Untitled Quiz

Unit 3: Developmental Psychology (3.1-3.6b)

• Course description accounts for 15-25% of the overall material.
• The "Acorn Book" is a College Board resource.

Summary Outline

• A. Life Span Approach

  • Developmental Psychology studies development across the entire lifespan, encompassing physical, social, and cognitive changes.

• B. Research Methods

  • Longitudinal studies track individuals over time to understand changes.
    • Types include Panel Studies (sampling across sections of subjects)
    • Cohort Studies (following a selected group across time)
    • Retrospective Study (reviewing past records).
  • Advantages of longitudinal studies include revealing insights into changes over time within the same individuals and being sensitive to developmental alterations.
  • Disadvantages include requiring significant time commitments potentially hindering the continuity of participation and usually involve smaller groups of subjects.
  • Cross-sectional studies compare various groups differing only in age. These studies provide an understanding of age-related changes. Their cost-effectiveness and time efficiency are advantages.
    • Disadvantages include inherent difficulties in securing comparable groups across different age ranges; and potentially significant variations in lived experiences among different age groups.

• C. Heredity-Environment Issues

  • Nature vs. Nurture explores how both genetic inheritance and environmental experiences affect development.
  • Continuity vs. Stages investigates whether development occurs gradually and continuously or proceeds through distinct stages.
  • Stability vs. Change examines the persistence of early personality traits and whether they alter significantly over the lifespan.

• D. Developmental Theories

  • Psychosexual Stages (Freud)
  • Cognitive Stages (Piaget)
  • Sociocultural Approach (Vygotsky)
  • Psychosocial Stages (Erikson)
  • Moral Development (Kohlberg).
  • Freud's theory includes concepts such as Id, Ego, and Superego; stages (Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency) and Oedipus complex.
  • Piaget's theory proposes stages from infancy to adulthood, emphasizing cognitive development via assimilation and accommodation.
    • Sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years), preoperational stage (2 to 7 years), concrete operational stage (7 to 11 years), and formal operational stage (12 to adulthood).
  • Vygotsky's theory stresses sociocultural interactions' role in cognitive development, emphasizing language's influence.

• E. Dimensions of Development

  • 1. Physical
    • Stages of aging from conception to adulthood.
  • 2. Cognitive
    • Piaget's theory of cognitive development
  • 3. Social
  • 4. Moral
    • Kohlberg's theory, Gilligan's contributions.

• F. Sex Roles, Sex Differences

  • Gender Differences
    • Biological factors include chromosomes (X and Y), hormones (testosterone, estrogen), and primary/secondary sex characteristics (genitalia, breasts, voice changes).
    • Gender roles influence social expectations and actions.
    • Social Learning Theory regarding gender roles considers learned observation or imitation of others within culture.

Prenatal Development

• Zygote forms after fertilization and lasts two weeks.
• Embryo develops after zygote implantation and subsequent organ formation and heartbeats.
• Fetus develops after nine weeks and morphs into a recognizable human form.
• Teratogens, like alcohol, drugs, and viruses, pose risks to prenatal development.
  • Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), a consequence of fetal exposure to alcohol, can result in physical and mental abnormalities.

Newborn

• Newborns possess automatic responses for survival.
• Moro, rooting, and Babinski reflexes are examples of newborns’ innate responses.
• Habituation is the diminished response to repeated stimuli.
• Newborns prefer human faces and voices.

Infancy and Childhood

• Brain development rapidly occurs from ages 3-6, including frontal lobe growth supporting rational planning.
• Maturation, a biological process unfolding relatively independently of experience (standing before walking), is crucial in the sequence of development.
• Motor skills (physical development) generally follow a predictable sequence (rolling over, crawling, then walking).
• Infantile amnesia is characterized by a lack of recall for events from the first few years of life.

Typical Sequence of Development (Infancy & Childhood)

• Milestones marked by specific age ranges.
  • Turning head/following moving objects, saying "da-da," walking independently, climbing stairs, using simple words, and dressing.

Imprinting (Konrad Lorenz)

• Imprinting is a form of attachment crucial for survival; a learned tendency for ducklings to follow their mother, an enduring characteristic.
• Imprinting is observed in other animal species, but not typically observed in humans.

Adolescence

• Developmental period from childhood to adulthood, beginning with puberty.
• Puberty triggers hormonal changes leading to noticeable physical transformations and sexual maturity (menarche in females and spermarche in males).
• Pruning, a process of eliminating unused neural connections and strengthening used connections, occurs post-puberty.
• Identity development, typically starting around ages 11-18, involves exploring roles and forming a coherent sense of self.
• Adolescent egocentrism involves a belief that others are constantly paying attention to oneself and feeling unlike anyone else.

James Marcia's Theory of Identity

• Stages of identity development include Moratorium, Foreclosure, Achievement, and Diffusion.
  • Moratorium typically involves active search for identity.
  • Foreclosure means passively accepting pre-defined roles.
  • Achievement suggests a stable self-concept (choosing a role)
  • Diffusion indicates a lack of active exploration of identity.
  • Identity development extends to various identities (racial, ethnic, gender, sexual, religious, occupational, familial).

Adulthood

• Life expectancy has increased considerably since mid-20th century.
  • Proper health and exercise prolongs active years.
• Social clock dictates normative stages for marriage, parenthood, career development, and other societal milestones.
• Physical changes in adulthood include menopause (menopause) and potential aging-related impairments in mobility, reaction time, and sensory acuity.
• Older adults may experience health problems like dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
• Death Deferral Theory suggests that important events hold-off the inevitability of death.
• The Kubler-Ross Stages of Grief have been widely studied, though she suggested later that there are seven stages of grief.

Language and Semantics

• Language is symbolic, employing sounds and gestures for representation.

• Language is generative, capable of producing a vast array of novel combinations from a limited set of elements.

• Language acquisition has different phases with varying milestones.

  • Cooing and babbling are early stages characterized by vocalization
  • Progress through one- and two-word stages and telegraphic speech.
  • Language is a structured system possessing phonemes, morphemes, and syntactic rules.
  • Damage to the Broca's Area or Wernicke's Area can result in language impairments (aphasia).

Biological Foundations of Language

• Noam Chomsky's theory of an innate language acquisition device and a critical period implies that humans possess innate language capacities that emerge through development.

Stages of Development in Language Acquisition (Summary)

• Different language milestones and motor milestones occur at varying ages.

Parenting Styles (Diana Baumrind)

• Key aspects of various parenting styles.
  • Authoritarian parents emphasize obedience and control through punishments.
  • Permissive parents demonstrate warmth without much control or discipline.
  • Authoritative parents balance warmth with appropriate boundary setting and guidance.
• Baumrind's research identifies general characteristics of individuals raised with different parenting styles.

Chess and Thomas Theory of Temperament

• Temperament describes generally observed reactions.
• Children are categorized into distinct temperament types ("Easy," "Slow to warm," and "Difficult").
• Temperament is a stable feature of early development.

Gender

• Primary and secondary sex characteristics are biological features.
  • Primary sex characteristics (genitalia, ovaries, and testes) appear during puberty.
• Secondary sexual characteristics relate to body composition and morphology.
• Gender differences and variations appear as distinct from sex traits.
• Gender roles, determined by social expectations, develop through social learning.
• Social learning theory emphasizes observation, imitation, and reinforcement in development of the self-concept and gender roles.
• Gender differences in behavior, aggression, power, and social connectedness have been widely observed.
• The understanding of socio-cultural factors and the influence on gender is also important and useful in developing a conceptual understanding of the context of human behavior.

Ecological Systems Theory (Urie Bronfenbrenner)

• Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory examines how various social systems (microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, chronosystem) influence an individual. Different levels relate to each other.

Morality (Kohlberg)

• Morality develops across three levels preconventional, conventional, and postconventional—using different types of standards for evaluating actions as right or wrong.

Attachment (Harry Harlow, Mary Ainsworth)

• Harlow and Ainsworth’s research highlight attachment and the importance of early bonding experiences for healthy development, both socially and cognitively.
  • Attachment forms based on physical and emotional caregiving, not only nourishment.
  • Securely attached children tend to develop self-confidence and be socially adaptable (better competence within social settings).
• Ainsworth identified types of insecure attachments (anxious/resistant, anxious/avoidant, disorganized) in their longitudinal studies.
• The impact of attachment on social cognitive behaviors is significant and important.