PSYC 351 Midterm 1 Cheat Sheet: Development, Theories and Genetics
PSYC 351 Midterm 1 Working Cheat Sheet
Name: ____________________
Development
Developmental psychology: identifies and explains continuities and changes in individuals over time.
Maturation: biological development based on heredity; typically similar progression and timing.
Learning: experiences that change feelings, thoughts, and behaviours.
Interaction: experience influences maturation; maturation influences experience.
Walking explanation: biological readiness makes movement possible; experience provides opportunities to practise. Readiness affects available experiences, and experience influences development. Neither process alone fully explains walking.
Four Themes
Heredity and environment: biology and environment both influence development and interact.
Extreme views: Wiggam emphasizes heredity as the main explanation for differences between people; Watson claims environment and training can shape any infant into any type of specialist. The lecture’s conclusion: both nature and nurture influence development.
Continuity and discontinuity: gradual change versus changes in kind or stages. Early development influences later development, but not perfectly; multiple factors affect outcomes.
Recognize: gradually increasing vocabulary = continuity. A proposed transition to a different way of thinking = discontinuity. Discontinuity is a difference in kind, not simply rapid improvement. Early experience influences later outcomes; it does not guarantee them.
Active and passive child: the child contributes to their development; external and systemic influences also shape development.
Recognize: child chooses, explores, seeks, or practises = active contribution. Adults and surroundings shape opportunities = external influence. Explain both when asked how development occurs.
Isolated and connected domains: developmental areas are interconnected; changes in one can affect others. Walking → social interaction; language → expression of feelings.
Explain the link: walking lets a child approach peers, creating social opportunities; language lets a child describe emotions. Identify both domains and explain what connects them. The same scenario can illustrate several themes; match the part highlighted by the question.
Developmental Domains
Physical; motor; perceptual; conceptual; cognitive; social/emotional; language; gender/sexual; moral/spiritual.
Chronological Overview
Prenatal: conception–birth.
Infancy: birth–18 months.
Toddler: 18 months–3 years.
Preschool: 3–5 years.
Middle childhood: 5–approximately 12 years/onset of puberty.
Adolescence: approximately 12–20 years; lecture associates its end with beginning work and independence from parents.
Age ranges are approximate.
Answer Cues
Define: state what the term means. Compare: define both and state the difference. Apply: identify the concept, point to evidence in the scenario, explain why it fits. Explain development: connect biological readiness, experience, the child’s contribution, and relevant surrounding influences. Short answer: concept → explanation → specific example; match detail to marks.
Avoid absolute claims: “only genes,” “only environment,” “early experience guarantees the outcome,” “children have no influence,” or “domains develop independently.”
Theories and Scientific Method
Theory: organized ideas explaining development and generating testable predictions. Observation → theory → hypothesis → research → evidence → retain/refine or reject/revise theory. Describe: what happens/when. Predict: use associations/correlations. Explain: test hypotheses about why. Correlation alone does not establish causation.
Biological Perspective
Darwin: baby biographies. G. Stanley Hall: developmental psychology as a research discipline. Arnold Gesell: maturational theory.
Ethology: evolutionary basis of behaviour; biologically programmed behaviours are products of evolution and adaptive for survival. Lorenz: imprinting.
Critical period: limited biological window for developing an adaptive behaviour. Sensitive period: optimal period of heightened responsiveness to experience; not an absolute cutoff. Bowlby: early emotional bonds; lecture identifies the first 3 years as a sensitive period. Do not equate a sensitive period with an irreversible deadline.
Freud — Psychosexual Theory
Core: biological sexual/aggressive urges conflict with societal restraint. Id: instinctual urges; ego: balances urges with reality; superego: internalized moral standards. Libido: drive for physical pleasure; its focus shifts between erogenous zones. Early parental handling of urges influences personality. Fixation: unresolved/restricted urges leave development tied to a stage and can have lasting effects. These are Freud’s theoretical claims.
Oral, birth–1: mouth; sucking, chewing, feeding.
Anal, 1–3: elimination and toilet-training conflicts.
Phallic, 3–6: genital focus; opposite-sex-parent desire and same-sex-parent identification in the theory (Oedipus/Electra concepts).
Latency, 6–11: sexual urges repressed/channelled into school and play; ego/superego develop.
Genital, 12 onward: puberty renews sexual urges; socially acceptable expression and mature relationships.
Erikson — Psychosocial Theory
Core: eight psychosocial conflicts across life; satisfactory resolution prepares for later stages. Unlike Freud, emphasizes active exploration, adaptation, and cultural influences.
Infancy: trust vs mistrust — dependable care.
Early childhood: autonomy vs shame/doubt — independence.
Preschool: initiative vs guilt — starting activities.
School age: industry vs inferiority — competence.
Adolescence: identity vs role confusion — sense of self.
Young adulthood: intimacy vs isolation — close relationships.
Middle adulthood: generativity vs stagnation — contributing to others/next generation.
Maturity: ego integrity vs despair — evaluation of one’s life.
Learning Theories
Watson — classical conditioning: learning associations between stimuli and responses; well-learned habits contribute to stable personality. Cue: a stimulus acquires the ability to elicit a response through association.
Skinner — operant conditioning: consequences shape behaviour; favourable outcomes encourage repetition, unfavourable outcomes discourage it. Reinforcement increases behaviour; punishment decreases behaviour. Identify the effect on behaviour, not merely whether the consequence sounds pleasant.
Bandura — social cognitive theory: observational/vicarious learning through models; requires attention, encoding, and memory storage. Bobo doll: modelled aggression. Direct reinforcement of the observer is not required for observational learning.
Distinguish: stimulus association → classical; consequence of own behaviour → operant; watching a model → observational.
Piaget — Cognitive Development
Core: children actively construct understanding from experience. Scheme: organized thought/action pattern used to interpret experience. Assimilation: fit new experience into an existing scheme. Disequilibrium: mismatch between current understanding and experience. Accommodation: change the scheme to account for experience.
Example: calls a cat “dog” using an existing animal scheme = assimilation; learns cats differ and changes the scheme = accommodation. Fits scheme → assimilate; does not fit → disequilibrium → accommodate.
Four stages, invariant sequence: same order; ages approximate.
Sensorimotor, birth–2: sensory/motor exploration; object permanence (objects exist when unseen); emerging mental representations.
Preoperational, 2–7: symbols, images, language, imaginative play; thought influenced by appearances; egocentrism (difficulty taking another perspective, not selfishness).
Concrete operations, 7–11: logical mental operations on concrete situations; less fooled by appearances; better understanding of relations and others’ motives.
Formal operations, 11+: abstract, hypothetical, systematic deductive reasoning; considers possible solutions and thinks about thinking.
Vygotsky — Sociocultural Theory
Core: cognitive growth is socially mediated; children learn cultural values, beliefs, and problem-solving skills through interaction.
Zone of proximal development (ZPD): what the learner can do with assistance beyond what they can do alone. Guided participation: learning through shared activity with a more skilled person. Scaffolding: support matched to the learner’s needs, reduced as competence grows.
Compare: Piaget emphasizes active construction and cognitive stages; Vygotsky emphasizes culture and socially supported learning. Both allow an active learner.
Bronfenbrenner — Ecological Systems
Core: person develops within nested environmental systems that interact with each other and the person.
Micro: direct settings/relationships — family, school, peers.
Meso: connections between microsystems — home–school relationship.
Exo: setting not directly experienced by child, with indirect effects — parent’s workplace affects family life.
Macro: broader social values, systems, practices — cultural beliefs, social valuation, ethnic marginalization.
Chrono: changes in person/environment over time — life transitions and historical conditions.
Recognize: parent–child interaction = micro; parent–teacher connection = meso; parent’s work schedule = exo; society’s beliefs = macro; transition/change over time = chrono.
Social Justice Lens
Privilege: advantage/right based on group membership. Discrimination: harmful treatment based on group membership. Inequality influences development through access to safety, food, resources, and opportunities. Explain: identify inequity → how it changes experience/resources → developmental consequence. Unsafe neighbourhood → fewer safe opportunities to explore/play; food insecurity → limited reliable nutrition and potential stress.
Match the Explanation to the Theory
Biological readiness/adaptation → biological; urges/fixation → Freud; psychosocial crisis → Erikson; stimulus association → Watson; behavioural consequences → Skinner; models/observation → Bandura; schemes/stages → Piaget; cultural guidance/ZPD → Vygotsky; interacting environmental systems → Bronfenbrenner; privilege/discrimination/inequity → social justice.
Genetics — Heredity and Transmission
Heredity: biological transmission of traits from parent to child through genes. Genotype: genetic makeup. Phenotype: expressed/observable characteristics, influenced by genotype and environment. Gene: DNA segment contributing to biological function; allele: version of a gene. Homozygous: same alleles (AA/aa); heterozygous: different alleles (Aa).
Fertilization: egg 23 chromosomes + sperm 23 → zygote typically 46 chromosomes/23 pairs. Genes contribute to cell production, differentiation (specialized cells), and developmental pace/timing; environment influences gene function.
Monozygotic (MZ): one fertilized egg splits; typically identical DNA. Dizygotic (DZ): two eggs fertilized by two sperm; genetically like other siblings, sharing about half their segregating genetic variation on average. Lecture links increased twinning to maternal age and assisted reproduction.
Inheritance Patterns
Simple dominant–recessive model: AA/Aa show dominant trait; aa shows recessive trait. Dominant does not mean better or more common. Aa × Aa: 25% AA, 50% Aa, 25% aa per conception; recessive trait probability 25%. Carrier: has a recessive allele without expressing the recessive condition in this simple model.
Codominance: both alleles expressed in a heterozygote (e.g., AB blood type). Sex-linked: gene on a sex chromosome; X-linked recessive traits can appear with one affected allele in a person with one X chromosome. Polygenic: multiple genes contribute to a trait. The slide’s eye-colour diagram illustrates a simplified dominant–recessive model; real eye colour is more complex.
Genetic and Congenital Conditions
Congenital anomaly: present at birth; may arise from genetic, prenatal, or birth-related influences—not necessarily inherited. Chromosomal abnormality: altered chromosome complement; distinct from a disorder caused by an allele of one gene. Genetic conditions can involve recessive alleles, dominant alleles, sex-linked inheritance, or mutations (DNA changes).
Down syndrome: lecture reports approximately 1/800 Canadian births; about 95% involve trisomy 21 (extra chromosome 21, usually 47 chromosomes total). Lecture reports congenital heart disease in about 40%; motor, cognitive, and language development vary widely. These are lecture figures, not individual predictions.
Maternal-age table in lecture: <20 and 20–34: 0.10% (1/1000); 35–39: 0.27% (1/370); 40+: 0.79% (1/127). Table concerns chromosomal defects overall, not specifically Down syndrome.
Assessment/support named in lecture: genetic counselling; prenatal amniocentesis, chorionic villus sampling (CVS), ultrasound, and blood tests.
Genes and Environment
Heredity is not destiny. Range of reaction: genotype sets a range of possible phenotypes; environmental exposures influence the outcome within that range. Graph cue: genes alone → each genotype’s outcome flat across environments; environment alone → same response for all genotypes; both → different genotype-specific responses across restricted/average/enriched environments. It is a conceptual model, not a measurement of an individual’s fixed limits.
Lecture emphasizes invariant sequences in some motor/language development and environmental influence on personality/intelligence. Genetic predispositions need context for expression.
Scarr’s gene–environment relations:
Passive: parents supply both genes and a related environment; child receives it (musical parents provide genes and music at home).
Evocative: genetically influenced characteristics elicit responses from others (outgoing child receives more social engagement).
Active/niche-picking: person chooses environments fitting their tendencies (child seeks music lessons).
Age/application cue: increasing choice can make active relations more influential as children grow. Siblings differ through genetic combinations and differing experiences/responses/choices. This applies Scarr’s framework to the lecture’s opening questions.
Epigenetics: stable changes in gene regulation/function without changing DNA sequence; often changes in gene expression, influenced by environmental and other factors. Can persist through cell division; germ-cell changes may be passed to offspring. Epigenetic change ≠ DNA mutation; transmission is not guaranteed.
Studying Genetic and Environmental Influences
Twin studies: greater MZ than DZ similarity supports genetic influence. Limitation: MZ twins may also have more similar environments; resemblance alone cannot isolate genes, and genes/environment interact.
Adoption studies: greater resemblance to biological than adoptive parents suggests genetic influence. Limitations: prenatal influences are shared with the biological mother; selective placement, similar adoptive environments, or biological-family contact can complicate interpretation. These are reasoning points for the lecture’s “What’s the problem?” questions.
Do not conclude: genes completely determine a trait; a genetic influence makes a trait unchangeable; resemblance proves genes alone caused it.
Prenatal Development — Three Periods
Prenatal: conception to birth. Developmental periods ≠ trimesters. Use the lecture’s conception-based timeline.
Germinal/zygote: conception–implantation, first 2 weeks. Fertilized egg → mitosis (cell division) → blastocyst → implantation in uterine wall; lecture gives implantation around 10–14 days.
Embryonic: weeks 3–8. Begins after embedding in uterine wall; almost all major organs form; heartbeat begins; touch begins developing by the end. Second month: primitive tail becomes coccyx; sex differentiation begins.
Fetal: week 9–birth. Rapid growth and organ functioning/maturation. Third month: organ systems become coordinated; sexual differentiation progresses.
Second trimester, months 4–6: sucking/hiccups; nails harden, skin thickens, hair/eyebrows/eyelashes form; vernix (protective coating) and lanugo (fine hair); touch spreads, taste/smell/hearing begin functioning.
Third trimester, months 7–9: organ systems mature; viability (possibility of survival outside uterus); more regular sleep/motor activity; head-down fetal position. Lecture gives no exact viability week.
Recognition: implantation → germinal; organ formation → embryonic; growth/maturation → fetal.
Placenta and Embryonic Layers
Placenta: semipermeable exchange structure; delivers maternal oxygen/nutrients to developing baby through umbilical cord. Some substances cross, others do not; not a complete barrier to harmful agents.
Ectoderm: hair, skin, nervous system. Mesoderm: muscles, bones, circulatory system. Endoderm: digestive system, lungs.
Teratogens and Timing
Teratogen: external agent (virus, drug, chemical, radiation) capable of harming an embryo/fetus. Sensitive period: heightened vulnerability to environmental influences.
Timing matters: organ systems are especially vulnerable while forming. Embryonic exposure is associated with major structural abnormalities; fetal exposure can affect functioning, growth, and produce minor structural abnormalities. The germinal period can involve prenatal death; do not read the chart’s “usually not susceptible” as completely safe.
Slide 14 chart: dark = greatest sensitivity; light = lower sensitivity, with harm still possible. CNS vulnerability extends across much of prenatal development; organ-specific windows differ. Therefore “after week 8, teratogens cannot harm development” is false.
Prenatal Influences
Infections named: rubella; sexually transmitted infections; other infections, including Zika. Medication example: thalidomide tragedy, 1950s–1960s. Slides also name prescription drugs, aspirin, ibuprofen, and caffeine; listing them does not mean every dose/exposure has identical effects.
Alcohol → FASD: spectrum of effects from prenatal alcohol exposure. Possible physical effects: small head, heart/limb/joint/face malformations, sensory difficulties, slow growth. Brain/function: memory, coordination, attention, intellectual and executive-function difficulties. Behaviour/social: hyperactivity, social difficulties, impulse-control problems. Slide reports 1–2/1000 Canadian births; historical lecture figure, not a current prevalence estimate.
Nicotine: direct/indirect effects; lecture lists slowed growth/low birth weight, cleft lip/palate, abnormal lung function, hypertension, and increased risk of miscarriage or death shortly after birth.
Cannabis: lecture states THC crosses placenta and concentrates in breast milk; possible neurodevelopmental effects, with evidence described as unclear/need for further research. Uncertainty does not establish safety.
Other hazards: radiation, chemicals, pollutants. Maternal characteristics: diet, emotional well-being, age. Insufficient folic acid: linked in lecture to spina bifida.
Studying Infant Perception
Infants cannot verbally report perceptions; infer abilities from behavioural/physiological responses.
Orienting: turning eyes/head toward a stimulus. Habituation: response declines with repetition. Dishabituation: renewed response to a changed stimulus; supports discrimination between old/new stimuli, not proof of full understanding.
Non-nutritive sucking: measure sucking without feeding; changes can indicate detection, interest, or preference. Preferential looking: compare looking at different stimuli; longer looking may reflect novelty or preference, not necessarily liking. Visual scanning: track where/how eyes explore. Evoked potentials: stimulus-linked electrical brain responses.
Challenges: sleep/feeding/arousal and temperament (fussy/calm) affect responses and participation. Lecture reports about 80% dropout among nonverbal infants studied; not a universal rate. Missing responses need not mean missing ability; dropout can limit representativeness.
Gibson — Direct Perception and Affordances
Eleanor and James Gibson: perception is an evolved, inborn adaptation; learning helps children use it while actively exploring. Sensory input is rich, organized, and changes predictably with movement; perception directly accesses information in the environment.
Affordance: resource/support the environment offers relative to the child’s ability to perceive/use it. Example: a step affords climbing only when the child has the relevant capabilities. Nature + learning + active exploration; perception and action are linked.
Developing Senses
Touch: first sense to develop prenatally; stimulation supports physical/emotional development; objects can be explored/distinguished through touch alone.
Taste: infants distinguish sweet/sour/salty/bitter; generally accept sweet and reject bitter, with different facial responses. Familiar flavours experienced in amniotic fluid/breast milk influence preferences.
Smell: preference for mother’s scent; discriminates odours. Lecture examples: vanilla preferred over alcohol/neutral scent; lavender distinguished from rosemary using habituation/EEG. Lavender studies described deeper sleep, less fussing, lower cortisol, more left-frontal EEG activity, and reduced fussing after heelstick. These are study findings, not care recommendations.
Hearing: prenatal response to voices/music; familiar voice preference; interest in speech-like sounds; discrimination of phonemes/syllables.
Vision: newborn visual system immature; lecture describes nearly adult-like capabilities by 4–12 months, with maturation and experience both contributing. This does not mean every aspect of vision is fully mature.
Depth: some evidence of 3-D perception around 3 months, but fear reaction/heart-rate increase appears after crawling experience. Detecting depth ≠ fearing a drop. Visual cliff illustrates apparent depth under a supporting surface; visual and motor development co-develop.
Face perception: named as a lecture topic, but slide 15 provides no explanatory detail.
Sensory Connections
Infant synesthesia: stimulation of one sense can activate pathways for another; lecture example “seeing sounds.”
Cross-modal perception: relate information across senses, such as recognizing visually a shape previously explored by touch. Slide depicts smooth/bumpy pacifiers from Meltzoff and Borton (1979); no results are printed on the slide. Cross-modal matching ≠ automatically experiencing one sense as another.
Purpose of perception: organize the world so the child can assess, respond, and move safely/effectively. Strong perception–motor links: movement changes sensory experience; perception guides movement.
Attention
Attention: selecting inputs for preferential processing. Selective: relevant vs irrelevant input (focus on teacher, ignore noise). Sustained: maintain focus (keep reading). Alternated: switch tasks (reading → taking notes). Divided: attend to more than one task simultaneously. Switching ≠ simultaneous attention.
Lecture sequence over first 10 years: orienting network → alerting network → executive network. Executive network encompasses the attention skills above. Orienting directs attention; alerting supports readiness; executive control manages attention.