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Psychology 1B > 1 DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY - TEXTBOOK > Flashcards

1 DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY - TEXTBOOK Flashcards

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1
Q

What is developmental psychology?

A

Study of continuity and change across the human life span

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2
Q

What is the nature vs nurture debate?

A

Naïve distinction about whether development is determined by genetics or environment

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3
Q

Why is the nature vs nurture debate naïve?

A

Genes that influence development also depend on the environment to determine how they are expressed

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4
Q

What is canalization?

A

The idea of development as constrained epigenesis

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5
Q

What is Waddington’s epigenetic landscape?

A

A metaphor for the concept of development as the interaction between genes and environment

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6
Q

What is the epigenetic landscape made up of?

A

Valleys and troughs at different depths

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7
Q

What happens as the ball rolls down the epigenetic landscape?

A

Some parts of its journey are well specifed/highly probable due to deep canalization and other paths are less predictable because path is less specified

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8
Q

What is infancy?

A

The period from birth up to second year of life

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9
Q

When is childhood?

A

Begins at around 18-24 months and continues until late adolescence

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10
Q

When is adolescence?

A

Begins with the onset of sexual maturity (around 11-14) and continues until the beginning of adulthood (18-21)

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11
Q

When is the prenatal stage?

A

Begins with conception, ends with birth

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12
Q

What is a zygote?

A

A single cell that contains chromosomes from both a sperm and an egg

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13
Q

How many chromosomes do sex cells contain?

A

23

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14
Q

When is the germinal stage?

A

Two week period that begins at conception

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15
Q

What happens during the germinal stage?

A

Zygote begins to divide, migrates down fallopian tube and implants itself in uterus wall

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16
Q

When is the embryonic stage?

A

Weeks 2-8

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17
Q

What is a blastocyst?

A

Cluster of embryonic cells

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18
Q

What is an embryonic disk?

A

Three-layered flattened structure that emerges from blastocyst

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19
Q

What are the three layers of the embryonic disk?

A

Endoderm, mesoderm and ectoderm

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20
Q

What is the endoderm?

A

Layer that goes on to form internal organs

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21
Q

What is mesoderm?

A

Layer that goes on to form skeletal muscles

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22
Q

What is the ectoderm?

A

Layer that goes on to form skin and nervous system

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23
Q

When is the fetal stage?

A

Week 9 until birth

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24
Q

When is the embryo known as a fetus?

A

During fetal stage

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25
Q

What is the neural tube?

A

The cylindrical structure of the embryonic nervous system

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26
Q

How is the neural tube formed?

A

A portion of the ectoderm folds over

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27
Q

What emerges from the neural tube?

A

Forebrain and midbrain at one end and spinal cord at the other

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28
Q

What happens to the neural tube around weeks 3-4?

A

Cells undergo neurogenesis

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29
Q

What is neurogenesis?

A

The formation of neural cells

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30
Q

What are teratogens?

A

Agents/toxins that affect fetal development

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31
Q

Name 4 examples of teratogens.

A

Lead in water, mercury in fish, tobacco, alcohol

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32
Q

What is fetal alcohol syndrome?

A

A developmental disorder that stems from heavy alcohol use during pregnancy

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33
Q

What are the possible effects of fetal alcohol syndrome?

A

Increased risk of birth defects (especially regarding shape/size of head and brain) and impaired cognitive development

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34
Q

What are the possible effects of tobacco use during pregnancy?

A

Perceptual and attentional problems and low birth weight

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35
Q

In which stage of pregnancy are teratogens the most dangerous?

A

During the embryonic stage

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36
Q

When does the human brain begin to function?

A

As it is being built

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37
Q

What can a fetus learn while in the womb?

A

Mother’s voice

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38
Q

What is prosody?

A

The rythym of speech

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39
Q

What is the usual gestation period of human babies?

A

40 weeks

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40
Q

What are generative processes?

A

Those that lead to the formation of new structures

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41
Q

What are three major generative processes?

A

Aborization, Synaptogenesis, Myelination

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42
Q

What is arborization?

A

Process where cell axon lengthens and grows increasing dendritic branches

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43
Q

What is synaptogenesis?

A

Increase in number of synaptic junctions

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44
Q

What are synaptic junctions?

A

Areas where cells communicate through activity of neurotransmitters

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45
Q

What is myelination?

A

Formation of fatty sheath around axons of a brain cell

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46
Q

What is the function of the myelin sheath?

A

To increase rate of signal transmission along axon

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47
Q

What is synaptic pruning?

A

Mechanism which eliminates synaptic connections

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48
Q

What is the function of synaptic pruning?

A

Discarding inactive connections increases efficiency

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49
Q

What is the phrase often attributed to synaptic pruning?

A

Use it or lose it!

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50
Q

What is plasticity?

A

The capacity of the brain to be moduled by experience

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51
Q

What are three reasons humans are born with underdeveloped brains?

A

Evolution of brain, adaptability to born environment, learning from others

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52
Q

What are the two types of plasticity?

A

Experience-expectant plasticity, experience-dependent plasticity

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53
Q

What is experience-expectant plasticity?

A

Pre-specified neural organisation that is waiting for input from environment

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54
Q

When does experience-expectant plasticity typically operate?

A

During sensitive periods of development

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55
Q

What are sensitive periods of development?

A

Relatively specific times when environmental input is expected

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56
Q

Give an example of experience-expectant plasticity?

A

Development of visual system during first 6 months of life

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57
Q

What is experience-dependent plasticity?

A

Non pre-specified neural organisation that depends on input from environment

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58
Q

How does timing of experience affect experience-dependent plasticity?

A

It doesn’t

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59
Q

What are the two types of developmental change?

A

Quantitative and qualitative change

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60
Q

What is quantitative change?

A

Amount or quantity of change

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61
Q

What is qualitative change?

A

Type or quality of change

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62
Q

Why is qualitative change significant?

A

Suggests significantly different mechanisms are operating

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63
Q

What is a milestone?

A

Important demarcating event on path of development

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64
Q

What does demarcate mean?

A

To define limits of, distinguish

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65
Q

What are stage theories?

A

Theories that advocate development as a fundamental reoraganisation of underlying mechanisms

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66
Q

What are the five primary developmental functions?

A

Continuous increasing ability, continuous decreasing ability, step or stage like, inverted u-shaped, upright u-shaped

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67
Q

How do you remember the five developmental functions?

A

Up, down, on the stairs, going in circles

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68
Q

What are the two typical research designs in developmental psychology?

A

Longitudinal, cross-sectional

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69
Q

What tool is employed in longitudinal studies?

A

Repeated measure

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70
Q

What are cross-sectional studies vulnerable to?

A

Cohort bias

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71
Q

What is cohort bias?

A

Anomalies predominant in one group that distort comparison between groups

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72
Q

Who is considered to be the father of developmental psychology?

A

Jean Piaget

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73
Q

What is Piaget’s clinical method of studying children?

A

Manipulating the situation to see how the child’s behaviour changes in a reliable manner

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74
Q

What did Robert Fantz (1961) establish?

A

Visual preference paradigm

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75
Q

What is the visual preference paradigm?

A

Technique that uses difference in duration of looking to infer pattern discrimination

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76
Q

What is the most common experimental method used with very young children?

A

Habituation

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77
Q

What is habituation?

A

Response to stimulation declines with repeated exposure

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78
Q

What is the preference for novelty paradigm?

A

Following habituation, organisms prefer to attend to novel stimulation

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79
Q

Why is the preference for novelty paradigm poweful?

A

Tests how well the infant differentiates aspects of the world

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80
Q

What is VOE?

A

Violation of expectancy paradigm

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81
Q

What is the violoation of expectancy paradigm?

A

Where the anticipated outcome is deliberately contravened

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82
Q

What does the VOE show?

A

Infant is not passive, they are trying to work out what should happen next

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83
Q

What is a geodesic sensor?

A

A network of sensitive electrodes that detects tiny changes in electrical voltage at the scalp surface

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84
Q

What is a structured interview?

A

A consistent set of questions about a topic under consideration

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85
Q

Can newborns see?

A

No, newborns are legally blind

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86
Q

What is acuity?

A

The level of finest visual detail that can be resolved

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87
Q

What is visual scanning?

A

The ability to selectively move one’s eyes around the environment

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88
Q

What is sticky fixation?

A

Where infants younger than two months appear to lock their gaze on highly visible objects from which they cannot easily disengage

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89
Q

What is visual contrast?

A

Areas of greatest brightness relative to darkness

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90
Q

At what age is an infant’s vision comparable to that of an adult?

A

6 months

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91
Q

At what age does hearing reach adult levels?

A

5 to 8 years

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92
Q

What, during pregnancy, may affect later food preference of infants?

A

Taste of amniotic fluid

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93
Q

What does touch stimulate in infants?

A

Release of hormones that regulate metabolism and growth

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94
Q

What are mental representations?

A

Patterns of neuronal activity that refer to aspects of the external world

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95
Q

What are the five levels of processing and representation in the brain?

A

Stimulus, sensory representation, perceptual process, perceptual representation, cognition

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96
Q

Do newborns represent perceptual constancies?

A

Yes

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97
Q

What are perceptual constancies?

A

Compensatory processes that adjust for percieved physical changes of size and shape that enable us to recognize that as an object moves, it remains the same object

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98
Q

What is crossmodal perception?

A

Capacity to detect correspondences of different features from different sensory modalities

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99
Q

What does crossmodal perception require?

A

Integration of information from visual and auditory processing regions of brain

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100
Q

What is the primary reason for developing a brain?

A

To move around at will and act on environment

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101
Q

What is motor development?

A

The emergence of the ability to execute physical actions such as reaching, grasping, crawling and walking

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102
Q

What are reflexes?

A

Specific patterns of motor response that are triggered by specific patterns of sensory stimulation

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103
Q

What is the ‘rooting’ reflex?

A

Tendency for newborns to move their mouths towards anything that touches their cheek

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104
Q

What are reflexes supported by?

A

Subcortical brain mechanisms

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105
Q

Describe the pattern of development of motor skills?

A

Ordered sequence but not a strict timetable

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106
Q

What is stereopsis?

A

Perception of depth by combining the images from each eye

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107
Q

Is stereopsis present in newborns?

A

No, relies on cortical mechanisms and emerges around 3 months

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108
Q

What is the visual cliff?

A

Platform with a shallow drop on one side and a steep cliff on the other

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109
Q

What does the visual cliff test?

A

Depth perception and fear responses to drops in height

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110
Q

Why may infants avoid crossing the deep side of the visual cliff?

A

They perceive affordances

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111
Q

What are affordances?

A

Potentials for possible actions by agents acting on the environment

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112
Q

Who is known to be the father of cognitive development studies?

A

Jean Piaget

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113
Q

How many stages are there in Piaget’s theory of cognitive development?

A

4

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114
Q

What are the four stages of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development?

A

Sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational

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115
Q

What did Piaget believe about transition through the stages of development?

A

They are universal and invariant

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116
Q

In what way are Piaget’s stages universal?

A

Every child in every culture goes through the same stages

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117
Q

In what way are Piaget’s stages invariant?

A

Every child goes through the same sequence in the same order at roughly the same time

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118
Q

What produces cognitive development according to Piaget?

A

Maturation, experiences and activities

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119
Q

What is maturation?

A

Biologically constrained change

120
Q

When does the sensorimotor stage occur?

A

Begins with birth and lasts through infancy

121
Q

What are the characteristics of the sensorimotor stage?

A

Infant experiences world through movement and senses, develops schemas, acts intentionally, shows understanding of object permanence

122
Q

What is assimilation (in terms of schemas)?

A

When infants apply their schemas in novel situations

123
Q

What is accommodation (in terms of schemas)?

A

When infants revise their schemas in light of new information

124
Q

What is object permanence?

A

The idea objects continue to exist when they are not visible

125
Q

What was Piaget’s famous object permanence finding?

A

Young infants make A not B error

126
Q

What is limited competence?

A

An inability to understand what needs to be done to solve a task

127
Q

What is limited performance?

A

An inability to execute the necessary actions to solve a task

128
Q

When does the preoperational stage occur?

A

Between 2 and 6 years old

129
Q

What are the characteristics of the preoperational stage?

A

Acquisition of motor skills but no understanding of conservation of physical properties. Transition from egocentricism to basic theory of mind

130
Q

What is conservation?

A

The notion that the quantitative properties of an object are invariant despite changes in the object’s appearance

131
Q

What is centration?

A

The tendency to focus on just one property of an object to the exclusion of all others

132
Q

When does the concrete operational stage occur?

A

Between 6 and 11 years old

133
Q

What are the characteristics of the concrete operational stage?

A

Logical thinking about physical objects and events, understanding of conservation

134
Q

What is the appearance-reality distinction?

A

The appreciation that looks can be decieving

135
Q

When does the formal operational stage occur?

A

11 years old through adulthood

136
Q

What are the characteristics of the formal operational stage?

A

Logical thinking about abstract propostitions and hypotheticals

137
Q

In what two ways has Piaget’s theory of development been criticised?

A

Children acquire abilities earlier than he proposed, development is continuous and not step-like

138
Q

What do information-processing theories of development argue?

A

Children use more efficient strategies, increased capacity to process and store information and faster mental operations to solve ever more complicated problems

139
Q

What metaphor captures the principles of information-processing?

A

Computer

140
Q

What are executive functions?

A

Mental operations that enable us to coordinate our thoughts and behaviours

141
Q

What is inhibition?

A

The ability to suppress intrusive thoughts and behaviours

142
Q

What are three examples of executive function?

A

Planning, memory and inhibition?

143
Q

What is the deferred imitation paradigm?

A

Where the infant imitates an event demonstrated some time earlier

144
Q

What does the deferred imitation paradigm suggest?

A

Presence of long term memory in infants

145
Q

Why do children forget?

A

Lack frameworks for recounting and storing events

146
Q

What is causal reasoning?

A

When we infer that events happening close together in time and space are linked in some causal way

147
Q

At what age can children reorder pictures of an apple being cut into pieces?

A

3 years old

148
Q

What do core knowledge theories of development argue?

A

Child is born with some ‘hard-wired’ understanding about the world, instincts

149
Q

What metaphor captures the principles of core knowledge?

A

Swiss army knife

150
Q

According to core knowledge theorists, what are the core domains learnt through guidance by core principles?

A

Language, counting skills, navigation, understanding of solid objects

151
Q

What are the characteristics of the core principles?

A

They are universal and unchanging, they do not have to be learnt

152
Q

What are intuitive theories?

A

Frameworks that are not explicitly taught and explain related aspects of the world

153
Q

What is psychological essentialism?

A

The belief that things in nature and in particular living things are what they are because of some inner property or essence

154
Q

What do sociocultural theorists believe about cognitive development?

A

Development is result of child’s interactions with members of their own culture rather than objects

155
Q

What are cultural tools?

A

Language, counting systems

156
Q

How do cultural tools effect development?

A

Provide ability for children to have thoughts

157
Q

What is the zone of proximal development?

A

A child’s range of skills

158
Q

What is the effect of interacting with adults or more knowledgeable peers on a child’s zone of proximal development?

A

Skills acquired towards top of their available range

159
Q

What is adolescence?

A

That weird time between childhood and adulthood

160
Q

What is puberty?

A

Bodily changes associated with sexual maturity

161
Q

What are primary sex characteristics?

A

Bodily structures that are directly involved in reproduction

162
Q

What are secondary sex characteristics?

A

Bodily structures that change dramatically with sexual maturity but are not directly involved in reproduction

163
Q

What happens to brain during puberty?

A

Development of neurons in frontal and parietal lobes peaks at 12, peaks at 16 in temporal lobe and increases in occipital lobe until aged 20

164
Q

What is adulthood?

A

Final stage of development

165
Q

When is adulthood?

A

Begins 18-21 until death

166
Q

What area of the brain deteriorates the most quickly during adulthood?

A

Prefrontal cortex and associated subcortical connections

167
Q

What is the prefrontal cortex responsible for?

A

Executive functions

168
Q

Which types of memory show the most pronounced decline?

A

Working (vs long term) memory, Episodic (vs semantic) memory, Retrieval (vs recognition)

169
Q

How do adult brains compensate for declining functions?

A

Using other neuronal structures to compensate for failures of the original

170
Q

How does bilateral symmetry change in old age?

A

Remembering’ in older adults shows activation of multiple areas instead of strong activation in localised areas

171
Q

What affects what we remember in old age?

A

Changing orientations, what we focus on

172
Q

What is socioemotional selectivity?

A

Change in orientation towards information, shortening of future causes us to focus on information relevant to present and information that is positive

173
Q

How does happiness change with age?

A

Overall happiness increases with age and positive emotional experiences are sustained for longer

174
Q

How do our social networks change with age?

A

They become smaller, we are more selective about who we spend time with

175
Q

What are feral children?

A

Children raised in isolation from society

176
Q

What is very important for normal development?

A

Early social interaction (as well as nourishment and safety)

177
Q

Which famous experimenter studied the effect of social isolation on monkeys?

A

Harlow

178
Q

What is the effect on monkeys when they are reared in isolation from birth?

A

Incapable of communication with others of their kind, antisocial mothers

179
Q

Are the effects of isolation reversible in monkeys?

A

Yes

180
Q

In what time period is isolation reversible in monkeys?

A

6 month sensitive period

181
Q

What is imprinting?

A

A process where the hatchlings bond to their mother at first sight and then follow her about everywhere

182
Q

Which animal expert first identified imprinting in birds?

A

Lorenz

183
Q

When given two patterns, one face like and one not, which do human newborns prefer to look at?

A

Face like pattern

184
Q

What is conspec?

A

A system that orients the infant towards face-like structures

185
Q

What supports conspec?

A

Mature subcortical brain mechanisms that are present from birth

186
Q

What acquired ability is used to learn about specific faces?

A

Conlearn

187
Q

What supports conlearn?

A

Maturing cortical brain mechanisms

188
Q

What is babyness?

A

Lorenz’s term for relative attractiveness of big eyes and big heads

189
Q

What is the effect of babyness?

A

Evokes positive and caring response in adults

190
Q

What is joint attention?

A

Capacity to coordinate the social interaction with attention towards objects of mutual interest

191
Q

What are two ways to establish joint attention?

A

Gaze following and pointing

192
Q

What is the most obvious form of joint attention?

A

When individuals follow each other’s gaze

193
Q

What is social smiling?

A

Smiles directed at people

194
Q

What does social smiling require?

A

Reciprocation, contingent behaviour

195
Q

What is contingent behaviour?

A

Synchronized responding from adult

196
Q

What is a dyadic (gaze) relationship?

A

Where focus of interest is between two individuals

197
Q

What is a tryadic (gaze) relationship?

A

Where attention is directed between two individuals and a third potential source

198
Q

What is joint attention useful for?

A

Facilitation of language learning

199
Q

What is social referencing?

A

Looking at carers to gauge their reaction in unfamiliar or threatening circumstances

200
Q

What are the two types of pointing?

A

Protoimperative and protodeclarative pointing

201
Q

What is the function of protoimperative pointing?

A

To direct another’s attention to obtain a particular goal (goal-oriented)

202
Q

What is the function of protodeclarative pointing?

A

To direct another’s attention to an object or event of interest (object/event-oriented)

203
Q

Which of the two types of pointing is uniquely human?

A

Protodeclarative pointing

204
Q

What is attachment?

A

An emotional bond

205
Q

What are the three key features of attachment?

A

Proximity seeking, secure base, separation protest

206
Q

What is proximity seeking?

A

Attached child will stay close to primary carer

207
Q

What is secure base?

A

Primary carer provides secure base from which the attached child can explore the world

208
Q

What is separation protest?

A

Attached children will be distressed if separated from primary carer

209
Q

Which psychiatrist studied attachment?

A

Bowlby

210
Q

How many phases of attachment are there according to Bowlby?

A

3 (Up to 2 months, 7 months, 2 years)

211
Q

According to Bowlby, what marks the second phase of attachment?

A

Stranger anxiety

212
Q

What is stranger anxiety?

A

A fearful response associated with crying and attempts to cling or move closer to the carer

213
Q

Why does Bowlby believe infants become attached to their primary carer?

A

Innate evolutionary drive

214
Q

Who developed the ‘strange situation’ test?

A

Mary Ainsworth

215
Q

What does the ‘strange situation’ determine?

A

Child’s attachment style

216
Q

In the ‘strange situation’ what indices are the infant’s reactions coded according to?

A

Proximity seeking, contact maintenance, resistance, avoidance

217
Q

What are the four main attachment styles?

A

Secure, avoidant, ambivalent, disorganized

218
Q

What influences attachment style?

A

Parenting styles and attitudes, culture

219
Q

What culture promotes avoidant attachment by fostering independence?

A

German

220
Q

What culture promotes ambivalent attachment?

A

Japanese

221
Q

What are attachment objects?

A

Blankets and soft toys that children are emotionally attached to and use for reassurance

222
Q

What is key to establishing secure attachment?

A

Parental sensitivity

223
Q

What is parental sensitivity?

A

Consistent attentiveness to the infant’s emotional well-being

224
Q

Why do infants track parental sensitivity?

A

To create an internal working model of attachment

225
Q

What is an internal working model of attachment?

A

The child’s expectations of how their primary carer will respond when the child feels insecure

226
Q

What type of working model would a securely attached child have?

A

A secure working model

227
Q

What two variables may affect a child’s internal working model?

A

Temperament and goodness of fit

228
Q

What is temperament?

A

A characteristic pattern of emotional activity

229
Q

What is behavioural inhibition?

A

The tendency towards shyness and fear of novelty

230
Q

What largely determines temperament?

A

Genes

231
Q

What is goodness of fit?

A

The extent to which the child’s environment is compatible with their temperament

232
Q

What can parents do if their child’s temperament is not a good match for their environment?

A

Be sensitive to their child, prepare them for potentially stressful situations and provide support

233
Q

What is meant by the term ‘agent’?

A

A being that operates purposefully with intention to achieve outcomes in the world

234
Q

What is social cognition?

A

The processes by which people come to understand others

235
Q

What is imitation useful for?

A

Learning

236
Q

What mistake might an infant make about a robot that behaves contingently with the infant?

A

The robot has a mind - it is a ‘person’

237
Q

What is pedagogy?

A

The transfer of knowledge primarily for the purpose of teaching

238
Q

What can 2 year old infants identify about other people’s desires?

A

They may have desires different from their own

239
Q

What is metarepresentation?

A

Thinking about thoughts

240
Q

What is egocentricism?

A

The tendency to adopt a self-centred viewpoint, difficulty to represent another person’s perspective

241
Q

What is mental perspective taking?

A

Thinking about what goes on in other people’s mind

242
Q

What is theory of mind?

A

The understanding that human behaviour is guided by beliefs that may or may not be true

243
Q

What is a false belief?

A

A mental state of presumed truth that turns out to be incorrect

244
Q

What famous task is used to evaluate a child’s understanding of another’s false belief?

A

Sally-Anne Task

245
Q

At what age do children usually pass the false belief task?

A

Small percentage of 3 year-olds, High percentage of 5 year-olds

246
Q

How does language affect theory of mind development?

A

Increased language skills correlate with better understanding of theory of mind

247
Q

What are two examples of conditions that impair theory of mind development?

A

Autism and deafness (being taught to sign counters the effect)

248
Q

What are self-concepts?

A

Thoughts we have about our body, personality, relationships and beliefs

249
Q

What contributes to the shaping of our sense of self?

A

How we think we are perceived by others

250
Q

At what age do children discover their physical selves as distinct from surrounding objects and people?

A

By age of 6 months

251
Q

At what age do children recognize themselves in a mirror?

A

Around 18 months

252
Q

What is self-esteem?

A

Sense of self-worth

253
Q

What is self-control?

A

The general capacity to regulate thoughts and behaviours in the face of conflict

254
Q

What is key to self-control?

A

Ability to inhibit thoughts and behaviours

255
Q

What are Maccoby’s four kinds of inhibition?

A

Inhibition of movement, emotion, conclusion, choice

256
Q

What is delay of gratification?

A

How long a child can tolerate the absence of the experimenter before giving into temptation

257
Q

What influences a child’s self-control?

A

Behaviour of parents

258
Q

What is the effect of strict parenting on self-control?

A

Reduced self-control; controlling parents reduce their child’s ability to internalize control

259
Q

What is gender?

A

Set of characteristics that distinguish between males and females

260
Q

At what age do children have an awareness of their own gender?

A

Around 2 years of age

261
Q

What is the effect of gender biases?

A

Affects rate of development of various abilities in males and females

262
Q

What is the difference between boys and girls on IQ tests?

A

None - they are almost identical

263
Q

How does Baron-Cohen explain differences between males and females?

A

Differences caused by biological factors - differing levels of testosterone during fetal brain growth

264
Q

What does Baron-Cohen believe to be different between males and females?

A

Males are more inclined to systemize, females are more inclined to empathize

265
Q

What is systemizing?

A

Analysing tasks in terms of systems and patterns

266
Q

What is empathizing?

A

Identifying another person’s emotions and thoughts

267
Q

What is the effect on girls with adrenal hyperplasia?

A

Increased testosterone - more tomboy behaviours

268
Q

Are gender differences only visible in humans?

A

No - female chimps play with dolls while male chimps don’t

269
Q

What is sociodramatic play?

A

Games involving fantasy role-playing

270
Q

What does sociodramatic play allow children to do?

A

Express emotions and discuss mental states

271
Q

Which psychologist categorized each stage of life by the major task confronting the individual at that stage?

A

Erik Erikson

272
Q

According to Erikson, what does adolescence mark a shift in?

A

Shift in emphasis from family relations to peer relations when defining self

273
Q

What is morality?

A

The rules that govern the right and wrong of how we should behave and treat others#

274
Q

What is prosocial behaviour?

A

Voluntary acts that are intended to help others which may have some benefit to the prosocial individual

275
Q

What are some examples of prosocial behaviour?

A

Giving, sharing, cooperating, protecting

276
Q

What is altruism?

A

A specific prosocial behaviour that helps others without any necessary expectation of reciprocal benefit

277
Q

At what age do children begin to exhibit prosocial behaviour?

A

8-12 months

278
Q

What bias affects prosociality?

A

In-group/out-group or us/them biases

279
Q

Why is it important that children learn to share?

A

Risk of being rejected if they don’t share

280
Q

What do behaviourists believe contributes to moral development?

A

Reinforced learning; shaping through reward and punishment

281
Q

What is observational learning?

A

Learning that occurs when person observes another person being rewarded or punished

282
Q

What is vicarious punishment?

A

The tendency not to repeat behaviours that we observe others being punished for performing

283
Q

What three shifts did Piaget observe in children’s moral thinking?

A

Realism to relativism, prescription to principles, consequences to intentions

284
Q

Describe Piaget’s realism to relativism shift.

A

Rules are initially black and white, then children realise that they can either adopt, change or abandon them

285
Q

Describe Piaget’s prescriptions to principles shift.

A

Moral rules initially appear to be specific guidelines, then children realise that they are actually expressions of more general principles (e.g. fairness)

286
Q

Describe Piaget’s consequences to intentions shift.

A

Children are initially utilitarian and then become more Kantian

287
Q

What is moral reasoning according to Piaget?

A

A skill that is closely tied to other cognitive skills

288
Q

Which psychologist developed a more detailed theory of the development of moral reasoning?

A

Kohlberg

289
Q

According to Kohlberg, how many stages of moral reasoning are there?

A

3

290
Q

What are Kohlberg’s three stages of moral reasoning?

A

Preconventional, conventional and postconventional

291
Q

What is Kohlberg’s preconventional stage?

A

Morality of an action is primarily determined by its consequences for the actor

292
Q

What is Kohlberg’s conventional stage?

A

Morality of an action is primarily determined by the extent it conforms to social rules

293
Q

What is Kohlberg’s postconventional stage?

A

Morality of an action is determined by a set of general principles that reflect core values

294
Q

Why must an individual progress through Kohlberg’s stages in order?

A

Each requires a more sophisticated set of cognitive skills than the one before

295
Q

According to a moral intuitionist perspective, why have humans developed a distinction between right and wrong?

A

We have evolved to react emotionally due to reproduction and survival

296
Q

What is the effect of observing distress in another individual?

A

Triggers an empathetic reaction in brain of observer, creating a feeling of distress

Psychology 1B (4 decks)

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