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Developmental Psychology

Developmental Psychology. Prenatal Development and the Newborn. Teratogens – harmful agents like viruses or drugs that affect a developing fetus HIV, heroin, nicotine, alcohol. Newborns experience habituation : a decrease in responding with repeated stimulation

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Developmental Psychology

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  1. Developmental Psychology

  2. Prenatal Development and the Newborn • Teratogens – harmful agents like viruses or drugs that affect a developing fetus • HIV, heroin, nicotine, alcohol

  3. Newborns experience habituation: a decrease in responding with repeated stimulation • More often a newborn sees something, the less interested he is

  4. Infancy and Childhood • Brain cells are developed at birth, but neural networks grow with age • Motor development sequence (roll over, crawl, walk) is universal • Individual differences in timing • Infantile amnesia – our memories seldom predate our 3rd birthday

  5. Cognitive development • Brain builds schemas or mental molds of our experiences • We assimilate or interpret new experiences in terms of existing schemas • Thinking all 4-legged animals are cows • We accommodate or adjust schemas to incorporate info from new experiences • Creating a cow category

  6. Jean Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development • Sensorimotor stage – birth to age 2 • Know the world through senses and motor activities • Young infants lack object permanence – awareness that objects continue to exist when not perceived

  7. Piaget -cont- • Preoperational stage – age 2 - 6 or 7 • Learns to use language but doesn’t understand logic • Doesn’t understand conservation – mass, volume and number stay the same despite changes in form • Pouring milk from a tall to a short container

  8. Piaget -cont- • Egocentric – difficulty in taking another’s point of view • Age 4 or 5 begin to develop theory of mind – ability to infer others’ mental states

  9. Piaget -cont- • Concrete Operational Stage – 6 or 7 years to 11 or 12 • Begin to think logically • Understands conservation and mathematical transformations

  10. Formal Operational Stage – begins around age 12 • Begin to think logically about abstract concepts

  11. Infant Social Development • 8 months: develop stranger anxiety – fear of strangers • Attachment bond • Secure attachment - 60% of infants in a “strange situation” play in mom’s presence, become upset when she leaves, seek contact w/her when she returns and calm down • Insecure attachment – less likely to explore, cling to mom, cry or remain indifferent when she leaves

  12. Parenting Styles • Authoritarian – impose rules and expect obedience • Can result in less social skill and self-esteem • Permissive – give in; make few demands and use little punishment • Can result in aggression and immaturity • Authoritative – demanding and responsive; set rules but explain reasons behind them • Can result in high self-esteem, self-reliance and social competence • Correlation is not causation • Children’s traits may influence parenting more than vice versa

  13. Gender development • Nature of gender • Sex hormones influence fetal brain’s wiring • Baby boys are more physically active than girls • Toddler girls talk one month earlier on average • Boys seem more spatially aware

  14. Nurture of Gender • Gender roles – set of expected behaviors for males and females • Social learning theory – theory that we learn social behavior by observing and imitating and being rewarded or punished

  15. Men Women • Directive leadership style • More likely to give opinions • More independent • Less religious • Admit to more aggression • Socially dominant • Democratic leadership style • More likely to give support • More interdependent • More spiritual

  16. ADULTHOOD • Diminishing of muscle strength, visual sharpness, hearing and smell • More susceptible to life-threatening ailments but less susceptibility to short-term ailments • Slower neural processing

  17. Intelligence • Crystallized intelligence - accumulated knowledge as reflected in vocabulary and analogies tests • Increases in old age • Fluid intelligence - ability to reason speedily and abstractly • Decreases slowly to age 75ish, and then more rapidly

  18. Social Development • Love • Cohabitation before marriage results in higher rates of divorce • Tend to be initially less committed to lasting marriage and become less marriage-supporting while cohabitating • Lasting marriages have 5:1 ratio of positive to negative interactions • Happiness is slightly higher among young and older adults than those in middle age

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