Chapter 4

Question 1

What is developmental psychology?

Answer 1

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

Question 2

What is a zygote?

Answer 2

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

Question 3

What is a embryo?

Answer 3

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

Question 4

What is a fetus?

Answer 4

The developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth

Question 5

Developmental psychology examines our physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span with a focus on three major issues

Answer 5

1) Nature and nurture
2) Continuity and stages
3) Stability and change

Question 6

Define teratogens

Answer 6

Literally “monster maker” agents such as toxins, chemicals, and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm

Question 7

What is the fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)

Answer 7

Physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman’s heavy drinking. In severe cases, symptoms include noticeable facial misproportions

Question 8

Prenatal development

Answer 8

zygote: conception to 2 weeks
embryo: 2 weeks through 8 weeks
fetus: 9 weeks to birth

Question 9

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

Answer 9

Habituation

Question 10

Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively influenced by experience

Answer 10

Maturation

Question 11

What is the critical period?

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Cognition is?

Answer 12

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

Question 13

Interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing shemas

Answer 13

assimilation

Question 14

Accommodation is?

Answer 14

Adapting our current understandings (shemas) to incorporate new information

Question 15

What is the sensorimotor stage?

Answer 15

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

Question 16

What is object permanence?

Answer 16

The awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived

Question 17

What is the preoperational stage?

Answer 17

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

Question 18

Conservation

Answer 18

The principle (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 19

Egocentrism

Answer 19

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

Question 20

Theory of mind

Answer 20

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

Question 21

Concrete operational stage

Answer 21

In Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development ( from about 6 or 7 to 11 years of age) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events

Question 22

Formal operational stage

Answer 22

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 23

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

Answer 23

Stranger anxiety

Question 24

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

Answer 24

Attachment

Question 25

The process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life

Answer 25

Imprinting

Question 26

Temperament

Answer 26

A person’s characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity

Question 27

Basic trust

Answer 27

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 28

Adolescence

Answer 28

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

Question 29

Puberty

Answer 29

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

Question 30

According to Kohlberg, ________ morality focuses on upholding laws and social rules, _________ morality focuses on self-interest, and _________ morality focuses on self defined ethical principles

Answer 30

Conventional
Preconventional
Postconventional

Question 31

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

Answer 31

Idendity

Question 32

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

Answer 32

Social idendity

Question 33

What findings in psychology support the stage of development? What findings challenge these ideas

Answer 33

Stage theory is supported by the work of Piaget (cognitive develop). Kohlberg (moral development), and Erikson (psychosocial development), but it is challenged by findings that change is more gradual and less culturally universal than these theorists supposed.

Question 34

Study in which people of different ages are compared with one another

Answer 34

Cross-sectional study

Question 35

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

Answer 35

Longitudinal study

Question 36

Body organs first begin to form and function during the period of the _______ ; within 6 months, during the period of the __________, the organs are sufficiently functional to allow a chance of survival

Answer 36

Embryo; fetus

Question 37

Stroke a newborn’s cheek and the infant will root for a nipple. This illustrates

Answer 37

A reflex

Question 38

Between ages 3 and 6, the human brain experiences the greatest growth in the _______ lobes, which we use for rational planning, and which continue developing at least into adolescence

Answer 38

Frontal

Question 39

Which of the following is true of motor-skill development?

Answer 39

The sequence, but not the timing, is universal

Question 40

Use Piaget’s first 3 stages of cognitive development to explain why young children are not just miniature adults in the way they think

Answer 40

Infants in Piaget’s sensorimotor stage tend to be focused only on their own perceptions of the world and may, for example, be unaware the objects continue to exist when unseen. A child in the preoperational stage is still egocentric and incapable of appreciating simple logic, such as the reversibility of operations. A preteen in the concrete operational stage is beginning to think logically above concrete events but not about abstract concepts

Question 41

In Erikson’s stages, the primary task during adolescence is?

Answer 41

Forging an identity

Question 42

Some developmental psychologists now refer to the period that occurs in some Western cultures from age 18 to the mid-twenties and beyond (up to the time of social independence as?

Answer 42

Emerging adulthood

Question 43

Developmental researchers who emphasize learning and experience are supporting _________, those who emphasize biological maturation are supporting ________

Answer 43

Continuity; stages

Question 44

Freud defined the healthy adult as one who is able to love and work. Erikson agreed, observing that the adult struggles to attain intimacy and _________

Answer 44

generativity

Question 45

Although the development is lifelong, there is stability of personality over time. For example

Answer 45

Temperament tends to remain stable throughout life

Question 46

The first two weeks of prenatal development is the period of the ______. The period of the _____ lasts from 9 weeks after conception until birth. The time between those two prenatal periods is considered the period of the ________.

Answer 46

Zygote; fetus; embryo

Question 47

Schema

Answer 47

A concept or framework that organizes & interprets information