PSYA02H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Prenatal Development, Sexual Differentiation, Zygote

• School: UTSC
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYA02H3
• Professor: Steve Joordens

Document Summary

The uniqueness of the human infant no other animal is born so helpless and dependent on its parents, they have to nd their own ways to survive. We have few children and high parental dependence but animals have more children and nearly no parental dependence. A lot of physical development happens before birth and continues after. Physical dependence sets the stage for social development that continues throughout the lifespan. Longitudinal e. g. the time lapse of the girl from birth to 12; sample stays the same and you study the changes over time; take a long time; loss of participants. Cross-sectional study different individuals simultaneously; faster to conduct; not the same individuals so changes are harder to detect (confounds sneak into study) Zygote stage initial cell begins dividing and differentiating, eventually forming 200 different kinds of cells (blood cells, nerve cells, etc. ) all with the same kind of dna.