Exam 1

Question 1

What is the Development in the science world?

Answer 1

The science of human development seeks to understand how and why people — all kinds of people in all parts of the world, of all ages — Change or remain the same over time. *Critical* to this ‘definition’ is its emphasis on “all kinds of people, everywhere.

Question 2

Three domains of development are…

Answer 2

1. Physical 2. Cognitive 3. Psychosocial

Question 3

What is the physical domain of development?

Answer 3

The physical domain consists of all things related to biological growth.

Question 4

What are some examples of the physical domain of development?

Answer 4

Changes in body (e.g. brains, organs, muscles, bones), use of the body (e.g. motor skills, sexual development), and effects of aging (e.g. eyesight, muscle strength)

Question 5

What is the cognitive domain of development?

Answer 5

The cognitive domain consists of the intellect and thought processes.

Question 6

What are some examples of the cognitive domain of development?

Answer 6

Perception, learning memory, language

Question 7

What is the psychosocial domain of development?

Answer 7

The psychosocial domain is concerned with social and emotional aspects of development.

Question 8

What are some examples of the psychosocial domain of development?

Answer 8

Relationships, the individual’s sense of self, and the influence on the individual of his/her family, school, culture, etc.

Question 9

The three domains are interrelated, or ‘holistic’. True or False Why?

Answer 9

No moment of life can be fully understood without considering all three domains.

Question 10

Example of interrelated domains: If we were interested in understanding how an infant learns language.

Answer 10

In the physical domain, we would consider the infant’s hearing, health, and motor skills (such as development of control of the tongue and lips). In the cognitive domain, we would look at learning and understanding, things like the infant’s ability to translate thoughts into words. In the psychosocial domain, we would look at the infant’s experiences and interactions with others as these influence the development of communication as a precursor to language development.

Question 11

What are the three crucial elements?

Answer 11

1. Science 2. Diversity 3. Connections

Question 12

What is science in regards to human development?

Answer 12

The study of human development is a science, meaning that it is based on and interested in the development of theories, relies on the collection and analysis of data(empirical), and involves critical hinting and sound scientific methodology. *The purpose of this science of human development is to understand how and why people change over time, and how and why they stay the same.*

Question 13

What does the element of diversity consist of?

Answer 13

Human development is concerned with diversity. Researcher study all kinds of people — old and young, rich and poor, all ethnicities and backgrounds, every sexual orientation, etc. The goal of this all-encompassing study is to identify universalities (i.e. things that apply to all humans) as well as those factors which contribute to individuality and uniqueness

Question 14

What are the four characteristics of development?

Answer 14

1. Multidirectionality 2. Multicontextual 3. Multicultural 4. Plasticity

Question 15

What is multidirectionality?

Answer 15

Development is ever-changing, and this change may be characterized in many ways. This means that when describing change in a particular characteristic of human development, we may say that it increases or decreases, speeds up of slows down, proceed in a straight (linear) or crooked manner, changes steadily or in a jerky fashion. For example, a toddler may learn to walk faster than another toddler the same age. Some infants may walk sudden (no crawling) and just take off or some infants may roll, crawl, then walk. Multidirectionality is the idea in development that simplifies the ever changing and unpredictable nature or development into one term.

Question 16

What are the two different periods of development?

Answer 16

1. Critical 2. Sensitive

Question 17

What is the critical period of development?

Answer 17

A critical period is: A time when a specific facet of development must occur to ensure normal development. (For example, during prenatal development, there are very specific times during the approx. 9 months of gestation when specific organs and body structures must form. If such formation does not occur during these critical periods, it never will, and the entire development process will be disrupted.)

Question 18

What is the sensitive period?

Answer 18

The sensitive period is a time when a certain type of development is most likely to happen or can happen most easily. (Example: Language development. Early childhood is viewed as learned beyond this period, but never will this learning be as natural or easy as during the sensitive period.

Question 19

What is the Multicontextual characteristic?

Answer 19

Humans develop in dozens of contexts that profoundly affect their development. Contexts include physical surroundings (climate, noise, population density, etc.) and family configurations.

Question 20

What are the two examples of multicontextual considerations?

Answer 20

Historical Context and Socioeconomic Contex

Question 21

What is the Historical Context?

Answer 21

All persons born within a few years of one another are said to be a cohort, defined as a group of people whose shared age means that they travel through life together. Members of a cohort are all affected by the values, events, technologies, and culture of their era.

Question 22

What is an example of Historical Context?

Answer 22

The war in Iraq has a different meaning for U.S. adults whose lives were changed by World War II, the Vietnam War, or the Gulf War. Similarly, those who lived trough the Great Depression are likely to view life differently than those who did not, just as those who lived through the 9-11 terrorist attacks are likely to be different from those who were and will be born later.

Question 23

What is the Socioeconomic Context?

Answer 23

When social scientists study the socioeconomic context they often focus on socioeconomic status, abbreviated SES. Sometimes SES is called “social class” (as in “middle class” or “working class”). SES also consider not only present status, but also past history and future prospects. SES involves more than money, in the form of income or wealth. It is also measured by factors such as occupation, education, and neighborhood.

Question 24

What is the multicultural characteristic?

Answer 24

Considered the within this category are the specific effects on development of a person’s culture. Culture includes things like values, customs, clothes, dwellings, cuisine, and even ways of thinking and behaving. Culture affects every action.

Question 25

What is Plasticity?

Answer 25

Human development is malleable and durable. The term plasticity denotes two complementary aspects of development: Human traits can be molded, yet people maintain a certain durability of identity (like plastic, which takes decades to disintegrate).

Question 26

What is dynamic-systems approach?

Answer 26

A view on development as an ever occurring, ever changing interaction between the person and all the systems (family, school, neighborhood), domains (physical, cognitive, psychosocial) and cultures relevant to his/her life.

Question 27

What are the four steps to the scientific method?

Answer 27

1. Ask a question: On the basis of previous research or a particular theory or personal observation, pose a question. 2. Develop a hypothesis: Reformulate and segment the question into a hypothesis, or specific prediction to be tested. 3. Test the hypothesis: Design and conduct research to provide empirical evidence (data) about the validity or falsehood of the hypothesis. 4. Draw conclusions: Use the evidence to support or refute the hypothesis.

Question 28

Studying Development (Change) over The Life Span means:

Answer 28

The study of development is concerned with question of how people change (and remain the same) over time. Thus, researchers must have ways to study change.

Question 29

What is Cross-sectional design?

Answer 29

This design involves the simultaneous study of several, different-aged groups of people. So if we were to study changes in intellectual functioning over time, we would see groups of 10-, 20-, 30-, 40-, 50-, 60-, and 70-year olds. Testing the intelligence of all members of each group and comparing the average performance for each age-group would provide information about differences in intelligence that the researcher would assume were a function of age.

Question 30

Explain the problem with cross sectional design.

Answer 30

The problem with this design is that it DOES NOT MEASURE CHANGE. More specifically, if the 70 year old group performs at a lower level than the 20 year old group, we may want to conclude that “as you grow older you grow less intelligent.” The fact is that the design tells us nothing about how people change, because studying change would require following the same people over time. Representation of cross-sectional design, which measures AGE DIFFERENCES but does not directly measure change.

Question 31

What is Longitudinal design?

Answer 31

This design involves studying the same group of subjects at multiple points in time. For example, starting with a group of 20 year olds, intellectual functioning is measure. Ten years later, this same group is assessed when they are 30. And again ten years later they are assessed at the age of 40, etc. This design measures change and thus provides information about development. Representation of longitudinal design (same group, several times of measurement [at different ages]), which measures AGE DIFFERENCES AND CHANGE, but does not measure the effects of the study.

Question 32

What is Cross-Sequential design?

Answer 32

This design combines elements of the previous two designs. There are multiple times of assessment. At the first assessment, a cross-sectional study is conducted, with multiple groups of different ages. The second time of testing makes this a longitudinal design in that the subjects assessed at time 1 will be assessed again. IN ADDITION, new subjects will be added to each age group. This way, researcher can protect against the effects of testing. Representation of sequential design (combination of cross-sectional and longitudinal: several groups, different times of measurement), which measures AGE DIFFERENCES, CHANGE AND EFFECTS OF STUDY.

Question 33

What is developmental theory?

Answer 33

A developmental theory provides us with a systematic statement of principles and general ideas that describe and explain behavior and development. In this way, developmental theories provide us with a framework for understanding development, or how and why people change as they move through their lives. Theories also typically allow for the asking of specific questions that may be tested empirically by research.

Question 34

What are psychoanalytic theorists?

Answer 34

Psychoanalytic theorists view human behavior and development in terms of unconscious drives and motivations. This is to say that they believe there are things ‘inside of us’ that we are unaware of but that nevertheless have an impact on our thoughts and actions, and on our development more generally.

Question 35

Why was Sigmund Freud such a notable psychoanalytic theorist?

Answer 35

Trained as a neurologist, Freud became interested in treating various serious symptoms which at the time were thought to b suffered only by women. The condition was referred to as hysteria, and medical professionals at that time, predominantly male, believed that the causes to this condition were physical. Basically, the thinking was that it was by virtue of being a woman that a person was susceptible to this condition. The treatment was surgical removal of the uterus and ovaries, or hysterectomy. Freud did not believe that the cause for this condition was physical so he thought there could be a mental or psychological explanation.

Question 36

What did Freud learn when studying with hypnosis?

Answer 36

When in a trance-like (hypnotic) state: - People are able to remember things that otherwise were unavailable to them - often, what are most unlikely to e recalled when fully conscious and likely to be recalled under hypnosis are memories rom early in life that are emotion-laden, meaning that the events which comprise the memory have a strong emotion tied to them - Once these events are remembered and the emotions linked to them are experienced, the symptoms vanish (in instances where hypnosis was being used as a form of treatment). *Thus it seems that powerful, ‘unavailable’ memories are a ‘cause.’

Question 37

What was the solution Freud came up with to move away from hypnosis?

Answer 37

Free association

Question 38

What is free association?

Answer 38

A process by which an individual is helped to relax his mind, just as a massage might help him to relax his muscles.

Question 39

Freud’s use of free association

Answer 39

Freud would have the patient lie down on a couch, facing away from him and with very low lighting in the room so that there would be little visual stimulation or distraction for patient. Freud would encourage his patients to relax and close their eyes, then to say anything and everything that might come to mind. In this manner, with the therapist’s help and over time, patients were able to move past the barriers in their minds to gain access to previously inaccessible memories.

Question 40

What are Freud’s beliefs?

Answer 40

1. The cause for everything lies in unconscious memories and/or drives. 2. If these can be brought to consciousness and the emotion associated with them relived, a cure can be achieved. 3. Most of these memories go back to a very early time in life and are sexual in nature.

Question 41

What were Freud’s proposals?

Answer 41

Freud proposed that the individual is driven by an inborn sexual energy that is centered on various body parts at different points in the lifespan. He coined the term LIBIDO to refer to this inborn entity that houses the individual’s sexual energy. Freud also proposed that adult personality is determined by the manner in which the individual deals with the challenges posed by the sexual drives at each stage.

Question 42

What were the two main parts of Freud’s theory?

Answer 42

• Stages of psychosexual development - Three components of personality

Question 43

What are the different ages and stages of psychosexual development:

Answer 43

Oral stage: (birth - 1+ year) Anal stage: (1+ - 3 years) Phallic stage: (3 - 6+ years) Latency stage: (6+ to 11 years) Genital stage: (adolescence - adulthood)

Question 44

What is the oral stage?

Answer 44

The Oral stage - sexual impulses are centered around the mouth, as evidenced by sucking and the infant’s frequent and persistent efforts to bring things to the mouth, thus creating oral stimulation and physical gratification.

Question 45

What is the Anal Stage?

Answer 45

Anal Stage - sexual impulses are centered around anal activities. This is the stage in life when children are developing the muscular control necessary for toilet training. According to Freud, there is physical pleasure associated with these experiences. Also during this stage, the child learns delay of gratification, which is the ability to defer one’s gratification, to put off until some later time what you would very much like to do right now. For the young child, here again toilet training becomes very relevant, as it often would feel very good to urinate or have a bowel movement at the moment the urge to do so presents itself, but the child must learn to put off this pleasure until he or she can get to a bathroom.

Question 46

What is the phallic stage?

Answer 46

Phallic stage - pleasure is derived from the genitals during the phallic stage. Children ‘discover’ their gentians and also discover that touching their genitals is a physically pleasurable experience. Experience during this stage differs for boys and girls. Boys experience the Oedipal Complex, where’s girls experience the Electra Complex.

Question 47

What is the Oedipal Complex?

Answer 47

The basic idea behind the Oedipal Complex is that the young boy comes to desire his mother all to himself. Since the child understands that his father is a direct competitor for his mother’s affections, the boy’s desire for his mother is accompanied by this wish to be rid of his father. Simply put, the boy’s feelings for his mother grow strong. He is at a stage in his life where he has discovered his genitals in a new way, and he wishes to share in this discovery with his mother, just as he has shared in every discovery with her. Eventually the boy realizes that he cannot have mother all to himself so instead of getting rid of the father, he will become just like him. This is referred to as identification: the boy wishes to be like his father in every way. And if he is successful at emulating his father, perhaps he will grow up to a find a woman just like his mother. Also Develops superego.

Question 48

What is the Electra Complex?

Answer 48

This situation is somewhat reversed for the young girl (reversed from Oedipal complex). She wishes to have her father all to herself, and to get rid of her mother (at the extreme, she lusts after her father and wishes her mother dead). And like the young boy, the girl is not consciously aware of these desires in the way they are explained here. Later the girl realizes that her wish is not attainable so she identifies with her mother, deciding that she will be like her mother in every way in the hopes that one ay she will meet a man just like her father.

Question 49

What is the Latency Stage?

Answer 49

The Latency Stage - sexual impulses are dormant during this stage. Energy flows into typical activities of this stage such as sports, friendships and school work.

Question 50

What is the Genital Stage?

Answer 50

The Genital Stage - the person integrates lust and affection (love) and develops mature love relationships. The general goal of a healthy life is “to love and to work.”

Question 51

Freud’s belief in the importance of each stage suggested that…

Answer 51

Freud was the first to suggest that early development might influence later development..

Question 52

What are the three components of personality?

Answer 52

• Id - Ego - Superego

Question 53

What is Id?

Answer 53

The Id is entirely unconscious. It is the home of the inborn, instinctual drives (libido) and operates on the basi of the pleasure principle, which demands immediate gratification at all cost. The epitome of Id is a newborn infant who knows nothing but its desires. It cannot wait, cannot be calmed until its needs are met.

Question 54

What is Ego?

Answer 54

The ego grows out of the frustrations of life. The child eventually learns the limitations of the real world, learns that his/her needs will no always be met immediately. Out of these frustrations, the ego develops and operates on the basis of the reality principle, which recognizes that there are factors outside the individual which must be considered in making decisions about one’s behavior. Development of the ego is characterized by the person’s ability to delay gratification, such as occurs when a child is toilet trained. The ego serves to balance the demands of the Id and the demands of reality.

Question 55

What is Superego?

Answer 55

Out of exposure to parents’ teachings of right and wrong (morality), and as a result of the resolution of the Oedipus/Electra Complex, the individual develops a superego. This sens of right and wrong guides the person’s thoughts, words and deeds. (We commonly refer to this as a conscience.)

Question 56

These three components of personality are said to exist in every person. What sets us apart from each other?

Answer 56

What sets us apart from each other is the specific BALANCE between these components and this balance is a function of our development, or experiences within each of Freud’s psychosexual stages.