Human Development
1. Developmental psychology-the study of changed in physiology, cognition, and social behavior over the life span
2. What shapes a child?
a. Consistency suggests genes set pace/ order of development
b. Eye contact when born, smile, roll over, sit up, crawl, stand, walk, talk
c. Environment also has influence
c.i. Certain stages happen at different intervals
c.ii. Due to the way we raise children differs between cultures
c.iii. Environment influences the way children develop
c.iv. Certain cultures babies not left on the floor for hygienic issues and these babies are slower to pick up on crawling or walking
c.v. Babies who sleep on backs crawl later than those on stomachs
3. Development starts in the womb
a. Zygote-first cell of a new life, formed when sperm from male unites with egg from female
b. Embryo: developing from 2 weeks to 2 months
b.i. Internal organs (heart, lungs, liver, kidneys) begin to form
c. Fetus: the growing human after the 2 months-physical growth
d. Final trimester-finalizations made, fetus ready for life outside
4. Physical development
a. Genes and environment in the womb govern much of human nervous system’s prenatal development
b. Brain’s nerve cells develop in specific sequence in first 7 months
c. By week 4 basic brain regions begin to form
c.i. Cells that will form cortex visible at week 7
c.ii. Thalamus and hypothalamus by week 10
c.iii. Left and right hems by week 12
d. By seventh month fetus has a working nervous system
e. By birth brain is complex- cortical layers, connections among neurons, myelination, doesn’t stop developing all through life
f. Hormones in the womb influence developing fetus
f.i. If thyroid of mother doesn’t produce sufficient amount of hormones fetus is at risk for lower IQ and diminished intellectual development
g. The emotional state has an effect- more stress more harm to the baby
5. Teratogens: environmental agents that harm embryo of fetus;