1. Developmental Psychology
Human Life Span – Birth to Piaget

2. APGAR Test Quick Physical test given to newborns at birth]
Test is given at 1 & 5 minutes after birth
A = Activity or muscle tone. Muscle movements are measured.
P= Pulse. Should be over 100 beats per minute
G= Grimace or reflex irritability. Babies sneeze or cough during suctioning of the mucus.
A= Appearance. Normal skin color. Blue-gray or pale skin is not a good sign.
R= Respiration. Babies should be crying and breathing regularly.

3. Newborn Reflexes
Babinski Reflex – when the bottom of the foot is stroked the toes flare out and curl back
Moro Reflex – Arms are thrust out and the back is arched in response to sudden noise or movement
Swimming Reflex – If submerged in water for a short period of time, babies hold their breath and pump their arms and legs.
Stepping Reflex – When held over a flat surface infants move feet up & down as if they are walking

4. SIDS –Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
New research suggest that infants with a low serotonin level are at risk
Serotonin plays a role in breathing, sleeping and waking.
Exhaled carbon dioxide confined around a babies nose and mouth should cause a release of serotonin causing the baby to wake and move their head but if the level is low they don’t wake and inhale the carbon dioxide causing a risk of death.
This is way having infants sleep on their back has reduced number of SIDS-related deaths.

5. Habituation
Once a stimulus becomes familiar and expected, our sensitivity to it decreases. We do not respond as strongly to it as we did in the beginning.
Example – When first watching a scary movies we react strongly to the frightening scene but however more we watch scary movies the less we respond to the frightening scenes. We have become habituated.

6. Maturation
The timely and orderly sequence of developmental changes that takes place as a person gets older

7. Schema Concept or mental molds into which we pour our experiences.
List 10 things you associate with a picnic.
Your schema of a picnic
Bambi – when he was sniffing the flowers a skunk pokes his head up in the flowers. Since Bambi just learned the word flower he calls the skunk Flower.

8. Assimilate
Fitting new information into current schemas

9. Accommodate
The process of accommodation involves altering one’s existing schemas, or ideas, as a result of new information or new experiences. New schemas may also be developed during this process.

10. Piaget’s Theory Sensorimotor Stage – Birth to 2 yrs
Differentiates self from objects  Recognizes self as agent of action and begins to act intentionally: e.g. pulls a string to set mobile in motion or shakes a rattle to make a noise 
Achieves object permanence: realizes that things continue to exist even when no longer present to the sense

12. Piaget’s Theory Preoperational Stage - 2 to 7 yrs
Learns to use language and to represent objects by images and words 
Thinking is still egocentric: has difficulty taking the viewpoint of others
Classifies objects by a single feature: e.g. groups together all the red blocks regardless of shape or all the square blocks regardless of color 

13. Piaget’s Theory Preoperational Stage - 2 to 7 yrs
Conservation- The principle that quantity remains the same despite changes to shape.
Children misunderstand conservation in several ways:
Volume - Believe that different sized containers hold different amounts of liquid
Length – When an object’s shape changes its mass. Start with a ball of clay and then make it into a snake the child will believe that some clay is missing
Area – Rearranging parts of an object changes if fundamentally.

15. Piaget’s Theory Preoperational Stage - 2 to 7 yrs
Egocentrism - Children have trouble perceiving things from another’s point of view.
Children display egocentrism in several ways.
Collective Monologues – Children will appear to be talking to each other in a dialogue, but they are really talking about two completely different subjects
Animism – Children believe that nature is alive and controllable by them or their parents. Ex – trees or the sun have feelings
Artificialism – Children believe natural phenomena are created people. Ex – People created the mountains by piling up dirt.

16. Piaget’s Theory Concrete Operational – 7 to 11 yrs
Can think logically about objects and events 
Achieves conservation of number (age 6), mass (age 7), and weight (age 9) 
Classifies objects according to several features and can order them in series along a single dimension such as size. 

18. Piaget’s Theory Formal Operational – 11 yrs and up
Can think logically about abstract propositions and test hypotheses systematically.
Becomes concerned with the hypothetical, the future, and ideological problems