Child Psych Exam #2

Front 1

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

Tell me about the 3 general principles that categorize human growth.

What terms are associated with them?

Back 1

1) DIRECTIONALITY: growth begins with the head and moves towards the toes.
- CEPHALOCAUDAL: head to toe (ex. vision before walking)
- PROXIMODISTAL: near to far; growth begins in center of body and moves outward (ex. fine motor control of chest and trunk before fingers)

2) INDEPENDENCE OF SYSTEMS: different body systems grow at different rates and schedules.

3) CANALIZATION: tendency for growth to return to expected path, even after it's been disturbed.

Front 2

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

How much weight due infants gain during the first 2 years of life and why?

Tell me about height gain during the first 2 years of life.

Back 2

WEIGHT GAIN: put on considerable amount of body fat which helps maintain constant body temp.
- Doubles from 0 - 6 months.
- Triples from 0 - 12 months.

HEIGHT: gain takes place in occasional bursts (example of discontinuous development)

Front 3

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

What is the significance of EPIPHYSES?

What can SKELETAL AGE tell us about race/gender development?

Back 3

EPIPHYSES: growth centers of long bones; produce cartilage cells which cause bone growth as they harden.
- Size and appearance provide way of measuring infant physical maturity, aka. SKELETAL AGE.

**White and male infants mature more slowly than female and AA infants...

Front 4

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

Tell me about teeth development.

Back 4

- PRIMARY TEETH: present in jawbone at birth.
- Eruption of teeth corresponds with bone development (and can thus be predicted by skeletal age).

Front 5

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

Neurotransmitters

Synaptic pruning

Back 5

NEUROTRANSMITTERS: chemicals used for communication among neurons.

SYNAPTIC PRUNING: death of neurons and synapses due to lack of stimulation from the environment.

Front 6

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

Tell me about the significance of PLASTICITY in cortical development.

Back 6

PLASTICITY: ability of brain to be shaped and changed by experience.
- ↑ plasticity during development (greatest during proliferation of synapses in cerebral cortex of infant)
- Allocates parts of brain for common experiences.
- Incoming sensory info can change distribution of things in brain.

Example: larger portion of blind people's brains are devoted to finger sensitivity (distribution changes because reading braille becomes so important)

Front 7

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

What is the difference between EXPERIENCE-EXPECTANT plasticity and EXPERIENCE-DEPENDENT plasticity?

Back 7

EXPERIENCE-EXPECTANT: brain fine tunes circuits based on typical human experiences (ex. hearing voices, seeing faces, etc.)

EXPERIENCE-DEPENDENT: brain fine tunes circuits based on specific experiences (ex. one language vs. another, faces of your race vs. faces of another, etc.)

Front 8

MOTOR DEVELOPMENT

In motor development, what is a general rule about transferring knowledge from one domain to another?

Back 8

For the most part, information/behavior learned in one domain cannot be transferred over to another.

(ex. what infants learn about depth, balance, etc. when crawling must be relearned when they start walking)

Front 9

MOTOR DEVELOPMENT

Tell me about the decline of newborn's reflexes.

Back 9

1) CORTICAL MATURATION
2) Increasingly become under VOLUNTARY CONTROL (ex. Cat in the Hat study: ability to modify sucking reflex at will)
3) MATURATION RATES of different body systems vary (ex. relationship between disappearance of stepping reflex and leg weight)

Front 10

MOTOR DEVELOPMENT

Tell me about HEAD CONTROL and learning to SIT.

Back 10

HEAD CONTROL: first area where infants are able to control motor movement.

SITTING
- Requires control of many different muscles (head and neck, shoulders and back, hips)
- After mastery of muscle control, balance is required.
- TRIPOD POSITION = hands on the floor with legs outstretched.

Front 11

MOTOR DEVELOPMENT

Tell me about learning how to REACH for objects.

Back 11

- "Whole body activity" that requires (1) arm control, (2) knowing where object is located in space, and (3) maintaining balance while reaching.
- Don't actually make contact with object until 3 - 4 months old.
- Can also reach with legs and feet.

Front 12

MOTOR DEVELOPMENT

Tell me about learning to CRAWL.

Back 12

- Average age = 8 months
- Begins gradually, often by mistake.
- Some infants skip this step entirely.
- Usually preceded by creeping, belly crawling, and/or bear crawling.
- Knowledge about balance is specific to posture infants learn it in (knowledge of balance from sitting does not carry over to crawling, so they must relearn it.)
- Develop fear of heights

Example: VISUAL CLIFF experiment; perception of depth develops in each domain (ex. does not carry over from crawling to walking)

Front 13

MOTOR DEVELOPMENT

Tell me about learning to WALK.

Back 13

- Average age = 12 months
- Starts with CRUISING around 9 months (walking while holding onto furniture)
- When they first begin: feet wide apart, small steps, toddle back and forth.
- Must learn to adjust to changes in terrain with each new motor behavior.

Front 14

MOTOR DEVELOPMENT

Tell me about individual and cultural variations.

Back 14

- Considerable variation within cultures.
- Cultural practices may affect motor development timetables.

Example: Chinese children are discouraged from crawling because of dirt floors, so they crawl at later ages.)

Example: formal routines practiced in Africa, India, and Caribbean to facilitate and accelerate motor development (ex. massage, suspension by head and ankles, shaking, carrying, etc.)

Front 15

SENSORY AND PERCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT

Tell me about HAPTIC DISCRIMINATION.

What might it tell us about infant perception?

Back 15

HAPTIC DISCRIMINATION: ability to tell objects apart using touch.

- Infants are able to discriminate between two objects solely by touch, but have trouble integrating visual and haptic info.
(ex. able to tell barbells apart in the pitch black but couldn't once the lights were turned back on.)
- Perception is limited by many factors, especially motor skills and ability to integrate info from different sources.

Front 16

SENSORY AND PERCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT

Tell me about the VISUAL CLIFF experiment.

Back 16

- Eleanor Gibson
- Example of how vision and motor development interact.
- Trying to determine if infants have depth perception.
- Apparatus with glass covering half of surface to give impression of a drop-off.
- Baby placed in center and mom tries to get it to crawl towards her.
- Baby stopped crossing the "deep side" at around 6 1/2 months of age.

Front 17

SENSORY AND PERCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT

Tell me about the LOOKING CHAMBER experiment.

Back 17

- Robert Fantz, 1960s
- Experimenter watched babies eyes and recorded how long they looked at certain objects.
- Explored aspects of infants' visual preferences.
- FINDINGS: babies less than 2 days old can distinguish between visual forms but tend to focus on areas of high contrast.

Front 18

SENSORY AND PERCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT

How does the perception of objects change at 6 months of age?

Tell me about OBJECT SEGREGATION.

Back 18

- Perception of illusory objects and other visual illusions develops at 6 months.

OBJECT SEGREGATION
- Ability to see where one object ends and another begins.
- Figure it out using general knowledge about objects, as well as common movement.

Front 19

SENSORY AND PERCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT

Where does AUDITORY and SPEECH perception come from?

Back 19

Grows from universal roots but is shaped by experience.

Front 20

SENSORY AND PERCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT

Tell me about SPEECH perception.

What is the significance of PHONEMES?

Back 20

PHONEME: smallest unit of sound that carries meaning in a language (ex. "puh" or "buh")

- Young infants capable of hearing phonemes; from 1 - 4 months they're able to categorically perceive phonemes.
- Infants able to make more linguistic distinctions than adults.

Front 21

SENSORY AND PERCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT

Tell me about PERCEPTUAL TUNING.

Back 21

PERCEPTUAL TUNING: process of becoming less sensitive over time to stimuli that aren't typical to their environment (aka. perceptual narrowing)

- Develops with other senses.
- "Weeding out" unnecessary discriminatory abilities.
- Not just specific to languages (other species/race faces, phonemic perception, intermodal perception, and music perception)
- Declines around 6 - 9 months.

Example: by the end of infancy, perceptual system is tuned to show greatest sensitivity in response to native language.

Front 22

SENSORY AND PERCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT

Tell me about BIASES in facial processing.

Back 22

- Other species/race/age effect
- Biases develop based on EXPERIENCE and EXPOSURE.
- Built into development.

Front 23

SENSORY AND PERCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT

What are some examples of how PERCEPTION and ACTION are linked?

Back 23

- Many infants and toddlers adjust their stance and motor movements in response to visual cues (ex. room that appears to be moving.)
- Infants reach for objects in a picture (because they don't understand the concept of representation.)

Front 24

BASIC NEEDS

What is the most effective way to ensure good nutrition for infants? Elaborate.

Back 24

BREASTFEEDING: benefits for both mom and baby after only two weeks.

ADVANTAGES FOR INFANT:
- Nutritionally perfect
- Easily digestible
- Protection against diseases
- Reduction in tooth decay
- Convenience
- Easy transition to solids
- Protection from obesity
- Higher IQ

ADVANTAGES FOR MOM:
- Lose baby weight faster
- Lower incidence of cervical and breast cancer

Front 25

BASIC NEEDS

What law was just passed in MA related to breastfeeding?

Back 25

$500 fine for harassing breastfeeding mothers (asking them to leave a store, restaurant, etc.)

Front 26

BASIC NEEDS

Tell me about two types of malnutrition problems found in developing countries.

Back 26

KWASHIORKOR: body doesn't get enough new protein, so it begins breaking down its own protein to compensate; characterized by swollen bellies.

MARASMUS: body becomes extremely thin and fragile due to severe starvation.

BOTH RESULT IN:
- Slowing down of body growth
- Slower brain development
- Problems with attentional and motor skills

Front 27

BASIC NEEDS

Tell me about a type of malnutrition problems common in the U.S.

Back 27

- FOOD INSECURITY: uncertainty about availability of enough food.
- Low SES → buy inexpensive, un-nutritious food (ex. McDonalds) → obesity and malnourishment.
- Help = government food programs (ex. WIC)

Front 28

BASIC NEEDS

Tell me about the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).

(eligibility, population served, benefits)

Back 28

ELIGIBILITY
- Family of 2 making < $25,900
- Family of 3 making < $32,560
- Family of 4 making < $39,220

POPULATION SERVED
- Low SES, nutritionally at risk pregnant women (up to 6 weeks after birth)
- Breastfeeding women (up to infant's 1st birthday)
- Non-breastfeeding, postpartum women (up to 6 months after birth)
- Infants (up to 1st birthday)
- Children (up to 5th birthday)

BENEFITS
- Food
- Education (on nutrition)
- Counseling

Front 29

BASIC NEEDS

What are some common sleep practices in the U.S.?

What are some common sleep practices outside the U.S.?

Back 29

U.S. vs. OUTSIDE U.S.
- Infants sleep in their own cribs vs. may sleep in bed with mother.
- Bedtime routines vs. fall asleep when they're tired.
- Bedtime objects vs. none.

Front 30

BASIC NEEDS

Tell me about SUDDEN INFANT DEATH SYNDROME (SIDS).

Back 30

- Sudden, unexplained death of an infant less than 1 year old.
- Leading cause of death in children between 1 month and 1 year; majority of cases occur between 2 and 4 months.
- Cause unknown (possible association with build-up of carbon dioxide, increased temp, abnormal heart rate.)
- ↓ instance in babies who co-sleep with parents.
- "Back to Sleep" program: lie on back, fitted sheet, no toys or loose bedding.

Front 31

BASIC NEEDS

Tell me about infant emotional regulation and expression during the first 2 years of life.

Also, what is COLIC?

Back 31

**Changes dramatically over first 2 years of life.

SMILING
- Involuntary (bodily functions) at first, but by end of first year they have become voluntary (social and emotional.)
- Coincides with development of relationships with parents.

CRYING
- Often response to needs such as hunger, pain, or discomfort.
- Can be soothed by rocking and talking.
- Sometimes due to colic.
- Parents must learn to differentiate between different cries (which refer to different needs.)

COLIC
- Fussiness; cannot be soothed.
- At least 3 hours a day, 3 days a week, for 3 weeks.
- Cause unknown; something to do with maturation of brain.
- Usually over by 3 months of age.

Front 32

HEALTH AND SAFETY CONCERNS

Tell me about illnesses and immunizations.

Back 32

- Most infants experience one or more minor illnesses (ex. cold, otitis media [ear infection], flu)
- Almost all infants in U.S. are immunized.
- Most vaccines should be given before 2nd birthday.
- DISEASES: polio, mumps, measles, rubella (German measles), chicken pox, pertussis (whooping cough), diphtheria, tetanus, and hepatitis B.
- Often side effects (ex. rash)

Front 33

HEALTH AND SAFETY CONCERNS

Tell me about accidental injuries in infants and toddlers.

Back 33

- GENERAL: falls, burns, choking/poisoning, drowning, motor vehicle accidents.
- Many are preventable.
- Parents often underestimate infant's abilities.
- Motor vehicle accidents are significant cause of accidental injuries (babies under a year should be in car seat in back seat facing backwards, whereas toddlers should be in car seat in back seat facing forwards.)
- Adult use of alcohol and tobacco are contributing factors (ex. fire-related incidents)

Front 34

HEALTH AND SAFETY CONCERNS

Tell me about infant/toddler exposure to to television and other media.

Back 34

- Most infants and toddlers are exposed to some kind of screen-based media daily.
- Babies under the age of 3: 38% can turn on TV.
- Average: 1 hr. 19 min./day (only includes child-oriented material); age and cultural differences.
- Higher levels of TV viewing are correlated with lower academic achievement levels.
- American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no media before age of 2.

Front 35

HEALTH AND SAFETY CONCERNS

Tell me about the VIDEO DEFICIT re: OBJECT RETRIEVAL and COMPREHENSIBILITY.

Back 35

VIDEO DEFICIT: limited ability to learn from TV/video before the age of 3.

OBJECT RETRIEVAL
- Child either sees a toy hidden in an adjacent room through a window or watches the toy being hidden on television.
- Age 2: 25% chance of child finding toy.
- Age 2 1/2: 50% chance of child finding toy.
- Age 3: did well on both tasks.

COMPREHENSIBILITY
- Infants aged 6, 12, 18, and 24 months were shown normal and distorted episodes (backwards dialogue and reordered scenes) of Teletubbies.
- The older they got, the longer the infants looked at the normal episodes, suggesting presence of comprehensibility.
- Fully developed by 2 years.
-

Front 36

HEALTH AND SAFETY CONCERNS

Tell me about the MOZART EFFECT.

Back 36

- Study done (1993) showing that college students who listened to Mozart for 10 min./day improved their ability at spatial reasoning.
- This idea was transformed to helping babies/kids become more intelligent, though no research was ever done to support this.
- No connection between Mozart and general intelligence (but there is a connection to spatial-temporal tasks)

Front 37

PIAGET'S COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENTAL THEORY

Tell me about Piaget's Cognitive Developmental Theory.

[define: adaptation, accommodation, assimilation, equilibration]

Back 37

Children are active learners who construct their own understanding of the world through ADAPTATION, which involves the joint operation of ASSIMILATION and ACCOMMODATION.

ADAPTATION: interaction between organism and environment.

ASSIMILATION: children incorporate new experiences into an already existing framework (cognitive schema) without changing that framework (ex. kids call all furry animals "dogs")

ACCOMMODATION: process of altering cognitive structures to fit new experiences (ex. learning that not all furry animals are dogs)

EQUILIBRATION: process that maintains balance in cognitive structures through joint operation of accommodation and assimilation.

Front 38

PIAGET'S COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENTAL THEORY

Tell me about object permanence.

(definition, how was it discovered, indicates what?)

Back 38

The belief that objects continue to exist even when they are out of sensory range; understanding that objects:
- Have substance;
- Maintain identity when they change location;
- Continue to exist when out of sight (otherwise, "out of sight, out of mind")

ALSO:
- Discovered through observation of children's reactions to covering objects.
- Indicator of the development of REPRESENTATION [mental understnading of something/concept]

Front 39

PIAGET'S COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENTAL THEORY

Tell me about the mastery of object permanence (re: A-not-B error.)

Back 39

A-NOT-B ERROR: baby watches ball being hidden in box "A" and searches for it in box "A." Now baby watches ball being hidden in box "B," but still looks for it in box "A."

- 8 - 12 MONTHS: infant makes perseverance error (above.)
- 12 - 18 MONTHS: infant is not confused by switching; however, if distracted when switch occurs, they will make perseverance error.

Front 40

PIAGET'S COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENTAL THEORY

Tell me about Renee Baillargeon and the violation-of-expectation paradigm.

Back 40

Challenged Piaget, wondering whether his observations were an underestimation of infant competence, so she designed test where:
1) Babies habituated to drawbridge rotating 180 degrees, then box placed in the way of drawbridge.
2) Babies then shown one of two events: a possible event and an impossible event.
- POSSIBLE EVENT: draw bridge rotated backwards until it hit the box and then returned.
- IMPOSSIBLE EVENT: draw bridge rotated backwards all the way as though box not there, then returned.
4) Then used the VIOLATION-OF-EXPECTATION PARADIGM [behavior pattern in which infants react with surprise to unexpected events] and amount of looking time to assess appreciation of object permanence.

RESULTS:
- Babies looked longer at impossible event suggesting that they were surprised when box did not remain; so even 4-month-olds showed signs of understanding object permanence.
- It's not that infants don't understand object permanence, maybe it's that they just don't have the motor skills to look for it.

Front 41

CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVES

Tell me about the information processing theory.

Back 41

- Infant's mind is like a computer, taking in information, categorizing, storing, and acting upon it, in order to problem solve.
- Focuses on development of attention, memory, and symbolic understanding.
--- How infants take in, categorize, store, and act on info.
--- How infants maintain and sustain attention.

Front 42

SELF-CONCEPTS

How do the self-concepts of 3 to 5-year-olds differ from those of 6-year-olds?

What are the most important influences on the development of self-concepts?

Around what age are children able to regulate their emotional states?

Back 42

- Age 3 - 5: self-descriptions focus on appearance and external objects (ex. "I have red hair and a bicycle.")
- Age 6: describe themselves in relation to social groups, skills in relation to those of others, and include emotional experiences (ex. "I'm a good runner but not as good as Ben; he's the fastest kid in my class.")
- Influences: quality of parenting and the reaction and feedback of parents and teachers.
- Better at emotional self-regulation by 6 years of age.

Front 43

SELF-CONCEPTS

Tell me about EMOTIONAL DISPLAY RULES.

Back 43

- Stipulate when, were, and how it is culturally appropriate to express emotion.
- Children are generally taught to communicate positive emotions and suppress negative emotions.
- Cultural variations.

Front 44

GENDER AND THE SELF

What is "gender identity" and what age does it usually develop at?

Contrast Freud's theory and Kohlberg's theory.

Back 44

- One's sense of self as male or female.
- Accurate identification around 2 1/2 years of age.

FREUD
- Kids learn about gender because they look up to and want to be like same-sex parent.
- Little support for this view.

Kohlberg's COGNITIVE THEORY OF GENDER DEVELOPMENT
- Children use gender categories as guides for their behavior.
- Self-socialization: process of matching one's behavior and activities to those associated with one's gender.

Front 45

GENDER AND THE SELF

Contrast gender PERMANENCE and gender CONSTANCY.

Back 45

GENDER PERMANENCE
- Understanding that gender is a permanent part of one's identity.
- Develops around middle childhood (~ 6 or 7.)

GENDER CONSTANCY
- Understanding that superficial physical transformations do not affect gender.
- Develops towards the end of the preschool period.

Front 46

GENDER AND THE SELF

Tell me about gender stereotypes in relation to development.

Tell me about Bem's GENDER SCHEMA THEORY.

Back 46

GENDER STEREOTYPES
- Aware of gender stereotypes by age 3.
- Influence behavior, especially during preschool period.
- As they grow older and encounter more variations, children become more flexible.

GENDER SCHEMA THEORY
- Children organize ideas about gender into mental frameworks, or schemas.
- Schemas guide behavior and the processing of new info.

Front 47

GENDER AND THE SELF

How does gender relate to children's activities?

Back 47

- Universal sex-segregation during play.
- Gender differences in play style.
- BOYS: more group-play, active and aggressive play, and expression of positive emotion.
- GIRLS: more pair-play and social pretend play, and play in closer proximity to adults.

Front 48

GENDER AND THE SELF

What are some influences on gender development?

Back 48

- Related to cognitive development.

Social learning theory; related to:
- External events and conditions.
- Rewarding behavior considered gender appropriate and punishing behavior considered appropriate for opposite gender.
- Mental representations of environmental events, anticipated outcomes, and behavior role models.

Front 49

PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIPS

Tell me about Baurind's parenting styles.

Back 49

Vary along two dimensions: warmth and control.

a) PERMISSIVE: warm but not controlling.
b) AUTHORITARIAN: controlling but cold.
c) AUTHORITATIVE: loving but firm; style most associated with positive outcomes.
d) DISENGAGED: cold and non-controlling; neglectful.

Front 50

PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIPS

Back 50

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Front 51

PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIPS

Back 51

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