Exam 3 Flashcards
Development Psychology
Study physiological and cognitive changes across the life span and how these are affected by a person’s genetic predispositions,culture,circumstances, and experiences.
Socialization
The process by which children learn the rules and behavior expected of them by society.
Germinal Stage of Development
Begins at fertilization, when the male sperm unites with the female ovum(egg);the fertillized single-celled egg is called a zygote.
Embryonic Stage of Development
Begins about two weeks after fertilization and lasts until the eighth week after conception.
Fetal Stage of Development
Begins after eight weeks,and the organism, now called a fetus,futher develops the organs and systems that exisited in rudimentary form in the embryonic stage.
Rooting
Occurs when a person touches(strokes) the corner of a baby’s mouth and the baby will turn its head and open it’s mouth to follow and “root” in the direction of the touch(stroke).
Sucking
Occurs when the roof of the mouth is touched.
Swallowing
Stimulating the palate causes swallowing
Moro(“startle”)
Happens when a baby is startled by a loud noice or movement and reaches out and cries.
Babinski reflex
Sole of foot is touched and big toe bends back to top of foot and other toes fan out.
Grasping
Stroke a baby’s palm and their hand closes around the finger.
Stepping
Baby appears to be taking a step when their feet touches the ground.
Attachment Theory
Children gain a secure base by attaching to the caregiver. Infants usually find a balance between secure attachment to the caregiver and feeling free to explore the environment.(John Bowlby(1963,1979))
Contact Comfort
Comfort derived from an infant’s physical contact wiht the mother or caregiver.
Strange Situation Test
- Mother brings the baby in an unfamilliar room with toys.
- After awhile a stranger comes in and tries to play with the baby.
- The mother leaves the baby with the stranger.
- Mother returns, plays with the child, and the stranger leaves.
- Mother leaves the baby for three minutes, and returns.
Secure Attachment
A parent-infant relationship in which the baby is secure when the parent is present, distressed by separation and delighted by reunion.
Insecure Attachment
Two types: Avoidant and Anxious-ambivalent. A parent-infant relationship in which the baby clings to the parent,cries at separation, and reacts with anger or apathy to reunion.
Language Development
Acquisition of speech begins in the first few months. Infants are responsive to pitch,intensity, and sound. By 4-6 months of age children can recognize their names and repetive words. By 6-12 months of age children become familliar with sentence structure and start babbling. By 11 months infants use symbolic gestures. At about 12 months infants use words to label objects. Between 18-24 months, toddlers combine 2-3 words into telegraphic speech.
Assimilation
Absorbing new information into existing cognitive structures.
Accommodation
Modifying existing cognitive structures in response to new information.
Sensorimotor Stage
Birth to 2 years. Major accomplishment is object permanence. between 4 and 9 months. Knowledge through senses(tasting, seeing, smelling, touching, hearing).
Preoperational Stage
2-5 years. Verbal and egocentric thinking develop. Can do mentally what once could only do physically. Conservation of shape, number, liquid are not yet possible.
Concrete Operational
6-11 years. Conservation of shape, number, liquid are now possible. Logic and reasoning develop, but are limited to appearance and what is concreatly observed.
Formal Operational
12 and up. Abstract reasoning-principles and ideals develop. Systematic problem solving is now possible(no longer just trial and error). Ability to think about and reflect upon one’s thinking (metacognition). Scientific Reasoning
Lev Vygotsky
Felt cognitive development was more of a social process. Children develop mental representations of the world through culture and language, and that adults play a major role in their children’s development by constantly guiding and teaching them. Zone of proximal development-the distance between what a child can learn alone and what the child can learn assisted by an adult.
Kolhberg’s Theory of Moral Development
Level 1: Preconventional level-Stage 1: Punishment and obedience. Stage 2- Instrumental relativism. Level 2: Conventional- Stage 3: Good boy-Nice girl. Stage 4-Society maintaining(law and order) Level 3: Postconventional-Stage 5: Social Contract Stage 6: Universal ethical principles.
Power Assertion
Parent uses punishment and authority to correct misbehavior.
Induction
Parent appeals to child’s own resources, abilities, sense of responsibility, and feelings for others in correcting misbehavior.
Self-Regulation
The ability to suppress an initial wish to do something in favor of doing something else that is not as much fun.
Gender Identity
The fundamental sense of being male or female, independent of whether the person conforms to social and cultural rules of gender.
Intersex Conditions
Chromosomal or hormonal anomalies cause the child to be born with ambiguous genitals or genitals that conflict with the infant’s chromosomes.
Adolescence
A transition period between childhood and adulthood that brings challenges and excitement.
Puberty
The age which a person becomes capable of sexual reproduction
Influences of Timing of Puberty
Onset of puberty depends on genetic and environmental factors:Body fat triggers the hormonal changes. Early vs Late Onset: Early maturing boys have more positive views of their bodies and are more likely to smoke, binge drink, and break the law. Early maturing girls are usually socially popular but also regarded by peer group as precocious and sexually active. They are more likely to fight with parents, drop out of school, and have a negative body image.
Erikson’s Eight Stages
Trust versus Mistrust: Infancy(birth-age 1), Autonomy versus shame &doubt:Toddler(ages 1-2)
Initiative vs Guilt: Preschool(ages 3-5)
Competence vs Inferiority: Elementary School(ages 6-12)
Identity vs. Role Confusion: Adolescence(ages 13-19)
Intimacy vs. Isolation: Young Adults(20-40)
Generativity vs. Stagnation Middle age(40-65)
Ego Integrity vs. Despair Old age(65-older)
Adult Development
Psychological concerns can occur at any time in life, therefore stage theories are no longer used to understand how adults change or stay the same. Adult development involves interactions among: Biological changes, Personality traits, Personal experiences, Historical Events, Particular Environments and Friends and Relationships.
Emerging Adulthood
(18-25) A transitional time between adolescence and young adulthood. Increase responsibilities and demands. 3 important issues: Career Identity, Sexual Identity and Ethnic Identity.
Young Aduthood
(Mid 20s) Begins when key tasks of emerging adulthood have been completed. Differs across culture. Several “events” may occur during this time: marriage- age of marriage has increased over the last 50 years; Parenthood.
Middle Years
(35-65) Percieved by many as the prime of life. sensory and brain development: loss of some hearing and visual abilities is normal neurgenesis tapers off. Menopause- the cessation of mestruation and the production of ova, usually a gradual process lasting several years.
Old Age
(65 and up) Brain mass decreses, and frontal lobe changes account for many of the cognitive changes of the later years. Some types of thinking change, others stay the same. Apparent senility often caused by combinations of medications. Depression and passivity are result of loss of meaningful activity, intellectual stimulation, and control over events. Weakness and frailty caused by sedentary lifestyles. Gerontologists estimate that only 30% of the physical losses associated with old age are genetically based. The rest are environmental or psychological.
Fluid Intellegence
The capacity for deductive reasoning and the ability to use new information to solve problems; relatively independent of education, declines in old age.
Crystallized Intellegence
Cognitive skills and specific knowledge of information acquired over a lifetime; depends heavily on education, remains stable over lifetime.
Lifespan Intellectual Changes
Some intellectual abilities dwindle with age. Numerical and verbal abilities relatively stable.
Socioemotional Selectivity Theory
Challenges the association of old age with declines. Time perspective changes the importance of emotional goals. Older adults have emotionally closer and tighter social networks. Older adults are happier compared to younger adults. Older adults have better memory for positive and emotionally meaningful information. ( Laura Carstensen, 1992)
Concept
A mental category for elements of our environment(or imagination) that share properties.
Prototype
The best example of the average/central tendency of a category.
Exemplar
A specific example of a category member.
Superordinate Level
General category ie furniture
Basic Level
Prefered basic name ie chair
Subordinate Level
Specific ie windsor
Elenanor Rosch & The Dani Tribe
Phototypical stimuli are used as standards for comparisons ex. 103 is basically 100, Purple is like red, North Korea is similar to China. Rosch studied color perception/categorization in the Dani tribe of New Guinea. 2 categories “Mili”(Roughly dark, cold), “Mola”(Roughly light, warm). Participants learned new color categories and were built around Western prototypes or not….
Heuristics
are “rules of thumb” that can be used to solve many similar problems however they don’t guarantee a correct solution like algorithms.
The Representativeness Heuristic
Is used when making judgements about the probability of an event under uncetainty. Kahneman- representativeness as” the degree to which an event is similar in essential characteristics to its parent population, and reflects the salient features of the process by which it is generalized.
The Availability Heuristic
A mental shortcut that occurs when people make judgements about the probability of events by how easy it is to think of examples.
Semanticity
The individual symbols in a language have meaning(related to actions, objects, relationships,etc.)
Infinite Creativity
The symbols of a language can be combined in unusual and new ways and still convey meaning(generativity)
Displacement
The capacity to communicate information about events and objects in another time and place.
Linguistic Convergence
A tendency for people’s speech patterns to “drift” towards a common ground(syntax,rhythm, jargon)
How to function in a complex world
Step 1: “Chunk”environmental information to make it more easily organized and remembered. Step 2: Develop “rules of thumb” that can be used to solve many similar problems-heuristics. Step 3: Learn to communicate effectively.
Intelligence
An inferred characteristic of an individual, usually defined as the ability to profit from experience, acquire knowledge, think abstractly, act purposefully, or adapt to changes in the environment.
Psychometrics
The measurement of mental abilities, traits, and processes.
Reliability
It is the consistency of a test, ie when constructing a test, the scores achieved on the test at one time and place should be consistent with the scores achieved at another time and place.
Validity
The ability of a test to measure what it was designed to measure.
G factor
A general intellectual ability assumed by many theorists to underlie specific mental abilities and talents.
Intelligence Quotient (IQ)
(Mental Age/Chronological Age)X100
Mental Age (MA)
A person’s mental ability expressed as the age at which an average person reaches the same ability.
General Intelligence
Similar to G Factor
Broad Intelligence
Includes crystalized and fluid intelligence, memory, learning and processing speed. (Fluid intelligence-Raw mental ability, pattern recognition, and abstract reasoning. Crystalized intelligence-knowledge from experience, learning, education, and practice. how quickly you can learn new things)
Narrow intelligence
Denotes many distinct abilities.
Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory
Analytical-Comparing, Analyzing, and Evaluating, Creative- inventing solutions to new problems, transfer skills to new situations, Practical- Applying the things you know to everyday contexts
Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligence
- Verbal
- Mathematical
- Naturalist
- Spatial
- Existentialist
- Interpersonal
- Intrapersonal
- Bodily-Kinesthetic
- Musical
Mental Retardation
Significant limitations in intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior. IQ of 70 or below. Mild(50-70), Moderate(35-50), Severe(20-35), Profound(below 20)
Giftedness
High end of the intelligence spectrum. IQ of 130-140 or above. Prodigy- A young person who is extremely gifted, precocious in one area and has at least average intelligence. Savant syndrome: A rare condition in which people wiith serious mental handicaps show isolated areas of ability or brilliance.
Stereotype Threat
Burden of doubt and anxiety one feels about his or her performance due to negative stereotypes about his or her group.
Types of Problem Solving
Convergent thinking problems-have know solutions, required analytical thinking and learning strategies. Divergent thinking problems-have no know solutions, require novel solutions.
Algorithms
Step by step formulas or procedures for solving problems. Deductive Reasoning-A tool of formal logic in which a conclusion necessarily follows from a set of premises. Inductive Reasoning-A tool of formal logic in which a conclusion probably follows from a set of premises.
Obstacles to Solutions
Fixation- Inability to break out of a particular mind set and form a fresh perspective. Mental Set- Tendency to solve problems using procedures that worked before on similar problems.
Insight
finding a solution to a problem
Creativity
Is the ability to think about something in novel and unusual ways, and to devise unconventional solutions to problems.
Stages of Creative Problem Solving
Preparation- Formulating Problem
Incubation- Setting aside and comeback later
Insight-Finding a solution
Verification-elaboration-expand on the solution making sure its the right solution
Creativity and the Brain
Creative insight results in Increased Frontal Lobe Activity. The frontal lobes are active in abstract reasoning,planning, focused working memory, and integrating sensory imput. Creative insight and the Right Hemisphere. Insights occur more in the right hemisphere than in the left hemisphere.
Cognitive Processes in Creative Thinking
Ideational Fluency- Ability to produce many ideas.
Flexibility of Thought- Ability to come up with many different categories of ideas and think of other responses besides the obvious.
Social Psychology
The study of how people think about,influence, and relate to other people depending upon the social context.
Culture
A program of shared rules that governs the behavior of members of a community or society, and a set of values,beliefs,and attitudes shared by most members of that community.
Social Facilitation
Phenomenon in which the presence of others improves one’s performance.
Social Loafing
Phenomenon in which the presence of others causes one to relax one’s standards and slack off.
Norms and Roles
Norms- Rules about how we are supposed to act, enforced by threats of punishment if we violate them and the promises of reward if we follow them. Roles- Social positions regulated by norms about how people in those positions should behave
Conformity
Changing one’s behavior or belief as a result of real or imagined group pressure. Two forms: Compliance- Outwardly going along with the group while inwardly disagreeing. -Obedience: Compliance with a direct command. Acceptance-Believing as well as acting in accord with social pressure.
Entrapment
A gradual process in which individuals escalate their commitment to a course of action to justify their investment of time, money,or effort.
Social Cognition
An area of social psychology concerned with social influences on thought, memory, perception, and other cognitive processes.
Attribution Theory
People are motivated to explain their own and other people’s behavior by attributing causes of that behavior to a situation or disposition
Fundamental Attribution Error
The tendency, in explaining other people’s behavior, to overestimate dispositional factors and underestimate the influence of the situation.
Situational Attributions
The explaination of individual behavior as a result of situational influences, rather than internal characteristics of the individual
Dispositional Attributions
The explaination of individual behavior as a result caused by internal characteristics that reside within the individual.
Self Serving Biases
Habits of thinking that make us feel good about ourselves,even when we shouldn’t.
Just-World Hypothesis
The bias to believe that the world is fair.
Attitudes
An attitude is a belief about people, groups, ideas, or activities.
Explicit Attitudes
We are aware of them, they shape our conscious decisions and actions, and can be measured on self report questionnaires.
Implicit Attitudes
We are unaware of them, they may influence our behavior in ways we don’t recognize, and they are measured in indirect ways.
Familiarity Effect
The tendency of people to feel more positive toward a person, item, product or other stimulus the more familiar they are with it.
Validity Effect
The tendency of people to believe that a statement is true or valid simply because it has been repeated many times.
Groupthink
The tendency for all members of a group to think alike for the sake of harmony and to suppress disagreement.
Diffusion of Responsibility
When the responsibility for an outcome is spread among many people, it reduces each individual’s personal sense of accountability.
Bystander Apathy
The tendency of members in a crowd to avoid taking action because they assume that other bystanders will.
Deindividuation
Loss of self awareness and individuality in group situations that fost responsiveness to group norms good or bad.
Dissenting
Deviance, non-conformity, and disagreement
Altruism
The willingness to take selfless or dangerous actions on behalf of others. Types of Altruism: Kin Selection: Evolutionary favoring of genes that prompts individuals to help their relative or kin.,Reciprocal Altruism: Act of helping others in the hope that they will help us in the future.,Social exchange theory: We help others when the benefits to ourselves are likely to outweigh the costs. Empathy: Ability to share the feelings of others and understand their situations.
Social Identity
Part of our self-concept based on the groups we belong to such as our nation,religious or political group, occupation, or other social affiliation.
Ethnic Identity
Is a person’s identification with a racial or ethnic group.
Acculturation
Is the process by which members of minority groups come to identify with and feel part of the mainstream culture.
Ethnocentrism
The belief that one’s own ethnic group,nation, or religion is superior to all others.
In-group/Out-group bias
Tendency to show positive feelings toward people who belong to the same group as we do, and negative feelings toward those in other groups.
Stereotypes
A summary impression of a group, in which a person believes that all members of the group share a common trait or traits(positive, negative, or neutral).
Prejudice
Is a strong, unreasonable dislike of a group based on a negative stereotype.
Types of Aggression
Hostile Aggression:An act of aggression stemming from a feeling of anger and aimed at inflicting pain or injury to the victim. Instrumental Aggression: An action intended to hurt another person,but the hurting takes place as a means to some goal other than causing pain.
Causes of Aggression
Neurological and chemical causes, alcohol, pain and discomfort, frustration and aggression, rejection, exclusion, and taunting.
Causes for Liking and Attraction`
Familiarity,Similarity, Assortative Mating(people tend to be attracted to and partner with people of a similar level of attractiveness to themselves), Physical and Chemical Attractivness(Pheromones).
