Study Guide Qns Flashcards
Unit 1)
1. Briefly describe the five key issues associated with the understanding of human development. Of the five issues, which ones do you find most compelling and why?
i. Nature vs Nurture (child playing bubbles)
Nature - Behaviour that can be explained by genetic and biological traits.
Nurture - Behaviour influenced by the environment, including social, economic and geographic factors.
ii. Continuity vs Discontinuity (dancer)
Continuity - A characteristic/feature of a person that stays the same as they mature throughout lifespan.
Discontinuity - A characteristic/feature that changes as they mature.
iii. Developmental Stability vs Instability (chart compared to peers)
Developmental Stability - Developing the same rate as peers
Instability - Changing in different ways compared to peers
iv. Normative vs Non-Normative (Historical event/age related)
Normative - An event that matches what has sequentially or historically happened together with peers.
Non-normative - An event that does not normally happen to everyone or happens at a different time than others.
v. Socio-cultural Variation
Ethnicity, race, gender, culture and socio-economical status which affect the way an individual matures due to its implications and effects.
Most compelling: Socio-cultural Variation.
Unit 1)
2. Describe the psychodynamic approach on human development. Compare and contrast the psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud with the psychosocial theory of Erik Erikson.
The psychodynamic perspective stresses the significance of early childhood experience and development in life, which shapes and determines the adult personality.
Sigmund Freud: Id (unconscious), Ego (preconscious), Superego (conscious). Stage Theory.
5 Psychosexual stages: - Oral (0 to 18 mth) Mouth
- Anal (18mth – 3 yrs) Anus
- Phallic (3 – 6 yrs) Genitals. Oedipus Complex (attraction of boys to mothers). Attraction of girls to fathers and hostility to mothers
- Latency (6yrs – Puberty) None
- Genital (Puberty – Adult) Genitals
Psychosocial Theory
Erik Erikson. Agreement with Freud: Stage Theory, Life stages, focus on early development impacting maturation,
Disagreements: Rejected Freud’s biologic emphasis, development does not end with sexual maturity. Goal is to develop ego identity and resolve each stage-specific tasks.
8 Psychosocial Stages
- Infancy 0-1 Trust/Mistrust
- Early childhood 2-3 Autonomy/Doubt and Shame
- Childhood Play 4-6 Initiative/Guilt
- Childhood School 7-12 Industry/Inferiority
- Adolescence 13-19 Identity/Role Confusion
- Young Adulthood 19-35 Intimacy/Isolation
- Adulthood 35 – 55 Generativity/Stagnation
- Maturation 55+ Ego integrity/Despair
Unit 1)
3. Describe the cognitive perspective on human development. Compare and contrast the Piaget’s theory of cognitive development with Vgotsky’s. How do these theories differ from the information processing approach to cognition?
The cognitive perspective focuses on how our brain and thinking develops.
Piaget - Observed children in the hopes of understanding their minds. Our thinking develops to meet the demands of our environment and foster survival. Schemas, assimilation and accommodation.
Vygotsky - Not a stage theory, believes a child’s unique SOCIAL world is the main influence for cognitive development.
Scaffolding, zone of proximal development, importance of child’s interaction with adults.
Information processing - like a computer, a quantitative approach and changes are cumulative and gradual. Encoding, Storage and Retrieval
Unit 1)
4. Describe the behavioral perspective on human development. Discuss the three types of behavioral learning mechanisms. How do they differ? How are they the same?
The behavioural perspective uses readily observable and quantifiable behaviours to understand human development as the inner working of the human mind is too ambiguous.
Ivan Pavlov
1) Classical Conditioning - Unconditioned stimulus produces instinctive response of Unconditioned Response initially, but over time becomes conditioned (passive)
Skinner
2) Operant Conditioning - Law of effect. Behaviour followed by +ve outcome = repeated behaviour, -ve outcome = not repeated behaviour.
3) Social Learning - learning from observing others.
Unit 2)
1. Describe the relation between genes, chromosomes, and DNA. What is the difference between genotype and phenotype? What is the difference between meiosis and mitosis?
Relation: Genes are a microscopic structure made out of thousands of chemical particle links. Each chemical cell has a nucleus which contains 23 pairs of chromosomes, and in every chromosome there are DNA molecules.
Genotype vs phenotype: Genotype - The genetic collection of an individual, with one set from each parent.
Phenotype - Observable characteristics arising from the genes’ interplay with the environment. A multitude of phenotype can result from the same genotype.
Meiosis vs Mitosis: Meiosis - When cells containing 23 pairs of chromosomes split into daughter cells containing one half of each chromosome pair. Gametes are formed through meiosis.
Mitosis - When cells containing 23 pairs of chromosomes create exact copies of themselves, containing all 23 pairs. This happens after fertilization (conception) as the zygote rapidly divides and the DNA within the cells are replicating.
Unit 2)
2. Describe the process of conception and the three stages of prenatal development. Be sure to include the terms zygote, morula, blastocyst, and the two patterns of cell differentiation (cephalocaudal and proximodistal).
During sexual intercourse, ____ is ejaculated through the _____ and into the female’s ____. It travels from there through the _____ ______, into the _____, and along the ____ ____ towards the awaiting ____.
Semen, urethra, vagina, cervical opening, uterus, fallopian tubes, ovum.
3 stages of prenatal development:
Germinal, Embryonic, Fetal
Germinal - zygote becomes blastocyst through mitosis. Blastocyst contains hundreds of cells and differentiates into a shell-like structure (fetal support system) and multicellular centre (embryo).
Embryonic - 2 patterns of differentiation.
Cephalocaudal Pattern - occurs from head through to base of spine
Proximodistal Pattern - occurs from centre of body through the appendages of body (spine through to limbs)
Organogenesis occurs in this pattern at the centre of the body
III. Fetal - Rapid growth of all of the body’s systems. Less vulnerable to environments than the blastocyst or embryo was.
Unit 3)
1. Describe Piaget’s sensorimotor stage.
Piaget’s first stage of cognitive development, where infants develop from reflexive organisms to complex and symbolic thinkers. Change is driven by the formation of schemas in mental development, through the processes of accommodation and assimilation
Unit 3)
2. What is object permanence?
Object permanence is a child’s ability to understand that an object still exists although it can no longer be visually seen.
Unit 3)
3. What is the A-not-B error and how is it related to object permanence?
The A-not-B error is when children in the sensorimotor stage get confused when an object that has been previously repeatedly hidden in a specific location gets hidden in another location. They will head to the first location to find the object. This is related to object permanence in a way that it displays the child’s lack of object permanence and cannot make the connection to search in a different location for the object.
