...Human Development Nature and nurture both play a role in developmental outcomes – How much of who we are as humans is hardwired in our genes, and how much is the result of experience? – What is human nature when it is stripped of society and culture? Genie’s extreme case provided the opportunity to witness and record the potential consequences of extreme social isolation. What Shapes our Behavior? • Describe how the prenatal environment can affect development. • Explain how dynamic systems theory illuminates the ways biology and environment work together to shape development. • Describe key processes in infant brain development and how these processes affect learning. • Describe the types of attachment infants have to their caregivers. • Explain how attachment and emotion regulation are related. 9.1 What Shapes Us During Childhood? Biological and social forces combine to shape the path of human development. – developmental psychology: the study of changes, over the life span, in physiology, cognition, emotion, and social behavior Physically, each human grows and matures at about the same periods in the life span: 9.1 What Shapes Us During Childhood? Biological and social forces combine to shape the path of human development. – developmental psychology: the study of changes, over the life span, in physiology, cognition, emotion, and social behavior Physically, each human grows and matures at about the same periods in the life span: 9.1 What Shapes...
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...Cognitive Processes: Memory The human body is wired and created in a manner that various developments occur as one advances in age; for instance, it would be impossible to have a new born child who can speak. Most of the cognitive processes in human beings develop over time and, in fact, most of them get developed as a result of the various situations and experiences that one undergoes on a daily basis. Cognition is the intricate process through which a living being can decode and comprehend various aspects of the surrounding. For instance, it would be an aspect of cognition when one can identify that there has been a drop in temperature and it has, therefore, become cold. Cognition is not only unique to human beings as some animals also exhibit sufficient intelligence to understand the various cognitive processes (Schacter & Scarry, 2001). This paper shall evaluate these cognitive processes with particular regard to the aspect of memory as it develops with age and how the memory status of a child differs from that of a person with advanced age. The Idea of Memory Memory could be described in simple terms as the aspect and process through which living organisms are able to store, decipher and even retrieve information. Memory mainly deals with information and the manner of handling that information on a day to day basis. The intricate process and aspects of memory, however, seek to go beyond just storing and retrieving information; there is the idea of how one can interpret...
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...that focuses on the specific ways in which people mentally thinks about (“process”) the information they receive. People process information in different ways; sensation, perception, sensory registers, working memory, and long-term memory. Sensation is the physiological detection of stimuli in the environment. Perception is the cognitive interpretation of stimuli that the body has sensed. Sensory register is the component of memory that holds incoming information in an unanalyzed form for a very brief time; this is two to three seconds or less. Working memory is the component of memory that enables people to actively think about and process a small amount of information. Long-term memory is the component of memory that holds knowledge and skills for a relatively long period of time. Sensory register information processing is believe that human memory includes a Sensation information processing is through environmental the senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. This is the first process continued by the second part, interpreting those stimuli for perception mechanism that allows people to remember a very short period of time only perhaps two to three seconds of information. Working memory is where most thinking, or cognitive processing, occurs. Long-term memory is components learned throughout the years of experience. The following is the steps of the...
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...above soon learns that motorcycles and trucks are not the same as cars. 12. A primary circular reaction occurs when an infant attempts to repeat an action that occurred by chance. This reaction is centered on the infants own body. In contrast, a secondary circular reaction occurs around 8 and 12 months of age, this reaction is object oriented and not self-oriented. An example of this is when an infant picks up a rattle and continually repeats the...
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...CHAPTER OUTLINE I. EXPLORING HUMAN DEVELOPMENT Developmental psychology is concerned with the course and causes of developmental changes over a person’s entire lifetime. What does “genetic influence” mean? A. Historical Perspective 1. British empiricist philosopher John Locke in the 1690s argued that childhood experiences (nurture) permanently affect people. Empiricists saw the newborn as a blank slate or tabula rasa on which experience writes. 2. French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau in the 1760s argued the opposite, that nature alone gives children all they need to grow and learn, without adult guidance. 3. American psychologist Arnold Gesell in the early 1900s said that motor skills develop in a fixed sequence of stages in all children due to maturation, natural growth or change, which unfolds in a fixed sequence relatively independent of the environment. The term development encompasses not only maturation but also the behavioral and mental processes that are influenced by learning. 4. Behaviorist John B. Watson in the 1910s claimed that all development is due to learning. 5. Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget saw nature and nurture as inseparable and interactive in cognitive development. B. Understanding Genetic Influence 1. Behavioral genetics is the study of how genes affect behavior. This research demonstrated that nature and nurture jointly contribute to development in two ways. a) Nature...
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...Exaggeratory Claims of Infant Linguistic Developing Programs Raymond Mattison PSYCH 600 September 22nd, 2014 Debbra Jennings Exaggeratory Claims of Infant Linguistic Developing Programs For as long as human records show, there has been the stereotypical ‘Snake Oil Salesman’. These stereotypical parts of society thrive off of the ignorance of the masses in order to sell an item or theory that may seem as though is works but in reality doesn’t. Examples of these include an early 1900’s method of weight control in which people bought pills containing tape worms and were told to take one pill to start losing weight and then take an anti-parasitic pill that would hopefully kill the tapeworm (Winterman, 2013). The result was hundreds of people with tape worms and serious medical conditions. While some of these items can cause injury to the users, such as the tapeworm diet, most are harmless schemes to earn money for selling a fake product. One such modern product is a program that claims to be able to teach an infant to read at a very young age (within the first or second year of life) called ‘Your Baby Can Read’. This product claimed that using the program, which came in multiple methods including DVDs, VHS, books, etc., could teach an infant to read. Targeted Area of Development The targeted area of development in the child was their language and cognitive development. This involves multiple sub-areas of development. With an older child,...
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...acquisition of learning a language in infants, an infant’s capabilities in learning more than one language, the cognitive benefits of being bilingual, and metalinguistic awareness. The development of children in speech is distinguished by certain sounds that are mimicked and learned across time. Language is learned primarily within the first three years of life (Ramirez et al., 2017). Research has recently indicated that infants learn rapidly from exposure to language, combining detections...
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...Appropriate Toys for Infants and Toddlers The National Association for the Education of Young Children has a list of recommendations for developmentally appropriate equipment and toys for infants and toddlers. This list helped an extensive amount while picking out toys for an infant room and for a toddler room at a daycare. Children of these ages may all be considered “babies” but it should be known that they are growing fast every day. Their cognitive and developmental skills are growing and they are increasing development with language and motor skills, too. (Developmental Domains) It is important that these children have the right toys to play with at the different developmental and cognitive stages in their life. A 7 month old is going to differ a lot more than even a 3 month old, and a two year old is going to be a lot more cognitively developed than a 12 month old because at these young ages is where one grows the most. Young babies are developing in different ways than older infants. They follow moving objects and other people with their eyes. At this age, they are basically figuring themselves out and learning how to use what they were born with. Young infants will reach with their arms and turn their head to different sounds. (NAEYC) It would be essential to have mirrors in an infant room so they can look at themselves and study themselves. This will keep an infant busy and occupied for a while. Infants also enjoy things that they can lay under and look up and touch...
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...intellectual, emotional and social development for each of the life stages of an individual All living things have a life cycle. Every human goes through these stages throughout their life in which changes occur. -Infancy -Childhood -Adolescence -Adulthood -Elderly Infancy After around nine months inside the mother’s womb a child is born. During the infant stage the individual is extremely dependant, the adult would have to feed, nurture and look after the infant. Infancy occurs from birth to around two or three years old. Although every individual goes through the developments, they occur at different rates. The physical developments that occur in the first two years are rather dramatic. The infant’s weight will double from birth to five months, triples by twelve months and quadruples by the age of twenty four months. During this stage the individuals length does not change as rapidly as the infant’s length at birth is already 75% of what it will be at two years old. The head grows the fastest followed by the rest of the body downwards. The brain triples in weight and size by the age of three. During the first year the child masters a number of gross motor skills. One to two months old, the individual will hold up his head, four months may involve rolling from side to side. Between seven and nine months the child may sit up without assistance begin crawling and pulling himself up to standing. Around eleven to twelve months the infant will attempt walking. The social...
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...paper is to use the habituation technique in young infants to evaluate one hypothesis derived from Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. I will compare 5-months olds in a task that involves possible and impossible outcomes. Piaget’s theory specifies the cognitive competencies of children of this age. 1a. What infants see in the sensorimotor stage is just simple objects and shapes, and what they experience depends on their 5 senses and actions. 1b. Object permanence is the thought that just because one cannot see the object, it does not mean the object ceases to exist. Piaget would describe the lack of object permanence in infants as a brain that has not yet developed memory yet and is still fragile. After eight months, the child’s mind becomes less fragile and object permanence emerges. 1c. Stranger anxiety is when an infant memorizes familiar faces such as its parents and then reacts differently to any other unfamiliar face. According to Piaget, this emerges at around eight months as well. Infants can grasp the concept of that things come and go and can memorize what these objects look like, so whether it is a toy or parent, infants try to find what’s missing. 1d. McCrink and Wynn’s theory is that infants can do math such as addition and subtraction. This theory is against Piaget’s because McCrink’s theory says infants can do the math of taking away one doll from two will equal one while Piaget’s theory says their memories are too fragile. Habituation is a method that might...
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...life span to fully comprehend the way we think and process information. Psychologist Jean Piaget, was the most influential theorist who described the cognitive development process. Piaget, “envisioned a child's knowledge as composed of schemes, basic units of knowledge used to organize past experiences and serve as a basis for understanding new ones” (Encyclopedia). Furthermore, in a human’s life span there are eight stages in which our cognitive learning changes: infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, middle adulthood and late adulthood. This essay will take a look at the changes in cognitive learning over the human lifespan. The first stage we will look at is cognitive learning in infancy. The stage of infancy is considered birth through age two years old. Cognitive learning begins immediately after birth, infants learn to use their senses to explore their surroundings (Encyclopedia). Newborns are really good at identifying sounds and recognizing their mother’s voice. As the infant grows they begin to understand words; around the age of 18 months old the infant should be able to understand between 100 and 150 words. The next stage is early childhood; the age range is from two years old to six years old. At this stage in a child’s cognitive learning process they begin to use their memory and imagery skills (Encyclopedia). A child will develop skills and knowledge to assist them in social play with their peers. When children engage in social play...
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...Treatment of Premature Infants Psychology 210 November 12, 2013 Premature babies are babies born before 37 weeks. For some babies they are born closer to their due dates and suffer from little to no consequences of being born preterm. Preterm infants is another word for premature that is defined as any infant born before their due date. Where as the term small-for-date refers to babies that are born at the desired due date, but are below the expected weight for the length of time spent in the womb. About 500,00 babies are born prematurely in the United States alone. Many premature babies are forced to spend extended times in hospitals and suffer from health problems that can affect later life. Premature infants need more intensive and immediate care than full term infants to help recovery and survival. Certain activities or health problems put a women at greater risk for having a preterm infant. Some women have no signs that they are going to deliver preterm. Some of the risks of having a preterm infant include multiple births and in vitro fertilization. Mothers carrying more than one baby have a greater risk of having a their babies born premature or small-to-date. Also women that do not get proper prenatal care put themselves at greater risk to have a preterm infant. Unfortunantley, some women cant afford the prenatal care necessary for the developing fetus or are not educated about behavior needed...
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...PSYCHOLOGY AQA A – UNIT 1 Attachment is an emotional bond between two people, it is a 2 way process that endures over time, serving the function of protecting the infant and leading to certain behaviours (seeking proximity, distress on separation, pleasure on reunion and general orientation of behaviour) There is a Primary attachment figure (PAF) EXPLANATIONS OF ATTACHMENT: LEARNING THEORY Learnt rather than inborn Classical: Association Proposes that food (UCS) naturally produces a feeling of pleasure (UCR). The feeder (NS) becomes associated with the food (UCS) when the infant is fed. The mother eventually produces the sense of pleasure associated with the food. Pleasure is now a Conditioned Response which causes attachment Operant: Reinforcement (DOLLARD AND MILLER 1950) When an infant if hungry, they feel uncomfortable and I drive is produced to reduce this discomfort. When the infant in fed, the drive is reduced and this produces a feeling of pleasure. The infant learns that the food is rewarding (Primary Reinforcer) and begins to recognise the person that provided the food (Secondary reinforcer). Attachment occurs because the infants seeks to be around the person that supplied the award. Evaluating learning theory Research by Harlow (1959) suggests attachment may not totally based upon the provision of food. Harlow removed baby rhesus monkeys from their mothers, and placed them into a cage. In the cage there were 2 wire mesh cylinders. One covered in towelling...
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...1. Two of the first emotions to appear in infants are pleasure and pain. Pleasure is encountered when they are fed or when they are about to sleep. Pain is often felt when they are hungry, scared or tired. They also feel pain when they have a colic, which is the result of an immature digestion. 2. Anger in infants is usually triggered by frustration. Infants detest being held back from doing what they want such as being caged or strapped in. Anger is said to be a healthy response compared to sadness which suggests withdrawal. An overwhelming amount in sadness in early life associates with depression later on. 3. 1-year-olds usually fear being separated from someone they are accustomed to being around or sleeping with, such as a parent. This...
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...Infant Care Mari Cooper PSY 104 Instructor: Nichole Bennett April 28, 2014 Children zero to two years old are in the age period of infancy; whereas children eleven to fourteen years old are in the age period of early adolescence. Children grow and develop in many different ways. The three major domains of development discussed in our text are physical, cognitive, and psychosocial development. Child development is a field of study devoted to understanding human constancy and change from conception through adolescence. Developmental theorists typically focus on the progression of children in three domains: physical, cognitive, and psychosocial development. Physical development is the changes in body size, proportions, appearance, brain development, motor capacities, and physical health. Cognitive development is the development of thought processes and intellectual ability; including attention, memory, problem solving, and creativity. Psychosocial development is the emotional communication, self-understanding, ability to manage feelings, personal skills, friendship, and behavior. All the senses develop in the womb, but touch seems to be the first and most mature and vision is the least sensory to develop. Although, an infant’s head becomes proportionately smaller as they grow in height and develop in their lower body parts. Physical and motor skills develop rapidly in infancy. Infant’s growth occurs from top down and from the center of the body outward, according to cephalocaudal...
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