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Developmental Psychology 1, Screenshot 2023-04-25 at 6.12.25 pm,…
Developmental Psychology 1
Development
the big 3 issues:
nature vs nurture
: what are the causes of developmental change?
neither view is right. development proceeds as an introduction of genetic and environmental factors.
early experience vs later experience:
to what extent does early experience shape later functioning?
critical periods:
a period in time during development when certain experiences are crucial for a particular feature of development to emerge.
sensitive periods:
a period of time during which experience is optimal for the development of a particular function, but it is not critical.
continuity vs discontinuity:
what is the nature of developmental change?
human development is both
continuous
(gradual and uniform change, change in amount of skill and behaviour) and
discontinuous
(change is abrupt, step-like, change in kind of skill/behaviour
methods of studying
development:
longitudinal studies:
the same participants are observed, tested, or interviewed repeatedly over a period of time.
measure age-related changes
time consuming, expensive, risk of attrition (loss of participants)
generational effects
: the studies take so long to do, the conditions on which those participants were tested may not even apply to how the world works in the current year, and how the current generations function.
practice effects from repeated measures
> use slightly different tasks at each stage of the study, to test the same psychological concept, but avoid practice effects.
cross-sectional studies:
participants from different age groups are studied at the same point in time.
measure age-related differences
.
less time-consuming/expensive.
takes a snapshot in time.
cohort effects > potential differences in experience that your age groups have > not really about age, but about a different variable that correlates with age.
genes:
dna:
double-stranded molecule that makes up chromosomes
chromosomes:
thread-like structure found in the nucleus.
genes:
contain basic instructions for making particular proteins.
genes are the basic units of heredity. each chromosome or strand of DNA contains thousands of genes.
each gene contains "instructions" for building a specific protein. a gene is "expressed" if it has been turned on to make its specific protein.
each parent contributes to hald of their offspring's genetic makeup. (zygote = sperm (23 chromosomes) + egg (23 chromosomes).
the same gene has different forms;
alleles.
you have 2 alleles for every gene- one from each parent.
if your 2 alleles are the same: homozygous. if they are different; heteozygous.
genotype:
genetic blueprint: DNA passed from parents to child.
phenotype:
observable qualities of psychological attributes or qualities.
behaviour genetics:
researchers try to understand how genetic and environmental factors combine to produce individual differences in behaviour.
Genes and
Environment
heritability:
the degree to which variation in a particular trait among individuals ins due to genetic differences between individuals.
varies from 0 (no heritability- environmentally determined) to 1 (completely heritable)
kinship studies:
people who vary in how related they are.
family studies:
how similar members of a family are in relation to a certain trait of interest.
twin studies:
identical compared to fraternal.
share 100% vs 50% of genetic makeup, but often raised in the same environment at the same time.
if the trait is more similar in identical twins compared to fraternal twins, then the trait is heritable.
adoption studies:
people who share genetics but were raised in different environments.
degree of relatedness:
the probability fo sharing genes among relatives. can be used to work out the relative contribution of genes and environment to a particular phenotype.
gene and environment interactions:
genes are not static. environmental factors "turn them on" (gene expression.)
certain genes are expressed at certain times in response to certain environmental influences.
dunedin multidisciplinary study:
1000 individuals followed from age 3 (longitudinal, attrition worry.)
DNA findings related to environmental measures and psychopathy.
MAOA gene and childhood maltreatment on conduct disorder.
FADS2 gene and breastfeeding in IQ.
prenatal development:
prenatal development occurs between conception and birth
begins in fallopian tube when sperm penetrates the egg and forms a zygote.
takes about 266 days for zygote to become a foetus of 200 billion cells.
three periods:
germinal period:
from conception through implantations.
14 days.
zygote travels towards uterus. divides and forms blastocyst (16-64 cells).
embryonic period:
from 3rd through 8th week.
blastocyst implants into uterine wall.
layers of cells differentiate to become different parts of the body.
formation of major organs.
neural tube becomes brain (top) and spinal chord (bottom).
if the top part doesn't close properly, the baby will have
anencephaly
(all organs and spinal chord are fine, but the baby has no brain in their body and will die within a few minutes to hours of birth)
if the bottom part doesn't close properly, the baby will have
spina bifida
(can occur anywhere across the spinal cord, and ranges in severity. often results in mobility issues.
fetal period:
from 9th week until birth (38 weeks)
a period of rapid growth and refinement of organ and brain systems.
fetus becomes more responsive.
behaviour becomes increasingly regular and integrated.
fetuses become viable within 22-28 weeks. - organ systems begin to function
Teratogens
any disease, drug, or other environmental agents that can harm a developing embryo or fetus.
effects depend on timing (organ systems and the brain are particularly susceptible during periods of rapid development), dose, and duration.
**women should not ingest/expose themselves to
alcohol and illicit drugs, radiation, accutane, heavy metals, smoking, etc.
thalidomide (treatment for morning sickness, but caused major limb abnormalities- abnormalities dependent on when the drug was taken during pregnancy.
alcohol:
fetal alcohol syndrome:
a cluster of abnormalities that appear in the offspring of mothers who drink alcohol heavily during pregnancy.
microcephaly (very small heads) > brain damage, cognitive learning/delays.
malformations of the face.
congenital heart disease.
joint abnormalities.
perceptual development:
what is the world like to an infant? how does perceptual experience shape the way the infant brain processes the world? what are the consequences of perceptual deprivation.
habituation:
discrimination between stimuli.
as a baby becomes interested in something, they will suck on a dummy in their mouths more than when they are uninterested in something.
by mixing up the stimuli, you can tell if a baby is interested in something if the 'suck rate' goes up when shown something new.
looking time and heart rate an also be used.
in graph at point '0 minutes' (in the middle) the experiment group had the stimulus changed, causing a spike, while the control group didn't, and became disinterested.
visual preferences:
what do babies "prefer" to look at? what does this tell us about what they "see"?
early in life, babies are primed to prefer information that has social value; faces are the most socially valued stimulus.
babies prefer patterned over plain stimuli, the more complex the better.
visual scanning and fixation patterns:
what do infants look at? what does that tell us about what they see?
attention of 1-month olds is "sticky" > gets stuck one one spot and doesn't really move.
babys' vision is fuzzy, so they will look for contrast -the edges of the hairline on a face for example- and then eyes, nose, etc, as they learn where the useful information (identity, emotion) of a face comes from.
