Lifespan Development Flashcards
Adaptation
According to Piaget, cognitive development occurs when a state of disequilibrium brought on by a discrepancy between the person’s current understanding of the world and reality is resolved through adaptation, which entails two complementary processes: Assimilation and accomodation
Assimilation
One of Piaget’s processes of adaptation
The incorporation of new knowledge into existing cognitive schemas
Accomodation
One of Piaget’s processes of adaption
The modification of existing schemas to incorporate new knowledge
Brofenbrenner described development as involving interactions between the individual and his/her context or environment, and his __________ model describes the context in terms of five environmental systems or levels.
ecological
The ____________ is the child’s immediate environment and includes face to face relationships within the home, school, and neighborhood.
microsystem
The _______________ refers to interactions between components of the microsystem, such as the influence of family factors on the child’s behavior in school.
mesosystem
The __________ consists of elements of the broader environment that affect the child’s immediate environment and includes the parents’ workplace, the school board, community agencies, local industry, and the mass media. a. each employee’s most prepotent need must be identtified
b. each employees level of “job maturity” must be identified
c. employees must be given a raise
d. employees must be given more individual responsibility and autonomy
exosystem
The ___________ is comprised of such overarching environmental influences as cultural beliefs and practices, economic conditions, and political ideologies.
macrosystem
The __________ consists of environmental events that occur over an individual’s lifespan and impact the individual in ways that depend on the individual’s circumstances and developmental stage (e.g., the immediate and long-term effects of a change in family structure or socioeconomic status).
chronosystem
Which of the following disorders is caused by the presence off an extra chromosome 21 and is characterized by mental retardation, retarded physical growth and motor development, distinctive physical features, and increased susceptibility to Alzheimer’s dementia, leukemia, and heart defects?
a. Klinefelter Syndrome
b. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
c. Down Syndrome
d. Phenylketonuria (PKU)
c
This is caused by an abnormality in the number of sex chromosomes, occurs in males, and is due to the presence of two or more X chromosomes along with a single Y chromosomes. A male with this disorder has a small penis and testes, develops breasts during puberty, has limited interrest in sexual activity, is often sterile, and may have learning disabilities.
Klinefelter Syndrome
This is caused by an abbnormality in the number of sex chromosomes, occurs in females and is caused by the presence of a single X chromosome. Females with this disorder are short in stature, have characteristic physical features (e.g. drooping eyelids, webbed neck), have retarded or absent develoopment of the secondary sex charactteristics and may exhibit cerrtain coggnitive deficits.
Turner Syndrome
______________ are substances that cause birth defects in the developing fetus and include drugs, chemicals, and certain maternal conditions.
Teratogens
While the central nervous system is vulnerable to the effects off teratogens throughout prenatal development, major damage is most likely to occur when exposure occurs between the beginning of the _______ week through the middle off the _______ week following conception.
third; sixth
During this stage of Piaget’s cognitive development, a child learns about objects and other people through the sensory information they provide (how they look, feel, and taste) ant the actions that can be performed on them (sucking, grasping, hitting, etc.). Piaget proposed that the predominant type of learning during this phase is the result of circular reactions, which are actions that are performed in order to reproduce events that initially occurred by chance.
Sensorimotor stage
Classical extinction occurs when:
a. the CS is repeatedly presented alone
b. the US is repeatedly presented alone
c. The US and CS are presented simultaneously
d. the CS is presented after the US
a. Extinction of a CR (conditioned response) occurs when the CS is repeatedly presented without the US
- Dr. Dawg presents Stimulus A along with a loud noise so that eventually the research participant reacts with a startle reaction whenever Stimulus A is presented alone. Dr. Dawg then pairs Stimulus B with Stimulus A so that Stimulus B also elicits a startle reaction when presented alone. This procedure is an example of:
a. stimulus generalization
b. higher-order conditioning
c. response generalization
d. shaping
b. In this situation, a neutral (conditioned) stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus so that the former eventually elicits a conditioned response. This describes a type of classical conditioning known as higherr-order (second-order) conditioning.
What is the first stage of prenatal development?
First two weeks make up the germinal stage. During this stage, the fertilized egg is called a zygote
What is the second stage of prenatal development
The embryonic stage; beginning of the third week through the eight week
What is the last stage of prenatal development?
The fetal stage; begins at the onset of the ninth week and continues until birth
The risk for fetal alcohol syndrome is greatest and the symptoms most severe when:
the mother drinks heavily every day during pregnancy or engages in binge drinking in the early stages of pregnancy
genotype
a person’s genetic inheritance
phenotype
refers to a person’s observed characteristics, which are due to a combination of heredity and environment
critical period
a specific, predetermined period of time during biological maturation when an organism is particularly sensitive to certain stimuli that can have either a positive or negative impact on development
Sensitive periods
longer in duration and more flexible than critical periods, and they are not tied as closely to chronological age or maturational stage
By about age _____, the brain starts to gradually shrink as the result of a loss of neurons, and there is an acceleration of this brain atrophy after age _____.
30; 60
The brain is only about _____% of its adult weight at birth.
25
By the time a child reaches two years of age, the brain has reached nearly _____% of its adult weight.
80
At what age does the brain reach its full adult weight?
16 years
What are some changes in the aging brain?
development of senile plaques, enlargement of ventricles, reduced blood flow to the brain and a decrease in the level of some neurotransmitters
What are some positive things that happen to the aging brain?
The brain attempts to compensate for neuronal loss by developing new connections between the remaining neurons; new neurons develop during the adult years in some areas of the brain, including the hippocampus and cerebral cortex
This early reflex is when a newborn’s toes fan out and upward when soles of the feet are tickled:
a. Babinski
b. Rooting
c. Moro
d. Stepping
a
This early reflex describes when a newborn turns their head in the direction of touch applied to the cheek:
a. Babinski
b. Rooting
c. Moro
d. Stepping
b
This early reflex describes when an infant flings their arms and legs outward and then toward the body in response to a loud noise or sudden loss of physical support:
a. Babinski
b. Rooting
c. Moro
d. Stepping
c
This early reflex describes when an infant makes coordinated walking movements when held upright with feed touching a flat surface:
a. Babinski
b. Rooting
c. Moro
d. Stepping
d
Which of the senses is least well developed at birth:
a. Audition
b. Vision
c. Taste and smell
d. Pain
b. At birth, the newborn sees at 20 feet what normal adults see at about 200 to 400 feet
At what age is an infant’s visual acuity probably very close to that of a normal adult?
a. 1 year
b. 3 months
c. 6 months
d. 18 months
c
Which of the following is not true regarding gender differences in motor development:
a. In middle childhood, girls are more physically mature than same-aged boys and are superior in skills requiring flexibility, agility, and balance
b. In middle childhood, boys are superior in physical skills that require strength and gross-motor abilities
c. Beginning in early adolescence, the disparity between boys and girls decreases substantially.
d. The research has found a correlation between proportion of adipose tissue and motor performance for both boys and girls
c. Beginning in early adolescence, the disparity between boys and girls INCREASES substantially, with boys excelling on most measures of motor ability
Which of the following is true about the consequences of early, late, and on-time physical maturation in adolescence on boys?
a. Early maturation can lead to better adjustment and greater popularity with peers
b. Early maturation is associated with superior athletic skill
c. Late-maturing boys are more childish, exhibit more attention-seeking behaviors, and have less confidence
d. all of the above
d
Which of the following is true about the consequences of early, late, and on-time physical maturation in adolescence on girls?
a. Early maturing girls tend to have a better self-concept
b. Early maturing girls tend to have higher academic achievement
c. Early maturing girls tend to engage in sexually-precocious behavior and drug and alcohol use
d. Early maturing girls tend to have a lower risk for developing depression or an eating disorder
c. Early maturing girls tend to have a poor self-concept, to be dissatisfied with their physical development, to have lower academic achievement, to engage in sexually-precocious behavior and drug and alcohol use, and to be at a higher risk for developing depression or an eating disorder. Late-maturing girls also suffer some adverse effects as the result of being treated like “little girls,” and they tend to be dissatisfied with their appearance
Most adults begin to notice some inability to focus on close object and experience problems with hearing by around what age:
a. 35
b. 40
c. 45
d. 50
b
Among individuals between 75 and 79, at least _____% have hearing deficits that interfere with daily functioning:
a. 25
b. 35
c. 50
d. 60
c
True or false: Research data consistently support the contention that males are biologically more vulnerable than females.
True; for example, more males are stillborn or spontaneously aborted, and a higher percentage of male infants die of congenital malformations or birth injuries. In addition, males are more vulnerable than females to disorders that have been linked to biological factors including many physical illnesses as well as mental retardation, learning disabilities, and certain behavioral disorders
What is the most frequently used drug by adolescents?
alcohol
What is the personal fable?
the belief that one is uniques and not subject to the natural laws that govern others
What is the imaginary audience?
the belief that one is always the center of attention
What are some key terms in Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory?
Zone of proximal development; scaffolding
What are some differences between Vygotsky and Piaget’s theories?
Vygotsky acknowledged the impact of biology on cognitive development but placed greater emphasis on the role of social and cultural factors
What is the term that refers to instruction, assistance, and support and is most effective when it involves modeling, providing cues, and encouraging the child to think about alternative plans of action?
a. Zone of proximal development
b. Scaffolding
c. Assimilation
d. Accomodation
b
What is the term that refers to the discrepancy between a child’s current developmental level (the level at which the child can function independently) and the level of development that is just behond his or her current level?
a. Zone of proximal development
b. Scaffolding
c. Assimilation
d. Accomodation
a
Memory differences between younger and older children (and adults) are related to improvements in ______________.
metacognition
In adults aged 50 and older, greater recall of very recent events is referred to as the __________ effect, while greater recall of events that occurred from about age 10 to 30 is referred to as the ____________ bump.
recency; reminiscence
What is the term for the phenomenon that, for older adults, peak arousal and task performance levels occur in the morning, while younger adults have higher levels of both in the evening?
synchrony effect
Research comparing the memory of children and adults suggest that, until about age __________, children do not regularly use rehearsal, elaborabion, and other memory strategies.
9 or 10
Among older adults, __________ memory shows the greatest age-related declines, which appear to be due primarily to problems related to the use of effective ___________ strategies.
recent long-term (secondary); encoding
Investigators interested in giftedness have found that gifted children process information more rapidly, use more effective learning strategies, and may have better _____________ skills than do their nongifted peers.
metacognitive
This theory of language development attributes language acquisition to biological mechanisms and stresses universal patterns of language development:
a. behaviorist approach
b. interactionist approach
c. social approach
d. nativist approach
d. Chomsky proposed that an innate language acquisition device (LAD) makes it possible for a person to acquire language just by being exposed to it
This approach to language development proposes that language is acquired like any other behavior through imitation and reinforcement:
a. behaviorist approach
b. interactionist approach
c. social approach
d. nativist approach
a
This approach to language development emphasizes that language development is attributable to a combination of biological and environment factors:
a. behaviorist approach
b. interactionist approach
c. social approach
d. nativist approach
b
This is a term that linguists use to refer to a child’s use of his or her knowledge of the meaning of words to infer their syntactical (grammatical) category. In other words, children learn that words that refer to objects or persons are nouns, words that refer to actions are verbs, etc.
semantic bootstrapping
This is a term linguists use to refer to a child’s use of syntactical knowledge to learn the meaning of new words.
syntactic bootstrapping
What is the term for the smallest units of sound that are understood in a language?
Phonemes
What is the term that refers to the smallest units of sound that convey meaning?
Morphemes
Infants initially produce three distinct patterns of crying. Name them
a hungry cry, an angry cry, a pain cry
What are first words most often?
labels for objects, people, or events
What is the term for speech that involves using gestures and intonation to turn a single word into a comment, question, or command?
holophrastic speech
What is the term for the error that occurs when a child applies a word too narrowly to objects or situations? For instance, a young child might use the word “dish” to refer only to the plastic dish that he normally uses.
a. overextension
b. underextension
c. telegraphic speech
d. holophrastic speech
b.
This error occurs when a child applies a word to a wider collection of objects or events than is appropriate. For example, Fred called all four legged animals cows for several months:
a. overextension
b. underextension
c. telegraphic speech
d. holophrastic speech
a
Research has identified several consistent gender differences in language use: In conversations, males talk for longer intervals and are more likely to _____________, while females are more likely to _______________.
interrupt; ask questions
Overall, studies on bilingual education suggest that language-minority children who participate in high-quality programs do ______________ those who participate in English-only programs in terms of English skills and knowledge of subject matter.
as well as or better than
What is the term for the common practice among bilinguals, which involves alternating between languages during a conversation, often to better express him- or herself, establish rapport with the listenerr, or more effectively express his or her attitude toward the listener?
Code switching
A developmental psychologist investigating the influence of Bronfenbrenner’s mesosystem on child development will focus on:
a. factors that affect prenatal development
b. interactions between home and school
c. relationships between family members
d. cultural influences
b. Bronfenbrenner distinguished between five levels of environmental influence on child development. The mesosystem is comprised of interactions between components of the child’s microsystem