Developmental Psychology Notes
Developmental Psychology Notes
Examines how people are continually developing- physically, cognitively, and socially – from infancy through old age.
Nature and Nurture: how do genetic inheritance and experience influence our development?
Should always be in the back of your head during this unit.
Are you who you are because of the way you were born or because of the way you were raised?
Continuity and stages: is development a gradual, continuous process like riding an escalator, or does it proceed through a sequence of separate stages, like climbing rungs on a ladder?
Stability and change: do our early personality traits persist through life, or do we become different persons as we age?
Prenatal Development and the Newborn
Prenatal Development
The process starts when a woman produces a mature egg.
Women are born with all the immature eggs they will ever have, while men develop sperm at puberty.
One sperm penetrates the protective layer of the egg and the nuclei fuse into one.
Fertilized eggs are called zygotes.
10 days after conception, the zygote attaches to the mother’s uterus, the zygote’s inner cells become the embryo, organs begin to form and function, and the heart starts beating.
By 9 weeks after conception, the embryo looks unmistakably human. It is now called a fetus. It is responsive to sound and will prefer its mother’s voice to another’s.
The placenta is a protective “sac” to nourish and keep the fetus safe.
Some substances can slip by, like teratogens, which are harmful agents like drugs or viruses. Whatever a pregnant mother does, many times their child will do the same. (drugs) If a mother smokes, the baby could be born with medical issues. Alcohol consumption leads to fetal alcohol syndrome.
First period is called menarche.
The Competent Newborn
When a baby is born, they are born with some innate tendencies.
Habituation: decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation.
The dog-cat test sowed that infants along with humans looked
Examines how people are continually developing- physically, cognitively, and socially – from infancy through old age.
Nature and Nurture: how do genetic inheritance and experience influence our development?
Should always be in the back of your head during this unit.
Are you who you are because of the way you were born or because of the way you were raised?
Continuity and stages: is development a gradual, continuous process like riding an escalator, or does it proceed through a sequence of separate stages, like climbing rungs on a ladder?
Stability and change: do our early personality traits persist through life, or do we become different persons as we age?
Prenatal Development and the Newborn
Prenatal Development
The process starts when a woman produces a mature egg.
Women are born with all the immature eggs they will ever have, while men develop sperm at puberty.
One sperm penetrates the protective layer of the egg and the nuclei fuse into one.
Fertilized eggs are called zygotes.
10 days after conception, the zygote attaches to the mother’s uterus, the zygote’s inner cells become the embryo, organs begin to form and function, and the heart starts beating.
By 9 weeks after conception, the embryo looks unmistakably human. It is now called a fetus. It is responsive to sound and will prefer its mother’s voice to another’s.
The placenta is a protective “sac” to nourish and keep the fetus safe.
Some substances can slip by, like teratogens, which are harmful agents like drugs or viruses. Whatever a pregnant mother does, many times their child will do the same. (drugs) If a mother smokes, the baby could be born with medical issues. Alcohol consumption leads to fetal alcohol syndrome.
First period is called menarche.
The Competent Newborn
When a baby is born, they are born with some innate tendencies.
Habituation: decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation.
The dog-cat test sowed that infants along with humans looked