U3 Barron's Flashcards
what are the two research methods used for developmental psychology + explain both?
- longitudinal and cross-sectional.
longitudinal: over several years, one group of participants are observed. (several life-stages, childhood, adolescence, adulthood)
can be more precise than cross-sectional but results take years to achieve.
Cross-sectional: different groups from different ages are studied, subject to confounding variables like differences in education, culture, and norms between generations.
teratogens
+examples?
harmful chemicals that affect prenatal development negatively.
ex: alcohol may cause fetal alcohol syndrome.
heroin, cocaine can cause born addiction and even death for babies.
reflexes
+examples w/ definitions?
specific, inborn, automatic responses to stimuli.
Infant reflexes:
- rooting: when touched on the cheek, the baby will turn its head to the direction it was touched.
- sucking: when given an object in the mouth, the infant will suck it.
- grasping: if an object is placed into an infant’s foot or hand, the infant will try to grasp it by its toes/fingers.
- moro reflex: when startled, the baby will fling their limbs out then make themselves as small as possible.
- Babinski reflex: when stroked on the foot, the baby will spread out its toes.
visual cliff
a lab equipment made up of see through hard glass. The infant is instructed to crawl over the glass and come to the researcher’s lap but does not do so because he/she senses that there is a cliff.
motor skills
+two types
+examples for each?
the ability to use your muscles and limbs to move or perform certain skills.
fine motor skills: writing,drawing, eating,etc.
gross motor skills:
rolling over, standing, walking
biopsychological/neuropsychological theory on gender roles
attributes the beliefs and norms surrounding gender roles to biological/neurological differences between sexes, which have been shown by studies.
ex: female brains have larger corpus callosums than males.
social-cognitive theory on gender roles
attributes norms surrounding gender roles to societal ideas and our own thoughts.
example: when a boy wants to wear a dress but he is criticized for it, and his sister is allowed to wear a dress, he might think that dresses are for girls only.
continuity vs discontinuity
the debate about whether our development is continuous (at a steady rate, no disruptions) or discontinuous (rapid growth and little growth, big differences in time intervals)
zone of proximal development
this concept explains the gap between what a learner (child) can do alone (CURRENT UNDERSTANDING) , what they can do with assistance from a more knowledgeable other, and what they cannot do even with assistance (CURRENTLY OUT OF REACH)
the zone of proximal development is the area where a learner can accomplish things with assistance.
scaffolding
+example?
process in which the child is provided assistance to help them expand their zone of proximal development and develop their cognitive development further.
ex: peer tutoring
stage theories are by definition….
continuous/discontinuous?
discontinuous because these theories involve specific stages in which development rates are different.
psychosocial stage theory
+what did the psychologist that propose this believe in?
proposed by Erik Erikson, this theory includes 8 stages of life that all center around a social conflict. Erikson believed that our personality is significantly influenced by others.
trust vs mistrust
stage 1 of psychosocial stage theory.
Infants will either learn to trust their caregivers and know that their requests are effective, or learn to not trust their caregivers because of neglect.
this stage shapes our trust in others for the rest of our lives.
autonomy vs shame and doubt
Toddlers learn to control their emotions and bodies
ex: potty training
or they doubt their abilities.
initiative vs guilt
Children start asking many questions about their environment. If encouraged, they take initiative in problem solving and critical thinking, but if scolded, they may feel guilty for asking questions.
industry(competence) vs inferiority
as children start school, they feel competent and enjoy applying themselves to tasks or they feel incompetent and therefore inferior.
identity vs role confusion
+imaginary audience?
Erikson believed that adolescence is the time where children start to explore different identities and find one they are comfortable with. So some adolescents may find a comfortable identity and be confident but others might not and might be confused in their identities.
Imaginary audience can be seen in adolescence where adolescents think everyone is always watching them and judging them.
intimacy vs isolation
young adults figure out relationships with family, friends, and partners. Or they may feel socially isolated.
generativity vs stagnation
Middle aged adults may start looking critically at their life paths, and if unhappy they might change their roles or other peoples’ roles to change their lives for the better.
+middle age crisis
integrity vs despair
as we get older and reach the end of our lives, we may feel accomplished and satisfied with our life or we may fall into despair because of regret.
jean piaget
developed the theory of cognitive development, consisting of 4 stages.
assimilation
in Piaget’s theory, it is the process of interpreting new experiences through our existing schemas.
accommodation
+example
some experiences do not fit our schemata, which means we have to change our schemas to fit those experiences.
ex: a 4 year old boy thinking only little boys wear cowboy boots, and then seeing an adult woman wearing cowboy boots.
sensorimotor stage
+ which age group?
+which major challenge?
birth to 2 yrs old.
experiencing the world through our senses.
we develop our first cognitive schema.
a major challenge is acquiring object permanence: if a child senses the object even when they do not sense it directly (ex: behind a person).
preoperational stage
+which age group
+behavior of children
+which theory starts here?
- which behavior is associated with that theory?
2 to 7 yrs old
child starts to use mental symbols to represent real world objects: beginning of our language.
children are egocentric in this stage.
this stage also leads to the acquisition of “theory of mind”: the ability to think about what others feel and think.
— this shows itself in “pretend play”
concrete operational stage
+which age group?
+what behavior do they demonstrate+ example?
8 to 12 yrs old
children in this stage demonstrate knowledge of “concepts of conservation”:
the ability to know that properties of objects are conserved even if they are changed in some way.
ex: transferring a glass of water to a narrower, taller glass but not getting rid of the water in any way.
if the child says the volume is the same, they have acquired this ability.
formal operational stage
+which age?
+what behaviorss do people demonstrate in this stage?+example
12 yrs thru adulthood
people can demonstrate adult reasoning aka abstract reasoning, manipulating objects and contrasting ideas in our mind without physically altering them/sensing them.
+also hypothetical thinking so the ability to reason from a hypothesis.
some other behaviors:
- metacognition: the ability to think about how we think and evaluate our thinking
- personal fable: in adolescents, the belief that they are unique and superior.
information processing model in contrast to Piaget’s theory
+example?
this model suggests that thinking and cognitive skills develop gradually as we age (continuous) than discrete stages which is more discontinuous.
ex: our attention span increases as we get older.
phonemes
smallest units of sound used in a language.
morphemes
+example?
smallest units of meaningful sounds used in a language
ex: “but” or prefixes: “pre-“
syntax
+examples?
the particular order in which words are spoken.
ex: “the white duck” (eng)
“el pato blanco” (spa)
semantics
meanings of words and combinations of words create meaning- called semantics.
babbling stage
definition
learned or innate?
1st stage of language development:
babies babble and test out which sounds they can produce, they can produce any phonemes from any language- lose this ability overtime.
this is innate.
one-word/holophrastic stage
2nd stage in language development.
babies speak in single words (holophrases) in this stage.
telegraphic speech/two-word stage
+example?
babies/toddlers speak in two or more words, meaning is there but syntax is absent.
-children learn and apply grammar rules at this stage, sometimes misapplying them.
(called “overgeneralization”/ “overregularization”)
language acquisition
psychologists agree that language is acquired through some combination of operant conditioning and an inborn ability to learn language
(especially in the time period called the “critical period” in which we must learn a language or we have trouble learning it after.
nativist theory of language acquisition
humans are born with the ability to acquire language.
linguistic relativity hypothesis
proposed by Benjamin Whorf, the language we use might control or even limit our thinking.
aphasia
impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to Broca’s area or to the Wernicke’s area.
linguistic determinism
the strong form of Whorf’s theory that language determines the way we think.
linguistic influence
the weaker form of linguistic relativity (Whorf), language does affect the way we think but not as much as “linguistic determinism”.
attachment theory
+two significant fields?
the theory of how attachment parenting (not just compassion and support for the child but also physical touch) influences development.
contact comfort + secure attachment are two significant fields in this theory.
contact comfort
+which experiments?
the idea that physical contact positively influences the child’s future temperament, the child seeks the mothers soft touch after being frightened as shown in Harry Harlow’s experiments with baby monkeys. The monkeys with the fake mothers show more anxiety than monkeys with real mothers when put into new situations.
temperament
how we react to stressful situations.
secure attachment
when the parent consistently takes care of the child’s needs and creates a strong, trusting bond with them
avoidant attachment
when the caregiver is emotionally unavailable and does not provide compassion for the child.
anxious-ambivalent attachment
when the child has ambivalent reactions to the caregiver, they resist being held by the parents but show separation anxiety when the caregivers leave.
mary ainsworth
showed the results of attachment styles between parents and children by her experiments.
ecological systems theory
this theory proposes that different systems of relationships impact human development.
5 systems of relationships exist.
microsystem
+example
direct interactions between the child and their immediate surroundings, ex: their parents.
mesosystem
+example
interactions between the immediate & indirect relationships (each 5 systems interact!) of the child.
ex: child, parents, teacher; parents, teacher, etc.
exosystem
+example
indirect influences on the child’s development.
ex: if a parent is absent because they work to earn more money, the absence may influence the child. + the extra money can also influence the child by offering increased opportunities (ex: more money to pay for sports)
macrosystem
+example
the culture the child grows up in will influence their development.
ex: if a child grows up in an open culture where any kind of work is encouraged for both genders, they become more open to different gender roles.
chronosystem
+example
suggests that times of change in our life affects our development. ex: puberty
authoritarian parenting
sets very strict rules with no explanation. obedient behavior more encouraged than discussion. punishment is used more than rewarding.
- children become distrustful and withdrawn.
permissive parenting
sets no clear rules, rules are inconsistent. children are not punished for their behavior.
-children could have emotional troubles and be dependent.
authoritative parenting
sets consistent rules with reasons. Children know the consequences of their actions and why they are being punished/rewarded.
- best type of parenting, children become more confident and perform better academically.
studies done on parenting styles are…..
correlational, NOT causational.
