psych chapter3 : Developing Through the Life Span

Fetus period

9 weeks up until birth

what is the genome?

A genome is the shared genetic profile that distinguishes each species.

What is DNA?

A nucleic acid that carries the genetic information in cells and some viruses, consisting of two long chains of nucleotides twisted into a double helix and joined by hydrogen bonds between the complementary bases adenine and thymine or cytosine and guanine.

What defines adolescence, and what major physical changes occur during adolescence?

Adolescence begins with puberty, a time of sexual maturation. The brain's frontal lobes mature during adolescence and the early twenties, enabling improved judgment, impulse control, and long-term planning.

What are adulthood's two primary commitments, and how do chance events and the social clock influence us?

Adulthood's two major commitments are love (Erikson's intimacy—forming close relationships) and work (productive activity, or what Erikson called generativity). Chance encounters affect many of our important decisions, such as our choice of romantic partners. The social clock is a culture's expected timing for social events, such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement.

how does conception occur?

At conception, one sperm cell fuses with one egg cell.

Why do secure and insecure attachments matter, and how does an infant develop basic trust?

Attachment styles differ (secure or insecure) due to the child's individual temperament and the responsiveness of the child's caregivers. Securely attached children develop basic trust and tend to have healthier adult relationships. Neglect or abuse can disrupt the attachment process and put children at risk for physical, psychological, and social problems

What are the three major issues studied by developmental psychologists?

Developmental psychologists study physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span with a focus on three major issues: ~Nature and nurture—how our genetic inheritance (our nature) interacts with our experiences (our nurture) to influence our development. ~Continuity and stages—what parts of development are gradual and continuous and what parts change abruptly in separate stages. ~Stability and change—which traits persist through life and which change as we age.

To what extent are adolescent lives shaped by parental and peer influences?

During adolescence, parental influence diminishes and peer influence increases, in part because of the selection effect—the tendency to choose similar others as friends. Nature and nurture—genes and experiences—interact to guide our development.

What are the characteristics of emerging adulthood?

Emerging adulthood is the period from age 18 to the mid-twenties, when many young people in Western cultures are no longer adolescents but have not yet achieved full independence as adults.

According to Erikson, what stages—and accompanying tasks and challenges—mark our psychosocial development?

Erik Erikson proposed eight stages of psychosocial development across the life span. Each life stage has its own psychosocial task, with the chief task of adolescence being solidifying one's sense of self, one's identity. This often means trying out a number of different roles. Social identity is the part of the self-concept that comes from a person's group memberships. Erikson believed we need to achieve the following challenges: trust, autonomy, initiative, competency, identity (in adolescence), intimacy (in young adulthood), generativity, and integrity.

Zygote period

From conception to 2 weeks, the zygote is in a period of rapid cell development

How does life develop before birth?

From conception to 2 weeks, the zygote is in a period of rapid cell development. By 6 weeks, the embryo's body organs begin to form and function. By 9 weeks, the fetus is recognizably human.

what is a gene?

Genes are the basic units of heredity that make up chromosomes, the threadlike coils of DNA.

how do genes and environment interact?

Heredity and environment interact to influence development.

How did Piaget, Kohlberg, and later researchers describe cognitive and moral development during adolescence?

In Jean Piaget's view, formal operations (abstract reasoning) develop in adolescence, and this development is the basis for moral judgment. Research indicates that these abilities begin to emerge earlier than Piaget believed. Lawrence Kohlberg proposed a stage theory of moral thinking: preconventional morality (self-interest), conventional morality (gaining others' approval or doing one's duty), and postconventional morality (basic rights and self-defined ethical principles). Kohlberg's critics note that the postconventional level is culturally limited, representing morality only from the perspective of an individualist, middle-class society. Other researchers believe that morality lies in moral intuition and moral action as well as thinking.

How did Piaget view the developmental stages of a child's mind, and how does current thinking about cognitive development differ?

In his theory of cognitive development, Jean Piaget proposed that children actively construct and modify an understanding of the world through the processes of assimilation and accommodation. They form schemas that help them organize their experiences. Piaget believed children construct an understanding of the world by interacting with it while moving through four cognitive stages: Sensorimotor stage-first two years; object permanence develops. Preoperational stage—about age 2 to 6 or 7; preschoolers are egocentric but begin to develop a theory of mind (except for those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), whose theory of mind is impaired). Concrete operational stage—6 or 7 to 11 years; mastery of conservation and simple math. Formal operational stage—about age 12 and up; reasoning expands to abstract thinking. Current research supports the sequence Piaget proposed, but finds young children more capable and their development more continuous. Lev Vygotsky's studies of child development focused on the ways a child's mind grows by interacting with the social environment. Parents and other caregivers provide temporary scaffolds from which children can step to higher levels of thinking.

How do the bonds of how do the bonds of attachment form between caregivers and infants?

Infants develop stranger anxiety soon after object permanence. Infants form attachments with caregivers who not only satisfy nutritional needs but, more importantly, who are comfortable, familiar, and responsive.

How do the brain and motor skills develop during infancy and childhood?

Most brain cells form before birth. With maturation and experience, their interconnections multiply rapidly and become more complex after birth. A pruning process strengthens heavily used links and weakens unused ones, and we seem to have a critical period for some skills, such as language. Complex motor skills—sitting, standing, walking—develop in a predictable sequence. Timing may vary with individual maturation and with culture. We have few conscious memories of events occurring before age 4, a blank space in our conscious memory psychologists call infantile amnesia.

What factors affect our well-being in later life?

Most older people retain a sense of well-being, partly due to the tendency to focus more on positive emotions and memories. People over 65 report as much happiness and satisfaction with life as younger people do. Many experience what Erikson called a sense of integrity— a feeling that one's life has been meaningful.

How do our bodies and sensory abilities change from early to late adulthood?

Muscular strength, reaction time, sensory abilities, and cardiac output begin to decline in the late twenties and continue to decline through middle adulthood (to age 65) and late adulthood (after 65). Around age 50, menopause ends women's period of fertility. Men do not undergo a similar sharp drop in hormone levels or fertility. In late adulthood, the immune system also weakens, but good health habits help to enable better health in later life. change with age?

What are some of the newborn's abilities and traits?

Newborns' sensory systems and reflexes aid their survival and social interactions with adults. Newborns smell and hear well, see what they need to see, and begin using their sensory equipment to learn. Inborn temperament—emotional excitability—heavily influences our developing personality.

How do people vary in their responses to a loved one's death?

Normal grief reactions vary widely. People do not grieve in predictable stages. Immediate strong expression of grief does not purge the grief more quickly, and bereavement therapy is not significantly more effective than grieving without such aid. Death of a loved one is much harder to accept when it comes before its expected time.

What are three primary parenting styles, and what outcomes are associated with each?

Parenting styles—authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative—reflect varying degrees of control. Children with the highest self-esteem, self-reliance, and social competence tend to have authoritative parents. Child-raising practices reflect both individual and cultural values

does parenting matter?

Parents influence our manners, attitudes, values, faith, and politics. Language and other behaviors are shaped by peer groups, as children adjust to fit in.

How does memory change with age?

Recall begins to decline, especially for meaningless information. Recognition memory remains strong.

How do twin and adoption studies help us understand the effects of nature and nurture?

Studies of separated identical twins allow researchers to maintain the same genes while testing the effects of different home environments. Studies of adoptive families let researchers maintain the same home environment while studying the effects of genetic differences.

epigenetics studies

The field of epigenetics studies how genes guide development as they are expressed in particular environments.

schema

a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information

autism spectrum disorder(ASD)

a disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by significant deficiencies in communication and social interaction, and by rigidly fixated interests and repetitive behaviors

DNA(deoxyribonucleic acid)

a molecule containing the genetic information that makes up the chromosomes

critical period

a period early in life when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences is needed for proper development

emerging adulthood

a period from about age 18 to the mid-twenties, when many in Western cultures are no longer adolescents but have not yet achieved full independence as adults

temperament

a person's characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity

reflex

a simple, automatic response to a sensory stimulus, such as the knee-jerk response

basic trust

according to Erik Erikson, a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy; said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers

accommodations

adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information

cognition

all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

teratogen

an agent, such as a chemical or virus, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm.

attachment

an emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver, and showing distress on separation

maturation

biological growth processes leading to orderly changes in behavior, mostly independent of experience

developmental psychology

branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span.

environment

every external influence, from prenatal nutrition to social support in later life

intimacy

in Erikson's theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in early adulthood

egocentrism

in Piaget's theory, the preoperational child's difficulty taking another's point of view

preoperational stage

in Piaget's theory, the stage (from about 2 to 6 or 7 years of age) in which a child learns to use language but cannot yet perform the mental operations of concrete logic

sensorimotor 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

concrete operational stage

in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 6 or 7 to 11 years of age) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events

formal operational stage

in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts

assimilation

interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas

what are chromosomes?

long strands made up of genes

identity

our sense of self; according to Erikson, the adolescent's task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and blending various roles

theory of mind

people's ideas about their own and others' mental states—about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict.

fetal alcohol syndrome(FAS)

physical and mental abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman's heavy drinking. In severe cases, signs include a small, out-of-proportion head and abnormal facial features

social identity

the "we" aspect of our self-concept; the part of our answer to "Who am I?" that comes from our group memberships

object permanence

the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived

genes

the biochemical units of heredity that make up the chromosomes; segments of DNA

genome

the complete instructions for making an organism, consisting of all the genetic material in that organism's chromosomes

social clock

the culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement

fetus

the developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth

embryo

the developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month

menopause

the end of menstruation. In everyday use, it can also mean the biological transition a woman experiences from before until after the end of menstruation

stranger anxiety

the fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age

zygote

the fertilized egg; it enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo

heredity

the genetic transfer of characteristics from parents to offspring

interaction

the interplay that occurs when the effect of one factor (such as environment) depends on another factor (such as heredity)

embryo period

the period between the zygote and fetus periods.

puberty

the period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing

conversation

the principle (which Piaget believed to be a part of concrete operational reasoning) that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in shapes

epigenetics

the study of environmental influences on gene expression that occur without a DNA change

adolescence

the transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence

chromosomes

threadlike structures made of DNA molecules that contain the genes.

identical twins(monozygotic twins)

twins who develop from a single fertilized egg that splits in two, creating two genetically identical siblings

fraternal twins(dizygotic twins)

twins who develop from separate fertilized eggs. They are genetically no closer than non-twin brothers and sisters, but they share a prenatal environment