EXAM 1 REVIEW Flashcards
Imagine a debate between John Locke and JeanJacques Rousseau on the nature-nurture controversy.
Summarize the argument each historical figure is likely to present.
……
What is meant by a stage of development?
Provide your own example of stagewise change.
What stand do stage theorists take on the issue of continuous versus discontinuous development?
A stage is a distinct period of development characterized by qualitative changes in thinking, feeling, and behaving.
Stage theorists believe that development is discontinuous— a process in which new ways of understanding and responding to the world emerge at specific times.
In this view, children undergo periods of rapid transformation as they step up from one stage to the next, alternating with plateaus during which little change occurs.
For example, as young children begin to represent their world through language and make-believe play, they are entering a new stage of development.
What aspect of behaviorism made it attractive to critics of psychoanalytic theory?
How did Piaget respond to a major limitation of behaviorism?
The early behaviorists rejected the psychoanalytic concern with the unseen workings of the mind. They sought, instead, to create an objective science of psychology that would study directly observable events—stimuli and responses. As psychologists wondered whether behaviorism might offer a more direct and effective explanation of the development of children’s social behavior than the less precise concepts of psychoanalytic theory, several kinds of social learning theory emerged. The most influential emphasizes modeling, also known as imitation or observational learning, as a powerful source of development.
Two important themes of behaviorism, modeling and reinforcement, were criticized for offering too narrow a view of important environmental influences and also for underestimating children’s contributions to their own development. Piaget maintained that children’s learning does not depend on reinforcers, such as rewards. Rather, according to Piaget’s cognitive-developmental theory, children actively construct knowledge as they manipulate and explore their world.
Besides investigating children’s understanding of their physical environment, Piaget explored their reasoning about the social world. He convinced the field that children are active learners whose minds consist of rich structures of knowledge.
A 4-year-old become frightened of the dark and refuses to go to sleep at night. How would a psychoanalyst and a behaviorist differ in their views of how this problem developed?
According to the psychoanalytic perspective, children move through a series of stages in which they confront conflicts between biological drives and social expectations. In this view, fear of the dark reflects an unconscious motive or deep-seated anxiety within the child. A psychoanalyst might conclude, for example, that the child’s fear really represents anxiety about nighttime separation from the parent. Once the anxiety is resolved, the fear will subside.
In contrast, behaviorists look at the effects on behavior of directly observable events, not at the inner workings of the mind. From a behaviorist perspective, a child would be afraid of the dark as a result of previous negative experiences in the dark. Perhaps the child heard a sudden, loud noise at night or was frightened by the visual images of a nightmare. On the basis of these experiences, the child would be conditioned to respond fearfully to being in the dark.
Cohort effects occur when…
…particular cultural and historical conditions influence participants born at the same time.
Longitudinal research can identify common patterns as well as individual differences in development because the investigator….
…tracks the performance of each person over time.
Dr. Kempsell combines interviews, observations, and test scores to obtain a full picture of one individual’s psychological functioning. This is an example of ____ .
the clinical, or case study, method.
Dr. Jones believes that a child’s mind, body, and physical and social worlds form an integrated system that guides mastery of new skills. The system is constantly in motion.
His view is consistent with which recent theoretical perspective?
dynamic systems perspective
According to Piaget’s theory, in the sensorimotor stage, children…
….“think” by acting on the world with their eyes, ears, hands, and mouth.
Using your knowledge of X-linked inheritance, explain why males are more vulnerable than females to miscarriage, infant death, genetic disorders, and other problems.
When a harmful allele is carried on the X chromosome, X-linked inheritance applies.
Males are more likely to be affected because their sex chromosomes do not match.
In females, any recessive allele on one X chromosome has a good chance of being suppressed by a dominant allele on the other X.
But the Y chromosome is only about one-third as long and therefore lacks many corresponding alleles to override those on the X.
Beside X-linked disorders, many sex differences reveal the male to be at a disadvantage.
Rates of miscarriage, infant and childhood deaths, birth defects, learning disabilities, behavior disorders, and intellectual disability all are higher for boys.
It is possible that these sex differences can be traced to the genetic code.
The female, with two X chromosomes, benefits from a greater variety of genes.
Craig’s genetic makeup is homozygous for dark hair.
Sierra is homozygous for blond hair.
What color is Craig’s hair?
How about Sierra’s?
What proportion of their children are likely to be dark-haired? Explain.
Because homozygous individuals inherit similar alleles from both parents, they will always display the inherited trait.
As a result, Craig will have dark hair, Sierra will have blond hair.
Because Craig can pass on only the dominant dark-hair allele, all of Craig and Sierra’s children will have dark hair.
However, because their children will also receive the recessive blond-hair allele from Sierra, all of them will be heterozygous—carriers of the allele for blond hair, which they can pass on to their own children.
Describe phenylketonuria (PKU). Explain how it occurs and how it is treated.
Phenylketonuria, or PKU, is one of the most frequently occurring recessive disorders.
It affects the way the body breaks down proteins contained in many foods.
Infants born with two recessive alleles lack an enzyme that converts one of the basic amino acids that make up proteins (phenylalanine) into a byproduct essential for body functioning (tyrosine).
Without this enzyme, phenylalanine quickly builds to toxic levels that damage the central nervous system.
By age 1, infants with PKU suffer from permanent intellectual disability.
All U.S. states require that each newborn be given a blood test for PKU.
If the disease is found, doctors place the baby on a diet low in phenylalanine.
Children who receive this treatment nevertheless show mild deficits in certain cognitive skills, such as memory, planning, decision making, and problem solving, because even small amounts of phenylalanine interfere with brain functioning.
But as long as dietary treatment begins early and continues, children with PKU usually attain an average level of intelligence and have a normal lifespan.
Niche-picking is an example of a(n) _______ gene–environment correlation.
active
In power and breadth of influence, no other microsystem context equals the _______ .
family
Which of the following prental diagnostic methods is the most widely used technique?
ultrasound
