Developmental Psychology Overview

Developmental Psychology

• Studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the lifespan.

Stability vs. Change

• Addresses whether early personality traits persist or if individuals change over time.

Nature vs. Nurture

• Explores the interplay between genetics (nature) and experience (nurture) in shaping development.

Continuous and Discontinuous Stages

• Examines whether development is gradual and continuous or abrupt and stage-like.

Research Methods

• Cross-Sectional Research: Compares different age groups at a single point in time.
• Longitudinal Research: Follows and retests the same individuals over time.

Prenatal Development

• Teratogens: Harmful agents (chemicals, viruses) affecting fetal development.
• Maternal Illnesses: Illnesses that can negatively impact the fetus.
• Genetic Mutations: Changes in genetic material passed to subsequent generations.

Infancy

• Rooting Reflex: Newborn's head turning towards a stimulus on its cheek.
• Imprinting: Strong attachment process in certain animal species during early life.
• Visual Cliff: Laboratory device testing depth perception in infants.
• Critical Periods: Optimal periods for specific stimuli for normal development.

Adolescence

• Puberty: Period of sexual maturation enabling reproduction.
• Primary Sex Characteristics: Body structures enabling reproduction (ovaries, testes).
• Secondary Sex Characteristics: Non-reproductive sexual traits (breasts, voice, hair).
• Menarche: First menstrual period.
• Spermarche: First ejaculation.
• Menopause: Cessation of menstruation and associated reproductive decline in women.

Sex & Gender

• Sex: Biological characteristics distinguishing males and females.
• Gender: Societal attitudes, feelings, and behaviors associated with sex.

Cognitive Development: Piaget's Theory

• Egocentrism: Difficulty understanding another person's perspective.

• Schema: Mental framework organizing and interpreting information.

• Assimilation: Fitting new experiences into existing schemas.

• Accommodation: Modifying schemas to incorporate new information.

• Sensorimotor Stage: Infants learn through senses and motor actions (birth-2 years).

• Object Permanence: Understanding that objects exist even when out of sight.

• Preoperational Stage: Children use language but lack logical reasoning (2-7 years).

• Conservation: Understanding that quantities remain the same despite changes in appearance.

• Reversability: Mentally reversing a mathematical operation.

• Concrete Operational Stage: Logical thinking about tangible events (7-11 years).

• Formal Operational Stage: Abstract and hypothetical reasoning (12 years onward).

Cognitive Development: Vygotsky's Theory

• Scaffolding: Temporary support for cognitive development.
• Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD): Difference between what a child can do alone and with support.

Intelligence

• Crystallized Intelligence: Accumulated knowledge and verbal skills.

Aging

• Dementia: Gradual decline in mental abilities.

Language Development

• Phonemes: Smallest distinctive sound units.

• Morphemes: Smallest units of meaning.

• Semantics: Study of meaning in language.

• Grammar: Rules for combining words to communicate.

• Syntax: Arrangement of words in sentences.

• Cooing: Early vowel sounds.

• Babbling: Nonsense sounds.

• One-Word Stage: Single-word speech.

• Telegraphic Speech: Simple sentences using mostly nouns and verbs.

• Overgeneralization: Applying grammar rules inconsistently.

Attachment Theory & Parenting Styles

• Attachment: Emotional bond with another person.
• Authoritarian Parenting: Strict, little warmth.
• Authoritative Parenting: Warmth, high standards, explanation, consistent rules.
• Permissive Parenting: Few limits.
• Secure Attachment: Comfort and confidence from caregiver.
• Insecure Attachment: Anxiety or ambivalence regarding caregiver.
• Avoidant Attachment: Discomfort with closeness.
• Anxious Attachment: Anxiety or ambivalence toward caregiver.
• Disorganized Attachment: Inconsistent reactions to caregiver.
• Separation Anxiety: Distress from separation from caregiver.
• Stranger Anxiety: Fear of strangers.

Other Concepts

• Temperament: Early-appearing differences in emotional reactivity.
• Parallel Play: Playing alongside others without interacting.
• Pretend Play: Symbolic activities using imagination.
• Social Clock: Culturally preferred timing of life events.
• Emerging Adulthood: Transition period between adolescence and adulthood.
• Psychosocial Development (Erikson): Eight stages of psychosocial development.
• Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs): Experiences that are potentially harmful.
• Identity: Sense of self.
• Identity Statuses: Diffusion, Foreclosure, Moratorium, Achievement.

Learning

• Associative Learning: Learning that events occur together.
• Behavioral Perspective (Behaviorism): Focus on observable behaviors.
• Classical Conditioning: Linking stimuli to anticipate events.
• Acquisition: Initial stage of learning the conditioned response.
• Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): Unlearned cause.
• Unconditioned Response (UCR): Unlearned effect.
• Conditioned Response (CR): Learned effect.
• Conditioned Stimulus (CS): Learned cause.
• Extinction: Diminishing of the conditioned response.
• Ecological Systems Theory: Framework for understanding environmental influences on development

This quiz covers key concepts in developmental psychology, including stability vs. change, nature vs. nurture, and stages of development. You'll also explore research methods in development and factors affecting prenatal development. Test your knowledge on how individuals evolve throughout the lifespan.