Exam #1 Flashcards
1
Q
Development
A
A process of age-related changes across the lifespan, changes in growth, feelings, patterns of thinking.
2
Q
What are the five assumptions of the life-span perspective?
A
- Development is lifelong
- Development is multidimensional
- Development is multidirectional
- Development is highly plastic (open to change)
- Development is affected by multiple interacting influences
3
Q
Age-graded influences
A
Influences that are similar for individuals in a particular age group.
Ex. Walking, puberty, driving, etc.
4
Q
History-graded influences
A
Forces that influence the behavior and attitudes of individuals in a certain generation at a formative time in their lives - cohort.
Ex. Parenting styles
5
Q
Nonnormative influences
A
Unusual occurrences- major impact but not applicable to many people.
Ex. Car crash, winning the lottery, cancer, etc.
6
Q
Theory
A
An orderly, integrated set of statements that describes, explains, and predicts behavior.
Ex. Responding to a crying child based on your childcare theory
7
Q
Organismic theories
A
Change stimulated from within the organism, active
8
Q
Mechanistic theories
A
Change stimulated by environment, passive
9
Q
Continuous development
A
Gradually adding on more
Ex. Human development
10
Q
Discontinuous development - stage
A
New understandings emerge at particular periods - stage = qualitative changes
Ex. Caterpillar –> butterfly
11
Q
Nature vs. Nurture
A
Genetic, inborn qualities vs. learning and experience
12
Q
What is the premise of Psychodynamic Developmental Theories?
A
Governed by motives and drives that are internal and often unconscious (beyond awareness).
-Children move through stages in which they confront conflicts between inner needs and drives and external demands and expectations
-How conflicts are resolved determine psychological adjustment and personality
13
Q
Freud’s Theory of Psychosexual Development
A
Basic personality and psychological functioning is determined by the Id, Ego, and Superego.
14
Q
Id
A
Present at birth, represents biological needs/desires, requires immediate gratification; unconscious.
15
Q
Ego
A
Conscious, rational, problem-solving; Emerges in early infancy, restricts id; masters and controls urges.
16
Q
Superego
A
Moral and ethical component, develops from ages 3 to 6, includes conscience and ego-ideal.
17
Q
How does Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory differ from Freud’s Theory?
A
a. Covers the lifespan
b. Viewed personality development as a psychosocial process- roles of social interactions and cultures
c. Emphasized psychosocial crisis/conflict - 8 stages - successful mastery results in a personality strength or virtue
d. More emphasis on ego than id
18
Q
Ego Identity
A
A basic sense of who we are as individuals in terms of self-concept and self-image.
19
Q
What is the premise of Learning Theories?
A
Environment controls behavior. Emphasize role of behavior.
20
Q
Traditional Behaviorism - Watson
A
Observable stimulus-response associations, classical conditioning
21
Q
Skinner’s Operant Conditioning
A
The consequences of a behavior determine whether or not it is repeated in the future.
22
Q
Reinforcement
A
Increases likelihood.
Positive = something added
Negative = something removed
23
Q
Punishment
A
Decreases likelihood.
24
Q
Bandura’s Social Learning Theory/Social Cognitive Theory
A
-Observational learning (observing the behavior of others)
-Processing of information from environment contributes to learning
-Factors govern decision-making
Ex. Who to model?
25
Piaget's Cognitive Developmental Theory
-Child is active, naïve scientist (constructivist)
-Learning occurs in stages; thinking becomes qualitatively different across these stages
-Want to seek equilibrium= balance between belief systems and information encountered in everyday world
26
Assimilation
Children incorporate new information into existing knowledge systems.
27
Accommodation
Children change existing knowledge systems to accommodate new information.
28
Information Processing - Computer Metaphor
-Human mind as symbol manipulating system through which information flows- use computer analogies to model- focus on steps involved in mental activities.
-Not stagelike- change is increase in children's knowledge base in a particular area (not overall)
29
Vygotsky's Sociocultural Cognitive Theory
-Focuses on how culture is transmitted between generations
-Higher mental functions grow out of social interactions and dialogues- cooperative dialogues
-Cognitive development as a socially mediated process
30
Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory
-Person develops within a multi-layered system of relationships
-How are interfamilial processes affected by extra familiar conditions?
31
Microsystem
Person's immediate environment
32
Mesosystem
Connections between microsystems
33
Exosystem
Outside contexts that affect microsystem
34
Macrosystem
Cultural laws, values, customs
35
Chronosystem
Temporal component- change over lifecourse and history
36
What are the foundations of human environment?
Hereditary and environment
37
Genotype
Genetic make-up, set of genes inherited.
38
Phenotype
The way an individual's genotype is expressed in observable characteristics.
39
Chromosomes
Rodlike structures inside cell nucleus that store and transmit genetic information - 23 pairs in each cell.
40
Autosomes
Regular pairs - 22 of the 23 pairs.
41
Sex chromosomes
23rd pair - determine sex of child.
42
DNA
Active biochemical substance that programs the cells to manufacture vital protein substances.
43
Gene
A segment of DNA along the length of the chromosomes - contains hereditary instructions.
44
Alleles
Genes in different forms.
45
Homozygous
Alleles in the same pair are the same.
46
Heterozygous
Alleles in the pair differ.
47
Sex cells
Gametes - sperm, ova. Hold 23 chromosomes (instead of 46).
48
Dominant-recessive
Dominant gene in pair overrides recessive gene.
49
Incomplete dominance
Both the dominant and recessive alleles are expressed.
50
X-linked inheritance
Recessive gene carried on X chromosome in 23rd pair. Women are protected, men are not protected.
51
Genomic imprinting
Genes are chemically marked or imprinted and will behave differently depending on whether they came from a mother or father.
52
Polygenic inheritance
Multiple genes interact to produce a characteristic.
53
Heritability estimates
Measure the extent to which individual differences in complex traits in a specific population are due to genetic factors.
54
How is heritability determined?
Through kinship studies, which examine patterns of behaviors and traits in family members.
Ex. Adoption studies, twin studies
55
Concordance rates
Percentage of instances in which both twins show a trait when it is present in one twin - except differences based on twin status.
56
Fraternal/Diygotic twins
Two fertilized ova, share 50% of genes.
57
Identical/Monozygotic twins
One zygote that divides into two individuals, share 100% of genes.
58
Gene-environment interaction
Individuals, because of their genetic makeups, will differ in their reactions to qualities of the environment.
59
Passive genotype/environment interactions
Parents provide environment influenced by own hereditary. Because they are genetically related, child may be predisposed to be responsive to this environment.
60
Evocative genotype/environment interactions
Different genetically-based attributes evoke certain responses.
61
Niche-picking/Active influences
Individuals seek out environments most compatible with their genetic predispositions. More central as children age.
62
Epigenesis
Development results from ongoing bidirectional exchanges between hereditary and all levels of environment.
63
Environmental influences for a child
Family, peers/classmates, schools/teachers, neighborhood, towns/cities, social class, economic status, larger cultural context and cultural values.
64
How is socioeconomic status assessed?
Parental education, occupation prestige, income.
65
Extent of poverty
-15% of Americans live in poverty, 21% of U.S. children. Often in single-parent families.
-Generally involves cumulative, environmental risk exposure
-Stress of poverty weakens the family system
66
What issues are families in poverty often confronted with?
-Inadequate housing and dangerous/unhealthy neighborhoods
-More household disruption, daily hassles, frequent crises
-Fewer neighborhood resources (Ex. parks, supermarkets)
-Fewer cognitive enrichment opportunities
67
What are the consequences of poverty on children (what is affected)?
-Discipline and parenting
-Physical health status
-Socioemotional functioning
-Cognitie functioning
68
Evans and English (2002)
-Examined the environment of poverty, testing exposure to risks and their impacts on stress and socioemotional adjustment.
-3 psychosocial stressors, 3 physical stressors, socioemotional adjustment, chronic stress.
-Poverty = greater psychological distress and more chronic distress
69
Developmental niche
The interaction of components that affects what goes on within the microsystem and determines the unique world of the child.
70
How does culture shape our everyday physical and social settings?
Size and type of living space, sleeping and eating schedules and locations, social conditions (resources, people, material goods), daily activities of children, childcare, caregiver psychology.
71
What is a Bad Kid? (Crystal & Stevenson, 1995)
-Expected that perceptions of deviance, like perceptions of normalcy, would be influenced by sociocultural values.
-Surveyed 200+ 11th graders and their mothers in three locations
-"Think of someone your (child's) age who you would consider to be a 'bad kid'. Describe what kind of person that would be"
-Responses coded and placed into seven categories
-Found cultural differences in types of responses
72
Fertilization
Union of sperm and ovum; genetic material fuses
73
Zygote
Fertilized egg
74
What is the duration from fertilization to implantation?
~2 weeks
75
Blastocyst
Hollow, fluid-filled ball of cells
76
Embryonic disk
Cells on inside- become new organism
77
Trophoblast
Outer ring of cells - will develop into these 3 life-support systems.
78
Amnion
Protective-covering, encloses organism in amniotic fluid, a cushion and temperature regulator.
79
Placenta
A disc-shaped mass of tissue-partial filter- permits food and oxygen to reach organism and waste products to be carried away.
80
Umbilical cord
Rope of tissue that connects placenta to developing organism (the anchor).
81
What happens to the embryo from 2-8 weeks?
Groundwork for all body structures and internal organs is begun.
82
Ectoderm
Outermost- nervous system, skin
83
Mesoderm
Middle- muscles, skeleton, circulatory system
84
Endoderm
Inner- digestive system, lungs, glands
85
Neural tube
Primitive spinal cord and brain
86
What development occurs during weeks 4-8?
Rapid development of body parts and systems. 3 life support systems mature and develop rapidly.
87
Miscarriages
Spontaneous abortions, about 15-20% of recognized pregnancies; 90% occur by 12-13 weeks
88
Trimesters
3 equal time periods in the 9-month prenatal period
89
What happens at the end of the first trimester?
-Complete physical structures
-Organs, muscles, nervous system organize and connect
-Behavioral changes in fetus
-External genitals well-formed by 12th week
-Fetal heartbeat audible with stethoscope
90
What happens in the second trimester?
Mother can feel movements, and nearly all brain's neurons produced by trimester's end.
91
Vernix
White, cheesecake substance covers fetus and protects skin from becoming chapped.
92
Lanugo
White, downy hair- helps vernix stick to skin.
93
Age of viability
(22 to 26 weeks) Age at which fetus can first survive if born early- 50/50 chance after about 24 weeks.
94
What happens was the fetus prepares for the outside world?
Cerebral cortex enlarges, organized behavior, responds to sounds in external world, layer of fat develops under skin (8th month), changes position and loses coating.
95
What are some risk factors with pregnancy?
Maternal nutrition, emotional stress, maternal age.
96
Teratogens
Any environmental agent that causes damage during the prenatal period.
97
What is the frequency of birth defects?
5-8% of live births
98
How does the impact of teratogens vary?
Dose, genetic predispositions, presence of other factors, and time of exposure.
99
What are some common effects of teratogens?
Low birth weight, prematurity, miscarriage, underdeveloped brain.
100
7 common teratogens
Illegal drugs. tobacco/nicotine, alcohol, prescription/nonprescription medications, radiation, environmental pollution, infectious disease.
101
How do paternal factors matter?
Exposure to certain toxins can lead to abnormal sperm, leading to birth defects or low birth weight. Later paternal age associated with some birth defects and with autism.
102
Episiotomies
Surgical cuts
103
Analgesics
Relax mom and relieve pain- cross placental barrier- may sedate baby.
104
Regional anesthesia (epidural)
May prolong labor and cause trouble with pushing
105
What is the prevalence of Cesarean sections?
5.5% of births in 1970; 33% of births in 2015. Most common form of major surgery.
106
Why is a high rate of C-sections a problem?
Long recovery period, expensive, could signify a spiral of medicalization, and mother's psychological reaction can be negative.
107
What are the benefits of natural/prepared childbirth?
-Make the birth as comfortable and rewarding for the mother as possible.
-Classes, relaxation, coach
-Mom feels more in control
108
Doula
Trained to provide continuous physical and emotional support to the mother.
109
What are a newborn's average dimensions?
20 inches, 7.5 pounds.
109
Birthing centers
Intimacy of home birth with medical technology of hospital. Delivery performed by licensed midwife.
110
What is the Apgar Scale?
Used to assess the newborn's physical condition on 5 criteria: heart rate, respiratory effort, muscle tone, color, reflex irritability
111
When are Apgar Scale ratings given?
At 1 and 5 minutes.
112
What do Apgar Scale ratings mean?
7-10 indicates good physical condition. <3 signals an emergency.
113
Reflex
An inborn, automatic response to a particular form of stimulation. Organized behavior patterns that govern the newborn's movements.
114
What is the purpose of newborn reflexes?
Provide newborns with adaptive responses to their environments before we can learn about the world.
115
What are the characteristics of newborn reflexes?
Survival value, precursors of later motor skills, remains from earlier versions of homosapiens, duration, help with diagnosing early neurological problems.
116
Newborn Sensory Capacity: Touch
Sensitivity to touch and pain is well developed at birth. Helps stimulate physical and emotional development.
117
Newborn Sensory Capacity: Taste and smell
Highly developed sense of taste. Able to communicate taste and odor preferences. Some odor preferences are likely innate. Attracted to odor of mother's lactating breast.
118
Newborn Sensory Capacity: Hearing
Prefer complex sounds such as voices. Can distinguish almost all sounds in human languages. Can locate and orient to sounds at two months. Slow.
119
Newborn Sensory Capacity: Vision
Least mature of newborn senses. Visual acidity (fineness of discrimination) is limited.
120
What are the advantages of breast milk?
-Correct balance of fat and protein
-Nutritional completeness
-Protection against disease
-Digestibility
-Smoother transition to solid foods
-Often cheaper, more immediate, safer
-(For mother) Weight loss, breast cancer protection
121
Why is formula considered?
Medical reasons, historical trends, societal structures and barriers.
122
What are three patterns of growth for infants?
1. Spurts
2. Plump up and fill out (baby fat)
3. Unevenly
123
Cephalocaudal trend
Organized pattern of physical growth and motor control that proceeds from head to tail.
124
Proximodistal trend
Pattern of physical growth and motor control that proceeds from center of the body outward.
125
Big Development (infants)
Connections between neurons
-Growth of neural fibers and synapses
-Experience and stimulation play key role
-Eventual synaptic pruning: unused and unnecessary synapses are eliminated.
126
Myelination
Process in which neural fibers are coated with an insulating fatty sheath (myelin) - improves message transfer.
127
What is the upside and downside of early plasticity?
Downside: understimulation can lead to underdeveloped and smaller brains
Upside: Malleable early brain more likely to recover from strokes and injuries
128
Depth perception
The ability to judge the distance of objects from one another and from ourselves. Present at 2-3 months.
129
What is the role of motion on depth perception?
Provides information about depth.
130
What is the role of independent movement on depth perception?
Depth perception refinement. New level of brain organization.
131
Contrast sensitivity
Principle that if babies can detect a difference in contrast between two patterns, they will prefer the one with more contrast.
132
Sensorimotor stage
Infants "think" and learn about the world through their 5 senses and their motor skills.
133
Schemes
Psychological structures that organize experience.
134
Adaptation
Process of building schemes through direct interaction with the environment.
135
Organization
Internal process of rearranging and linking schemes.
136
The circular reaction
Means by which infants build schemes by trying to repeat chance events caused by their own motor activity.
137
Substage 1- Reflexive schemes
(birth to 1 month) Exercising reflexes, the building blocks of sensorimotor intelligence.
138
Substage 2- Primary circular reactions
(1-4 months) Circular reactions oriented towards infant's own body.
139
Substage 3- Secondary circular reactions
(4-8 months) Repeat interesting or novel events in the environment.
140
Substage 4- Coordination of secondary circular reactions
(8-12 months)
-Can engage in goal-directed behavior
-See beginnings of object permanence
-Problems with A-not-B task
141
Substage 5- Tertiary circular reactions
(12-18 months) Experimenting- repeating acts with variation (Ex. dropping food/objects off a high chair).
142
What is substage 6?
(18 months-2 years) Mental Representations: internal images of objects, actions, and events.
143
Deferred imitation
Ability to reproduce the behavior of models no longer present.
144
Behaviorist Perspective
Language acquired through operant conditioning (reward and reinforcement) and through imitation.
Problem? Unique verbal creations and errors.
145
Nativist Perspective
All children possess an innate, biologically-based system for language acquisition called the language acquisition device (LAD).
146
Interactionist Perspective
Language achievements emerge through an interaction of innate abilities and environmental influences.
147
What are the six characteristics of Infant-Directed Speech?
1. A high-pitched, exaggerated expression
2. Short sentences and phrases
3. Simplification
4. High proportion of questions and commands
5. Repetition
6. Expansions
148
What are interactive activities that facilitate language development?
1. Joint attention
2. Turn-taking games
3. Preverbal gestures
149
Cooing
~2 months; vowel sounds
150
Babbling
~6 months; with consonants
151
Intonation
~7 months; changes in pitch
152
Holophrastic speech
Use of single words to convey complete thoughts.
153
Overextension
Defining a word too broadly.
154
Underextension
Defining a word too narrowly.
155
Vocabulary explosion
(18-24 months) Vocabulary (or naming) explosion.
156
Telegraphic speech
Two-word utterances
