Polygenic inheritance:
Reflects the combined activity of a number of distinct genes.
The first 22 pairs of chromosomes are called:
Autosomes
Individuals that have an extra 21st chromosome have what?
Down syndrome
When a fertilized egg has defective autosomes, what is usually the result?
The fertilized egg is aborted spontaneously.
Non shared environmental influences tend to make siblings:
Different from each other.
When does the period of the zygote end?
Two weeks after conception.
When are body structures and internal organs created?
During the period of the embryo.
Between 22 and 28 weeks
Called the age of viability because this is when most body systems function well enough to support life.
What happens in the last few months of prenatal development?
The fetus has regular periods of activity and the eyes and ears respond to stimulation, which are the first signs of fetal behavior.
General risk factors in pregnancy:
Mothers nutrition, prolonged stress, and her age.
Environmental hazards:
Some of the most dangerous teratogens because a pregnant woman is often unaware of their presence.
What is the result of exposure to a teratogen during the period of a zygote?
Spontaneous abortion of the fertilized egg.
What two techniques are used to determine whether a fetus has a hereditary disorder?
Amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling.
What happens in the third stage of labor?
The placenta is delivered.
What happens in naturalistic observation?
People are observed as they behave spontaneously in a real life setting.
What is a sample?
A group of individuals thought to be representative of some larger population of interest.
Dependent variable:
Measured in an experiment to evaluate the impact of the variable that was manipulated.
Problems of longitudinal studies:
Include e length of time to complete the work, loss of research participants over time and influence of repeated testing on a person’s performance.
Why must human development researchers submit their plans for research to a review board?
So that they may determine whether the research preserves the rights of research participants.
Genotype
What we’ve inherited
Phenotype
Combination of genotype and environmental influences such as physical, behavioral, and psychological.
Two problems with using anesthesia during labor:
1) a woman can’t use her abdominal muscles to push the baby down the birth canal.
2) pain meds cross the placenta and affects the baby.w
When is home delivery safe?
- When the woman is healthy.
- When she has had a problem free pregnancy and expects to have a problem fee delivery.
- When a healthcare professional is present to deliver the baby.
Hypoxia results when
When the supply of oxygen to the fetus is disrupted because the umbilical cord is squeezed shut.
Some reflexes
- Help infants get necessary nutrients.
- Protect infants from danger.
- Serve as the basis for later motor behaviors.
The Apgar score:
Performed immediately after birth and checks their health
- Heart rate
- Muscle tone
- Skin tone
- Respiration
- Reflexes
A baby is in what state when lying calmly with it’s eyes open and focused.
Alert inactivity
What type of sleep is thought to foster growth in the central nervous system in newborns?
REM sleep
This campaign to reduce SIDS emphasizes that infants should do what.
Sleep on their backs
Compared to older children and adults an infants head and trunk are
Disproportionately large.
What a the most effective treatments for malnutrition?
Improved diet and parent training.
What is the cell body and what is it for?
Part of the neuron and contains the basic machinery to keep the cell alive.
What is the frontal cortex and what does it do?
It is the seat of personality and it regulates planning.
Left hemisphere of an infants brain
Where human speech typically elicits the greatest electrical activity.
A good example of brain plasticity is that although children with brain damage often have impaired cognitive processes,
They often regain their earlier skills over time.
Skills important in learning to walk include:
Maintaining upright posture
Balance
Stepping
Using perceptual information
Infants respond negatively yo substances that taste.
Sour or bitter.
Pain cry:
A high-pitched cry, starts with a loud wail, followed by a long pause, then gasping.
Infants hearing is best for sounds:
That have the pitch of human speech.
Cones:
Specialized neurons in the retina that are sensitive to color.
Retinal disparity
Refers to the fact that images of an object in the left and right eyes differ for nearby objects.
Basic cry:
Starts softly and builds in volume and intensity. (happens when lacking a basic need that needs to be met)
Mad cry
More intense and louder than a basic cry.
When is it okay to comfort a crying baby?
Up until 6 months, as appropriate, because after 6-8 months, a baby becomes conditioned.
Sleep cycles:
Newborns: 4-hour cycle; sleep 3h awake 1h
3-4months: 5-to-6 hour cycle
6 months: sleep 10 to 12 hours at night
Cons of co-sleeping:
Could roll over onto the child.
Child could suffocate.
Child could fall off bed.
Decreased romance between patents.
Co-sleeping:
The practice of sleeping in the same room or bed with the child.
Research shows no evidence of increased dependence and has the advantage of avoiding elaborate sleep-time rituals.
SIDs:
Sudden, inexplicable death of a healthy baby.
- have child sleep on their back*
- less blankets*
- no stuffed animals*
- watch for recalls on beds*
Temperament:
Influences environments effect on children.
Studies suggest that temperament
Tends to be somewhat stable from infancy through adulthood.
Temperament:
Predisposes but does not always guarantee later personality characteristics.
Parents can
Nurture children to behave in ways somewhat different from their temperament.
Growth is more rapid in infancy than
During any other period after birth.
Infants should double their weight by
3 months.
Infants should triple their weight by
1 year.
Pros of bottle feeding
All family members can enjoy intimacy with bottle.
Pros of breast- feeding
The best way to ensure proper nutrition, but mother must have a proper diet.
Giving malnourished children adequate diets is challenging because they are
Listless, quiet, and inactive.
Malnourished children
Develop more slowly. And malnutrition is most damaging during infancy due to rapid growth rate.
Plasticity
Is a benefit of the immature brains lack of specialization. The brain is very flexible allowing recovery of function, especially in young children.
9-14 months
The average for starting to walk.
Infants are top heavy and easily lose balance.
Within a few months infants use inner ear and visual cues to adjust posture. Infants must relearn balance each time they achieve new postures.
Unsupported independent walking occurs at
12-15 months
Fine motor skills are associated with
Grasping, holding, and manipulating objects.
Newborns have keen senses of
Smell and taste
Perception
Brain processes receiving, selecting, modifying, and organizing sensory inputs.
Startle reactions
Suggest that infants are sensitive to sound. (prefer pleasant melodies and can remember songs)
Can remember their own names by
4 months
By 15-24 months infants:
See their image in the mirror and can realize that the image is theirs. (Self awareness)
How do toddlers refer to themselves?
By name or by using personal pronouns. (They also understand ownership and refer to objects as “mine”)
What is TOM?
Theory of mind is the naive understanding of relationship between mind and behavior.
Phases of TOM:
Phase 1: by 2 years aware of desires; speak of wants and likes.
Phase 2: by 3 years, distinguish the mental from physical world.
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
Echoic speech and later language acquisition.
Obsessive and compulsive interest in objects.
Disinterest in other people.
Awkward social interactions with others.
Symptoms emerge 18-24 months.
Is inheritable, 80% in males, cannot be cured.
Slow grasp of false belief.
Mind blindness
Assimilation:
Fitting new experiences into existing schemes.
Accommodation
Modifying schemes as a result of new experiences.
Equilibrium
Balance between assimilation and accommodation.
Disequilibrium
Experience of conflict between new information and existing concepts.
Equilibration
Inadequate schemes are reorganized or replaced with more advanced and mature schemes.
Object permanence
Knowing an object still exists even when not in view. (not understood till about 18mo)
Egocentrism
Difficulty seeing the world from others perspectives.
Animism
Crediting inanimate objects with life and lifelike properties.
Centration
Concentration on only one facet of a problem to the neglect of other facets.
Conservation
Knowing that volume, mass, number, length, area, or liquid quantity are the same despite superficial appearance changes.
Dizygotic or fraternal:
twins from two different eggs fertilized by two different sperm.
Monozygotic or identical:
Twins from the union of one egg and one sperm that splits in two soon after conception.
When is object permanence understood?
4.5 months
Mental hardware:
Neural and mental structures enabling the mind to operate.
Mental software:
Mental programs allowing for performance of specific tasks.
Attention:
When sensory information receives additional cognitive processing.
Orienting response:
emotional and physical reactions to unfamiliar stimulus.
Habituation:
Lessened reactions to a stimulus after repeated presentations.
Operant conditioning:
When a behaviors consequence make this behaviors future occurrence more likely.
Zone of proximal development:
Difference between what children can do with or without assistance.
Scaffolding:
Giving just enough information/assistance to match a learners need. (students don’t learn as well when being told what to do as opposed to trying it themselves)
Children pay better attention to:
Repeated or emphasized words.
Phonemes:
smallest unique sounds
Infant directed speech:
Adults speak slowly and exaggerate changes in pitch and volume when talking to infants. ( called motherese )