Psychology unit 9 test

what is puberty?

PUBERTY: The period of sexual maturation a) When a person becomes capable of reproduction Adolescence begins with PUBERTY, the time when we mature sexually 1. Puberty follows a sure of hormones, which may intensify moods and which trigger a series of bodily changes a) Just as in the earlier life stages, the sequence of physical changes in puberty (for example, breast buds and visible pubic hair before menarche-the first menstrual period) is far more predictable than their timing b) Some girls start their growth spurt at 9, some boys as late as age 16 c) Though such variations have little effect on height at maturity, they may have psychological consequences: it is not only when we mature that counts, but how people react to our physical development 2. For boys, early maturation has mixed effects a) Boys who are stronger and more athletic during their early teen years tend to be more popular, self assured, and independent, though also more at risk for alcohol use, delinquency, and premature sexual activity 3. For girls, early maturation can be a challenge a) If a young girl's body and hormone fed feelings are out of sync with her emotional maturity and her friends' physical development an experiences, she may begin associating with older adolescents or may suffer teasing or sexual harassment

what are the types of reflexes that newborns have?

Reflexes: 1. Habituation-decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation 2. Novelty-preference procedure 3. Sensation and perception

how is gender influence social connectedness?

1. In the 1980s, many developmental psychologists believed that all children struggle to create a separate, independent identity a) Research by Carol Gilligan and her colleagues however, suggested that this struggle describes Western individualist males more than relationship oriented females b) Gilligan believed females tend to differ from both males in being less concerned with viewing themselves as separate individuals and in being more concerned with "making connections." c) Indeed, later research has found that females are more interdependent than males, and this difference surfaces early 2. In children's play, boys typically form large groups a) Their games tend to be active and competitive, with little intimate discussion b) Studies have found that girls usually play in smaller groups, often with one friend c) Their play is less competitive and more imitative of social relationships d) As adults, women take more pleasure in talking face to face and they more often use conversation to explore relationships e) Men enjoy doing activities side by side and tend to use conversation to communicate solutions 3. The communication difference is apparent in student emails: in one New Zealand study, people could correctly guess the author's gender two thirds of the time a) Gender differences also appear in phone based communication b) In the United States, the average teen girl sends double the number of text messages of the average teen boy c) In France, women have made 63% of phone calls and when talking to a woman, stayed connected longer than have men when talking to other men d) Women worldwide have oriented their interests and vocations more to people and less to things e) One analysis of more than a half million people's responses to various interest inventories revealed that "men prefer working with things and women prefer working with people" 4. On entering college American men are seven times more likely than women to express interest in computer science, and they contribute 87% of Wikipedia articles a) In the workplace, women have been less driven by money and status and more often opted for reduced work hours b) In the home, they have been five times more likely than men to claim primary responsibility for taking care of children c) Women's emphasis on caring helps explain another interesting finding: although 69% of people have said they have a close relationship with their father, 90% said they feel close to their mother d) When wanting understanding and someone with whom to share worries and hurts, both men and women usually turn to women, and both have reported their friendships with women to be more intimate, enjoyable, and nurturing e) And when coping with their own stress, women more than men turn to others for support-they tend and befriend 5. Gender differences in social connectedness, power and other traits peak in late adolescence and early adulthood-the very years most commonly studied (also the years of dating and mating) a) As teenagers, girls become progressively less assertive and more flirtatious; boys become more domineering and unexpressive b) Following the birth of a first child, parents (women especially) become more traditional in their gender-related attitudes and behavior c) But studies have shown that by age 50, parenthood related gender differences subside d) Men become more empathetic and less domineering and women-especially those with paid employment-become more assertive and self confident e) A biopsychosocial view suggests that both biology and our cultures are important, thanks to the interplay among our biological dispositions, our developmental experience,s and our current situations

what are the different parenting styles?

1. Some parents spank, some reason. Some are strict, some are lax. Some show little affection, some liberally hug and kiss 2. The most heavily researched aspect of parenting has been how and to what extent, parents seek to control their children 3. Investigators have identified three parenting styles: a) Authoritarian: A) Parents impose rules and expect obedience "Don't interrupt." "Why? Because I said so." B) Children of authoritarian parents tend to be more aggressive, less empathetic and friendly, more likely to cheat and they are less likely to feel guilt over things C) Authoritarian parents are kinda setting them up for antisocial behavior in the extreme D) AUTHORITARIAN parents impose rules and expect obedience: "Don't interrupt." "Keep your room clear." "Don't stay out late or you'll be grounded." "Why? Because I said so." b) Permissive A) Submit to children's desires, make few demands, use little punishment B) Children of permissive parents are more likely to be immature, dependent, unhappy and throw tantrums even as adults. C) PERMISSIVE parents submit to their children's desires. D) They make few demands and use little punishment c) Authoritative (the best one) A) Both demanding and responsive B) Set rules, but explain reasons and encourage open discussion C) Authoritative children are more likely to develop with high self esteem, self reliance, and self efficacy (belief you can do certain things), have the best social competency (their emotional intelligence is decent, they get alone with people) D) AUTHORITATIVE parents are both demanding and responsive. They exert control by setting rules and enforcing them, but they also explain the reasons for rules. An, especially with older children, they encourage open discussion when making the rules and allow exceptions d) Rejecting-neglecting A) Completely uninvolved; disengaged. Expect little and invest little B) This leads to other types of issues C) They don't invest time, money or effort into building a relationship with their child D) Leads to low self esteem E) Children with uninvolved parents are more likely to have trouble controlling their impulsivity, more non compliant and self esteem issues 4. Too hard, too soft, and just right, these styles have been called, especially by pioneering researcher Diana Baumrind and her followers a) Research indicates that children with the highest self esteem, self reliance, and social competence usuall have warm, concerned authoritative parents b) Those with authoritarian parents tend to have less social skill and self esteem, and those with permissive parents tend to be more aggressive and immature c) The participants in most studies have been middle class White families, and some critics suggest that effective parenting may vary by culture d) Yest studies with families of other races and in more than 200 cultures worldwide have confirmed the social and academic correlates of loving and authoritative parenting e) For example, two studies of thousands of Germans found that those whose parents had maintained a curfew exhibited better adjustment and greater achievements in young adulthood than did those with permissive parents f) And the effects are stronger when children are embedded in authoritative communities with connected adults who model a good life 5. A word of caustion: the association between certain parenting styles (being firm but open) and certain childhood outcomes (social competence) is correlational CORRELATION IS NOT CAUSATION a) Here are two possible alternative explanations for these parenting competence link a) Children's traits may influence parenting. Parental warmth and control vary somewhat frm child to child even in the same family. Perhaps socially mature, agreeable,easygoing children evoke greater trust and warmth from their parents. Twin studies have supported this possibility. b) Some underlying third factor may be at work. Perhaps, for example, competent parents and their competent children share genes that predispose social competence. c) Twin studies have also supported this possibility. 6. Parents who struggle with conflicting advice should remember that ALL ADVICE REFLECTS THE ADVICE GIVER'S VALUES a) For those who prize unquestioning obedience from a child, an authoritarian style may have the desired effect b) For those who value children's sociability and self reliance, authoritative firm but open parenting is advisable c) Parent style is affected by the child's traits. Harmonious marriage, common genes, or other third factor also affects the child's traits and parenting style

how does daycare affect children?

1. In the mid-twentieth century, when mom-at-home was the social norm, researchers asked "is day care bad for children? Does it disrupt children's attachments to their parents?" a) For the high quality day care programs usually studied, the answer was no 2. In mother care/other care, developmental psychologist Sandra Scarr explained that children are biologically sturdy individuals who can thrive in a wide variety of life situations a) Scarr spoke for many developmental psychologists, whose research has uncovered no major impact of maternal employment on children's development, attachments, and achievements b) Research then shifted to the effects of differing quality of day care on different types and ages of children c) Scarr explained: around the world high quality child care consists of warm, supportive interactions with adults in a saf, healthy, and stimulating environment. Poor care is boring and unresponsive to children's needs. d) Even well run orphanages can produce healthy, thriving children e) In Africa and Asia, where more and more children are losing parents to AIDS and other diseases, orphanges typcially are unlike those in Caeusescu's Romania and the children living in quality orphanages fare about as well as those living in communities 3. Children's ability to thrive under varied types of responsive caregiving should not surprise us, given cultural variation in attachment patterns a) Westernized attachment features one or two caregivers and their offspring b) In other cultures, such as the Edge of Zaire, multiple caregivers are the norm c) Even before the mother holds her newborn, the baby is passed among several women d) In the weeks to come, the infant will be constantly held (and fed) by other women e) The result is strong multiple attachments f) One ongoing study in 10 American cities has followed 1100 children since the age of 1 month g) The researchers found that at ages 4 ½ and 6, children who had spent the most time in day care had slightly advanced thinking and language skills h) They also had an increased rate of aggressiveness and defiance 4. To developmental psychologist Eleanor Maccoby, the positive correlation between the increased rate of problem behaviors and time spent in child care suggested "some risk for some children spending extended time in some day care settings as they're now organized." a) But the child's temperament, the parents' sensitivity, and the family's economic and educational level influenced aggression more than time spent in day care b) There is little disagreement that the children who merely exist for 9 hours a day in under staffed centers deserve better c) What all children need is a consistent, warm relationship with people whom they can learn to trust d) The importance of such relationships extends beyond the preschool years, as Finnish psychologist Lea Pullinen observed in her career long study of 285 individuals tracked from age 8 to 42 e) Her finding-that adult monitoring of children predicts favorable outcomes-led her to undertake, with support from Finland's parliament, a nationwide program of adult supervised for all first and second graders

what is identity and what is social identity?

Identity: our sense of self; according to Erikson, the adolescent's task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles 1. To refine their sense of identity, adolescents in individualistic cultures usually try out different "selves" in different situations a) They may act out one self at home, another with friends, and still another at school or on Facebook b) If two situations overlap-as when a teenager brings friends home-the discomfort can be considerable c) The teen asks, "which self should I be? Which is the real me?" d) The resolution is a self definition that unifies the various selves into a consistent and comfortable sense of who one is-AN IDENTITY 2. Social identity: the "we" aspect of our self concept; the part of our answer to "Who am I?" that comes from our group memberships a) For both adolescents and adults, group identities are often formed by how we differ from those around us b) For international students, for those of a minority ethnic group, for people with a disability, for those on a team, a SOCIAL IDENTITY often forms around their distinctiveness c) But not always. Erikson noticed that some adolescents forge their identity early, simply by adopting their parents' values and expectations (traditional, less individualist cultures teach adolescents who they are rather than encouraging them to decide on their own) d) Other adolescents may adopt an identity defined in opposition to parents but in conformity with a particular peer group-jocks, preps, geeks, band kids, debaters 3. Most young people do develop a sense of contentment with their lives a) When american teens were asked whether a series of statements described them, 81% said Yes to "i would choose my life the way it is right now." the other 19% agreed that "I wish I were somebody else." b) Reflecting on their existence, 75% of American collegians say they "discuss religion/spirituality" with friends, "pray," and agree that "we are all spiritual beings" and "search for meaning/purpose in life" c) This would not surprise Stanford psychologist William Damon and his colleagues who have contended that a key task of adolescence is to achieve a purpose-a desire to accomplish something personally meaningful that makes a difference to the world beyond oneself d) The late teen years, when many people like you in industrialized countries begin attending college or working full time, provide new opportunities for trying out possible roles e) Here is something for you to remember: many college seniors have achieved identity and a more positive self concept than they had as first year students f) This could be one of the reasons why the first year of college is such a challenge g) Collegians who have achieved a clear sense of identity are less prone to self destructive behavior such as alcohol misuse h) Several nationwide studies indicate that young Americans' self-esteem falls during the early to midteen years, and, for girls, depression scores often increase i) But then self image rebounds during the late teens and twenties j) Late adolescence and early adulthood are also when agreeableness and emotional stability scores increase

how can brain damage affect morality?

1. Brain damage can break morality 2. Participants with lesions in the frontal lobes are more likely to engage in harm than participants with lesions in areas other than the frontal lobe or the control participants. 3. Participants with lesions in areas other than the frontal lobes are the least likely to engage in harm

is attachment style a result of parenting or genetics.

1. But is attachment style the result of parenting? Or is attachment style the result of genetically influenced TEMPERAMENT a) Temperament: a person's characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity 2. As most parents will tell you after having their second child, babies differ even before gulping their first breath a) Heredity predisposes temperament differences b) From their first weeks of life, some infants are reactive, intense, and fidgety c) Others are easygoing, quiet, and placid d) Difficult babies are more irritable, intense, and unpredictable e) Easy babies are cheerful, relaxed, and predictable in feeding and sleeping f) Slow-to-warm-up infants tend to resist or withdraw from new people and situations g) And temperament differences typically persist 3. The most emotionally reactive newborns tend also to be the most reactive 9 month olds a) Exceptionally inhibited and fearful 2 year olds often are still relatively shy as 8 year olds; about half will become introverted adolescents b) The most emotionally intense preschoolers tend to be relatively intense young adults. In one study of more than 900 New Zealanders, emotionally reactive and impulsive 3 year olds developed their somewhat more impulsive, aggressive, and conflict prone 21 year olds c) Anxious, inhibited infants have high and variable heart rates and a reactive nervous system 4. When facing new or strange of a gene that regulates the neurotransmitter serotonin predisposes a fearful temperament and in combination with unsupportive caregiving, an inhibited child a) Such evidence adds to the emerging conclusion that our biologically rooted temperament helps form our enduring personality b) By neglecting such inborn differences, the parenting studies, noted Judith Harris, are like comparing foxhounds reared in kennels with poodles reared in apartments c) So to separate nature and nurture, we would need to vary parenting while controlling temperament d) One dutch researcher's solution was to randomly assign 100 temperamentally difficult 6- to 9-month olds to either an experimental group, which mothers received personal training in sensitive responding, or to a control group, in which they did not e) At 12 months of age, 68% of the infants in the experimental group were rated securely attached, as were only 28% of the control group infants f) Other studies support the idea that intervention programs can increase parental sensitivity and to a lesser extent, infant attachment security 5. As these examples indicate, researchers have more often studied mother care than father care a) Infants who lack a caring mother are said to suffer "maternal deprivation" b) Those lacking a father's care merely experience "father absence" c) This reflects a wider attitude in which "fathering a child" has meant impregnating and "mothering" has meant nurturing d) But fathers are more than just mobile sperm banks e) Across nearly 100 studies worldwide, a father's love and acceptance have been comparable to a mother's love in predicting their offspring's health and well being f) In one mammoth British study following 7259 children from birth to adulthood, those whose fathers were most involved in parenting (through outings, reading to them, and tasking an interest in their education) tended to achieve more in school, even after controlling for other factors such as parental education and family wealth

what happens in conception?

1. A single sperm cell (male) penetrates the outer coating of the egg (female) and fuses to form one fertilized cell 2. Conception a) Nothing is more natural than a species reproducing itself b) And nothing is more wondrous c) With humans, the process starts when a woman's ovary releases a mature egg-a cell roughly the size of the period at the end of the sentences d) The woman as born with all the immature eggs she would ever have, although only 1 in 5000 will ever mature and be released e) A man, in contrast, begins producing sperm cells at puberty f) For the rest of his life, 24 hours a day, he will be a nonstop sperm factory with the rate of production-in the beginning more than 1000 sperm during the second it takes to read this phrase-slowing with age g) Life space voyagers approaching a huge planet, the 200 million or more deposited sperm begin their race upstream, approaching a cell 85,000 times their own size h) The relatively few reaching the egg release digestive enzymes that eat away its protective coating i) As soon as one sperm penetrates that coating and is welcomed in, the egg's surface blocks out the others 3. Before half a day elapses, the egg nucleus and the sperm nucleus fuse a) The two have become one b) Consider it you most fortunate of moments c) Among 200 million sperm, the one needed to make you, in combination with that one particular egg, won the race d) And so it was for innumerable generations before us e) If any one of our ancestors had been conceived with a different sperm or egg, or died before conceiving, or not chanced to meet the partner or the mind boggles at the improbable, unbroken chain of events that produce you and me

how does gender influence your social power?

1. Around the world from Nigeria to New Zealand, people perceive power differences between men and women a) Indeed, in most societies men do place more importance on power and achievement and are socially dominant b) When groups form, whether as juries or companies, leadership tends to go to males c) When salaries are paid, those in traditionally male occupations receive more d) And when political leaders are elected, they usually are men, who held 80% of the seats in the world's governing parliaments in 2011 2. If perceived to be hungry for political power (thus violating gender norms), women more than men suffer voter backlash a) Men's power hunger is more expected and accepted b) As leaders, men tend to be more directive, even autocratic c) Women tend to be more democratic, more welcoming of subordinates' input in decision making 3. When people interact, men are more likely to utter opinions, women to express support a) In everyday behavior, men tend to act as powerful people often do: they are more likely to talk assertively, interrupt, initiate touches, and stare b) And they smile and apologize less c) Such behaviors help sustain social power inequities

how is the relationship between teens, their parents, and their friends affected in adolescence?

1. As adolescents in Western cultures seek to form their own identities, they begin to pull away from their parents a) The preschooler who can't be close enough to her mother, who loves to touch and cling to her, becomes the 14 year old who wouldn't be caught dead holding hands with mom b) The transition occurs gradually c) By adolescence, arguments occur more often, usually mover mundane things-household chores, bedtime, homework 2. Parent-child conflict during the transition to adolescence tends to be greater with first born than with second born children and greater with mothers than with fathers a) For a minority of parents and their adolescents, differences lead to real splits and great stress b) But most disagreements are at the level of harmless bickering c) And most adolescents-6000 of them in 10 countries from Australia to Bangladesh to Turkey-said they like their parents d) We usually get along but...,adolescence often reported 3. Positive parent-teen relations and positive peer relations often go hand in hand a) High school girls who have the most affectionate relationships with their mothers tend also to enjoy the most intimate friendships with girlfriends b) And teens who feel close to their parents tend to be healthy and happy and to do well in school c) Of course, we can state this correlation the other way: misbehaving teens are more likely have tense relationships with parents and other adults d) Adolescence is typically a time of diminishing parental influence and growing peer influence e) Asked in a survey if they had ever had a serious talk with their child about illegal drugs, 85% of American parents answered yes. f) But if the parents had indeed given this earnest advice, many teens had apparently tuned it out: only 45% could recall such a talk 4. Heredity does much of the heavy lifting in forming individual temperament and personality differences, and peer influences do much of the rest a) Most teens are herd animals b) They talk, dress, and act more like their peers than their parents c) What their friends are, they often become, and what "everybody's doing." they often do d) In teen calls to hotline counseling services, peer relationships have been the most discussed topic 5. The average US teen sends 60 text messages per day a) Many adolescents become absorbed by social networking, sometimes with a compulsive use that produces "facebook fatigue." b) Online communication stimulates intimate self disclosure-both for better (support groups) and for worse (online predators and extremist groups) c) For those who feel excluded, the pain is acute d) The social atmosphere in most high schools is poisonously clique driven and exclusionary, observed social psychologist Elliot Aronson e) Most excluded "students suffer in silence...a smaller number act out in violent ways against their classmates." f) Those who withdraw are vulnerable to loneliness, low self esteem, and depression 6. Peer approval matters a) Teens see their parents as having more influence in other areas-for example,, in shaping their religious faith and in thinking about college and career choices b) A gallup youth survey reveals that most share their parents' political views

how do peers influence us? How can parents influence the peers we have?

1. As children mature, what other experiences do the word of nurturing? a) At all ages, but especially during childhood and adolescence, we seek to fit in with our groups and are influenced by them b) Preschoolers who disdain a certain food often will eat that food if put at a table with a group of children who like it c) Children who hear english spoken with one accent at home and another in the neighborhood and at school will invariably adopt the accent of their peers, not their parents. Accents (and slang) reflect culture, and children get their culture from their peers notes Judith Rich Harris d) Teens who start smoking typically have friends who model smoking, suggest its pleasures, and offer cigarettes. Parts of this peer similarity may result from a SELECTION EFFECT, as kids seek out peers with similar attitudes and interests. Those who smoke (or don't) may select as friends those who also smoke (or don't) Howard Garden has concluded that parents and peers are complementary 2. Parents are more important when it comes to education, discipline, responsibility, orderliness, charitableness, and ways of interacting with authority figures. 3. Peers are more important for learning cooperation, for finding the road to popularity, for inventing styles of interaction among people of the same age a) Youngsters may find their peers more interesting, but they will look to their parents when contemplating their own futures. 4. Moreover, parents (often) choose the neighborhoods and schools that supply the peers a) Adolescence: social development b) Parents and peers are influential c) Peers more than parents sometimes d) This power to select a child's neighborhood and schools gives parents an ability to influence the culture that shapes the child's peer group e) And because neighborhood influence matter, parents may want to become involved in intervention programs that aim at a whole school or neighborhood f) If the vapors of a toxic climate are seeping into a child's life, that climate-not just the child-needs reforming g) Even so, peers are but one medium of cultural influence h) As a purported African proverb declares, and former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has popularized, "it takes a village to raise a child."

what brain development occurs during adolescence?

1. At adolescence, selective pruning of the neurons begins. Unused neural connections are lost to make other pathways more efficient a) An adolescent's brain is also a work in progress b) Until puberty, brain cells increases their connections, like trees growing more roots and branches c) Then, during adolescence comes a selective pruning of unused neurons and connections d) What we don't use, we lose Frontal cortex 2. The frontal cortex lages behind the limbic system's development a) Hormonal surges and the limbic system may explainteen impulsiveness b) As teens mature, their frontal lobes also continue to develop 3. The growth of MYELIN, the fatty tissue that forms around axons and speeds neurotransmission, enables better communication with other brain regions a) These developments bring improved judgment, impulse control, and long term planning b) Maturation of the frontal lobes nevertheless lags behind that of the emotional limbic system c) Puberty's hormonal surge and limbic system development help explain teens' occasional impulsiveness, risky behaviors, and emotional storms-slamming doors and turning up the music d) No wonder younger teens (whose unfinished frontal lobes aren't yet fully equipped for making long term plans and curbing impulses) so often succumb to the tobacco corporations, which most adult smokers could tell them they will later regret e) Teens actually don't underestimate the risks of smoking-or fast driving or unprotected sex f) They just, when reasoning from their gut, weight the immediate benefits more heavily g) They seek thrills and rewards, but they can't yet locate the brake pedal controlling their impulses h) So when Junior drives recklessly and academically self destructs, should his parents reassure themselves that "he can't help it; his frontal cortex isn't yet fully grown'? i) They can at least take hope: the brain with which Junior begins his teens differs from the brain with which he will end his teens j) Unless he slows his brain development with heavy drinking-leaving him prone to impulsivity and addiction-his frontal lobes will continue maturing until about age 25 4. In 2004, the American Psychological Association joined seven other medical and mental health associations in filing US Supreme Court briefs arguing against the death penalty for 16 and 17 year olds a) The briefs documented the teen brain's immaturity in areas that beat upon adolescent decision making b) Teens are less guilty by reason of adolescence suggested psychologist Laurence Steinberg and law professor Elizabeth Scott c) In 2005, by a 5-to-4 margin, the Court concurred, declaring juvenile death penalties unconstitutional

what are the factors contributing to prenatal development?

1. At each prenatal stage, genetic and environmental factors affect our development 2. By the sixth month, microphone readings taken inside the uterus reveal that the fetus is responsive to sound and is expose to the sound of its mother's muffled voice 3. Immediately after birth, emerging from living 38 or so weeks underwater, newborn prefer her voice to another woman's or to their father's 4. They also prefer hearing their mother's language a) If she spoke two languages during pregnancy, they display interest in both b) And just after birth, the melodic ups and downs of newborns' cries bear the tuneful signature of their mother's native tongue c) Babies born to French speaking mothers tend to cry with the rising intonation of French; babies born to German speaking mothers cry with the falling tones of German d) The learning of language begins in the womb 5. In the 2 months before birth, fetuses demonstrate learning in other ways, as when they adapt to a vibrating, honking device placed on their mother's abdomen a) Like people who adapt to the sound of trains in their neighborhood, fetuses get used to the honking b) Moreover, 4 weeks later, they recall the sound (as evidenced by their blase response, compared with reactions of those not previously exposed) c) Sounds are not the only stimuli fetuses are exposed to in the womb

what are the reflexes that infants have to aid them in survival?

1. Babies come with software preloaded on their neural hard drives 2. Having survived prenatal hazards, we as newborns came equipped with automatic reflex responses ideally suited for our survival a) We withdrew our limbs to escape pain b) If a cloth over our face interfered with our breathing, we turned our head from side to side and swiped at it c) New parents are often in awe of the coordinated sequence of reflexes by which their baby gets food 3. Infants are born with reflexes that aid in survival: a) Rooting: turning the head and opening the mouth in the direction of a touch on the cheek A) Thanks to the ROOTING REFLEX, when something touches their cheek, babies turn toward that touch, open their mouth, and vigorously root for a nipple b) Grasping: curling the fingers around an object c) Sleeping reflex: reflex that causes newborns to start a stepping motion as they touch a surface. d) Swallowing: we are born knowing how to swallow, it is not something that is taught e) Sucking: sucking rhythmically in response to oral stimulation A) Finding one, they automatically close on it and begin SUCKING-which itself requires a coordinate sequence of reflexive TONGUING, SWALLOWING, AND BREATHING B) Offspring cries are important signals for parents to provide nourishment. In animals and humans such cries are quickly attended to and relieved C) We are wired to hear baby crying and it will go to our consciousness very quickly D) Failing to find satisfaction, the hangry baby may cry-a behavior parents find highly unpleasant and very rewarding to relieve f) Moro (startle reflex): throwing the arms out, arching the back and bringing the arms together as if to hold onto something (in response to loud noise or sudden change in position of the head) g) Babinski- fanning and curling toes when foot is stroked

what did Carolyn Rovee Collier discover in her experiment?

1. Babies only 3 months old can learn that kicking moves a mobile and can retain that learning for a month a) In 1965, while finishing her doctoral work in psychology, Carolyn Rovee Collier observed a nonverbal infant memory b) She was also a new mom, whose colicky 2 month old, Benjamin, could be calmed by moving a crib mobile c) Weary of hitting the mobile, she strung a cloth ribbon connecting the mobile to Benjamin's foot d) Soon, he was kicking his foot to move the mobile e) Thinking about her unintended home experiment, Rovee-Collier realized that, contrary to popular opinion in the 1960s, babies are capable of learning f) To know for sure that her son wasn't just a whiz kid, she repeated the experiment with other infants g) Sure enough, they, too soon kicked more when hitched to a mobile, both on the day of the experiment and the day after h) They had learned the link between moving legs and moving mobiles i) If, however, she hitched them to a different mobile the next day, the infants showed no learning, indicating that they remembered the original mobile and recognized the difference j) Moreover, when tethered to the familiar mobile a mont halter, they remembered the association and again began kicking 2. Apart from constructed memories based on photos and family stories, we consciously recall little from before age 4 a) Yet out brain was processing and storing information during those early years

what is maturation?

1. Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior-preprogrammed, relatively uninfluenced by experience 2. Maturation sets the basic course of development, while experience adjusts it a) During infancy, a baby grows from newborn to toddler, and during childhood from toddler to teenager b) We all traveled this path with its physical, cognitive, and social milestones 3. MATURATION decrees many of our commonalities a) We stand before walking, we use nouns before adjectives, sever deprivation or abuse can retard development b) Yet the genetic growth tendencies are inborn c) Maturation (nature) sets the basic course of development; experience (nurture) adjusts it d) Once again, we see genes and scenes interacting

how do nature and nurture play a role in brain development after puberty?

1. Both nature and nurture sculpt our synapses a) After brain maturation provides us with an abundance of neural connections, our experiences trigger a pruning process b) Sights and smells, touches and tugs activate and strengthen connections 2. Unused neural pathways weaken a) Like forest pathways, popular tracks are broadened and less traveled ones gradually disappear b) The result by puberty is a massive loss of unemployed connections 3. Here at the juncture of nurture and nature is the biological reality of early childhood learning a) During early childhood-while excess connections are still on call-youngsters can most easily master such skills as the grammar and accent of another language b) Lacking any exposure to language before adolescence, a person will never master any language c) Likewise, lacking visual experience during the early years, those whose vision is restored by cataract removal never achieve normal perceptions d) The brain cells normally assigned to vision have died or been diverted to other uses e) The maturing brain's rule: use it or lose it 4. Although normal stimulation during the early years is critical, the brain's development does not end with childhood a) Our neural tissue is ever changing and new neurons are born b) If a monkey pushes a lever with the same finger several thousand times a day, brain tissue controlling that finger changes to reflect the experience c) Humans brains work similarly d) Whether learning to keyboard or skateboard, we perform with increasing skill as our brain incorporates the learning

how does culture reflect the way that people raise their children?

1. Child raising practices reflect cultural values that vary across time and place a) If you live in a westernized culture, the odds are you prefer children with independence b) You are resonsbily for yourself, western families and schools tell their children. Follow four conscience. Be true to yourself, discover your gifts. Think through your personal needs c) A half century and more ago, Western cultural values placed greater priority on obedience, respect, and sensitivity to others d) Be true to your traditions parents then taught their children. Be loyal to your heritage and country. Shoe respect toward your parents and other superiors e) Cultures can change 2. Many Asians and Africans live in cultures tht value emotional closeness a) Rather than being given their own bedrooms and entrusted to day care, infants and toddlers may sleep with their mothers and spend their days close to a family members b) These cultures encourage a strong sense of family self-a feeling that what shames the child shames the family, and what brings honor to the family brings honor to the self c) Children across place and time have thrived under various child raising systems d) Upper Class British parents traditionally handed off routine caregiving to nannies, then sent their 10 year olds off to boarding school e) These children generally grow up to be pillars of British society, as did their parents and their boarding school peers. f) In the african gusii society, babies nurse freely but spend most of the day on their mother's back-with lots of body contact but little face to face and language interaction g) When the mother becomes pregnant again, the toddler is weaned and handed over to someone else often an olde sibling h) Westerns may wonder about the negative effects ofhis lack of verbal interaction, but then the African Gusii may in turn wonder about Western mothers pushing their babies around in strollers and leaving them in playpens i) Such diversity in child raising cautions us against presuming that our culture's way is the only way to raise children successfully 3. The investment in raising a child buys many years not only of joy and love but of worry and irritation a) Yet for most people who become parents, a child is one's biological and social legacy-one's personal investment in the human future b) To paraphrase psychiatrist Carl Jung we reach backward into our parents and forward into our children, and through their children into a future we will never see, but about which we must therefore care

what is developmental psychology and define the parts of it?

1. Development is lifelong so developmental psychology happens from birth to death a) Prenatal development and the newborn 2. Developmental psychology: a branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span a) Nature and nurture: How do genetic inheritance (our nature) and experience (the nurture we receive) influence our behavior? b) Continuity and stages: Is developmental a gradual continuous process or a sequence of separate stages? c) Stability and change: Do our early personality traits persist through life, or do we become different persons as we age?

how does adolescence cognitive development happen?

1. During the early teen years, reasoning is often self focused a) Adolescents may think the private experiences are unique, something parents just could not understand b) Capable of thinking about their own thinking, and about other people's thinking, they also begin imagining what others are thinking about then (they might worry less if they understood their peers' similar self adsorption) c) Gradually, though, most begin to reason more abstractly 2. Adolescents' ability to reason gives them a new level of social awareness a) Their own thinking b) What others are thinking c) What others are thinking about them 3. How ideas can be reached. They criticize society, parents, and even themselves a) When adolescents achieve the intellectual summit Jean Piaget called FORMAL OPERATIONS, they apply their new abstract reasoning tools to the world around them b) They may think about what is ideally possible and compare that with the imperfect reality of their society, their parents, and even themselves c) They may debate human nature, good and evil, truth and justice d) Their sense of what's fair changes from siple equaliy to equity-to what's proportional to merit e) Having left behind the concrete images of early childhood, they may now seek a deeper conception of God and existence f) Reasoning hypothetically and deducing consequences also enables adolescents to detect inconsistencies and spot hypocrisy in others' reasoning g) This can lead to heated debates with parents and silent vows never to lose sight of their own ideals

how are men and women alike? How are they different?

1. Having faced similar adaptive challenges, we are in most ways alike a) Tell me whether you are male or female and you give me virtually no clues to your vocabulary, intelligence, and happiness, or to the mechanisms by which you see, hear, learn, and remember b) Your "opposite" sex is in reality, your very similar sex 2. At conception, you received 23 chromosomes from your mother and 23 from your father a) Of those 46 chromosomes, 45 are unisex-the same for males and females b) But males and females do differ, and the differences command attention-stimulating more than 18,000 studies c) Some much talked about gender differences are actually quite modest as Janet Shibley Hyde illustrated by graphically representing male an female self esteem scores across many studies d) Other differences are more striking 3. Compared with the average man, the average woman enters puberty 2 years sooner, and her life span is 5 years longer a) She carries 70% more fat, has 40% less muscle, and is 5 inches shorter b) She expresses emotions more freely, can smell fainter odors, and is offered help more often c) She can become sexually re-aroused soon after orgasm d) She is also doubly vulnerable to depression and anxiety, and her risk of developing an eating disorder is 10 times greater than the average man's e) Yet, he is some 4 times more likely to commit suicie or develop alcohol use disorder f) He is also more likely to be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, color blindness, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder as a child, and antisocial personality disorder as an adult 4. Choose your gender and pick your vulnerability a) Differences between the average woman and man in aggression, social power, and social connectedness, do not necessarily describe any individual woman or man

How Much Credit or Blame Do Parents deserve?

1. In procreation, a woman and a man shuffle their gene decks and deal a life forming hand to their child-to-be, who is then subjected to countless influences beyond their control a) Parents, nonetheless, feel enormous satisfaction in their children's successes, and feel guilt or shame over their failures b) They proudly display their "my child is on the honor roll" bumper sticker c) And they wonder where they went wrong with the teenager who is repeatedly suspended from school d) Freudian psychiatry and psychology have been among the sources of such ideas, by blaming problems from asthma to schizophrenia on "bad mothering" e) Society has reinforced such apparent blaming: believing that parents shape their offspring as a potter molds clay, people readily praise parents for their children's virtues and blame them for their children's vices f) Popular culture endlessly proclaims that psychological harm toxic parents inflict on their fragile children g) No wonder having and raising children can seem so risky 2. Parents do matter. a) The power of parenting is clearest at the extremes: the abused children who become abusive, the neglected who become neglectful, the loved but firmly handled who become self confident and socially competent b) The power of the family environment also appears in the remarkable academic and vocational successes children of people who fled from Vietnam and Cambodia-successes attributed to close knit, supportive even demanding families c) Yet in personality measures, shared environmental influences from the womb onward typically account for less than 10% of children's differences 3. In the words of behavior geneticists Robert Plomin and Denise Daniels, "two children in the same family are apart from their shared genes as different from one another as are pairs of children selected randomly from the population." a) To developmental psychologists, this implies that parents should be given less credit for kids who turn out great and blamed less for kids who don't b) Knowing children are no easily sculpted by parental nurture, perhaps parents can relax a bit more and love their children for who they are

what happens when children are deprived of attachment?

1. In such circumstances children become: a) Withdrawn b) Frightened c) Unable to develop speech (well) 2. Also leaves to alteration in hormones and receptor sites because the outside environment is affecting their emotional well being a) Your attachment could effect your sex life b) As adults they were unable to have normal sexual relations c) Monkeys that were neglected would go off in a corner and be afraid and could not interact with the monkeys that were not neglected d) Babies locked away at home under conditions of abuse or extreme neglect are often withdrawn, frightened, even speechless 3. The same is true of those raised in institutions without the stimulation and attention of a regular caregiver, as was tragically illustrated during the 1970s and 1980s in Romania a) Having decided that economic growth for his impoverished country required more human capital, Nicolae Caeuseascu, Romania's Communist dictator, outlawed contraception, forbade abortion, and taxed families with fewer than five children b) The birthrate indeed skyrocketed c) But unable to afford the children they had been coerced into having, many families abandoned them to government run orphanages with untrained and overworked staff d) Child to caregiver ratios often were 15 to 1, so the children were deprived of healthy attachment with at least one adult e) When tested after Ceausescu was assassinated in 1989, these children had lower intelligence scores and double the 20% rate of anxiety symptoms found in children assigned to quality foster care settings f) Dozens of other studies across 19 countries have confirmed that orphaned children tend to fare better on later intelligence tests if raised in family homes g) This is especially so for those placed at an early age 4. Most children growing up under adversity (as did the surviving children of the Holocaust) are resilient, they withstand the trauma and become normal adults a) So do most victims of childhood sexual abuse, noted Harvard researcher Susan Clancy, while emphasizing that using children for sex is revolting and never the victim's fault b) But others, especially those who experience no sharp break from their abusive past, don't bounce back so readily 5. The Harlows' monkeys raised in total isolation, without even an artificial mother, bore lifelong scars a) As adults, when placed with other monkeys their age, they either cowered in fright or lashed out in aggression b) When they reached sexual maturity, most were incapable of mating c) If artificially impregnated, females often were neglectful, abusive, even murderous toward their first born d) Another primate experiment confirmed the abuse breeds abuse phenomenon e) In one study, 9 of 16 females who had been abused by their mothers became abusive parents, as did no female raised bya nonabusive mother 6. In humans too, the unloved may become the unloving a) Most abusive parents-and many condemned murderers-have reported being neglected or battered as children b) Some 30% of people who have been abused later abuse their children-a rate lower than that found in the primate study, but four times the US national rate of child abuse c) Although most abused children do not later become violent criminals or abusive parents, extreme early trauma may nevertheless leave footprints on the brain d) Abused children exhibit hypersensitivity to angry faces e) As adults, they exhibit stronger startle responses f) If repeatedly threatened and attacked while young, normally placid golden hamsters grow up to be cowards when caged with same sized hamsters, or bullies when caged with weaker ones g) Such animals show changes in the brain chemical serotonin, which clams aggressive impulses h) A similarly sluggish serotonin response has been found in abused children who become aggressive teens and adults 7. "Stress can set off a ripple of hormonal changes that permanently wire a child's brain to cope with a malevolent world," concluded abuse researcher Martin Teicher a) Such findings help explain why young children who have survived servere or prolonged physical abuse, childhood sexual abuse, or wartime atrocities are at increased risk for health problems, psychological disorders, substance abuse, and criminality b) Abuse victims are at considerable risk for depression if they carry a gene variation that spurs stress hormone production c) As we will see again and again, behavior and emotion arise from a particular environment interacting with particular genes d) Adults also suffer when attachment bonds are servered e) Whether through death or separation, a break produces a predictable sequence f) Agitated preoccupation with the lost partner is followeed by deep sadness and eventually, the beginnings of emotional detachment and a return to normal living g) Newly separated couples who have long ago ceased feeling affection are sometimes surprised at their desire to be bear the former partner h) Deep and longstanding attachments seldom break quickly i) Detaching is a process, not an event

what is the brain development in infants?

1. In your mother's womb, your developing brain formed nerve cells at the explosive rate of nearly one quarter million per minute 2. The developing brain cortex actually overproduces neurons, with the number peaking at 28 weeks and then subsiding to a stable 23 billion or so at birth a) From infancy on, brain and mind-neural hardware and cognitive software-develop together b) On the day you were born, you had most of the brain cells you would ever have c) However, you nervous system was immature: after birth, the branching neural networks that eventually enabled you to walk, talk, and remember had a wild growth spurt d) From ages 3 to 5, the most rapid growth was in your frontal lobes, which enable rational planning e) This explains why preschoolers display a rapidly developing ability to control their attention and behavior f) The association areas-those linked with thinking, memory and language-are the last cortical areas to develop g) As they do, mental abilities surge h) Fiber pathways supporting language and agility proliferate into puberty 3. A use-it-or-lose-it PRUNING PROCESS shuts down unused links and strengthens others

what is the motor development in infants?

1. Infants follow an orderly pattern of motor development 2. Experience has little effect on this sequence: a) Sitting unsupported 6 months b) Crawling 8-9 months c) Beginning to walk 12 months d) Walking independently 15 months 3. The developing brain enables physical coordination a) As an infant's muscles and nervous system mature, skills emerge 4. With occasional exceptions, the motor development sequence is universal a) Babies roll over before they sit unsupported, and they usually crawl on all fours before they walk b) These behaviors reflect not imitation but a maturing nervous system; blind children, too, crawl before they walk c) There are, however, individual differences in timing d) In the United States, for example, 25% of all babies walk by age 11 months, 50% within a week after their first birthday, and 90% by age 15 months 5. The recommended infant BACK-TO-SLEEP POSITION (putting babies to sleep on their back to reduce the risk of smothering crib death) has been associated with somewhat later crawling but not with later walking a) Genes guide motor development b) Identical twins typically begin walking on nearly the same day 6. Maturation-including the rapid development of the cerebellum at the back of the brain-creates our readiness to learn walking at about age a) Experience before that time has limited effect b) The same is true for other physical skills, including bowel and bladder control c) Before necessary muscular and neural maturation, don't expect pleading or punishment to produce successful toilet training

what was mary ainsworth's experiment?

1. Mary Ainsworth-stranger allusion a) She did a study on how babies are attached to their mothers b) When mothers leave the room and are attached to the baby, the baby will cry but not freak out c) When mothers leave the room and are not attached to the baby, the baby will lose their minds and then give the mom the cold shoulder when she comes back into the room d) This shows that your attachment predicts your social competence 2. Contact is one key to attachment 3. Another is familiarity 4. Secure attachment 5. Insecure attachment 6. Ainsworth and others found that sensitive, responsive mothers-those who noticed what their babies were doing and responded appropriately-had infants who exhibited secure attachment a) Insensitive, unresponsive mothers-mothers who attended to their babies when they felt like doing so but ignored them at other times-often had infants who were insecurely attached b) The Harlows' monkey studies, with unresponsive artificial mothers, produced even more striking effects c) When put in strange situations without their artificial mothers, the deprived infants were terrified

what is adolescence?

1. The transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence a) ADOLESCENCE starts with the physical beginnings of sexual maturity and ends with the social achievement of independent adult status b) In some cultures, where teens are self supporting, this means that adolescence hardly exists c) G. Stanley Hall, one of the first psychologists to describe adolescence, believed that the tension between biological maturity and social dependence creates a period of "storm and stress." d) Indeed, after age 30, many who grew up in independence fostering Western cultures look back on their teenage years as a time they would not want to relive, a time when their peers' social approval was imperative, their sense of direction in life was in flux, and their feeling of alienation from their parents was deepest e) But for many, adolescence is a time of vitality without the cares of adulthood, a time of rewarding friendships, heightened idealism, and a growing sense of life's exciting possibilities

how goes adolescence's moral actions develop?

1. Moral action involves doing the right thing a) People who engage in doing the right thing develop empathy for clothes and the self discipline to resist their own impulses 2. Learning to behave in moral ways requires... a) Consistent modeling b) Real life experience c) Situational factors that support moral actions 3. Our moral thinking and feeling surely affect our moral talk a) But sometimes talk is cheap and emotions are fleeting b) Morality involves doing the right thing and what we do also depends on social influences c) As political theorist Hannah Arendt observed, many Nazi concentration camp guards during World War II were ordinary "moral" people who were corrupted by a powerfully evil situation 4. Today's character education programs tend to focus on the whole moral package-thinking, feeling, and doing the right thing a) As children's thinning matures, their behavior also becomes less selfish and more caring b) Today's programs also teach children EMPATHY for others' feelings, and the self discipline needed to restrain one's own impulses-to delay small gratifications now to enable bigger rewards later c) Those who do learn to DELAY GRATIFICATION become more socially responsible, academically successful, and productive d) In service learning programs, teens tutor, clean up their neighborhoods, and assist the elderly e) The result: the teens' sense of competence and desire to serve increase, and their school absenteeism and drop out rates diminish f) Moral action feeds moral attitudes

how do genes dictate development? What was rosenzweig's experiment that showed how experience plays a role in development?

1. Our genes, as express in specific environments, influence our developmental differences We are not blank slates. We are more like coloring books, with certain lines predisposed and experience filling in the full picture a) We are formed by nature and nurture 2. Experience and Brain Development a) The formative nurture that conspires with nature begins at conception, as we have seen with the prenatal environment in the womb b) Embryos receive differing nutrition and varying levels of exposure to toxic agents c) Nurture then continues outside the womb, where our early experiences foster brain development 3. Our genes dictate our overall brain architecture, but experience fills in the details, developing neural connections and preparing our brain for thought and language and other later experiences 4. Mark Rosenzweig, David Krech, and their colleagues opened a window on how early experiences leave their marks when they raised some young rats in solitary confinement and others in a communal playground a) When they later analyzed the rat's brains, those raised in the enriched environment, which simulated a natural environment usually developed a heavier and thicker brain cortex b) Rosenzweig was so surprised by this discovery that he repeat the experiment several times before publishing his findings c) So great are the effects that, shown brief video clips of rats, you could tell from their activity and curiosity whether their environment had been impoverished or enriched d) After 60 days in the enriched environment, the rats' brain weights increased 7 to 10 percent and the number of synapses mushroomed by about 20 percent e) Such results have motivated improvements in environments for laboratory, farm, and zoo animals-and for children in institutions 5. Stimulation by touch or massage also benefits infant rats and premature babies a) "Handled" infants of both species develop faster neurologically and gain weight more rapidly b) By giving preemies massage therapy, neonatal intensive care units now help them to go home sooner

what are criticisms of Piaget?

1. Piaget criticisms a) The gist of them is that Piaget may have underestimate children's abilities b) We have become more ingenious in the ways we "ask" them questions... 2. Sensorimotor stage criticisms: a) Piaget believed children in the sensorimotor stage could not think-they do not have any abstract concepts or ideas b) However recent research shows that children the sensorimotor stage can think and count: A) Children understand the basic laws of physics. They are amazed at how a ball can stop in midair or disappear 3. Preoperational stage criticism a) DeLoache (1987) showed that children as young as 3 years of age are able to use mental operations b) When shown a model of a dog's hiding place behhind the couch, a 2 ½ year old could not locate the stuffed dog in an actual room, but the 3 year old did 4. Formal operational stage: criticism a) Rudiments of such thinking begin earlier (age 7) than what Piaget suggested, since 7 year olds can solve this: b) If John is in school, Mary is in school. John is in school. What can you say about Mary.

what is Piaget's theory on development? Summarize the stages?

1. Pouring experience into mental molds a) Piaget believed that children construct their understanding of the world while interacting with it b) Their minds experience spurts of change, followed by greater stability as they move from one cognitive plateau to the next, each with distinctive characteristics that permit specific kinds of thinking 2. In Piaget's view, cognitive development consisted of four major stages-SENSORIMOTOR, PREOPERATIONAL, CONCRETE OPERATIONAL, AND FORMAL OPERATIONAL SUMMARY: 1. Sensorimotor: birth to nearly 2 years old a) description: Experiencing the world through sense and actions (looking, touching, mouthing) b) developmental phenomena: Object permanence, Stranger anxiety, Some cause and effect 2. Preoperational: about 2 to 6 years a) description: Representing things with words and images but lacking logical reasoning b) developmental phenomena: Pretend play, Egocentrism, Language development, Think in symbols 3. Concrete operational: about 7 to 11 years a) description: Thinking logically about concrete events; grasping concrete analogies and performing arithmetical operations b) developmental phenomena: Conservation, Mathematical, Transformations 4, Formal operation: about 12 through adulthood a) description: Abstract reasoning, speculation b) developmental phenomena: Abstract logic, Potential for moral reasoning

what is moral intuitions?

1. Psychologist Jonathan Haidt believes that much of our morality is rooted in MORAL INTUITIONS-"quick gut feelings, or affectively laden intuitions." a) According to this intuitionist view, the mind makes moral judgments as it makes aesthetic judgements-quickly and automatically b) We FEEL disgust when seeing people engage in degrading or subhuman acts c) Even a disgusting taste in the mouth heightens people's disgust over various moral digressions d) We FEEL elevation-a tingly, warm, glowing feeling in the chest-when seeing people display exceptional generosity, compassion, or courage e) These feelings in turn trigger moral reasoning, says Haidt f) For example, seeing an unexpected goodness triggers elevation g) "Could human morality really be run by the moral emotions," Haidt wonders, "while moral reasoning struts about pretending to be in control?" 2. Consider the desire not by reason (such as an objective calculation that punishment deters crime) but rather by emotional reactions, such as moral outrage a) After the emotional fact, moral reasoning-our mind's press secretary-aims to convince us and others of the logic of what we have intuitively felt b) This intuitionist perspective on morality finds support in a study of moral paradoxes c) Imagine seeing a runaway trolley headed for five people. All will certainly be killed unless you throw a switch that diverts the trolley onto another track, where it will kill one person. Should you throw the switch? Most say Yes. Kill one, save five. d) Now imagine the same dilemma, except that your opportunity to save the five requires you to push a large stranger onto the tracks, where he will die as his body stops the trolley. Kill one, save five? The logic is the same, but most say No. e) Seeking to understand why, a Princeton research team led by Joshua Greene used brain imaging to spy on people's neural responses as they contemplated such dilemmas f) Only when given the body pushing type of moral dilemma did their brain's emotion areas activate g) Despite the identical logic, the personal dilemma engaged emotions that altered moral judgment h) While the new moral psychology illustrates the many ways moral intuitions trump moral reasoning, others reaffirm the importance of moral reasoning i) The religious and moral reasoning of the Amish, for example, shapes their practices of forgiveness, communal life, and modesty j) Joshua Greene likens our moral cognition to a camera k) Usually, we rely on the automatic point-and-shoot l) But sometimes we use reason to manually override the camera's automatic impulse

why does life require stability and change?

1. Research reveals that we experience both stability and change 2. Some of our characteristics, such as temperament (our emotional reactivity and intensity) are very stable: a) One study followed 1000 3 year old New Zealanders through time. It found that preschoolers who were low in conscientiousness and self control were more vulnerable to ill health, substance abuse, arrest and single parenthood by age 32 b) Another study found that hyperactive inattentive 5 year olds require more teacher effort at age 12 c) Another research team interviewed adults, who 40 years earlier had their talkativeness, impulsiveness, and humility rate by their elementary school teacher. To a striking extent, the personalities persisted d) The widest smilers in childhood and college photos are, years later, the ones most likely to enjoy enduring marriages e) While one in four of the weakest college smilers eventually divorced, only 1 in 20 of the widest smilers did so 3. As people grow older, personality gradually stabilizes a) The struggles of the present may be laying a foundation for a happier tomorrow b) We cannot however, predict all of our eventual traits based on our early years of life 4. Some traits, such as social attitudes, are much less stable than temperament, especially during the impressionable late adolescent years a) Older children and adolescents learn new ways of coping b) Although delinquent children have elevated rates of later work problems, substance abuse, and crime, many confused and troubled children blossom into mature, successful adults c) Happily for them, life is a process of becoming In some ways, we all change with age d) Most shy, fearful toddlers begin opening up by age 4 and most people become more conscientious, stable, agreeable, and self confident in the years after adolescence e) Many irresponsible 16 year olds have matured into 40 year old business or cultural leaders f) Such changes can occur without changing a person's position relative to others of the same age g) The hard driving young adult may mellow by later life, yet still be a relatively driven senior citizen 5. Life requires both STABILITY AND CHANGE Stability provides our identity a) It enables us to depend on others and be concerned about the healthy development of the children in our lives b) Our trust in our ability to change gives us our hope for a brighter future c) It motivates our concerns about present influences and lets us adapt and grow with experience

how is development continual and in stages?

1. Researchers who emphasize experience and learning see development as a slow, continuous shaping process 2. Those who emphasize biological maturation tend to see development as a sequence of genetically predisposed stages or steps: although progress through the various stages may be quick or slow, everyone passess through the stages in the same order 2. The stage theories of Jean Piaget on cognitive development, Lawrence Kohlberg on moral development, and Erik Erikson on psychosocial development propose that such stages do exist a) But some research casts doubt on the idea that life proceeds through neatly defined, age-linked stages b) Young children have some abilities Piaget attributed to later stages c) Kohlberg's work reflected a worldview characteristic of individualist cultures and emphasized thinking over acting d) And adult life does not progress through a fixed, predictable series of steps e) Chance events can influence us in ways we would never have predicted f) Nevertheless, the concept of stage remains useful 3. The human brain does experience growth spurts during childhood and puberty that correspond roughly to Piaget's stages a) And stage theories contribute a developmental perspective on the whole life span, by suggesting how people of one age think and act differently when they arrive at a later age

what is sexual orientation? What influences a person's sexual orientation?

1. Sexual orientation refers to a person's preference for emotional and sexul relationships with individuals of the same sex, the other sex, and/or either sex a) Homosexual: you are attracted to a person of same sex b) Heterosexual: you are attracted to the person of opposite sex c) Bisexual: either/or 2. Men have the y chromosome only has 50 genes and x chromosome as thousands of chromosomes so men are more prone to homosexuality compared to women a) You get your sexual orientation from the x chromosome b) In Europe and America, based on many national surveys, homosexuality in men is 3-4% and in women is 1-2% c) As members of a minority, homosexuals often struggle with their sexual orientation 3. Origins of sexual orientation a) Origins unclear b) But we know there are biological factors because gay men and straight women operatre in a similar mannor c) Genes and sexual orientation 4. A number of studies suggest that homosexuality may be due to genetic factors a) Family: homosexuality seems to run in families b) Twin studies: homosexuality is more common in identical twins than fraternal twins c) Fruit flies: genetic engineers can genetically manipulate females to act like males during courtship and males to act like females

What are Erik Erikson's stages of development?

1. Stage 1 Conflict: Trust vs Mistrust a) Virtue: hope b) Age: 0-18 months c) Infant relies on care of the mother. He can trust the mother to provide consistent and attention to the child's needs d) If needs are dependably met, infants develop a sense of basic trust 2. Stage 2 Conflict: Autonomy vs Shame Doubt a) Virtue: Will b) Age: 2-4 years c) Toddlers learn to exercise will and do things for themselves, or they doubt their abilities 3. Stage 3 Conflict: Initiative vs Guilt a) Virtue: purpose b) Age: 5-8 c) Preschoolers learn to initiate tasks and carry out plans, or they feel guilt about efforts to be independent 4. Stage 4 Conflict: Industry vs Inferiority a) Virtue: competence b) Age: 9-12 c) Children learn the pleasure of applying themselves to tasks, or they feel inferior 5. Stage 5 Conflict: Identity vs Identity confusion a) Virtue: fidelity b) Age: 13-19 c) Teenagers work at refining a sense of self by testing roles and then integrating them to for a single identity, or they become confused about who they are 6. Stage 6 Conflict: Intimacy vs isolation a) Virtue: love b) Age: 20-39 c) Young adults struggle to form close relationships and to gain the capacity for intimate love, or they feel socially isolated 7. Stage 7 Conflict: Generativity vs Stagnation a) Virtue: care b) Age: 40-59 c) The middle-aged discover a sense of contributing to the world, usually through family and work, or they may feel a lack of purpose 8. Stage 8 Conflict: Ego Integrity vs Despair a) Virtue: wisdom b) Age: after 60 c) When reflecting on his or her life, the older adult may feel a sense of satisfaction or failure

how does nature and nurture play a role in development?

1. The gene combination created when our mother's egg engulfed our father's sperm helped form us, as individuals a) Genes predispose both our shared humanity and our individual differences b) But it is also true that our experiences form us 2. In the womb, in our families, and in our peer social relationships, we learn ways of thinking and acting a) Even differences initiated by our nature my be amplified by our nurture 3. We are not formed by either nature or nurture, but by their interrelationships-their INTERACTION a) Biological, psychological, and social cultural forces interact b) Mindful of how others differ from us, however, we often fail to notice the similarities stemming from our shared biology 4. Regardless of our culture, we humans share the same life cycle a) We speak to our infants in similar ways and respond similarly to their coos and cries b) All over the world, the children of warm and supportive parents feel better about themselves and are less hostile than are the children of punishing and rejecting parents c) Although ethnic groups differ in school achievement and delinquency, structure, peer influences, and parental education predict behavior in one of these ethnic groups, they do so for the others as well d) Compared with the person-to-person differences within groups, the difference between groups are small

who is Erik Erikson and how did he develop his social development stages?

1. Theorist Erik Erikson contended that each stage of life has its own PSYCHOSOCIAL task, a crisis that needs resolution a) Young children wrestle with issues of TRUST THEN AUTONOMY (independence), then INITIATIVE b) School age children strive for COMPETENCE, feeling able and productive c) But for people your age, the task is to synthesize past, present, and future possibilities into a clearer sense of self 2. Adolescents wonder "who am I as an individual? What do I want to do with my life? What values should I live by? What do I believe in?" a) Erikson called this quest the adolescent's SEARCH FOR IDENTITY b) As sometimes happens in psychology, Erikson's interests were bred by his own life experience c) As the son of a Jewish mother and a Danish Gentile father, Erikson was doubly an outsider. He was scorned as a Jew in school but mocked as a Gentile in the synagogue because of his blond hair and blue eyes d) Such episodes fueled his interest in the adolescent struggle for identity

what is emerging adulthood?

1. Today psychologists believe that development is a lifelong process a) Many psychologists once believed that childhood sets our traits b) Today's developmental psychologists see development as lifelong c) As this LIFE SPAN PERSPECTIVE emerged, psychologists began to look at how maturation and experience shape us not only in infancy and childhood, but also in adolescence and beyond 2. Emerging adulthood: 18-25 a) During this time, young adults may live with their parents and attend college or work b) Emerging adulthood: for some people in modern cultures, a period from the late teens to mid twenties, bridging the gap between adolescent dependence and full independence and responsible adulthood In the wester world, adolescence now roughly corresponds to the teen years 3. At earlier times, and in other parts of the world today, this slice of life has been much smaller a) Shortly after sexual maturity, young people would assume adult responsibilities and status b) The event might be celebrated with an elaborate initiation-a public RIGHT OF PASSAGE c) The new adult would then work, marry, and have children d) When schooling became compulsory in many Western countries, independence was put on hold until after graduation e) From Europe to Australia, adolescents are now taking more time to establish themselves as adults f) In the United States, for example, the average age at first marriage has increased more than 4 years since 1960 (to 28 for men, 26 for women) g) In 1960, 3 in 4 women and 2 in 3 men had, by age 30, finished school, left home, become financially independent, married, and had a child h) Today, fewer than half of 30 year old women and one third of men have achieved these five milestones 4. Delayed independence has overlapped with an earlier onset of puberty a) Earlier sexual maturity is related both to girls' increased body fat (which can support pregnancy and nursing) and to weakened parent-child bonds, including absent fathers b) Together, later independence and earlier sexual maturity have widened the once brief interlude between biological maturity and social independence c) In prosperous communities, the time from m18 to the mid-twenties is an increasingly not yet settled phase of life, which some now call EMERGING ADULTHOOD d) No longer adolescents, these emerging adults, having not yet assumed full adult responsibilities and independence, feel "in between." e) After high school, those who enter the job market or go to college may be managing their own time and priorities more than ever before f) Yet they may be doing so from their parents' home-unable to afford their own place and perhaps still emotionally dependent as well g) Recognizing today's more gradually emerging adulthood, the US government now allows dependent children up to age 26 to remain on their parents' health insurance.

What is Kolhberg's theory on moral development? What are the levels?

1. Two crucial tasks of childhood and adolescence are discerning right from wrong and developing character-the psychological muscles for controlling impulses a) To be a moral person is to THINK morally and ACT accordingly 2. Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg proposed that moral reasoning guides moral actions a) A newer view builds on psychology's game changing new recognition that much of our functioning occurs not on the "high road" of deliberate, conscious thinking but on the "low road" of unconscious, automatic thinking 3. Kohlberg: formulated stages of moral development a) He posed moral dilemmas such as "should a person steal medicine to save a loved one's life?" b) Piaget believed that children's moral judgments build on their cognitive development c) Aggressing with Piaget, Lawrence Kohlberg sought to describe the development of MORAL REASONING, the thinking that occurs as we consider right and wrong d) Kohlberg posed moral dilemmas (for example, whether a person should steal medicine to save a loved one's life) and asked children, adolescents, and adults whether the action was right or wrong e) His findings led him to propose three basic levels of moral thinking: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional f) Kohlberg claimed these levels form a moral ladder g) As with all stage theories, the sequence is unvarying h) We begin on the bottom rung and ascend to varying heights 4. Kohlberg's critics have noted that his postconventional stage is culturally limited, appearing mostly among people who prize individualism 3 basic levels of moral thinking 1. Preconventional morality: before age 9, children show morality to avoid punishment or gain reward a) Focus: Self interest; obey rules to avoid punishment or gain concrete rewards b) Examples: "If you save your wife, you'll be a hero" c) Stage 1: obedience and punishment orientation d) Stage 2: individualism and exchange 2. Conventional morality: by early adolescence, social rules, and laws are upheld for their own sake a) Focus: Uphold laws and rules to gain social approval or maintain social order b) Example: "If you steal the drug, everyone will think you're a criminal." c) Stage 3: good interpersonal relationships d) Stage 4: maintaining the social order 3. Postconventional morality: affirms people's agreed-upon rights or follows personally perceived ethical principles a) Focus: Actions reflect belief in basic rights and self defined ethical principles b) Example: "People have a right to live." c) Stage 5: social contract and individual rights d) Stage 6: universal principles

what is self concept?

A sense of one's identity and personal worth, all our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question, "Who am I?" 1. If your caregiver doesn't take care of you, you will not have a good sense of self worth because they have shown you that you are not worth their time. a) Many people are objectified and their personal worth is expressed on how they age-people who are very attractive, there is a lot of self worth on how they look and as they get older, they go through stages that they should have gone through in adolescence and have an identity crisis at an older age 2. Infancy's major social achievement is attachment 3. Childhood's major social achievement is a positive sense of self a) By the end of childhood, at about age 12, most children have developed a SELF CONCEPT 4. SELF ESTEEM is how they feel about who they are 5. Parents often wonder when and how this sense of self develops a) Of course we cannot ask the baby directly, but we can again capitalize on what she can do-letting her behavior provide clues to the beginnings of her self awareness b) In 1877, biologist Charles Darwin offered one idea: Self awareness begins when we recognize ourselves in a mirror c) To see whether a child recognizes that the girl in the mirror is indeed herself, researchers sneakily dabbed color on the nose d) At about 6 months, children reach out to touch their mirror image as if it were another child e) By 15 to 18 months, they begin to touch their own noses when they see the colored spot in the mirror f) Apparently, 18 month olds have a schema of how their face should look and they wonder "what is that spot doing on my face" 6. By school age, children's self concept has blossomed into more detailed descriptions that include their gender, group memberships, psychological traits, and similarities, and differences compared with other children a) They come to see themselves as good and skillful in some ways but not others b) They form a concept of which traits, ideally, they would like to have c) Children's views of themselves affect their actions d) Children who form a positive self concept are more confident, independent, optimistic, assertive and sociable

how does gender influence aggression?

Aggression: any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy a) physical versus relational aggression 1. In surveys, men admit to more AGGRESSION than women do a) This aggression gender gap pertains to harmful physical aggression, rather than indirect or verbal relational aggression such as ostracism or spreading rumors b) As John Archer has noted, based on statistical digests of dozens of studies, women may be slightly more likely to commit acts of relational aggression, such as passing along malicious gossip c) The gap appears in everyday life at various ages and in various cultures, especially cultures with gender inequality 2. Men's tendency to behave more aggressively can be seen in experiments where they deliver what they believe are more painful electric shocks a) Violent crime rates illustrate the gender difference even more strikingly b) The male to female arrest ratio for murder, for example, if 9 to 1 in the United States and 8 to 1 in Canada c) Throughout the world, fighting, warring, and hunting are primarily men's activities d) Men also express more support for war e) The Iraq war, for example, was consistently supported more by American men than by American women

what is vygotsky's view of development?

An alternative viewpoint: Lev Vygotsky's Scaffolding Vygotsky: 1. Scaffolding a) Helping someone to slowly bring them up to the next level b) Where Piaget emphasized how the child's mind grows through interaction with the physical environment, Vygotsky emphasized how the child's mind grows through interaction with the social environment c) If Piaget's child was a young scientist, Vygotsky's was a young apprentice d) By mentoring children and giving them new words, parents and others provide a temporary scaffold from which children can step to higher levels of thinking e) Language, an important ingredient of social mentoring, provides the building blocks for thinking, noted Vygotsky 2. As Piaget was forming his theory of cognitive development, Russian psychologist Lev Vygostsky was also studying how children think and learn a) He noted that by age 7, they increasingly think in words and use words to solve problems b) They do this, he said by internalizing their culture's language and relying on inner speech c) Parents who say "no, no!" when pulling a child's hand away from a cake are giving the child a self control tool d) When the child later needs to resist temptation, he may likewise say "no, no!" e) Second graders who muttered to themselves while doing math problems grasped third grade math better the following year g) Whether out loud or inaudibly, talking to themselves helps children control their behavior and emotions and master new skills 3. Zone of proximal development a) It is the sweet spot between what you can complete on your own and what you need help with b) If you get beyond 20% of what people don't know, then you will probably get people frustrated and they won't attempt it c) Effective mentoring occurs when children are developmentally ready to learn a new skill d) For Vygotsky, a child's ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT was the zone between what a child can and can't do-it's what a child can do with help e) When learning to ride a bike, it's the developmental zone in which a child can ride with training wheels or a steadying parental hand

what is Erik Erikson's basic trust social development theory?

Basic trust (Erik Erikson): A sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy; said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers 1. If you learn that the world is predictable and your needs are met with regularity, you will be more trustworthy and have trust in the world. 2. Developmental theorist Erki Erikson, working with his wife Joan Erikson, believed that securely attached children approach life with a sense of BASIC TRUST a) He attributed basic trust not to environment or inborn temperament, but to early parenting b) He theorized that infants blessed with sensitive, loving caregivers form a lifelong attitude of trust rather than fear 3. Although debate continues, many researchers now believe that our early attachments form the foundation for our adult relationships and our comfort with affection and intimacy 4. Our adult styles of romantic love tend to exhibit either secure trusting attachment, insecure anxious attachment, or the avoidance of attachment a) These adult attachment styles in turn affect relationships with one's own children, as avoidant people find parenting more stressful and unsatisfying 5. Attachment style is also associated with motivation a) Securely attached people exhibit less fear of failure and a greater drive to achieve b) But say those for those (nearly half of all humans) who exhibit insecure attachments: anxious or avoidant tendencies have helped our groups detect or escape dangers

what is gender roles and what is roles? How does culture influence gender roles?

CULTURE is everything shared by a group and transmitted across generations 1. We can see culture's shaping power in GENDER ROLES a) Gender roles-a set of unexpected behaviors for males or for females b) Role- a set of expectations (norms) about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave 2. For most people, their biological sex and their gender are tightly intervined. a) What biology initiates, culture accentuates 3. Gender roles vary over time and place a) In north america, men were traditionally expected to initiate dates, drive the car, and pick up the check b) Women were expected to decorate the home, buy and care for the children's clothes, and select the wedding gifts c) Up through the 1990s, Mom (about 90% of the time in two parent US families) stayed home with a sick child, arranged for the babysitter, and called the doctor d) Even in recent years, compared with employed women, employed men in the United States have daily spent about an hour and a half more the job and about one hour less on household activities and caregiving e) Ditto Australia, where compared with men, women have devoted 54% more time to unpaid household work and 71% more time to child care 4. Other societies have different expectations a) In nomadic societies of food gathering people, there is little division of labor by sex b) Boys and girls receive much the same upbringing c) In agricultural societies, where women work in the nearby fields and men roam while herding livestock, children have typically been socialized into more distinct gender roles 5. Among industrialized countries, gender roles and attitudes vary widely a) Australia and the Scandinavian countries offer the greatest gender equity b) Middle Eastern and North African countries the least c) In the United States, Britain, and Spain, about one in eight adults agree that when jobs are scarce, men should have more rights to a job d) In Nigeria, Pakistan, and India about four in five do e) We are one species, but my how we differ 6. To see how gender attitudes vary over time, consider women's voting rights a) At the opening of the twentieth century, only one country-New Zealand-granted women the right to vote b) By the late 1960s and early 1970s, women had become a force in voting booth and the workplace in many countries c) Nearly 50% of employed Americans are now women, as are 54% of college graduates, up from 36% percent in just four decades 7, In today's post industrial economy, the jobs expected to grow the most in the years ahead are the ones women have gravitated toward-those that require not size and strength but social intelligence, open communication, and the ability to sit still and focus a) These are big gender changes in but a thin slice of history b) Gender roles can smooth social relations, avoiding irritating discussions about whose job it is to get the car fixed and who should buy the birthday presents c) But these quick and easy assumptions come at a cost: if we deviate from conventions, we may feel anxious

what is cognition? How did Jean Piaget develop our knowledge of it?

Cognition: all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating 1. Developmental psychologist Jean Paget spent his life searching for the answers to when and how did you mind unfold to consciousness a) He studied children's COGNITIVE development Cognitive development 2. Piagel said cognitive processes followed a series of stages and even though certain children may reach stages before other children, the order of stages is invariable a) Piaget is a french psychologists and he created a way to identify which kids are average, gifted, or maybe need a little help b) His interest began in 1920 when he was in Paris developing questions or children's intelligence tests c) While administering the tests, Piaget became intrigued by children's wrong answers, which were often strikingly similar among same age children d) Where others saw childish mistakes, Piaget saw intelligence at work e) A half century spent with children convinced Piaget that a child's mind is not a miniature model of an adult's f) Thanks partly to his work, we now understand that children reason differently than adults in wildly illogical ways about problems whose solutions are self evident to adults 3. Piaget's studies led him to believe that a child's mind develops through a series of stages, in an upward march from the newborn's simple reflexes to the adult's abstract reasoning power a) Thus, an 8 year old can comprehend things a toddler cannot, such as the analogy that getting an idea is like having a light turn on in your head or that a miniature slide is too small for sliding and a miniature car is much too small to get into 4. Piaget's core idea is that the driving force behind our intellectual progression is an unceasing struggle to make sense of our experiences

what is the concrete operational stage?

Concrete operational stage 1. Given concrete materials, 6 to 7 years old grasp conservation problems and mentally pour liquids back and forth into glasses of different shapes conserving their quantities a) Children in this stage are also able to transform mathematical functions. So, if 4 + 8 -12, then a transformation, 12-4 = 8, is also easily doable 2. By age 6 or 7, said Piaget, children enter the CONCRETE OPERATIONAL STAGE a) 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 b) Given concrete (physical) materials, they begin to grasp conservation c) Understanding that change in form does not mean change in quantity, they can mentally pour milk back and forth between glasses of different shapes d) They also enjoy jokes that use this new understanding Piaget believe that during the concrete operational stage, children become able to comprehend mathematical transformations and conservation

what is the critical period? What is imprinting?

Critical Period: An optimal period early in life of an organism, when an organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper/normal development 1. Language is the first critical period-have until age 6 or 7 to be exposed to language or else you will not be able to learn anything a) This is theory not fact In many animals, attachments based on familiarity form b) during a CRITICAL PERIOD: 2. For goslings, ducklings, or chicks, that period falls in the hours shortly after hatching, when the first moving object they see is normally their mother a) From then on, the young fowl follow her, and her alone 3. Language (evidence of critical period0 a) We are all born to recognize speech sounds from all the world's languages b) Babies are able to use recognize sounds from different languages up to 10-12 months. They use habituation and respond to different sounding sounds. They lose the ability to hear the different language sounds as you get older 4. Konrad Lorenz explored this rigid attachment process, called IMPRINTING a) Imprinting: the process by which certain animals form strong attachments during an early-life critical period b) He wondered what would ducklings do if he was the first moving creature they observed c) What they did was follow him around. Everywhere that Konrad went, the ducks were sure to go d) Although baby birds imprint best to their own species, they also will imprint to a variety of moving objects-an animal of another species, a box with wheels, a bouncing ball e) Once formed, this attachment is difficult to reverse f) Children-unlike ducklings-do not imprint 5. However, they do become attached, during a less precisely defined SENSITIVE PERIOD, to what they've known a) MERE EXPOSURE to people and things fosters fondness b) Children like to reread the same books, rewatch the same movies, reenact family traditions c) They prefer to eat familiar foods, live in the same familiar neighborhood, attend school with the same old friends d) You may even have noticed your own preference for familiar music, familiar daily routines, and familiar class seating locations e) Familiarity is a safety signal f) Familiarity breeds content

what is autism spectrum disorder?

Diagnosis of AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER (ASMf5r) have been increasing according to recent estimates a) Autism spectrum disorder (ASD): a disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by significant deficiencies in communication and social interactions, and by rigidly fixated interests and repetitive behaviors 1. Once believed to affect 1 in 2500 children, ASD now affects 1 in 110 American children and about 1 in 100 in Britain a) The increase in ASD diagnosis has been offset by a decrease in the number of children considered "cognitively disabled" or "learning disabled" which suggests a relabing of children's disorders b) A massive $6.7 billion National Children's Study now under way aims to enroll 100,000 pregnant women in 105 countries and to follow their babies until they turn 21-partly in hopes of explaining the rising rates of ASD as well as premature births, childhood obesity and asthma 2. The underlying source of ASD's symptoms seems to be poor communication among brain regions that normally work together to let us take another's viewpoint a) This effect appears to result from ASD related genes interacting with the environment 3. People with ASD are therefore said to have an impaired theory of mind a) They have difficulty inferring clothes' thoughts and feelings b) They do not appreciate that playmates and parents might view things differently mind reading that most of us find intuitive is difficult for those with ASD c) Most children learn that another child's pouting mouth signals sadness and that twinkling eyes mean happiness or mischief d) A child with ASD fails to understand these signals e) In hopes of a cure, desperate parents have sometimes subjected children to dubious therapies 4. ASD has differing levels of severity a) High functioning individuals generally have normal intelligence, and they often have an exceptional skill or talent in a specific area b) But they lack social and communication skills and they tend to become distracted by minor and unimportant stimuli c) Those at the spectrum's lower end are unable to use language at all 5. ASD afflicts four boys for every girl a) Psychologists Simon Baron cohen believes this hints at one way to understand this disorder b) He has argued that ASD represents an "extreme male brain" c) Although there is some overlap between the sexes, he believes that boys are better "systemizers" d) They tend to understand things according to rules or laws, for example, as in mathematical and mechanical systems e) Children exposed to high levels of the male sex hormone testosterone in the womb may develop more masculine and autistic traits f) In contrast, girls are naturally predisposed to be empathizes baron cohen contends g) They are better at reading facial expressions and gestures, though less so if given testosterone 6. Biological factors including genetic influences and abnormal brain development, contribute to ASD a) Childhood MMR vaccinations do not b) Based on a fraudulent 1998 study- the most damaging medical hoax of the last 100 years-some parents were misled into thinking that the childhood MMR vaccine increased risk of ASD c) The unfortunate result was a drop in vaccination rates and an increase in cases of measles and mumps d) Some unvaccinated children suffered long term harm or even death e) Twin and sibling studies provide some evidence for biology's influence f) If one identical twin is diagnosed with ASD, the chances are 50 to 70 percent that the co twin will be as well g) A younger children of a child with ASD also is at a heightened risk h) Random genetic mutations in sperm producing cells may also play a role i) As men age, these mutations become more frequent, which may help explain why an over 40 man has a much higher risk of fathering a child with ASD than does a man under 30 j) Researchers are now sleuthing ASD's telltale signs in the brain's synaptic and gray matter 7. Biology's role in ASD also appears in brain function studies a) People without ASD often yawn after seeing others yawn b) And as they view and imitate another's smiling or frowning they feel something of what the other is feeling c) Not so among those with ASD, who are less imitative and show much less activity in brain areas involved in mirroring others' actions d) When people with ASD watch another person's hand movements, for example, their brain displays less than normal mirroring activity e) Scientists are continuing to explore and vigorously debate the idea that the brains of people with ASD have broken mirrors f) Seeking to systemize empathy, Baron Choen and his cambridge university colleagues collaborated with Britain's national austistic society and a film production company 8. Knowing that television shows with vehicles have been popular among kids with ASD, they created animations that grafted emotion conveying faces onto toy tram, train, and tractor characters in a pretend boy's bedroom a) After the boy leaves for school, the characters come to life and have experiences that lead them to display various emotions b) The children were surprisingly able to generalize what they had learned to a new real context c) By the intervention's end, their previously deficient ability to recognize emotions on real faces now equaled that of children without ASD

what is preoperational egoticism?

Egocentric: in Piaget's theory, the preoperational child's difficulty taking another's point of view 1. Piaget concluded that preoperational children are egocentric a) They cannot perceive things from another's point of view b) When asked to show her picture to mommy, 2 year old Gabriella holds the picture facing her own eyes, believing that her mother can see it through her eyes c) Three year old gray makes himself invisible by putting his hands over his eyes assuming that if he can't see his grandparents, they can't see him d) Children's conservations also reveal their egocentrismo e) Like Gabriella, tv watching preschoolers who block your view of the TV assume that you see what they see f) They simply have not yet developed the ability to take another's viewpoint 2. Even teens and adults often overestimate the extent to which others share our opinions and perspectives, a trait known as the CURSE OF KNOWLEDGE a) We assume that something will be clear to others if it is clear to use, or that text message recipients will hear our just kidding intent b) Children are even more susceptible to this tendency

what is fetal alcohol syndrome?

Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS): Physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman's heavy drinking 1. In severe cases, signs include a small, out of proportion head and abnormal facial features 2. This is one reason pregnant women are advised not to drink alcoholic beverages 3. A pregnant woman never drinks alone a) As alcohol enters her bloodstream, and her fetus', it depresses activity in both their central nervous systems b) Alcohol use during pregnancy may prime the woman's offspring to like alcohol and may put them at risk for heavy drinking and alcohol use disorder during their teens c) In experiments, when pregnant rats drank alcohol, their young offspring later displayed a liking for alcohol's taste and odor d) Even light drinking or occasional binge drinking can affect the fetal brain e) Persistent heavy drinking puts the fetus at risk for birth defects and for future behavior problems, hyperactivity, and lower intelligence 4. For 1 in about 800 infants, the effects are visible as FETAL ALCOHOL SYNDROME

what is the formal operational stage?

Formal operational stage 1. Around age 12, our reasoning ability expands from concrete thinking to abstract thinking a) We can now use symbols and imagined realities to systematically reason b) Piaget called this formal operational thinking 2. By age 12, our reasoning expands from the purely concrete (involving actual experience) to encompass abstract thinking (involving imagined realities and symbols) a) As children approach adolescence, said Piaget, many become capable of thinking more like scientists b) They can ponder hypothetical propositions and deduce consequences: if this, then that. c) Systematic reasoning what Piaget called FORMAL OPERATIONAL thinking is now within their grasp d) 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 3. Although full blown logic and reasoning await adolescence, the rudiments of formal operational thinking begin earlier than Piaget realized

what are freud's psychosexual stages?

Freud's Psychosexual stages 1. He childhood stages of development during which the id's pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones a) He believes that there are 5 stages in psychosexual development and each stage has some type of difficulty that needs to be resolved in order to move on to the next stage STAGES: (the id is running the show) 1) Oral (0-18 months): pleasure centers on the mouth-sucking, biting, chewing a) Is found when you are in a sae place, being fed and taken care of b) If you are stuck in the stage, you are fixated on oral and my resort to overeating, use of biting sarcasm, and a childlike dependence 2. Anal (18-36 months): pleasure focuses on bowel and bladder elimination; coping with demands for control a) You learn that you are in control of your body when it comes to going to go to the bathroom. You learn socially acceptable behaviors b) This is toilet training phase c) Fixation can result in stinginess, excessive neatness, disorganized, and impulsive 3. Phallic (3-6 years): pleasure zone is the genitals; coping with incestuous sexual feelings a) This is the stage where the kid notices that they have genitals b) This is very important for gender identity c) This is the stage that Freud believes that little boys are attracted to their moms (Oedipus Complex) d) Females it is calle eletorplex 4. Latency (6 to puberty): dormant sexual feelings 5. Genital (puberty on): maturation of sexual interests

what is freud's theory on childhood development?

Fruedian theory of childhood development 1. They form attachments that are secure (70%), avoidant (20%), or resistant (10%) 2. For secure attachments, children are given a positive working model and carer who is emotionally available, sensitive, and supportive 3. Avoidant attachment is a carer who is rejecting and the children have a working model of themselves as unacceptable and unworthy 4. Resistant attachment is a carer who is inconsistent and children have a negative self image and exaggerate their emotional responses to gain attention a) It is better to be acknowledged even in a negative light than to be ignored completely

How do we learn to be male or female?

GENDER IDENTITY: our sense of being male or female 1. Gender and child 2. Rearing 3. Gender identity 4. Gender typing 5. Before your birth, everyone wanted to know, "boy or girl?" a) From that time on, your SEX (your biological status, defined by your chromosomes an anatomy) helped define your GENDER b) Gender: the socially constructed roles and characteristics by which a culture defines males and female c) Guided by our culture, our gender influences our social development 6. Social learning theory: the theory that we learn social behavior by observing and imitating and by being rewarded or punished for acting in certain ways (ex: "Nicole, you're such a good mommy to your dolls" "Big boys don't cry Alex")

what is gender typing?

Gender typing-the acquisition of a traditional masculine or femninine role 1. Some critics have objected, saying that parental modeling and rewarding of male female differences aren't enough to explain GENDER TYPING a) In fact, even in families that discourage traditional gender typing, children organize themselves into "boy worlds" and "girl worlds" each guided by rules for what boys and girls do 2. Cognition also matters a) In your own childhood, you formed concepts that helped you make sense of your world b) One of these was your GENDER SCHEMA, your framework for organizing boy-girl characteristics c) This gender schema then became a lens through which you viewed your experiences d) Gender schemas form early in life and social learning helps form them e) Before age 1, you began to discriminate male and female voices and faces f) After age 2, language forced you to begin organizing your world on the basis of gender g) English, for example, uses the pronouns he and she, other languages classify objects as masculine or feminine 3. Young children are "gender detectives" a) Once they grasp that two sorts of people exist-and that they are of one sort- they search for clues about gender, and they find them in language, dress, toys, and songs b) Girls, they may decide, are the ones with long hair c) Having divided the human world in half, 3-year olds will then like their own kind and better and seek them out for play d) And having compared themselves with their concept of gender, they will adjust their behavior accordingly ("I am male-thus, masculine, strong aggressive" or "I am female-therefore, feminine, sweet, and helpful") e) These rigid boy-girl stereotypes peak at about age 5 or 6 f) If the new neighbor is a boy, a 6 year old girl may assume he just cannot share her interests g) For young children, gender looms large h) For some people, comparing themselves with their culture's concepts of gender produces feelings of confusion and discord

what are gilligan's criticisms of Kohlberg's theory?

Gilligan's criticism: 1. Women score lower than men... 2. Kohlberg stages derived from interviews with males 3. For males, advanced moral thought revolves around rules, rights, and abstract principles 4. For women, morality centers not on rights and rules but on interpersonal relationships and the ethics of compassion and care

what happened during harlow's surrogate mother experiments?

Harlow's Surrogate Mother Experiments 1. Monkeys preferred contact with the comfortable cloth mother, even while feeding from the nourishing wire mother a) Comfort, warmth, and safety is in much of need as nourishment is so people do not bond with their mother because of nourishment b) Not forming that first attachment leads to a lot of difficulties during the lifetime c) They go to the soft mother when they are scared and they thought they would go to the wire mom 2. During the 1950s, University of Wisconsin psychologists Harry Harlow and Margaret Harlow bred monkeys for their learning studies a) To equalize experiences and to isolate any disease, they separated the infant monkeys from their mothers shortly after birth and raised them in sanitary individual cages, which included a cheesecloth baby blanket b) Then came a surprise: when their blankets were taken to be laundered, the monkeys became distressed c) The Harlows recognized that this intense attachment to the blanket contracted the idea that attachment derives from an association with nourishment d) To pit the drawing power of a food source against the contact comfort of the blanket, they created two artificial mothers e) One was a bare wire cylinder with a wooden head and an attached feeding bottle, the other cylinder wrapped with terry cloth 3. When raised with both, the monkeys overwhelmingly preferred the comfy cloth mother a) Like other infants clinging to their live mothers, the monkey babies would cling to their cloth mothers when anxious b) When exploring their environment, they used her as a secure base, as if attached to her by an invisible elastic band that stretched only so far before pulling them back c) Researchers soon learned that other qualities-rocking, warmth, and feeding-made the cloth mother even more appealing d) Human infants too, become attached to parents who are soft and warm and who rock, feed, and pat 4. Much parent-infant emotional communication occurs via touch which can be either soothing (snuggles) or arousing (tickles) a) Human attachment also consists of one person providing another with a secure base from which to explore and a safe haven when distressed b) As we mature, our secure base and safe haven shift-from parents to peers and partners c) But at all ages we are social creatures d) We gain strength when someone offers, by words and actions, a safe haven: "I will be here. I am interested in you. Come what may, I will support you."

what are the stages of infancy and childhood?

Infancy and Childhood a) Physical development b) Cognitive development c) Social development 1. Stage: infancy a) Spans: newborn to toddler 2. Stage: childhood a) Spans: toddler to teenager

what is intimacy?

Intimacy: In Erikson's theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in late adolescence and early adulthood. a) Erikson contended that the adolescent identity stage is followed in young adulthood by a developing capacity for INTIMACY b) Romantic relationships, which tend to be emotionally intense, are reported by some two in three North American 17 year olds, but fewer among those in collectivist countries such as China c) Those who enjoy high quality (intimate, supportive) relationships with family and friends tend also to enjoy similarly high quality romantic relationships in adolescence, which set the stage for healthy adult relationships d) Such relationships are, for most of us, a source of greater pleasure 1. When Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Jeremy Hunter used a beeper to sample the daily experiences of American teens, they found them unhappiest when alone and happiest when with friends a) As Aristotle long ago recognized, we humans are the social animal b) Relationships matter

what is infantile amnesia?

Maturation and infant memory 1. Infantile amnesia: the earliest age of conscious memory is around 3 ½ years a) Our earliest memories seldom predate our third birthday 2. We see this INFANTILE AMNESIA in the memories of some preschoolers who experienced an emergency fire evacuation caused by a burning popcorn maker a) Seven years later, they were able to recall the alarm and what caused it-if they were 4 to 5 years old at the time b) Those experiencing the event as 3-years old could not remember the cause and usually misrecalled being already outside when the alarm sounded c) Out studies confirm that the average of earliest conscious memory is 3 ½ years 3. As children mature, from 4 to 6 to 8 years, childhood amnesia is giving way, and they become increasingly capable of remembering experiences, even for a year or more - a) The brain areas underlying memory, such as the hippocampus and frontal lobes, continue to mature into adolescence b) Traces of forgotten childhood languages may also persist c) One study tested English-speaking British adults who had no conscious memory of the Hindi or Zulu they had spoken as children d) Yet, up to age 40, they could relearn subtle sound contrasts in these languages that other people could not learn e) What the conscious mind does not know and cannot express in words, the nervous system somehow remembers

what is PKU

PKU-Phenylketonuria: Recessive genetic condition where the child lacks an enzyme to break down phenylalanine 1. Untreated, it can cause problems with brain development, leading to retardation, brain damage, and seizures 2. It basically builds in your body and kinda poisons you. 3. You are a very specific diet that you have to follow

what is the theory of mind?

People's ideas about their own and other's mental states-about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts and the behaviors these might predict a) The ability to know what another person is feeling and yourself feeling b) Can't do this if you are egocentric because you won't be able to understand anything outside of themselves 1. Preschoolers, although still egocentric develop this ability to infer others' mental states when they begin forming a THEORY OF MIND a) Infants as young as 7 months show some knowledge of others' beliefs b) With time, the ability to take another's perspective develops c) They come to understand what made a playmate angry, when a sibling will share, and what might make a parent buy a toy d) And they begin to tease, empathize, and persuade 2. Between about 3 ½ and 4 ½ children worldwide come to realize that others may hold false beliefs a) Researchers showed Toronto children a band aids box and asked them what was inside b) Expecting band aids, the children were surprised to discover that the box actually contained pencils c) Asked what a child who had never seen the box would think was inside, 3 year olds typically answered pencils d) By age 4 to 5, the children's theory of mind had leapt forward, and they anticipated their friends' false belief that the box would hold band-aids 3. In a follow up experiment, children viewed doll named sally leaving her ball in a red cupboard a) Another doll, anne, then moves the ball to a blue cupboard. Researchers then pose a question: when sally returns, where will she look for the ball 4. Children with AUSTEN SPECTRUM DISORDER have difficulty understand that Sally's state of mind differs from their own-that sally, not knowing the ball has been moved will return to the red cupboard a) They also have difficulty reflecting on their own mental states b) They are, for example, less likely to use the personal pronouns I and me c) Deaf children with hearing parents and minimal communication opportunities have had similar difficulty inferring others' states of mind

what is habituation? How do infants show it?

Preferences 1. Human voices and faces a) Facelike images, smell and sound of mother preferred b) Tell it using habituation-test to see how long the baby stares at something before he looks away 2. The pioneering American psychologist William James presumed that the newborn experiences a "blooming huzzing confusion," an assumption few people challenged until the 1960s a) But then scientists discovered that babies can tell you a lot-if you know how to ask b) To ask, you must capitalize on what babies can do-gaze, suck, turn their heads c) So, equipped with eye tracking machines and pacifiers wired to electronic gear, researchers set out to answer parents' age-old questions: what can my baby see, hear, smell, and think 3. Consider how researchers exploit HABITUATION a) Habituation: decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a visual stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner b) We saw this earlier when fetuses adapted to a vibrating, honking device placed on their mother's abdomen c) The novel stimulus gets attention when first presented d) With repetition, the response weakens e) This seeming boredom with familiar stimuli gives us a way to ask infants what they see and remember 4. Researchers have used VISUAL PREFERENCE to "ask" 4 month olds how they recognize cats and dogs a) First, they showed the infants a series of images of either cats or dogs b) Then they showed them hybrid cat-dog images c) It was the hybrid animal with the dog's head and vice verse if they previously viewed dogs d) This suggests that infants, like adults, focus first on the face, not the body e) Indeed, even as newborns, we prefer sights and sounds that facilitate social responsiveness f) We turn our heads in the direction of human voices g) We gaze longer at a drawing of a face like image h) We prefer to look at objects 8 t 12 inches away 5. Wonder of wonders, that just happens to be the approximate distance between a nursing infant's eyes and its mother's a) Within days after birth, our brain's neural networks were stamped with the smell of our mother's body b) Week old nursing babies, placed between a gauze pad from their mother's bra and one from another nursing mother, have usually turned toward the smell of their own mother's pad c) What's more, that smell preference lasts d) One experiment capitalized on the fact that some nursing mothers in a French maternity ward applied a balm with a camomile scent to prevent nipple soreness e) Twenty one months later, their toddlers preferred playing with chamomile scented toys f) Their peers who had not sniffed the scent while breast feeding showed no such preference

What is the preoperational stage? What are a part of it

Preoperational stage 1. Piaget suggested that from 2 years old to about 6-7 years old, children are in the preoperational stage-too young to perform mental operations 2. Piaget believed that until about age 6 or 7, children are in a PREOPERATIONAL STAGE a) Preoperational stage: in Piaget's theory, the stage (from about 2 to about 6 or 7 years of age) during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic b) For a 5 year old, the milk seems "too much" in a tall narrow glass may become an acceptable amount if poured into a short wide glass c) Focusing only on the height dimensions, this child cannot perform the operation of mentally pouring the milk back 1. conservation 2. preoperational egotism 3. theory of mind

what are schemas? what are the two ways that we adjust our schemas?

Schema: a) Generalizations that form as we experience the world b) Provide a framework for understanding future experiences c) Schemas are mental molds into which we pour our experiences d) To this end, the maturing brain builds SCHEMAS e) Schemas: a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information 1. By adulthood we have built countless schemas, ranging from cats and dogs to our concept of love 2. Assimilation a) Interpreting one's new experience in terms of one's existing schemas b) To explain how we use and adjust our schemas, Piaget proposed two more concepts c) First, we ASSIMILATE new experiences d) Having a simple schema for dog for example, a toddler may call all four legged animals dogs 3. Accommodation a) Changing one's current understanding (schemas) to incorporate new information or experience b) But as we interact with the world, we also adjust or ACCOMMODATE, our schemas to incorporate information provided by new experiences c) Thus, the child soon learns that the original dog schema is too broad and accommodates by refiring the category

what is the different between secure and insecure attachment

Secure attachment 1. Most children have secure attachment 2. Use mom as a home base and return periodically 3. Happy to see mom upon return 4. Most common in US is 60% (closer to the mom than the dad) a) Relaxed and attentive care giving becomes the backbone of secure attachment b) So far so good! c) Most people attach securely to their caregivers d) People with secure attachment are less likely to act impulsively or aggressively, more likely to get along well with their teachers and peers, less likely to express frustration or display helplessness 5. To answer the question, Mary Ainsworth designed the STRANGE SITUATION experiment a) She observed mother-infant pairs at home during their first 6 months b) Later, she observed the 1 year old infants in a strange situation (usually a laboratory playroom) c) Such research has shown that about 60% of infants display SECURE ATTACHMENT d) In their mother's presence they play comfortably, happily exploring their new environment e) When she leaves, they become distressed; when she returns, they seek contract with her 6. Insecure attachment a) Some have insecure attachment, 30% b) Avoidant-avoid or ignore mother on return c) Ambivalent-upset when mom leaves, but vacillate between clingy and angry on return d) Disorganized-inconsistent, disturbed, disturbing-may reach out for mom while looking away (mass 2004) e) Other infants avoid attachment or show INSECURE ATTACHMENT, marked either by anxiety or avoidance of trusting relationships f) They are less likely to explore their surroundings; they may even cling to their mother g) When she leaves, they either cry loudly and remain upset or seem indifferent to her departure and return

what is the sensorimotor stage of development? What is the current thinking about Piaget's stage?

Sensorimotor stage 1. In the sensorimotor stage, babies take in the world by looking, hearing, touching, mouthing, and grasping. Children younger than 6 months of age do not grasp object permanence, ie objects that are out of sight are also out of mind 2. Stranger anxiety 3. In the SENSORIMOTOR STAGE, from birth to nearly age 2, babies take in the world through their senses and actions-through looking, hearing, touching, mouthing, and grasping a) Sensorimotor stage: in Piaget's theory, the stage (from birth to about 2 years of age) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities b) As their hands and limbs begin to move, they learn to make things happen c) Very young babies seem to live in the present: out of sight is out of mind 4. In on test, Piaget showed an infant an appealing toy and then flopped his beret over it a) Before the age of 6 months, the infant acted as if it ceased to exist 5. Young infants lack OBJECT PERMANENCE a) Object permanence: the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived b) By 8 months, infants begin exhibiting memory for things no longer seen c) If you hide a toy, the infant will momentarily look for it Within another month or two, the infant will look for it even after being restrained for several seconds d) So does object permanence in fact blossom at 8 months 6. Today's research think not a) They believe object permanence unfolds gradually, and they see development as more continuous than Piaget did b) Even young infants will at least momentarily look for a toy where they saw it hidden a second before c) Researchers also believe Piaget and his followers underestimated young children's competence. Consider these simple experiments 7. Baby physics: like adults staring in disbelief at a magic trick, infants look longer at an unexpected and unfamiliar scene of a car seeming to pass through a solid object, a ball stopping in midair, or an object violating object permanence by magically disappearing 8. Baby math: Karen Wynn showed month olds one or two objects. Then she hid the objects behind a screen, and visibly removed or added one. When she lifted the screen, the infants sometimes did a double take, staring longer when shown a wrong number of objects. But were they just responding to a greater or smaller mass of objects rather than a change in number. Later experiments showed that babies' number sense extends to larger numbers, to ratios, and to such things as drumbeats and motions. If accustomed to a Daffy Duck puppet jumping three times on stage, they showed surprise if it jumped only twice a) Clearly infants are smarter than Piaget appreciated. Even as babies, we had a lot on our minds

what is separation anxiety?

Separation anxiety 1. Separation anxiety peaks at 13 months of age regardless of whether the children are home or at daycare 2. Children's anxiety over separation from parents peaks at around 13 months, then gradually declines a) This happens whether they live with one parent or two, are cared for at home or in a day care center, live in North America, Guatemala or the Kalahari Desert b) Our capacity for love grows and our pleasure in touching and holding those we love never ceases c) The power of early attachment does nonetheless gradually relax, allowing us to move out into a wider range of situations, communicate with strangers more freely, and stay emotionally attached to loved ones despite distance

what is stranger anxiety

Stranger anxiety: Fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age, They may greet strangers by crying and self protectively reaching for familiar caregivers a) Presumably needed as we become more mobile b) You don't have stranger anxiety until you can walk or crawl. 1. From birth, babies in all cultures are social creatures, developing an intense bond with their caregivers a) Infants come to prefer familiar faces and voices, then to coo and gurgle when given a parent's attention b) At about 8 months, soon after object permanence emerges and children become mobile, a curious thing happens: they develop STRANGER ANXIETY c) Children this age have schemas for familiar faces; when they cannot assimilate the new face into these remembered schemas, they become distressed d) Once again, we seen an important principle: THE BRAIN, MIND, AND SOCIAL EMOTIONAL BEHAVIOR DEVELOP TOGETHER

what are teratogens?

Teratogens: Agents, such as chemicals and virus, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause birth defects 1. In addition to transferring nutrients and oxygen from mother to fetus, the placenta screens out many harmful substances, but some slip by TERATOGENS can damage an embryo or fetus a) Teratogens: (literally "monster maker") agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm

what is conservation?

The principle (which Piaget believed to be apart of concrete operational reasoning) that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects a) Number, length, substance, b) Before about age 6, said Piaget, children lack the concept of CONSERVATION 1. Piaget did not view the stage transitions as abrupt 2. Even so, SYMBOLIC THINKING (representing things with words and images) appears at an earlier age than he supposed a) Judy DeLoache discovered this when she showed children a model of a room and hid a model toy in it (a miniature stuffed dog behind a miniature couch) b) The 2 ½ year olds easily remembered where to find the miniature toy, but they could not use the model to locate an actual stuffed dog behind a couch in a real room c) Three year olds only 6 months later usually went right to the actual stuffed animal in the real room, showing they could think of the model as a symbol for the room d) Piaget probably would have been surprised

what are the three stages of prenatal development?

Three stages of Prenatal development 1. Zygote- fertilization to 14 days a) Sperm has to be accepted or rejected by the egg and then when it is accepted, it closes a wall out to prevent other sperms from getting in b) A fertilized egg doesn't have to implant on the wall c) Fewer than half of all fertilized eggs, called ZYGOTES, survive beyond the first 2 weeks d) Zygotes: the fertilized egg; it enters a 2 week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo e) One cell become 2 then 4-each just like the first-until this cell division had produced some 100 identical cells within the first week f) Then the cells began to differentiate-to specize in structure and function g) How identical cells do this is a puzzle that scientists are just beginning to solve h) After 10 days after conception, the zygote attaches to the mother's uterine wall, beginning approximately 37 weeks of the closest human relationship 2. Embryo-14 days to 9 weeks a) Pregnancy tests can detect pregnancy after egg attaches to the wall b) The zygote's inner cells become the EMBRYO c) Embryo: the developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month d) The outer cells become the PLACENTA, the life link that transfers nutrients and oxygen from mother to embryo e) A healthy and well nourished mother helps form a healthy baby to be f) Over the next 6 weeks, the embryo's organs begin to form and function g) The heart begins to beat h) For 1 in 270 sets of parents, though, there is a bonus i) Two heartbeats will reveal that the zygote, during its early days of development, has split into two j) If all goes well, two genetically identical babies will start life together some 8 months later 3. Fetus-9 weeks to birth a) By 9 weeks after conception, an embryo looks unmistakably human b) It is now a FETUS: the developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth c) During the sixth month, organs such as the stomach have developed enough to give the fetus a good chance of survival if born prematurely d) A zygote is a fertilized cell with cells that become increasingly diverse e) At about 14 days the zygote turns into an embryo (a and b) f) At 9 weeks, an embryo turns into a fetus

what are today's current views on development? How do they feel about Piaget's work

Today's researchers believe the following: 1. Development is a continuous process 2. Child express their mental abilities and operations at an earlier age, changes between stages less consistent than Piaget thought 3. Formal logic is a smaller part of cognition than Piaget thought HIS LEGACY: 1. Piaget was singled out by Time magazine as one of the 20th century's 20 most influential scientists and thinkers and rated in a survey of British psychologists as the last century's greatest psychologist a) Piaget identified significant cognitive milestones and stimulated worldwide interest in how the mind develops b) His emphasis was less on the agres at which children typically reach specific milestones than on their sequence c) Studies around the globe, from aboriginal Australia to Algeria to North America, have confirmed that human cognition unfolds basically in the sequence Piage described 2. However, today's researchers see development as more continuous than did Piaget a) By detecting the beginnings of each type of thinking at earlier ages, they have revealed conceptual abilities Piaget missed b) Moreover, they see formal logic as a smaller part of cognition than he did c) Piaget would not be surprised that today, as part of our cognitive development, we are adapting his ideas to accommodate new findings 3. Implications for parenting and teaching a) Future parents and teachers remember: young children are incapable of adult logic b) Preschoolers who block one's view of the TV simply have no learned to take another's viewpoint c) What seems simple and obvious to us-pestering a cat will lead to scratches-may be incomprehensible to a 3 year old d) Also remember that children are not passive receptacles waiting to be filled with knowledge e) Better to build on what they already know, engaging them in concrete demonstrations and stimulating them to think for themselves f) And finally accept children's cognitive immaturity as adaptive g) It is nature's strategy for keeping children close to protective adults and providing time for learning and socialization

what does it mean to be transgeder?

Transgender: an umbrella term describing people whose gender identity or expression differs from that associated with their birth sex 1. TRANSGENDER people's gender identity or gender expression differs from that typical of their birth sex a) A person may feel like a man in a woman's body, or a woman in a man's body 1. These include transsexual people, who live, or wish to live, as members of the gender opposite to their birth sex, often aided by medical treatment that supports gender reassignment 2. Note that gender identity is distinct from SEXUAL ORIENTATION (the direction of one's sexual attraction) a) Transgender people may be heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or asexual b) Some transgender persons express their gender identity by dressing a a person of the other biological sex typically would c) Most cross dressers are biological males, the majority of whom feel an attraction to females

what is attachment

attachment: An emotional tie with another person, Shown in young children when they seek closeness to the caregiver and display distress on separation 1. Human beings don't do well without social interaction a) One years old typically cling tightly to a parent when they are frightened or expect separation b) Reunited after being apart, they shower the parent with smiles and hugs c) No social behavior is more striking than the intense and mutual infant parent bonds 2. This ATTACHMENT bond is a powerful survival impulse that keeps infants close to their caregivers a) Infants become attached to those-typically their parents-who are comfortable and familiar b) For many years, psychologists reasoned that infants became attached to those who satisfied their need for nourishment c) It made sense d) But an accidental finding overturned this explanation 3. So why do we become attached...... a) Safety in number from evolutionary perspective b) Need to belong c) Stability and dependence