Chapter 10 - Development

Question 1

Define: Development

Answer 1

• Changes in humans over time (physical, cognitive, psychosocial)
• Bi-directional (parent/child both influence each other’s development)

Question 2

Infant determinism myth

Answer 2

-Assumption that first few years are most important for our adult lives

Question 3

Childhood fragility myth

Answer 3

-Assumption that children are easily damaged, when actually they’re very resilient

Question 4

Post-hoc fallacy (development)

Answer 4

• Assuming that because A came before B, that A caused B

- Ex. couple gets divorced; child diagnosed with autism, therefore divorce caused autism…NO

Question 5

Longitudinal research design (dev.)

Answer 5

• Study same group of ppl across multiple time points

- Cons: (selective) attrition, time consuming – leading to bias

Question 6

Cross-sectional research design (dev.)

Answer 6

• Compare different age groups at a single time point in time
• Con: cohort effect (differences based on group growing up at the same time, rather than effect of age itself)

Question 7

Gene-Environment Interactions

Answer 7

• Often interact and correlate

- Situation in which the effects of genes depend on the environment in which they are expressed

Question 8

Gene expression

Answer 8

-Environmental effects can trigger gene activity (activation/deactivation)

Question 9

Newborn capacities

Answer 9

• Reflexes
• Taste, smell, skin senses
• Hearing (can localize)
• Vision (least developed-nearsighted)

Question 10

Piaget

Answer 10

• Founded what we know as “cognitive development”
• “constructivist”
• emphasized “active” perspective of learner
• Children build knowledge from experience to schemas

Question 11

Assimilation

Answer 11

-Absorbing new experiences into what you already know

Question 12

Accommodation

Answer 12

-Altering a belief/schema to make it more compatible with experience/reality

Question 13

Piagets 4 stages

Answer 13

• Sensorimotor
• Preoperational
• Concrete operations
• Formal operations

Question 14

Sensorimotor stage

Answer 14

• 0-2
• No thought beyond immediate physical experiences
• Milestone is “Mental representation” - thinking about things absent from view
• Lack “object permanence”

Question 15

Preoperational stage

Answer 15

• 2-7
• Can construct mental representations of experience but not perform operations on them
• Limitations: egocentrism, fail conservation tasks

Question 16

Concrete operations stage

Answer 16

• 7-11
• Can use “mental operations” on actual physical events, not abstract or hypothetical
• Pass conservation tasks
• Still anchored to here and now, physical experiences

Question 17

Formal operations stage

Answer 17

• 11-adult
• Hypothetical reasoning
• Logic (if, then), abstract, hypotheses

BUT:

• Fostered more in western societies and major cities
• Occurs later than Piaget thought
• Only 40-60% of first yr undergrads use it

Question 18

Vygotsky

Answer 18

• Contemporary of Piaget
• Role of social interaction in cog. dev.
• Dev. does not follow one universal course
• speech is a culturally transmitted intellectual tool
• CON: emphasized verbal instruction, may not apply to other cultures

Question 19

Private speech (Vygotsky)

Answer 19

• Directed at self, guides child’s thinking
• Helps plan problem solving
• Decreases into middle childhood

Question 20

Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky)

Answer 20

-Range of tasks too complex, but can be mastered with help from “expert”

Question 21

Scaffolding (Vygotsky)

Answer 21

• Parents provide initial assistance (as if they’ve already learned something)
• Remove as child improves

Question 22

Social cognition

Answer 22

-Understanding the social world

Question 23

Theory of mind (ToM)

Answer 23

• Age 4-5

- Understanding that people have hidden mental states and ability to reason about this

Question 24

“Desire ToM”

Answer 24

-3 yr olds think that only desires —> actions

Question 25

“Belief-desire ToM”

Answer 25

-4 yr olds: understand that beliefs and desires —> actions

Question 26

Erikson

Answer 26

-8 stage theory of development, especially #1. trust vs mistrust – 0-1 yrs

Question 27

Attatchment

Answer 27

• strong “emotional connection” with “whom we feel closest”, activated in times of distress
• Forms with primary caregiver at 6-9 months, during “trust vs mistrust”

Question 28

Ainsworth 3 patterns of attachment +1

Answer 28

• “Secure” (60%) - upset when caregiver leaves, greets upon return
• “Insecure-Avoidant” (15-20%) - little distress when leaves; ignores upon return
• “Insecure-Anxious” (15-30%) - extremely upset when leaves; ambivalent upon return
• (4th) “Disorganized attachment” (5-10%) - like other “insecure types”, approach and avoid, dazed or frozen, typically temporary from extreme conditions (stress, etc)

Question 29

Ainsworth Caregiving Hypothesis

Answer 29

• Secure attachment - “sensitive” caregiving
• Resistant attachment - inconsistent caregiving
• Avoidant attachment - impatient/rigid, rejecting

Question 30

Temperament

Answer 30

• early appearing, genetic social/emotional interaction styles
• Evidence for and against it’s influence on attachment (changing parental behaviour can change attachment status)