Chapter 9: Human Development

Question 1

What is development defined as?

Answer 1

-series of changes (for the better and for the worse)

Question 2

What is chronological age?

Answer 2

-normal biological age

Question 3

What is developmental age? Use an example to explain. (2)

Answer 3

-the chronological age at which MOST children show a particular level of physical or mental development
-the developmental age for walking without assistance is 1 year old so a 10-month old child that can walk is considered at a developmental age of 1 year

Question 4

What are normative investigations? What is an example? (2)

Answer 4

-research aimed at establishing standards or norms for a specific population.
-Example: research aimed at understanding what is developmentally normal for a 1 year old baby

Question 5

Define a longitudinal design

Answer 5

-The same participants are observed repeatedly sometimes over many years

Question 6

What are advantages of longitudinal design? What are disadvantages? (2)

Answer 6

Advantages:
-Researchers can identify individual differences
-Researchers can examine relationships between early and later events and behavior.
Disadvantages
-Time consuming and costly
-Data are easily lost
-Data might be contaminated by biased sampling, practice effects or cohort effects

Question 7

What is a cross-sectional design?

Answer 7

-Groups of participants of different chronological ages are observed and compared at a given time.

Question 8

What is the cohort effect that affects both longitudinal and cross-sectional studies? Give an example. (2)

Answer 8

-it is a generational effect which may bias your study
-maybe one decade of individuals lived through a war or a famine

Question 9

What are advantages of a cross-sectional study? What are disadvantages? (2)

Answer 9

Advantages
-takes less time to complete
-less costly
-not subject to practice effects

Disadvantages
-cannot tell if important individual differences exist
-cannot tell if an early event has an impact on a later event
-cohort effects

Question 10

What is crystallized intelligence? What is the general trend for this over the time for individuals? (2)

Answer 10

-knowledge and skills you have learned through experience and education
-increases over the lifespan and starts to decrease slightly in old age

Question 11

What is fluid intelligence? What is the trend for this over the lifespan? (2)

Answer 11

-capacity to reason and solve novel problems independent of any knowledge from the past
-increases from birth onwards and then begins decreasing around age 20ish

Question 12

What types of memory does aging not seem to effect? (2)

Answer 12

-memory of general knowledge (semantic memory) that occurred long ago
-memory of personal events (episodic memory) that occurred long ago

Question 13

When we compare remote (older) memory to new memory, which do older adults struggle more with?

Answer 13

-new memory

Question 14

What four memory deficits do older people tend to show? (4)

Answer 14

-transience
-absent mindedness
-misattribution
-suggestibility

Question 15

What is transience?

Answer 15

-tendency to lose access to information across time

Question 16

What is absent-mindedness?

Answer 16

-failure to remember information because of insufficient attention

Question 17

What is misattribution?

Answer 17

-remembering a fact correctly but attributing it to an incorrect source or context

Question 18

What is suggestibility?

Answer 18

-tendency to incorporate information provided by others into your own recollection and memory representation

Question 19

While the mechanisms that underlie memory impairment in older adults are unknown, what are some possible explanations? (3)

Answer 19

-neurobiological change in the brain
-lack of organization
-reduced ability to pay attention

Question 20

What is infantile/childhood amnesia? Why does it occur? (2)

Answer 20

-inability to remember events and experiences that occurred during the first 2-3 years of life
-not enough synapses/connections

Question 21

During infancy, the brain experiences synaptogenesis. What is this? What does it play a vital role in? (2)

Answer 21

-an explosion of synapse formation between neurons during early brain development
-learning, memory formation and adaptation

Question 22

At about 2 to 3 years of age, the number of synapses hit a peak level and the brain engages in a process called synaptic pruning. Define this:

Answer 22

-the brain starts to remove synapses that it no longer needs

Question 23

What did Piaget believe in general marked the difference in cognitive development from a child to an adult? Compare child to adult. (2)

Answer 23

-children are only able to conceptualize the here and now of the immediate, concrete present
-adults conceptualize the world in symbolic and abstract terms

Question 24

Describe Piaget’s sensorimotor stage from age 0-2 years. What actions reflect this? (3)

Answer 24

-neither real objects nor any conception of self (because they have no long-term memory) meaning they live only in the present
-an infant cannot both grasp and suck an object simultaneously because the coordination of these senses is not developed and we have not developed sensory interneurons
-object permanence

Question 25

What are Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development? (4)

Answer 25

-sensorimotor (0-2 years)
-preoperational (2-7 years)
-concrete operations (7-11 years)
-formal operations (11 years and on)

Question 26

Describe Piaget’s pre operational stage from age 2-7 years. What actions reflect this? (3)

Answer 26

-child lacks the ability to take the perspective of another person (egocentric)
-the concept of conservation (quantity of a substance is conserved despite changes in its shape)
-three mountain experiment and water in the glass experiment

Question 27

Describe Piaget’s concrete operations stage from age 7-11 years. (3)

Answer 27

-they can see from other’s perspectives
-understand the concept of conservation now
-capable of mental operations, actions performed in the mind that give rise to logical thinking

Question 28

Describe Piaget’s formal operations stage from age 11 onwards. What actions reflect this? (2)

Answer 28

-able to think in abstract terms
-can see reality from multiple vantage points when the subject of observation is abstract (moral judgement)

Question 29

What are Erikson’s 8 psychosocial stages? (8)

Answer 29

• infancy (0-1) trust vs. mistrust
  -toddler (1-3) autonomy vs. self-doubt
  -preschool (3-6) initiative vs. guilt
  -child (6-12) industry vs.inferiority
  -adolescent (12-18) identity vs. role confusion
  -early adult (18-29) intimacy vs. isolation
  -middle adulthood (30-50) generatively vs. stagnation
  -late adulthood (60s and older) ego integrity vs. despair

Question 30

Describe Erikson’s first stage of development: infancy (0-1) trust vs. mistrust. What does it relate to? (2)

Answer 30

-infants must develop a sense of trust when their caregivers provide reliable care and affection
-relates to attachment and separation anxiety

Question 31

What is a widely used procedure to assess attachment and separation anxiety? Describe it. (2)

Answer 31

-the strange situation test
-child is brought into unfamiliar room filled with toys and the mother is present, after several minutes a stranger comes in and talks to the mother. The mother then leaves the room and the child is observed. The mother returns and the stranger leaves. Researchers look at childs behaviour during separation and reunion

Question 32

What are the three test results for the strange situation test?

Answer 32

-securely attached
-insecurely attached - avoidant
-insecurely attached - ambivalent/resistant

Question 33

Describe the Childs reaction during separation and reunion with the mother for securely attached children. (2)

Answer 33

-separation: show some distress
-reunion: seek proximity, comfort and contact

Question 34

Describe the Childs reaction during separation and reunion with the mother for insecurely attached - avoidant children. Also describe how the child is while the mother is present. (3)

Answer 34

-present: child ignores mom
-separation: minimum distress
-reunion: child may actively avoid and ignore the parent, seems aloof

Question 35

Describe the Childs reaction during separation and reunion with the mother for insecurely attached - ambivalent/resistant children. (2)

Answer 35

-separation: children become very upset and anxious
-reunion: may seek contact, but when contact is achieved they cannot be comforted and may show anger and resistance to the parent

Question 36

What are the two domains that the attachment style is put against? (2)

Answer 36

-low anxiety (positive on self) to high anxiety (negative on self)
-low avoidance (positive on others) to high avoidance (negative on others)

Question 37

What is the correlation between the parent-infant attachment style and the later relationship style developed in adulthood?

Answer 37

-positive correlation

Question 38

Describe Erikson’s adolescence stage of development: (12-18) identity vs. role confusion. Who is the child influenced by? (2)

Answer 38

-needs to develop a sense of self and personal identity to avoid role confusion and the sense of self as fragmented
-attempts to achieve independence from parents while peers appear to compete with parents to shape individual

Question 39

As it relates to Erikson’s adolescent stage, what is Marcia’s identity status model? What are the two axis and the four types? (5)

Answer 39

-exploration and commitment
-identity diffusion (low x low)
-foreclosure (low x high)
-moratorium (high x low)
-achievement (high x high)

Question 40

Explain diffusion. What are the levels of exploration and commitment? What does it mean? Give an example (3)

Answer 40

-exploration and commitment are low
-Individuals have not yet experienced an identity crisis or exploration and have not made any commitments. They may lack direction, have few goals, and are often not actively seeking to develop a strong sense of identity.
-an individual who drifts from job to job without considering long-term career goals or their own interests

Question 41

Explain foreclosure. What are the levels of exploration and commitment? What does it mean? Give an example. (3)

Answer 41

-low exploration and high commitment
-Individuals have made a commitment without undergoing a crisis or exploration. They often adopt the values, beliefs, and expectations of their parents or authority figures without question.
-a teen decides to become a doctor because their parents have always told them they should, without exploring other career options

Question 42

Explain moratorium. What are the levels of exploration and commitment? What does it mean? Give an example. (3)

Answer 42

-high exploration and low commitment
-Individuals are actively exploring different options and experiencing an identity crisis but have not yet made a commitment. They are in the process of trying out different roles, beliefs, and careers to find what fits them best.
-a college major who switches majors multiple time while trying to figure out which field they are passionate about

Question 43

Explain achievement. What are the levels of exploration and commitment? What does it mean? Give an example. (3)

Answer 43

-exploration is high and so is commitment
-Individuals have undergone a crisis, explored various options, and made a commitment to a particular identity. They have a clear sense of who they are and what they want to achieve in life.
-An adult who has explored different career paths, values, and beliefs, and has settled into a career and lifestyle that aligns with their true self and long-term goals.

Question 44

Describe Erikson’s early adulthood stage of development: (18-29) intimacy vs. isolation.

Answer 44

-adults need to form intimate loving relationships with other people, success leads to strong relationships and failure leads to loneliness and isolation

Question 45

Describe Erikson’s middle adulthood stage (30-50s): generatively vs stagnation. What is generativity? Compare this with stagnation. (2)

Answer 45

-generativity is the ability to generate something than an individual cares about in life usually in the form of career and family
-stagnation is exclusion and rejection and closed to experience

Question 46

Describe Erikson’s late adulthood stage (60s and up): ego integrity vs. despair. Compare a resolution vs not. (3)

Answer 46

-as people grow older and reflect on their lives, they may feel a sense of satisfaction or failure.
-resolution of the ego integrity crisis results in a sense of wholeness and basic satisfaction with life
-inadequate resolution of ego integrity crisis results in feelings of futility and disappointment