Developmental Psychology: Conception to Gender

Developmental Psychology - - - - - Gestation conception - starts the process of development - The merger of DNA from a single male sperm and the female egg in the ovary - The sperm releases an enzyme to penetrate and merge with egg, thus initiating the genetic merger of the father and mother’s DNA - Zygote - forms after the egg shuts out the rest of the sperm and the nuclei combine for a unique DNA sequence Gestation period - the new cells develop into a fetus - the period of development and growth of the fetus/child from conception to birth Teratogen - an agent such as a chemical or virus that can harm the embryo during embryonic development - Ex - alcohol, drugs, chicken pots, arsenic, lead, toxic chemicals - leading to handicaps, deformation, behavioral issues, and cognitive abilities - Fetal alcohol syndrome (fas) - caused by alcohol - can result in an epigentic efffect on the genes of the fetus Maturation - the biological growth processes that enables orderly changes in behavior - Ex - toddlers have very little impulse control and will scream, cry, run, steal … - Nature sets the basic course for cognitive development and behavior, whie nurture provides minor adjustments to it - Humans have a universal motor development progression and timeless’ Early skills - Stage vs Continuous - asks if human development is a gradual, continuous process (like riding up an escalator) or if it goes through a sequence of separate stage (like climbing up the rungs on ladder) - Maturation - the biological growth processes that enables orderly changes in behavior - Ex - toddlers have very little impulses control and will scream, cry, run, steal, bite, and more as their frontal lobes are not fully developed - Nature sets the basic course for cognitive development and behavior, while nurture provides minor adjustments to it - We have a universal motor development progression and timeless - After birth, neural networks that eventually enable other functions (walking, talking) Schemas - mental representations - of their parents, siblings, and other familar faces - Imprinting - connection of something out of the womb (ex - parents) - Stranger anxiety - the schema for mom and dad have formed, and infants are prone to stranger anxiety, meaming that when around strangers, and absent their parents or another familar face, babies become anxious - Mary Ainsworth - discovered an attachment process that developed in children in their first year of life (attachment bond) - a dependent emotional connection to a parent that can be seen in a child’s behavior around age 1. - - - - It is of upmost importance that a healthy relationship be developed btwn children and theur parents to ensure a sense of basic trust with others. Erik Erikson - studying the impact of parents on establishing trust between them and their children through consistency, love, affection, and care. Also studied self-concept - a concrete idea of who they are and how they feel about who they are. From 12-18, most continue to develop their identities and assimilate them into society Temperament - one’s characterist emotional reactivity and intensity - is also largely hereditary. - While personality and behavior are largely determined by genetics, they can be impact by upbringing - Ex - difficult babies - irritable, intense, and unpredictable babies often show their colors early on in childhood - Easy babies - cheerful, relaxed, and predictable in feeding and sleeping - while are far more consistently pleasant - Difficult babies often drain parents, leaving difficult babies prone to neglect or a lack of affection, which can worsen their behavior and prevent attachment. Each babies, on the other hand, often receive more attention and affection, and develop more quickly and are generally more healthy - Parents trained to give attention and affection were able to make these babies slightly less difficult and more healthy Schemata - concepts or frameworks of a schema (usually weaker the younger you are) Assimilation - interpreting our new experiences with our existing schemas - Ex - one year old sees a dog as a cat (after identifying a cat as a cat) Accommodation - having to develop a new schema/concept to adapt the current understandings to incorporate new information - Ex - a child understanding that a dog is a dog, not a cat Jean Piaget - a psychologist who dedicated most of his professional life to studying the development of children. After observing thousands of children interact, play, and grow, he noted several developmental stages - Sensorimotor stage - spanned birth to about 2 years old - Infants primarily know the world in terms of sensory impressions and motor activities (ex - not much thought). Children in the first few months of this stage live in the moment and lack object permanence - Preoperational stage - (age 2 to 7) - the child learns to use language but does not yet understand the mental operations of concrete logic - Ex - if presented with two glasses of equal volume, children in the preoperational stage will consistently identify the taller glass as bigger, even thought are able to see the amount of water poured from one to the other from one to ther other filled each glass equally - Egocentric - they are nearly incapable of understanding another person’s perspective - - - - - Ex - if a 4-year-old is told to identify his brother, he would point to his brother, Jim. But when asked who Jim's brother is, the 4 yrs old will say JIim has no brother. - Theory of the mind - enables them to begin identifying people, moods, expressions, as good or bad - Ex - they can detect when a parent is upset and will often offer a toy or a hug, or behave well when a parent is visibly upset Concrete operational stage - (6 or 7 to 11) children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events. - Ex - Kids can mentally pour milk back to see both glasses are equal volume despite one glass being taller Formal operational stage - (12) when kids begin to understand abstract concepts. Here kids can ponder hypothetical positions and predict consequences. Math subjects (complex ideas) are understanding. They also have the potential for moral reasoning. Lev Vygotsky (Language) - dedicated most of his time to research language development and word use up to age seven. - Developed the zone of proximal development theory - children received the minimum optimal amount of support to encourage independent growth and development - The idea that there is an optimal learning threshold through which a child needs minimal guidance, as the task is just slightly over their current capability. With guidance, though, the child is able to overcome the obstacle and grow. If the task is too difficult for them at their current level, they won’t learn. If it is too easy, they won’t further their development Morals - the sense of right and wrong that guides our behavior - as well as our ability to analyze and act on our own morals or others’ was researched heavily by Lawrence Kohlberg. He broke moral development into… - Preconventional - covering up to about age 9 - Children understands self-interest, learning to obey rules for rewards or to avoid punishment - Conventional - continuing to around age 12 - Children understand the purpose and function of upholding laws to maintain social order, and begin to see good as whatever either pleases or benefits others - Postconventional - begins in adolescence and sees one’s actions reflect belief in basic rights and self-defined ethical principles. This is the point at which peole begin to weigh the difference between something that is legally right and morally right - Ex - 1950s segregation was legal, however, many saw that segregation based on race was morally wrong - Carol Gilligan - critized Kohlberg’s stages for being too rigidly logical. She argued that most men had a masculine view of morality that was centered around - individualism and logic, while most women had a more feminine view of morality based on an understanding of responsibilities, care for others, and the cultivation of personality relationships. (Ethics of Care) - Jonathan Haidt - argued that moral judgements were guided far less by rationality, as was emphasized by Kohlberg, and far more on instant intuitive judgement - morality - binds and blinds us to our own set of biases (meaning we are often incapable of or unwilling to legitimately consider the other side) - We are walking, talking confirmation bias machines largely guided by our intuition (we make spilt judgements) Parenting - Diana baumrind - analyzed and counseled many different families over the ears. Determined there were, roughly speaking, three different parenting styles, (all of which had different impacts on the development of the children) - Authoritarian - One that imposes rules and expects un-questioned obedience. While children exposed to this style of parenting are generally obedient, it may negatively impact them (develop low self-esteem, less independent, and develop less social skills) - Permissive - submit to their child’s desires. They make few demands, use little punishment, and do a poor job of socializing their children, leaving the impulsive and oftentimes anti-authority. Children of permissive parents (absent) tend to be more aggressive, immature, and have higher rates of high school dropout and delinquency. - Harry harlow - looks at monkeys for developments - separated their parents from the child (caregiving, socialization, and physical touch) - Shows that sensation is important for the development of child - Adolescence - transition from period from children to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence - Brings with it better self-control, improved judgement, better and longer focus, as well as the ability to see or think from the perspective of others. - Develops the ability to analyze hypotheticals, think abstractly, plan for the long-term, weigh legal and moral issues, and a host of other cognitive abilities - Growth spurt, armpit and pubic hair - Males in puberty tend to benefit socially, as those who begin earlier than others are more athletic, strong, self-confident, and often popular - Females - hormone-fed feeling and moods can be out of sync with the emotional maturity of friends - Gives them the feeling out of place or even ostracized, lead to to teasing or even sexual harassment - Often seek older friends and leaves them more vulnerable to premature sexual activity or even teen pregnancy - Children also begin to move away from the approval of and congruence with parents. Instead they seek approval and congruence with their peers. - - Erik Erikson - studied adolescent psychosocial development. Found that teens formed and priotized the ability to form close, loving relationships and tend to make them a priority throughout late adolescence and early adulthood - Defines the lifespan development by crisis - Teens in Western cultures seek their own identities, and begin to pull awat from parents and families more quickly. They also disagree and argue more as they are forming their identities and morals Emerging adulthood - Semi-dependent adults who make their own decisions about their lives, studies, and careers, but remain, at least partially, financially dependent on their parents. Due to the high cost of living in the West, coupled with poor entry-level wages, most emergent adults require housing or financial assistance as they complete training - People begin to develop their own identities and sense of self - Age is also often the peak of one’s stress, due to their lack of financial independence and life experience - Biological sex - the set of biological and physical differneces btwn males and females. This refers generally to chromosomal expression of males and females, their genitalia, as well as their role in the reproductive process - Intersex - people born with ambiguous gentalia and a chromosomal expression of XXY (making them different) - Gender - the social constructs of the roles and characteristics by which culture defines male and female. There is often no role for anyone unable to clearly fit into a male or female role. While are certainly social and cultural factors that impact one’s behavior, research over the past 25 years suggests it is largely based on biology - Woman hit puberty 2 years earlier, lives 5 years longer, has 70% more body fat, 40% less muscle mass, and is five inches shorter relative to men - Women tend to express emotions more freely, form more social relationships, and both seek and offer help more frequently than men - Women are also twice as likely to suffer from depression and anxiety, infict intentional self-harm, attempt suicide, and are more than ten times more likely to suffer from an eating disorder - women tend to prefer more democratic means - women tend to prefer relational aggression by attempting to damage one’s reputation, gossip, exclude, or other forms of social harassment - Are more connected than men on average socially. Tend to be more concerned with making connections (use conversation to explore and cultivate relationships) - Focus on people - Men, however, are four times more likely for alcoholism, as well as experience higher rates of suicide, autism, color-blindness, ADHD, and antisocial behavior - prioritize power and achievement and tend to strive for being socially dominant - Men - seem to prefer direct leadership - Tend to be more direct and physical aggression - Men tend to priotized independence - Focus on solving problems Gender roles - a set of expected behaviors for men and women. - Technology transformed society (household appliances - microwaves, washing/drying machines, dishwasher) - reduced the household work of women from 8 to 2 hours - Gender identity - a person’s sense of being male or female - Social learning theory - learning social behavior by observing and imitating gender roles and being rewarded or punished for such behavior - Gender expression - (how the view is translated) a person’s behavior, mannerisms, interestsm and appearance that are associated with gender in a particular cultural context