Dev. Psych essay questions test 2

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question
What do we know about genetic contributions to shyness in children later on? Explain how cultural experiences determine whether or not these behaviors actually appear. Cite specific family experience or social learning experiences for both shyness.
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Depending on where you grow up, different aspects are encouraged more. In China it is accepted more to be shy where in America it isn't so valued. Social learning. Parental shyness is predicative to whether or not the child is going to be shy. Attachment to parents can lead to exhibiting shyness as you get older. How you interact with your parents, what do they enforce in you? Learn from your peers, if your peers are people that constantly speak up, you are more likely to learn to be one that likely speaks up as well. If peers are quiet, you are probably going to be the same way.
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Explain the basis of the name and the length of each of the three stages of prenatal development. Give several different changes in the organism during each of these stages. Why does stage matter when considering a teratogen's effect? Give an example.
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1) Germinal period: the first two weeks of prenatal development after conception, characterized by rapid cell division and the beginning of cell differentiation. Differentiation begins as those early cells take on distinct characteristics and gravitate toward particular locations. After a week of conception, the multiplying cells separate into two distinct masses. The outer cells form a shell that will become the placenta and the inner cells form a nucleus 2) Embryonic period: 3rd through the 8th week, stage of prenatal development from the third through the eighth week after conception, during which the basic forms of all body structures, including internal organs, develop.Primitive streak eventually develops into the central nervous system, the brain, and the spinal column. Eyes, ears, nose and mouth start to form. Minuscule blood vessel that will become the heart begins to pulsate. Buds that will become arms and legs emerge. Upper arms, forearms, palms, and webbed fingers grow. 3) Fetal period: ninth week until birth, stage of prenatal development during which the fetus gains about 7 pounds and organs become more mature, gradually able to function on their own. Stage matters when considering a teratogen's effect. Some teratogens cause damage only during a critical period. Health during the entire fetal period affects the brain. Neural tube defects, mental retardation, later on that same teratogen will lead to more. When the teratogen is introduced, they may be more susceptible to developing that teratogen. Early exposure to alcohol is much more dangerous than later exposure, because at the early stage you are still developing.
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What are the three major stages of labor? What happens during each? How long on average does each stage last for the first time mother? Why do our primate cousins have an easier time of it? Under what circumstances are Caesarian sections appropriate?
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Widening of cervix, 12-19 hours (contractions). Looking for you to get to 10cm of dilation. The four finger method. 2) Pushing fetus through birth canal: crowning and delivery (20 min-2 hours). 3) After birth in which you deliver the placenta. (5 to 20 minutes after the fetus is pushed through). Primate cousins have an easier time because they have naturally wider hips, primates usually work with gravity (will be squatting) gravity helps with the delivery of the baby. Cesarean sections are appropriate when they are sideways, breach, transverse births, if the cord is wrapped around the neck. Cesarean sections are typically overused today, twins can be delivered without C section but most doctors proceed with a C section. Under the more extreme circumstances, should not use in every single delivery.Not guaranteed that you have to have a C section if you've already had one.
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Explain each of the major post-natal brain developments of myelination, transient exuberance and selective pruning. Give several milestones in the development of specific gross and fine motor skills. How do these relate to brain developments?
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-Myelination: most increased brain weight occurs because of myelination. Myelin is a white fatty coating on the axons that speeds signals between neurons. The effects of myelination are especially apparent in early childhood because the areas of the brain that show the greatest early myelination are the motor and sensory areas. Everything is done more slowly by 6 year olds than by 16 year olds because the younger children's brains have less myelination, which slows information processing. -Transient exuberance: an estimated fivefold increase in dendrites in the cortex occurs in the 24 months after birth with about 100 trillion synapses being present at age 2. This early dendrite growth is called transient exuberance: exuberant because it is so rapid and transient because some of it is temporary. -Selective pruning: when unused connections atrophy and die, just as a gardener might prune a rose bush by cutting away parts to enable more, or more beautiful, roses to bloom. -Gross motor skills: are physical abilities involving large body movements, such as walking and jumping. milestones: 5 months they can use their arms and legs to belly crawl, crawling by 8 months -Fine motor skills: physical abilities involving small body movements, especially of the hands and fingers, such as drawing and picking up a coin. grasp reflex. milestones: rotate objects at 2 months, 4 months is when they start to grab, but timing is kind of off, palmer grasp around 5 months and pincer grasp at 12 months. How do these relate to brain developments? Sensory and motor cortex develops the most.
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What are Piaget's six sub-stages of sensori-motor intelligence? Describe developmental milestones that occur during each sub-stage. Be sure to explain primary, secondary, and tertiary circular reactions. Describe major critiques of Piaget based on new research.
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-Stage 1: (Birth to 1 month) The Use of Reflexes : any action pattern for dealing with the environment, looking, grasping, hitting, or kicking. (Sucking reflex takes place) -Stage 2: (1 to 4 months) Primary Circular Reactions; involving the infants own body. occurs when the baby chances upon a new experience and tries to repeat it (thumb sucking). milestone: coordination of reflexes. Reactions involving the infants own body, thumb sucking. -Stage 3: (4 to 8 months) Secondary Circular Reactions; when the baby discovers and reproduces an interesting event outside his or herself. It is an interaction between the baby and something else. milestone: responding to people and objects, make interesting sights last. Reactions that are no longer confined to the infant's body. -Stage 4: (8 to 12 months) The Coordination of Secondary Schemes; the infant's actions become more differentiated; he or she learns to coordinate two separate schemes to get a result.Developing experiences of space and time milestone: anticipate: babies now have goals that they try to reach. -Stage 5: (12 to 18 months) Tertiary Circular Reactions; they experiment with different actions to observe the different outcomes. Infants are now learning entirely on their own, without any adult teaching. (hit table with fist to hear different sounds) milestone: trial and error. Active experimentation. -Stage 6: (18 months to 24 months) The Beginnings of Thought; children seem to think out situations more internally, before they act. Children are now capable of deferred imitation- imitation of models hours or days after observing them. milestone: insight and planning -Major critiques on Piaget: He had a really small sample size, limited equipment, his methods were considered too simple (habituation and whether or not his research had inaccurate results). He ended up underestimating children's abilities as a result.
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What does current research say about implicit memory, and explicit memory in infants? Explain the method used by Rovee-Collier to study infant memory. How fragile is infant memory? How did she prompt memory? How well do you remember early events?
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-Implicit memory: memory that remains hidden until a particular stimulus brings it to mind, unconscious. Current research: that it might begin before birth. -Explicit memory: memory that is easy to retrieve and can be recalled on demand. Current research: Emerges between 6 and 12 months but it won't mature 5-6 years. -Rovee-Collier study: tie the string to the leg and moved the mobile. She gave them a reminder session the day before the test. They would be in this situation and the researcher would show them that they can move the mobile by moving their leg and then they would wait for a time period (3 month old infants waited 3 weeks) had a reminder session, to help them trigger real quick that you can do this again. Then the infants were not tied and then they would try to get the mobile to move which indicated that they did remember. -Infant memory is poor, especially in relation to explicit memory, but implicit memory does seem to be stronger. In general memory is not very strong. I do not remember early events, I remember more so big experiences or events that took place. My memory is very vague.
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Describe five neonatal challenges that newborns face. Why do newborns lose weight the first week of life? Explain neonatal jaundice. What treatment is given to infants with this condition? Explain other difficulties that premies may face in contrast to full-term neonates.
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Five neonatal challenges: 1) Breathing: clear out fluid and mucous. 2) Apnea issue: medulla immaturity. Fetal circulation to natal circulation. -Heart conditions are the most common kinds of congenital problems. 3) Immature G-I tract-need for bacterial buildup for digestion of milk/formula (to break down mother's milk) 4) Temperature regulation-homeostasis needed, so internal conditions remain stable and constant. 5) Excretion-immature bladder-frequent urination. -Newborns lose weight because bacteria usually breaks down and helps with absorption, newborns do not have bacterial build up, they don't have the absorption of the nutrients they need, so they lose weight as they are building up that bacteria. -Neonatal jaundice: when the baby turns yellow and there is discoloration in the skin, exposure to the sun helps it. Jaundice is one of the most common conditions needing medical attention in newborn babies. It is the slow breakdown of fetal blood cells-they have to be replaced by mature blood cells. Blood tests are done. -Difficulties that premies face: temperature regulation are worse and breathing. Respiratory functions are a lot harder. Temperature regulation is hard because that part of the brain is not fully developing yet, incubator to keep them warm because they cannot do it themselves.
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Identify five essential characteristics of \"high-quality\" infant daycare according to your text. Explain which of these would be most important to you. According to research, when is infant day care beneficial and when is it detrimental? Explain the role of the child's gender, the mother's schedule of employment and socio-economic status here. (page 216-berger)
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1) Adequate attention to each infant. 2) Encouragement of language and sensorimotor development. 3) Attention to health and safety. 4) Professional caregivers. 5) Warm and responsive caregivers. -Beneficial: families of low SES. Could be good for kids to learn social skills. Not extended periods of time. Detrimental: when its for long periods of time. No time with parents. If the child becomes more attached to the caregiver over the parent. -Role of the child's gender: harder on boys, more likely to show aggression, girls its much more easy. Mother's schedule of employment: depending how long you can take off from work, putting child into day care earlier. Length of work day. When the mother works...really early? Second/third shift jobs? -Lower SES benefiting more. Low SES can't afford daycare-may not be safe or qualified.
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Explain and give ages for Bowlby's four phases of attachment. Provide reasons from ethology for the development of the social smile, for active proximity seeking, and for partnership behavior. Give Bowlby's opinion about day care. What was his opinion based on?
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Phase 1 (birth to 3 months): Social Gestures with Limited Selectivity. The most endearing early gesture is the social smile. These begin at 3 or 4 weeks of age and are usually directed at a high-pitched human voice. 6 to 8 weeks babies' smiles are primarily directed at a visual stimulus. Smiling promotes the attachment because it maintains the proximity of the caretaker. The smile promotes a caring and loving interaction. Babbling (cooing and gurgling) also occurs. Babbling is unselective, they will babble when almost any person is around. Crying also results and is used as a distress call. Proximity is also maintained by holding on. Two holding responses: 1) Grasp reflex: when any object touches the baby's open palm, the hand automatically closes around it. 2) Moro reflex: occurs either when babies are startled by a loud noise or when they suddenly lose support (embracing action). Also include rooting and sucking reflexes. -Phase 2 (3 to 6 months): Focusing on Familiar People. Moro grasp and rooting reflexes drop out. The baby's social responses begin to become much more selective in their cooing and babbling (By age 4-5 months they make these sounds only in the presence of people they recognize). Babies seem to develop the strongest attachment to whoever alertly responded to their signals and engaged in their interactions. -Phase 3 (6 months to 3 years): Intense Attachment and Active Proximity-Seeking. Infant's attachment to a particular person becomes increasingly intense and they usually cry out when the mother figure leaves the room and this demonstrates separation anxiety. At 7 or 8 months the baby exhibits fear of strangers and cries when they are in presence of one. Once infants can actively follow a parent, their behavior consolidates into a goal-corrected system. They start to follow parents, adjusting their movement until they regain proximity. Use mother as a secure base from which to explore. Build a general idea of the caretaker's accessibility and responsiveness by the end of the first year. -Phase 4 (3 years to the end of childhood): Partnership Behavior. 3 year olds have some understanding of plans and can visualize the parent's behavior while he or she is away. Child is more willing to let parent go. Compliance and cooperation. Rely on their parents less, become more independent. Helps with separation anxiety. -Bowlby's opinion: he says it is bad, does not like day care...inability to form deep attachments later in life.
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Explain the design of the Strange Situation experiment. Describe the four kinds of secure and insecure attachments were found between infants and their caregivers? What behaviors were associated with each? How might the lack of early attachments and stimulation affect later development as shown by the Romanian orphan example?
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The Strange Situation was a study of how babies reacted to 2 brief separations...the mom left baby with a stranger, and then left baby alone. Four kinds of infant attachments: 1) Securely Attached Infants: Mom was in the room, baby explored. Mom left, baby became upset. Strange Situation gave the child the courage to actively explore the surroundings. But the baby needed strong proximity to the mother. 2) Insecure-Avoidant Infants: These infants did not use the mother as a secure base. They didn't seek proximity to her when she returned. They displayed such independence and were considered exceptionally healthy. Babies often seemed insecure and suffered emotional difficulty. 3) Insecure-Ambivalent Infants: These infants did not explore at all, concerned with the mother's whereabouts. Babies were treated in the home with an inconsistent manner. Babies became distressed when the mother left the playroom, expressed anger, but urgently tried to regain contact. 4) Disorganized/Disoriented Infants: Inconsistency. They proposed a fourth category because many children exhibited peculiar behavior. Screaming and pinching themselves. They wanted to approach their mother, but were afraid to do so. This could be a possible sign of physical abuse. -Romanian orphan: stimulation and interaction were low. Many of their problems resulted from malnutrition and that their brains and bodies were deprived. Learning disabilities. Early attachment and stimulation is essential. After 6 months, deprivation was evident in emotional and cognitive abilities.
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Discuss why \"goodness of fit\" between parent and child is important. Give examples of \"good and bad fits\". Be sure to explain how the kind of temperament (pg 196) the child and/or the parent have matters. For a child with a \"difficult temperament\", how could a parent help?
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Goodness of fit: an adjustment that allows smooth infant-caregiver interaction. When goodness of fit between parent and child interaction is lacking, there can be problems with the child being at risk, ability to develop attachments. Child that is sensitive/weak & parent more aggressive with punishment=bad fit. Child may have a lot of problems with anxiety or depression. Good fits: highly active parent with a highly active child. Very patient parent with a child that may have troubles adjusting. Bad fit: high activity of child, low activity of parent. More likely to get in trouble, doesn't get the activity that they need. Temperaments: easy, difficult, slow to warm up, hard to classify. To put a difficult temperament with a difficult, you have clashing. Easy temperament with easy temperament, they get along. Child with a difficult temperament: parent adjusts the most by being patient. Learn how to deal with the way in which they approach the situation.
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Explain Freud's first three stages of psychosexual development. Be sure to explain the Oedipus/Electra complex and the concepts of fixation and regression. How can parents minimize fixations and regressions during infancy?
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1) Oral stage (first year): mouth is essential for pleasure and gratification: sucking reflex/breast feeding. 2) Anal stage (2nd year of life): anal zone becomes the focus of the child's sexual interests. Gratification from bowel movements and control over the sphincter. 3) Phallic stage (3 to 6 years old): Oedipus: when boys end up forming a romantic attachment to their mothers, see that their sister does not have a penis. Electra complex: romantic attachment to her father, penis envy. -Fixation: (smoking) generally believe that fixations are produced by either excessive gratification or excessive frustration at the stage in question. -Regression: (somebody starts sucking their thumb again) something dramatic happens and you go back to the previous stage -Minimize fixations: be the perfect parent, not be too relaxed and not be too hard. When to intervene, but not doing it to early. To be patient with the child during toilet training. Having control but not being too harsh. Minimize regressions? Positive reinforcement when doing something new. Can help with being understanding.
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Compare and contrast Skinner, Chomsky, and the Social Constructivists on how language is acquired. Be sure to describe the language acquisition device, babble-luck and the meaning of experience expectancy. What is a hybrid theory? How do parental teaching and reinforcement affect language?
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Skinner: selective reinforcement, you can shape the behavior, when the child says mama then mother reinforces it by being happy. Chomsky: language acquisition that it is innate. Language acquisition device: hypothetical structure. Babble-luck: they come upon a word that sounds like something we know and we reinforce it. Social constructivists: that we need it to survive because people are so dependent on one another for communication. They need interaction with each other in order to live. Experience expectancy: when you need a certain stimuli in order for the brain to develop. No matter where you grow up, you will be exposed to it. Hybrid theory: in between theories, a combination of the three perspectives. Thinking of multiple theories when thinking of the main idea of how language is acquired. Parental teaching and reinforcement: parents talk to their children and they see them as a teacher and gain things from them. Parents model language for children. Reinforcement feedback is given from the parents expressions or actions. (pg 182)
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Describe the development progression in language development in the first years of life. What is meant by receptive vs. expressive language? Give an example of each. What infant behaviors should you see by 6 months of age? 12 months of age? 18 months of age? Does gender matter?
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page 177. Move through very basic behaviors to expanding their sounds, understanding meaning behind those sounds, comprehending words, speaking them, and starting to pair them together to form grammatical connections. Developmental progression in language development in the first years of life: newborns they have reflexive communications (crying/movements), six months-babbling, consonant. 12 months: first spoken words that are recognizable in their own language. 18 months: naming explosion, start having vocabulary. Receptive vs expressive language: receptive is your ability to understand or comprehend language what you hear or read (find letter s). Expressive: being able to put words into sentences so it is gramattically accurate that expresses what you are thinking (what is s)? Does gender matter? No conclusive evidence either way. Some say boys are usually a little bit more delayed in language development.
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