Developmental Psychology Overview

Developmental Psychology

• Balyaev and Trut's Fox Experiment: Selective breeding of foxes resulted in tamer foxes compared to wild foxes, but not as tame as dogs.
• Rosenweig and Krech's Study: Investigated the effect of environment on rat brain development.
• Culture: Shared beliefs and practices of a group.
• Norms: Social rules governing behavior in cultures.
• Chromosomes: Structures carrying genetic information (46 total, 23 from each parent).
• Collectivist Culture: Prioritizes group goals over individual ones.
• Individualistic Culture: Emphasizes personal achievements and independence.
• Social Learning Theory: Learning through observation and imitation.
• Puberty: Period of sexual maturation enabling reproduction.
• Menarche: First menstrual cycle in females.
• Zygote: Fertilized egg; first stage of development (up to ~14 days).
• Embryo: Developing organism (2-8 weeks); organ formation, heart beat begins.
• Fetus: Developing organism (9 weeks to birth).
• Placenta: Organ providing nutrients to the fetus.
• Teratogen: Chemicals/viruses harming the developing fetus.
• Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS): Disorder from alcohol exposure; low birth weight, small head, developmental delays, etc.
• Reflexes: Automatic responses (rooting, swallowing, stepping, Babinski).
• Habituation: Newborns become bored with repeated stimuli and renew attention to change.
• Temperament: Characteristic emotional reactivity and sensitivity.

Cognitive Development

• Heritability: Extent to which individual differences are attributed to genes.
• Maturation: Biological growth processes influencing behavior (relatively independent of experience).
• Developmental Milestones: Timeline of key motor skills development (sitting, crawling, walking).
• Schema: Concept/framework organizing and interpreting information.
• Assimilation: Incorporating new experiences into existing schemas.
• Accommodation: Adapting schemas to incorporate new information.
• Object Permanence: Awareness that objects exist even when unseen.
• Self-Awareness: Recognizing oneself in a mirror.
• Egocentrism: Difficulty taking another's perspective.
• Conservation: Principle that properties like mass/volume/number remain despite changes in form.
• Theory of Mind: Understanding of one's own and others' mental states.
• Inner Speech: Vygotsky's concept; helps children control behavior, emotions, and master skills.
• Sensorimotor Stage (Piaget): 0-2 years; experiencing world through senses and actions.
• Preoperational Stage (Piaget): 2-7 years; representing things with words and images; intuitive reasoning.
• Concrete Operational Stage (Piaget): 7-11 years; logical thought about concrete events; grasp of analogies and math.
• Formal Operational Stage (Piaget): 12+ years; abstract reasoning.

Psychopathology

• Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): Childhood disorder with significant communication/social interaction deficits, and restricted/repetitive behaviors.

Attachment Theory

• Attachment Styles:
• Insecure-anxious: Constant craving for acceptance, vigilance for rejection.
• Insecure-avoidant: Discomfort with closeness, avoids intimacy.
• Secure: Trusting, empathetic, sets appropriate boundaries.
• Stranger Anxiety: Fear of strangers (typically begins around 8 months).

Social and Emotional Development

• Critical Period: Optimal time for certain stimuli to promote proper development.
• Imprinting: Strong attachments animals form during early life (not applicable to humans).

Parenting Styles

• Authoritarian: Strict rules, unquestioning obedience; children have fewer social skills, lower self-esteem, higher stress.
• Permissive: Few demands, little punishment; children may be aggressive, immature, dependent, manipulative.
• Uninvolved/Neglectful: Careless and inattentive; children experience low self-esteem and social difficulties.
• Authoritative: Demanding but responsive; children have higher self-esteem, self-reliance, and social responsibility.

Moral Development (Kohlberg)

• Preconventional: Self-interest; rules followed to avoid punishment or gain rewards.
• Conventional: Upheld laws/rules to gain social approval or maintain order.
• Postconventional: Moral reasoning transcends societal rules; considers principles that might require changing rules.

Psychosocial Development (Erikson)

• Stages: Trust vs. Mistrust (infant), Identity vs. Confusion (adolescence), Intimacy vs. Isolation (young adulthood), Generativity vs. Stagnation (middle age).

Research Methods and Concepts

• Ecological Systems Theory: Closer systems exert greater influence on the individual.
• Cross-cultural Studies: Comparing different cultural contexts.
• Longitudinal Studies: Same individuals studied over an extended period.
• Crystallized Intelligence: Knowledge accumulated over time (doesn't decline with age).
• Fluid Intelligence: Reasoning speed (declines with age).
• Correlation vs. Experiment: Correlation shows relationships; experiment reveals cause-and-effect.

Sensory and Perception

• Sensation: Process of receiving and interpreting visual stimuli.