Psychological Development Flashcards
What does development encompass?
Change at the cellular and neurobiological level
Physical skills - “milestones”
Cognitive and language functions
Social and emotional processes
Personality and attitudes
Behavioural repertoire
In what context does all development take place?
Cultural context
What is culture?
A general way of life or behaviours of a group of people which reflect their shared social experiences, values, attitudes, norms and beliefs; it is transmitted from generation to generation and changes over time.
What does Erikson’s theory describe?
Epigenetic
Step by step growth
Critical time periods
Importance of psychosocial crises (challenge or turning point) as a driving force
What happens at each of Erikson’s stages of development?
The individual has a key developmental task, e.g. infancy – infant must learn the world is a reliable place. If this isn’t mastered, it’s going to be much more difficult to move on to the next stage.
What are Erikson’s stages of development?
Infancy: trust vs mistrust → hope and faith
Toddler: autonomy vs shame, doubt → wilfulness, independence and control
Play age: initiative vs guilt → purposefulness, pleasure and imagination
School age - middle childhood: industry vs inferiority → competence and hard work
Adolescence: identity vs identity confusion → values and sense of self
Young adult: intimacy vs isolation → love and friendship
Middle adulthood: generativity vs stagnation → care and productivity
Old age: ego integrity → wisdom and perspective
What are the strengths of Erikson’s theory?
Groundbreaking and creative
Makes intuitive sense
High level of abstraction leads to broad ways for further study and application
Enduring interest in his ideas
What are the problems with Erikson’s stages?
Hard to test empirically
Terms are broad and very abstract
Reflects norms of the 1950s
Lack of clarity with regard to time limits for stages
Insufficient attention to negative or maladaptive development
What did Havighurst propose?
That human development moves through stages but each stage is associated with tasks.
What is a developmental task?
One which arises at or about a certain period in the life of an individual, successful achievement of which leads to happiness and success with later tasks, while failure leads to unhappiness in the individual and difficulty with later tasks.
What are some tasks in adolescence (12-18)?
Accept one’s body
Adopt a male or female social role
Achieve independence from parents
Develop close relations with members of the same and opposite gender
Prepare for an occupation
Prepare for marriage and family life
What are some tasks in young adulthood (19-30)?
Develop a stable partnership
Learn to live with a partner
Establish an independent household
Establish a family
Care for a family
Start an occupation or career
What are some strengths and weaknesses of the “tasks” approach?
Integrates challenges from different domains
Stresses the individual’s active role in negotiating tasks
But timeframes no longer appropriate
Huge sociocultural changes have transformed expectations of what is normative
What is a trajectory?
The continuation of a direction, the sum of the forces that propel us towards a destination
What is a turning point?
A disruption to a trajectory that has the long-term impact of altering the probability of life destinations, giving rise to questions such as:
What intervenes to disrupt a trajector?
What pushes people of their path?
What propels them back onto a former path?
How can childhood abuse influence the life trajectory?
Leads to poorer self esteem leading to poorer school achievement
How can low educational attainment influence the life trajectory?
Leads to poorer career opportunities, leading to poverty
How can exposure to a less favourable physical environment influence the life trajectory?
Leads to high levels of stressors, leading to physical and mental health issues
What is an example of the potential for change through turning points?
Experience a close friend dying from drug overdose
Fear and new realisation about dangers of own drug addiction
Decision to seek help and undergo rehab program
What is the transactional model?
States that development takes place through transacting factors: Genetic, Constitutional, Biological/biochemical, Psychological, Envionmental.
Multiple factors operate together dynamically and bi-directionally
What do parents of children with disruptive behaviour disorders (DBDs) have higher than average rates of?
Domestic violence
Substance abuse
Depressive disorder
Social deprivation
Tend to use harsh physical punishments
Nature or nurture?
Genetic contribution to behavioural traits and psychiatric disorder variable in the range from 30-80%
Expression of genes always occurs in an environment
Gene-environment interactions, e.g. development of PKU: a single gene leading to impaired metabolism of phenylalanine that when removed from dietary environment prevents mental retardation.
What do non-human primates deprived of early maternal care sustain?
Life-long derangements of monoamine neurotransmitter systems.
How can genotype interacting with adverse parenting affect development?
Genotype interacts with adverse parenting to increas risk of antisocial behaviour
What are risk factors?
Those factors that may contribute to development along with other events in a dynamic process.
What is multifinality?
One risk factor can be associated with a number of different outcomes.
E.g. disrupted early attachment is linked to separation anxiety, some personality disorders
What is equifinality?
Multiple possible pathways to the same outcome, e.g. depression
What are protective factors?
Many facotors can protect an individual from adverse outcomes
Can be thought of as moderators of trajectories
Example from an older age group: self-perceptions of ageing predict better practice of preventative health behaviours after controlling for age, gender, functional health, etc.
What is temperament?
The automatic associative responses to basic emotional stimuli that determine habits and skills.
Moderately heritable.
Basic styles of interpersonal behaviour strongly influence the expression of thoughts and feelings
What are the 4 dimensions of temperament?
Harm avoidance
Reward dependence
Novelty seeking
Persistence
What resources promote successful development?
Family factors
Community factors
Psychological traits
Positive self-beliefs
Coping skills
What is resilience?
A broad umbrella covering many concepts related to positive adaptation in the context of adversity.
What does resilience theory emphasise?
Capabilities and strengths
Emerged as a reaction against deficit models of development
What is resilience theory?
If basic adaptive and support systems are in place, development is robust and developmental tasks can be achieved.
And people can cope with trauma
Trajectories need not be disrupted
What is the model for response to an adverse event using resilience?
See image
What did Rutter define resilience as?
Building a positive self-image, reducing the effect of the risk factors and breaking a negative cycle so as to open up new opportunities for the individual.
What does resilience not mean?
Avoidance of all stressors or adversity.
Immunisation does not involve direct promotion of positive physical health; rather it comprises being exposed to and successfully coping with a small dose of the toxic agent.
Protection in this case resides not in evasion of the risk but in successful engagement with it.
Why is resilience important in later life?
Older adults face numerous changes to which they must adapt
Most do so successfully through processes of assimilation (adjusting the environment to fit with changes) and accommodation (adjusting self and attitudes)
