Developmental Psychology

Question 1

Developmental psychology

Answer 1

= studies of human growth across the lifespan

Question 2

Why study developmental psychology

Answer 2

• To understand human nature
  
  • To shape social policy
  • To enrich human life

Question 3

Why study child development

Answer 3

• To understand human nature and how genetics and environment affect development
  
  • To shape social policy and how we can conduct research with children while protecting their human rights
  • To Erich human life and what psychology can tell us about effective child-rearing and mental health

Question 4

Seven Enduring Themes

Answer 4

Continuity and Discontinuity
Mechanisms for change
Universality and context specific
individual differences
nature and nurture
research and children’s welfare
the active child

Question 5

continuity and discontinuity

Answer 5

4 types of change : continuity, discontinuity, continuous change, discontinuous change

Question 6

mechanisms for change

Answer 6

What mechanisms are needed for developmental change to occur?
Stages of change : Precontemplation, Contemplation, Preparation, Action, Maintenance, Relapse

Question 7

universality and context specificity

Answer 7

Universal across contexts and cultures buy exclusive to some cultures and contexts

Question 8

individual differences

Answer 8

How do children with a shared background become different from each other?

Question 9

Nature and nurture

Answer 9

How do nature and nurture together shape development

Question 10

research and children’s welfare

Answer 10

How can research promote children’s welfare?

Question 11

the active child

Answer 11

How do children shape their own development

Question 12

what is cognitive development

Answer 12

= how people think, learn, explore, remember and solve problems
* Perception
* Attention
* Language
* Problem solving
* Memory
Reasoning

Question 13

developmental themes

Answer 13

• Continuity and Discontinuity
  
  • Nature and Nurture
  • The Active Child
  • Mechanisms of Change

Question 14

Piagets theory

Answer 14

1. Sensorimotor stage
   
   2. Preoperational stage
   3. Concrete operational stage
   4. Formal operational stage

Question 15

Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory

Answer 15

1. Infants have basic cognition skills e.g. attention, sensation, perception and memory
   As infants interact with others these skills become more refined

Question 16

intelligence

Answer 16

the capacity to learn from experience and adapt to one’s environment

Question 17

general intelligence

Answer 17

= a person possesses a certain amount of general intelligence that influences their ability on all intellectual tasks
* Cognitive ability
* General mental ability
* General intelligence factor
* Intelligence

Question 18

mental age

Answer 18

= average age at which children achieve a given score on Binet and Simon’s test

Question 19

IQ

Answer 19

Mental age/ chronological age x 100

Question 20

social development

Answer 20

= the gradual acquisition of certain skills, attitudes, relationships and behaviour that enables the individual to interact with other and to function as a member of society

Question 21

themes of social development

Answer 21

• Continuity and discontinuity
  
  • Mechanisms of change
  • Active child
  • Nature and nurture

Question 22

Freud’s theory of psychosexual development

Answer 22

Concerned w the relationship between the conscious and unconscious
Relevant to how personality develops across different stages of psychosexual development

Question 23

Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development

Answer 23

Concerned with how people learn specific behaviours
Relevant to how learning of behaviour can take place across lifespan and has ongoing consequences for the persons life
E.g. Watson, Skinner and Bandura

Question 24

Autism DSM-5 Definitions

Answer 24

1. Social communication and interaction deficits
   
   • Social reciprocity
   • Non-verbal communication
   • Social relationship
     2. Restricted and repetitive behaviour
   • Stereotyped or repetitive motor movements (stimming)
   • Insistence on sameness
   • Restricted or fixated interests
   • Hyper or hypo reactivity to sensory input

Question 25

Emotions

Answer 25

= combination of physiological and cognitive responses to thoughts or experiences - Neural responses - Physiological factors - Subjective feelings - Emotional expressions - The desire to take action

Question 26

Are emotions innate or learned?

Answer 26

We are born with 6 basic emotions Lekman (1992) - Joy - Sadness - Anger - Disgust - Fear - Surprise

Question 27

Constructivist perspective

Answer 27

= emotions are learned through individual experiences, cultural context and social interactions

Question 28

Functionalist perspective

Answer 28

= emotions are biologically evolved responses that serve adaptive functions, helping individuals navigate and respond to environmental challenges for survival and well-being

Question 29

Emotion regulation

Answer 29

= a set of both conscious and unconscious processes used to both monitor and modulate emotional experiences and expressions

Question 30

Temperance

Answer 30

= individual differences in emotion, activity level and attention that are exhibited across contexts Influenced by genes and environment

Question 31

What is culture

Answer 31

= a socially transmitted or constructed constellation consisting of practices, competencies, ideas, schemas, symbols, values, norms, institutions, goals, rules, artefacts, and modifications of the physical environment

Question 32

The relationship between culture and development

Answer 32

Culture shapes development E.g. schemas and symbols lead to intelligence Ideas lead to problem solving

Question 33

Nature

Answer 33

Nature Genetic Make-up Cell maturation Evolutionary behaviour Biological systems

Question 34

Nurture

Answer 34

Nurture environment Learning Peers, friends Cultural influences

Question 35

How does developmental diversity occur?

Answer 35

1. Genotype = genetic material one person inherits 2. Phenotype = the observable expression of the genotype 3. Environment = all other aspects other than the genetic material itself

Question 36

4 fundamental relationships in developmental diversity

Answer 36

1. Parents genotype - child's genotype = transmission of chromosomes and genes from parent to offspring 2. Child's genotype - Child's phenotype = child's phenotype is an expression of their genotype 3. Child's environment - child's phenotype = impact of environment on the child's phenotype - Epigenetics - Life decisions - Availability of options 4. Child's phenotype - child's environment = manner of interaction, home environment, experiences they arrange, encouragement for particular behaviours and attitudes

Question 37

Heritability

Answer 37

= the proportion of variability in the population that is attributed to genetic differences