Psychology Chapter 3: Human Development

[Pages:12]Psychology Chapter 3: Human Development

Nature and Nurture: Developmental Psychology: study of progressive changes in behaviour and

abilities from conception to death Heredity and environment shape and change us through out life Heredity and environment are equally important, everything that happens is

related to both Heredity gives us potentials and limitations which are then affected by

environmental influences, such as learning, nutrition and culture

Heredity: the transmission of physical and psychological characteristics from parents to offspring through genes

Lots of personal features are set at conception Even when identical twins are raised apart they are still alike in motor skills,

physical development, and appearance, although they are less alike as adults as they are when they are children The nucleus of every human cell contains DNA Deoxyribonucleic Acid: a molecular structure that contains coded genetic information

o Ladder like chain od chemical molecules o Order of molecules acts as a code for genetic information o DNA in each cell contains a record of all the instructions needed to make a

human o Linked molecules make up the rungs in DNA Chromosomes: thread-like `colored bodies' in the nucleus of each cell that are made up of DNA o 46 in human DNA Ova and sperm cells only contain 23 chromosomes Genes: specific areas on a strand of DNA that carry hereditary information A single gene can be responsible for an inherited feature Dominant Gene: a gene whose influence will be expressed each time a gene is present Recessive Gene: a gene whose influence will be expressed only when it is paired with a second recessive gene Few characteristics are controlled by single genes, most are polygenic Polygenic Characteristics: personal traits or physical properties that are influences by many genes working in combination Heredity determines eye colour, skin colour and susceptibility to some diseases Genes can switch on or off a certain ages Maturation: physical growth and development of the body and nervous system

Readiness: a condition that exists when maturation has advanced enough to allow the rapid achievement of a particular skill

A child fails when a part tries to teach a skill to early

 Average age for completed toilet training is about 3 years

Environment: the sum of all external conditions affecting development, including especially the effects of learning

During the first 3 years of life millions of new connections form in the brain every day, unused connections disappear

Humans are still similar to care dwellers

Prenatal Influences: Environmental conditions can still affect a developing child Congenital Problems: problems or defects that originate during prenatal development in the womb Genetic Disorders: problems caused by defects in the genes or by inherited characteristics Teratogen: radiation, a drug, or other substance capable of altering fetal development in nonheritable was that can cause birth defects If a mother is addicted to a drug the child may be born with the addiction Heavy drinking during pregnancy cause FAS o Low birth weight, small head, bodily defects and facial malformations o Suffer from emotional, behavioral and mental handicaps Smoking while pregnant reduces oxygen to the fetus o Children score lower on tests of language and mental ability

Sensitive Periods: during development, a period of increased sensitivity to environmental influences, also, a time during which certain events must take place for normal development to occur

Sometimes extra care can reverse the effects of a poor start in life

Deprivation and Enrichment: Deprivation: the loss or withholding or normal stimulation, nutrition, comfort, love and so forth; a condition of lacking Enrichment: deliberately making and environment more stimulating, nutritional, comforting, loving and so forth Children whose first years are spent in restricted environments are usually mute, retarded, and emotionally damaged Mild deprivation occurs in many families (families living in poverty) Poverty can affect children in two ways 1. Poor parents aren't able to give their children the needed resources, leading the children to be sick more often, cognitive development lagging and they do poorly in school 2. Stress of poverty can be hard on parents, leading to less positive parenting, this can damage a child's socioemotional development People who grow up in poverty usually remain poor 1 in 7 American families are below the poverty line Enriched environments may make some children brighter and improve abilities

 Babies should be surrounded by colours, music, people, and things to see, taste, touch and smell

Childhood is a relatively sensitive period

Reaction Range: the limits environment places on the effects of heredity

Reciprocal Influences: Nurture often affects the expression of hereditary tendencies through ongoing reciprocal influences Growing infants influence their parents' behaviour at the same time they are changed by it Newborn babies differ a lot in temperament Temperament: the physical core of personality, including emotional and perceptual sensitivity, energy levels and typical mood 40% of newborns are easy children who are relaxed 10% are difficult children who are moody and easily angered 15% are slow-to-warm-up children and are restrained, unexpressive and shy The rest don't fit perfectly into a category Therefore babies rapidly become active participants in their own development Inherited temperaments are modified by learning Developmental Level: current state of physical, emotional and intellectual development

The Newborn: At birth the human neonate will die if not cared for by adults Infants have mental capacities that continue to surprise researchers Neonates have all 5 senses Although senses are less acute they are very responsive The grasping reflex aids survival by helping infants avoid falling The rooting reflex is reflexive head turning and nursing

o Helps infants find a bottle or nipple When the nipple touches the infants mouth the sucking reflex occurs These reflex's are genetically programmed The moro reflex occurs when the baby is stated by a loud noise and the baby will

make a hugging motion

Perceptual and Cognitive Development: Infants are capable of more then just reflex's Babies are born mimics, leading to rapid learning From the first day of life babies learn how the world works 3-8 week old babies understand that a persons voice and body should be connected Adult vision is 30 times better 3-day old babies prefer more complex patterns Infants are excited by circles, curves and bright lights

 After birth babies are aware of changes in position of objects At 6 months old they can recognize differences of shape and colour By 9 months old they can tell the difference between different groups of animals At age one babies can see as well as their parents At age 2 babies start to prefer to look unusual objects

Motor Development: Order of maturation is universal Some steps can be skipped, but not usually Muscular control spreads in a pattern that is cephalocaudal (from head to toe) and proximodistal (from center of the body to extremities) Motor skills must be learned

Emotional Development: Basic emotions take time to develop (rapidly) Excitement is the only emotion newborns clearly express Not sure on when babies develop all basic emotions Social Smile: smiling elicited by social stimuli (seeing a parents face) o Infants can use it to show interest in an object

Social Development: Self-awareness and being aware of others develops around the same time that an

infant forms an emotional bond with an adult Early social development lays a foundation for relationships with parents, family

and friends Initial self-awareness depends on maturation of the nervous system Most infants recognize themselves around 18 months old

Attachment: Emotional Attachment: close emotional bond that infants form with their parents, caregivers and others Attachment beings with: Contact Comfort: a pleasant and reassuring feelings human and animal infants get from touching or clinging to something soft and warm (usually mother) The first year of life is the sensitive period, during which attachment must occur for optimal development Separation Anxiety: distress displayed by infants when they are separated from their parents or principle care givers (around 8-12 months)

Attachment Quality: The quality of the attachment is revealed by how babies act when their mothers return after a brief separation Secure Attachment: a stable and positive emotional bond, upset by mothers absence and seek to be near her when she returns

 Insecure-Avoidant Attachment: an anxious emotional bond marked by a tendency to avoid reunion with a parent or caregiver

Insecure-Ambivalent Attachment: an anxious emotional bond marked by both a desire to be with a parent and some resistance to being reunited

Attachment failures can be damaging

Promoting Secure Attachment: Key to secure attachment is a mother who is accepting and sensitive Poor attachment happens when a mothers actions are inappropriate, inadequate, intrusive, over stimulating or rejecting

Day Care: High quality day care does not affect attachment to parents, it can improve a child's social and mental skills Poor-quality day care can create behavioural problems

Attachment and Affectional Needs: emotional needs for love and affection

Parental Influences: Parenting Styles: identifiable patterns of parental caretaking and interaction with children

Authoritarian Parents: enforce rigid rules and demand strict obedience to authority

Overly Permissive Parents: give little guidance, allow too much freedom, or do not require the child to take responsibility

Authoritative Parents: supply firm and consistent guidance combined with love and affection

Maternal and Paternal Influences: Maternal Influences: the total of all psychology effects mothers have on their children o Generally have a greater impact because they spend most of the time caring for the child Paternal Influences: the total of all psychology effects fathers have on their children o Fathers pay more visual attention and more likely to engage in unusual play o Children who spend more time with their fathers are more competent

Ethnic Differences: Four Flavors of Parenting: What makes a behaviour good and bad depends on parents' cultural values

African-American Families: Emphasize loyalty and interdependence among family members, security, developing a positive identity and not giving up when things get hard Stress obedience and respect for elders, discipline is strict

Hispanic Families:

 Discipline is strict High value on family values, family pride and loyalty Affectionate and indulgent toward younger children Social skills are valued more then cognitive skills Cooperation more then competition Asian-American Families: Group oriented and emphasize interdependence Behaviour beings either pride or shame to the family, therefore they should set

aside own desires Arab-American Families:

Punishment is harsh (spanking, teasing or shame in front of others) Fathers demand obedience

Language Development: Babies babble in a language that sounds like their parents After the age of two, a child's comprehension and use of words increases, from

this the child's vocabulary increases very fast

The Roots of Language: Biological Predisposition: presumed hereditary readiness of humans to learn certain skills, such as how to use language or a readiness to behave in particular ways Humans have a biological predisposition to develop language because language patterns are inborn Imitation of parents and rewards for correctly using words are both and important part of learning language

Early Communication: Signal: in early language communication development, any behaviour, such as touching, vocalizing, gazing or smiling, that allows nonverbal interaction and turn-taking between parent and child Signals help lay a foundation for later language use Signals help establish a pattern of `conversational' turn-taking

Parentese: Motherese/ Parentese: a pattern of speech used when talking to infants, marked by a higher-pitched voice; short simple sentences; repetition, slower speech; and exaggerated voice inflections By 4 months old babies prefer parentese over real speech Mothers of all nations talk to their babies with similar changes in pitch The first 7 years of life are a sensitive period in language learning

Cognitive Development: Children then in less abstract ways then adults Children use fewer generalizations, categories and principles

Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development: He believed that all children mature though a series of distinct stages in

intellectual development

Mental Processes: He believed that intellect grows though assimilation and accommodation Assimilation: the application of existing mental patterns to new situations (that is, the new situation is assimilated to existing mental schemes) Accommodation: the modification of existing mental patterns to fit new demands (that is, mental schemes are changed to accommodate new information or experiences)

The Sensorimotor Stage ? (0-2 years): Newborn babies cannot create internal representations such as mental images Babies lack: Objective Permanence: concept gained in infancy, that objects continue to exist even when they are hidden from view By age 2 babies can anticipate the movement of an object behind a screen A child's conceptions become more stable

The Preoperational Stage ? (2-7 years): period of intellectual development during which children begin to use language and think symbolically, yet remain intuitive and egocentric in their thought

Children cannot easily transform images or ideas in their minds Transformation: the ability to mentally change the shape of form of a mental

image or idea Before the age of 6 or 7, children begin to think symbolically and use language The child's thinking is still concrete and Intuitive Thought: thinking that makes like or no use of reasoning and logic Example: taller = bigger After the age of 7 they think more logically and adult-like Egocentric Thought: thought that is self-centered and fails to consider the

viewpoints of others Children assume you can see exactly what they can The name of the object is just as important as the size, shape and colour to a child

The Concrete Operational Stage ? (7-11 years): period of intellectual development during which children become able to use the concepts of time, space, volume, and number, but in ways that remain simplified and concrete, rather than abstract

Reversing thoughts can take place Younger children must memorize each relationship separately The development of mental operations allows mastery of conservation

o When a child understands the original amount is conserved o A ball of clay is the same amount as a long snake Children can think logically

 Time when children stop believing in Santa

Formal Operations Stage ? (11 + years): period of intellectual development characterized by thinking that includes abstract, theoretical, and hypothetical ideas

Children start to think about their own thoughts and become less egocentric They then are able to consider hypothetical situations Not everyone reaches this level of thinking Parents should avoid forced teaching

Piaget Today: Others think Piaget gave too little credit to the effects of the learning environment Paget's observations on early infancy need to be updated

Infant Cognition: We now know that infants begin forming representations of the world very early in life He most likely made this mistake because he mistook babies' limited physical skills for mental incompetence He also underestimated the impact of culture on mental development

Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory: He believed that children's thinking develops through dialogues with more capable persons Children must learn life from others (tutors) He believed that many of a child's most important discoveries are guided by skillful tutors Zone of Proximal Development: the range of tasks a child cannot yet master alone, but that she can accomplish with the guidance of a more capable partner Scaffolding: adjusting instruction so that it is responsive to a beginner's behaviour and supports the beginner's efforts to understand a problem or gain a mental skill The reading skills of 8-10 year old children is closely related to the amount of verbal scaffolding their mothers provided at ages 3 and 4

Adolescence and Young Adulthood: Adolescence: the culturally defined period between childhood and adulthood The top three criteria for being an adult are: 1. Taking responsibility for oneself 2. Making independent decisions 3. Becoming financially independent

Puberty: the biologically defined period during which a person matures sexually and becomes capable of reproduction

Early maturing boys tend to be more relaxed, dominant, self-assured and popular

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