Psy 301 (II)

The study of continuity and change throughout the lifespan

Single cell containing chromosomes from both parents

1st 2-week period following conception

Period of prenatal development that lasts from 2nd week until about 8th week

- Begins when zygot implanted in uterus
- Lasts from 2nd-8th week
- Zygote diides; cells differentiate
- Zygote with X&Y chromosome produce testosterone (masculinizes the reproductive organs)

- Ninth week until birth
- Skeleton, muscles; fetus moves
- nervous system complete by 6 months

Stages of Prenatal Development

- 1 cell zygote begins to divide
- All cells will contain 23 chromosomes from sperm and 23 from egg
- Zygote migrates down fallopin tube, implants in uterus

- Neurons manufactured
- Migrate toward specific area of birth
- Myelination begins
- hearing and balance are myelinated at birth
- brain areas involved in abstract thinking are not fully myelinated until after age 20

Can cause abnormal cell growth during fetal development

- Visual distance limited to close proximity (for detail)
- Newborns can follow moving stimulus with eyes
- Can distinguish novel and familiar stimuli
- Newborns specially tuned into social stimuli
- They like faces
- Can mimic facial expressions within 1st hour of life

Birth - 24 months

Emergence of voluntary physical action

Specific patterns of motor response that are triggered by specific patterns of sensory stimulation

Types of Development parameters

- "Top-to-bottom"
- Motor skills emerge in sequence
- From head to feet

- "inside-to-outside"
- Motor skills emerge in sequence
- From center to periphery

Who developed Cognitive Development and is known as the father of modern developmental psychology?

Piaget's Four Stages of Cognitive Development

Theories about the way the world works

Process infants apply their schemas in novel situations

Process infants revise revise their schemas in light of new information

Objects continue to exist even when they are not visible

Experience the world through senses

- Schemas
- Assimilation
- Accomodation
- Object permanence

Stage where motor skills developed, egocentric

- Ages 2-6

Child can think logically about physical objects and vents and understands conservation of physical properties.

- Ages 6-11

Child can think logically about abstract propositions and hypotheticals. Childhood ends here.

- Failure to understand that the world appears differently to differently to diferent observers
- "You can't see me."

- False belief test
- Children passing false belief test at ages 3 and 5

Quantitative properties of objects are invariant despite changes in the objects appearance

- Motivationally Biased

Children understand that brains represent things in the world; they can ignore subjective appearance while attempting to understand it's objective appearance

Who said culture, not objects, guides cognitive development?

- A child is capable of acquiring a wide--but bounded--range of skills at a given age
- Experience matters but within limits
- 9-15 months
- Joint attention (follow Mom's gaze to focus point)
- Social referencing (gauge Mom's reaction)

- Internal working model of attachment
- Parents' attachment styles affect their children's attachment styles
- Temperaments - Characteristic patterns of emotional activity

- Feeling what's right
- Moral dilemmas make us think and feel
- Moral intuitionist perspective--moral judgments are the consequences--not the causes of emotional reactions

What are the three important ways that children's thinking changes during moral development according to Piaget?

Children are told something is bad and do not ever accept that it could be good; change or adopt new feelings towards good and bad

Understanding moral rules for specific situations; specific principle

Judge moral of an action because of consequences; judge based on intention

What are the three moral development stages in children according to Kohlberg?

Stage of moral development which the morality of an action is primarily determined by its consequences for the actor.

Kohlberg

Stage of moral development when morality of an action is primarily determined by extent to which it conforms to social rules

Kohlberg

Stage in which morality of action is determined by general se of principles that reflect core values

Kohlberg

Tendency to move mouth towards anything placed on cheek

Tendency to suck on anything entering mouth

Bodily and brain changes. Occurs in adolescence.

Structures involved in reproduction (menstration)

Change dramatically with maturity but not directly involved in sexual reproduction (breasts and hips)

Age at which people become physically adult has decreased, age at which people are mentally adults has increased

Comes on same age in boys and girls (even before pubic maturity) may be responsible for increase in sexual interest alone

What could influence orientation?

Potential explanations for homosexuality

- Oral Sensory
- Muscular-Anal
- Locomotor
- Latency
- Adolesence
- Young Adulthood
- Middle Adulthood
- Maturity

Erikson's stage of life

Thinks environment for own needs only

Erikson's stage of life

Free will and regret for wrongdoing

Erikson's stage of life

Action, explore, imagine, remorse

Erikson's stage of life

Do things well in comparison to others

Erikson's stage of life

Sense of self in relationships

Erikson's stage of life

Give/receive love

Erikson's stage of life

Interest in guiding development of next generation

Erikson's stage of life

Acceptance of life

Does adolescence mark a shift in emphasis on family relation to peer relation?

- 18-death
- Abilites worsen slowly
- Declines in:
- Subcortical conections of prefrontal cortex--controlled processing
- Working memory (short term)
- Episodic Memory (particular events)
- Retrieval of information

- Socioemotional selective theory - focus on moment versus future and positive information versus useful information
- Fewer peripheral friends
- Less negative
- Physical separation from children
- Marriage increases happiness
- Children generally decreases happiness