Lifespan Development
behavioral inhibition
-biological contribution -relatively stable characteristic -inhibition in early childhood associated with increased risk for social anxiety in adolescence and with a less positive and less active social life in early adulthood -can be modified by parental child-rearing practices
techniques for studying perception in newborns
1-4mo: sucking 12+wks: reaching 5-12mo: head turning heart and respiration rates across all ages
bilingualism research
-bilingual children tend to score higher on measures of cognitive flexibility, cognitive complexity, analytical reasoning, working memory capacity, attentional control, and metalinguistic awareness -some studies indicate benefits persist in adulthood but others say that differences are minimal by adolescence
Gilligan's Relational Crisis
- 11-12 years - a response to increasing pressures to fit cultural stereotypes of the "perfect good woman" - disconnect from themselves in order to maintain relationships with others and experience drop in academic achievement, loss of self-esteem, and vulnerability to psychopathology - try to help girls maintain a "healthy resistance to disconnection" -males experience a similar relational crisis but do so in early childhood
Children's understanding of death
- 2-5 years: view death as reversible and temporary and perceive as separation or abandonment - 5-9 years: understand that death is irreversible, but tend to personify it (witch, boogeyman) and belief that they can escape death - 10+: understand it involves a cessation of functioning and is irreversible and universal - children may develop mature understanding of death by age 5 (affected by cognitive development death-related experiences, and cultural and religious experiences)
Neo-Piagetian theories
- combine the information processing and Piagetian approaches - recognize the role of biological maturation and experience in cognitive development and propose that individuals actively construct their own knowledge - focus more on developmental changes with specific cognitive domains and on the impact of the context in which development occurs - unevenness in development across domains and contexts is considered normal
Levinson's Seasons of a Man's Life
- transitions from one period to the next are particularly stressful and it is during these times that major changes in a person's life structure usually occur -early adult transition (17-22): leads to formation of the Dream (image of an ideal life that guides one's decisions/choices) -age 30 transition (28-33): brought on by the realization that life structure build during 20s is not adequate; sense of urgency develops and life structure is revised; followed by a period of settling down -mid--life transition (40-45): deflation of The Dream; perspective shifts from "time-since-birth" to "time-left-to-live" - not supported by research
Thomas and Chess Temperament
-9 basic temperament qualities: activity level, rhythmicity, approach/withdrawal, adaptability, threshold of responsiveness, intensity of reaction, quality of mood, distractibility, and persistence -most babies can be categorized on the basis of these qualities as easy, difficult, or slow to warm up
coercive family interaction model
-Proposes that children initially learn aggressive behaviors from their parents who rarely reinforce prosocial behaviors, use harsh discipline, reward their children's aggressiveness with approval and attention and that, over time, aggressive parent-child interactions escalate. -the likelihood that parents will use coercive forms of discipline increases when the family experiences high levels of stress, the parents have certain personality characteristics, and the child has difficult temperament -Patterson and colleagues developed a parent intervention designed to stop this coercive cycle by teaching parents child-management skills and providing them with therapy to help them cope more effectively with stress.
theory of mind
-ages 2-3: children become aware of other people's mental states and begin to understand that people have different perceptions, emotions, and desires -ages 4-5: understand another person's thoughts may be inaccurate and people may act on false beliefs -age 5+: develop more sophisticated ToM by age 6 and realize people's actions not always consistent with their true thoughts/feelings; understand that people interpret events and different people may interpret the same event differently; early adolescence recognize that people can have mixed feelings about events and other people -development affected by the degree of pretend play, level of school adjustment, nature of parent-child interactions, and number of siblings
self-descriptions
-ages 2-6: self-descriptions focus on concrete physical characteristics, specific behaviors, and preferences -middle childhood (6-10): often refer to competencies -end of middle childhood (10-12): personality traits and emotions directed toward themselves -adolescents: abstract; use terms that refer to inner thoughts and feelings; recognize that attributes are sometimes inconsistent
Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory
-all learning is socially mediated -cognitive development is first interpersonal and then intrapersonal (occurs when child internalizes learned information) -cognitive development is facilitated when instruction/environmental demands fall within the child's zone of proximal development -children use self-directed private speech to help them regulate and organize their behaviors; becomes internalized as inner silent speech when children grow older
Piaget's mechanisms of adaptation
-assimilation: incorporation of new knowledge into existing cognitive schemas -accomodation: modification of existing schemas to incorporate new knowledge
benefits of androgyny
-associated with higher levels of self-esteem than femininity -greater flexibility when coping with different situations, higher levels of life satisfaction, and greater comfort with one's sexuality
Bem's Gender Schema Theory
-attributes the acquisition of a gender identity to a combination of social learning and cognitive development -children develop schemas of masculinity and femininity as the result of their sociocultural experiences. These schemas then organize how the individual perceives and thinks about the world
audition development
-auditory localization (ability to orient toward the direction of a sound) is evident shortly after birth, seems to disappear between 2-4 months, and then reappears and improves throughout first year -by 3 months can distinguish between different voices and prefer mother's voice
gender differences in motor development
-become apparent in middle childhood -girls are more physically mature and superior in skills requiring flexibility, agility, and balance -boys are superior in physical skills that require strength and gross motor abilities -the disparity increases substantially beginning in early adolescence (possibly due to excess adipose tissue in girls)
gender differences in language style
-boys rely more on language strategies that establish dominance, gain attention, and involve giving orders -girls use language in ways that provide support and demonstrate attentiveness -males talk for longer intervals than females and are more likely to interrupt -females more likely to ask questions and attach "tag questions" to statements (e.g., "You're doing x, right?)
Kohlberg's Cognitive Developmental Theory of Gender
-children recognize that they are either male or female (gender identity) by 2 or 3 -soon thereafter, realize their gender identity is stable over time (gender stability) -understand that gender is constant over situations and know that people cannot change gender by superficially altering their external appearance or behavior (gender constancy) by 6 or 7
information processing theories
-cognitive development involves increasing information processing capacity and efficiency -cognitive abilities are similar at all stages of development but differ in terms of extent -in contrast to Piaget, focus on development within specific cognitive domains; more interested in how specific skills are used for particular tasks and contexts
research on family composition
-first-borns tend to have more rapid language acquisition, achieve higher grades and IQ scores, and usually more achievement-oriented and conscientious -later-borns often less cautious, more rebellious, have better peer relationships, and are more confident in social situations -effects of birth order tend to be small -the larger the family and the smaller the gap between children, the lower the children's academic achievement
social learning theory for gender identity development
-gender identity is the result of a combination of differential reinforcement and observational learning -supported by studies confirming that parents have gender-related stereotypes that impact how they respond to male and female children soon after birth
physical maturation in adolescents
-growth spurt begins around 11-12 for girls and 12-14 for boys -lasts 3-4 years -girls reach full stature by 15 and boys by 17 -early maturation in boys: greater popularity, superior athletic skill, dissatisfaction with body image, increased risk for drug and alcohol use, delinquency, and depression -late maturation in boys: viewed as more childish, exhibit more attention-seeking behaviors, less self-confidence, increased risk for depression -early maturation in girls: poor self-concept, unpopular, dissatisfied with physical development, low academic achievement, more likely to engage in sexually precocious behavior and drug and alcohol use, increased risk for depression -late maturation in girls: treated like little girls, dissatisfied with physical appearance, higher academic achievement -negative effects of early/late maturation most severe when adolescents perceive themselves as different from peers -effects largely dissipate by adulthood
development of racial/ethnic identity
-infants may exhibit awareness of racial differences by 6 months -children able to label people in terms of racial group by 3-4 years -understanding of the social connotations of racial differences does not develop until age 10
Brown and Palinscar's reciprocal teaching method
-influenced by Vygotsky -emphasizes child's ability to learn through social interaction; applied to reading instruction -teacher initially leads the instruction and models the appropriate kinds of questions to ask to foster students' understanding of the text. students gradually take over teacher's role.
research on maternal depression (and paternal)
-physiological signs of distress apparent by the time the child is 3 months old -linked to higher than normal rates of aggressiveness and poorer performance on measures of cognitive-linguistic functioning in toddlers -associated with insecure attachment in infants and preschoolers -depression in fathers related to father-child conflict, internalizing and externalizing symptoms, social/behavioral problems at age 3
memory strategies in childhood
-preschoolers sometimes use non-deliberate memory strategies but ineffectively -early elementary school children use somewhat more effective strategies but often distracted and usually only apply learned strategies to the immediate situation -by age 9 or 10 memory strategies used more regularly (1. rehearsal 2. organization 3. elaboration) -strategies fine-tuned in adolescence and used more deliberately and selectively
early emotions
-primary (basic) emotions emerge first: soon after birth express interest, sadness, disgust; by 6-8 months express anger, joy, surprise, and fear -begin to display self-conscious emotions (reflect children's ability to use social standards and rules to evaluate their own behaviors) in second year of life: 18-24 months show outward signs of jealousy, empathy, and embarrassment; 30-36 months show shame, guilt, and pride
optimal time for completion of certain types of tasks by age
-related to circadian arousal -older adults peak arousal and task performance occur in morning; younger adults occur in evening (synchrony effect)
social-cognitive factors that contribute to aggression
-self-efficacy beliefs (more likely to say it is easy to perform aggressive acts but hard to inhibit aggressive impulses) -beliefs about outcomes (expect that aggression will be followed by positive consequences) -regret or remorse (show little remorse after committing aggressive act) -hostile attribution bias -interventions focus on helping control anger, accurately interpret social events and intentions, and empathize with/take the perspective of others
early recognition and recall memory
-studies using habituation as the research methodology have found that, by three months of age, infants demonstrate recognition memory for a stimulus for up to 24 hours following exposure to that stimulus. -studies using imitation tasks that require babies to initiate a series of events indicate that the ability to recall past events is apparent by 6-12 months
vision development
-vision is the least well developed at birth (very close to adults by ~6 months) -limited color vision by 2 months -some degree of depth perception by 4-6 months -prefer looking at high contrast patterns -prefer looking at faces by 2-5 days -prefer the face of their mother by 2 months
stages of language acquisition
1. Crying- different cries to express different emotions (first few months of life; hungry, angry, pain) 2. Cooing- vowel-intensive warbling sound (6-8 weeks) 3. Babbling- over time resembling baby's native language (4-6 months) 4. Echolalia- nonsensical imitation of adult speech (9 months) 5. First words- receptive>productive in infancy (understand ~50 words by 13 months). speak first word between 10-15 months, speak ~50 by 18 months; Holophrastic Speech- uses single words to communicate more complex ideas 6. Telegraphic Speech- combinations of words that make sense together (18-24 months) e.g., "me go"; vocab contains 300-400 words 7. Vocabulary growth- 18 months exhibit rapid increase in vocab (fastest growth rate 30-36 months); at 36 months vocab includes 1000 words with 3-4 word sentences 8. Grammatically correct sentences- (2.5-5) increasing sentence complexity, grammatical accuracy, and vocab growth (~50 new words monthly); uses questions, negatives, and the passive voice, temporary overgeneralization of grammatical rules 9. Metalinguistic awareness- (early school years) ability to reflect on language as a communication tool and on themselves as language users e.g., using words in metaphoric ways
Freud's Psychosexual Stages
1. Oral Stage (birth-1 year): weaning is primary source of conflict. fixation results in dependence, passivity, gullibility, sarcasm, and orally-focused habits 2. Anal Stage (1-3 years): conflicts stem from issues with toilet training. fixation produces anal retentiveness (stinginess, selfishness, obsessive-compulsive behavior) or anal expulsiveness (cruelty, destructiveness, messiness) 3. Phallic Stage (3-6 years): primary task is resolution of Oedipal conflict. fixation can produce a phallic character which involves sexual exploitation of others 4. Latency Stage (6-12 years): emphasis on developing social skills rather than achieving sexual gratification 5. Genital Stage (12+): successful outcome occurs when sexual desire is blended with affection to produce mature sexual relationships)
Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development
1. Preconventional (prior to 10 or 11): punishment and obedience orientation; instrumental hedonism (judgments based more on obtaining rewards/satisfying personal needs than avoiding punishment) 2. Conventional (11-late adolescence/early adulthood): good boy/good girl orientation (right action is approved of by others); law and order orientation 3. Postconventional: morality of contract, individual rights, and democratically accepted laws; morality of individual principles of conscience
alcohol and drug use in adolescence
1. alcohol 2. tobacco 3. illicit drugs (marijuana most common) -risk factors: males, low SES, abuse, low parental warmth/involvement, gateway hypothesis
stages of self-awareness
1. physical self-recognition (by 18 months) 2. self-description (19-30 months): children use neutral terms and evaluative terms to describe themselves 3. emotional responses to wrongdoing (signals the beginning of the development of a sense of conscience)
Piaget's Theory of Moral Development
1. premoral stage (prior to age 6): exhibit little concern for rules 2. heteronomous morality/morality of constraint (7-10): rules are set by authority figures and unalterable; judge based on consequences 3. autonomous morality/morality of cooperation (11+): rules viewed as arbitrary and alterable; judge based an intention of actor
sensorimotor substages
1. reflexive schemes (birth-1 month): infant exercises reflexes 2. primary circular reactions (1-4 months): infant attempts to repeat pleasurable events involving their own body (e.g., thumbsucking) 3. secondary circular reactions (4-8 months): infant attempts to reproduce pleasurable events involving other people or objects (e.g., shaking a rattle) 4. coordinated secondary circular reactions (8-12 months): infant combines secondary circular reactions into new, more complex action sequences (e.g., uncovers an object and than grasps it); development of object permanence begins 5. tertiary circular reactions (12-18 months): infant deliberately caries an action or action sequence to discover the consequences of doing so 6. mental representation (18-24 months): infant develops representational (symbolic) thought, which involves forming internal representations that allow them to think about absent objects/past events and to anticipate the consequences of an action
Erikson's stages of psychosocial development
1. trust vs. mistrust (infancy): positive relationship with primary caregiver results in trust/optimism 2. autonomy vs. shame and doubt (toddlerhood): sense of self develops out of positive interactions with caregivers 3. initiative vs. guilt (early childhood): favorable relationships with family members result in ability to set goals and devise/carry out plans without infringing on the rights of others 4. industry vs. inferiority (school age): people in the neighborhood and school are most important influences; master social and academic skills to avoid inferiority 5. identity vs. role confusion (adolescence): peers are the dominant influence; positive outcome reflected in sense of personal identity and direction for the future 6. intimacy vs. isolation (young adulthood): establishment of intimate bonds of love and friendship 7. generativity vs. stagnation (middle adulthood): people one lives and works with are most important; generative person exhibits commitment to the well-being of future generations 8. integrity vs. despair (maturation/old age): social influence broadens to include all of humankind; development of wisdom (informed, detached concern with life in the face of death) and sense of integrity require coming to terms with one's limitations and mortality
developmental milestones 10-12 months
10-11: stands alone and walks with help 12: takes first steps alone
formal operational stage
11/12+ -able to think abstractly and capable of hypothetico-deductive reasoning -adolescent egocentrism (inability to separate one's abstract thoughts from the thoughts of others): e.g., personal fable, imaginary audience
developmental milestones 13-15 months
13-14: walks alone with wide-based gait 15: creeps up stairs, scribbles spontaneously, uses cup well
developmental milestones 16-24 months
18: runs clumsily, walks up stairs with hand held, can use a spoon 24: goes up and down stairs alone, kicks ball, turns pages of a book, 50% use toilet during the day
preoperational stage
2-7 -symbolic function: permits the child to learn through use of language, mental images, and other symbols -engage in more sophisticated symbolic play -can solve problems mentally -exhibit precausal (transductive) reasoning: incomplete understanding of cause and effect; (e.g., magical thinking-belief that thinking about something will cause it to occur; animism-tendency to attribute human characteristics to inanimate objects) -egocentrism: unable to imagine another person's point of view -do not understand that actions can be reversed -focus on most noticeable features of objects (centration) -unable to conserve, or understand that changing one dimension of an object does not change its other dimensions
developmental milestones 25-48 months
30: jumps with both feed, good hand-eye coordination 36: rides tricycle, drsses and undresses with simple clothing, completely toilet trained 48: stable hand preference
developmental milestones 4-6 months
4: rolls from abdomen to back 5: sits on lap and reaches and grasps 6: sits alone and stands with help first teeth appear 5-9 months
concrete operational stage
7-11/12 -capable of mental operations -able to classify in more sophisticated ways, seriate, understand part-whole relationships in relational terms; and conserve (first for numbers, then liquid, weight, and volume)
Turner Syndrome
A chromosomal disorder in females in which either an X chromosome is missing, making the person XO instead of XX, or part of one X chromosome is deleted. short in stature, drooping eyelids, webbed neck, reduced/absent development of secondary sex characteristics, may exhibit certain cognitive deficits
horizontal decalage
A term used by Piaget to describe children's tendency to describe gradual acquisition of conservation abilities
intergenerational effects of attachment based on Adult Attachment Interview
AAI classifications: -autonomous: give coherent descriptions of their childhood relationships with their parents; tend to have securely attached children -dismissing: provide a positive description of childhood relations with their parents but descriptions are either not supported or are contraindicated by specific memories; tend to avoidant children -preoccupied: become angry or confused when describing their childhood relationships with parents or seem passively preoccupied with a parent; tend to have resistant/ambivalent children
Baumrind's Parenting Styles
Authoritarian- offspring often irritable, aggressive, mistrusting, dependent and have limited sense of responsibility and low levels of self-esteem and academic achievement Authoritative- offspring tend to be assertive, socially responsible, achievement oriented, high self-esteem, self-confident, obtain high grades Permissive- offspring tend to be immature, impulsive, self-centered, easily frustrated, low in achievement/independence Rejecting-neglecting (uninvolved)- offspring have low self-esteem, poor self-control, often impulsive, moody, aggressive; predictive of juvenile delinquency effects of parenting styles moderated by child's temperament (e.g., authoritative parenting of toddlers more reliable predictor of internalized conscience 6 years later for fearful anxious toddlers than for nonfearful/nonanxious toddlers)
Moro (startle) reflex
Flings arms and legs outward and then toward the body in response to a loud noise or sudden loss of physical support Moro ~ Marra and her jumps
Stepping (walking) reflex
Makes coordinated walking movement when held upright with feet touching flat surface
Brofenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory
Microsystem: child's immediate environment including face-to-face relationships within the home, school, and neighborhood Mesosystem: interactions between components of the microsystem Exosystem: elements in the broader environment that affect the child's immediate environment Macrosystem: overarching environmental influences Chronrosystem: environmental events that occur over an individual's lifespan and impact the individual in ways that depend on their circumstances or developmental stage
Rutter's Indicators
Predictors of child psychopathology: severe marital discord, low SES, overcrowding or large family size, parental criminality, maternal psychopathology, placement of the child outside of the home
precausal (transductive) reasoning
Reflects incomplete understanding of cause and effect e.g., magical thinking- the belief that thinking about something will actually cause it to occur; animism - tendency to attribute human characteristics to inanimate objects
Babinski reflex
Reflex in which a newborn fans out the toes when the sole of the foot is touched
sexual activity in late adulthood
Sexual activity midlife is a predictor Those who remain active reports similar frequencies But more people report inactive due to physical health problems, no partner 43 to 61% said more or just as satisfying, more men say this than women
goodness of fit model
Thomas and Chess's notion that development is likely to be optimized when parents' child-rearing practices are sensitively adapted to the child's temperamental characteristics
niche-picking
tendency to actively choose environments that complement our heredity
developmental milestones 1-3 months
able to raise chin from ground and turn head side to side by third month can play with hands and fingers and brings objects in hand to mouth
instrumental aggression (proactive)
aggression motivated by the desire to obtain a concrete goal
long-term effects of early parent-child separation
among adopted children, those separated prior to 3 months showed little or no negative consequences, but children 9 months or older exhibited moderate to extreme reactions children initially raised in institutions are able to develop close bond with adoptive parents as long as they are adopted by age 6
hostile aggression (reactive)
angry, defensive response to provocation or a blocked goal; meant to hurt another person
causes of aggression
coercive interactions and poor parental monitoring
zone of proximal development
discrepancy between a child's current developmental level (level at which they can function independently) and level of development that is just beyond their current level but can be reached with appropriate scaffolding -symbolic play provides child with zone of proximal development
gender identity
fairly well-established by age 3
Egan and Perry's multidimensional model of gender
gender identity consists of 5 components: 1. membership knowledge (knowledge of one's membership in a gender category) 2. gender typicality (degree to which one feels similar to others in one's category) 3. gender contentedness (degree of satisfaction) 4. felt pressure for gender conformity 5. intergroup bias (the extent to which one believes that one's gender category is superior to the other)
emotional contagion
the ability of an infant to detect emotions in others appears during first few weeks of life as spontaneously crying in response to another infant crying or as reaction to caregivers' facial expressions can imitate facial reactions by 3 months
Marcia's Identity Statuses
identity diffusion: have not experienced identity crisis and are not committed to an identity identity foreclosure: have not experienced an identity crisis but have adopted an identity that has been imposed by the same-sex parent or other person identity moratorium: adolescent experiences identity crisis and actively explores alternative identities identity achievement
sensiormotor stage
in Piaget's theory, the stage (from birth to nearly 2 years of age) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities -predominant type of learning is the result of circular reactions (actions that are performed in order to reproduce events that initially occurred by chance) -development of object permanence/object concept 8-12 months -beginning of an understanding of causality and emergence of deferred imitation and make-believe play
Gilligan's theory of moral development
males base morality on individual rights and justice while women base morality on care and responsibility
fetal alcohol syndrome
most likely when mother drinks during second half of first trimester characterized by facial anomalies, retarded physical growth, heart, kidney, and liver defects, vision and hearing impairments, cognitive deficits, and behavioral problems
interactionist approach to language acquisition
obtained to a combination of biological and environmental factors. social-communications version: stresses impact of social interactions e.g., in some cultures parents naturally use "child-directed" speech where they speak slowly, use shorter and simpler sentences, exaggerate and repeat most important words, and frequently ask questions; often respond to child's communication with an expansion (adds to statement but retains word order) or extension (adds information to statement)
Klinefelter syndrome
occurs in males due to 2 or more X chromosomes along with a single Y chromosome results in small penis and testes, breasts, limited interest in sexual activity, often sterile, and possible learning disabilities
overextension
occurs when a child applies a word to a wider collection of objects/events than appropriate (e.g., referring to all 4-legged animals as "doggie")
underextension
occurs when a child applies a word too narrowly to objects or situations (e.g., using "dish" for only one specific dish)
Chomsky nativist approach
proposes that an innate language acquisition device makes it possible for a person to acquire language just by being exposed to it. Supported by research showing children master the basics of language between the ages of 4 and 6 regardless of the complexity of their native language.
recall after age 50
recall larger number of recent events (last 20 years; AKA retention function) followed by events that occurred in adolescence and young adulthood i.e., ages 10-30 (reminiscence bump)
developmental milestones 7-9 months
show increasingly good coordination 8-9: sit alone without support and begin crawling and creeping 9-10: pull self to standing by holding furniture
signs of attachment
social referencing (by 6 months): look to caregiver to determine how to respond in new/ambiguous situations separation anxiety: begins at 6-8 months, peaks in intensity at 14-18 months, then gradually declines stranger anxiety: begins 8-10 months, diminishes after age 2
syntactic bootstrapping
the strategy of using grammatical structure to infer the meaning of a new word
Rooting reflex
turns head in the direction of touch applied to the cheek (rooting ~ root canal)
semantic bootstrapping
use semantic knowledge to infer syntactical (grammatical) category
