Chapter 10,12,13 // FINAL EXAM Flashcards
The first phase of prenatal development, encompassing the first two weeks after conception. The cell mass plants itself in the uterine wall and the placenta begins to form. The placenta is a structure that allows oxygen and nutrients to pass into the fetus from the mother’s bloodstream and bodily wastes to pass out to the mother.
Germinal Stage
The second stage of prenatal development from the 2 weeks till the end of the second month. During this stage, most of the vital organs and bodily systems begin to form, which is called an embryo. If anything interferes, with normal development during this phase, the effects can be devastating. (Most miscarriages occur)
Embryonic Stage
The third stage lasting from 2 months till birth. Hearing develops and there is rapid body growth. 23-25 weeks the fetus reaches the threshold of viability.
Fetal Stage
Stress and emotion can have an impact, with an association of increased stillbirths, slowed motor development,
Maternal Nutrition & Emotions
Fetal alcohol syndrome is a collection of congenital problems associated with excessive alcohol use during pregnancy
Maternal Drug Use and Fetal Alcohol Syndrome `
Refers to the progression of muscular coordination required for physical activities. Infants walk a ton and children experience physical growth in spurts. The driving force behind motor development is that infants are exploring their world and need to master specific tasks.
Motor Development
Is development that reflects the gradual unfolding of one’s genetic blueprint.
Maturation
Indicate the typical (median) age at which individuals display various behaviors and abilities
Developmental Norms
Attachment refers to the close emotional bonds of affection that develop between infants and their caregivers. The monkey chose the cloth mom rather than the feeding mom, and the idea was elaborated on by Bowlby that said there must be a biological basis for attachment.
Know and be able to cite both the methodology and the conclusions of Harry Harlow’s work with infant rhesus monkeys on attachment. Understand the importance of contact comfort between mother and child.
Is emotional distress seen in many infants when they are separated from people with whom they have formed an attachment
Separation Anxiety
Children play and explore comfortably with their mother present and are upset by her departure
Secure Attachment
Is when children appear anxious when the mother is present, protest excessively when she leaves, but are not quite comfortable when she returns (also called resistant attachment)
Anxious-Ambivalent Attachment
Children seek little contact with their mothers
Avoidant Attachment
Attachment is a universal theme across cultures and secure attachment appears to be the predominant form of attachment
Be aware in cultural differences in these patterns of attachment.
Infants have a better receptive vocabulary meaning that they can comprehend more words spoken by others than produce their own words
Receptive vocabulary and Productive vocabulary
Vocab grows at a fast pace, and a vocabulary spurt usually begins at around 18 months
Vocabulary spurt
Is the process by which children map a word onto an underlying concept after only one exposure
Fast mapping
When a child incorrectly uses a word to describe a wider set of objects or actions than is meant to be. (occurs between ages 1 and 2.5)
Overextension
When a child incorrectly uses a word to describe a narrower set of objects or actions than it is meant to
Underextension
Consists mainly of content words; articles, prepositions and other less critical words are omitted
Telegraphic speech
Occurs when grammatical rules are incorrectly generalized to irregular cases where they do not apply
Overregularization
Erikson believed that personality continues to evolve over the entire life span and is a discontinuous development idea (stages). A stage is a developmental period during which characteristic patterns of behavior are exhibited and certain capacities become established.
Erikson divided life span into eight stages based on the principle that each stage brings a psychosocial crisis and personality is shaped by how we respond.
Understand that Erikson’s Theory of development is a series of psychosocial crises.
Don’t worry about the individual stages but do understand the implications of STAGE THEORY.
Cognitive development refers to transitions in youngsters’ patterns of thinking, including reasoning, remembering, and problem solving.
Piaget proposed four major stages: the sensorimotor period (birth to 2), the preoperational phase (2-7), the concrete operational period (7-11), and the formal operational stage (age 11 onward)
The sensorimotor period is where infants develop the ability to coordinate their sensory input with their motor actions. The major development is the gradual appearance of symbolic thought, and the key to this transition is the acquisition of the concept of object permanence, which develops when a child recognizes that objects continue to exist even when they are no longer visible.
The preoperational period emphasizes the shortcomings in preoperational thought, where children have not yet mastered the principle of conservation. Conservation is Piaget’s term for the awareness that physical quantities remain constant in spite of changes in their shape or appearance.
Centration is the tendency to focus on just one feature of a problem, neglecting other important aspects,
Irreversibility is the inability to envision reversing an action.
Egocentrism in thinking is characterized by a limited ability to share another person’s viewpoint. A notable feature is animism, which is the belief that all things ae living
The concrete operational period is called concrete because children can perform operations only on tangible objects and actual events. Children can master reversibility and decentration, allowing the child to mentally undo an action and focus on more than one problem than once.
There is also the decline of egocentrism and gradual mastery of conservation and can handle hierarchical classification which are problems that require them to focus simultaneously on two levels of classification.
The formal operational period children begin to apply their operations to abstract concepts.
Know Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development very well. Pay attention to the terms in both bold print and italic.
Criticisms include the fact that Piaget underestimated young children’s cognitive development and that children often simultaneously display patterns of thinking that are characteristic of several stages.
Be aware of the criticisms of Piaget’s Theory
V places enormous emphasis on how children’s cognitive development is fueled by social interactions with parents, teachers, and older teachers who can provide invaluable guidance. V says that language acquisition plays a crucial role and that children’s private speech is very important and eventually becomes internal dialogue adults have with themselves.
Aware of Lev Vygotsky’s view of cognitive development which stresses the importance of culture and language in cognitive development.
Children exhibit sophisticated numerical abilities.
Realize that some cognitive abilities may very well be innate (page 355-356)
He found that individual’s progress through a series of three levels of moral development and each level can be broken into two sublevels.
The preconventional level is when younger children think in terms of external authority, where acts are wrong because they are punished (stage 1). Also, right and wrong is determine by what is rewarded (stage 2).
The conventional level is where children see rules as necessary for maintaining social order. Stage 3, right and wrong is governed by close friends’ approval or disapproval and stage 4 is where right and wrong is determined by society.
The postconventional level is where the adolescent works out a personal code of ethics. Stage 5 is when right and wrong is determined by society’s rules and deemed infallible and stage 6 is where right and wrong is determined by abstract ethical principles.
Know the different stages of Laurence Kohlberg’s theory of moral development and the type of moral thinking that characterizes each stage. These are summarized in Figure 10.8
The structures necessary for reproduction
Primary Sex Characteristics
The stage during which sexual functions reach maturity, which marks the beginning of adolescence.
Puberty
The first occurrence of menstruation
Menarche
The first occurrence of ejaculation
Spermarche
White brain matter grows suggesting that neurons are becoming more myelinated, leading to enhanced connectivity in the brain, whereas the decrease in gray matter is thought to reflect synaptic pruning. This is most pronounced in the prefrontal cortex, which means the prefrontal cortex appears to be the last area of the brain to fully mature.
Know the neurological changes which are still occurring during adolescence and even through the mid-twenties in the brain. Pay particular attention to the prefrontal cortex of the brain.
James Marcia build on Erikson’s insights and proposed that the presence or absence of a sense of commitment (to life goals and values) and a sense of crisis (active questioning and exploration) can combine to produce four different identity statuses.
Identity diffusion is a state of rudderless apathy, with no commitment to an ideology.
Identity foreclosure is a premature commitment to visions, values, and roles – typically those prescribed by one’s parents.
Identity moratorium involved delaying commitment for a while to experiment with alternative ideologies and careers.
Identity achievement involves arriving at a sense of self and direction after some consideration of alternative possibilities.
The Search for Identity including: diffusion, foreclosure, moratorium and achievement.
Erikson divided adulthood into three stages: intimacy versus isolation, generativity versus self-absorption, and integrity versus despair.
In I vs. I, successful resolution should promote empathy
In G vs. SA, middle adulthood’s challenge is to acquire a genuine concern for the welfare of future generations
In I vs. D, retirement year’s challenge is to avoid the tendency to dwell on the mistakes of the past and people need to find meaning and satisfaction in their lives.
Erikson’s View of Adulthood
Couples that cohabit now have greater success at marriage. Men have stronger careers and women do the housework.
Adjustment to Marriage
The transition to parenthood tends to affect mothers more and there is a steep decline in relationship quality after the first birth.
Adjustment to Parenthood
In the sensory domain, the key decline occurs in vision and hearing. Age related changes also occur in hormonal functioning during adulthood, such as menopause for women. Overall the physiological changes tend to decrease functional capabilities, reduce biological resilience in the face of stress, and increase susceptibility to acute and chronic diseases.
Know the physical and mental changes that occur with adulthood and aging.
Dementia is an abnormal condition marked by multiple cognitive deficits that include memory impairment.
In the cognitive domain, aging takes its toll on speed first.
Know and understand the material on the physiological, neural and cognitive changes that occur when a person ages.
People go through 5 stages as they confront their own death: denial, anger, bargaining (with God for more time), depression, and acceptance.
When a friend, spouse, or relative dies, individuals most cope with bereavement.
Know Elizabeth Kuber-Ross’ stages of death and dying
When you interact with people, you’re constantly engaged in person perception- the process of forming impressions of others.
Understand the process of personal perception and the effect of the following influences.
The attractiveness stereotype or what is beautiful is good effect is the phenomenon that beautiful people command more attention than those less attractive.
Physical attractiveness
Stereotypes are widely held beliefs that people have certain characteristics because of their membership in a particular group. There are ethnic, gender, and occupational stereotypes. Stereotypes save energy by simplifying our world, but they tend to be broad overgeneralizations that ignore diversity within groups.
Stereotypes (including the definition of stereotypes and the examples listed in the text.)
The illusionary correlation occurs when people estimate that they have encountered more confirmations of an association between social traits than they have actually seen. Memory processes such as selective recall helps support this.
Know how the illusionary correlation helps to support and maintain stereotypes.
Evolutionists attribute the human tendency to categorize others as members of an ingroup or outgroup. An ingroup is a group that one belongs to and identifies with and an outgroup is a group that one does not belong to or identify with.
Understand the evolutionary natures of the ingroup and outgroup distinction
Inferences that people draw about the causes of events, other’s behavior, and their own behavior. Individuals make attributions because they have a strong need to understand their experiences
Attributions
Ascribe the causes of behavior to personal dispositions, traits, abilities, and feelings.
External attributions ascribe the causes of behavior to situational demands and environmental constraints.
Internal and external attributions
Unstable (temporary) and stable (permanent)
Stable and unstable attributions
The fundamental attribution error refers to observers’ bias in favor of internal attributions in explaining others’ behaviors. Actors favor external attributions for their behavior, while observers are more likely to explain the same behavior with internal attributions
The actor-observer bias and the fundamental attributions error
The tendency to attribute one’s successes to personal factors and one’s failures to situational factors
Self-Serving Bias
Collectivism means putting group goals ahead of personal goals and defining one’s identity in terms of the groups one belongs to. Collectivism societies tend to deal with less fundamental attribution error and self-serving bias. Collectivism is Asia, Africa, and Latin America
The difference between individual and collective cultures and how that difference affects attributions that people make
Refers to positive feelings toward another person
Interpersonal attraction
Key determinant of romantic attraction for both genders
Physical attractiveness
Proposes that males and females of approximately equal physical attractiveness are likely to select each other as partners
Matching Hypothesis
Married and dating people tend to be similar in age, race, religion, social class, education, intelligence, and physical attractiveness.
Similarity
Attraction can foster similarity because people who are close gradually modify their attitudes in ways that make them more congruent
Attitude Alignment
A complete absorption in another that includes tender sexual feelings and the agony and ecstasy of intense emotion and is associated with large swings in positive and negative emotions
Passionate Love
A warm, trusting, tolerant affection for another whose life is deeply intertwined with one’s own
Compassionate Love
Attachment emerges in the first year of life and love is an attachment process.
Know and be able to explain the Hazen & Shaver (1987) study concerning the relationship between the person’s childhood up bring and their adult attachment style summarized in Figure 12.3. We may be doomed to relive our childhood relations with our romantic partner.
A safe relationship described as trusting
Secure
Finding difficulty to get close to others and describe love relations as lacking intimacy and trust
Avoidant
A preoccupation with love, accompanied by expectations of rejection, and love relations are volatile and marked with jealousy
Anxious/ ambivalent
Collectivist societies tend to think of marriage as arranged or thinking about their family’s interests over their own.
Be aware of the role that culture plays in expectations in romantic relationships and that the importance of romantic love differs greatly among cultures.
Valued because a variety of environmental insults and developmental abnormalities are associated with physical asymmetry, which can serve as markers of relatively poor genes or health
Facial symmetry
Men seem to prefer women with low waist to hip ratio because it signifies a female’s reproductive potential
Waist to hip ratio
Attitudes are positive or negative evaluations of objects of thought
Know what is meant by the term “attitude.” Be able to name, define and recognize the components that make up each attitude.
Is made up of the beliefs people hold about the object of an attitude
Cognitive component
Consists of the emotional feelings stimulated by an object of thought
Affective component
Consists of predispositions to act in certain ways toward an attitude object
Behavioral Component
Explicit attitudes are attitudes that one holds consciously and can readily describe, whereas implicit attitudes are covert attitudes that are expressed in subtle automatic responses over which one has little conscious control.
Be able to define and recognize Explicit and Implicit attitudes
Source factors: persuasion is higher when the source has high credibility and is trustworthy
Message factors: two sided arguments, fear appeal, and frequent repetition are all effective strategies. The mere exposure effect is the finding that repeated exposure to a stimulus promotes greater liking of the stimulus
Receiver factors: forewarning reduces the impact of the argument and stronger attitudes are more resistant to change, and resistance can promote resistance
Know about persuasion or trying to change attitudes. Be able to define, identify, and explain how source factors, message factors, and receiver factors play a role in attitude development and attitude changes.
Assumes that inconsistency among attitudes propels people in the direction of attitude change. Cognitive dissonance exists when related attitudes or beliefs are inconsistent; that is, when they contradict each other
You may omit all the Theories of Attitude Change on pages 537-538 except Leon Festinger’s Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Understand the mechanism behind this theory and the attitude changes that result.
Group size and group unanimity were key determinants in conformity.
Normative influence operates when people conform to social norms for fear of negative social consequences. (so, people conform because they are afraid of being criticized or rejected)
Informational influence operates when people look to others for guidance about how to behave in ambiguous situations.
Be able to describe both the methodology and the results of Solomon Asch’s study of conformity.
The guards quickly became cruel and the experiment was stopped just after 6 days because of the swift escalation. The stunning transformation can be attributed to social roles, which are widely shared expectations about how people in certain positions are supposed to behave. The other reason is for situational factors.
Be able to describe both the methodology and the results of Phillip Zimbardo’s Stanford prison study. Be able to relate this experiment to the chronic mistreatment of prisoner by prison guards.
People are less likely to provide needed help when they are in groups than when they are alone. A number of factors account for this, but the most important appears to be the diffusion of responsibility, which occurs in a group situation where the responsibility can be divided among everyone.
The Bystander Effect
Social loafing is a reduction in effort by individuals when they work in groups, as compared with when they work by themselves. This is also triggered by diffusion of responsibility but can be reduced when people work in smaller and more cohesive groups and is less prevalent in collectivistic cultures.
Social Loafing
When group discussion strengthens a group’s dominant point of view and produces a shift toward a more extreme decision in that direction.
Group Polarization
When members of a cohesive group emphasize concurrence at the expense of critical thinking in arriving at a decision.
Group Think
Refers to the strength of the liking relationships linking group members to each other and to the group itself
Group Cohesion
The biopsychosocial model holds that physical illness is caused by a complex interaction of biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors.
Understand the basic principle of the biopsychosocial model of illness.
Stress is defined as any circumstances that threaten or are perceived to threaten one’s well-being and tax one’s coping abilities.
Understand the neurological basis of stress as explained in class.
Primary appraisal is an initial evaluation of whether an event is (1) irrelevant to you, (2) relevant but not threatening, or (3) stressful.
A secondary appraisal is an evaluation of your coping resources and options for dealing with the stress.
Understand the role of primary and secondary appraisal in the effect of stress (fig 13.1)
Is experienced whenever the pursuit of some goal is thwarted, so you feel frustration when you want something, and you can’t have it.
Frustration
Occurs when two or more incompatible motivations or behavioral impulses compete for expression. Comes in three types.
Conflict
A choice must be made between two attractive goals
Approach-approach
A choice must be made between two unattractive goals
Avoidance-avoidance
A choice must be made about whether to pursue a single goal that has both attractive and unattractive aspects
Approach-avoidance
Are any substantial alterations in one’s living circumstances that require readjustment.
Change
The scale assigns numerical values to 43 major life events
Holmes and Rahe’s Social Readjustment Scale (Table 13.1) Hassles
Involves expectations or demands that one behave in a certain way
1. Pressure to perform in a certain way or level set by self or others
2. Pressure to conform to certain standards
Pressure is often self imposed
Pressure
As a task becomes more complex, the optimal level of arousal tends to decrease
Note that stress or arousal is not always bad and sometimes increase a person’s level of performance i.e. the inverted U-shaped function discussed in class.
Easy tasks = high levels of arousal are ideal
Low level of arousal on challenging tasks is ideal
Note the predictable relationship between task performance, task complexity and the level of stress shown in Figure 13.5.
The general adaptation syndrome is a model of the body’s stress response, consisting of three stages: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion
Alarm reaction is when an organism first recognizes the existence of a threat
Stage of resistance is characterized by physiological changes stabilizing as coping efforts are underway.
The stage of exhaustion is where the organism’s resources for fighting stress are depleted, and the organism could experience hormonal exhaustion and can damage the physiological system, which is known as diseases of adaptation.
Understand the physiological response to stress as summarize in fig. 13.7
The structure that initiates the secretion of hormones along the two pathways. It activates the sympathetic division of the ANS.
Hypothalamus
Master gland of the endocrine system
Pituitary Gland
Central part of your adrenal glands
Adrenal medulla
Releases corticosteroids
Adrenal cortex
Catecholamines are released into bloodstream and produce a number of physiological changes to prepare your body for action.
Corticosteroids are stimulated by the adrenal glands to increase energy and inhibit tissue inflammation in case of energy
Catecholamines & corticosteroids
Most behavioral responses to stress involve coping, which refers to efforts to master, reduce, or tolerate the demands created by stress.
Know the behavioral responses to Stress including
Learned helplessness is passive behavior produced by exposure to unavoidable aversive events, and occurs when individuals believe that events are beyond their control
Giving up and blaming oneself—Learned helplessness
Blaming oneself is another common response and tendency to become highly critical of oneself in response to stress is called catastrophic thinking, which causes, aggravates, and perpetuates emotional reactions to stress that are often problematic
Albert Ellis and his view of catastrophic thinking
Aggression is any behavior that is intended to hurt someone, either physically or verbally. The frustration-aggression hypothesis is the idea that aggression is always caused by frustration.
Catharsis is the release of emotional tension, but aggressive behavior is NOT cathartic
Striking out at other
People tend to indulge when faced with stress in either alcohol, drugs, gambling, or shopping. There is also the Internet addiction characterized by either excessive gaming, preoccupation with sexual content, or obsessive socializing.
Indulging oneself
Defense mechanisms are largely unconscious reactions that protect a person from unpleasant emotions, such as anxiety or guilt. They aim to shield individuals from unpleasant emotions elicited by stress and do so by self-deception.
Defensive coping
Constructive coping refers to relatively healthful efforts that people make to deal with stressful events. Constructive coping typically deals with confronting problems directly, making sure there are reasonably realistic appraisals of stress, and making efforts to ensure that the body is not especially vulnerable to the potentially damaging effects of stress.
Constructive Coping
Stress can promote personal growth or self-improvement.
Be able to define and recognize examples of impaired performance, burnout and psychological disorders. Know how stress produces positive effects
High blood pressure, ulcers, and asthma
Be able to define and recognize examples of psychosomatic disease.
Type A includes three elements: a strong competitive orientation, impatience and time urgency, and anger/hostility.
Type B personality is marked by relatively relaxed, patient, easygoing, amicable behavior
Know the characteristics that make up the Type A and Type B personality.
Depressive disorders are characterized by persistent feelings of sadness and despair and can cause heart disease.
Know the material on the Link Between Depression Emotional reactions and Heart Disease p. 571
Social support refers to various types of aid and emotional sustenance provided by members of one’s social networks. There is explicit and implicit social support. Explicit is over emotional solace and instrumental aid from others, which Western civilizations tend to seek, whereas Asians seek implicit social support, the comfort that comes from knowing one has access to close others who will be supportive.
Optimism is as a general tendency to expect good outcomes. Optimism has a correlation between more effective immune functioning and increased longevity because optimists engage in action-oriented, problem-focused coping.
Recognize the role of social support, optimism and conscientiousness in dealing with stress.
