Chapter 5

Question 1

Developmental Psychology

Answer 1

A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social development throughout the lifespan.

Question 2

Cross-Sectional Studies

Answer 2

Research that compares people of different ages at the same point in time.

Question 3

Longitudinal Studies

Answer 3

Research that follows and retests the same people over time.

Question 4

Zygote

Answer 4

The fertilized egg; it enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo. The inner cell clump become the embryo while the outer cell clump becomes the placenta.

Question 5

Embryo

Answer 5

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

Question 6

Fetus

Answer 6

The developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth. During the 6th month, organs develop enough for the fetus to survive on its own and the fetus is responsive to sound.

Question 7

Tetratogens

Answer 7

Agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and can cause harm. No drinking or smoking while pregnant.

Question 8

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

Answer 8

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

Question 9

Newborn Reflexes

Answer 9

1. The startle reflex is an adaptive reflex characterized by the arms and legs spreading out, quickly followed by fist clenching and loud crying.
2. The grasping reflex is when babies strongly clench something in their hands.

Question 10

Habituation

Answer 10

Decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation.

Question 11

Maturation

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Infancy and Childhood Brain Development

Answer 12

There is rapid development of branching neural networks after birth, which causes the infant brain size to increase rapidly and increases control in attention and behavior. The brain’s association areas are the last to develop.

Question 13

Infancy and Childhood Motor Development

Answer 13

The sequence is universal, and caused by the rapid growth of the cerebellum that creates the readiness to learn physical skills.

Question 14

Infancy and Childhood Cognitive Development

Answer 14

The rapid neuron growth disrupts stored memories, which is why people don’t remember early life, and memory gets better as we age due to the development of the hippocampus and the frontal lobes. The two-track mind stores unconscious memories from our childhood.

Question 15

Cognition

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Schema

Answer 16

A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.

Question 17

Assimilation

Answer 17

Interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas.

Question 18

Accommodation

Answer 18

Adapting our current schemas to incorporate new information.

Question 19

Sensorimotor Stage

Answer 19

(0-2) The stage at which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities. Around 8 months, children develop object permanence and stranger anxiety.

Question 20

Object Permanence

Answer 20

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

Question 21

Preoperational Stage

Answer 21

(2-7) The stage at which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic. Children this age display egocentrism. Around 6 years, children develop the concept of conservation.

Question 22

Conservation

Answer 22

The principle that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects.

Question 23

Egocentrism

Answer 23

Difficulty of taking another’s point of view.

Question 24

Concrete Operational Stage

Answer 24

(7-11) The stage at which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events. Children begin to grasp conservation and mathematical transformations.

Question 25

Formal Operational Stage

Answer 25

The stage at which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts. Children can ponder hypothetical propositions and deduce consequences.

Question 26

Lev Vygotsky’s Thinking

Answer 26

Emphasized how a child’s mind grows through a social environment rather than a physical one.

Question 26

Theory of Mind

Answer 26

Ideas about one’s own and others’ mental states. Children tend to learn this over time.

Question 27

Stranger Anxiety

Answer 27

The fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age. If a child can’t fit a face into a pre-existing schema, they become distressed.

Question 28

Attachment

Answer 28

An emotional tie with others; shown in young children by seeking their closeness to a caregiver and showing distress on separation. This is a great survival impulse.

Question 29

Critical Period

Answer 29

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

Question 30

Secure Attachment

Answer 30

When a caregiver is present, they comfortably do things on their own. When their caregiver is gone, they become distressed.

Question 31

Insecure Attachment

Answer 31

When an infant/child is extremely attached to their caregiver or is indifferent about their presence.

Question 32

Basic Trust

Answer 32

A sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy; said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers.

Question 33

Avoidant Attachment

Answer 33

Discomfort getting close to others.

Question 34

Anxious Attachment

Answer 34

Constantly crave acceptance.

Question 35

Deprivation of Attachment

Answer 35

In general, abused children are at higher risk for health problems, psychological disorders, substance abuse, criminality, and in women, earlier death.

Question 36

Self-Concept

Answer 36

All our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in an answer to “Who am I?”. Children with a positive self-concept grow to be confident, independent, optimistic, assertive, and sociable.

Question 37

Parenting Styles

Answer 37

1. Authoritarian: parents are coercive. They impose rules and expect obedience.
2. Permissive: parents are unrestricting. They make few demands, set few limits, and use little punishment.
3. Neglectful: parents are uninvolved, neither demanding nor responsive. They are careless, inattentive, and don’t set out to form a close relationship with their child.
4. Authoritative: parents are confrontative. They set rules but allow open discussion and exceptions.

Question 38

Adolescence

Answer 38

The transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence. This is a time of diminishing parental control, craving social acceptance, and feeling socially disconnected.

Question 39

Adolescence Cognitive Development

Answer 39

The frontal lobe lags the limbic system in relation to development, which can cause impulsive decisions, risky behaviors, and emotional storms. This wrongdoing is not completely their fault. Teens also experience egotistical thoughts, but it is different from childhood because it has to do with what others think about them. They tend to believe that what has happened to others won’t happen to them as well.

Question 40

Kohlberg’s Levels of Moral Thinking

Answer 40

1. Preconventional Morality (before age 9): self-interest; obey rules to avoid punishment or gain concrete rewards.
2. Conventional Morality (early adolescence): uphold laws and rules to gain social approval or maintain social order.
3. Postconventional Morality (adolescence and beyond): actions reflect belief in basic rights and self-directed ethical principles.

Question 41

Moral Reasoning

Answer 41

Describes the thinking that occurs as we consider right and wrong. To be a moral person, you must think AND act moral.

Question 42

Moral Intuition

Answer 42

Quick, gut feelings that trigger moral reasoning. Moral reasoning can be overridden by moral emotion.

Question 43

Moral Action

Answer 43

Taking action to do the right or moral thing.

Question 44

Delaying Gratification

Answer 44

Maturity and life success grow form the ability to spurn small pleasures now in favor of greater pleasers later. Delaying gratification fosters flourishing.

Question 45

Identity

Answer 45

Our sense of self; the adolescents’ task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles.

Question 46

Social Identity

Answer 46

The “we” aspect of our self-concept; the part of our answer to “Who am I?” that comes from our group memberships. This often forms around distinctiveness.

Question 47

Intimacy

Answer 47

The ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary development task in young adulthood.

Question 48

Emerging Adulthood

Answer 48

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 49

Menopause

Answer 49

Usually around 50, the time of natural cessation of menstruation; also refers to the biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines.

Question 50

Plasticity in the Aging Brain

Answer 50

Though the frontal lobes, memory regions, and the blood-brain barrier break down, there is still plasticity in the brain, which continues to recruit and reorganize new info.

Question 51

Exercise in the Aging Body

Answer 51

Exercise slows aging.

Question 52

Neurocognitive Disorders

Answer 52

Acquired disorders marked by cognitive deficits; often related to Alzheimer’s Disease, brain injury or disease, or substance abuse. Also called dementia.

Question 53

Alzheimer’s Disease

Answer 53

A neurocognitive disorder marked by neural plaques, often with onset after age 80, and entailing a progressive decline in other cognitive abilities and memory. Starts with deterioration of memory, then the person becomes emotionally flat, then disoriented and disinhibited, then incontinent, and finally mentally vacant.

Question 54

Social Clock

Answer 54

The culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement. Mid-life crisis is only cause by major events, not age.

Question 55

Love

Answer 55

Bonds of love are most satisfying when marked by a similarity of interests and values, a sharing of emotional and marital support, and intimate self-disclosure.

Question 56

Work

Answer 56

Happiness is about having work that fits your interests and provides you with a sense of competence and accomplishment.

Question 57

Death and Dying

Answer 57

Cultures encourage different kinds of grief.
There are no set stages to grief.
Any type of grief is okay, there is not one best way to grieve.