Psychology - Psychological Development

Question 1

Development and its causes

Answer 1

Development includes:
The effects of heredity and the environment on humans
Birth through death
How physical changes affect our mental processes, personality, emotions, ect.
How this growth occurs over time.

Question 2

The Big ?: Nature vs. Nurture

Answer 2

Does heredity or environment account for who we are?

• Twin studies (when they study twins separated at birth and view their similarities)
• Adoption studies (how they might be similar to their biological parents)

What things are heavily influenced by genetics?
- Intelligence, temperament, personality, and many psych. disorders.

Question 3

Why study development?

Answer 3

Lays the foundation for who we are as adults.
May explain maladaptive behavior later in life.
Many mental disorders have their roots in developmental issues.
Most psychological approaches to therapy focus on development.

Question 4

Theories of Development

Answer 4

• Continuity vs. Discontinuity views
• Based on interaction between genetics and environment - psych growth follows predictable pattern when under adequate conditions

Three main theories:

• Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
• Erickson’s Psychological Stages of Development
• Freud’s Psycho sexual Stages of Development

Question 5

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

Answer 5

• Focus on the growth of mental abilities
• Schemas: mental structures that guide thinking (the building blocks of development)
• Assimilation: the mental process of connecting new info into existing schemas
• Accommodation: restructuring or modifying existing schemas to allow for new info.

Question 6

More on Piaget

Answer 6

A child’s thought process progresses through four different stages.
**Piaget also performed experiments on his children by asking them the same questions at different points in their life.

Question 7

Sensorimotor Stage - Infancy (Piaget)

Answer 7

• Marked by innate motor responses to stimuli. (eg. a baby knows it should start sucking when it comes close to mother’s breast)
• Includes mental representation and objection permanence.

Question 8

Preoperational Stage - Early Childhood (Piaget)

Answer 8

• Marked by emerging sense of self and language
• Egocentrism, animistic thinking, centration, irreversibility (eg. when a kid sees a box of raisins spread out and in a box, they will think there are more raisins spread out when they are actually the same)

Question 9

Concrete Operation Stage - Middle Childhood (Piaget)

Answer 9

• Marked by ability to perform mental operations and use of simple reasoning

Question 10

Formal Operational Stage - Adolescence (Piaget)

Answer 10

Marked by ability for abstract and complex thought. More introspective.

Question 11

Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages of Development

Answer 11

• A theory of personality that focuses on 8 developmental stages marked by a common crisis.
• These stages are genetically determined and unalterable.
• Each crisis involves social relationships.
• A positive resolution of a crisis leads to healthy development and adaption and increases the likelihood that the next crisis will be positively resolved.

Question 12

Trust vs. Mistrust (Erickson)

Answer 12

birth-12/18 months
This is the first stage in development and the most fundamental stage in life.
Because an infant is utterly dependent, the development of trust is based on the dependability and quality of the child’s caregivers.
If a child successfully develops trust, he or she will feel safe and secure in the world. Those who aren’t will become fearful and believe that the world is inconsistent and unpredictable.

Question 13

Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt (Erickson)

Answer 13

12/18 months-3 years
Second stage in which children are developing a greater sense of personal control.
Toilet training plays a big role in this stage. Erickson believes that learning to control one’s bodily functions leads to a feeling of control and a sense of independence.
Also gaining more control over food choices, toy preferences, clothes, ect.
Children who are successful feel secure and confident while those who aren’t are left with a sense of inadequacy and self-doubt.

Question 14

Initiative vs. Guilt (Erickson)

Answer 14

3-6.
Third stage which usually happens during preschool years. Children begin to assert more power by directing play and other social interactions.
Children who are successful at this stage feel capable and able to lead others. Those who fail to acquire these skills are left with a sense of guilt, self-doubt, and lack of imitative.

Question 15

Competence vs. Inferiority (Erickson)

Answer 15

6-puberty
The fourth stage covers early school years.
Through social interactions, children begin to develop a sense of pride in their accomplishments and abilities.
Children who are encouraged by parents and teachers develop feeling of competence.
Those who receive little to none will doubt their abilities to be successful.

Question 16

Identity vs. Role Confusion (Erickson)

Answer 16

Adolescence.
During 5th stage, children explore their independence and develop sense of self.
Those who receive proper encouragement and reinforcement through personal exploration will emerge with strong sense of self and independence. Those who don’t remain unsure of their beliefs and desires and will feel insecure and confused about themselves in the future.

Question 17

Intimacy vs. Isolation (Erickson)

Answer 17

Early adulthood.
6th stage covers period where people are exploring personal relationships.
Those who are successful in forming vital committed relationships feel secure.
Erickson feels that those who lacked the previous steps of not understanding who they really were would lead them to form less committed relationships and were more likely to suffer emotional isolation, loneliness and depression.

Question 18

Generativity vs. Stagnation (Erickson)

Answer 18

Middle adulthood.
7th stage is during the time when people are continuing to build their own lives and focus on a career or family.
Those who succeed will feel that they are contributing to the world by being active in their home and community. Those who fail will feel unproductive and uninvolved in the world.

Question 19

Ego-Integrity vs. Despair (Erickson)

Answer 19

Late adulthood.
8th and final stage focuses on reflecting back at your life.
Those who are unsuccessful during this step will feel that their life has been wasted and will experience regrets. Left with feelings of bitterness and despair.
Those who feel proud of their accomplishments will feel a sense of integrity.

Question 20

Freud’s Psychosexual Stages of Development

Answer 20

Developing children go through instinctive patterns where they associate pleasure with the stimulation of specific bodily areas.

Question 21

Oral Stage (Freud)

Answer 21

birth-year 1
During infancy, the primary source of interaction occurs through the mouth, so the sucking reflex is especially important.
The mouth is vital for eating and derives the infant pleasure through oral stimulation such as tasting and sucking.
The infant is completely dependent upon the caretakers which will lead the infant to develop a sense of trust and comfort from oral stimulation.
The conflict with this stage is weaning the child. If fixation occurs, the individual will develop dependency or aggression. Can cause drinking, smoking, eating problems, or nail biting.

Question 22

The Anal Stage (Freud)

Answer 22

Years 1-3
Freud believed during this time that the primary focus was on controlling bladder and bowel movements.
The major conflict of this stage is the way in which the parents approach toilet training. Parents who use praise and rewards help the child feel capable and productive which will lead to competent, creative adults.
If parents take a too lenient approach, Freud believed they would become messy or have a destructive personality. If they are too strict, then they might become orderly, rigid, and obsessive.

Question 23

Phallic Stage (Freud)

Answer 23

Years 3-6
During this stage, the child’s main focus is on the genitals. Children begin to discover the difference between males and females.
Freud also believed that at this age children developed the Oedipus or Electra complex in which the child starts to see the dad/mom as a rival for their parent of the opposite sex’s attention.

Question 24

Latent Stage (Freud)

Answer 24

6-puberty
During this stage, the interests are suppressed. The development of the ego and superego contribute to this period of calm. The stage begins around the time that children enter school and become more concerned with peer relationships.
The latent period is a time of exploration in which the sexual energy is still present, but it is directed into other areas such as intellectual pursuits and social interactions. This stage is important to develop social and communication skills ans self-confidence.

Question 25

The Genital Stage (Freud)

Answer 25

puberty-adulthood
During this final stage, the individual develops a strong sexual interest in the opposite sex. This stage begins during puberty and lasts throughout the rest of the person’s life.
Where in earlier stages the focus was solely on individual needs. If all other stages have been completed successfully, then the individual should now be well-balanced, warm, and caring.

Question 26

Early Development

Answer 26

Based mainly on genetics.
Parental
- Conception to birth
- Differentiation/stem cells
- Brain growth

Neonatal
- Birth to 1 month
- 3 basic tasks of survival
(Finding sustenance, maintaining contact with people, and defense against harmful stimuli)

Question 27

Infancy

Answer 27

End of 1st month - 18 months (or est. of lang.)
Brain - focus is on branching of axons and dendrites (making connections!); stimulation is necessary for this to occur.
Learning comes into play
Attachment is vital
- Ainsworth’s ‘strange situation’
Experiment where mother leaves baby in room and stranger comes in.
(Secure vs. Insecure attachment)
Contact Comfort
- Monkey experiment
Experiment where they set up a monkey mother that had food and a monkey mother that had soft blankets and was very comforting. They chose the comforting one.

Question 28

Childhood

Answer 28

Main areas of psychological development:

• Language acquisition
• Cognition (ability to think and reason)
• Developing social relationships

Question 29

Language Acquisition

Answer 29

• Innateness theory of language: children acquire language by following an innate program of steps to learn grammar and vocab.
• Noam Chomsky: LADs (Language Acquisition Devices) - mental structures in our brains programmed with fundamental rules of grammar that facilitate learning of language.
• Process of learning lang.
  Babbling (stage where they can take in any language, accent, ect.)
  Vocab and grammar acquisition
  Social rules of conversation

Question 30

Cognition

Answer 30

Cognitive Development: The process by which a child’s ability to think, perceive, remember, reason, ect. emerges
Focus on what and how children think
Basics of Piaget’s theory widely accepted
Contemporary thought on Piaget:
- Cognitive development more continuous than his theory allows
- Limitations on children’s thought may be due to inability to express, rather than inability to comprehend.

Question 31

Social Development

Answer 31

Theory of Mind: accepting that other people have emotions, beliefs, and desires that are different from my own that affect their behavior.
Temperament: genetic pattern of personality and behavior that is later affected by experience and parenting
Socialization: the process of shaping one’s behavior attitudes, values, motives, ect. to fit in with society.

Question 32

Authoritative Parenting Style

Answer 32

Best Parenting Style

• High standards and reasonable expectations
• Emphasis on reason and explanation
• Warm and sensitive and respects child’s views.

Question 33

Authoritarian Parenting Style

Answer 33

• Highly demanding; relies on punishment.

- Rarely listens to child; frequently degrading.

Question 34

Permissive Parenting Style

Answer 34

• Sets few if any rules; allows child to make decisions.

- Warm and caring

Question 35

Uninvolved Parenting Style

Answer 35

• Emotionally detached and withdrawn

- Indifferent to child’s views

Question 36

Other factors in social development

Answer 36

• School
• After-school activities
• Day care
• Gender