Lifespan Psychology

Question 1

What are the developmental stages across the lifespan

Answer 1

prenatal, infancy, childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, middle age, older age

Question 2

What are the changes across developmental stages

Answer 2

Cognitive, Physical, emotional and social

Question 3

What is plasticity

Answer 3

The way in which the brain changes due to stimulation from the environment/ the synapses being modified

Question 4

Types of plasticity

Answer 4

Developmental- the Development and consolidation of neural pathways in babies, children and adolescents
Adaptive- Ability of the brain to change, adapt and grow throughout life

Question 5

What are the stages of Plasticity

Answer 5

Proliferation, migration, circuit formation, synaptic pruning, Myelination

Question 6

What is proliferation?

Answer 6

-The first stage in the development of NS
-Involves the division and multiplication of unborn babies cells that will become neurons

Question 7

What is Migration?

Answer 7

Newly formed neurons move outward to their destined location

Question 8

What is circuit formation?

Answer 8

When axons of new neurons grow out to target cells and form synapses with them ​

Question 9

What is synaptic pruning?

Answer 9

Involves the elimination of excess neurons and synapses that haven’t formed connections

Question 10

What is myelination?

Answer 10

Process were the axons of the neurons in a child’s brain become insulated by myelin ​
Myelin = white fatty substance that coats axons

Question 11

What is the stage of adolescence

Answer 11

the developmental period between childhood and adulthood

Question 12

The effect of changes in brain structures on behavior and emotions

Answer 12

During adolescence, there is a large amount of development in structures of the brain

Question 13

What effect does the changing of the cerebellum have on behavior and emotion

Answer 13

There is an increase in the number of neurons and synapses in the cerebellum, the part of the brain that is responsible for balance, muscle tone and the performance of motor skills

Question 14

What effect does the changing of the amygdala have on behavior and emotion

Answer 14

The amygdala becomes more active during adolescence the amygdala tended to increase across all emotional expressions during this developmental transition into adolescence

Question 15

What effect does the changing of the corpus callosum have on behavior and emotion

Answer 15

The corpus callosum is thickens and there is an increase in the number of connections between the two hemispheres

Question 16

What effect does the changing of the Frontal lobe have on behavior and emotion

Answer 16

The frontal lobe is responsible for motor movement and higher order thinking

Question 17

The effect of changes in frontal lobe development on behaviour and emotion

Question 18

theory of cognitive development – Piaget (1936)

Answer 18

Is the theory of cognitive development explains how a child constructs a mental model of the world.

Question 19

Processes of schema formation

Answer 19

Assimilation, Accommodation, Equilibrium and disequilibrium

Question 20

What is Assimilation?

Answer 20

The process of taking in new information from the world and applying it to existing schemas. Eg. having a simple schema of a ball that has incorporated everything round as a ball

Question 21

What is Accommodation?

Answer 21

When new situations, objects, or information are encountered and the persons schema is modified or adjusted. This occurs when existing schemas do not work. Eg. seeing a plane and calling it a bird

Question 22

What is Equilibrium?

Answer 22

How children incorporate new information into their previously formed frameworks. Eg. Learning a new language that uses the same alphabet as you

Question 23

What is Disequilibrium?

Answer 23

Our inability to fit new information into our schemas.

Question 24

Stages and Developmental changes

Answer 24

Sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational stage

Question 25

Sensorimotor

Answer 25

The first two years of a child’s life. Infants learn about their world through senses and emotions

Question 26

Preoperational

Answer 26

Children continue to develop as they use symbols, images, and languages to represent their world. At this point, however, mental operations are not sophisticated.

Question 27

Concrete operational

Answer 27

Thinking still tends to be very concrete, but children become much more logical and sophisticated in their thinking during this stage of development.

Question 28

Formal Operational

Answer 28

Children are able to think logically and methodically about physical and abstract problems

Question 29

What was the point of the invisible displacement task?

Answer 29

is the understanding that objects exist even when they cannot be directly perceived

Question 30

What was the point of the three mountains task?

Answer 30

to test whether a child’s thinking was egocentric, which was also a helpful indicator of whether the child was in the preoperational stage or the concrete operational stage of cognitive development.

Question 31

What was the point of the conservation task?

Answer 31

To test a child’s ability to see that some properties are conserved or invariant after an object undergoes physical transformation.

Question 32

What was the point of the pendulum problem task?

Answer 32

to reveal differences between concrete operational and formal operational thought.

Question 33

study: emotion over physiological needs with Rhesus monkeys

Answer 33

Conducted experiments to measure the Development of attachment of infant rhesus monkeys to their mother

Question 34

The theory of attachment BOWLBY

Answer 34

Bowlby believed that the earliest bonds formed by children with their caregivers have a tremendous impact that continues throughout life.

Question 35

Attachment definition

Answer 35

Attachment refers to a deep and enduring emotional bond that connects one person to another across time and space

Question 36

The evolutionary theory

Answer 36

This theory suggests that people are born with a need to forge bonds with caregivers as children. These early bonds may continue to have an influence on attachments throughout life.

Question 37

monotropy, critical and sensitive periods, maternal deprivation, internal working model

Answer 37

This is what he called primary attachment, monotropy. Bowlby suggests that there is a critical period for developing attachment (2.5 years). If an attachment has not developed during this time period, then it may well not happen at all.

Question 38

Strange situation to measure attachment (Ainsworth, 1978)

Answer 38

It tests how babies or young children respond to the temporary absence of their mothers.

Question 39

The types of attachments

Answer 39

Type A – insecure avoidant attachment- don’t become distressed by absence of care giver

• Type B – secure attachment- distressed by absence of caregiver not by being alone
• Type C – insecure resistant attachment- distressed by absence of caregiver not by being alone and will continue to be anxious and distressed when caregiver returns

Question 40

findings about cross cultural patterns of attachment according to van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988)

Answer 40

Carried out analysis of other studies involving 32 samples from 8 diff. countries; look for sims. and diff. within and between cultures​
Calculated the average % for different attachment styles in each country

Question 41

Types in different countries

Answer 41

Type A: more common in western European countries​

Type B: most common type in all countries​

Type C: more common in Japan and Israel ​