Developmental Psychology

    1. Types of studies
      1. Cross sectional: uses participants of different ages to compare how variables change over lifespan.
        1. Advantage: immediate comparison of developmental differences
        2. Disadvantage: cannot tell if an individual stays the same or changes over time.
      2. Longitudinal: same group of individuals studied repeatedly over time.
        1. Advantage: allows the study of developmental patterns or changes over time.
        2. Disadvantage: time; must wait many years for results, subjects "drop out" of study (death, move, etc.)
        3. Preferred method
    2. Development
      1. 2 questions
        1. Nature, or nurture?
        2. Is it continuous (behaviorists) or in stages (discontinuous)
      2. 8 types to look at
        1. Prenatal
        2. Neurological
        3. Sensory
        4. Motor
        5. Emotional
        6. Cognitive
        7. Social
        8. Moral
      3. Prenatal: germinal, embryonic, fetal stages
        1. Embryonic: stage when most miscarriages occur & when most major birth defects take place
        2. Placenta & umbilical cord.
          1. Connects blood supply of mother to the fetus
          2. Filter: allows oxygen & nutrients thru while keeping out some toxic substances
          3. But: some viruses (HIV) & drugs (caffeine, nicotine, pot, cocaine, heroin) can get through
          4. these are called TERATOGENS
            1. diseases (herpes)
            2. drug (alcohol)—FAS
            3. other environmental agent (chemicals)
        3. Genotype vs. Phenotype
      4. Neurological development
        1. Neural connectors are very few at birth, but # in the 1,000s by 2
        2. Partial explanation for brain weight increase from 340-900 grams
      5. Sensory
        1. Reflexes
          1. rooting (turn head toward touch/stroke)
          2. sucking
          3. moro (the "startle" reflex= drawing up limbs when startled, or "dropped")
          4. withdrawal (from painful stimuli)
          5. grasping ("palmar")
          6. babinski (spread toes when feet are stimulated/stroked)
          7. sphincter (pooping)
        2. Vision (covered in text)
          1. NOTE: Gibson "visual cliff" experiment (6-8 months)
        3. Hearing
        4. Touch
        5. Smell
          1. 1 day old can differentiate citrus/floral odors
        6. Taste
          1. inborn preference for sweet & salt; inborn dislike for bitter
          2. This statement differs from text
        7. All are present at birth; vision is the one that changes the most
      6. Motor
        1. Proximodistal priciple: parts closer to the center of the body develop before parts further away.
          1. Eg activities involving the trunk are mastered first (roll over before walking or holding a bottle)
        2. Cephalocaudal principle: parts of the body closer to the head develop before parts closer to the feet.
          1. Eg head lifts before roll over, sit up before (controls legs to) crawl
        3. Most heavily influenced by maturation (developmental changes that are genetically or biologically programmed rather than acquired through learning or life experiences); but the timing can be sped up/slowed down by experience/learning (nurture)
      7. Emotional development
        1. Harlow - Mother as a source of contact comfort: deprivation led to more stress whenever put (later) into new situations
        2. Lorenz - Imprinting (FAP) if it moves, it must be mother
        3. Ainsworth
          1. "Strange situation"
          2. Series of separations & reunions with caregiver & strangers.
          3. Secure attachment: mildly protest mom’s departure, seek interaction upon reunion, readily comforted by her.
            1. Children use parent as "safe home base" to wander from.
          4. Insecure attachment
            1. Avoidant attachment: least distressed. Play by themselves, ignore mom upon return.
            2. Ambivalent/resistant attachment: the most emotional severe signs of distress when mom leaves; ambivalent reunion (pushes away & clings to)- resists comfort.
      8. Cognitive development
        1. Piaget (text)
          1. Assimilation
            1. Responding to a new stimulus through reflex or existing habit.
          2. Accommodation
            1. Creation of new ways to respond to objects or look at the world.
          3. Four stages
            1. Sensorimotor (newborn-2)
            2. Preoperational (2-7)
            3. Concrete operational (7-12)
            4. Formal operational (12+)
        2. Information processing
          1. Less of a "stage" theory; more continuous
        3. Theory theory (Gopnik & Meltzoff)
          1. Children have innate abilities to make guesses about how things are, test their guesses through interaction with environment, & change their guesses as they gather new or conflicting info.
      9. Social development
        1. Freud: psychosexual
          1. Text pages: 392-399
          2. Stages: 396-398
        2. Erikson: psychosocial stages
          1. Trust vs. mistrust
          2. Autonomy vs. shame & doubt
          3. Page: 401-402
        3. Social cognitive theory (Bandura) or social learning theory
          1. Emphasizes the importance of learning through observation, imitation, & self reward.
          2. Development of social skills, interactions, behaviors
          3. NOT necessary to
            1. Perform observable behavior
            2. Receive external rewards
            In order to learn new social skills because your behaviors are intrinsically motivated.
            (Child copies parent bowling)
          4. Bobo doll experiment
          5. Critique: too much focus on rewarding & discouraging behaviors and too little on cognitive influence.
      10. Cognitive developmental theory
        1. As children develop mental skills, and interact with the environment, the learn sets of rules for behavior
        2. Eg male/female gender roles (or gender schemes)
      11. Moral developmental theory
        1. Kohlberg

Other Issues

    1. Adolescent Development
      1. Adolescent Egocentric Thinking
        1. Difficulty in separating one’s own thoughts & feelings from those of others.
        2. "Imaginary audience": everyone’s looking at me (zit, hair, etc.)
        3. "Personal fable": thoughts are unique to me [no one understands, no one has ever been as ‘in love’ as I] (+ invulnerability)
      2. Feeling of invulnerability: it can’t happen to me (risky behavior)
        1. Can also relate to "personal fable."
        2. Some recent research seems to contradict the idea of a of invulnerability, but inconclusive.
    2. Biopsychosocial model (Compas Buchanan)
      1. Adolescent sexual behavior cannot be discussed independently of other cognitive, personality, or emotional behaviors.
      2. EG. Sex hormones
        1. Trigger physical changes
        2. Influence mood swings
        3. Changes on several levels
    3. Theories of aging
      1. Programmed senescence
        1. Aging by design
        2. "biological clock"
        3. Preset # of times cells can divide & multiply; after that they begin to die & aging occurs.
        4. "Programmed" to reach other developmental stages (toddlers, adolescence). As well as to deteriorate & die.
      2. Wear & Tear Theories
        1. Aging by change
        2. Cellular aging theory (text): ability to repair injured DNA decreases w/ aging; or wastes accumulative w/ in cells.
        3. Breakdown in immune system.
    4. Compare Freud/Erikson/Bandura
      1. Freud: parent/child interactions to satisfy innate biological needs
      2. Erikson: importance of dealing with social needs
      3. Bandura: emphasizes learning through modeling
    5. Meta: "thinking about"