Questions and Answers
What is human development?
The process of growth and change that takes place between birth and maturity (until death). It is the scientific study of age-related changes throughout the human life span.
What is developmental psychology?
It recognizes humans of all societies and cultures as beings who are “in process,” or constantly growing and changing. This discipline identifies the biological, psychological, and social aspects that interact to influence the growing human life-span process.
What is a developmental norm?
A standard based upon the average abilities or performances of children of a specified age.
What is the history of developmental psychology?
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What are the assumptions within developmental psychology?
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What is the lifespan perspective?
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The stability versus change debate suggests that personality is fundamentally shaped during the early childhood years and remains relatively the same thereafter.
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What is the nature-nurture debate?
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What is the biopsychosocial framework?
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What are the contexts for development?
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What are the research approaches in developmental psychology?
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What does cognitive development refer to?
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Natural selection is the process by which the least adapted individuals of a species survive and reproduce.
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Define plasticity in developmental psychology.
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Development involves growth, maintenance, and regulation of ________.
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Match the developmental stage with its description:
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What determines the baby's skin color according to the text?
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Eating twin bananas can increase the chances of having twins. (True/False)
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What can cause the umbilical cord to wrap around the baby's neck?
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By 2 years of age, infants weigh approximately 26 to 32 pounds, having gained a quarter to half a pound per month during the 2nd year to reach 1/5 of their adult ________.
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Match the brain lobe with its primary function:
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How are genes passed on from parents to children?
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Genetic information stored in DNA is in the form of a double helix.
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What are the benefits of breastfeeding?
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What is a gene?
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What is marasmus and what causes it?
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Describe Kwashiorkor and its characteristics.
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Chromosomes always come in __ pairs.
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According to Thelen's and Smith's dynamic systems theory, what factors contribute to the development of motor skills?
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Match the blood group with the corresponding genetic allele:
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What do the terms 'dominant allele' and 'recessive allele' refer to?
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Genetic disorders can only be caused by mutations in one gene.
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What is the term used to describe children actively seeking environments that match their interests and talents?
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The epigenetic view emphasizes the interchange between __ and environment.
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What is the primary purpose of primary circular reactions in Piaget's sensorimotor substage?
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Which sensorimotor substage is associated with infants becoming more object-oriented?
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The coordination of secondary circular reactions substage occurs between 8 and 12 months of age.
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At what age does social smiling typically occur?
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___ ___________ is the ability to understand that objects continue to exist even when the infant is no longer observing them.
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Match the language-related term with its description:
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Which type of smile occurs in response to external stimuli, such as a face?
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Infants develop fear around 6 months of age.
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Chess and Thomas classified infants into three categories: (1) easy, (2) difficult, or (3) _______ to warm up.
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Match the temperament classification with its description:
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What are some recommendations for caregivers to improve young children's eating behavior?
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What is not recommended in caregiver behaviors towards young children's eating?
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Children should get at least 3 hours of physical activity per day, according to recent guidelines from expert panels.
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The poor often experience hunger, malnutrition, illness, inadequate access to health care, unsafe water, and lack of protection from ____. (harm)
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Match the following cognitive stages with their key characteristics:
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Study Notes
Introduction to Human Development
- Human development is the process of growth and change that takes place between birth and maturity, until death.
- It is the scientific study of age-related changes throughout the human life span.
What is Developmental Psychology?
- Developmental psychology recognizes humans of all societies and cultures as beings who are constantly growing and changing.
- It identifies the biological, psychological, and social aspects that interact to influence the growing human life-span process.
What is a Norm?
- A developmental norm is a standard based on the average abilities or performances of children of a specified age.
- Norms refer to averages of growth, development, work-rate, or various other abilities observed across populations.
History of Developmental Psychology
- In ancient to middle ages, children were seen as inherently evil and discipline was harsh.
- In modern viewpoints, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau saw children as inherently good, but society as bad.
- In the 1800s, developmental psychology began to recognize different stages of development according to age, including infancy, childhood, adulthood, and old age.
- In the 1950s, the stage of adolescence was identified.
- Within the last 25 years, researchers have expanded their focus to include the study of physical, motor, cognitive, intellectual, emotional, personality, social, and moral changes throughout all stages of life.
Assumptions Within Developmental Psychology
- Development is lifelong and occurs across the lifespan of the individual, including both growth and ageing.
- Development is multidimensional, with biological, socio-emotional, and cognitive aspects overlapping.
- Development is multidirectional, with some dimensions increasing or growing while others decrease.
- Development is fluid, with many paths and potential for change.
- Development is embedded in history, with historical conditions influencing development.
- Development is multidisciplinary, with sociologists, psychologists, linguists, anthropologists, medical researchers, and neuroscientists all studying human development from different perspectives.
- Development is contextual, with individuals responding to and acting on various contexts that influence them.
Debates Within Developmental Psychology
- The lifespan perspective examines changes at all ages, from adolescence to late adulthood.
- Stability vs. change debates whether personality is shaped during early childhood years and remains relatively stable thereafter.
- Nature vs. nurture debates whether heredity or environment has a greater influence on human development.
- Continuity vs. discontinuity debates whether developmental growth follows a gradual and cumulative pattern or takes place in clearly differentiated stages.
Contexts for Development
- Biological context: health and physical status
- Social context: family network, friends, peers, and colleagues
- Cultural context: the dominant culture in which the subject grows up
- Historical context: the times in which the subject grows up
- Economic context: the subject's financial and work environment
- Intellectual context: the subject's ability to deal with new challenges
Research Approaches
- Case study example
- Biopsychosocial framework/model: the interaction of biological, psychological, and social aspects of developmental psychology
Criticisms of Developmental Psychology
- Developmental psychology as a means of social regulation and control
- The 'normalizing' effects of developmental psychology
- The 'colonialism' of normalization
- The 'blameworthy mother'
- An isolated focus on the individual child
Approaches/Perspectives of Personality Development
- Psychoanalytic approaches: observe the significance of childhood in the development of personality
- Cognitive development: the collective term for the processes involved in acquiring, organizing, manipulating, and using knowledge.### Human Development Stages
- Middle and late childhood: master fundamental skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic, and are formally exposed to the larger world and its culture.
- Adolescence: begins with rapid physical changes, and the pursuit of independence and identity are preeminent.
- Emerging adulthood: the transition from adolescence to adulthood, typically from 18-25 years of age.
- Early adulthood: a time of establishing personal and economic independence, advancing in a career, and selecting a mate.
- Middle adulthood: a time of expanding personal and social involvement, and reaching and maintaining satisfaction in a career.
- Late adulthood: a time of life review, retirement, and adjustment to new social roles and diminishing strength and health.
Theories of Development
- Evolutionary perspective: emphasizes the importance of adaptation, reproduction, and "survival of the fittest" in shaping behavior.
- Evolutionary psychology: emphasizes the importance of adaptation, reproduction, and "survival of the fittest" in shaping behavior.
Prenatal Development
- Genetic information: stored in DNA, which is passed on from cell to cell during cell division.
- Genes: the sequence of genetic information that contains the building instructions for a specific protein.
- Chromosomes: strands in a cell nucleus, with 22 pairs of autosomes and 2 sex chromosomes.
- Alleles: different versions of genes, which can result in different traits.
- Dominant and recessive alleles: the stronger allele determines the trait, overriding the weaker allele.
Genetic Disorders or Abnormalities
- Monogenic disorder: genetic disorders caused by a mutation in one gene.
- Multifactorial inheritance disorder: genetic disorders caused by mutations in multiple genes.
- Gene-linked abnormalities: involve harmful or absent genes.
Prenatal Diagnostic Tests
- Ultrasound sonography, fetal MRI, chorionic villus sampling, amniocentesis, and maternal blood screening are used to determine whether a fetus is developing normally.
Behavior Genetics
- Heredity and environment influence individual differences in human traits and development.
- Research methods: twin studies and adoption studies.
Scarr's Heredity Environment Correlation
- Passive: children inherit genetic tendencies from their parents, and parents also provide an environment that matches their own genetic tendencies.
- Evocative: the child's genetic tendencies elicit stimulation from the environment that supports a particular trait.
- Active (niche-picking): children actively seek out "niches" in their environment that reflect their own interests and talents.
Shared and Non-Shared Environmental Experiences
- Shared environmental experiences: siblings' common experiences, such as their parents' personalities or intellectual orientation.
- Non-shared environmental experiences: unique experiences, both within the family and outside of the family, that are not shared with a sibling.
Epigenetic View
- Development is the result of an ongoing, bidirectional interchange between heredity and environment.
- Gene x environment interaction: the interaction of a specific measured variation in DNA and a specific measured aspect of the environment.
Pregnancy Superstitions among Filipinos
- A pregnant woman's cravings will not affect the baby's appearance.
- Avoiding wearing necklaces or wrapping towels around the neck will not affect the baby's development.
- Attending funerals will not affect the baby's development.
- Eating twin bananas will not increase the chances of having twins.
- Sewing or stepping over ropes will not affect labor difficulties.### Neonatal Development: Physical, Brain, and Motor Development
- Cephalocaudal Pattern: developmental sequence in which the earliest growth occurs at the top – the head – with physical growth in size, weight, and feature differentiation gradually working from top to bottom.
- Proximodistal Pattern: developmental sequence in which growth starts at the center of the body and moves towards the extremities.
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Height and Weight:
- Newborns lose 5-7% of their body weight in the first few days before adjusting to feeding.
- Infants gain 5-6 ounces per week during the 1st month, doubling their birth weight by 4 months, and nearly tripling it by 1st birthday.
- Infants grow about 1 inch per month during the 1st year, doubling their birth length by 1st birthday.
- By 2 years, infants weigh approximately 26-32 pounds, having gained a quarter to half a pound per month.
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Brain Development:
- By birth, the brain contains approximately 100 billion neurons.
- The brain grows rapidly in the first two years, with the frontal lobes developing later.
- The brain's areas do not mature uniformly.
- Experience plays a crucial role in brain development.
- Neuroconstructivist View: emphasizes the interaction between experience and gene expression in brain development.
Brain Development: Regions and Functions
- Forebrain: includes the cerebral cortex and several structures beneath it.
- Cerebral Cortex: covers the forebrain like a wrinkled cap.
- Brain Hemispheres: two halves, or hemispheres, with different primary functions.
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Lobes: four main areas in each hemisphere:
- Frontal Lobes: involved in voluntary movement, thinking, personality, and intentionality.
- Occipital Lobes: function in vision.
- Temporal Lobes: active in hearing, language processing, and memory.
- Parietal Lobes: play a role in registering spatial location, attention, and motor control.
- Lateralization: specialization of function in one hemisphere or the other.
Sleep and Nutrition
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Sleep:
- Newborns sleep about 18 hours a day.
- By 6 months, many infants approach adult-like sleeping patterns.
- REM sleep is present more in early infancy than in childhood and adulthood.
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Nutrition:
- Individual differences in nutrient reserves, body composition, growth rates, and activity patterns make defining nutrient needs difficult.
- Caregivers play a crucial role in infants' early development of eating patterns.
Motor Development: Reflexes, Gross, and Fine Motor Skills
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Reflexes: automatic movements, govern the newborn's behavior.
- Rooting Reflex: a newborn's built-in reaction to find something to suck.
- Sucking Reflex: enables infant to get nourishment.
- Moro Reflex: a neonatal startle response.
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Gross Motor Skills:
- Involve large-muscle activities.
- Key skills developed during infancy include control of posture and walking.
- The age at which infants reach milestones in gross motor development may vary.
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Fine Motor Skills:
- Involve finely tuned movements.
- The onset of reaching and grasping marks a significant accomplishment.
- Infants refine their ability to grasp objects by developing two types of grasps: palmer grasp and pincer grip.
Sensory and Perceptual Development
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Sensation and Perception:
- Sensation: the product of the interaction between information and sensory receptors.
- Perception: the interpretation of what is sensed.
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Ecological View:
- States that we directly perceive information that exists in the world around us.
- Perception brings people in contact with the environment to interact with and adapt to it.
- Affordances: objects have opportunities for interaction offered by objects that fit within our capabilities to perform activities.
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Visual Acuity and Human Faces:
- Newborns cannot see small things that are far away.
- Estimated at 20/240 on the Snellen chart.
- By 6 months, their vision becomes 20/40.
- Infants spend more time looking at their mother's face than a stranger's.
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Other Senses:
- The fetus can hear during the last two months of pregnancy.
- Newborns can respond to touch and feel pain.
- Newborns can differentiate odors, and sensitivity to taste may be present before birth.
- Intermodal Perception: early exploratory forms of this are present in newborns and become sharper over the first year of life.
Cognitive Development
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Jean Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development:
- Children actively construct their own cognitive worlds.
- Schemes: actions or mental representations that organize knowledge.
- Assimilation: occurs when children use their existing schemes to deal with new information.
- Accommodation: children's adjustment of their schemes in the face of new information.
- Organization: children group isolated behaviors into a higher-order, more smoothly functioning cognitive system.
- Equilibration: explains how children shift from one stage to another.
- Sensorimotor Stage (birth – about 2 years of age): infants construct an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences and motoric actions.
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Description
Explore the basics of human development, a scientific study of age-related changes throughout the human life span. Learn how and why people change over time and what makes them unique and similar.