Developmental Psychology

The study of YOU from womb to tomb.

• Nature Versus Nurture
• Nature: The way you were born.
• Nurture: The way you were raised.
• Physical Development: focus on our physical changes over time.
• Prenatal Development: conception begins with the drop of an egg and the release of about 200 million sperms.
• Once the sperm penetrates the egg- we have a fertilized egg called a zygote.
• The first stage lasts about two weeks.
• About 10 days after conception, the zygote will attach itself to the uterine wall.
• The outer part of the zygote becomes the placenta- structure that allows oxygen and nutrients
• After two weeks, the zygote develops into an embryo.
• Last about 6 weeks. Heart begins to beat and organs start to develop.
• By nine weeks we have a fetus.
• Teratogens: chemical agents that can harm the prenatal environmental.
• Reflexes: inborn automatic responses.
• Rooting (cheek): when a newborn infant is touched on the cheek, the infant will turn its head toward the source of simulation.
• Grasping: if an object is placed into a baby's palm, the baby will try to grasp the object with his or her fingers.
• Moro (startle): when startled, a baby will fling his or her limbs out and then quickly retract them.
• Babinski (foot): when a baby's foot is stroked, he or she will spread their toes.
• Maturation: physical growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, regardless of the environment.
• Cognition: all mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, and remembering.
• Cognitive Development- Jean Piaget
• Schemas: ways we interpret the world around us (concept)
• Assimulation: incorporation new experiences into existing schemas.
• Accommodation: changing an existing schema to adapt to new information.
• 4 Stages of Cognitive Development

1. Sensorimotor Stage (0-2): experience the work through our senses. Object permanence developed around 6-8 months of age.
2. Preoperational Stage (2-7 years): begin to use language to represent objects and ideas. Egocentric: early in this stage they cannot look at the world through anyone's eyes.
• Conservation refers to the idea that a quantity remains the same despite changes in appearance and it part of logical thinking.
3. Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 years): can demonstrate concept of conservation. Learn to think logically.
4. Formal Operational Stage (12 years and up): abstract reasoning. Hypothesis testing. reasoning with metaphors and analogies.

• Criticisms of Piagets
• Information-Processing Model: says children do not learn in stages but rather in a gradual continuous growth pattern.
• Social Development: at about a year, infants develop stranger anxiety.
• Attachment: attachment (a bond with a caregiver). Konrad Lorenz discovered that some animals form attachment through imprinting.
• Origins of Attachment: Harry Harlow showed that monkeys needed to touch or body contact to form attachment. For many animals that there is a critical period shortly after birth when an organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produce proper development.
• Secure Attachment: children show some distress when parent leaves, seek contact at the reunion, explore when parent gone, play and greet when parent present.
• Stranger Anxiety: fear of strangers, beginning by about 8 months of age.
• Separation Anxiety: distress the infant shows when object of attachment leaves. Peaks between 14 and 18 months.

The Brain

• Accidents: Phineas Gage Story-Personality changed after the accident.
• Lesions: removal or destruction of some part of the brain. Frontal Lobotomy
• Electroencephalogram (EEG): detects brain waves through their electrical output. Used mainly in sleep research.
• Computerized Axial Tomography (CAT Scan): 3D X-Ray of the brain. good for tumor locating but tells us nothing about function.
• Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI): more detailed picture of brain using magnetic field to knock electrons off axis.
• Positron Emission Tomography (PET Scan): measures how much of a chemical the brain is using (usually glucose consumption).

Brain Structure

• Hindbrain: structures on top of our spinal cord. Controls basic biological structures.
• Pons: located just above the medulla.
• Cerebellum: bottom rear of the brain. "Little brain." coordinates fine muscle movements.
• Midbrain: coordinates simple movement with sensory information. Most important structure in Midbrain is the Reticular Formation: controls arousal and ability to focus our attention.
• Forebrain: what makes us human. Largest part of the brain. Made up of the Thalamus, Limbic System, and Cerebral Cortex.
• Thalamus: receives sensory signals from the spinal cord and sends them to other parts of the forebrain. Every sense except smell.
• Limbic System
  
• Hypothalamus: maybe most important structure in the brain. Controls and regulates: body temperature, sexual arousal, hunger, thirst, and endocrine system.
• Hippocampus: involved in the processing and storage of memories.
• Amygdala: involved in how we process memory. More involved in volatile emotions like anger.
• Cerebral Cortex: made up of densely packed neurons we call "gray matter." Glial Cells: support brain cells. Wrinkles are called fissures.
  
• Hemispheres: divided into two hemisphere.
• Contralateral control: right controls left and vice versa.
• Left Hemisphere: logic and sequential tasks.
• Right Hemisphere: spatial and creative tasks.
• Frontal Lobes: abstract thought and emotional control.
• Motor Cortex: sends signals to our body controlling muscle movements.
• Broca's Area: responsible for controlling muscles that produce speech.
• Broca's Aphasia: damage to Broca's Area. Unable to make movements to talk.
• Parietal Lobes: contain Sensory Cortex:
• Sensory Cortex: receives incoming touch sensations from rest of the body. Most of the Parietal Lobes are made up of Association Areas.
  
• Association Areas: any areas not associated with reviving sensory information or coordinating muscle movements.
• Occipital Lobes: deals with vision. Contains Visual Cortex: interprets messages from our eyes into images we can understand.
• Temporal Lobes: process sound sensed by our ears. Contains Wernike's Area: interprets written and spoken speech. Wernike's Aphasia: unable to understand language: the syntax and grammar jumbled.
• Brain Plasticity: the idea that the brain, when damaged, will attempt to find new ways to reroute messages.
• The Corpus Callosum: bridge of nerve fibers that connects or divides the two hemisphere.
• Cerebrum: largest part of the brain. Divided into left and right hemisphere & divided into lobes. Also contains the cerebral cortex (the gray matter). Controls voluntary movement, coordinates mental activity, and it's the center for all conscious living.

Nervous System

• Central Nervous System: the brain and spinal card.
• Peripheral Nervous System: all nerves that are not encased in bone. Everything but the brain and spinal cord.
• Somatic: controls voluntary muscle movement. Uses motor neurons.
• Autonomic: controls the automatic functions of the body.
• Sympathetic: fight or flight response. Automatically accelerates heart rate, breathing, dilates pupils, slows down digestion.
• Parasympathetic: automatically slows the body down after a stressful event. Heart rate and breathing slow down pupils constrict and digestion speeds up.
• Reflexes: normally, sensory neurons take info up through spine to the brain. Some reactions occur when sensory neurons reach just the spinal cord.
• Hormones
• The Endocrine System: a system of glands that secrete hormones.  Similar to nervous system, except hormones work a lot slower than neurotransmitters.

Unit 4

• Nervous System: it starts with an individual nerve cell called a NEURON
• How does a Neuron fire?
• Resting potential: slightly negative charge
• Reach the threshold when enough neurotransmitters reach dendrites.
• Go into Action Potential (firing)
• The All-or-None Response: the idea that either the neuron fires or it does not-no part way firing. Like a gun.
• Steps of Action Potential
• Dendrites receive neurotransmitter from another neuron across the synapse.
• Reached its threshold- then fires based on the all-or-none response.
• Opens up a portal in axon, and lets in positive ions (Sodium) which mix with negative ions (Potassium) that is already inside the axon (thus Neurons at rest have a slightly negative charge).
• The mixing of + and - ions causes an electrical charge that opens up the next portal (letting in more K) while closing the original portal.
• Process continues down axon to the axon terminal.
• Terminal buttons turns electrical charge into chemical (neurotransmitter) and shoots message to next neuron across the synapse.
• Types of Neurotransmitter
• Acetylcholine (ACH): deals with motor movement and memory. Lack of ACH has been linked to Alzheimer's disease.
• Dopamine: deals with motor movements and alertness. Lack of dopamine has been linked to Parkinson's disease. Too much has been linked to schizophrenia.
• Serotonin: involved in mood control. Lack of serotonin has been linked to clinical depression.
• Endorphins: involve in pain control. Many of our most addictive drugs deal with endorphins.
• Norepinephrine: helps control alertness and arousal. An undersupply can lead to depression. An oversupply can lead to manic symptoms
• GABA (gamma-aminobutytic acid): major inhibitory neurotransmitters. An undersupply can lead to tremor.
• Glutamate: major excitatory neurotransmitter; involved in memory. Oversupply can overstimulate the brain leading to migraines (this is why some people avoid MSG in food).
• Drugs can be...
• Agonist- make neuron fire
• Antagonists- stop neural firing
• Reuptake Inhibitors- block neurotransmitters from entering the neuron.
• Types of Neurons
• Sensory Neurons (Afferent Neurons): take information from the senses to the brain.
• Inter Neurons: take messages from Sensory Neurons to other parts of the brain or to Motor Neurons.
• Motor Neurons (Efferent Neurons): take information from the brain to the rest of the body.

Motivation and Emotion

Motivation: a psychological process that directs and maintains your behavior toward a goal. Motives are the needs, wants, interests, and desires that propel or drive people in certain directions.

• Instinct Theory: we are motivated by our inborn automated behaviors.
• Biological Motives
• Hunger
• Thirst
• Sleep
• Social Motives
• Achievement
• Order
• Play
• Autonomy
• Affiliation
• Drive Theory: Biological internal motivation (homeostasis)
• Incentive Theory: Environmental motivation (not as much homeostasis, more outside factor)
• Drive-Reduction Theory: When individuals experience a need or drive, they're motivated to reduce that need or drive.

Biological Basis of Hunger: Hunger does not come from our stomach. It comes from our brain, they Hypothalamus

• Why do I feel hungry? 
• Glucose: the form of sugar that circulates in the blood. Provides the major source of energy for body tissue. Glucose low=hungry, Glucose high=feel full
• Lateral Hypothalamus: when simulated it makes you hungry. When lesioned (destroyed) you will never be hungry again.
• Ventromedial Hypothalamus: when simulated you feel full. When lesioned you will never feel full again.
• Environmental Factors
  1. Availability of food
  2. Learned preference and habits
  3. Stress
• Set Point Theory: the hypothalamus acts like a thermostat. Wants to maintain a stable weight. Activate the lateral when you diet and activate the ventromedial when you start to gain weight.

Eating Disorders

• Bulimia Nervosa: characterized by binging (eating large amounts of food) and purging (getting rid of the food).
• Anorexia Nervosa: starve themselves to below 85% of their normal body weight.
• Obesity: severely overweight to the point where it causes health issues.

Achievement Motivation

• Intrinsic Motivators: rewards we get internally, such as enjoyment or satisfaction.
• Extrinsic Motivators: reward that we get for accomplishments from outside ourselves (grades or money or etc.) Work great in the short run.
• Over Justification Effect: promising a reward for doing something you like to do results in you seeking the rewards as the motivation for performing the task.

Management Theory

• Theory X: managers believes that employees will work only if rewarded with benefits or threatened with punishment.
• Theory Y: managers believe that employees are internally motivated to do good work and policies should encourage this internal motive.

Emotion: a response of the whole organism
Physiological arousal
Expressive behaviors
Conscious experience

• James-Lange Theory of Emotion: experience of emotion is awareness of physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli.
• Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion: emotion-arousig stimuli simultaneously trigger:
• physiological responses
• subjective experience of emotion
• Schachter's Two-Factor Theory of Emotion: to experience emotion one must:
• be physically aroused
• cognitively label the arousal
• Emotion-Lie Detectors
• Polygraph: machine commonly used in attempts to detect lies. Measures several of the physiological responses accompanying emotion
• Perspiration
• Cardiovascular
• Breathing changes
• Amygdala: a neural key to fear learning

Experienced Emotion

• Catharsis
• emotional release
• catharsis hypothesis: "releasing" aggressive energy (through action or fantasy) relieves aggressive urges.
• Feel-good, do good phenomenon: people's tendency to be helpful when already in a good mood.
• Adaptation-Level Phenomenon: tendency to form judgements relative to a "neutral" level
• brightness of lights
• volume of sound
• level of income
• Relative Deprivation: perception that one is worse off relative to those with whom one compares oneself.

Social Relations

• Prejudice: an unjustifiable attitude towards a group of people.
• Stereotyped: a generalized belief about a group of people.
• Social Inequalities: a principle reason behind prejudice.
• Ingroup: people with whom one shares a common identity.
• Outgroup: those perceived as different than ones in group.
• Ingroup bias: the tendency to favors one own group.
• Scapegoat Theory: the theory that prejudice provides an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame.
• Aggression: any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy.
• Biology of Aggression
• Genetics
• Neural Influence (is aggression in the brain)
• Biochemical
• Frustration-Aggressive Principle: the blocking of an attempt to achieve some goals. Creates anger which generate aggression.
• Conflict: a perceived incompatibility of actions, goals or ideas. Situation where people must choose between and act that is beneficial to themselves but harmful to others and an act that is moderately beneficial to all.

Attraction:

• Proximity: repeated exposure to something breeds liking.
• Reciprocal Liking: you are more likely to like someone who likes you.
• Similarity: Opposites do not attract. Birds of the same feather do flock together. Similarity breeds content.
• Liking through Association
• Physical Attractiveness
• Love
• Passionate: an aroused state of intense positive absorption of another.
• Compassionate: the deep affectionate attachment, to intertwine love.
• What makes compassionate love work?
• Equity
• Self-disclosure

Altruism: unselfish regard for the welfare of others.

• Bystander Effect (bystanders less willing to help if there are other bystanders around)
• Social Exchange Theory: the idea that our social behavior is an exchange process, which we minimize costs.
• Peace Making: give people superordinate(shared) goals that can only be achieved through cooperation.
• GRIT (Graduated and Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension Reduction): a strategy of conflict resolution based on the defusing effect that conciliatory gestures can have on parties in conflict.

Social Psychology

Social Psychology: the study of how we think about, influence and relate to one another.

• Social thinking: how do we think about one another?
• Attribution Theory: the idea that we give a casual explanation for someone's behavior.
• Fundamental Attribution Error: the tendency to underestimate the impact of a situation and overestimate the impact of personal disposition.
• Attitudes: a belief or feeling that predisposes one to respond in a particular way to something. Do our attitudes guide our actions?                                                                                          Only if...
• External pressure is minimal.
• We are aware of our attitudes.
• The attitudes is relevant to the behavior.
• Foot-in-the-door Phenomenon: the tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger result.
• Door-in-face Phenomenon: the tendency for people who say no to a huge request, to comply with a smaller one.
• Cognitive Dissonance Theory: we do not like when we have either conflicting attitudes or when our attitudes do not match our actions.

Social Influence

• Conformity: adjusting one's behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard.
• Conditions that Strengthen Conformity
  1. One is made to feel incompetent.
  2. The group is at least three people.
  3. The group is unanimous.
  4. One admires the group's status.
  5. One has made no prior commitment.
  6. The person is observed.
• Reasons for Conforming
• Normative Social Influence: influence resulting from a person's desire to gain approval or avoid disappointment.
• Informational Social Influence: influence resulting from one's willingness to accept others' opinions about reality.
• Social Facilitation: improved performance of tasks in the presence of others.
• Yerkes-Dodson Law: there is an optimal level of arousal for the best performance of any tasks:
• easy tasks - relatively high
• difficult tasks - low arousal
• other tasks - moderate level
• Social Loafing: the tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling efforts toward a common goal than if they were individually accountable.
• Deindividuation: the loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity.
• Group Polarization: the concept that a group's attitude is one of extremes and rarely moderate.
• Groupthink: the mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides common sense.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecies: occurs when one person's belief about others leads one to act in ways that induce the others to appear to confirm the belief.