Developmental Psychology Quiz

Developmental Psychology - Lesson Notes

• Developmental Psychology Introduction:
  • Historical perspectives on child-rearing shifted from relying on elders (priests, family members) towards experts (doctors, psychologists) in the 20th century.
  • John Watson emphasized strict routines, while Benjamin Spock advocated affection and flexibility.
  • Modern parents increasingly utilize the internet for advice.
  • Developmental science seeks to understand variables influencing development and predict age-related changes in behavior, thinking, emotions, and social relationships.

Basic Issues in Development

• Attachment and Resilience:

  • Attachment is crucial for healthy psychological development, though relationships can be repaired later.
  • Resilience is the ability to overcome challenges influenced by the environment.

• Life Stages and Societal Constructs:

  • Development progresses through silence, squeaks, screams, maturity, decline, and death acceptance.
  • Shame and fear are socially constructed.
  • Maintaining parental stability after loss is vital.
  • Avoid "why" questions; ask about "what happened," "how you feel."
  • The Child's Adverse Event Scale assists in identifying traumatic experiences.
  • Predicting future behavior and understanding adolescent changes is essential.

• Cognitive Distortions:

  • Personal fable: A cognitive distortion where teens think they're invulnerable; this distorts reality, potentially leading to risk-taking behavior.

• Emotional Development:

  • Emotional processing differs across ages (e.g., a 2-year-old's lie differs from an adult.)
  • Toddlers lie to avoid trouble; older children demonstrate perspective-taking.

Child Development Definition

• Definition:

  • Development involves substantial and enduring changes in physical/neurological structures, thoughts, and behaviors.
  • Early patterns include rolling, sitting, then walking.
  • Simple behaviors precede complex ones.
  • Development typically occurs gradually, not instantaneously.
  • Brain development: The hindbrain is fully developed at birth, while the frontal lobe develops later.

• First Communication Steps:

  • Eye contact
  • Mimicking
  • Turn-taking

• Language Development:

  • 2-3 Months: Cooing.
  • Subsequent: Babbling.
  • First Words: Holophrases (single-word phrases).
  • Telegraphic Speech: Two-word phrases (e.g., "biscuit mama").
  • Neologisms: Made-up words (not necessarily articulatory).

• Goals in Child Development:

  • Universal Changes: Understanding consistent aspects of development across cultures.
  • Individual Differences: Explaining variations in responses or preferences.
  • Environmental Influences: Understanding the impact of context on behavior.

• Children's Needs:

  • Structure (predictability).
  • Routine (stability).
  • Predictability (security).

Perspectives on Development

• Nature vs. Nurture:
  • Nature (hereditary): Genetic traits (dimples, addiction).
  • Nurture (environmental): Physical and social factors influencing biology & psychology.
  • Idealists/Rationalists (Plato, Descartes): Knowledge is inborn.
  • Empiricists (e.g., John Locke): The mind is a blank slate.

Prenatal and Postnatal Factors

• Prenatal Factors: Stress, maternal diet (protein/malnutrition), substance use (thalidomide), or chronic illness can influence development. -Specific prenatal factors like smoking, alcohol, and drug use were mentioned.

  • Maternal health issues (e.g., STDs, chronic illness, environmental hazards) also influence development.

• Postnatal Factors: Abuse, neglect, postpartum depression, trauma, lead exposure.

  • Other postnatal factors mentioned include postnatal depression, intergenerational trauma, and failure to thrive.

Developmental Sequences and Stages

• Continuity vs. Discontinuity:

  • Continuous development: Gradual skill accumulation (quantitative).
  • Discontinuous development: New ways of responding emerge in distinct stages (qualitative).
  • Gait: Refers to walking; issues like ataxia involve problems with the cerebellum (part of the brain).

• Maturation (Gesell): Genetically driven patterns of development, relatively unaffected by environmental influences.

• Timing of Experience: Critical periods: Specific stimuli are essential for development; sensitive periods: Optimizing development.

• Prenatal/Perinatal/Postnatal Risks:

  • Prenatal: Cerebral palsy
  • Perinatal: Anoxia
  • Postnatal: Accidents, meningitis.

• Inborn Biases and Constraints: Development is guided by pre-existing biases or constraints; experiences are filtered through these.

• Behavior Genetics: The study of genetic contributions to individual differences using twin and adoption studies; genetic predispositions affect temperament and potential for disorders. -The text also noted a link to pathology and temperament.

• Gene-Environment Interaction: Genes affect the environment, behavior influences adult responses, interpretations are affected by genes. -Genes affect the environment; children affect adult responses; children are influenced by their temperament.

• Internal Models of Experience: Core values (e.g., "I am loved") shaped in early years influence how experiences are perceived.

• Aslin's Model of Environmental Influence:

  • Maturation: Genetically-determined (e.g., eye color).
  • Maintenance: Requires environmental input.
  • Facilitation: Experience accelerates skill development (temporary).
  • Attunement: Experience leads to permanent gains.
  • Induction: Experience is absolutely necessary.

• Ecological Perspective (Bronfenbrenner): Emphasizes the impact of social environments.

  • Microsystem: Direct interactions (e.g., family, teachers).
  • Mesosystem: Relationships between social agents (e.g., teacher-parent).
  • Exosystem: External factors indirectly affecting the child (e.g., parental job).
  • Macrosystem: Broader influences (e.g., culture, economy).
  • Chronosystem: Timing of events in the child's life.

• Vulnerability and Resilience:

  • Vulnerability: Risk factors (e.g., age, gender, social class, sickness, discrimination).
  • Resilience: Ability to withstand challenges, affected by temperament, genetic traits, and upbringing.

• Additional Information: Examples of vulnerabilities like LGBTQ+ youth facing harassment, and the resilience concept's fluctuations throughout life.

Prenatal Development and Newborn

• Conception and Genetics:

  • Ovum release during ovulation.
  • Fertilization results in a zygote.
  • Zygote implants in the uterus.
  • Chromosomes (23 pairs).
  • Sex chromosomes (X and Y): XX (female), XY (male). -Discussion of conception problems, including sperm count, motility, liquefaction, and maternal age.

• Stages of Prenatal Development:

  • Germinal (conception to 1-2 weeks)
  • Embryonic (implantation to 8 weeks)
  • Fetal (8 weeks to birth)

• Atypical Prenatal Development:

  • Ectopic pregnancy: Zygote implants in fallopian tube.

• Additional Information: Genetic disorders, chromosomal abnormalities (e.g., Down syndrome, Klinefelter's syndrome) and teratogens (substances or factors harmful to prenatal development) -Specific examples of genetic disorders are given (e.g., PKU, sickle cell anemia, Tay-Sachs).

Birth and Early Infancy

• Stages of Labor:

  • Dilation and effacement
  • Delivery
  • Afterbirth

• Apgar Score: Assessing newborns' health immediately after birth (heart rate, respiration, muscle tone, reflexes, skin color).

• Newborn Reflexes: -Adaptive reflexes (crucial for survival): Sucking, swallowing, rooting -Primitive reflexes (not essential for survival): Moro, palmar/plantar grasp, etc -Added discussion of several specific reflexes

• Behavioral States in Neonates: Deep sleep, active sleep, quiet awake, crying.

• Physical and Cognitive Abilities:

  • Cephalocaudal/proximodistal development
  • Increased perceptual abilities (vision, hearing).
  • Learning through conditioning (classical, operant).
  • Temperament classifications: Easy, difficult, slow-to-warm-up.
  • Added description of habituation and schematic learning.

• Neonates and Health: Nutrition, health care, immunizations.

Physical Development

• Brain and Nervous System:

  • Hindbrain: Developed first; controls essential functions (breathing, heart rate).
  • Midbrain and medulla: Fully developed at birth, control essential functions.
  • Cortex: Least developed at birth; controls complex functions. -The text details specific functions of the hindbrain, midbrain, and medulla, and notes the cortex is least developed at birth.

• Critical Processes:

  • Growth spurts: Localized growth in different brain areas.
  • Synaptic development: Creation and pruning of neural connections.
  • Myelination: Formation of insulation around axons improving conductivity.
  • Lateralization: Hemispheric specialization of function begins.

• Body Changes:

  • Growth patterns: Spurts.
  • Bone development: Ossification.
  • Muscle development.
  • Fat storage. -Additional points on differences in bone development, muscle growth, and fat distribution between genders, particularly during adolescence.

Defining Personality

• Personality Definition: Enduring patterns of interacting with others and the environment.

• Big Five: Dimensions describing adult personality (e.g., openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism).

• Child Personality: The Big Five describe late childhood/adolescent personality, but other factors like activity level are also important.

• Temperament and Infant Personality: Temperament, observable in infancy, influences personality.

• Genetic and Biological Factors: Genetically determined responses, physiological processes, enduring temperaments.

• Learning Explanations: Reinforcement patterns, modeling, observational learning.

Psychosexual and Psychosocial Development

• Freud's Psychosexual Stages: Stages of development centered on the erogenous zones

  • Oral (0-1 year)
  • Anal (2-3 years): Focus on toilet training
  • Phallic (3-6 years): Exploration of genitals; identification with the same-sex parent
  • Latency (6-puberty): Sexual urges subside, development of ego defense mechanisms
  • Genital (puberty/adulthood): Mature sexual relationships

• Erikson's Psychosocial Stages: Development involves resolving psychosocial crises

  • Trust vs. Mistrust (birth-18 months)
  • Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt (18 months-3 years)
  • Initiative vs. Guilt (3-6 years)
  • Industry vs. Inferiority (6-12 years)
  • Identity vs. Identity Confusion (adolescence)
  • Intimacy vs. Isolation (young adulthood)
  • Generativity vs. Stagnation (middle adulthood)
  • Integrity vs Despair (late adulthood)

• Marcia's Identity Achievement Theory: Achievement of identity requires both exploration (crisis) and commitment.

  • Identity statuses: Identity diffusion, foreclosure, moratorium, identity achievement.

• Bowlby's Attachment Theory: Attachment develops in phases, influenced by caregiver responsiveness.

  • Bowlby's stages were outlined in more detail.

The Ecology of Development (Bronfenbrenner)

• Bioecological Theory: Child development within nested systems, with these systems from the inside out: microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem
  • Definitions and examples of each system were given along with a figure.

Parenting Styles (Baumrind)

• Parenting Styles:
  • Permissive
  • Authoritarian
  • Authoritative

Test your knowledge of key concepts in developmental psychology with this engaging quiz. It covers various aspects such as research designs, child development, and the importance of ethical guidelines. Perfect for students or anyone interested in understanding human growth and development.