WEEK 4- Developmental Psychology. Flashcards
Developmental Psychology
Is the psychological specialty that documents the course of social, emotional, moral and intellectual development over the life span.
John Locke believed in _________.
Nurture in which experiences provided by the environment during childhood have a profound and permanent effect during development.
Locke thought of the newborn as a ___________.
A blank slate, or tabula rasa. Adults write on that slate, he said, as they teach children about the world and how to behave.
What did Jean-Jacques Rousseau claim?
That children are capable of discovering how the world operates and how they should behave without instruction from adults. According to Rousseau, children should be allowed to grow as their NATURE dictate, with little guidance or pressure from parents.
Dr Gaumer has been observing children at play, both alone and with others. He has concluded that
motor skills, such as walking and throwing a ball, develop in all children in a fixed sequence that is
relatively independent of the child’s environment. Dr Gaumer is supporting a ___________ theory.
Maturational
Two psychologists who believed in nurture.
John Locke and John B Watson
Two psychologists who believed in nature.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Arnold Gesell
Nature and nurture work together according to
Jean Piaget.
Human development
Is the process in which someone or something grows, changes and becomes more advanced with time. It specifically refers to the brain, body and behavioural changes in humans across lifespan. Ex, from the womb to the tomb.
Nature vs nurture debate focuses on
Whether genetics are more powerful contributors to a person’s development or whether life experiences or the person’s environment are more influential on human development. To clarify, nature contends that biology is supreme, while nurture considers social and emotional influences as more important.
Maturation
Can be physical or cognitive in nature. It refers to the natural growth or change that unfolds in a fixed sequence relatively independent of the environment. The broader term development encompasses not only maturation but also changes that are due to learning.
Physical maturation
Children typically learn to roll onto their tummies, then next master crawling, followed by sitting with and then without support, which is typically followed by walking (while holding onto something or someone for support), to then standing and walking independently. These milestones of physical maturation occur roughly up to the age of one.
Cognitive maturation
Is when you develop a more sophisticated ways of thinking with age, where cognition refers to the inner processes and products of the mind that lead to knowing, including attending, reasoning, symbolizing, categorizing, planning etc.
Domains of Development Psychology (compasses lots of types of psychology).
- Social
- Personality
- Behaviour
- Cognition
- Learning
- Humanistic
- Genetics
- Information processing
Three of the most important domains of development are:
- Biological development: growth of body, organs, hormonal changes and motor skills.
- Cognitive development: thinking, problem-solving, language and memory.
- Social-emotional development: change in personal and interpersonal relationships, roles and cultural influences.
The stages of development are:
- Prenatal: conception to birth (biological development), it also comprehends the perinatal stage that is 20 completed weeks of gestation and ends 28 completed days after birth.
- Infancy and toddlerhood: birth to 3 years.
- Preschool period: 3 to 6 years.
- Middle childhood: 6 to 12 years.
- Adolescence: 12 to 20 years (emerging adulthood is from 18-25 years)
- Early adulthood: 20 to 40 years.
- Middle adulthood: 40 to 65 years.
- Late adulthood: 65 to death.
Prental Stage comprises:
Germinal Stage, Embryonic Stage and Foetal Stage
Prenatal Germinal Stage
Begins at the conception when the sperm and egg cell unite in one of the two fallopian tubes. The zygote (fertilized egg) moves to the uterus a journey that can take up to a week to complete. It is important to state that the zygote carries the genetic heritage from both parents. Then the Prenatal divides into many more cells, with form an embryo. Cell division begins approx 24 to 36 hours after conception. (0-2 weeks).
Prenatal Embryonic Stage
Begins from week 3-8 weeks. Here the midbrain, forebrain and hindbrain, heart, nervous system, stomach, oesophagus and ovaries among others form. Also, is marked by change and growth. Here the embryo is known as the fetus, and has developed eyes, ears, nose, jaw, mouth and lips. The tiny arms have elbows, hands and stubby fingers and the legs have knees, ankles and toes.
Prenatal Foetal Stage
Begins at 12 weeks until birth. It is characterized by the growth of organs and more sophisticated functioning as the fetus grows. By the end of the third month, the fetus can kick, make a fist, turn its head, open its mouth, swallow and frown. In the sixth month, the eyelids, which have been sealed, open. The fetus now has taste buds and a well-developed grasp. By the end of the seventh month, the organ systems, though immature, are all functional. In the 8 and 9 months, fetuses respond to light and touch, and they can hear sounds. They can remember a particular sound that they had heard a month earlier, and when they hear an unpleasant sound, they may respond with movements that are just like those of a crying newborn. They can also learn. When they hear their mother’s familiar voice, their heart beats a little faster, but it slows if they hear a stranger.
Teratogens
Are harmful substances that can cause birth defects. Teratogens are especially damaging during the embryonic stage, (drugs, nicotine, stress and alcohol).
Critical period
Is an interval during which certain kinds of growth must occur if development is to proceed normally (first 3 moths). Later, during the foetal stage, teratogens affect the baby’s size, behaviour, intelligence and health, rather than the formation of organs and limb.
Cocaine babies
May born as premature, underweight, tense, fussy and less likely than other infants to interact with their mothers. They may also suffer from physical growth and motor problems and are more likely to have behavioral and learning problems.
Foetal alcohol syndrome
Almost half the children born to expectant mothers who abuse alcohol will develop foetal alcohol syndrome, that is a pattern of defects that includes intellectual disability and malformations of the face. Alcohol is a dangerous teratogen because it interferes with infants’ brain development.
Smokers’ babies
Often suffer from respiratory problems, irritability and social and attention problems, and they are at greater risk of nicotine addiction in adolescence and adulthood. Also, they may be born prematurely, and they are usually underweight. Babies who are premature or underweight – for whatever reason are likely to have cognitive and behavioural problems that continue throughout their lives.
The impact of stress on the fetus
Causes advance maturation. Fortunately, mental or physical problems resulting from all harmful prenatal factors affect fewer than 10 per cent of the babies born. Mechanisms built into the human organism maintain normal development under all but the most adverse conditions.
Newborn senses include
Vision, hearing and smell.
Newborn vision
At week 4, babies can develop sense at birth perceiving light but not more. 1- 3 months babies can make eye contact with their mother and fixate or follow objects with their eyes. Babies can detect light even from before they are born. 3-4 months vision becomes sharper.
Newborn hearing
Fetus hearing ability is fairly well developed by the end of the second trimester, allowing them to hear sounds from outside world while still residing in the womb. At two or three days of age, they can hear soft voices and notice the difference between tones about one note apart on the musical scale; they also turn their heads towards sounds.
Newborn smell
Also begins to develop in the womb and the fetus where they can smell the amniotic fluid. At birth the baby can smell its mother breast milk and will follow the scent pulling themselves up to be fed. By two weeks of age, new borns can discriminate between the smell of their mothers breast milk and another mothers breast milk. They like the smell of flowers and the taste of sweet drinks, but they dislike the smell of ammonia . They also develop preferences for the food flavours consumed by their mothers.
Reflexes
Are simple, involuntary, unlearned behaviours directed by the spinal cord without instructions from the brain.
The rooting reflex
Is the one that causes the infant to turn its mouth towards a nipple (or anything else) that touches its cheek, (Disappear at 4 months).
Grasping reflex
Is pressed into a newborn’s palm, it causes the infant to hold on tightly enough to suspend its entire weight.
Walking/ Stepping reflex
When a newborn is held upright over a flat surface, the stepping reflex leads to walking movements, (Disappear at 2 months).
The sucking reflex
Causes the newborn to suck on anything that touches its lips.
Moro reflex
Is when a baby suddenly loses balance or hears a loud noise they will startle and throw their legs and arms outwards, sometimes accompanied with crying, (Disappear at 2 months).
Most reflexes will disappear after _______ as motor skills develop.
6 months
The development of healthy brain connections is influenced by:
Experiences, particularly in the first three years of life.
Our brains rapidly create neural connections in the first few years of life, but as we move from early childhood into adolescence our brains begin:
Pruning the number of synaptic connections, retaining only the most efficient connections.
Cerebellum
Coordinates voluntary movements such as posture, balance, coordination, and speech, resulting in smooth and balanced muscular activity. It receives information from the sensory systems, the spinal cord, and other parts of the brain and then regulates motor movements.
In the first months of infancy, the __________ is the most mature area of the brain,
Cerebellum
Between six and 12 months of age, neurological development in the _______________________makes it possible for infants to remember and imitate an action they have seen earlier, or to recognise a picture of an object they have never seen but have held in their hands.
Medial temporal lobe of the cerebral cortex
Brain development, through the formation of _________, underlies the development of cognitive skills
Synaptic connections
