Developmental Flashcards
(130 cards)
1
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Developmental psychology
A
examines our physical, cognitive and social development across the life span, with focus on three major issues:
- Nature and nurture
- Continuity and stages
- Stability and change
2
Q
Stage theories
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contribute a developmental perspective on the whole life span, by suggesting how people of one age think and act differently when they arrive at a later age
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For example:
- out of control 3 year olds were more likely to become troubled teens
- wildest smilers in childhood photos- most likely to enjoy enduring marriages
- responsible primary school students outlive out of control classmates
3
Q
zygote
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- fertilized egg enters a 2 week period of rapid cell division and develops into and embryo
4
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Embryo
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- the developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month
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Fetus
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- the developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception
- At each prenatal stage, genetic and environmental factors affect our deelopment.
- Fetuses prefer hearing their mothers native language- learning of language begins in the womb.
6
Q
teratogens
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- agents such as viruses and drugs, can damage an embryo or fetus.
EXAMPLE: when pregnant rats drank alcohol their young offspring later displayed a liking for alcohol’s taste and odor.
7
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Fetal alcohol syndrome
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- physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by pregnant womans heavy drinking.
- EXAMPLE- in severe cases, signs include a small, out of proportion ead and abnormal facial features
8
Q
effects of stress during pregnancy
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- If a pregnant woman experiences extreme stress, the stress hormones flooding her body may indicate a survival threat to the fetus and produce an earlier delivery.
- can result in health problems such as hypertension, heart disease, obesity, and psychiatric disorders
9
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Habituation
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- decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation
- EXAMPLE: As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner.
10
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Infant brain development
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in humans the brain is immature at birth. As the child matures, the neural networks grow increasingly complex
11
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The brains association areas
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- those linked with thinking, memory, and language- were the lst cortical areas to develop.
12
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Maturation
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biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience.
13
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cognition
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all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing , remembering and communicating.
14
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Schema
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a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information
15
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assimilation
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we interpret & store information using existing schemas
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Accommodation
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we adjust existing schemas or create new ones that account for the new knowledge.
17
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Object permanence
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the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived
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Q
A
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Sensorimotor stage
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in piaget’s theory, the stage (from birth to nearly 2 years of age ) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities
20
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Cognition
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refers to all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing
21
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Piaget’s Theory
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The theory extends from the first days of infancy through adolescence & examines diverse topics in cognitive development such as memory, understanding of other people’s perspectives, problem solving & more
22
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Observations of infants
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consist of observing how the infant responds in their natural environment. No interventions are made
23
Q
Piaget’s Basic Assumptions
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- Children are mentally active from birth.
- Metaphor of a “child as scientist”, that generates hypotheses, performs experiments & draws conclusions from observations.
- Children are intrinsically motivated to learn & develop & are not dependent on external rewards or punishments that are given by adults.
- Children learn from their own experiences & are not dependent on adults’ instructions.
24
Q
New experiences can be processed through
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- 1. Assimilation: we interpret & store information using existing schemas; or
- 2. Accommodation*: we adjust existing schemas or create new ones that account for the new knowledge.
- EX: when children drop stuff they discover gravity, and balloon they are also learning
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Main Characteristics of Piagets Theory
1. The theory assumes **_developmental stages**_. The order of the stages is _**fixed**_, they are organized in a _**hierarchy_**, & no stage can be skipped.
2. The theory is **_universal_**: the theory is valid for explaining children’s cognitive development across different cultures & societies.
3. **_Individual differences_** in the **rate of development** are determined by both heredity & the environment.
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Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
1. The **sensorimotor** stage (birth to 2 years)
2. The **preoperational** stage (2 to 6/7 years)
3. The **concrete** **operational** stage (7 to 11 years)
4. The **formal** **operational** stage (12 to 15 years & beyond)
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Sensorimotor Stage
* In the sensorimotor stage, babies take in the world by looking, hearing, touching, mouthing, & grasping
* Children younger than 6 months of age do not grasp **_object permanence**_ – the awareness that an object continues to exist even when it is not perceived or present (“_**out of sight, out of mind_**”)
* Later, they will commit the **A-not-B error** – they’ll look for the object in the **last place they found it**, not in the **last place it was seen**
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Pre-operational stage
* from ages 2 to 6 or 7 years during which a child learns to use language and represent things with words an images but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic
* For example, a 5 year old that says that the milk is too much in a tall glass that if poured in a short and wide glass would be just right
* After **symbolic thinking** is acquired, a new era begins
1. **Imitation** becomes more sophisticated during this stage
2. **Symbolic play**: “as if” play (I’m preparing food, imagining a piece of wood is a weapon). This use in object representations is very important in cognitive development
3. **Acquiring language**: gradually, from words to sentences etc. language is the ultimate symbolic representation.
* The child is able to think about things without sensing or seeing them
* Why “pre-”? Piaget believed that during this stage children have learned symbolic thinking. But they still don’t think completely by rules of common sense
* Children are too young to perform mental operations in an efficient way.
* **_Mental operations_****-**An internalized set of actions that are**governed by logical rules**, & which enable the child to mentally solve problems & reach logical conclusions before acting in the world (*thinking before behaving*)
* The child makes _logical errors_ due to a few reasons:
* Animism- inanimate objects have a soul
* Magical thinking
* Centration & lack of conservation
* Egocentric thinking
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Concrete Operational Stage (Ages 7 – 11)
* Ages 7 to 11 during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events
* for example, they can mentally pour milk back and forth between glasses of different shapes. As well as enjoying jokes
* Conserve
* Classify and Organize - flexibly group & regroup objects into hierarchies of classes & subclasses (color, size)
* Reversibility - thinking through the steps in a problem & then go backward, returning to the starting point.
* Example: 7+5=12. How much is 12-5?
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Formal Operational Stage (Age 12 – 15)
* At age 12 during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts
* for example if this then that
* The most developed stage, in which the person acquires knowledge & uses it most efficiently
* The stage signifies transition from **concrete to formal thinking**: the cognitive revolution
* Transition from thinking about the existing to **thinking about the possible**
* **“**The formal operational stage begins at approximately age twelve and lasts into adulthood. As adolescents enter this stage, they gain the ability to think in an abstract manner by manipulate ideas in their head, without any dependence on concrete manipulation”
(Inhelder & Piaget, 1958)
* Unlike former stages, the child is able to think about **ideas**, not only what is caught in their senses
* Example: **logic** questions require us to follow a certain rule, whether our senses perceive it as correct or incorrect. A child at this stage is able to understand that.
* They no longer need the statement to be correct (value of truth) but can focus on logic rules, mainly relationships between statements.
So
* Scientific thinking develops, when the child learns to generate all possible solutions for the problem, then chooses between them.
* Former stages contained **trial and error**, but they were quite random. Here they are more **systematic.**
* **Reflective thinking** also develops during this stage: thinking about thinking (meta-cognition) – the adolescent can explain & replicate his way of thinking
* At this stage, the adolescent thinks about topics untouched before – society, politics, morality…
* Notice, that like in the pre-operational stage, **egocentricity** also exists here.
* But it is different: more related to the “I can change the world” perception, or: “nobody understands me because no one feels things the way I do”
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Centration & Lack of Conservation
* At this stage, the child’s thinking pattern is characterized by **centration** – attentiveness & **concentration on _one_ feature of an object** (size, shape, weight) without having the ability to simultaneously concentrate on other features of it. Inability to concentrate on two features, the relation between them, & how changes in one feature will affect a different feature.
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**mental conservation**.
* This inability disrupts the proper functioning of mental operations, & especially the ability to understand that changes that we mentally make on objects do not necessarily change them –
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Conservation
* the principle that quantity remains the same despite changes in shape
* **_Preoperational stage_**- lack this
**Why can’t children understand conservation at this stage?**
* **centration**: the child focuses only on one object’s dimension (e.g., height, length)
* **irreversibility:** the ability to mentally reverse the activity operated.
* For example, understanding that if you spill the water from one cup to another, it doesn’t matter
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Egocentric Thinking
* During this stage, the child’s thinking is characterized by **egocentrism (selfishness)** – the inability to differentiate between my own perspective & someone else’s perspective. Meaning, inability to perceive the world from someone else’s point of view.
Egocentric thinking disturbs the proper functioning of mental operations because it brings the child to make logical errors when solving problems & reaching conclusions
**_Preoperational stage_**- have this
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Egocentrism
-the difficulty to perceive things from anothers point of view
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**_Theory of mind_**
* people's ideas about their own an others mental state, about their theories feelings perceptions and thoughts and the behaviors this might predict
* For example-even as young as seven months babies can know what to do to make a parent do something for them
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The development of gender constancy & gender identity
* ***Gender constancy***: understanding that a person’s gender remains the same despite changes in age & appearance.
* Piaget’s **preoperational stage** (2-7) is characterized by:
* overreliance on visual impressions – as evident in the children’s difficulty to understand conservation
* inability to conserve an object’s identity
when its’ appearance changes is highly
relevant to their concept of gender.
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Is this a boy or a girl?
* Research was done: one sees a naked child and then the boy in a dress or girl in female clothing’s
* Only 40% of children aged 3, 4, & (early) 5 displayed gender constancy, with girls showing more gender constancy than boys. Gender constancy depended on the child’s knowledge of the fact that genitalia constitutes a defining attribution of maleness/femaleness.
* ***Gender identity*** refers to the sense of being male, female, both, neither, and more… It usually develops over the years from 2 to 7 (preoperational stage).
* This developed sense of gender is usually accompanied by **_gender typing_**: the acquisition of behaviors & characteristics that a culture considers appropriate to one’s perceived gender.
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***The return of Nature vs. Nurture: Are men & women inherently different***
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random facts
* Girls tend to start **talking** in an earlier age, have a larger vocabulary, & show a higher level of language complexity from early childhood.
* Baby girls are more attracted to individual faces & are more likely to establish & maintain **eye contact**, whereas baby boys prefer looking at groups of faces.
* Baby girls are more attuned to **emotional expressions**; when the mothers of 12 months old babies made a fearful face as their child approached a toy the girls tended to slow their approach, whereas the boys usually disregarded them.
* Male & female brains display different **developmental trajectories**, with female brains developing faster than males’(this difference evens out around the age of 13).
* Environment:
* Parents will usually **dress** boys & girls differently & provide them with different **toys**.
* Parents **reward** daughters for dressing up, dancing, playing with dolls & generally following them around, but criticize them for running, jumping & climbing; they reward their sons for playing with blocks, but criticize them for playing with dolls or asking for help.
* Boys are **punished** more often & more severely.
* Studies done over the last 2-3 decades show the gap between parenting practices for girls & boys grows smaller – as well as various behavioral differences between the genders
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Lev Vygotsky- the social child
* Studied how children think and learn and emphasized how the child's mind grows through interaction with the social environment
* Scaffold-in vygotsky's theory a framework that offers children temporary support as they develop higher levels of thinking
* children learn best when their social environment presents them with something between too easy and too difficult
* The language you use is really important
* Cultural values and customs dictate what is important to learn.
Children learn from more expert members of the society.
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Autism spectrum disorder
* A disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by significant deficiencies in communication and social interaction and by rigidly fixated interests and repetitive behaviors
* In symptom is poor communication among brain regions that normally work together to let us take another's viewpoint
* Basically have the viewpoint mind of a 2 month old
* Less brain activity and therefore they mirror people less
* for example yawning after seeing someone
* Connecting the dots: they lack the theory of mind
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Stranger anxiety
the fear of strangers that infants commonly display by about eight months of age
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Attachment
* body contact
* familiarity (Happens during):
* **_critical period-_** an optimal period when certain events must take place to facilitate proper development
1. Secure attachment/ Insecure attachment
2. Avoidant Attachment
3. Anxious-ambivalent attachment
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Secure attachment
Insecure attachment
Basic Trust
* **_Secure attachment_**- can explore, still cling and want parent
* **_Insecure attachment_**- will avoid exploring
* **_Basic Trust_**- a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy
* **_formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers_**
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Imprinting
* the process by which certain animals form strong attachments during early life
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4 Types of parents
1. **_authoritative_**-strict and will punish accordingly(ex. “Why can’t I go out?”- “Because I said so”)
2. **_permissive-_** some rules but little punishment
3. **_negligent_**- not present
4. **_authoritarian-_** a lot of rules but not as strict, open to discuss changes in rules and is considerate of children
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Adolescence
transition from child to adult
begins with sexual maturation, ends with achieving status of “adult”
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Puberty and brain development
connection between frontal lobe and limbic system doesn’t fully develop until age 25 and this is why emotional regulation is low and impulsive behavior is high in adolescence.
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3 Types Morality
1. **_Pre conventional(0-9)-_**self interest, follows rules to avoid punishment , want concrete reward for actions
2. **_Conventional morality(10-25)-_** follow rules for social approval, or to maintain social order, has higher understanding if rewards for actions.
3. **_Post conventional morality(25_**+)- actions reflect beleif in basics rights and Attica principles
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Social identity-
the part of our identity that comes from who we socialize with (the “you” that society perceives)
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8 Stages of psychological development
1. **_Infancy_**- develop sense of trust/mistrust
2. **_Toddler-_** autonomy/shame and doubt do things for yourself(building confidence in self)
3. **_Pre school_**- Initiative/guilt-carry out plans of action and feel repercussions for actions(like guilt)
4. **_Elementary school-_** competence/inferiority- gain pleasure from applying themselves and completing tasks/or feel inferior for failing
5. **_Adolescence_** - identity/role confusion- refining sense of self,creating identity
6. **_Young adult hood-intimacy/isolation_**- forming close relationships, Gain capacity for bigger feelings(love/hate)
7. **_Middle adult hood_**- Generatively/stagnation- Sense of contributing to the world, or can feel lack of purpose
8. **_Late adult hood-_** Integrity/despair- feeling accomplished with life, or feeling like it was wasted.
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Intimacy
In Erikson’s theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in young adulthood
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_Within each of the following stages, people will vary widely in Physical, Psychological, & Social Development_
* **Early Adulthood:** Roughly twenties and thirties
* **Middle Adulthood:** To age 65
* **Late Adulthood:** Years after age of 65 years old
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**Life Expectancy**
* Tips of chromosomes, called ***Telomeres,*** wears down. This wear is accelerated by smoking, obesity, or stress.
* Breast-fed children have longer ***Telomeres,*** while those who suffer frequent abuse or bullying exhibit the biological scars of shortened telomeres.
* As ***Telomeres*** shorten, aging cells may die without being replaced with perfect genetic replicas.
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Death - Deferral phenomenon
Across one 15-year period, 2000 to 3000 more Americans died on the two days after Christmas than on Christmas and the two days before. The date rate also increases when people reach their birthdays, and when they survive until after other milestones, like the first day of the new millennium
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Late-Maturing frontal lobes,
* which help us override our undesirable urges, help account for teen impulsivity. Later in life, some of that impulsiveness often returns as those same frontal lobes begin to atrophy, which explains older people’s occasional blunt questions (ex: Have you put on weight) or inappropriate comments.
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Plasticity
* there is still some *Plasticity* in the aging brain, which partly compensates for what it loses by recruiting and reorganizing neural networks. During memory taks, for example, the left frontal lobes are especially active in young adult brains, while older adult brains use both left and right frontal lobes.
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Cross Sectional Studies:
* Research that compares people of different ages at the same point in time.
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Longitudinal Study
Research that follows and retests the same people over time.
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Neurocognitive Disorder
* Acquired (not lifelong) disorders marked by cognitive deficits; often related to Alzheimer’s disease, brain injury or disease, or substance abuse. In older adults, neurocognitive disorders were formerly called *dementia.*
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Alzheimer’s disease:
A neurocognitive disorder marked by neural plaques, often with onset after age 80, and entailing a progressive decline in memory and other cognitive abilities.
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Midlife transition
* a crisis, a time of great struggle, regret, or even feeling struck down by life.
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Social clock
* The culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement. Varies from era to era and culture to culture.
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Chance events
can have lasting significance, by deflecting us down one road rather than another. Chance events can change our lives.
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Intimacy & Generativity
* **Intimacy (Erik Erikson):** Forming close relationships
* **Generativity (Erik Erikson):** Being productive and supporting future generations.
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amygdala and age
* Brain scans of older adults show that the amygdala, a neural processing center for emotions, responds less actively to negative events (but not to positive events). Brain-wave reactions to negative images also diminish with age.
* Those who express the strongest grief immediately do not purge their grief more quickly. But grieving parents who try to protect thei partner by “staying strong” and not discussing their child’s death may actually prolong the grieving
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Integrity (Erik Erikson):
A feeling that one’s life has been meaningful and worthwhile
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Attachment between an infant and her caregiver:
can insure the infant’s survival
* Is active from cradle to grave- even at age 20 we have attachment figures. There might be a shift between who the figure is.
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* There are four characteristic behaviours associated with attachment:
* Seeking proximity, especially at times of stress.
* Distress on separation (separation anxiety).
* Pleasure on reunion.
* General orientation of behavior towards primary caregiver.
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* Secure and insecure attachments
* One of the ways children differ is in terms of how securely they are attached to their primary caregiver
* Ainsworth has a system called the strange situation (used through today) and she says what happens when a parent and child are in same room and (ex a child walks out, stranger in, parent back in)
* 60 % have insecure attachment
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Avoidant Attachment:
Avoidant children do not appear distressed or upset by the attachment figure’s departure
* **These have deactivated attachment, the parent will take care of child when parents feel like it , not when child needs it**
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Axniously attached-
those who are hyper attatched. They press it always
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Why do we age?
genes and enviornment
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Main issues in the psychology of aging
* Changes in cognitive abilities
* Personality changes
* Changes in relationships
* Changes in priorities
* Maintaining quality of life
* Finding meaning in life
* Issues related to illness and death
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Physical aspects of aging
* Physical performance peaks around age 20 after which it declines gradually.
* After age 70, hearing, distance perception, and the sense of smell diminish, as do muscle strength, reaction time and stamina.
After age 80, neural processes slowdown, especially for complex tasks
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Fluid Intelligence
* Attention.
* Memory and Learning.
* High functions, such as planning
* Processing speed.
* **Declines with age**
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* Crystallized Intelligence
* Knowledge accumulated over a lifetime.
* Verbal abilities such as vocabulary.
* **Increases with age.**
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Social aspects of aging
* Relationships
* Living arrangements
* Retirement
* Death of loved ones
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Alzheimer’s disease
* a degenerative brain disorder - the result of physical changes in the brain.
* This disease is progressive and irreversible. It is characterized by severe mental deterioration.
* Often begins with intermittent states of mental confusion, disorientation, and loss of recent memory.
* Progresses to severe impairment in all realms of thinking, memory, language, and communication.
* loss of brain cells
* increases with age
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Prevention of cognitive aging
* Engagement in mentally challenging activities.
* Physical fitness.
* Memory training.
* Medications.
* Intergenerational programs.
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Old Age: Sensory Abilities
* After age 70, hearing, distance perception, and the sense of smell diminish, as do muscle strength, reaction time, and stamina. After 80, neural processes slow down, especially for complex tasks.
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Old Age: Motor Abilities
* At age 70, our motor abilities also decline. A 70-year-old is no match for a 20-year-old individual. Fatal accidents also increase around this age.
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Aging and Memory
* As we age, we remember some things well. These include recent past events and events that happened a decade or two back. However, recalling names becomes increasingly difficult.
* Recognition memory does not decline with age, and material that is meaningful is recalled better than meaningless material.
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Aging and Intelligence
* Longitudinal studies suggest that intelligence remains relative as we age.
* It is believed today that fluid intelligence (ability to reason speedily) declines with age
* But crystalline intelligence (accumulated knowledge and skills) does not.
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Disengagement Theory
* Older people, because of the inevitable decline associated with aging, become less active and less engaged with the outer world and become more preoccupied with their inner lives.
* Disengagement theory can serve as a justification to marginalize older adults
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Activity theory
* Active seniors are more satisfied and better adjusted than those who are not active.
* An older person’s self-concept is validated through participation in various life activities and roles. People should therefore replace lost roles with new ones to maintain their place in society
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Socio-emotional Selectivity theory
* claims older adults seek higher emotional satisfaction as they age by being more selective about their type of social networks
* older adults report:
* Better control of their emotions.
* More mellowing of feelings.
* Fewer negative emotions.
* Positive connections with friends and family.
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Defensive pessimist-
* someone who for examples brings things with them expecting stuff to happen
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* Three death-related Issues
* Death Anxiety
* Coping with Loss
* The Process of Dying
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Two Views on Death Anxiety
* Death is not a major human concern
* Death anxiety is the source of all other forms of anxiety
---
* Freud: Our Own Death is Unimaginable
* Death Lies at the Core of All Human Anxieties
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Coping with Loss 3 ways
* Bereavement: An objective fact
* Grief: The Emotional Response
* Mourning: The Culturally Patterned Response
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Freud: Grief-Work Theory
* Grief: An adaptive response to loss
* The work of Grief is Difficult and Time Consuming
* The Goal of Grief-work is Accepting the Loss
* Inability to detach from ‘lost object’ can lead to ‘Pathological Grief’
* Evaluating Grief-Work Theory
* Little scientific backing for griefwork hypothesis
* Conflicting results
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Kubler-Ross Stage Theory
* *Denial*: “No, not me, it can’t be true!”
* *Anger*: “Why me?”
* *Bargaining*: Counterfactual and wishful Thinking
* *Depression*: Numbed by the sense of loss
* *Acceptance*: Letting go
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Is it Necessary to Let Go?
* Bowlby: Grief is the emotion experienced due to the frustration of the attachment system. Attachment figures become internalized representations – they do not dissapear with physical death
* Stemming from that idea, Florian and Mikulincer collected evidence showing that people who are able to transform their attachments cope better than those who attempt to relinquish them.
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What factors determine how we cope?
* Nature of relationship (parent, sibling, spouse, child)
* Relationship quality (marital satisfaction, ‘unfinished business’)
* Cause of death (natural, tragic etc)
* Age of survivor
* Cultural norms and beliefs
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Early Death of a Parent
* Detrimental effects
* View relationships as threatening
* Exhibit more insecure attachment styles
* Early loss has more negative impact
* More susceptibility to mental health problems
* Buffering factors
* Relationship with surviving parent
* Extended family
* Remarriage
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Death of a Child
* Most devastating effect on well-being
* Feelings of helplessness and emptiness
* Influences close relationships
* Social Isolation
* Prolonged grief is viewed negatively
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Dying
* Scarce amount of research on dying
* Denial
* Quality of life – palliative care
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three intelligences according to sternberg
Analytical, Creative, Practical
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multiple intelligences according to gardner
linguistic, logical-mathematic, musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalist
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The gene and environment links
1. Passive link
2. Evocative Link
3. Active Link
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Heritability and intelligence
* there is evidence for heritability of intelligence
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Flynn effect
- is a substantial and long sustained increase in intelligence test scores as measured in many parts of the world from around 1930 till the present day
* _Explanations for the Flynn effect:_
* Better nutrition
* Better, more stimulating environment
* Schooling
* Test familiarity
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Poverty can harm cognitive development and IQ through a number of courses
* Malnutrition
* Disease
* Low intellectual stimulation
* Parents’ stress poor parenting
* School dropout (child labor)
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Stereotype Threat
* **Fear of being treated & judged according to a negative stereotype about one’s group leads to a reduction in performance.**
* Occurs when an individual is in a performance situation & is aware that there is a negative stereotype about their group that suggests they will not perform well
* Occurs regardless of whether the individual believes the stereotype or not
* Occurs regardless of the accuracy of the stereotype
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Developmental psychology
concerned with psychological changes over the life span
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1. **_What is the normative pattern of development?_**
Gradual, slow and continuous or Characterized by phases.
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1. **_What does a newborn feel and perceive?_**
* William James: “booming, buzzing confusion.”
* He was wrong:
* Although Infants are born with an immature visual system, they can already detect movement and large objects.
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Cross-sectional method:
* Compares different age groups at the same time.
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Cohort effect
maybe a generational difference
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Methods for studying infants
* Infant reflexes provide insight into their mental life.
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Critical periods
* Notion is that the brain is set to acquire a function during a limited period of time.
If key experiences do not occur during a critical period, the function does not develop
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Domains of Development
1. **_Physical Domain:_**
2. **_Cognitive Domain:_**
3. **_Social/Emotional Domain:_**
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* **_Physical Domain:_**
* body size, body proportions, appearance, brain development, motor development, perception capacities, physical health.
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* **_Cognitive Domain:_**
* thought processes and intellectual abilities including attention, memory, problem solving, imagination, creativity, academic and everyday knowledge, and language.
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* **_Social/Emotional Domain:_**
* self-knowledge (self-esteem, sexual identity, ethnic identity), moral reasoning, understanding and expression of emotions, self-regulation, temperament, understanding others, interpersonal skills, and friendships.
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Periods of development Children
* Prenatal period: from conception to birth
* Infancy and toddlerhood: birth to 2 years
* Early childhood: 2-6 years old
* Middle childhood: 6-12 years old
* Adolescence: 12-19 years old
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Sigmund Freud/Psychosexual Theory
Was based on his therapy with troubled adults.
He emphasized that a child's personality is formed by the ways which his parents managed his sexual and aggressive drives
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Erik Erikson/Psychosocial Theory
Expanded on Freud's theories.
Believed that development is life-long.
Emphasized that at each stage, the child acquires attitudes and skills resulting from the successful negotiation of the psychological conflict.
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John Watson
Researched classical conditioning
Children are passive beings who can be molded by controlling the stimulus-response associations.
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B. F. Skinner
Proposed that children "operate" on their environment, operational conditioning
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Social Learning Theory
Stressed how children learn by observation and imitation.
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Ethology
Examines how behavior is determined by a species' need for survival.
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Urie Bronfenbrenner/Ecological Systems Theory
The environment affects the child and the child influences the environment.
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The microsystem
activities and interactions in the child's immediate surroundings: parents, school, friends, etc.
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The mesosystem
relationships among the entities involved in the child's microsystem: parents' interactions with teachers, a school's interactions with the daycare provider
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The exosystem
social institutions which affect children indirectly: the parents' work settings and policies, extended family networks, mass media, community resources
129
The macrosystem
broader cultural values, laws and governmental resources
130
The chronosystem
changes which occur during a child's life, both personally, like the birth of a sibling and culturally, like the Iraqi war.
