What is developmental ● Scientific study of biological, cognitive, social and
psychology? personality development through the lifespan
● Major issue in developmental psychology is the natu
vs nurture question
○ Are our behaviors and characteristics
determined by genetics or by
experience/environment?
Prenatal Development and Stages, influence, motor development, and sensory-percep
Infancy development
What are the stages of ● Germinal = begins with formation of the zygote and
prenatal development? ends after - 2 weeks when outer portion attaches its
to uterine wall
○ Collection of cells/define themselves what ro
they play
● Embryonic = from 2 weeks to - 2 months, major
structures and organs begin to develop and the emb
starts to resemble a human being
● Fetal = from 2 months to birth, developing organism
called fetus and undergoes very rapid growth
First 40 weeks are divided into three stages
First started as female then become masculine from
testosterone if a boy
Can’t announce pregnancy till 3 months due to unexpect
incidents such as, miscarriage
What are some influences on ● Genetic code (nature/biological side) and
prenatal development? environmental (nurture) in utero
● Teratogens = things that is affecting the fetus
○ Environmental agents - ex: population in the a
○ Diseases - mother can’t get sick (ex: flu)
○ Physical conditions - ex: health
Facials won’t develop correctly
What can delay prenatal development? Food, drugs,
alcohol, chemicals, mother’s status (age)
Developmental psychologist (important for pregnancy)
What are some motor ● A reflex is an inborn, unlearned response to a specifi
developments? stimulus
○ Babinski reflex = disappears in the beginning
development, if not there. Then there is a
, problem. Ex: bottom of foot is stroke and toe
spread out
○ Grasping reflex = when hand is touched he/s
will grasp it
○ Sucking reflex = cheek is touched and head w
turn direction to where they felt it (lips)
○ Rooting reflex = inability (felt he/she was
falling) arms flay out then try to grasp into
something (similar to sucking reflex)
○ Motor reflex = different stages in developmen
no specific order
These reflexes will disappear overtime
Needs to learn how to multitask, a lot of energy to do tas
What are some of the ● Preferential-looking technique (looking at something
sensory-perceptual ○ Looking time
developments? ○ Indicates if infant can differentiate between
stimuli
● Habituation
○ Repeated presentation of same stimulus
○ Looking time, heart rate (rises when intereste
in something), sucking speed, etc
● Status of each sense at birth and early in infancy
○ Vision (including color vision) - least
developed at birth
○ Hearing - sounds, talk while pregnant becaus
they’ll recognize your voice
○ Smell - selective interest to mother smell
● Touch - reflexes
● Taste - prefer sugar water, able to differentiate taste
Development of neural networks and pruning (not expos
to it, can be removed)
Lose interest when something is shown repeatedly
Do they recognize the difference?
Number 1 interest is a human face
Evolution sense
How do we think throughout Language development, cognitive development, 4 stages, a
our lifespan? sociocultural approach
What are the stages of ● Follows same sequence of stages cross-culturally a
language development? dependent on experience/exposure
● Early infancy - crying and nonverbal signs
psychology? personality development through the lifespan
● Major issue in developmental psychology is the natu
vs nurture question
○ Are our behaviors and characteristics
determined by genetics or by
experience/environment?
Prenatal Development and Stages, influence, motor development, and sensory-percep
Infancy development
What are the stages of ● Germinal = begins with formation of the zygote and
prenatal development? ends after - 2 weeks when outer portion attaches its
to uterine wall
○ Collection of cells/define themselves what ro
they play
● Embryonic = from 2 weeks to - 2 months, major
structures and organs begin to develop and the emb
starts to resemble a human being
● Fetal = from 2 months to birth, developing organism
called fetus and undergoes very rapid growth
First 40 weeks are divided into three stages
First started as female then become masculine from
testosterone if a boy
Can’t announce pregnancy till 3 months due to unexpect
incidents such as, miscarriage
What are some influences on ● Genetic code (nature/biological side) and
prenatal development? environmental (nurture) in utero
● Teratogens = things that is affecting the fetus
○ Environmental agents - ex: population in the a
○ Diseases - mother can’t get sick (ex: flu)
○ Physical conditions - ex: health
Facials won’t develop correctly
What can delay prenatal development? Food, drugs,
alcohol, chemicals, mother’s status (age)
Developmental psychologist (important for pregnancy)
What are some motor ● A reflex is an inborn, unlearned response to a specifi
developments? stimulus
○ Babinski reflex = disappears in the beginning
development, if not there. Then there is a
, problem. Ex: bottom of foot is stroke and toe
spread out
○ Grasping reflex = when hand is touched he/s
will grasp it
○ Sucking reflex = cheek is touched and head w
turn direction to where they felt it (lips)
○ Rooting reflex = inability (felt he/she was
falling) arms flay out then try to grasp into
something (similar to sucking reflex)
○ Motor reflex = different stages in developmen
no specific order
These reflexes will disappear overtime
Needs to learn how to multitask, a lot of energy to do tas
What are some of the ● Preferential-looking technique (looking at something
sensory-perceptual ○ Looking time
developments? ○ Indicates if infant can differentiate between
stimuli
● Habituation
○ Repeated presentation of same stimulus
○ Looking time, heart rate (rises when intereste
in something), sucking speed, etc
● Status of each sense at birth and early in infancy
○ Vision (including color vision) - least
developed at birth
○ Hearing - sounds, talk while pregnant becaus
they’ll recognize your voice
○ Smell - selective interest to mother smell
● Touch - reflexes
● Taste - prefer sugar water, able to differentiate taste
Development of neural networks and pruning (not expos
to it, can be removed)
Lose interest when something is shown repeatedly
Do they recognize the difference?
Number 1 interest is a human face
Evolution sense
How do we think throughout Language development, cognitive development, 4 stages, a
our lifespan? sociocultural approach
What are the stages of ● Follows same sequence of stages cross-culturally a
language development? dependent on experience/exposure
● Early infancy - crying and nonverbal signs
