Monday, February 1, 2016

Week 4, Day 1 Notes

Development & Adaptive Process

Quizlet on vocab from this day: https://quizlet.com/_1yzbi5

Male Vs. Female Brain

  • As a species, males have larger brains
  • Females solve complex problems primarily using language-related regions of the brain and males tend to use spatial regions
  • Brain areas for processing languages are more likely to be found in both halves of female’s brains

What shapes us during childhood?

  • Some combo of biology and environment
    • ooStudied by developmental psychology
  • Humans grow and mature at about the same periods in their life spans

Hormonal Influences during prenatal development

  • Hormones that circulate in the womb influence developing fetus
  • Mother’s emotional state can also affect fetus

Exposure to teratogens during prenatal development

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  • ooOn the right is a fetus’ brain of a mother who drank alcohol.
    • Much less brain folds

  • Includes opiates, cocaine, or cannabis

    • Hydrocephalus is a problem which can result from these teratogens

Biology & Environment Influence Developmental Milestones

  • Dynamic systems theory
    • ooDevelopment is a self-organizing process
    • ooNew forms of behavior = biology * environment/culture
      • Some sort of stimuli around a child or infant can cause them to learn a behavior

        • Ex. Leave a baby in a room on it’s back and when you return if it is on it’s stomach, it may have done this because it saw a toy and wanted the toy and lunged its body-weight at it

          • General baby developmental process

Brain Development Promotes Learning

  • Mind develops adaptively
    • ooNew useful skills appear at appropriate times, even in absence of specific training
    • ooA baby can only see about a foot in distance
      • This is probably because a baby more or less only needs to be able to see a mother’s face or breast
  • Basic reflexes
    • ooGrasping reflex
      • If we evolved from primates this would be useful because we would need to cling to our parents as they move around
    • ooRooting reflex
      • If you put something nipple-like near a baby’s face, it will turn its face towards it and probably try to suckle it
        • This is a basic survival need

Myelination & Neuronal Connections

  • Brains way of insulating its “wires”
  • Brain organizes itself and its functions
    • ooSynaptic pruning
      • Brain will get rid of things that you don’t use
        • Use it or lose it
        • Defects in synaptic pruning could contribute to autism

Sensitive Learning Periods

  • Certain connections are made most easily during particular times in development as long as the brain receives the right stimuli
    • oo Sensitive periods
  • Language is easier to learn as a child

    • ooFirst 5 to 10 years

Attachment and Emotion Regulation

  •  Socioemotional development
  •  Adaptive process
    • ooInability to cope with emotions may be perceived as threatening and inhibit social functioning
    • ooPeople who can express their emotions without hurting themselves or others will likely function better in society
  • Social bonds
    • ooWe are social animals and need to bond with other people
      • Increases chances of survival
      • Increases chances of passing on your genetic information
  • Parent-child bonds
    • ooThese bonds motivate children to conform to adult expectations for emotional expression
    • ooDevelop early in life
      • Fundamental need for infants
      •  Attachment
  • Attachment is adaptive
    • ooConsists of dynamic and mutually-beneficial relationship
      • Increases chance of survival for infant, engenders greater parental investment in caregivers
    • ooAttachment behaviors begin during the first months of life
      • May vary somewhat depending on cultural practices
  • Attachment responses increase when children move away from caregivers
    • oo Strange-situation test
      • Child, caregiver, and friendly-but-unfamiliar person play in room
      • Caregiver leaves
      • Child’s behavior is observed
      • Caregiver returns
      • Child’s reaction to return is observed

Vocab

Synesthesia A condition in which sensory experiences overlap (Ex. Sound triggers color sense)
Developmental psychology Study of changes over the life span in physiology, cognition, and social behavior
Prenatal period Begins with conception and ends with birth (part of lifespan)
Infancy Begins at birth and lasts between 18 to 24 months (part of lifespan)
Childhood Begins at birth and lasts until somewhere between ages 11 and 14
Adulthood begins at the end of adolescence and lasts until death
Teratogens environmental agents that harm the embryo or fetus (e.g. drugs, alcohol, bacteria, viruses, and chemicals)
Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) Disorders caused by drinking during pregnancy
Dynamic systems theory Development is a self-organizing process and development processes rise out of needs
Grasping reflex A reflex already present in infants to hold onto a finger or nearby objects
Rooting reflex Turning and sucking that infants automatically engage when a nipple or similar object touches an area near their mouths
Synaptic pruning a process whereby the synaptic connections in the brain that are used are preserved, and those that are not used are lost (e.g., “use it or lose it”)
Sensitive periods time periods when specific skills develop most easily
Socioemotional development Maturation of skills and abilities that enable people to live successfully in the world with other people
Adaptive process The need to cope with emotions which could be perceived as threatening to others
Attachment A strong emotional connection that persists over time regardless of circumstances
Strange-situation test Test which assesses attachment behaviors in humans (developed by Mary Ainsworth)