CH 4: Development Through the Life Span

Question 1

Developmental Psychology

Answer 1

A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span.

Question 2

What three (3) major issues does Developmental Psychology focus on?

Answer 2

1) Nature and Nurture:
How does our genetic inheritance (our nature) interact with our experiences (our nurture) to influence our development? How have your nature and your nurture influenced your life story?

2) Continuity and Stages:
What parts of development are gradual and continuous, like riding an escalator? What parts change abruptly in separate stages, like climbing rungs on a ladder?

3) Stability and Change:
Which of our traits persist through life? How do we change as we age?

Question 3

Zygotes

Answer 3

The fertilized egg; it enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo.

Question 4

Embryo

Answer 4

The developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilizing through the second month.

Question 5

Fetus

Answer 5

the developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth.

Question 6

Teratogens

Answer 6

(Literally, “Monster Makers”)

Agents such as Chemicals and Viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm.

Question 7

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)

Answer 7

Physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman’s heavy drinking. In severe cases, signs include small, out-of-proportion head and abnormal facial features.

Question 8

Habituation

Answer 8

Decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner.

Question 9

Maturation

Answer 9

Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relative uninfluenced by experience.

(PS. Personally: I do NOT Agree)

Question 10

Critical Period

Answer 10

An optimal period early in the life of a organism when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces normal development.

Question 11

Cognitive Development

Answer 11

All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

Question 12

Who is Jean Piaget?

Answer 12

A Swiss psychologist known for his work on child development in the 1920s.

Question 13

Assimilation

Answer 13

Interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemes.

Question 14

Schemas

Answer 14

A concept of framework that organizes and interprets information.

Question 15

Accommodation

Answer 15

In developmental psychology, adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information.

Question 16

Sensorimotor Stage

Answer 16

In Piaget’s theory, the stage (from birth to nearly 2 years of age) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities.

Question 17

Object Permanence

Answer 17

The awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived.

Question 18

What is Baby Physics?

Answer 18

Like adults staring in disbelief at a magic trick (the “Whoa!” look), infants look longer at and explore an unexpected, impossible, or unfamiliar scene.

Question 19

Preoperational Stage

Answer 19

In Piaget’s theory, the stage (from about 2 to about 6 or 7 years of age) during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic.

Question 20

Conservation

Answer 20

The principal (which Piaget believed to be a part of concrete operational reasoning) that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects.

Question 21

Egocentrism

Answer 21

in Piaget’s theory, the preoperational child’s difficulty taking another’s point of view.

Question 22

Theory of Mind

Answer 22

People’s ideas about their own and others’ mental states - about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict.

Question 23

Concrete Operational Stage

Answer 23

In Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 7 to 11 years of age) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events.

Question 24

Formal Operational Stage

Answer 24

in Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts.

Question 25

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

Answer 25

A disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by significant deficiencies in communication and social interaction, and by rigidly fixated interests and repetitive behaviors.

Question 26

What does Theory of Mind have to do with autism spectrum disorder?

Answer 26

Theory of mind focuses on our ability to understand our own and others’ mental states. Those with autism spectrum disorder struggle with this ability.

Question 27

Stranger Anxiety

Answer 27

The fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age.

Question 28

Attachment

Answer 28

An emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation.

Question 29

Imprinting

Answer 29

The process by which certain animals form strong attachments during early life.

Question 30

What distinguishes Imprinting from Attachment?

Answer 30

Attachment is the normal process by which we form emotional ties with important others. Imprinting occurs only in certain animals that have a critical period very early in their development during which they must form their attachments, and they do so in an inflexible manner.

Question 31

Temperament

Answer 31

A person’s characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity.

Question 32

Basic Truth

Answer 32

According to Erik Erikson, a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy; said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers.

Question 33

What are three parenting styles, and how do children’s traits relate to them?

Answer 33

1. Authoritarian: Parents are corrective - they impose rules and expect obedience.
2. Permissive: Parents are restraining - they make few demands and use little punishment.
3. Authoritative: Parents are confrontive - they are both demanding and responsive. They exert control by setting rules, but encourage open discussion and allow exceptions.

Question 34

How does childhood neglect or abuse affect children’s attachments?

Answer 34

Children are very resilient, but those who are severely neglected by their parents, or otherwise prevented from forming attachments at an early age, may be at risk for attachment problems.

Question 35

Why can’t we consciously recall how we learned to walk when we were infants?

Answer 35

We have no conscious memories of events occurring before about age 3½, in part because major brain areas have not yet matured.

Question 36

Adolescence

Answer 36

The transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence.

Question 37

Puberty

Answer 37

The period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing.

Question 38

Fill in the Blank.

According to Kohlberg, _____ morality focuses on self-interest, ______ morality focuses on self-defined ethical principals, and _____ morality focuses on upholding laws and social rules.

Answer 38

Preconventional; Postconventional; Conventional.

Question 39

Identity

Answer 39

Our sense of self; according to Erikson, the adolescent’s task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles.

Question 40

Social Identity

Answer 40

The “we” aspect of our self-concept; the part of our answer to “Who am I?” that comes from our group membership.

Question 41

Intimacy

Answer 41

In Erikson’s theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in young adulthood.

Question 42

What is the Selection Effect, and how might it affect a teen’s decision to join sports teams at school?

Answer 42

Adolescence tends to select similar others to sort themselves into like-minded groups. For an athletic teen, this could lead to finding other athletic teens and joining school teems together.

Question 43

Emerging Adulthood

Answer 43

A period from about age 18 to the mid-twenties, when many in Western cultures are no longer adolescents but have not yet achieved full independence as adults.

Question 44

Menopause

Answer 44

The time of natural cessation of mensturation; also refers to the biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines.

Question 45

Cross-Sectional Study

Answer 45

A study in which people of different ages are compared with one another.

Question 46

Longitudinal Study

Answer 46

Research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period.

Question 47

Social Clock

Answer 47

The culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement.

Question 48

Fill in the Blank:

Freud defined the healthy adult as one who is able to _____ and to ______.

Answer 48

Love; Work

Question 49

What are some of the most significant challenges and rewards of growing old?

Answer 49

CHALLENGES:
* Decline of muscular strength, reaction times, stamina, sensory keenness, cardiac output, and immune system functioning. Risk of cognitive decline increases.

REWARDS:
* Positive feelings tend to grow; negative emotions are less intense; and anger, stress, worry, and social-relationship problems decrease.

Question 50

Fill in the Blank:

Erikson agreed with Freud, observing that the adult struggles to attain intimacy and _____.

Answer 50

Generativity