Chapters 8-13

Question 1

Define egocentrism and provide an example

Answer 1

Egocentrism - Piaget’s term for children’s tendency to think about the world entirely from their own personal perspective.
Example: A 3 year old choosing to buy a model car as a birthday present for their mother because that’s what they would want but truly hoping and expecting mom to like it.

Question 2

Define conservation and provide and example

Answer 2

Conservation - The principle that the amount of a substance remains the same even when its appearance changes.
Example: young children will often make the mistake of thinking a tall thin glass containing the same amount of liquid as a short fat glass actually contains more liquid because the level is higher. They fail to understand conservation.

Question 3

Define “focus on appearance” and provide an example

Answer 3

“Focus on appearance” - a characteristic of pre operational thought in which a young child ignores all attribute that are not apparent.
Example: A girl given a short haircut might worry that she has turned into a boy. (a thing is whatever it appears to be)

Question 4

Define static reasoning and provide an example

Answer 4

Static reasoning - a characteristic of pre operational thought in which a young child thinks that nothing changes. Whatever is now has always been and always will be.
Example: young children do not understand that their parents were ever babies.

Question 5

Define irreversibility and provide an example

Answer 5

Irreversibility - a characteristic of pre operational thought in which a young child thins that nothing can be undone. A thing cannot be restored to the way it was before a change occurred.
Example: A young girl crying because her mother put lettuce on her sandwich and rejecting the food even after the lettuce is removed because she believes it cannot be fixed.

Question 6

Define symbolic thought and provide an example

Answer 6

Symbolic thought - a major accomplishment of pre operational intelligence that allows a child to think symbolically, including understanding that words can refer to things not seen and that an item, such as a flag, can symbolize something else (in this case a country).

Question 7

Define scaffolding

Answer 7

temporary support that is tailored to a learner’s needs and abilities and aimed at helping the learner master the next task in a given learning process.

Question 8

Define zone of proximal development

Answer 8

Vygotsky’s term for the skills - cognitive as well as physical - that a person can exercise only with assistance, not yet independently.

Question 9

Define overimitation

Answer 9

When a person imitates an action that is not a relevant part of the behavior to be learned - common among 2-6 year olds when they imitate adult actions that are irrelevant and inefficient.

Question 10

Define fast mapping

Answer 10

the speedy and sometimes imprecise way in which children learn new words by tentatively placing them in mental categories according to their perceived meaning.

Question 11

define emotional regulation

Answer 11

the ability to control when and how emotions are expressed

Question 12

define effortful control

Answer 12

the ability to regulate one’s emotions and actions through effort, not simply through natural inclination.

Question 13

define internalizing problems

Answer 13

difficulty with emotional regulation that involves turning one’s emotional distress inward, as by feeling excessively guilty, ashamed, or worthless.

Question 14

define externalizing problems

Answer 14

difficulty with emotional regulation that involves expressing powerful feelings through uncontrolled physical or verbal outbursts, as by lashing out at other people or breaking things.

Question 15

define prosocial behavior

Answer 15

actions that are helpful and kind but are of no obvious benefit to oneself

Question 16

define antisocial behavior

Answer 16

actions that are deliberately hurtful or destructive to another person

Question 17

define instrumental aggression

Answer 17

behavior that hurts someone else because the aggressor wants to get or keep a possession or a privilege.

Question 18

define bullying aggression

Answer 18

unprovoked, repeated physical or verbal attacks, especially on victims who are unlikely to defend themselves.

Question 19

define selective attention

Answer 19

the ability to concentrate on some stimuli while ignoring others

Question 20

define automatization

Answer 20

process in which repetition of a sequence of thoughts and actions makes the sequence routine, so that it no longer requires conscious thought.

Question 21

define autism spectrum disorder

Answer 21

developmental disorder marked by difficulty with social communication and interaction - including difficulty seeing things form another person’s point of view - and restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior interests, or activities.

Question 22

define sensory memory

Answer 22

component of the information-processing system in which incoming stimulus information is stored for a split second to allow it to be processed.

Question 23

define working memory

Answer 23

component of the information-processing system in which current conscious mental activity occurs.

Question 24

define long-term memory

Answer 24

component of the information-processing system in which virtually limitless amounts of information can be stored indefinitely.

Question 25

define social comparison

Answer 25

tendency to assess one’s abilities, achievements, social status, one other attributes by measuring them against other people, especially one’s peers.