Human Development and Research Designs

Human Development

• Developmental psychology examines how behavior and mental processes evolve throughout life.
• The post hoc fallacy incorrectly assumes causation based on event sequence.
• Development involves bidirectional influences, where children shape their experiences and vice versa.

Research Designs

• Cross-sectional designs study different age groups at a single time.
• Cohort effects reflect generational differences due to historical periods.
• Longitudinal designs track the same group over time but are costly and prone to attrition.
• Attrition refers to participants dropping out of a study.
• Externalizing behaviors include rule-breaking and defiance.

Nature vs. Nurture

• Development arises from the interaction of genetics (nature) and environment (nurture).
• Gene-environment interactions show that genes' effects on behavior depend on the environment.
• Genetic predispositions influence environment selection, creating the illusion of environmental sole responsibility.
• Gene expression involves environmental activation or deactivation of genes.

Prenatal Development

• The zygote is a fertilized egg.
• The germinal stage involves zygote division.
• The blastocyst is a ball of unspecialized cells.
• The embryonic stage (weeks 2-8) involves limb and organ formation.
• The fetal stage (week 9 to birth) focuses on physical maturation.
• The brain begins developing 18 days post-fertilization.
• Proliferation: Neurons develop rapidly between the 18th day of pregnancy and the end of the sixth month
• Fetal development can be disrupted by environmental hazards, genetics, or premature birth.
• Teratogens are harmful prenatal environmental factors.
• Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder can cause disabilities and disorders.

Reflexes and Motor Behavior

• Reflexes are automatic motor behaviors, e.g., sucking and rooting.
• Motor behaviors involve self-initiated bodily motions like sitting and walking.

Maturation

• Primary sex characteristics include reproductive organs.
• Secondary sex characteristics are non-reproductive sex-differentiating traits.
• Menarche is the onset of menstruation in females.
• Spermarche is the first ejaculation in males.

Cognitive Development

• Cognitive development is the process of acquiring learning, thinking, communication, and memory skills over time.
• Cognitive development involves understanding changes as stage-like vs gradual, domain-general vs domain-specific, and influenced by physical experience, social integration, or biology.
• Assimilation integrates new experiences into existing schemas.
• Accommodation alters schemas based on experience.

Piaget's Theory

• Piaget's theory stresses active learning and environmental interaction.
• Sensorimotor stage (0-2 years): focuses on the present, lacks object permanence.
• Preoperational stage (2-7 years): is egocentric, and lacks conservation.
• Concrete operations (7-11 years): can perform mental transformations on physical objects.
• Formal operations (11+ years): enables hypothetical and abstract reasoning.
• Development may be more domain-specific and continuous than Piaget proposed.
• Object permanence is the understanding that objects exist when out of sight.
• Deferred imitation, or the ability to perform an action observed earlier, is absent in the sensorimotor stage.

Vygotsky's Theory

• Vygotsky's theory emphasizes social and cultural influences on cognitive development.
• Scaffolding provides temporary support to aid learning.
• The zone of proximal development is when children are receptive to learning a new skill.

Cognitive Landmarks

• Landmarks include understanding physics, categorizing objects, self-concept, theory of mind (reasoning about others' beliefs), and math.

Kohlberg's Moral Development

• Kohlberg's theory outlines preconventional (punishment/reward), conventional (societal values), and postconventional (internal principles) stages of moral reasoning.
• Personal fable: Teenagers may experience feelings of uniqueness.

Social Development

• Stranger anxiety appears around 8 months.
• Attachment is an emotional connection.
• Secure attachment involves feeling safe with a caregiver
• Insecure-avoidant attachment avoids seeking comfort, exhibits low separation anxiety.
• Insecure-anxious attachment fears abandonment and seeks reassurance.
• Disorganized attachment develops from frightening or inconsistent caregiving.

Parenting Styles

• Permissive parents are lenient.
• Authoritarian parents are strict.
• Authoritative parents are supportive but firm.
• Uninvolved parents are neglectful.
• The average expectable environment meets basic needs.

Aging

• Biological age is age by biological functioning.
• Psychological age reflects mental agility.
• Functional age is the ability to function in society.
• Social age aligns with social behaviors for one's age group.

Stress

• Stress is a response involving tension and physical symptoms due to stressors.
• A traumatic event is a severe stressor with long-term effects.

Approaches to Stress

• Stress can be viewed as stimuli, a transaction, or a response.
• Primary appraisal determines if a situation is harmful.
• Secondary appraisal assesses coping ability.
• Problem-focused coping tackles challenges directly.
• Emotion-focused coping positively reframes feelings.
• Corticosteroids are stress hormones.

Sources of Stress

• Hassles are minor nuisances that cause stress.
• General adaptation syndrome (GAS) includes alarm, resistance, and exhaustion stages.
• The fight-or-flight response mobilizes confrontation or escape.
• Tend and befriend refers to seeking social support and nurturing others during stress.
• Social support provides comfort and assistance.

Coping Strategies

• Proactive coping anticipates and prevents stressors.
• Catharsis is helpful if it involves problem-solving.
• Behavioral control reduces the impact of a stressful event.
• Cognitive control changes thinking about negative emotions.
• Decisional control allows choosing among actions.
• Informational control involves acquiring information about a stressful event.
• Emotional control involves suppressing or expressing emotions.

The Immune System

• The immune system defends against harmful organisms.
• Antigens block disease entry.
• Pathogens cause disease.
• Phagocytes and lymphocytes are white blood cells that engulf invaders.
• Macrophages destroy antigens and dead tissue
• T cells B cells are cells that fight to keep the body healthy
• Antibodies slow invaders and attract proteins to destroy them.

Stress-Related Illnesses

• Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) damages the immune system.
• Peptic ulcers are inflamed areas in the gastrointestinal tract.
• Coronary heart disease (CHD) blocks arteries to the heart.
• Psychophysiological illnesses involve emotional and stress-related contributions.
• The biopsychosocial perspective integrates physical and psychological factors in medical conditions.
• Type A personalities are competitive and impatient.
• Health psychology studies the impact of stress on disorders.
• Alternative medicine replaces conventional medicine.
• Complementary medicine is used with conventional medicine.

Social Psychology

• Social psychology studies how people influence each other's behavior and beliefs.
• Dunbar's number: Historically, network size is around 150 people
• Mass hysteria is a contagious outbreak of irrational behavior.
• Attributions assign causes to behavior, overestimating dispositional and underestimating situational influences.
• Conformity is altering behavior due to group pressure.
• Deindividuation is atypical behavior when stripped of usual identity.
• Groupthink prioritizes agreement over critical thinking.
• The inoculation effect builds resistance to persuasion by exposure to weakened arguments.
• Obedience follows orders from authority.
• Pluralistic ignorance assumes no one else perceives things similarly.
• Diffusion of responsibility reduces individual accountability in a group.
• Social loafing involves reduced effort in groups.
• Altruism is helping others selflessly.
• Aggression is behavior intended to harm.
• Enlightenment effect: Learning about psychological research can improve real-world behavior.
• Interpersonal provocation occurs when actions are perceived as intentionally harmful.
• Relational aggression is indirect harm through rumors and exclusion.

Attitudes and Persuasion

• An attitude includes an emotional component.
• Cognitive dissonance theory explains attitude change to reduce conflicting thoughts.
• Self-perception theory suggests attitudes are acquired by observing behavior.
• Impression management theory claims attitude reports change to align with behaviors; people do not want to seem inconsistent

Persuasion Tactics

• The foot-in-the-door technique starts with a small request.
• The door-in-the-face technique starts with a large request.
• The lowball technique adds costs after agreement.
• The but-you-are-free technique doubles compliance by emphasizing choice

Prejudice and Discrimination

• Prejudice is prejudging negatively.
• The ultimate attribution error attributes negative behavior to group dispositions
• Adaptive conservatism distrusts the unfamiliar.
• In-group bias favors in-group members.
• Out-group homogeneity views out-group members as similar.
• The other-race effect makes it harder to distinguish other-race faces.
• Discrimination treats out-groups differently.
• The scapegoat hypothesis blames out-groups for misfortunes.
• The just-world hypothesis assumes the world is fair.
• Explicit prejudices are conscious beliefs.
• Implicit prejudices are unconscious beliefs.
• Jigsaw classrooms promote cooperation and reduce stereotypes.