Human Development Study Guide: Chapter 1

Chapter 1 Study Guide:

• Primary study issues in human development include trajectories, mechanisms and contexts
• Trajectories of development can be continuous or discontinuous
• Mechanisms of development is nature vs nurture
• Context of development can be universal vs context-specific
• Basic forces in human development and their timing greatly impact experience.
• Key forces include nature vs nurture and contextual influences
• Timing effects heavily affect impact of experience

Cognitive-Developmental and Ecological Systems

• Cognitive Development Theory is a constructivist perspective where development happens in predictable stages.
• Both biology and environment affect this growth
• Ecological systems perspective (Bronfenbrenner) focuses on environmental influence.
• Microsystem: immediate environment
• Mesosystem: bidirectional influence of microsystems
• Exosystem: broader social forces
• Macrosystem: historical events, cultures, subcultures

Scientific Investigation Criteria

• Objectivity: Findings free from experimenter bias
• Reliability: Findings are consistent over time
• Validity: Findings are consistent with other measures
• Replicability: Other scientists must be able to reproduce results

Research Methods

• Quasi-experimentation is most common in developmental research
• An important variable cannot be manipulated
• Correlation and causation have three general types of correlation: positive, negative, and zero
• Direction of causality: Variable A causes Variable B, vice versa, or a different variable causes both to change
• Quasi-experiments include hypothesis, independent variable, and dependent variable
• True experiments have benefits: Control extraneous variables and establish cause and effect
• Risks: Pose a threat to validity and cause potential ethical concern
• Longitudinal studies follow the same individuals at different ages
• Advantage: Observe individuals over time
• Disadvantage: time consuming and participant loss (attrition)
• Cross-sectional studies look at different people at different ages
• Advantages: Less time-consuming/expensive and more likely representative
• Disadvantage: Segments development

Chapter 2 Study Guide

• Heredity: Transmission of biological characteristics across generations

• Genes contain instructions that guide development

• Genotype: exact genetic makeup

• DNA encodes the genetic code, mRNA instructs how to build proteins from it

• Phenotype: Observable traits and behaviors

• Adapted phenotypes are more likely to survive and reproduce

• Genotypes associated with these phenotypes remain in the gene pool

• Two types of cells: Germ cells (sex cells or gametes): 23 chromosomes

• Sperm and ova are formed through meiosis

• Somatic cells: 23 pairs of chromosomes and all body cells except sperm and ova

• Somatic cells are formed through mitosis

Genetic Expressions

• Homozygous: same form of gene (allele) from both parents
• Heterozygous: different allele from each parent
• Dominant: carried on a single chromosome and only needs 1 copy to express.
• Recessive: carried on both chromosomes, needs two copies to express in homozygous cases.
• Incomplete dominance: Expression is unique outcome of two alleles where both copies contribute in heterozygous cases
• Polygenic inheritance: many genes determine phenotype
• Most traits are polygenic and include skin pigmentation and psychological traits
• Niche-picking: Genetic predisposition influences the environment to which one is exposed
• Environments affect children within a family differently and even within a family children are exposed to non-shared environments

Stages of Prenatal Development

• Zygote (conception - 2 weeks): beginning with conception as a single cell with 23 pairs of chromosomes, new cells are generated through mitosis, ending with the earliest differentiation of cells
• Embryo (2 - 8 weeks): beginning with implantation into uterine wall that forms three cell layers: endoderm (internal layers), mesoderm (muscles circulatory), and ectoderm (skin, brain, spinal cord)
• End of embryo phase: organs take primitive shape
• Fetus (8 - 40 weeks): beginning marked from unique cells for organs and limbs and first ossification of bones
• Fetus phase involves increasing function and size towards end: birth
• Structures develop well into postnatal life: Auditory cortex completes at about 4 years and Frontal cortex develops into adulthood

Prenatal Development

• Stress, nutrition, maternal age, and teratogens affect prenatal development
• Poor nutrition and stress lead to premature birth/low birth weight
• Stress Varies with socioeconomic status am race
• Age: Increased age is associated with risk of miscarriage possibly due to epigenetic changes in ova
• Teratogens: Diseases increase risk of miscarriage (Measles/rubella etc.), drugs, and environmental hazards (toxins in water, food, or air and lead mercury, PCBs, radiation, Zika virus)
• Teratogens can affect: mental disability, microcephaly, cerebral palsy, impaired memory and verbal skill, retarded growth, leukemia.
• Teratogen influence is dependent on: the genotype of the organism, timing, specific aspect of development, and dosage and effects may not be evident at birth

Chapter 3 Study Guide

• Basic components of the human brain: Brain and spinal cord
• Consists of cells called neurons including soma (cell body), dendrites (accept input from neurons), axon (transmits signal), and terminal buttons (release neurotransmitters)
• Brain contains 50-100 billion neurons
• Cortex: wrinkled surface and Hemispheres: two halves
• Corpus callosum: connects the hemispheres

Brain Structuring

• Primary motor area emerges at 1 month ish (kicking, smiling)
• Primary sensory areas are 3 months ish (Touch, then vision, then audition)
• Frontal cortex develops through young adulthood, aiding with Planning and decision-making
• Exuberant synaptogenesis is from 3-12 months of age
• Synaptic density double what it is in adolescence and adulthood where Infants can establish pathways for virtually any experience

Assessing Brain Function

• Methods for assessing brain function are present early in development
• Motor milestones: Gross motor skills (big movements)
• Around 4 months infants gain some control over their head and torso
• Fine motor skills (small precise movements)
• 8-12 months infants gain fine motor control of digits
• Locomotion: learning how to move ourselves
• Skills for walking learned individually which involves control of torso and balance
• There is mastery of component skills through Differentiation
• Integration involves skills by 7 months: sit alone and 12-14 months: walk without assistance
• Cultural impacts include opportunities to practice component skills affect the onset of walking within normal limits

Sensory Milestones

• At birth: Smell, taste, and touch
• Smell: React to pleasant and unpleasant smells
• Taste: Differentiate salty, sour, bitter, and sweet
• Experience sensations when in contact with objects, and respond to touch and pain
• Newborn Visual acuity: see at 20 ft. what adult ses at 300 ft and fixates only near objects)
• One year ish vision becomes more adult like depth perception uses kinetic cues at 1-3 months: Visual expansion and Motion parallax
• Hearing: 6 ish months: differentiate pitch and 7 ish months: direction and distance

Language Milestones

• Cooing: Begins around 2 months of age and involves opening the mouth in different shapes to produce vowel-like sounds
• Babbling: Begins around 4 months of age which involves better motor control to produce vowel-consonant combinations
• By 9 months age, sounds like speech
• First words: Begin about 12 months of age using very simple words like, mama, dad, no, mine
• Exuberant synaptogenesis from 3-12 months where synaptic density double what it is in adolescence and adulthood and Infants can establish pathways for virtually any experience (brain plasticity)
• Experience-Expectant requires connections established in response to species-typical stimulation and is universal
• Experience- Dependent: requires connections established in response to stimulation specific to particular groups of people and is cultural

Chapter 4 Study Guide

• Vygotskian accounts of thought and Piaget's Theory (Constructivist Approach): Children build knowledge through interactions with their environment
• Development occurs in stages
• Sensorimotor (0-2 years): Object permanence, goal-directed behavior.
• Preoperational (2-7 years): Egocentrism, difficulty with conservation.
• Schemas: Mental structures Organizes experiences
• Assimilation: Integrate new information into existing schemas.
• Accommodation: Adjust schemas to fit new experiences.
• Seeking balance between understanding and experience.

Information Processing Theory

• Human thinking is similar to computer processing
• Mental hardware: Brain structures enabling cognitive functions
• Mental software: Strategies or learned abilities for tasks
• Attention plays a key role
• Sustained attention is critical for learning
• Habituation (decreasing attention to repeated stimuli) allows focus on new information
• Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory: Learning occurs within social and cultural contexts
• Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD): Range of tasks a child can perform with assistance but not alone
• Scaffolding: Providing just enough help to aid learning
• Intersubjectivity: Shared understanding in an activity

Education Approaches

• Piagetian Approach: Learning should be discovery-based where Activities should match the child's developmental stage and to encourage hands-on exploration
• Information Processing Approach helps foster attention skills through engaging tasks and support memory development with repetition and structured learning
• Vygotskian's Approach uses scaffolding and guided participation and should Provide opportunities for peer learning and collaboration
• Definition: The gap between what a child can do independently and what they can achieve with guidance
• Application: Teachers and caregivers should provide tasks slightly beyond a child's current abilities
• Scaffolding helps children advance in learning and encourages intersubjectivity
• 1 month: Infants can distinguish all speech sounds but by 1 year, Infants lose sensitivity to unused phonemes in their language
• 2 months: Cooing (vowel sounds), 4-9 months: Babbling (consonant-vowel combinations), 8-11 months: Babbling takes on the intonation of the native language, and 12 months: First words
• Cooing (Around 2 months) and that Lays the foundation for vocal control
• Babbling (4-9 months) is consonant-vowel combinations and by 8-11 months, babbling follows the rhythm of native language
• Infants focus on repeated and emphasized words
• There are opportunities to learn Infant-directed speech facilitates learning and serve-and-return interactions encourage early conversation skills

Word-Learning

• Constraints on Word Learning helps by mutual exclusivity principle which states that Each object has only one name and the whole object principle says that Words refer to entire objects, not just parts
• Underextension uses a word too narrowly and Overextension uses a word too broadly
• There is a behaviorist approach in which Grammar is learned through imitation and reinforcement
• Nativist Approach (Chomsky) helps by having an innate language device
• Interactionist Approach is a combination of innate abilities and social interaction and Children learn grammar by hearing and using it in conversations