PSYC23H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Urie Bronfenbrenner, Gene Expression
Overview
● Early life plays a crucial role in human development (physical and mental health)
● Early relationships regulate
○ Stress physiology
○ Gene expression
○ Brain development
● Societal factors affect early life
○ Adversity, SES, ACES, and institutional rearing, war, etc
Urie Bronfenbrenner
“…in order to develop normally, a child requires progressively more complex joint activity with one or more adults who
have an irrational emotional relationship with the child. Somebody’s got to be crazy about that kid. That’s number
one. First, last, and always”
Relationships matter
● Serve and return interactions
○ Coordinated and reciprocal
○ Meaning and greater integration
○ Still face experiment - mother and baby
● Positive and warm parent-child relationships
○ Understand others’ feelings, needs, and thoughts
○ Cognitive skills and social competence
● Positive and warm relationship with school teachers in kindergarten
○ Excited about learning
○ Excited to be in school
Relationships matter
● Young children are highly vulnerable emotionally to adverse influences of parental mental health problems
and family violence
○ Maternal depression especially when combined with difficult temperament and early rapid brain
development
○ Interventions are challenged by greater adversity
● Greater emotional distress in the family influences the quality of maternal behaviour, which affects:
○ Gene expression/neural development in brain regions involved in the regulation of the HPA-axis,
social/emotional behaviour, and cognition
10 types of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)
● Abuse
○ Physical (1)
○ Sexual (2)
○ Emotional (3)
● Neglect [probably the most frequent type]
○ Physical (4)
○ Emotional (5)
● Drug or alcohol abuse (6)
● Mentally ill person in the home (7)
● Witnessing domestic violence (8)
● Incarceration of a family member (9)
● Loss of a parent to death, abandonment, or divorce (10)
● Medical and dental neglect
Document Summary
Early life plays a crucial role in human development (physical and mental health) Adversity, ses, aces, and institutional rearing, war, etc. In order to develop normally, a child requires progressively more complex joint activity with one or more adults who have an irrational emotional relationship with the child. Somebody"s got to be crazy about that kid. Positive and warm relationship with school teachers in kindergarten. Young children are highly vulnerable emotionally to adverse influences of parental mental health problems and family violence. Maternal depression especially when combined with difficult temperament and early rapid brain development. Greater emotional distress in the family influences the quality of maternal behaviour, which affects: Gene expression/neural development in brain regions involved in the regulation of the hpa-axis, social/emotional behaviour, and cognition. Mentally ill person in the home (7) Loss of a parent to death, abandonment, or divorce (10)
