Module 11: Infancy and Childhood

Question 1

Maturation

Answer 1

Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience.

Question 2

Critical Period

Answer 2

An optimal period early in the life of an organism when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces normal development.

Question 3

Cognition

Answer 3

All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

Question 4

Schema

Answer 4

A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.

Question 5

Assimilation

Answer 5

Interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas.

Question 6

Accommodation

Answer 6

Adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information.

Question 7

Sensorimotor Stage

Answer 7

In Piaget’s theory, the stage (from birth to nearly 2 years of age) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities.

Question 8

Object Permanence

Answer 8

The awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived.

Question 9

Preoperational Stage

Answer 9

In Piaget’s theory, the stage (from about 2 to 6-7 years old) during which a child learns to use language, but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic.

Question 10

Conservation

Answer 10

The principle (which Piaget believed to be a part of concrete operational reasoning) that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects.

Question 11

Egocentrism

Answer 11

In Piaget’s theory, the preoperational child’s difficulty taking another’s point of view.

Question 12

Theory of Mind

Answer 12

People’s ideas about their own and others’ mental states - about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict.

Question 13

Concrete Operational Stage

Answer 13

In Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 7 to 11 years of age) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events.

Question 14

Formal Operational Stage

Answer 14

In Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts.

Question 15

Scaffold

Answer 15

A framework that offers children temporary support as they develop higher levels of thinking.

Question 16

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

Answer 16

A disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by significant deficiencies in communication and social interaction, and by rigidly fixated interests and repetitive behaviors.

Question 17

Stranger Anxiety

Answer 17

The fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age.

Question 18

Attachment

Answer 18

An emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to their caregiver and showing distress on separation.

Question 19

Parenting Styles (authoritarian, permissive, negligent, authoritative)

Answer 19

Authoritarian: parents are coercive, they impose rules and expect obedience.
Permissive: parents are unrestraining, make few demands, set few limits and use little punishment.
Negligent: Parents are uninvolved, neither demanding or responsive.
Authoritative: parents are demanding and responsive, they set rules but also encourage open discussion and allow exceptions.

Question 20

Imprinting

Answer 20

The process by which certain animals form strong attachments during early life.

Question 21

Temperament

Answer 21

A person’s characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity.

Question 22

Basic Trust

Answer 22

A sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy; said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers.

Question 23

Jean Piaget

Answer 23

Identified significant cognitive development milestones. He focused on the sequence or specific milestones, and less on the child’s age.

Question 24

Lev Vygotsky

Answer 24

Emphasized how the child’s mind grows through interaction with the social environment.

Question 25

Mary Ainsworth

Answer 25

Designed an experiment to assess what accounts for children’s attachment differences. Found that sensitive, responsive mothers, had infants who exhibited secure attachment. Insensitive unresponsive mothers had infants that were often insecurely attached.