Midterm Flashcards
What is a stereotype?
A generalization that reflects our impressions and beliefs about a broad catergory of people.All stereotypes carry an image of what the typical member of a particular group is like.
How are perceptions of adolescence formed?
Perceptions are formed through personal experiences and portrayals in the media.
What are some things which affect the development of adolescence?
Socioeconomic status, ethinic status, cultural status, gender, age and overall life style differences.
How does the hypothalamus and puberty relate?
The hypothalamus is a substructure within the brain which regulates needs and wants for eating, drinking and sex.
What does the pituitary gland do?
Also known as the “master gland”, the P gland produces hormnes which stimulates other glands.
What are the gonads?
The gonads in humans include testes (male) and ovaries (female) which are reponsible for the distribution of the hormones tesosterone and estradiol.
What are some environmental factors which function as determinants of puberty?
Critical body mass, weight at birth, rapid weight gain in infancy, cultural variations and other family experiences (i.e. absence of father, maltreatment etc)
What is the nature and what occurs during a growth spurt?
Typically the process begins for females (13-15). Girls increase 3.5 inches in a year as opposed to the 4 in boys. Weight gain follows roughly the same timetable. Girls gain hip wifth while boys get shoulder width.
What are some psychological dimensions of puberty?
In general we are more concerned with our bodies and self-image, which is more prevalent in women then in men. There are more similarities then differences across ethnic groups.
What are some of the health aspects of puberty?
Risk-taking behaviours increase significantly in boys and their desire to engage in unsafe sex. The leading causes of death for teenagers are car accidents, homicide and suicide, and as time progresses their is a decline in helathy habits such as sleeping, eating and drinking.
What are neurons?
The nervous system’s most basic unit, which have three basic parts - the cell body, dendrite and axon.
What is the corpus callosum?
The structure which connects the left and right hemispheres of the brain, which thickens over the course of adolescence and improves its ability to process information.
What is the prefrontal cortex?
The highest leve of the bran’s frontal lobes that is included in reasoning, decision making and self control.
What is brain plasticity?
The remarkable ability to repair itself and improve its chances to make a full recovery after sustaining a head injury.
According to Piaget’s theory, what is a schema?
A concept that exists in the individual’s mind to organize and interpret information.
What are the two processes which Piaget proposed which function to adapt schema’s?
Assimilation and Accomodation
What is assimilation?
The incorporation of new information to existing knowledge.
What is accomodation?
The adjustment of current knowledge, causing the schema to change.
What is equilibraton?
When adolescents experience cognitive conflict, they resolve conflict to reach a balance between the use of the two processes.
What are the four stages of early life which Piaget proposed?
Sensimotor (birth to age two); pre-operational (two to seven); concrete operational (seven to eleven); and formal operational (teenage years).
What is a critical aspect of the formal operational stage in Piaget’s theory?
Facilitates the reasoning in more abstract ways and being able to conduct hypothetical-deductive reasoning, and apply it to real life situations such as the scientific theory.
What are some criticisms of Piaget’s theory?
Questions rae raised about timing and nature of his view of stages of cognitive development, and he also fails to adequately study in key detail cognitive processes. His explanations of cognitive chance are to cgeneral and he also fails to adqeuately study the effects of culture on congitive development.
What was the name of the theory which Lev Vygotsky created?
Social constructivist approach
What does the social constructivist approach promote?
Enphasizes the social contexts of learning and the construction of knowledge through social interactions. Students need more time with skilled individuals and teachers should serve as guides rather then directors of a child’s development.
What is the zone of proximal development?
Vygotsky’s proposed idea that a range of tasks that are too difficult for an individual to master alone can be mastered with the guidance and asisstance of tools or others.
What are some of Vygotsky’s criticisms?
Not specific about specific age changes. Doesn’t adequately describe how changes in socioemotional effects capabilities for cognitive development. Over emphasizes the role of language in thinking, and his his emphasis on collaboration and guidance has pitfalls.
What is the information-processing view?
he theory is based on the idea that humans process the information they receive, rather than merely responding to stimuli. This perspective equates the mind to a computer, which is responsible for analyzing information from the environment. According to the standard information-processing model for mental development, the mind’s machinery includes attention mechanisms for bringing information in, working memory for actively manipulating information, and long term memory for passively holding information so that it can be used in the future.This theory addresses how as children grow, their brains likewise mature, leading to advances in their ability to process and respond to the information they received through their senses. The theory emphasizes a continuous pattern of development.
What are the nine components of the information-processing theory?
Cognitive resources (development changes focus on a increase in capacity and speed of processing); mechanisms of change (encoding, automatically, strategy construction); attention and memory (attention and memory are bot selective); executive functioning (complex cognitive processes); decision-making; reasoning; critical thinking; creative thinking; and metacognition (thinking about ones self).
Who is Alfred Binet?
Was asked to identify children who would be unable to learn and thus created a intelligence test in 105 which was thirty questions, which he used to develop his concept of mental age and an individual’s level of intelligence relative to others.
Who is William Stern?
Created the concept of an intelligence quotient or IQ, in 1912.
Who is David Weschler?
Psychologist who developed the Weschler Intelligence Test, which is the most commonly used examination today.
What are some of the possible consequences of IQ tests?
Children who do not perform well on intelligence tests can be placed in remedial classrooms that do not provide the necsssary learning for them, thus creating an educational hole.
What is Sternberg’s Thriarchic Theory of Intelligence?
Analytical intelligence (ability to analyze, judge, evaluate); creative intelligence (ability to create, design, invent); and practical intelligence.
