Test 1 Flashcards
These are all of the quiz questions
Describe the classic Freudian psychoanalytic perspective on human development:
- Conflicts
- integration of id, ego, and superego
- social expectations- how parents manage their child’s sexual and aggressive drives in first few years
- Emphasis on unique life history, early parent-child relationship
- Over-emphasis on sexual feelings in development
List Erikson’s ages and corresponding stages:
Birth-1 yr - Basic Trust vs. Mistrust
1-3 yrs - Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt
3-6 yrs - Initiative vs. Guilt
6-12 yrs - Industry vs. Inferiority
12-20 yrs - Identity vs. Role Confusion
20-40- yrs - Intimacy vs. Isolation
40-65 yrs - Generativity vs. Stagnation
Old age - Ego Integrity vs. Despair
List Piaget’s cognitive development stages and descriptions:
- Sensorimotor stage- use of senses and movement to explore the world
- Object permanence
- Preoperational thought- preschooler’s symbolic but illogical thinking
- Concrete operational thought- more organized logical reasoning
- Equilibrium
- Formal operational thought- abstract, systematic reasoning
Fill in the following chart based on Piaget’s theory (2 points):
Define Piaget’s equilibrium and disequilibrium:
- Equilibrium
- When children do not change very much
- They assimilate more than they accommodate
- Disequilibrium
- During periods of rapid cognitive change
- They accommodate more than they assimilate
Give a descriptor for each of the following Developmental Systems theories:
- Lerner’s Developmental Contextualism
- Balte’s Life-Span Developmental Theory
- Brandstadter’s Action Theory
- Elder’s Life-Course Theory
- Thelen & Smith Dynamic Systems Theory
- Magnusson’s Holistic Person-Context Interaction Theory
Lerner’s Developmental Contextualism-
•Stresses bidirectional relationships between multiple levels of human organization (biological, psychological, social, cultural, historical, etc.)
Balte’s Life-Span Developmental Theory-
•Development extends across the entire lifespan
(•Tripartite model of integrating development and historical change)
Brandstadter’s Action Theory-
•Focus on developmental regulation (person-context relations)
Elder’s Life-Course Theory-
•Interaction of development with social context and historical time and place
Thelen & Smith Dynamic Systems Theory-
•Defining feature of development- creation of new forms
•Self-organization- processes that by their own actions change themselves
Magnusson’s Holistic Person-Context Interaction Theory-
•Emphasis on synthesis/fusion of person-environment system
Describe Bronfenbrenner’s PPCT model and how it differs from his Ecological Systems Theory.
- Bronfenbrenner self-criticism
- discounting the role the individual plays (Bronfenbrenner, 1989)
- Person
- Process
- Context
- Time
- Differed from Ecological Systems Theory in that it included more emphasis on the role of the person and the process
Describe prenatal and infant brain growth
- At birth, most neurons the brain will have are present
- approx. 100 billion neurons
- By age 2 years, brain is 80% of adult size
- What keeps growing?
- Other brain cells (glia)
- New neuron connections
- approx. 1000 trillion connections by age 3 yrs.
Define epigenetics.
The study of the factors that determine how much or whether some genes are expressed in your body. Related to methyl groups (like a switch to influence activation) and histones (influences how much it is expressed)
Describe the prenatal periods of development, including the period, length, and key events.
Zygote: (2 weeks)
- Fertilization
- Implantation
- Start of placenta
Embryo: (6 weeks)
- Groundwork laid for all body structures and internal organs
Fetus: (30 weeks)
- “Growth and finishing” phase
Describe an overview of fetal development with attention to the third month, second trimester, and third trimester.
Third month:
- organs, muscles, and nervous system start to become organized and connected
- lungs begin to expand and contract
Second trimester:
- many organs are well-developed by 20 weeks most of the brain’s neurons are in place
Third trimester:
- age of viability: 22–26 weeks
- fetus takes on beginnings of personality
What are the stages of childbirth?
- Dilation and effacement of the cervix
- Delivery of the baby
- Delivery of the placenta
What is the role of high levels of stress hormones in the labor and delivery process?
- help baby withstand oxygen deprivation
- prepare baby to breathe
- arouse infant into alertness
List the newborn reflexes and describe when applicable.
- Palmar grasp- grasping
- Babinski- toes curl when bottom of foot is stroked
- Rooting- turning head toward something touching the cheek (in preparation for nursing)
- Moro- arms out when startled
- Eye blink- n/a
- Sucking- related to nursing
- Stepping- in preparation for walking
Describe the impact of a newborn’s sense of severe pain, and interventions.
- overwhelms nervous system with stress hormones
- can be relieved with local anesthesia, sugar solution, or physical touch
Describe newborn abilities with regard to the sense of taste and smell.
- have a preference for sweet tastes at birth
- can readily learn to like new tastes
- have odor preferences at birth
- can locate odors and identify mother by smell from birth
Describe newborn abilities with regard to the sense of hearing.
- can hear a wide variety of sounds
- prefer complex sounds to pure tones
- can distinguish between a variety of sound patterns when only a few days old
- listen longer to human speech than to nonspeech sounds
- can detect the sounds of any human language
Describe the impact of a newborn on new family adjustment.
Hormones that facilitate caregiving:
- oxytocin
- prolactin
- estrogens
Hormonal effects may depend on experience
Challenges of early weeks:
- new roles
- changed schedule
At what age/weight is it safely possible for infants to sleep through the night, providing a window for sleep training?
4-6 months or 12-13 pounds
What social development generally occurs at 2 months of age?
- Arousal at sight of peers and mutual gaze
- Social smiling
- Vocalizations (cooing)
- Reaching toward peers
At what age are babies generally able to reciprocate gestures?
6-9 months
At age 4 months, what emotions can infants generally express through facial expressions?
By 4 months- mostly joy and interest
By age 12 months, what additional emotions can infants generally express through facial expressions?
By 12 months- Anger and disgust
Regarding early attachment theory, describe a main point of Bowlby’s theoretical viewpoint:
Children come into the world biologically pre-programmed to form attachments with others, because this will help them to survive
Regarding early attachment theory, describe three main points of Harlow’s theoretical viewpoint:
- Mother love as emotional rather than purely physiological for healthy psychological development
- capacity for attachment associated with critical periods in early life
- impact of early maternal deprivation could be reversed in monkeys only if <90 days, human equivalent estimate <6 months
Regarding Ainsworth’s strange situation, fill in the following chart:
Attachment Type
- Secure
- Caregiver Behaviors
- Child Behaviors
- Insecure-avoidant
- Caregiver Behaviors
- Child Behaviors
- Insecure-ambivalent
- Caregiver Behaviors
- Child Behaviors
- Insecure-disorganized
- Caregiver Behaviors
- Child Behaviors
Define temperament:
biological basis of the affective arousal, expression, and regulatory components of personality that contribute to a wide range of developmental outcomes, including individual personality traits
Regarding articulatory development, how many distinct cries are there at birth, and what are they?
4 distinct cries at birth
- Birth cry
- Pain cry
- Hunger cry
- Pleasure cries
Generally, at what age does cooing begin?
3 months
Generally, at what age does babbling begin?
6-10 months
Generally, at what age do first words occur?
12 months
Describe what the term “Goodness-of-fit” in child development refers to:
- When children are in environments that are good matches for their temperament, they are better adjusted
- E.g.:
- Parent temperament-child temperament match
- Level of family structure
- Parenting approach
At what age does emotional perception emerge?
5 months
What emotion perception milestone occurs between 1-2 years of age? Describe.
Social referencing
Infants will look to adults to gauge how they should react in unfamiliar situations
What emotion perception milestone occurs between 2-3 years of age?
Emotion is associated with fulfillment of desires
What emotion perception milestone occurs around 3 years of age?
Understanding that other’s emotions can be different from one’s own (around 3 years)
Describe features of “Emotion and Self-Understanding” that develop between 2-3 years of age (five bullet points):
Increase in self awareness
Children become aware of self as separate and unique
Require adult instruction about when to feel emotions
Development of self-conscious emotions
Pride, shame, guilt, envy, and embarrassment
What are display rules?
Ability to manage emotions for the benefit of others
Appears around 4 years
Not conceptualized until middle childhood
Describe emotion regulation
- Adjusting own state of emotional intensity
- Emotions becoming internally managed instead of externally
- Social in nature but also intrapersonal (coping)
- Skills increase with maturation
- Requires effortful control
- Grows over first year, with brain development
- Caregivers contribute to child’s ability
At what ages do the following coordination milestones generally occur?
a. lifting head: 1 month
b. sitting: 4-7 months
c. reaching: 4-6 months
d. rolling: 4-6 months
e. pivoting: 4 months
f. rocking: 2 week period just before crawling
g. crawling: 6-9 months, sometimes never
h. standing with hands on furniture: 9 months
i. walking: around 12 months
What is object permanence and when does it develop?
Prior to 9 months infants do not have object permanence
- Infants will not look for objects that are hidden from their view
What is myelinization? When does it develop? What is the developmental progression of myelinization?
- Neural insulation that speeds neural connection
- Begins at birth, rapidly increases to 2-years old
- Continues to increase more slowly through 30-years-old
Describe anatomical brain development:
- Overproduction of neurons and connections among neurons
- Selective reduction of neurons and connections among neurons (pruning)
- Waves of intense branching and connecting followed by reduction in neuron
- Before birth through 3-years-old
- Again at 11- or 12-years-old
Describe the interactions between nature and nurture in brain development:
Genes and environment interact throughout brain development
- Genes form neurons, connections among major brain regions
- Environment and experience refines the connections; enhancing some connections while eliminating others
Regarding Language Development:
Watch the Vygotsky clip on slide 45 (hyperlinked to the image if you are in slideshow mode)
Describe Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory
Social contexts
- other people contribute to cognitive development
Private speech
- Scaffolding
- Zone of proximal development
- tasks child cannot do alone but can learn with help of more skilled partners
Regarding Language Development:
Watch the Vygotsky clip on slide 45 (hyperlinked to the image if you are in slideshow mode)
List two helpful contributions and three criticisms of Vygotsky’s theory:
- Helps explain cultural diversity in cognition
- Emphasizes importance of teaching
- Focus on language deemphasizes observation, other learning methods
- Says little about biological contributions to cognition
- Vague in explanation of change
Telegraphic speech
- Toddlers’ two-word utterances that, like a telegram, focus on high-content words while omitting smaller, less important words
- Ex. “Go car,” for “I want to go in the car.”
Undergeneralization
- The failure to use a new word in a fully general fashion. These errors arise because children first acquire words in limited concrete contexts and do not yet know how widely they can be extended.
- Ex. Thinking the word “dog” is the name of the family pet only.
Overgeneralization
- The extension of word meanings beyond their conventional boundaries. These errors often arise because children have not yet learned the name for something and therefore use some near match.
- Ex. Using “kitties” to describe all cats, wild and domesticated (e.g. tigers)
Overregularization
- Extension of regular grammatical rules to words that are exceptions
- Ex. “My toy car breaked.”
What is the two-step process of grammatical development?
- Motor: single breath group for words
- Cognitive: understanding of meaningful word combinations
At what age are individuals generally able to have effective conversations?
2 years
