Exam 1

Question 1

What is the definition of a theory?

Answer 1

• A set of ideas to describe and explain a certain phenomenon.
• Good theory is falsifiable and supported by data.

Question 2

Who is the founder of developmental psychology?

Answer 2

G. Stanley Hall
- Termed adolescence storm and stress
- Invented the questionnaire
- Analyzed how society treats (mistreats) the elderly.

Question 3

What are the different stages of the life span?

Answer 3

Prenatal period: Conception to birth
Infancy: First 2 years of life (the first month is the neonatal or newborn period)
Preschool period: 2–5 (some prefer to describe as toddlers children who have begun to walk and are age 1–3)
Middle childhood: 6 to about 10 (or until the onset of puberty)
Adolescence: Approximately 10–18 (or from puberty to when the individual becomes relatively independent)
Emerging adulthood: 18–25 or even 29 (transitional period between adolescence and adulthood)
Early adulthood: 25–40 years (adult roles are established)
Middle adulthood: 40–65 years
Late adulthood: 65 years and older (some break out subcategories such as the young-old, old-old, and very old based on differences in functioning)

Question 4

What is Brofenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory?

Answer 4

Based on the environment/systems we are part of
- Microsystem: immediate physical and social environment (family, friends, school, personal community)

• Mesosystem: interrelationships between two or more microsystems (family and friends, family and school, etc.)
• Exosystem: Social settings that influence an individual’s development (systems you’re not in direct contact with but still affect you or someone in your microsystem)
• Macrosystem: the larger cultural or societal context (laws, institutions; community stances on LGBTQ and how that affects your comfortability in certain spaces)
• Chronosystem: Framing of events over time (how the events are changing throughout your life; school friends, and family aren’t static)

Question 5

What are the domains of development?

Answer 5

• Physical Development: The growth of the body and its organs, the functioning of physiological systems, including the brain, physical signs of aging, changes in motor abilities, and so on.
• Cognitive Development: Changes and continuities in perception, language, learning, memory, problem-solving, and other mental processes.
• Psychosocial Development: Changes and carryover in personal and interpersonal aspects of development, such as motives, emotions, personality traits, interpersonal skills and relationships, and roles played in the family and in the larger society.

Question 6

What are some terms we use to describe cultural differences?

Answer 6

Age Grade: defined age group in a society that is assigned different statuses, roles, privileges, and responsibilities (separating students by grade)

Rite of passage: a ritual that marks a person’s “passage” from one status to another, usually in reference to the transition from childhood to adulthood

Age norms: what certain age grades should and should not do at different points in the lifespan

Social clock: a person’s sense of when things should be done and when he or she is ahead of or behind the schedule dictated by age norms

Question 7

What are cross-sectional and longitudinal studies? How are they different?

Answer 7

Cross-sectional study: Collect data from many individuals at one single time.
- Age effects and cohort effects are confounded
- Researchers learn nothing about how people change with age
- Quicker and easier

Longitudinal study: One cohort of individuals is assessed repeatedly over time.
- Provides information about age changes rather than age differences
- Can indicate whether the characteristics and behaviors measured remain consistent over time

Question 8

What are correlational studies?

Answer 8

• Determine whether two or more variables are related in a systematic way
• No random assignment or manipulation of Independent Variable

Question 9

What are genotypes and phenotypes?

Answer 9

Genotype: genetic makeup a person inherits
- A person may inherit tall height genes

Phenotype: The characteristic or trait the person eventually has
- A person may be malnourished during prenatal period and never achieve a tall height

Question 10

What is the process of ‘crossing over’?

Answer 10

• The genetic uniqueness of children of the same parents is even greater than this because of a quirk of meiosis known as crossing over.
• When pairs of chromosomes line up before they
  separate, they cross each other, and parts of them are exchanged, much as if you were to exchange a couple of fingers with a friend at the end of a handshake.

Question 11

What are single gene-pair inheritances?

Answer 11

A trait linked to one gene pair consists of two alleles.
- In a gene pair, one allele is inherited from the female & one from the male
- tongue curling

Question 12

What is the definition of temperament?

Answer 12

Tendencies to respond in predictable ways, such as sociability and emotional reactivity, that serve as the building blocks of later personality.
- crying vs. happy baby

Question 13

What are the different types of gene-environment correlations?

Answer 13

Ways in which a person’s genes and his environment or experiences are interrelated
Passive: Because parents provide children with both their genes and a home environment compatible with those genes, the home environments to which
children are exposed are correlated with (and are typically likely to reinforce) their genotypes.
- Social parents make social children, and take them to social events

Evocative: a child’s genotype also evokes certain kinds of reactions from other people
- Extroverted child goes to parties every night strengthens social skills

Active: children’s genotypes influence the kinds of environments they seek.
- Social child gets chosen as a playmate, becomes more social

Question 14

What is the Differential Susceptibility Hypothesis?

Answer 14

Some people’s genes make them more reactive than other people to environmental influences, whether good or bad ones
- takes positive possibilities into consideration

Question 15

What is heritability?

Answer 15

How much a trait is related to genetics within a population.
- Describes the population, not the individual
- Measures the role of genetics
- Cancer, hair color, etc. (They are connected to genetics)

Question 16

What is a concordance rate?

Answer 16

The percent of cases in which both members of a pair have a particular attribute.
- If concordance rates are higher for more genetically related, trait is heritable
- Measures if people are alike or not in a particular trait (doesn’t tell you why)
- “pair”: any set (identical twins, fraternal twins, siblings, adoptive mother and child, etc.)

Question 17

How many chromosomes are there in a Zygote? How many are in an ovum or sperm?

Answer 17

Zygote: 46 chromosomes in 23 pairs
Ovum: 23 chromosomes
Sperm: 23 chromosomes

Question 18

What is the process of meiosis?

Answer 18

A type of cell division that reduces the number of chromosomes in the egg and sperm with cell division magic.
- Female Reproductive Cell (46 chromosomes) -> Ovum
- Male Reproductive Cell (46 chromosomes) -> Sperm

Question 19

What is mitosis?

Answer 19

A cell copies its chromosomes and segregates them, producing double the nuclei.

Question 20

When do we use the term embryo versus fetus?

Answer 20

Embryo: Embryonic Period (3-8 weeks)

Fetus: Fetal Period (9 weeks-birth)

Question 21

What may lead to infertility?

Answer 21

• Adolescents and adults—both male
  and female—who have contracted sexually transmitted infections (STIs)
• Some men have a condition called varicocele in which enlarged veins on their testicles raises the temperature in the testes, interfering with sperm production.
• Infertility traced to women may be related to problems with ovulation, blocked fallopian tubes, or endometriosis, a condition arising when bits of tissue lining the uterus grow outside the uterus.

Question 22

What are the stages of the prenatal period?

Answer 22

Germinal Period (0-2 weeks)
Embryonic Period (3-8 weeks)
Fetal Period (9 weeks-birth)

Question 23

What generally happens in each stage of the prenatal period?

Answer 23

Germinal Period: Fertilization, Mitosis, Morula forms, Blastocyst forms, attaches to the uterine wall, and is fully embedded inside.

Embryonic Period: Organogenesis (when every major organ takes shape like the heart, brain, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth) - organs form from 3 primary germ tissues (endoderm, mesoderm, ectoderm)

Fetal Period: involves significant brain development (Proliferation: An intense period of cell growth, originating from stem cells undergoing rapid cell division
Migration: Cells move or travel to their intended location in the nervous system. Chemical signals may serve as a neural GPS, guiding cells to their destination.
Differentiation: Cells change or transform into a particular type. At their destination, they set up camp and begin to communicate with surrounding neurons.), the formation of fingers, toes, nails, hair, and genitalia, the ability to detect heartbeat and movement, and more.

Question 24

What is postpartum depression?

Answer 24

An episode of clinical depression lasting 2 or more
weeks (rather than days) in a woman who has just given birth
- 1 in 9 new mothers

Question 25

What are the racial and ethnic differences in maternal mortality?

Answer 25

• Rate for non-Hispanic Black women is 3.5x than for non-Hispanic White women
• Black women have very high rates even if they are rich/make the same amount as white women
• For Black women, preeclampsia/eclampsia was the leading cause of maternal death, then postpartum cardiomyopathy, embolism, and hemorrhage
• Later maternal deaths were 3.5x more likely among Black women than white women

Question 26

What is the process of a vaginal birth?

Answer 26

• First stage: regular contractions (Oxytocin speeds up contractions)
• Second stage: delivery
• Third stage: delivery of the placenta
• Labor average: 9-15 hours

Question 27

What is low birth weight versus preterm? Can someone have a low birth weight and not be
preterm?

Answer 27

Low birth weight: babies born at term but are “small for gestational age” (less than 2,500 grams, or 5½ pounds)
- Approximately 8% of babies in the US have an LBW

Preterm: babies born less than 37 weeks of gestation are more at risk as a result
- The survival and health of these small infants are a concern, particularly for infants who are very small (less than 1,500 grams or
no more than 3.3 pounds)

Question 28

What are risk factors for low-birth weight infants?

Answer 28

Age of mother (very young or old), Low SES, Race, Prior premature deliveries, Tobacco or alcohol use, Stress, Pregnancies with multiple fetuses, Infections, High blood pressure

Question 29

What is myelin?

Answer 29

Myelin is a fatty sheath that acts like insulation to speed the transmission of neural impulses.
- Aids communication

Question 30

What are the different aspects of the biopsychosociocultural model?

Answer 30

Incorporates biological and psychological factors with social and cultural factors.
- Health depends on characteristics of individuals interacting with characteristics of their family life and the broader cultural context
- Culture (Biological Factors: Gender, Immune Function, Prenatal Programming; Social Context: SES, Education, Neighborhood, Social Support; Psychosocial Factors: Attitudes/Beliefs, Personality, Coping Skills)

Question 31

What is neuroplasticity? How does it work?

Question 32

What are the benefits of a physical activity program?

Answer 32

• more physically fit than children who lead a more sedentary lifestyle
• enhances cognitive and psychological functioning
• support effective executive functions, those important cognitive activities involved in planning and executing goal-directed behaviors
• higher levels of academic achievement

Question 33

What are some differences between boys vs girls in body image during adolescence?

Answer 33

Females experiencing puberty tend to become
self-conscious about their appearance and how others will respond to them. Males, however,
respond more positively to the changes in their bodies. They are more welcoming to the physical
changes they experience, such as weight gain and their changing voices.

Question 34

Describe the general process of puberty and the key terms.

Answer 34

Males and females grow at different rates and with different body parts.
- Peak growth rate for females is under 12 years, it is 13.4 years for males.
- Peak growth rate for weight is 12.5 years for females and 13.9 years for males.
- Females reach their adult height at 16 years, while males continue to grow at 20 years old.

Sexual Maturation
- Adrenarche: 6-8 y/o males and females, secondary sex characteristics (pubic and axillary/underarm hair)
- Menarche: 11-15 years old females, when they experience their first menstruation
- Semenarche: 13 years old males, when they experience their first ejaculation.

Question 35

What is the difference between sensation, perception, and action? What are some examples?

Answer 35

Sensation: The process by which sensory receptor neurons detect information and transmit to the brain.
-> Perception and Action
- Scent receptors detect the odor of freshly baked cookies

Perception: The interpretation of sensory input.
-> Action
- “This smells like the cookies my mom used to make.”

Action: Motor activities prompted by sensory and/or perceptual information.
- You grab a cookie and eat it.

Question 36

How do we assess perception? (E.g., habituation, preferential looking, evoked potential, operant
conditioning)

Answer 36

Habituation: The same stimulus is repeatedly presented until the infant grows bored with what has become familiar and disengages.
- Measure how long until an infant becomes bored
- Measure how distinct a second, new stimulus needs to be to recapture the infant’s attention

Preferential looking: Two stimuli are simultaneously shown to determine which one they prefer, which is inferred to be the one they look at longer.
- Adding head-mounted, eye-tracking cameras has allowed researchers to measure more precisely preferential looking.

Evoked potential: Electrical activity in different parts of the brain is measured while the infant is exposed to stimulation.
- Electrodes are attached to the surface of the skull, and a computer records the pattern of the electrical activity corresponding to various stimuli.

Operant Conditioning: Infants are conditioned to reliably respond in a certain way to a certain stimulus.
- Once this response is well-established, the researcher can examine the conditions under which the infants will or will not continue to produce the behavior.
- Continued head turning suggests that infants do not detect a noticeable difference between the original and new stimuli, whereas lack of the conditioned response is evidence that they distinguish between the two stimuli.

Question 37

What are common experiments used to study perception? (E.g., visual cliff)

Answer 37

Most infants of crawling age (typically 7 months or older) clearly perceive depth and are afraid of drop-offs.

Question 38

What is Dynamic Systems Theory?

Answer 38

• Developments take place over time through a “self-organizing” process.
• Children use sensory feedback when trying different movements to modify their motor behavior in adaptive ways.

Question 39

What is the process of motor skills emerging?

Answer 39

• Infants acquire gross motor skills before mastering fine motor skills.
  − Early motor development follows the cephalocaudal principle and proximodistal principle.
  − It takes an average of 13 starts and stops over a period of days before toddlers show consistent performance of a motor skill.

Question 40

What are some hearing and vision challenges in adolescents?

Answer 40

• Modern world affects the maintaining of healthy senses (Screen time, Eye strain, headaches, blurred vision, dry eyes, difficulty focusing, and neck and shoulder pain)
• Loud sounds (above 75 decibels) may lead to hearing loss
• Tinnitus: ringing sounds in ears (40% of teens report tinnitus in conjunction with listening to music with earbuds)

Question 41

How does attention develop throughout the lifespan?

Answer 41

As children get older
1. Attention spans become longer
2. Become more selective in what they attend to
3. Better able to plan and carry out systematic strategies for using their senses to achieve goals
- Beyond ages 10 to 12, not much increase in the length of sustained attention: Children become more accurate on tasks requiring sustained attention.

Adolescents have longer attention spans than children:
− Tied to increased myelination of those portions of the brain that help regulate attention
− Become more efficient at ignoring irrelevant information
− Can divide their attention more systematically between two task

Older adults have greatest difficulties in processing visual information when the situation is novel and when it is complex.
− Have fewer problems when there are clear expectations about what to do
and when task is not overly complicated

Question 42

How do vision and hearing change as we age?

Answer 42

Vision
- Presbyopia: aging of the eye, Includes hardening of the eye’s lens
- Age-related macular degeneration: vision becomes blurry and begins to fade from the center of the visual field; Leading cause of blindness

Hearing
- In older adults: Hearing impairment is 3x as prevalent as visual impairment; A majority of individuals older than 65 have at least mildly impaired hearing.
- Most age-related hearing problems: Due to the degeneration of cochlear hair cells, surrounding structures, and the neurons leading from them to the brain
- Men lose hearing sensitivity at a faster rate.
- Presbycusis: problems of the aging ear