PSY C505: MIDTERM

• During prenatal development, the brain produces 250,000 neurons/minute
• Brain development during prenatal period

  • Peak: 28 billion neurons at 7 months (prenatal)
  • By birth, this number has been pruned to 23 billion
• By the end of the first year, the brain is about 35% larger than it was at birth
• Maturation


  The orderly sequence of biological growth processes, relatively uninfluenced by experience
• Memory not solidified until after 3rd birthday; known as "infantile amnesia"
• Cephalocaudal development


  • The head develops before the arms & trunk
  • The arms & trunk develop before the legs
• Proximodistal development


  • The head, trunk and arms develop before the hands & fingers
• Motor milestones


  • Raising head & chest (2-4 months)
  • Rolling over (2-5 months)
  • Sitting up with support (4-6 months)
  • Sitting up without support (6-7 months)
  • Crawling (7-8 months)
  • Walking (8-18 months)
• Cognition


  All mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering and communicating
• Piaget did not believe that a child's mind was a mini-adult mind
• Schemas


  A concept or framework that organizes & interprets information
• Assimilation


  Interpreting a new experience in terms of an existing schema
• Accommodation


  The process of adjusting/modifying a schema
• Sensorimotor stage (0-2 years)

  • The use of senses & motor abilities to learn about the world/ interact with objects in the environment
  • Object permanence (unfolds gradually) - the awareness that objects continue to exist when not perceived
  • Stranger anxiety
  • Separation anxiety
• Recent research suggests that children in the sensorimotor stage can both think and count
• Preoperational stage (2-7 years)


  • Children learn to use language as a means of exploring the world; however, they are not yet capable of logical thought
  • Pretend play
  • Animism
  • Egocentrism
  • Centration
  • Irreversibility
• Egocentrism


  Children's inability to consider the perspective of others
• Theory of Mind


  People's ideas about their own and others' mental states - about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict
• Judy DeLoache (1987) found that children as young as 3 are able to use mental operations & think symbolically
• Concrete operational stage (7-11 years)

  • Children become capable of logical thought processes; physical, concrete, touchable reality; lack abstract thinking
  • Conservation
  • Reversible thinking
  • Mathematical transformation
• Formal operational stage (12 to adulthood)


  • The adolescent becomes capable of abstract thinking
  • Abstract logic
  • Hypothetical thinking
  • Potential for mature moral reasoning
• Today's researchers believe that development is a continuous process, children express their mental abilities & operations at an earlier age, and formal logic is a smaller part of cognition
• Scaffolding


  Process in which a more skilled learner gives help to a less skilled learner, reducing the amount of help as the less skilled learner becomes more capable
• Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)


  The difference between what a child can do alone and what the child can do with the help of a teacher
• Language development milestones


  • Cooing (2 months)
  • Babbling (6 months)
  • Holographic speech (1 year)
  • Telegraphic speech (1.5-2 years)
  • Whole sentences (preschool years)
• Temperament


  • "Easy" babies
  • "Difficult" babies
  • "Slow-to-warm-up" babies
  • "Shy" child
• Longitudinal research strongly suggests that temperament styles last well into adulthood, although there is the potential for environmental influence
• Attachment


  The emotional bond between an infant and the primary caregiver, demonstrated by a child's "closeness-seeking" and distress upon separation
• Attachment through contact


  • Humans form a bond with those who care for them in infancy; based upon interaction with caregivers
• Attachment through familiarity


  • Occurs in many species of animals during a critical period; imprinting - the tendency to follow the first moving object seen as the basis for attachment
• Secure attachment


  • Very willing to explore, frequently "touched base", wary of strangers but calm as long as the mother was nearby, easily soothed upon her return
• Avoidant attachment


  • Only somewhat willing to explore, did not "touch base", did not look at strangers, reacted very little to mother's absence or to her return
• Ambivalent attachment


  • Unwilling to explore; clingy, very upset by strangers regardless of mother's presence, very upset by mother's departure; not easily soothed, mixed reaction to mother's return
• Disorganized attachment


  • Generally fearful with dazed and depressed expression, unable to decide how they should react to their mother's return; little to no eye contact
• Basic trust


  Securely attached children tend to believe that the world is predictable and trustworthy
• Erikson's stages of psychosocial development

  • Trust vs Mistrust (birth-1 year)
  • Autonomy vs Shame & Doubt (1-3 years)
  • Initiative vs Guilt (3-5 years)
  • Industry vs Inferiority (5-12 years)
• Baumrind's parenting styles


  • Authoritarian
  • Permissive
  • Authoritative
• Self-concept


  Understanding of who we are
• Stages of play development

  • Solitary play
  • Parallel play
  • Cooperative play
• Early childhood development refers to the many skills and milestones that children are expected to reach by the time they reach the age of five, including learning how to run