Lifespan Flashcards
What is Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model?
It has 5 systems
- Microsystem - immediate environment, face to face relationships at home, school, etc.
- Mesosystem - interactions between components of the microsystem like family stuff affecting behavior at school.
- Excosystem - broader environment that affect immediate environment like workplace or mass media.
- Macrosystem - overarching environment influences like cultural beliefs.
- Chronosystem - environmental events that occur over lifespan that impact person like change in family structure.
What is Rutter’s (1985) family risk factors for negative outcomes?
Severe martial discord, low socioeconomic status, overcrowding or large family, parental criminality, maternal psychopathology, and placement outside the home.
What is reaction range?
Range of reaction for certain traits and status within the range depends on environmental factors.
What is canalizations?
Describes how genotype restricts phenotype to a small # of possible outcomes.
What are the genotype-environment correlations?
Based on the premise that genetics influence environment person is exposed to and that environment will reinforce the genetic makeup. There are 3 types
Passive - parents provide children with environments that encourage the development of trait.
Evocative - genetic makeup evokes reactions from others that reinforce child’s genetic makeup.
Active - actively seek out experiences that are consistent with their genetic predispositions
Does the genotype-environment correlation change?
Yes. It changes over time. Passive and evocative in infancy when child has little control, but active when child is more independent.
What is epigensis?
Belief that the relationship between genetics and environment influences are bidirectional and ongoing.
What are experts thoughts about critical periods versus sensitive periods?
Experts believe humans behaviors are based mainly on sensitive rather than critical periods. Sensitive periods are more flexible, longer in duration, and not tied as closely to maturation.
What are the prenatal development stages?
Germinal (first two weeks)
Embryonic (3-8 weeks)
Fetal (9 weeks until birth)
How many pairs of chromosomes does a person have?
23 pairs (22 pairs of autosomes and the 23 is the sex chromosome; XX = female and XY = male)
What is an autosomal disorder?
A disorder that is carried on an autosome.
What is a sex linked disorder?
One that is carried on the sex chromosome.
What is the difference between dominant and recessive genes?
Dominant traits only need one single dominant gene, but a recessive requires two recessive genes to be inherited.
What is an example of a autosomal dominant gene disorder?
Huntington’s disease
What is an example of a recessive autosomal gene disorder?
Cystic fibrosis
Sickle cell
Tay-Sachs disease
PKU (phenylketonuria)
What is Down syndrome?
It is a autosomal disorder.
The presence of an extra 21st chromosome- intellectual disabilities, retarded physical growth and motor development, distinctive physical features.
Increase risk with increase in age of parents
What is Klinefelter syndrome?
It is a sex linked disorder.
Occurs in males due to two or more X chromosome with single Y chromosome.
Small penis and testes, develop breast during puberty, limited interest in sex, often sterile.
What is Turner syndrome?
It is a sex linked disorder.
Occurs in females due to the presence of a single X chromosome.
Short in stature, drooping eyelids, webbed neck, retarded or absence of secondary sex characteristics.
What is Prader Willi syndrome?
Due to deletion on chromosome 15.
Intellectual disabilities, obese, obsessive compulsive behaviors, motor development delays, underdeveloped sex organs.
What are the types of alterations in chromosomes?
Deletions-part of chromosome is missing.
Translocation-transfer of a chromosome segment to another chromosome.
Inversion-chromosome breaks in two places and the segment formed by the breaks inverts and reattaches to the chromosome.
Maybe inherited, but usually don’t affect the phenotype.
When is a teratogen most likely to cause a major defect?
During the embryonic stage (3-8 weeks)
What is fetal alcohol spectrum disorder?
Occurs when alcohol exposure during prenatal period.
Range of irreversible physical, behavioral, and/or cognitive abnormalities.
Fetal alcohol syndrome is the most severe condition. Usually has motor impairments and intellectual disabilities.
Less severe condition includes alcohol related neurodevelopmental disorder, alcohol related birth defects, fetal alcohol effects.
What are some effects of cocaine use during pregnancy?
Increase risk for miscarriage, stillbirth, premature birth, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), seizures, low birth weight, reduced head circumference,sleep and feeding issues, developmental delays, tremors, exaggerated startle response.
Long term effects unclear
May lead to cognitive and behavioral problems usually in early school years
What are some of the effects of nicotine use during pregnancy?
Placental abnormalities that can cause fetal dead and still birth.
Low birth weight
Sudden infant death syndrome
Respiratory diseases
Emotional, social, and cognitive deficits
What is the effect of exposure to lead during pregnancy?
Low birth weight
Intellectual disabilities
Can antiretroviral drugs decrease HIV in babies?
Yes
Reduce risk from 20-30 to 1%
Brain growth after birth is due to what?
Increase size of existing cells
Growth of new dendrites
Increase myelinization
How does the weight of the brain change?
It is 25% its adult weight by birth, 80% by age 2, and full weight by age 16. By age 30, it begins to shrink due to loss (atrophy) of neurons. At age 60 there is acceleration of cell death.
What is neurogensis?
The creation of new neurons.
What are four major newborn reflexes?
Babinski-toes fan out and upwards when soles are tickled.
Rooting-turns head in direction of touch applied to cheek.
Moro (Startle) - flings arms and legs outward then toward the body in response to loud noise or sudden loss of physical support.
Stepping-walking movements when held upright with feet touching flat surface.
How does researchers study perceptual development?
They tend to use habituation (decrease in response to a stimulus over time) and dishabituation (response increase following a change in stimulus).
At what age does visual acuity of infants similar to adults?
6 months
When does infants have color vision?
Limited color vision by 2 to 3 months
When does infants develop depth perception?
4-6 months
What is the order of depth cues sensitivity?
Kinetic, binocular, then pictorial.
Prefer high contrast, complex patterns, and looking at faces (face recognition of mother by one month).
When can infants hear?
Sensitive to sounds shortly after birth, some localization, tell difference in voices after a few days of being born.
What are the physical milestones 1-3 months infants?
Raise chin, turn head, play with hand & fingers, bring objects from hand to mouth.
What are the physical milestones 4-6 months infants?
Rolls onto back, sits alone, stands with help, reaches and grasp, first teeth appear.
What are the physical milestones 7-9 months infants?
Increase coordination, sits alone, crawling, pull self up
What are the physical milestones 10-12 months infants?
Stands alone and walk with help, takes first steps alone.
What are the physical milestones 13-15 months infants?
Walks alone, creeps up stairs, uses cup well.
What are the physical milestones 16-24 months infants?
Runs and walks up stairs, use a spoon, kicks ball, turn book pages, may use toilet
What are the physical milestones 25-48 months infants?
Jumps with both feet, has good hand finger coordination, rides tricycle, preference for right or left hand, completely toilet trained, dressing in simply clothing.
What abilities show first signs of age related decline?
Hearing and vision
What are alcohol related nerodevelopmental disorder (ARND) and alcohol related birth defects (ARBD)?
They are less severe forms of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
ARND - cognitive deficits and behavioral problems without prominent facial anomalies, retarded physical growth or physical defects.
ARBD - involves physical defects like heart, kidney, vision, and hearing impairments without prominent symptoms.
What is the difference between habituation and dishabituation?
habituation - response to a stimulus decreases when stimulus is repeatedly presented.
dishabituation - response increases following a change in a stimulus.
What is presbyopia?
Inability to focus on close objects
What is Piaget’s Constructivism theory of cognitive development?
Notes people actively construct higher levels of knowledge from both biological maturation and the environment.
What did Piaget believe was the motivation for cognitive development?
Motivation came from a drive towards cognitive equilibrium (equilibration). Disequilibrium occurs when there is a discrepancy between reality and the person’s current understanding of the world.
According to Piaget, how is disequilibrium is resolved?
Through adaptation, which involves:
assimilation (incorporation of new knowledge into existing cognitive schemas) - applies an existing schema to a new object
accommodation (modification of existing schemes to incorporate new knowledge) - modifies an existing schema to fit a new object
What are Piaget’s stages of cognitive development?
Sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational.
What is the age range for the sensorimotor stage?
Birth to 2 years old
What is the age range for the preoperational stage?
2-7 years old
What is the age range for the concrete operational stage?
7-11 years old
What is the age range for the formal operational stage?
11-12+ years old
What are the main characteristics of the sensorimotor stage?
Children learn by coordinating sensory experience with motor activity.
Learn object permanence - objects continue to exist even when they’re no longer visible.
Engage in symbolic thought - ability to use images, gestures, and words to represent objects and experiences.
Understand causality
Deferred imitation-imitating another person’s behavior after a long period of time has passed.
Symbolic play or make believe
What did Piaget say was the predominant type of learning during the sensorimotor stage?
Circular reactions - actions that are performed in order to reproduce events that initially occurred by chance.
Piaget noted that circular reactions changes in six substages. What are they?
- ) Reflexive schemes - birth to 1 month, use reflexes.
- ) Primary Circular Reactions - 1 to 4 months, attempts to repeat pleasurable events using own body like thumb sucking.
- ) Secondary Circular Reactions - 4 to 8 months, attempts to reproduce pleasurable events involving other people or objects.
- Coordinated Secondary Circular Reactions - 8 to 12 months, combines secondary circular reactions into new more complex action sequences.
- ) Tertiary Circular Reactions - 12 to 18 months, varies action or sequence to discovery its consequences.
- ) Mental Representations - 18 to 24 months, develop representational (symbolic) thought
What did Piaget say was the predominant type of learning during the preoperational stage?
More sophisticated symbolic play, but some limitations like:
- ) Precausal (transductive) reasoning- incomplete understanding of cause and effect. For example, magical thinking (something will actually cause an event to happen just because it occurred around the time the event happened before) and animism (attribute human characteristics to inanimate objects)
- ) Egocentrism-inability to see things from another person’s point of view.
- ) Centration-focus only on one aspect and ignore the rest.
- ) Irreversibility-lack of understanding that situations can be reversed
What did Piaget say was the predominant type of learning during the concrete operational stage?
Use logical operations to think about objects and events - mental operations.
1.) Conservative-ability to recognize that certain physical characteristics of an object stay the same even when outward appearance changes. This is accomplished by reversibility (processes can be reversed) and decentration-focus on more than one aspect at a time)
Horizontal decalage is used to describe gradual development of conservation abilities.
What did Piaget say was the predominant type of learning during the formal operational stage?
Abstract thinking
- ) Hypothetico-deductive reasoning: can identify competing hypotheses and systematically test them.
- ) Propositional reasoning
- ) Adolescent egocentrism: inability to distinguish one’s own abstract perspectives from those of others. For example, the personal fable (one is unique and not governed by the laws of others) and imaginary audience (belief the one is always the center of attention)
How does the information processing theories describe cognitive development?
Involving increasing information processing capacity and efficiency; cognitive abilities are similar at all stages of development but differ in terms of extent. Therefore, improvements are in memory capacity, enhanced processing speed, and greater automaticity.
What is Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory?
It is a theory of cognitive development which states that all learning is socially mediated and occurs on two levels:
- ) between the child and another person (interpersonal)
- ) within the child (intrapersonal)
According to Vygotsky, when is learning optimal?
When it falls within the child’s Zone of Proximal Development-discrepancy between the level at which the child can function independently and that of which the child can do with assistance (scaffolding).
What is scaffolding?
The assistance given to a child during the zone of proximal development. It is most effective when it involves modeling, providing cues, and encourage the child to think about alternative plans of action. Make believe is that to be helpful as well. Also, self directed speech- when child speaks to themselves to help regulate and organize their behaviors.
What is the Theory of the Mind?
Ability to make inferences about another’s representational states and to predict behavior accordingly, which is affected by a variety of factors.
What is metacognition and metamemory?
metacognition-thinking about thinking.
metamemory-ability to reflect on one’s own memory.
What is the synchrony effect?
Optimal time to complete certain task is related to circadian arousal. Morning for older adults and morning and evening for young adults.
What is childhood (infantile) amnesia?
Adults can only recall a few events prior to the age of 3 or 4 because areas of the brain essential for memory of events are not sufficiently developed prior to age 4. It may also be because of the absence of language abilities which can prevent appropriate encoding and later retrieval problems.
What is retention function?
Greater recall of recent events (usually in the last 20 years)
What is reminiscence bump?
Greater recall of events that occurred from 10-30 years of age. Usually because people experience a lot of novel things that are more likely to be remembered.
Increasing age has what effect on implicit and explicit memory?
Negative
What is the greatest memory decline in older adults?
In recent long term (secondary) memory followed by working memory of short term memory.
What is the nativist approach to language development?
Attributes language acquisition to biological mechanisms and stresses universal patterns of language.
What is the behaviorist approach to language development?
Language is acquired through imitation and reinforcement.
What is the interactionists approach to language development?
Development is the result of the interaction between biological and environmental factors.
What does Chomsky stance on language development?
He is a nativist and believed that we have an innate language acquisition device (makes it possible to acquire language just by being exposed to it)
What is semantic bootstrapping?
A children’s use of their knowledge of the meaning of words to infer their syntactical (grammatical) category
What is syntactic bootstrapping?
A children’s use of their syntactical knowledge to learn the meaning of new words.
What is prosodic bootstrapping?
Using prosody (pitch, rhythm, etc) of an utterance to make inferences about syntax.
What is morphological bootstrapping?
Use knowledge about morphemes (ending in “ing”, etc) to deduce the syntax or meaning of a word.
What does surface structure means in language development?
The organization of the words and phrases in a sentence.
What does deep structure means in language development?
Refers to the underlying meaning of a sentence.
What are phonemes?
Smallest units of sound understood in a language.
What are morphemes?
Smallest units of sound that convey meaning
When does cooing begin?
6-8 weeks
When does babbling begin?
3-6 months
When does children start to imitate adult speech sounds and words without understanding their meaning (echolalia)?
9 months
When do children speak their first words?
10-15 months and speak about 50 words by 18 months.
What are holophrases and when do children speak them.
Single words that express an entire idea and children begin them at 12-24 months.
What is telegraphic speech and when do children speak it?
A string of usually two (can be more words) to make a sentence and begins around 24 months.