AP PSYCH- UNIT 6

• How Do Children Acquire Language?

  • Children are born with mental structures that make it possible to comprehend and produce speech
  • Brain research has disproven the Operant Learning theory for language acquisition
• The sad case of Genie gave researchers insights into language development and the critical period for learning language
• Prenatal Development:

  • Conception: a single sperm cell penetrates the egg to form a fertilized cell
  • Germinal Stage (first 2 weeks): zygote with 100 cells becomes diverse
  • Embryonic Stage (2 weeks to 2 months): zygote turns into an embryo, vital organs and systems form
  • Fetal Stage (2 months to birth): embryo turns into a fetus, bodily growth continues, movement capability begins, brain cells multiply
  • Age of Viability: 22-26 weeks
  • Teratogens: chemicals or viruses that harm the developing fetus
• Environmental Factors affecting prenatal development:

  • Maternal nutrition: linked to birth complications, neurological problems, and psychopathology
  • Maternal drug use: including tobacco, alcohol, prescription, and recreational drugs
  • Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS): growth retardation, characteristic facial features, central nervous system problems
• Newborn Screenings and Testing:

  • Phenylketonuria (PKU): rare inherited disorder causing phenylalanine buildup
  • APGAR test: assesses newborn health
  • Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS): unexplained sudden death of infants
  • Habituation: decrease in responsiveness with repeated stimulation
• Reflexes in newborns:

  • Rooting reflex helps locate food
  • Other reflexes include sucking, gripping, toe curling, moro (startle), and galant (curving towards the side of the spine that was stroked)
• Temperament in babies:

  • Easy, Slow-to-warm-up, Difficult temperamental styles
  • Longitudinal vs. cross-sectional designs
  • Temperament believed to be stable over time
• Maturation:

  • Brain development unfolds based on genetic instructions
  • Various bodily and mental functions occur in sequence
  • Experience adjusts the basic course of development set by maturation
• Motor Development in childhood:

  • Cephalocaudal trend: gain control of upper body before lower body
  • Proximodistal trend: gain control over torso before extremities
  • Developmental norms and cultural variations
• Cognitive Development according to Piaget:

  • Schemas: mental molds for experiences
  • Assimilation: incorporating new experiences into current understanding
  • Accommodation: adjusting and modifying schemas
  • Piaget's stages: Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete Operational, Formal Operational
• Piaget's Preoperational Stage (ages 2-7):

  • Children acquire a sense of self
  • Characteristics include centration, egocentrism, irreversibility, symbolic representation, pretend play, and animism
• Piaget's Concrete Operational Stage (7-11):

  • Grasp conservation problems and can transform mathematical functions
  • Decentration and conservation are mastered
  • Can demonstrate logical thinking
• Piaget's Formal Operational Stage (around age 12):

  • Reasoning expands from concrete to abstract thinking
  • Use symbols and imagined realities for systematic reasoning
  • Abstract reasoning, hypothesis testing, metacognition
• Vygotsky's Social Development Theory:

  • Emphasizes social interaction in cognitive development
  • Zone of Proximal Development: difference between independent and guided achievement
• Stranger anxiety and Separation Anxiety:

  • Develop around 8 months
  • Infants form schemas for familiar faces and struggle to assimilate new faces
• Infants form schemas for familiar faces and cannot assimilate a new face by the age of 2
• Separation Anxiety starts at 8 months, peaks at 18 months, and can last until the child's 3rd year
• Harlow (1971) showed that infants bond with surrogate mothers because of bodily contact and not because of nourishment
• Imprinting is a factor that causes attachment in some animals (goslings)
• 60% of children express secure attachment in a strange situation, while 30% show insecure attachment
• Relaxed and attentive caregiving is the backbone of secure attachment
• Monkeys experience great anxiety if their terry-cloth mother is removed
• Separation anxiety peaks at 13-18 months of age, regardless of whether the children are home or sent to daycare
• Withdrawn, frightened, and unable to develop speech are outcomes when children are prevented from forming attachments
• Adolescence is defined as a life stage between childhood and adulthood
• Puberty occurs earlier in females (11 years) than males (13 years)
• Primary sexual characteristics develop rapidly during puberty
• Secondary sexual characteristics develop during puberty, such as breasts and hips in girls and facial hair and deepening of voice in boys
• Selective pruning of neurons begins at adolescence
• Neurons in the frontal cortex grow myelin during adolescence
• Adolescents can handle abstract problems and perform formal operations according to Piaget
• Kohlberg described stages of moral development, including preconventional, conventional, and postconventional morality
• As thinking matures, behavior becomes less selfish and more caring
• Erik Erikson believed that personality continues to evolve throughout life
• Erikson's stages include Trust vs. Mistrust, Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt, Industry vs. Inferiority, Identity vs. Role Confusion, Intimacy vs. Isolation, Generativity vs. Stagnation, and Integrity vs. Despair
• In Western cultures, adolescents try out different selves before settling into a consistent identity
• James Marcia identified 4 identity statuses: Foreclosure, Moratorium, Identity Diffusion, and Identity Achievement
• Gender roles are sets of behaviors that society considers appropriate for each sex
• Sandra Bem's research explains how gender develops through socialization, reward, and punishment
• The peak of physical performance occurs around 20 years of age