PSY 101 1st Edition Exam 2 Study Guide Lectures 6 11 Lecture 6 Introduction to developmental psychology Big issue nature vs nurture where do our knowledge and traits come from Empiricism knowledge and traits comes from experience vs nativism knowledge is innate built in Personality and cognitive variables are fixed before birth Big methodological challenge how can we tell what they re thinking Prenatal development we all start off as generic vertebrates then we all become girls if androgens kick in around week 8 girl becomes boy if not girl stays girl brain development is EXTREMELY easy to disrupt in utero by teratogens ex Alcohol Cocaine some medications radiation stress hormones then we are all born 6 months premature think it might be because the size of human heads compared to the rest of our body our brain is much larger triple in volume while other mammals double in size Postnatal development infant s brain has high plasticity low functionality one big short circuit although it is smarter than it seems recovers well from physical damage all the brain cells we will have already have at birth they get linked up in a useful way as we grow different sections get myelinated at different times born with hearing skills speech skills develop sections come on line environment shapes and tunes dendric growth guides neuronal pruning related to critical periods for language periods outside of which learning is impossible sensitive periods for other skills periods when learning is easiser enriched environments stimulate neural growth after puberty brain has low plasticity high functionality has all adult skills including abstract thought poor recovery from damage Cognitive development cognition mental activities associated with thinking knowing and remembering Jean Piaget need to know who he is stage theory turned out to be correct about a lot of things believed that children are active thinkers constantly trying to construct more advanced understandings of the world these understandings are in the form of structures he called schemas form of nativism tried to understand how children learned Schemas help us interpret new information and understand the world knowledge structures that guide expectations for how the world works assimilation use our existing knowledge schema to understand something new accommodation change modify our schemas to fit new things Stage theories development is not gradual development occurs through steps progression from step to the next results from some major event biological maturation important new knowledge conflict Stages of cognitive development 1 sensorimotor birth 2 simple sensory motor schemas get elaborated by assimilation apply schema to new object and accommodation change schema to fit new object no object permanence until 8 months no mental representations until late in stage 2 pre operational 2 7 child has mental representations but cant properly manipulate them failure on conservation tasks egocentrism example little boy with same more water fish video can t put themselves in someone elses shoes Lecture 7 Review Stage Theories development is not gradual occurs through steps progression from one step to the next results from some major event biological maturation important new knowledge conflict Four stages of cognitive development 1 Sensorimotor birth 2 simple sensory motor schemas get elaborated by assimilation apply schema to a new object and accommodation change schema to fit new object no object permanence until 8 months no mental representations until late in the stage 2 Pre operational 2 7 child has mental representations but cant properly manipulate them failure on conservation tasks egocentrism 3 Concrete operations 7 12 masters all conservation and perspective tasks still bad at abstraction and theory 4 Formal operations 12 abstract thought theories not just facts Beyond Piaget Piaget was right about the general sequence and about nativism v empiricism of behaviorism Children actually know even more than Piaget thought Habituation decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation Ex newborns become bored with a repeated stimulus but renew their attention to a slightly different stimulus Social development why do children cling to their parents Rationalist answer they know what s good for them Empiricist answer mom gives food Both are false correct is the nativist answer evolution has built in an attachment system into children and parents Konrad Lorenz 1935 imprinting in ducks built in attachment system between parents and younglings Harry Harlow 1959 Rhesus monkeys seek contact comfort more than milk especially when frightened one wire mother with bottle one cloth mother that gives nothing attachment process in humans John Bowlby 1969 attachment theory young mammals have competing needs for safety and exploration the attachment system is like a thermostat balancing the 2 needs the child will explore when it has a secure home base Mary Ainsworth the strange situation attachment 1 mother and child 2 stranger enters 3 mother leaves 1st separation 4 mother returns stranger leaves 1st reunion 5 mother leaves 2nd separation 6 stranger returns 7 mother returns 2nd reunion Attachment styles Secure distress at separations comfort at reunions Anxious ambivalent anxiety throughout not easily comforted Avoidant aloof and unmoved at all stages a child s style appears to result from the interaction of the quality of mothering the Culture and the child s innate temperament February 8 Thoroughly cover vision get a basic understanding for other senses Sensation We sense because we need to know what s out there to survive What do we sense Answer 1 the na ve view we sense the world that is there to be sensed FALSE Answer 2 the adaptive view we sense the properties of things that mattered for our ancestors survival Seven channels of sensation vision extremely good hearing smell pretty bad taste skin senses especially hands pressure temperature pain proprioception kinesthesia where are our limbs vestibular sense gravity acceleration pheromones mostly atrophied unconscious Humans don t sense infrared light location of objects in the dark the earth s magnetic field radio waves others thoughts ovulation some other animals can Basic Principles Sensation the process by which sense organs gather information about the environment and transmit it to the brain Perception the process by which the brain selects organizes and interprets sensations Bottom up