axons of neurons
- Increases speed and efficiency of electrical signals (information) traveling from one neuron to the next.
- Critcal aspect of brain development that begins during pregnancy and continues into adolescence and early adulthood.
- Proper nutrition and living in a healthy environment is key to supports development and if not received, delays or abnormalities can occure in human growth.
Ex: A 2-year-old boy presents with significant motor delays, including difficulty holding his head up, poor coordination, and delayed crawling. Genetic testing confirms a mutation in the gene responsible for myelin production. Due to the lack of proper myelination, nerve signals travel inefficiently, leading to motor and cognitive delays.
Lateralization
- Refering to the specialization of ceratin cognitive or behavioral functions within one hemisphere of the brain being responsible or more dominate for certain tasks.
- Most complex functions of the brain use both left and right hemispheres, yet specialization does accure:
LEFT hemisphere controls language and logical processing including fine motor skills
RIGHT hemisphere controls creativity and holistic thinking.
- Lateralization highlights the brain’s ability to organization and support its ability to perform complex and specialized tasks.
Important to understand because if there is brain damage to one side of the brain, the other side may, or may not, be able to adapt and take over lost functions which impacts developmentatl disorders.
Ex: Penn, who was born with cerebral palsy, has white matter in her brain’s left hemisphere. Penn has partial left side paralysis and difficulting with speech and fine motor skills. In therapy, her therapapist binds the right side of her body in an effort to force her brain to tap into and activate ithe skill available in her right hemisphere.
Habituation
- Describes when an individual decreases or ceases their reponse to a repeated stimulus over time.
- Considered non-associate learning as no reinforcement or punishemnt were involved - the repeated expoure itself cause the decreased in response.
Important factores: lenght of exposure / frequency / Intensity and Change.
- Used in Exposure Therapy (measured using SUD assessment)
- Important bc critical for teaching clients to learn to ignore non-threatening stimuli which cause dysfunction.
Ex: A therapist works with a client who has a phobia of dogs. Through the process of habituation, the therapist aims to reduce the client’s fear of dogs by repeatedly presenting the feared stimuli (dogs) to the client until the fear/anxiety lessens. The process begins by introducing the client to a small calm dog and increases in frequency and size of dog with each visit until ultimatly, a large and active dog is tolerated by the client.
Identity Achievement
- James Marcia’s
- Furnishes an indivudal with a historical sene of who they hafe been (adolecent environment), a meaninful sense of who they are now (current self), and sense of who they might become in the future (identity acheivement)
- Identity Acheivent is a stage of clarity with a sense of stabiltiy regarding one’s self-concept.
- Happens after the period of late adoecence and emergine adulthood when for the first time, physical, cognitiave and socio-emotional development is at a point where an individual can construct a path toward adult maturity.
- This is important in therapy to support clients towards identiry acheivement helping them explore their values, interests and goals in a safe and nonjudgement space.
Ex: As a college freshman, Kelly explored different alternatives to the type of person she wanted to be (identity) and what she believed in. She accepted her immature habits while in highschool and is proud of her abilty to live on her own, time manage her course and see’s a furture for herself through her business studies. By the time she is a senior in college, Kelly has a strong sense of herself and what she wanted in life. Kelly has completed identity achievement.
Intergenerational Trauma/Abuse
- Passing down and transmisison of trama or abuse across multiple generations within a family or commuinity
- Effects of trama, abuse, neglect, war, displacemnt, poverty or systemic oppression impact not only the person who directly experienced them, but also their decendants through patterns of behavior, epigenetic trama and cultural transmission.
- Important in theapy to breakthe cycle by addressing origins of patterns and develop coping strategies to create healing for the person directly and their furture generations. Can use EMDR, trama-informed theray and family systems therapy.
Ex: Your client stuggles to form healthing, loving relationshps and understands this is because it was never modled for him as a child growing up in a home where his father and grandfather both drank heavily and abused the women in the family. No one
Invincibility Fable
- A cognitive distortion common in adolescents
- Belief they are uniquely immune to danger and negative consequences of risky behavior.
- Important in therapy to understand this mindset with clients who engage in exceptional risk taking especially adoescents.
- Cinicians should engage with non-judgement and empathy to help their cleints learn to make safer, more informed choices.
Ex: 17-year-old Jake drives his car exceptionally fast down the highway weaving in and out of cars even when he is not in a rush to be somewhere. He has received several tickets but maintains that it is highly unlikely he will get hurt or hurt anyone else due to his reckless driving. Jake is operating from the invincibility fable.
Metacognition
- Thinking about thinking
- The conscious awareness one’s own thought processes that involves monitoring, controlling and evaluating decision-making, problem-solving and self awareness of congnitve abilities.
Important bc it is a key factor in self-regulated learning which creates awareness of help/unhelpful thought patterns and used in therapy for devloping and managing successful treatment plan.
Ex: A client seeking CBD therapy for an eatting disorder, tells their therapist that recently they are having negative thoughts about their body image. They report being aware as soon as a negative thoughts begin and recognize the cognitive downward spiral. This client is exhibiting metacognition by being aware of and thinking about their thoughts.
Parenting Types (authoritarian, authoritative, permissive)
Parental responsivemenss and demandingness
**Authoritarian **: High demandingness, low responsiveness. Enforce strict rules and expect obedience with little warmth.
**Authoritative **: High demandingness, High responsiveness. They set clear standards while being supportive and communicative.
**Permissive **: Low demandingness, High responsiveness. They offer warmth and freedom but provide little diciplinary measures and/or do not follow through with measures.
- Central to understanding attachment styles that influences a child’s social skills, academic performance, personality and psychological well-being.
- Important in therapy for addressing behavioral patterns and origion relevant to family dynamics when creating treatment plans unique to your client.
Ex: Kate is a teenager navagating the social dynamics and peer-presure of highschool. Kate feels comfortable speaking with her parents about almost anything knowing they will listen even if they do not morally agree. Kate is allowed to go to parties but has a curfew of 11pm (on the early side compaired to others in her firend ground) and knows that if she is late she will not be allowed to go to the next party. Kate’s parents subscribe to a collaborative, authoritative parenting.
Proximodistal Development
- From human development, proximodistal development ensures that a person gains strength and coordination in their trunk and proximal muscles (torso, shoulders, hips) before fine motor skills (hands, fingers, toes) can be effectively developed.
- Most relevant during infancy and early childhood development to promote physical and cognitve growth.
- Isn’t just about physical movement—it’scritical foundation for mental and emotional well-being. Core stability and strong motor control can be linked to enhanced emotional regulation, support trauma recovery, and improved cognitive function creating a balanced mind-body connection. Conversly, a lack of PD has been linked to emotional irregulation, ADHD, autisim, and sensory processind disorders.
Ex: A 6 month old baby who learns to sit up and reach for objects their fingers is engaging in proximodistal development. As the baby grows, they will soon be able to move themselves between postitions such as sitting to crawling and back to sitting.
Resilience
- From human development it is the capacity to adapt to challenges, manage stress and recover to thrive despite adversity.
- Some are born with resilience, but if there is a skill defiicte, resiliency can be fostered through CBT strategies, mindfulness, self-compassion/empathy and identifying client assest.
- Resiliency skills offer healthy ways to promotes emotional regulation, encourages a positive mindset, supports preparing for future challenges and reduces relapse risk.
- Crucial for positive outcomes of the client when addressing anxiety, trauma, and substance abuse.
Ex: Once a homeless addict, your client is now sober, employeed and living in a halfway home. Considering the seemingly insurmountable challenges they have faced and overcome, your client is demonstrating daily resiliency as they modify their strive to remain sober and self-sufficant.
Sex-linked Traits
- Used to describe traits that are influenced by genes located on the sex chromosomes - usually most relevant with the X-chromosome.
- Sex-linked traits, such as color blindness, are more likely to occur in males because they only have one X chromosome. Females have two X chromosomes and therefore the recessive allele (i.e. sex-linked trait) can be masked by a dominant allele.
Ex: A heterosexual couple come to therapy with concerns that their unborn child will have muscular dystrophy, as the disease runs on the mother’s side of the family. The father wants to find out the sex of baby prior to birth, whereas the mother doesn’t want to know “just in case it is [her] only chance to envision life with a healthy baby.” The therapist educates the couple on how if the baby is biologically female, they would be less likely to have the disease. Whereas there is a higher chance of muscular dystrophy in biological males because of the single X-chromosome.
Separation Anxiety
- Rooted in attachment theory, this is a distressing behavioral responce upon real or anticipated separation from a significant person, place or thing such as an attachment figure.
- Though generally seen in young children, it can be present at any stage of life but is considered an abnormal behavior in older age groups which is important for clinicains to recognize.
- Recognizing and managing separation anxiety is vital for therapy as it informs interventions that foster heathier attachmentss, coping strategies and emotional well-being.
Ex: Liam is a 3 year old boy who panics and crys every morning when he sees his mother making breakfast. Liam in anticipating that it will soon be time for his mom to drop him at preschool and for his mother to go to work. Liam does not appear as distressed when it is him father making breakfast but it is always his mom who drops him at school indicating he sufferes from separation anxiety with a possible anxious attachment to his mother.
Social Referencing
- From social and cognitive development, refers to the ‘reading’ of cues in others to guide their own behavior
- “Read the room”
- Related to emotion expressions and reactions of others that direct behavior in uncertain situations and ambiguous contexts
- Skill begins between during infancy and becomes stronger by toddlerhood allowing a child to explore unfamiliar environments
- This is important in therapy bc clients with developmental disorders may not have developed this skill and therefore struggle to understand social referencing cues leading to anxiety, depression, and isolation.
Ex: A 9 yr old boy with autism spectrum disorder is referred to therapy to work on “social cues.” The boy’s parents tell the therapist that they are worried about breaking his spririt and kind heart but have to find a way to teach him to “stay in his own bubble,” especially with peers at school. The therapist helps ease the parent’s anxiety by normalizing the boy’s struggle and provides a plan to work on social skills training and attachment-building techniques.
Stranger Anxiety
- A developmental phenonemon when infants or young children exhibit fear or distress when meeting unfamiliar people
- Commonly appears around 6 months and decressed with age if the parent/primary caregiver remains calm and reasurring, creating a sense of safty by not exasterbating the emotional environment
- Important in therapy bc it impacts attachment-styles
Ex: Your client is concerned because her new daughter, Cora, seems to be scared of everyone and starts crying and clinging to her anytime she tries to hand her off to a family friend. The therapist explains that this behavior is indicative of “stranger anxiety” and that at a very young age it is actually a healthy, positive sign of cognitive development. The therapist goes on to say that with gradual exposure to these family friends, and when Cora observes her mother (clients) positivily interacting with them (smiling, laughing, hugging) that Cora will come to see them more as a caregiver and less like a stranger.
Zone of Proximal Development
- Sociocultural Theory of Development
- Refers to range of tasks a learner can do independently without assistance, and what a learner can do with guidance or in collaboration with more knowledgeable peers, teachers, parent, therapist.
- Seens in stages of learning and how scaffolding is provided to at first support but then is gradually reduced as the learner becomes more capable.
- Important in therapy treatment bc when desired skills are targeted just beyond the learner’s current abilities, it encourages growth without overwhelming them.
Ex: A counseling graduate student starts an internship at a facility and needs coaching and assistance in practice, but she can manage the consent to treatment and write session notes independently. Through the identification of her zone of proximal development, together with her supervisor, she is able to set goals and develope a skill set with the support of more expereinced group members as she gains the knowledge to practicing counseling independently.
Temperament
- A person’s natural disposition, emotional reactivity, and behavioral tendencies, which are largely influenced by genetics and early childhood experiences.
- Serve as the foundation for later personality development
- Key characteristics are that it is biologicaly based and stabel over time although their are individual differences.
3 Styles. One is not better/worse than the other:
**Easy **: adaptable, generally happy, easy to soothe, consistent in habits
Slow to warm up : cautious in new situations, may be withdrawn but becomes more confortable with gradual exposure
Difficult : intense emotional reaction, strugles with change, easily frustrated, irregular habits
- In therapy, understanding temperament helps tailor treatment plans best suited for the individual needs of the client working with their temperament to foster resilience and emotion growth.
Ex: Your client has a difficult temperament and is quick to anger. They are seeking treament for managing triggers and their strong emotional reactions to their young children. Your treatment plan focuses on identifying the triggers, tracking emotional patterns, and exercies that increase mind-body connection. This ia all aimed to help them identify their anger symptions before they escalates into yelling at her children.
Teratogens
- Substances or environmental factors that disrupt prenatal develpment during the critical periods of developing organ, brain and nervous system, that can cause harm to a fetus during pregnancy.
- Could lead to physical, cognitive and/or emotional birth defects that last a lifetime.
- Alcohol, drug, tobacco, lead & environmental toxins as well as an infection, malnurishment and stress of the mother all contribute to teratogen exposure
Ex: A young mother has not been educated in appropriate nutrion and the necessary lifestyle ajustments that must be made during preganancy to ensure proper development of the fetus. During the two trimesters of preganancy, she continues to smoke, socially drink and eat mostly processed foods. Once showing and now in her 3rd trimester, the young woman visits a doctor who teachers her that smoking, drinking and a lack of vital nutriants being delivered in-utero will likely have a dramatic and lifelong negative impact on the child. Unfortunataly, her child was born prematurly with low birth weigh and signs of organ damage.
