Human Growth & Development

Piaget, CBT: individual adjusts existing schemas and beliefs of how the world works to incorporate new info, adjustments allow individual to alter perceptions about the world and learn through adaptability.
learn by adapting"Infant sucks on everything, but through accomodation the infant begins to distinguish btwn things that can be sucked on (nipples, bottles) and things that should not be (coins, shoes)."

(lemon, bengston, peters) Psychosocial theory on aging: older adults age best when they participate in a wide range of daily activities to stimulate them physically, cognitively, and socially. therapist should encourage an active lifestyle. theory developed in response to "disengagement theory" which was prevailing belief about adults in the first half of the 20th century. ex: stella, 68, has aged happily bc she engages in daily activities such as crossword puzzles, tennis, and dancing as opposed to living a sedentary lifestyle

Sociocultural theory: the presence of both masculine and feminine characteristics in the same individual. Refers to behaviors and emotions, not physical characteristics. Androgynous individuals tend to be healther, more flexible and competent than those with very narrow and strict gender roles, Also, a frequent characteristic of those suffering from gender identity disorder. Ex: Male patient is independent and assertive but also nurturing and sensitive to others.

Widely used method to assess a newborn's health at one and five minutes after birth. the scale assesses the infant's
heart rate,
respiration effort,
muscle tone,
body color, and
reflex irritability.
each variable has a value of 2 pts. a high total score of 7-10 indicates a healthy baby. a score of 5 says their may be developmental difficulties. A low total score of 3 or below means emergency and the baby may not survive. scale is effective in assessing the newborn's ability to repsond to the stress of delivery, the new environment, as well as identify high risk infants that need resuscitation. Ex: it was discovered during john's cognitive assessment in the first grade that when john was born he had a low apgar score due to difficulty breathing which may have caused mild brain damange and could in turn be a contributing factor to his low iq score

Piaget, CBT: an individual incorporates new info into their existing knowledge or schemas of the world. assimilation allows one to explore the world with somewhat confident assumption of how things work and what to expect. Ex: 4 yr old viewed the therapist as an authority figure. this new relationship was assimilated to fit her pre-existing schema of "child follows the instruction of adult figure"

(bowlby, ainsworth, harlow) developmental period of infancy. process of infant emotionally bonding with the primary caregiver. relationship btwn two people who feel strongly about one another and do things to maintain the relationship. attachment in infancy is correlated with independence and confidence later in life.
4 types:
*secure: baby uses caregiver as a secure base from which to explore the environment, may protest when caregiver departs but will continue positive interaction when they return.
*insecure avoidant: baby shows insecurity by avoiding the caregiver, is not distress when she leaves the room and generally will not re-establish contact when the caregiver returns. may even turn their back on her and if contact is made, the baby usually leans away or looks away
*insecure resistant: baby often will cling to the caregiver and then resist her by fighting against the closeness by kicking or pushing away. baby doesn't explore environment. cries when caregiver leaves, and cries when she returns, will push away if tried to be comforted
*insecure disorganized: baby is disorganized and disoriented, may appear dazed, confused, fearful. to be classified as disorganized, babies must show strong patterns of avoidance adn resistance or display certain specified behaviors such as extreme fearfulness around caregiver.
Ex: when baby cries, mom is responsive and fulfills babies needs, in return baby smiles and cooes and makes eye contact with baby. this process helps baby form a strong attachment to mom and mom feels mutual attachment bc of reinforcement from baby

The physical, emotional, sexual, neglectful maltreatment of a child; can cause pathology or developmental problems such as attachment problems or social problems, therapist is a mandated reporter.Ex: teenage client was sexually abused during childhood, she came to therapist to improve her self esteem as she has few friends and sexual anxiety

Pavlov's Theory of Learning: A neutral stimulus (UCS) is paired with a conditioned stimulus (CS) to bring about a conditioned reponse (CR) in absense of the conditioned stimulus.
Ex: pairing a ringing bell (UCS) with food (CS). Eventually dog associated the ringing bell with food and salivates (CR) when the bell is rung even if no food is present.

Research design group where a group of people born at a similar time, who shared a common experience or characteristic within a defined period of time, are studied over time. Can affect results of research concerning life span development effects due to the experiences they have had rather than age. cohorts can differ many aspects. used in cross sectional designs and developmental research to see how people of different ages compare ona variable at one point in time. cohort effect: any belief of characteristic shared by people in the same cohort that is influenced by pressures and challenges typical of that group. Ex: a study is conducted comparing two different cohort's likelihood of seeking therapy. The older cohorts would be less likely to seek counseling than their younger cohorts.

Theoretical debate carried out by developmentalisits concerning whether development occurs gradually and cumulatively over time, a quantitative change (continuity) or whether development occurs in distinct stages a more qualitative change (discontinuity). Developmentalists who support the "nature" aspect view development as being discontinuous (abstract thinking) and those who support "nurture" view development as being continuous (long development).
Ex: Mother brought in 2 yr old bc son is not speaking. Therpaist told her that language develops continuously and that he will not start speaking all of the sudden or just develop the ability at a certain stage, however, it is a slow gradual process.

Research term. a control group is identical to the experimental groups in a study but there is no manipulation of the independent variable (treatment). It serves as a baseline against which the effects of the treatment can be measured. Ex: in a study of the effectiveness of an SSRI, one group is given the meds and one group (control group) is given a placebo. Both groups are similar in characteristics affecting tx such as age and depressive symptoms. if there is any difference in the depression levels btwn groups we can assume the difference is caused by the independent variable (medication)

A study of the relationship between two random variables. calculated using Pearson's R formula. A positive corelation is when both variables increase or decrease. A negative correlation is when one variable increases and the other decreases. The strength of the relationship btwn the 2 variables is represented by the correlation coefficient (r). Correlation means that a relationship exists btwn variables but does not establish causality. Correlation coefficient (r) can fall between -1.0 and 1.0. The closer to either end the stronger the correlation. Ex: self esteem and depression are negatively correlated. While depressed people are likely to suffer from low self esteem, you can't say that depresseion is caused by low self esteem or that low self esteem is caused by depression.

Lorenz, ethological theory: period of development where growth must occur or it will occur later with difficulty or not at all. fixed time period very early in development during which certain features or bx's emerge, such as fetal or language development. during this time one is vulnerable to teratogens and other environmental factors taht can interfere with normal development of these bx's and features. Ex: it is believed that the infant didn't form properly bc the mother drank alcohol during the critical period of development.

A research design where subjects of different age groups are assessed at one point in time. it allows the researcher to gather data from large groups ina very short time. it is relatively fast and can study a large number of patients at a small financial cost (when compared to a longitudinal study). also low dropout rate. efficient at identifying associations but may have trouble determining cause and effect. cohort effects influence results and show less complete picture of development. also gives no infor about how individuals change over time. Ex: a group of 100 adults w anorexia and 100 w bulimia were surveyed on perfectionism. On average the people with anorexia scored higher on perfectionist tendencies.

Psychoanalytic theory. freud. the way in which the ego unconsciously tries to cope wtih unacceptable anxiety for example,

denial, repression, projection, rationalization, displacement, transference, sublimation.

Understanding and identifying these mechanisms are crucial in understanding and coping with maladaptive bx's. will manifest as reistance in therapy. therapist and client must work through this.; ex: mary is stressed out at work with her boss. she projects her anger onto her husband. mary came to therapy bc of unhappy marriage but is really frustrated that she can't talk to her boss.