Psychology Unit IV: Developmental Psychology

DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

• womb to tomb
• how we change physically, socially, cognitively, and morally

Nature

• the way you were born

Nurture

• the way you were raised
  

Physical Development

• focus on our physical changes over time

Prenatal Development

• conception begins with the drop of an egg and release of about 200 million sperm 
• sperm seeks out the egg and attempts to penetrate the egg's surface

Zygote

• once the sperm penetrates the egg, we have a fertilized egg called a zygote

1st stage of prenatal development

• lasts about two weeks and consists of rapid cell division
• less than half survive 1st two weeks
• about ten days after conception, zygote will attach itself to the uterine wall
• outer part of zygote is the placenta

Placenta

• structure that allows oxygen and nutrients to pass into the fetus from the mother's bloodstream and bodily waste to pass out through the mother (which filters nutrients)

After two weeks, the zygote develops into an embryo

Embryo

• six weeks, heart rate begins to beat and the organs begin to develop

By nine weeks, we have a fetus

• sixth month
• stomach and other organs have formed enough to survive outside the mother

Teratogens

• chemicals that can harm the prenatal environment
• alcohol (FAS)
• STDS
• HIV
• herpes
• drugs

Reflexes

• inborn automatic responses

1. rooting (cheek): when a newborn is touched on the cheek, the infant will turn its head toward the source of stimulation
2. grasping: if an object is placed into a baby's palm, the baby would try to grasp the object with their fingers
3. moro: when startled, a baby will fling their limbs out and quickly retract them
4. Babinski: when a baby's foot is stroked, they will spread their toes

Maturation

• physical growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, regardless of the environment
• timings are different, sequence is the same

Cognition

• all mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, and remembering

Cognitive Development

• researched by John Piaget

Schemas

• children view world through schemas
• ways we interpret the world around us (concepts)
• what you picture in your head when you think of anything

Assimilation

• incorporating new experiences into existing schemas

Accommodation

• changing an existing schema to adapt to new information

Four Stages of Cognitive Development

Sensorimotor Stage 

• 0 - 2 
• experience the world through our senses
• object permanence: develops around 6 - 8 months, once accustomed to something, babies will want it, such as a bottle

Preoperational Stage

• 2 - 6 or 7 years
• begin to use language to represent objects (symbols)
• non - logical "magical thinking"
• egocentric: early in this stage they cannot look at the world through anyone's eyes, but their own
• conservation: that quantity remains the same despite changes in appearance and part of logical thinking 

Concrete Operational Stage

• 7 - 11 
• can demonstrate concept of conservation
• learn logic
• understand reversibility, or awareness that actions can be reversed such as a dog is a Labrador and a Labrador is a dog 

Formal Operational Stage

• 12 +
• abstract reasoning
• hypothesis testing
• manipulate object in minds when seeing them
• reasoning with metaphors and analogies

Criticisms of Piaget

• underestimate's ability of children
• info - processing model: children do not learn in stages, but rather tin a gradual continuous growth pattern
• attention span gradually grows over time

Development

Social Development

• up until they turn a year old, infants develop stranger anxiety
• Stranger Anxiety: fear of strangers and begins by about eight months
• Separation Anxiety: distress an infant shows when an object of attachment leaves

Attachment

• most important social construction 
• Secure (Ideal): children show some distress when parents leaves, seek contact at reunion, explore when parent is gone, play and greet when parent is present
• Insecure: lack of one or more characteristics

Konrad Lorenz

• some animals form attachment through imprinting

Origins

• Harry Harlow and monkeys
• showed that monkeys needed touch or body contact to form attachment
• critical period: after birth when an organisms exposure to certain stimuli or experience produce proper development
• those who are deprived have trouble forming attachment

Parenting Styles

Authoritarian

• strict standards for children's behavior

Permissive

• allow freedom, lax parenting, do not enforce rules consistently

Authoritative

• set reasonable standards of expectations and encourage independence