Psych Unit 11 Flashcards
Schema
a way that adults access info from long-term memory
- like a script – you make a schema of what you do at a restaurant (get seated, look at the menu)
- a cluster of concepts to understand the world
- mental organization as kids start learning about the environment
Assimilation
child adds new info to their schema WITHOUT needing to revise the existing schema
ex: kid’s schema about dogs is: 4 legs, furry
- anything that has 4 legs and is furry = dog
- kid saw a different dog on the street and saw it had 4 legs and was furry – now that dog is added to its schema without revision
Accommodation
child has pre-existing schema and new info comes in which CONTRADICTS the existing schema
- now the child must REVISE the schema
ex: child’s schema for dogs is 4 legs and furry = dog
- child sees a cat and thinks it’s a dog because it has 4 legs and is furry
- now child has to make a new schema because not all 4 legs and furry = dog
Piaget’s 4 stages of development
sensorimotor, preoperational, Concrete Operational, formal operational
Sensorimotor
birth - 2 years-old
- child interacts and experiences everything through their senses
- learn from putting things in their mouths and touching stuff
- they focus on the immediate present
cognitive milestone: how we know that the kid is ready to move on to the next stage
object permanence: if done right, can move on to next stage
- a child knows that the object still is there even when they can’t see or hear it anymore
ex: mom shows the kid a bear and then hides the bear under a blanket
- if the child says that the bear is under the blanket, then they move onto to next stage
- if the child thinks the bear went away, then you can conclude that the child isn’t ready to move on to next stage
Preoperational
2-6 years-old
- child can’t manipulate ideas
egocentrisism: child can’t understand points of view other than their own
ex: if alice is explaining her experience with her dog, the other kids are unable to relate even though they have dogs (they can only think about their experiences with their dogs)
ex: a sandcastle
- kid can’t see part of the sandcastle from where they’re standing so they assume that part just doesn’t exist
Conservation: child doesn’t understand the amount of something is the same even if it looks different
ex: pouring the same amount of water into a tall skinny glass and a short wide glass
- if child thinks the water is = they can move to next stage
- if child thinks the tall skinny glass has more water = failed test
Concrete Operational
6-12 years-old
- they think logically and can manipulate ideas, but don’t understand abstract concepts
ex: giving kid a word problem
- kid could solve the problem but would have to use their hands or draw it out
- children learn the best through hands-on learning
Cognitive Milestone (moving from Preoperational to Concrete Operational)
conservation of volume test
- give kids two glasses: one is tall and skinny and other is short and wide
*if child says that one of the glasses has less juice than the other, they aren’t ready to be in concrete operational stage
*if child says that the diff. Glasses have the same amount, then they are ready to be in the concrete operational stage
*kids who fail the test don’t have abstract thinking yet
*kids who pass can think about quantity in the abstract - they can logically know that before the two glasses had the same amount of juice and even though they’re in diff glasses now, they still have the same amount because no juice went anywhere else
Formal Operational
12+ years-old
- kids understand abstract concepts (what-if questions)
- can solve problems in their heads
- not as much trial-and-error anymore
ex: if you asked kids what would happen if everyone became blind
- kids not ready to be in this stage would say a ridiculous answer
- kids in this stage would say that people who were already blind would succeed more because they’re used to it already
ex: what if we solved world hunger?
Criticisms of Piaget’s Theory
- he didn’t focus on individual differences between kids (only looked at the age group of kids as a whole)
- he thought once you passed the milestone you moved onto the next stage (it’s actually more gradual not abrupt)
- he didn’t explain what is happening in the child’s brain to get them to move from one stage to the next
Theory of the Mind
people understand that others have different points of view (beliefs, desires, intentions)
- this stage happens around 3-4 years old (before the end of preoperational stage)
False Belief Test
theory of the mind test
ex: a kid is shown a box of crayons with candles inside
- snoopy doesn’t see the crayons inside the box
- if child says that snoopy thinks there’s candles in the box, then child fails the test
- if child says that snoopy thinks there’s crayons in the box, then child passes
*children who pass the test understand that other people have different POVs or beliefs, even if they are false
Temperament
differences in mood patterns, activity, and emotional responses
- predicts adult personality
- individual differences in temperament is because of genetics
Kagan Test for Temperament
looked at high and low reactive infants
- if a child reacted loudly to something = highly reactive
- he then studied them as they got older
Blair: low reactive infant – she laughed a lot and engaged in the enviornment without much care
Lisa: high reactive infant – she was shy, didn’t laugh or hold much eye contact
- she became not as shy as she got older because of parenting (environmental influences)
monkeys: switched monkeys to have different parents
- they reacted differently no matter who the mother was (they reacted differently to parenting style)
*how you reacted stayed with you unless you had parenting style that changed this
*genetics and environment influence reactivity
Attachment
the connection an infant has with a caregiver
strange situation test:
- leave kid with mom and then a stranger walks in the room
- mom leaves the room and kid stays with stranger
*looking at how kid reacts when mom leaves and during reunion period
Attachment Styles: Secure Attachment
- Lisa cries when the mom leaves and runs to mom and calms down quickly during reunion period
- baby seeks out mom during reunion stage (interacts with mom)
- baby doesn’t engage with the stranger – isn’t calmed down by them either
Avoidant Attachment
when mom comes back into the room, the baby avoids the mom
- baby interact in the same way with stranger and mom (interest level is the same)
Anxious-Ambivalent
baby is unsure about how they feel – they flip-flop their attitudes towards mom
- baby might resist mom but then later be overly clingy to mom
Disorganized
infants that didn’t fit the 3 categories
Harlow’s Study
took rhesus monkeys and gave them a choice between the wire monkey with a milk bottle and a cloth monkey without milk
*monkeys continued to pick the cloth monkey because they preferred comfort over food
*comfort is more important to attachment than food
*the monkeys were biologically preconditioned to pick the comfort monkey over the food – we know this because they haven’t had exposure to the environment yet so it must be a biological reason for why the baby monkeys pick the comfort monkey over the monkey with food
Reactive Detachment Disorder
can happen with kids who come from orphanages (Russia or Eastern Europe)
- even when the babies are adopted and parented well, they may still resist contact with parents
- did this because they were so neglected as babies in orphanage
- can do therapy to try and help the kid
*This happened because the babies missed out on attachment during the sensitive period (birth to 5-years-old)
2 Parenting Dimensions
Behavioral Regulation:
- how much control the parents puts on their kid
- “you may or may not do this..”
- supervision of child’s behavior and constant discipline and clear expectations
Parental Support: how much warmth is given by parent to child
Authoritarian Style
high level of behavioral regulation and low level of parental support
- parent is the boss - “bc I said so”
- lots of rules, but not very warm
*bad parenting
Uninvolved Style
low level of behavioral regulation and low level of parental support
- neglectful of child, absent
- doesn’t really care
- let their kids do whatever but also not there for them to support them if they need
Permissive Paretning Style (indulgent)
low behavioral regulation and high parental support
- lets kid do whatever but always there to support them or clean up their messes
- lenient, no rules, indulgent
Authoritative Style
high behavioral regulation and high parental support
- parents give kids rules but are also there to support them
*ideal parenting style
Marshmallow Test
researcher gives kid a marshmallow and tells them they can eat it now or wait and get a second marshmallow
- younger kids had a much harder time waiting than older kids
- kids used coping mechanisms to not eat marshmallow (hitting their head, fidgeting, looking away)
*later tested the same kids and found that the kids who had good impulse control also had good impulse control as an adult
Gender Role Development
young kids choose sex-typed toys – girl pick “girly toys” and boys pick “boyish toys)
*huge biological influence – girl primates pick girl toys and boy primates pick boy toys
ex: 2-year-old girls wore dresses to daycare and told another girl who wore pants that she needed to wear a dress to be a girl
Rough and Tumble Play:
- girls and boys get on the ground a wrestle
- more common in boys
- animals do this too
*if animals show the same gender behaviors as humans than gender development is biologically influenced
Gender Factors Influences
CAH– condition where you have more testosterone
- girls who have CAH show higher levels of playing with boys toys than girls who don’t have CAH
- boys with CAH show same levels of playing with boys toys and not playing with girls toys
*hormone exposure effects how kids pick the type of sex-typed toy
Influence of parents:
- resreachers dresses up boys as girls and girls as boys
- participants gave the fake girls girl toys to play with even though they were actually boys
*showed that parents give kids sex-typed toys based on their gender because they think the kids prefer them
Social Learning Theory:
- think gender stereotyping is dangerous
- we categorize people or traits bc our brains categorize to make sense of the world
- for a kid, helpful to categorize to make sense of the world
Moral Reasoning Test
ex: Joey is told to go straight to the party and not talk to anyone
- Joey sees someone who is hurt and chooses to keep walking because his mom told him to
- older kids picked to help the person
*older kids have more complex moral ability – they think of each situation independently and look at context to make decision
Moral Development Kohlberg: Preconventional
infancy-preschool
- doing the right thing to avoid punishment
- focused on not getting in trouble
- looking to not get in trouble while also getting reward
Conventional
school age
- “good girl/boy”
- rule based
- kids listen to the rules without exception (keep walking without helping the kid because mom told them to)
Postconventional
teens or a little younger than that
- kids go beyond basic rules (help the kid on the street even though mom told them to walk straight to the party)
- rules are more flexible
Criticisms of Kohlberg’s Theory
HELP
Brain Development during Adolescence
- growth of white matter, myelination
- amygdala is fully developed
- frontal cortex develops into 20s
Adolescents behavior
- act on impulse
- hard time reading social cues and emotions
- get into accidents and fights
- engage in risky/dangerous behavior
*they do this because their frontal lobe isn’t fully developed (impulse control)
- the amygdala has diff activity in the adult
Erikson’s 8 Stages
- Trust vs. Mistrust - infant-18 months
- Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt - 18 months- 3 yrs
- Initiative vs. Guilt - 3-5 years
- Industry vs. Inferiority - 5-13 years
- Identity vs. Role Confusion - 13-21 years
- Intimacy vs. Isolation - 21-39 years
- Generativity vs. Stagnation - 40-65 years
- Ego Integrity vs. Despair - 65+ years
Life Satisfaction and Marital Status
married:
- couples are less satisfied when they are raising kids because they don’t have as much time for each other
- the marital satisfaction increases once their kids move out - now have time for each other
*life satisfaction is higher for married people
single:
divorced:
Cognitive Changes in Adulthood
- mild changes in speed of learning and problem-solving
- more changes in fluid intelligence (processing skills)
- better at crystalized intelligence (accumulated knowledge)
Prenatal Milestones
first 2 gestational weeks: organism is a zygote
2nd gestational wk: zygote moves from fallopian tubes to uterus
3-8 gestational wks: embryo
rest of pregnancy = fetus
Gestational Wks broken up
G1: zygote is 3 germ layers
- nerve tissue, skin, muscles, and bone develop
G4: CNS is split into forebrain, midbrain, hindbrain, and spinal cord
G7: cells line neural tube
Embryonic Stage: heart, stomach, liver organs form
G6: generic gounds turn into testes or ovaries (female and male different based on X and Y chromosomes)
G month 3: reproductive organs differentiate (fallopian tubes, uterus)
G month 6: myelination of nervous system
G month 7: neurons in place
- brainwaves can be recorded
G28: fetus can hear
Prenatal Genetic and Environmental Risks
- if parent has child when they’re older, child can have more genetic abnormalities
- 40 yr old women have eggs that have been exposed to 40 yrs of potential hard (vs. 25 yr old)
- down syndrome
- teratogen: any agent that produces harmful effects in fetus (alcohol, nicotine)
- antidepressants
- opiods
- cannabis
viruses from mom to baby:
- HIV, Zika virus, COVID
Newborn’s Reflexes
- they can immediately turn their heads to touch
- open mouth (search for mom’s breast)
- suck on objects
- grasp objects
Milestones in Newborns
5 months - understand emotion from voice
7 months - understand emotion from facial expressions
- like sweets, can hear, likes higher pitch sounds
- look at faces
Physical Milestones in newborns
- rapid growth
- triple birth weight in first year
Nervous System Milestones in newborns
- growth in grey matter
- brain grows 64%
- at 3yrs old, brain is almost done growing in size
synaptic pruning: cells that aren’t used get deleted
- brain gets wired (kids raised in poverty may not have enough neural connections)
Motor Development Milestones in newborns
- head-to-toe direction of development
- control muscles in neck to raise head, torso, crawling, walking, standing
- directing arms comes before directing fingers (head-to-toe)
Vygotsky’s Theory of Development
- culture has a role in child development
- culture teaches child what to do and how to think
- self-directed talk helps (inner speech)
***Language is important aspect
zone of proxmimal development: tasks child could learn to do without the help of others
Developmental Milestones in Adolescence
begins at puberty and ends at young adulthood
cognitive:
- working memory is at adult level
- logical thinking
- have more data
puberty: physical changes
- period
- increased sex drive
Brain:
- language, spatial relations, learning is done
- grey matter peaks
- greater levels of risk taking than adults
Development in Midlife
- stability
- growing sense of morality
- menopause for females
- male sperm quantity reduces
- less fertile for women
Social changes:
- empty nesting = higher marital satisfaction
- adults either feel GENERATIVITY or STAGNATION
generativity: feel that their lives had value
stagnation: haven’t found satisfaction in life
Development in Late Adulthood
- weight of brain decreases
- hippocampus is impacted
- hearing and vision gets worse
cognitive:
- semantic memory increases (facts) but episodic decreases
- crystalized intelliegence is better than fluid (accumulated knowledge)
social and emotional:
- have integrity or despair
integrity: happy w life
despair: unhappy w life
- refocus on positives because less life time ahead of them
- get closer with grandkids
- higher level of conflict avoidance (higher level of marital satisfaction)
