5. Developmental Psychology

Question 1

Studies the way humans develop and change over time.

Answer 1

Developmental psychology

Question 2

The extent to which changes and individuals overtime reflect the influence of genetically programmed maturation or of learning and experience.

Answer 2

Nature and nurture

Question 3

Refers to biologically based changes that followed an orderly sequence, each step setting the stage for the next step according to an age-related timetable.

Answer 3

Maturation

Question 4

Psychologists continue to debate whether human development is characterised by these two following…

Answer 4

Critical periods or Sensitive periods

Question 4

Periods of special sensitivity to specific types of learning and sensory stimulation that shape of the capacity for future development.

Answer 4

Critical periods

Question 5

Times that particularly important but not definitive for subsequent development.

Answer 5

Sensitive periods

Question 6

Does development could occur in ______ – relatively discreet steps through which everyone progresses in the same sequence – or is it continuous – involving steady and gradual change.

Answer 6

Stages

Question 7

Compares groups of participants of different ages at a single time to see whether differences exist among them.

Answer 7

Cross sectional studies

Question 8

Assess the same individuals over time, providing the opportunity to assess age changes rather than age differences.

Answer 8

Longitudinal studies

Question 9

Minimises cohorts effects by studying multiple cohorts longitudinally.

Answer 9

Sequential studies

Question 10

Differences among age groups associated with differences in the culture.

Answer 10

Cohort effects

Question 11

A means by which psychologists can learn about infant perception and cognition – it is the tendency of humans, even from birth, to pay more attention to novel stimuli than to stimuli to which they become habituated, or accustomed.

Answer 11

Orienting reflex

Question 12

Decreases as the infant habituates to a stimulus and increases with the presentation of a new one.

Answer 12

Sucking rate

Question 13

They are able to perceive subtle differences, such as the sound of the mothers and another woman’s voice, from birth. Vision is not well developed at birth.

Answer 13

Infant senses

Question 14

The ability to associate sensations of an object from different senses or to match their own actions to behaviours they have observed visually.

Answer 14

Intermodal processing

Question 15

People completely lack explicit memory for events before age 3 or 4.

Answer 15

Infantile amnesia

Question 16

Who argued that children develop knowledge by constructing reality at of their own experience, mixing what they observe with their own ideas about how the world works.

Answer 16

Piaget’s theory of cognitive development.

Question 17

Involves interpreting actions or events in terms of one’s present schemas.

Answer 17

Assimilation

Question 18

An organised, repeatedly exercised pattern of thought or behaviour.

Answer 18

Schema

Question 19

The modification of schemas to fit reality.

Answer 19

Accommodation

Question 20

The driving force behind cognitive development – balancing assimilation and accommodation to adapt to the world.

Answer 20

Equilibration

Question 21

People assimilate and accommodate when confronted with new information throughout their lives. At each stage of development however children use a distinct underlying logic, or structure of thought, to guide their thinking.

Answer 21

Piaget’s stages of development

Question 22

0 to 2 years – thought and action virtually identical, as the infant explores the world with its senses and behaviours; object permanence develops; the child is completely egocentric.

Answer 22

Sensorimotor stage

Question 23

2 to 7 years – symbolic thought develops, allowing children to imagine solutions to problems mentally rather than through action; children have difficulty imagining reality from other viewpoints, and have a tendency to centre on one perceptually striking feature of an object.

Answer 23

Pre-operational stage

Question 24

7 to 12 years – The child is able to perform reversible mental operations on representations of objects; understanding of conservation develops; the child can apply logic to concrete situations.

Answer 24

Concrete operational stage

Question 25

The basic properties of an object or situation remain stable even though superficial properties may have changed.

Answer 25

Conservation

Question 26

12 years and on – the adolescent can apply logic more abstractly; hypothetical thinking develops.

Answer 26

Formal operational stage

Question 27

This reflects a continuum of cognitive development, ranging from a child’s individual capacity for problem solving to a more advanced and collaboratively based level of cognitive development.
Stretchers from sole performance to collaborative corporation.

Answer 27

Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development (ZPD)

Question 28

Emphasises the world of social interaction and learning.

The model proposes children collaborate and strive together on tasks to enhance their levels of understanding.

Answer 28

Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of cognitive development