Dec 8-12 Developmental Psychology Study Guide Nature of Human Development

Human Development: the scientific study of processes of change and stability throughout the human life span. Life-span Development: concept of development as a lifelong process which can be studied scientifically Quantitative change: changes in number or amount, such as height, weight, age etc. Qualitative changes: changes in kind structure or organization, such as change from non-verbal to verbal communication. Domain: a dimension in HD such as physical cognitive or psychosocial Physical development: growth of the body and brain, change or stability in sensory capacities, motor skills and health. Cognitive development: change or stability in mental abilities such as learning, memory, language, thinking, moral reasoning, and creativity. Psychosocial development: change and stability in emotions, personality, social relationships Social construction: concept about the nature of reality, based on societal shared perception or assumption. Heredity: inborn characteristics inherited from biological parents at conception. Environment: totality of non-hereditary or experiential influences on development. Maturation: unfolding of a natural sequence of physical and behavioral changes including readiness to master new abilities. Milestone: landmarks of development or the average ages for the occurrences of certain events such as walking and talking. Socioeconomic status: combination of economic and social factors describing an individual or family, including income, education and occupation Risk factors: condition that increases the likelihood of a negative developmental outcome. Culture: a societys or groups total way of life, including customs, traditions, beliefs, values, language and physical products all learned behavior passed on from parents to children. Ethnic group: group united by ancestry, race, religion, language, and/or national origins which contribute to a sense of shared identity. Normative: characteristic of an event that occurs in a similar way for most people in a group. Normative age-graded influence: event or influence that is highly similar for people in a particular age group. Includes biological (puberty, menopause) and social (marriage, retirement,) events. Normative history-graded influences: events or influences common to a particular cohort Cohort: group of people growing up at about the same time.

Non-normative: characteristic of an unusual event that happens to a particular person or typical event that happens at an unusual time of life. Imprinting: phenomenon which newly hatched birds will instinctively follow the first moving object they see, the result of the readiness of the nervous system of the organism to acquire certain information during a brief critical period in early life. Critical period: specific time when a given event or its absence has the greatest impact on development. Sensitive period: times in development when a person is particularly open to certain kinds of experience. Baltes Life span development approach 1. Development is lifelong 2. Development involves both gain and loss 3. Relative influences of biology and culture shift over the life span 4. Development involves a changing allocation of resources 5. Development is modifiable 6. Development is influenced by the historical and cultural context.

Study Guide Theory and Research

Theory: coherent set of logically related concepts that seeks to organize, explain, and predict data. Hypothesis: possible explanations for phenomena, used to predict the outcome of research. Nature: the inborn traits and characteristics inherited from biological parents Nurture: environmental influences both before and after birth including influences of family, peers, schools, neighborhood, society and culture. Tabula rasa: literally a blank slate philosopher John Lockes view that society influences the development of the child. Mechanistic model: views development as passive, predictable response to stimuli. Organismic model: views development as internally initiated by an active organism and as occurring in a sequence of qualitatively different stages. Theoretical Perspectives Psychoanalytic perspective: views development as shaped by unconscious forces. Psychoanalysis: a therapeutic approach aimed at giving patients insights into unconscious emotional conflicts. Sigmund Freud: Psychosexual Development In Freudian theory, an unvarying sequence of stages of personality development during infancy, childhood, and adolescence, in which gratification shifts from the mouth to the anus and then to the genitals. Oral stage: feeding is the main source of sensual pleasure Anal stage: chief source of pleasure is moving the bowel Phallic stage: boys develop their attachment to their mothers and girls to their fathers, with aggressive urges toward the same-sex parent.

Latency stage: child is sexually calm and becomes socialized, develop skills, and learns about himself and society Genital stage: lasts throughout adulthood, in which repressed sexual urges resurfaces to flow in socially approved channels Fixation: an arrest of development that can show up in adult personality. Id: governs newborns, operating on the pleasure principle the drive to seek immediate satisfaction of needs and desires. Ego: represents reason, operating on the reality principle finding realistic ways to gratify the id. Superego: contains the conscience, incorporating socially approved behavior into the childs own value system. Erik Erikson: Psychosocial development the socially and culturally influenced process of development of the ego or self described in eight stages. 1. Basic trust vs. mistrust hope must be developed 2. Autonomy vs. shame and doubt independence and will 3. Initiative vs. guilt purpose 4. Industry vs. inferiority skills of the culture 5. Identity vs. identity confusion sense of self 6. Intimacy vs. isolation commitment 7. Generativity vs. stagnation established and guide the next generation 8. Integrity vs. despair coming into terms with the way one lived Learning perspective: View of development that holds that changes in behavior result from experience or adaptation to the environment Learning: a long-lasting change in behavior based on experience or adaptation to the environment Behaviorism: emphasizes the predictable role of environment causing observable behavior. Associative learning: the formation of a mental link between events Classical conditioning: learning based on association of a stimulus that does not ordinarily illicit a response with another stimulus that does illicit the response Operant conditioning: learning based on reinforcement or punishment Reinforcement: a stimulus that encourages repetition of a desired behavior Punishment: a stimulus that discourages repetition of a desired behavior Social Learning theory: behaviors are learned by observing and imitating models Observational learning: modeling, learning through watching others behavior. Applied behavior analysis: a combination of conditioning and modeling that can be used to eliminate undesirable behaviors and encourage socially desirable ones. Social cognitive theory: emphasizes cognitive response to perceptions Self-efficacy: a confidence that a person has the characteristics needed to succeed Jean Piagets Cognitive perspective: thought processes are central to development

Organization: tendency to create increasingly complex cognitive structures. Schemes: organized patterns of behavior that a person uses to think about an act in a situation. Adaptation: How children handle new information in light of what they already know Assimilation: taking in new information and incorporating into existing cognitive structures. Accommodation: changing ones cognitive structures to include new information. Equilibration: constant striving for a stable balance in the shift from assimilation to accommodation. Evolutionary/Sociobiological Perspective Survival of the fittest: the one with most adaptable traits survives to pass its genes in offspring Natural selection: the weak and those with mal adaptive traits are removed from the gene pool, leaving only the healthiest and the strongest to survive and continue the specie. Ethology: study of distinct adaptive behaviors of species of animals that have evolved to increase survival of the species Sociobiological perspective: focuses on biological bases of behavior. Evolutionary psychology: application of natural selection and survival of the fittest to individual behavior. Urie Bronfenbrenners Bioecological theory Microsystem: a setting in which a child interacts with others on an everyday face to face basis Mesosystem: linkages between two or more Microsystems Exosystem: linkages between two or more settings, one of which does not contain the child. Macrosystem: a societys overall patterns Chronosystem: effects of time on other developmental systems Lev Vygotskys Sociocultural Theory Zone of proximal development (ZPD) differences between what a child can do alone and with help. Scaffolding: temporary support to help a child master a task. Research Methods Quantitative researches: focuses on hard data and numerical or statistical measure. Qualitative researches: focuses on soft data such as subjective experiences, feelings or beliefs. Scientific method a. Identify the problem b. Formulate hypothesis c. Collect data d. Analyze the data

e. Disseminate findings Population: a group to whom the research findings may apply Sample: participants chosen to represent the entire population under study. Generalized: application of results from a sample study to the population as a whole Random selection: method of selecting participants in a study so that each person in a population an equal and independent chance of being chosen.

Study Guide Forming a New Life

Fertilization: union of sperm and ovum fuse to produce a zygote also called conception. Gametes: the sex cells, ovum and sperm. Zygote: one-celled organism resulting from fertilization. Follicle: small sac in the ovary containing the immature ova. Ovulation: the rupture of a mature follicle and expulsion of the ovum. Cilia: tiny hair cells in the fallopian tubes that sweep the ovum along. Cervix: the opening of the uterus. Dizygotic (two-egg) twins: conceived by the union of two different ova (or a single ovum that has split) with two different sperm cells. Also called fraternal twins Monozygotic (one-egg) twin: resulting from the division of a single zygote after fertilization. Also called identical twins Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA): chemicals that carry inherited instructions for the formation and function of body cells. Genetic code: sequence of pairs with DNA which determines inherited characteristics. Chromosomes: coils of DNA that carries the genes. Genes: small segments of DNA located in definite positions on particular chromosomes Human genome: complete sequence or mapping of genes in the human body and their location Meiosis: type of cell division in which each sex cell (gamete) ends up with only 23 chromosomes. Mitosis: type of cell division in which each sex cell divides in half repeatedly, resulting in new cells with 46 chromosomes. Autosomes: the 22 pairs of chromosomes not related to sexual expression. Sex chromosomes: pair of chromosomes that determines sex: XX=female XY=male X chromosomes: containing femaleness Y chromosomes: containing maleness Alleles: paired genes (alike or different) that affect a trait. Homozygous: possessing two identical alleles for a trait Heterozygous: possessing differing alleles for a trait. Dominant inheritance: pattern of inheritance in which when a child receives contradictory alleles, only dominant one is expressed.

Recessive inheritance: pattern of inheritance in which when a child receives identical recessive alleles resulting in expression of a non-dominant trait Phenotype: observable characteristics of a person Genotype: genetic makeup of a person containing both expressed and unexpressed characteristics. Mutation: permanent alterations in genes or chromosomes that may produce harmful characteristics Down syndrome: chromosomal disorder characterized by moderate to severe mental retardation by such physical sign as downward sloping skin fold at the inner corners of the eyes. Trisomy-21: down syndrome in which there is an extra 21st chromosome or a translocation of part of the 21st chromosome onto another chromosome. Genetic counseling: clinical service that advises couples of their probable risk of having children with hereditary defects. Prenatal Development Gestation: the approximately nine-month period of development between conception and birth. Gestational age: age of the organism from conception Zygote: fertilized ovum Cephalocaudal principle: principle that development proceeds in head-to-tail direction that is the upper parts of the body develop before lower parts. Proximodistal principle: principle that development proceeds from within to without; that is, that parts of the body near the center develop before extremities Germinal stage: first 2 weeks of prenatal, characterized by rapid cell division, increasing complexities and differentiation, and implantation in the wall of the uterus. Mitosis: period of rapid cell division and duplication Blastocyst: a fluid-filled sphere of cells that will float into uterus and implant in the lining. Embryonic disk: a thickened cell mass located on the blastocyst from which the embryo begins to develop Ectoderm: the upper layer of the embryonic disk that will form into outer layer of skin, the nails, hair, teeth, sensory organs and nervous system. Endoderm: the lower layer of the embryonic disk that will form into the digestive system, liver, pancreas, salivary glands, and respiratory system. Mesoderm: the inner layer of the embryonic disk that will form into the inner layer of skin, muscles, skeleton, and excretory and circulatory. Placenta: organ that that provides oxygen and nourishment to the developing baby and removes its body wastes. Umbilical cord: cord that connects the placenta to the baby and vice versa Amniotic sac: fluid filled membrane that encases the developing baby protecting it or giving it room to move. Chorion: outermost layer of the amniotic sac. Trophoblast: the outer cell layer of the blastocyst. Embryonic stage: second stage of gestation (2-8 wks) characterized by rapid growth and development of major body systems and organs.

Trimester: a three-month period of pregnancy. Spontaneous abortion: natural expulsion from the uterus of a conceptus that cannot survive outside the womb; miscarriage Stillborn: term for a baby that is dead at its birth Fetal stage: final stage of gestation (8wks birth), characterized by increased detail of body parts and greatly enlarge body size. Teratogenic: capable of causing birth defects