Developmental Psychology: Theories and Stages

• Trust vs. Mistrust occurs during infancy, where the infant learns to trust caregivers. Autonomy vs. Shame/Doubt happens during toddlerhood, where the child develops independence.
• Initiative vs. Guilt develops in preschool age, where the child develops initiative in social interactions.
• Industry vs. Inferiority is mastered in school age.
• Identity vs. Role Confusion comes about in adolescence with the formation of a personal identity.

Piaget Stages

• Sensorimotor (0-2 years) involves object permanence, early reflexes, and "Little Scientist" stage.
• Preoperational stage (2-7 years) involves egocentrism, animism, intuitive thought, and centration.
• Concrete Operations (7-11 years) involves conservation, decentering, and logical thought.
• Formal Operations (12+ years) involves hypothetical and abstract thinking.
• Object permanence is understanding that objects exist even when unseen.
• Centration involves focusing on one aspect vs. multiple aspects of a situation.
• Decentering involves focusing on multiple aspects of a situation.
• Conservation Skills is understanding that quantity remains the same despite changes in shape or appearance.
• Hypothetical (Abstract) Thinking is the ability to reason about possibilities and abstract concepts.
• Animism is belief that inanimate objects have lifelike qualities and intentions.
• Egocentrism involves difficulty seeing things from another person's perspective.
• Intuitive Thought (Transductive Logic) involves making connections based on superficial similarities rather than logic.
• Babies' initial interactions with their environment include reflexes like rooting, sucking, and startling.
• Primary circular reactions: Babies begin to repeat actions that they find interesting, such as thumb-sucking, kicking, and cooing.
• Secondary circular reactions: Babies begin to interact with objects in their environment, such as banging two lids together.
• Coordination of reactions: Babies combine basic reflexes to achieve a goal.
• Tertiary circular reactions: Babies continue to develop their cognitive skills via a trial-and-error manner.
• Early representational thought involves babies developing their ability to represent objects in their minds.

Conditioning & Learning

• Pavlov's Classical Conditioning is learning through association.
• Skinner's Operant Conditioning is learning through reinforcement and punishment.
• Social learning, a theory developed by Albert Bandura, states we can learn behavior by observing the actions of others.
• True learning of behavior requires attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation.

Genetic Traits & Development

• Dominant & Recessive Traits are genetic inheritance.
• Epigenetics (GxE Interaction) are the environmental influence on gene expression, i.e. a healthy lifestyle with an unhealthy gene.
• Endoderm develops into internal organs.
• Mesoderm develops into muscles and bones.
• Ectoderm develops into skin & nervous system
• Within two months, infants can control their head and face movements.
• A few months later, they can lift themselves up using their arms.
• By 6 to 12 months, they may be able to crawl, stand, or walk.
• Substances or agents that can cause structural or functional birth defects in a developing fetus
• Up to 85% of women experience emotional disturbances after giving birth

Postpartum Depression

• 40-80% of new mothers experience the baby blues within 10 days of giving birth
• Symptoms include mood swings, crying, anxiety, and fatigue
• Baby blues usually last less than two weeks and don't interfere with daily tasks
• 13-19% of new mothers experience PPD
• Symptoms are more severe and last weeks or months
• Risk factors include having PPD, not having help after childbirth, and experiencing intimate partner violence

Brain Development

• Myelination speeds up signal transmission.
• Synaptogenesis is the creation of new synaptic connections between neurons.
• Pruning is the selective elimination of unused synapses to optimize efficiency, "cleaning up" the neural network
• Synaptogenesis occurs rapidly early in development, followed by a period of pruning.
• Myelination begins early and continues throughout adolescence and into adulthood.
• Pruning is heavily influenced by environmental factors and experiences; frequently used neural pathways are more likely to be preserved
• Coordinated interplay of synaptogenesis, pruning, and myelination is critical for the development of complex cognitive abilities like learning, memory, and decision-making

Maternal Health & Development

• Besides placing a baby to sleep on their back, maternal smoking during pregnancy is a major correlation to SIDS
• Infants start to visually and perceptually recognize they are separate from their mother, showing an increased interest in the outside world while still relying heavily on the mother's presence.
• With improved motor skills like crawling and walking, the child actively explores their environment, becoming more independent and seemingly less reliant on the mother, sometimes exhibiting omnipotence.
• The child becomes aware of their separateness and may experience anxiety about being too far from the mother, seeking reassurance and closeness while still exploring.

Object Constancy & Grammar

• The child develops a stable internal representation of their mother and understands they still exist even when they are not physically present, leading to a more secure sense of self.
• Grammar is basically a theory to understand the processing of grammatical knowledge in the human brain and how sentences are put together and words are arranged, which differ from language to language.

Grammar & Vocabulary

• Support of elders, in conversation, greatly facilitates language more than all else (vs screen time)
• Joint visual attention at 10 months is linked to vocabulary growth at 14, 18 & 24 months.

Overview of key concepts in developmental psychology, including Erikson's stages of psychosocial development (trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs. shame/doubt, etc.) and Piaget's stages of cognitive development (sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operations, formal operations). Key terms include object permanence, centration, and decentering.