Lifespan Development Chapters 1-3
Gene-environment interaction
Because of their genetic makeup, individuals differ in their responsiveness to qualities of the environment; people have unique, genetically influenced reactions to particular experiences
Small-for-date infants
Below their expected weight considering full length of the pregnancy
Heritability
Differences due to genetics - closer to 1.00 The more environments vary, the closer to 0.00, heritability estimates tell us nothing about how environment can modify genetic influences
Stages of childbirth
Dilation and effacement of the cervix, delivery of the baby, delivery of the placenta
Phenotypes
Directly observable characteristics
Fraternal twins
Dizygotic twins, the most common type of multiple offspring resulting from the release of two ova
Period of the Fetus
Ninth week to end of pregnancy - organism increases rapidly in size Trimesters - prenatal development
Somatic mutation
Normal body cells mutate
Organize theories based on three basic issues
(1) Is the course of development continuous or discontinuous? (2) Does one course of development characterize all people or are there many possible courses? (3) What are the roles of genetic and environmental factors-nature and nurture-in development?
Socioeconomic status
(1) Years of education, (2) the prestige of one's job and the skill it requires (social status) and (3) income (economic status)
Behavior modification
Consists of procedures that combine conditioning and modeling to eliminate undesirable behaviors and increase desirable responses
Analgesics and anesthetics
Control pain, necessary in complicated deliveries, can prolong labor and may have negative impact on newborn's adjustment
Gene therapy
Correcting genetic abnormalities by delivering DNA carrying a functional gene to the cells
Multidirectional
(1) Development is not limited to improved performance and (2) change is multidirectional within each domain of development
Lifespan perspective
(1) Lifelong, (2) multidimensional and multidirectional, (3) highly plastic, and (4) affected by multiple, interacting forces
Reflex
An inborn, automatic response to a particular form of stimulation. Some have survival value, foundation for voluntary motor skills, and help establish gratifying interactions
Plasticity
As open to change in response to influential experiences
Born to users of drugs
At risk for prematurity, low birth weight, physical defects, breathing difficulties, and death
Behavioral genetics
A field devoted to uncovering the contributions of nature and nurture to this diversity in human traits and abilities
Developmental science
A field of study devoted to understanding constancy and change throughout the lifespan
Natural, or prepared, childbirth
A group of techniques aimed at reducing pain and medical intervention and making childbirth a reward gin experience
PKU - phenylketonuria
Affects the way the body breaks down proteins
Developmental cognitive neuroscience
Brings together researchers from psych, bio, neuro, and med to study the relationship between changes in brain and person's cognitive processing/behavior patterns
Unexpected difficulties, preeclampsia
Can arise in mothers w preexisting health problems
Distinguishing sound
Can distinguish a variety of sound patterns and prefer complex sounds, especially responsive to human speech, can detect the sounds of any human language, and prefer their mother's voice
Kinship studies
Compare the characteristics of family members
Ethology
Concerned w the adaptive, or survival, value of behavior and its evolutionary history
Allele
Each form of a gene
Erikson's psychosocial theory
Emphasized that in addition to mediating id impulses and superego demands, the ego acquires attitudes and skills that make the individual an active, contributing member of society
Freud's psychosexual theory
Emphasizes that how parents manage their child's sexual and aggressive drives in the first few years is crucial for healthy personal development
Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale
Evaluates the newborn's reflexes, muscle tone, state changes, responsiveness to physical and social stimuli, and other reactions, helps researchers understand individual and cultural differences in new-born behavior
Adjusting to new family unit
Exciting but stressful, irregular and uncertain family schedule, positive relationship and social support and adequate income - problems usually temporary
History-graded influences
Explain why people born around the same time - called a cohort - tend to be alike in ways that set them apart from people born at other times
Partial FAS
Facial abnormalities, brain injury
Internalizing/externalizing difficulties
Feeling worried and fearful and trying to repair their parent's relationship/anger and aggression
Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory
Focuses on how culture is transmitted to the next generation
Cross-sectional design
Groups of people at differing age are studied at same point in time
Subcultures
Groups of people w beliefs and customs that differ from those of the larger culture
Fetal monitors
Help save the lives of many babies at risk for anoxia bc of pregnancy and birth complications
Nature vs. Nurture
Hereditary info we receive from our parents vs. complex forces of the physical and social world that influence our biological makeup and psychological experiences before and after birth
The Psychoanalytic Perspective
How conflicts are resolved determines the person's ability to learn, to get along w others, and to cope w anxiety
Extended-family households
In which three or more generations live together, vital in black families, grandparents play meaningful role in guiding younger generations
Cohort effects
Individuals born in same time period are influenced by specific historical and cultural conditions, results based on one cohort may not apply to people developing at different times
Prenatal malnutrition
Low birth weight, organ damage, suppression of immune system development, vitamin-mineral enrichment can help
Polygenic inheritance
Many genes influence the character in question
Heritability estimates
Measure the extent to which individual differences in complex traits in a specific population are due to genetic factors
Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale
Predict school achievement
Severe emotional stress
Pregnancy complications and may permanently alter fetal neurological functioning
Maternal age, poverty
Prenatal problems, poor health and environmental risks associated w poverty
Stages
Qualitative changes in thinking, feeling, and behaving that characterize specific periods of development
Piaget's Cognitive-Developmental Theory
Sensorimotor stage (birth-2 years) - use of senses and movements explore the world Preoperational stage (2-7 years) - symbolic but illogical thinking Concrete operational stage (7-11 years) - organized, logical reasoning Formal operational stage (11+ years) - abstract thought, systematic reasoning
Sequential design
Several similar cross-sectional or longitudinal designs conducted. Reveals cohort effects, permits tracking of age-related changes
Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) Partial FAS
Slow physical growth, pattern of three facial abnormalities, brain injury
Cry
Stimulates strong feelings of discomfort, intensity and experiences leading up to it help parents identify what went wrong
Social-cognitive perspective
Strong emphasis on how we think about ourselves and other people
Amnion
Trophoblast forms membrane, amnion, that encloses the developing organism in amniotic fluid, which helps keep the temperature constant and provides a cushion
Period of the Zygote
Two weeks - until implantation
Normative
Typical or average bc affects many people in similar way
Born to users of tobacco
Underweight, physical defects, risk for long-term attention, learning, and behavior problems
Contexts
Unique combinations of personal and environmental circumstances that can result in different paths of change
Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory
Views the person as developing within a complex system of relationships affected by multiple levels of the surrounding environment
Cesarean deliveries
Warranted by medical emergency or serious maternal illness and for many babies in breech position - buttocks or feet first
X-linked inheritance
When a harmful allele is carried on the X chromosome males are more likely to be affected because their sex chromosomes do not match
Lanugo
White, downy hair appears over the body helping the vernix stick
Incomplete dominance
A pattern of inheritance in which both alleles are expressed in the phenotype, resulting in a combined trait, or one that is intermediate between the two
Discontinuous
A process in which new ways of understanding and responding to the world emerge at specific times
Continuous
A process of gradually augmenting the same types of skills that were there to begin with
Vernix
A white, cheese like substance that protects its skin from chapping
Multidimensional
Affected by an intricate blend of biological, psychological, and social forces
Social learning theory
Albert Bandura - emphasizes modeling (imitation or observational learning) as a powerful source of development
Genomic imprinting
Alleles are imprinted, or chemically marked, so that one pair member is activated, regardless of its makeup
Theory
An orderly, integrated set of statements that describes, explains, and predicts behavior. Vital bc (1) provide organizing frameworks for our observations of people and (2) theories that are verified by research provide basis for practical action
Teratogen
Any environmental agent that causes damage during the prenatal period - dose, heredity, other negative influences, age - especially vulnerable during embryonic period, most widely used potent teratogen is Accutane
Natural birth program
Classes, relaxation and breathing techniques, labor coach
States of arousal
Degrees of sleep and wakefulness - REM (50%): stimulation essential for nervous system development, NREM: motionless, HR and breathing slow, drowsiness, quiet alertness, waking activity and crying
Ethnography
Descriptive, qualitative, and directed toward understanding a culture or a distinct social group through participant observation
Epigenesis
Development resulting from ongoing, bidirectional exchanges between heredity and all levels of environment
Nonnormative
Events that are irregular: they happen to just one person or a few people and do not follow a predictable timetable
Age-graded influences
Events that are strongly related to age and therefore fairly predictable in when they occur and how long they last
Sensitive period
Time that is optimal for certain capacities to emerge and in which the individual is esp. responsive to environmental influences, less well-defined boundaries
Rh factor incompatibility
Inherits Rh positive blood from father, if a little crosses placenta into mother's bloodstream, antibodies formed which can destroy fetus's red blood cells and reduce oxygen supply
Vision
Least developed sense at birth, focusing ability and visual acuity - fineness of discrimination - are limited, attracted to bright objects but difficulty discriminating colors
Normative approach
Measures of behavior are taken on large numbers of individuals, and age-related averages are computed to represent typical development
Prenatal diagnostic methods
Medical procedures that permit detection of developmental problems before birth - Amniocentesis, chorionic villus sampling, maternal blood analysis
Bronfenbrenner's environmental structures affecting development
Microsystem - the innermost level of environment; consists of activities and interaction patterns in the person's immediate surroundings Mesosystem - encompasses connections between microsystems Exosystem - social settings that do not contain the developing person but affect experiences in immediate settings Macrosystem - consists of cultural values, laws, customs, and resources Chronosystem - life changes imposed externally or can arise from within, since individuals select, modify, and create many of their own settings and experiences
Period of Embryo
Period of the embryo lasts from implantation through 8th week of pregnancy, rapid prenatal changes, Ectoderm, mesoderm, and endoderm formed
Apgar scale
To assess the newborn's physical condition quickly, rating of 0, 1, or 2 on five characteristics - combined score of 7 or or better is good
Low birth weight
Most common in infants born to poverty-stricken women, major cause of neonatal and infant mortality
Coparenting
Mutually supporting each other's parenting behaviors
Implantation
Occurs between the 7th and 9th days - blastocyst burrows deep into the uterine lining
Dominant-recessive inheritance
Occurs in many heterozygous pairings - only one allele affects the child's characteristics
Abnormalities of the sex chromosomes
Often not recognized until adolescence, most common problems involve an extra chromosome or absence of one X in females
Gene-environment correlation
Our genes influence the environments to which we are exposed Passive - the child has no control over it Evocative - children evoke responses that are influenced by the child's heredity - strengthen the child's original style Active - actively seek environments that fit their genetic tendencies
Longitudinal design
Participants are studied repeatedly, and changes are noted as they get older
Placenta
Permits food and oxygen to reach the organism and waste products to be rid of, attached to organism by umbilical cord - delivers blood loaded w nutrients and two arteries that remove waste
Prenatal exposures to high levels or ionizing, radiation, Hg, PCBs, lead, and dioxins
Physical malformations and severe brain damage, low-level exposure - cognitive defects and emotional and behavioral disorders
Affluent parents
Prestige and high-paid, too often fail to engage in family interaction and parenting that promotes favorable development, often make excessive demands for achievement
Infants during labor
Produce high level of stress hormones, help withstand oxygen deprivation, clear the lungs for breathing, and arouse them into alertness at birth
Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD)
Range of physical, mental, and behavioral outcomes caused by prenatal alcohol exposure
Infectious diseases
Rubella, babies w HIV - AIDS, leading to brain damage and early death, Cytomegalovirus and toxoplasmosis can be devastating to embryo and fetus
Home birth
Safe for healthy mothers who are assisted by a well-trained doctor or mid-wife, however safer in a hospital
Proteomics
Scientists modify gene-specified proteins involved in biological aging and disease
Evolutionary developmental psychology
Seeks to understand the adaptive value of specieswide cognitive, emotional, and social competencies as they change w age
Senses
Senses of touch, taste, smell, and sound are well-developed at birth
Birth trauma
Supportive home environment can help restore their growth, infants w serious birth complication can recover w favorable experiences w parents and peers
Chorion
Surrounds the amnion and emerges villi and blood vessels
Germline mutation
Takes place in cells that give rise to gametes
Resilience
The ability to adapt effectively in the face of threats to development
Genotype
The complex blend of genetic information that determines our species and influences all our unique characteristics
Neural tube
The ectoderm folds over to form the neural tube (primitive spinal cord)
Information processing
The human mind might also be viewed as a symbol-manipulating system through which information flows
Age of viability
The point at which the baby can survive, occurs between 22 and 26 weeks
Canalization
The tendency of heredity to restrict the development of some characteristics to just one or a few outcomes
Niche-picking
The tendency to actively choose environments that complement our heredity
Preterm infants
Those born several weeks or more before their due date
Alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder (ARND)
Three areas of mental functioning impaired
Identical, monozygotic twins
Zygote that has started to duplicate separates into two clusters of cells that develop into two individuals