PSYCH Test #1

• Forerunner of behaviorism 
• Focuses on reinforcement and punishment and believed that experiences influence behaviors
• Tabla rasa (blank slate): children are born blank and parents teach them 
• Believed that children are born with temperaments

• Contributions are coming from all areas of studies involving multiple cultures
• Comparing and contrasting studies across cultures

• Believed children are born pure, without sin 
• Children have natural impulses and should express themselves as they see fit 
• Child either corrupted or enriched by society,

• Biology drives us 
• Influenced by evolution: survival and reproduction 
• Unconscious motives

• Environmental 
• Our experiences produce permanent changes
• Importance of reinforcement and punishment to shape behaviors

• Piaget 
• Genetics (biology) AND environment interact directly to cause change 
• Direct route
• Interaction and genes from parents

• Vygotsky 
• Genetics and environment interact indirectly 
• ex) culture and religion

• Certain characteristics improve survival and those are more likely to be passed down to the next generation 
• Has components of biology 
• Based on Darwinism: traits that help survive and pass on genetics

• Processed, stored, organized retrieved, and used 
• Becomes more efficient over time 
• Children of a certain age cannot process certain info, but at later age they can
• ex) Dad's kids

• Modeling and reinforcement 
• observe people and imitate-response is reinforcement/punishment 
• ex) boy puts on makeup, shows parents, they respond

• Interactions of less complex systems lead to the development of more complex systems 
• ex) reaching/grasping - visual and motor system combine to grab things 
• Not good at first - batting/swatting; becomes more fine tuned

• Microsystem: direct interaction/influence on child ex) nutrition, parents, peers 
• Mesosystem: interaction between peers, parent, teacher, eighborhood, church **also interaction within the circle ex) parents interact with child peers 
• Exosystem: environments that affect them, but children don't have access to ex) parents job - money and benefits
• Macrosystem: overall cultural values, customs, and resources ex) disposable diaper vs reusable diaper

• Unbiased 
• Can have reader and conductor bias 
• Don't change or influence the results to fit your bias

• same results 
• consistency, especially if only one person is a part of the study. If fail test today should not get 100% tomorrow

done again in the same manner either by you or others

• is it truly measuring the variable?
• are you measuring them correctly?
• Intelligence test based on 3 questions is not valid

• Observe and record 
• Little to no interaction with participants - insures that behaviors don't change because of your presence (may not even ask people to participate) 
• Gathers info before conducting experiment 
• Can observe on or multiple behaviors 
• Ethnography: detailed description of culture; live with another culture for period of time (not good for naturalistic observation b/c of interaction); compare cultural development

• Predetermined set of questions 
• Doesn't change from person to person 
• Not experimental 
• Used to find opinions, preferences, etc

• Shows the relationship between two variables
• Positive: both variable increase together
• Negative: on increases, other decreases 
• Zero: no cause and effect

• adapt questions to each individual 
• new questions depend on prior answer; focus on interested areas for clarification 
• great for studying individual differences
• Individual differences need to be ignored to determine patterns between individuals

• Need more info, lots of DETAILS 
• **Used in rare disorder to gain as much info as possible from one person

• Researcher manipulate one variable and measure the other 
• IV: manipulated (class size)
• DV: measured (GPA) 
• Random Assignment: present in IV; must have to classify as experiment 

• Experiment control 
• experimental group: receive manipulation 
• control group: receives no  manipulation

• Preexisting variable cannot be manipulated ex) gender, race/ethnicity/mental health 
• can't always randomly assign/manipulate certain variables

Same children observed repeatedly over time 

• Selective attrition:  people more likely to drop out of study
• Non-representative Sample
• Practice effect: show improvement through practice, not changes in development 
• Cross-generational problems: Out of date for new generations; no longer applies for 6yr olds

• Children of different ages all compared at one time
• Given same task, see how answers change over ages 
• Cohort effect: can't apply to other cohorts because of  different experiences ex) effects of 9/11 or JFK Assassination (majo generational events

• Combo of cross sectional and longitudinal 
• Same children from different age groups participate in whole test 
• Test takes place over several years
• Shorter than longitudinal 
• Minimizes/identifies cohort effect
• good choice if questioning development 
• ex) 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
•       6 8 10 12 14 16 18

• Adaptation of longitudinal study, only hours or days 
• Follows mastery of a task presented to child 
• Exposed to experience, see if changes occur 
• Problem: may get better with practice (practice effect), may get bored

• Genetic level 
• ex) XX = female

• Expression of genes through various media 
• Physical - breast etc.

• 2 of the same alleles (gene that influences specific trait)
• ex) PP (dominant) ; pp (recessive)

• Two different alleles 
• ex) Pp

• Characteristics are expressed
• ex) broad lips, nearsighted, coarse hair

• Characteristics not expressed 
• two recessives needed for recessive to be expressed pp
• ex) flat feet, lactose intolerance

• Multiple genes affect displayed genes
• ex) height, eye color, body type

• Error in gene replication 
• Missing or extra genes 
• Part of evolution to improve

• Alleles chemically marked to tell which parent it came from 
• not sex linked 
• ex) growth of fetus - mom want small, dad want big

• 3 copies of chromosome 21
• Causes:mothers age, cell division, other possibilities 
• PSYCH problems: intellectual disabilities 
• Treatment: extra help in school; developmental therapies

• Blood cells in sickle shape 
• Causes: inherited abnormal hemoglobin LO_² carrying of protein w/ red blood cells 
• PSYCH problems: may increase the feeling of pain; fear of unpredictable pain
• Treatment: daily dose of penicillin, folic acid for young kids 

• x linked trait 
• 2 recessive alleles to be seen in females
• More common in males - inherited from mother who must have recessive trait

• Males born with extra X
• Low testosterone - puberty suppressed, infertility, gynecomastia 
• Speech Language disabilities

• Born w/ 1 X or missing part of X
• Short stature, stunted puberty, infertility 
• Learning disabilities mainly in math 
• Hormone treatments

• Self directed human evolution 
• sterilization, segregation, and selective breeding 
• Nazis: Jews, gypsy, handicapped, prisoners deemed useless lives

• Critical Period: if don't learn then, it might be impossible (genie)
• Sensitive Period: easier to learn in that time (2nd lang)
• Brains lose what they no longer really need - difference in lemurs face

• expressed characteristics depend on genes and environment 
• ex) potential to be a genius must be nurtured through environment and opportunity

• Identical Twin: same genetics, same environment 
• Fraternal Twins: different genetics, same environment 
• Adoption: genes and environment different 
• sees if child more like mother or the family raised in

• Rh (protein) incompatibility 
• mother (-) fetus (+)
• mother create antibodies that attack baby if exposed to baby's blood
• risks: intellectual disabilities, miscarriage, heart damage, death

• 30 & up higher risk of miscarriage 
• 20 & 30s similar for prenatal and birth problems like low birth weight and preeclampsia 
• Teenage = higher problem for infant - maybe more social than physical

• Culture influences what you eat 
• 2000-2800 calories ideal 
• Bad nutrition = premature, low birth weight, abnormalities in cns, respiratory illness 
• Studies on sensitive periods for nutrition during famines like netherlands

• Baby born addicted to drugs - may need to be weened off
• low birth weight 
• premature
• lang/learning delays possible 
• Prescriptions
• ex) Thalidomide (combat morning sickness): treat morning sickness, children born w/o limbs 
• ex) aspirin: thins baby blood

• Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder 
• physical: smooth philtrum, eye problems, microcephaly
• PSYCH: intellectual disability, inappropriate sexual behavior 
• Treat: counseling & school services
• Can't tell how much alcohol needed to affect

• Transmitted during pregnancy/ at birth 
• preterm birth, low weight, weak immune system 
• social and psych stigma

• Increase malformations, time of exposure determines whats affected 
• microcephaly (small head), Intell Dis, growth, childhood cancer

• chemicals in environment have negative effect of fetus 
• mercury in fish - cerebral palsy, skull deformities 
• Lead poisoning - poor mental health and motor planning

• Learn moms voice 
• Cat in hat study: read cat in hat 2x/day last month and half, prefered to other stories

• ideas based on gender; change environment 
• if deformed shown less loving interactions

• attention decreases after first exposure 
• ex) fascination with pen; if happened every time, no work ever done

• Slight change in original stimulus increases attention 
• ex) highlighter vs pen

• Babinski: stroke foot - toes fan and curl 
• Moro: startle reflex; arms fling out and quickly bring in as if grabbing for something 
• Rooting: stroke cheek, turn had, open mouth

• Babies can imitate simple expressions 
• Mirror sticking out tongue 
• Not sure if true imitation or not, baby not aware of copy
• Mirror neurons fire in the brain

• Reflex, but will gain control 
• causes unconscious reaction in us of protection - make baby stop crying
• In famines, crybabies more likely to live, crying gets their needs met

• Biological - automatic reflex, even newborns smile in rem sleep. same brain patterns for a while when awake 
• Social - when you see someone smile your social reaction is to smile back. blind need feedback too. tactile, intonations, etc. they smile

• Natural biological stages (muscle strength, puberty)
• Brain matures over time (problem solving)
• Shift from reflex to coordination (sucking becomes nursing)

• associating a neutral stimulus with something that already causes a reflexive response
• ex) mother stroke baby head before nursing, eventually stroking causes baby to begin sucking 
• UCS-milk
• UCR-nurse
• CS-stroke
• CR-nurse (lip suck)
• Linking to survival value makes conditioning easier 
• if stroke w/ no milk response will fade
• Fear not conditioned until 6 months (little albert)

• behavior followed by stimulus that changes likelihood of behavior happening again 
• Reinforcement - increase behavior
• Punishment - decrease behavior
• Social smiling uses reinforcement - baby smile, you smile, baby happy-like reaction, smile again

• Piaget 
• Schema: basic category of knowledge; gained throughout development (dog; pet)
• Assimilation: add info to schema; will not change schema significantly (small, furry, high pitch bark-can be big, longer fur than dog at home)
• Accommodation: significantly change or create new schema (see cat, say dog, get corrected -->new category

• Impact begins early 
• Some influence can be indirect but still affect child development 
• Culture -->mother (culture filter) --> child
• Child receives aspects of the culture that the mother wants it to receive
• Cultural variations ex) how long should a child be breast fed

• Brain grows in size
• Crawling begins 
• Plexiglas looks like cliff, younger children crawl over cliff; older children see as danger and only go to the edge 
• same happened again when begin to walk

• Infants respond to differences
• 3 people stand in line; cover and remove one; baby knows something changed 
• Not conclusive whether they truly know difference in amount or if they see difference

• aware that actions effect environment 
• purposefully pick up toy to put in mouth

• Clear intentions and direct them towards goal
• Imitate others and explore environment 
• recognize that objects have certain qualities

know that something still exists even when they cant see it

• Use to blankets
• Hide object under one repeatedly 
• Change to other blanket in plain view of child
• Child still pick 1st blanket

• memory lasts only a few seconds; look one way even when they know better 
• Repeat movements/actions 
• Card sorting, when method changed, child did not change

Group similar objects and eventsOrganize both physical and social worldReduces amount of new info they encounter every day

Trial and error experimentation

Symbolic representation

• will search for object
• reason that it is close by 
• less likely to make a not b error when watching

• trial and error 
• use what they learn from previous trial and error 
• ex) trying to pull stick through crib

• might use some tool parents use in play ex) mother cook, daughter play cook/help with little things
• some cultures don't promote play

• Deferred imitation: imitating something seen at an earlier date, even when no have ability to complete before 
• Can finish activities that others started or at least attempt to complete