Lifespan psychology

• schemata


  experiences of the world organised as mental structures. infants are born with few schemata but start to develop them based on interactions and experiences
• Assimilation- translating incoming information so they can understand it

  accomodation - changing schema in response to knew experiences and information
• equilibrium - schema can account for new info

  disequilibrium - schema cant account for new info
• Sensorimotor 0-2 years


  fine and gross motor skills are used in combination with senses

  object permanence - object still exists if you cant see it
• Preoperational stage 2-7 years


  symbolic thinking - use symbols to represent ideaseg making a pretend cake out of sand

  centration - can only focus on one aspect eg number of cookies not size of cookies

  egocentrism - cant understand other peoples perspectives

  animism - objects are alive and have feelings
• Concrete operational stage 7-11 years


  conversation skills improve

  conservation of mass and volume - remains unchanged when form of object is altered
• Formal operational stage 11+


  can make predictions with reasoning

  abstract thinking
• changes across development stages


  Physical - fine and gross motor eg running

  cognitive - language, thinking and reasoning

  social and emotional - emotions, self awareness
• Plasticity - the way the brain changes in response to stimulation from the environment. neural connections growing and reorganising
• Prenantal (conception to birth)

  • curl toes, suck thumb, small face muscles
  • after 30 weeks can listen to mother talk
  • can sences and react to mothers emotions
• Infancy 0-1

  • hold head up, roll around, crawl. small muscles create facial expressions,
  • wants to communicate with others so use cooing and crying to communicate and can read and react to facial expressions
  • forms attachment to primary caregiver, show emotions to others like being shy around strangerss
• Childhood 1-12 years

  • fine and gross motor skills progress from scribbling with a pen to writing their name and progress to gross motor skills like catching a ball, riding a tricycle
  • vocab expands
  • social skills and relationships expand
  • 2 years - self awareness like recognising them selves in the mirror, show affection to those they're familia with, have tantrums
  • 5 years - cooperate with others and show more complex emotions
  • children between 6 and 12 from relationships with people outside the family, self esteem is high, show more complex emotions like jealousy
• adolescence 12-20

  • fine and gross motor skils progress eg sewing, sport, playing an instrument
  • can comprehend and use abstract language eg simile
  • better at regulating emotions but unpredictable mood, increase in self concept and more time spent with loved ones
• early adult hood 20-40

  • peak fine and gross motor skills
  • improvement of vocabulary, verbal fluency declines after 35
  • intimate relationships form at 20ish + dependency on family decreases
• middle age 40-65

  • harder to learn and maintain new skills
  • tip of tongue phenomenon, improvement in knowledge of words but verbal fluency decreases
  • decrease in negative emotions. mid life crisis (wishes to be youthful, or spend more time alone)
• older age 65+

  • Fine and gross motor skills deline
  • difficulties with language production
  • smaller and tighter networks but higher dependency on others
• • adaptive plasticity - ability to reorganise neural connections the the brain because of new info or lost function throughout life. eg stroke speech recovery
  • developmental plasticity - ability for neural connection to reorganise bc of sensory input from environment .young. eg child learning that pushing pedals moves a bike
• stages of plasticity - infancy

  • proliferation - growth and division of cells that lead to an increase in total cell number
• stages of plasticity - infancy

  migration - movement of neurons throughout the brain
• stages of plasticity - infancy

  • circuit formation - electro chemical messages sent between neurons forming connections which increase during infancy
• stages of plasticity - infancy

  • synaptic pruning - infants are born with more neurons than required, neurons that don't form neural connections die to increase efficiency of remaining neurons
• stages of plasticity - infancy

  • myelination- growth of myelin over axons on neurons
• changes during adolescence

  • cerebellum continues to grow in volume but synaptic pruning affects behaviour and emotional regulations
  • activity in cerebellum is linked to decision making, motivation and emotional control. so adolescence display impulsive decision making and difficulty regulating emotions
• changes during adolescence

  • amygdala -collection of nuclei in the temporal lobe that play a role in emotional response
  • grows in volume during adolescence and is highly reactive to emotional stimuli which leads teenagers being more likely to misinterpret emotions of others, and social cues and leading to actions where they act before they think.
• changes during adolescence

  • corpus callosum increases in thickness due to myelination, leading to behaviour and emotional regulation continuing to improve
• changes during adolescence

  • frontal lobe - is still developing, connection between frontal lobe and amygdala is still strengthening
  • teenagers tend to exhibit limited impulse control, poor decision making and planning, reduced emotional regulation
• emotion over physiological needs with Rhesus monkeys (Harlow, 1958)
• Attachment


  strong emotional connection between an infant and their primary caregiver
• evolutionary perspective

  Bowlby believed the purpose of attachment was to protect the infant from predators for survival. why attachment figure is reliable and caring
• monotropy


  attachment with only one figure
• critical years

  • first 2.5 years was critical for forming attachement with a main figure
  • if not done in this time it would be difficult to form attachments and lead to failure later on in life
• sensitive years

  • stages where effects that experiences have on the brain is stronger than usual (first 5 years)
• internal working model of others

  • by age 5 can knows likes dislikes and personality characteristics of their caregivers
• internal working model of self

  • positive - believe they are worthy of love and comfort because of the caregiver being sensitive to their needs
  • negative - when caregiver rejects and ignores their child so they feel unworthy of love and care
• internal working model of relationship between self and others

  • child bases future relationship with others based of relationship between with primary caregivers
  • expects future relationships to be similar
• Strange situation to measure attachment - Ainsworth
• Ainsworth developed three types of attachment and believed that the type of attachment relationship formed between mother and child depend on how sensitive and responsive the mother was to her child
• insecure avoidant attachment

  • infant doesn't seek proximity with mother
  • happy to explore by themselves
  • shows very little stranger anxiety
  • shows no distress when mother leaves
  • shows little interest when mother returns
  • mother ignores the infants, leading them to believe that communication isn't necessary
• secure attachment

  • happy to seek proximity
  • happy to explore but uses mother as base
  • some separation and stranger anxiety
  • happy to seek comfort from mother
  • mother is sensitive to infants needs
• insecure resistant attachment

  • seeks proximity to mother
  • explore very little, uses mother as base
  • high levels of separation and stranger anxiety
  • resist comfort from mother
  • mother is inconsistent with the attention and love