Psychology Supplemental Vocab

Question 1

Empirical methods

Answer 1

Approaches to inquiry that are tied to actual measurement and observation

Question 2

Ethics

Answer 2

Professional guidelines that offer researchers a template for making decisions that protect research participants from potential harm and that help steer scientists away from conflicts of interest or other situations that might compromise the integrity of their research

Question 3

Hypotheses

Answer 3

A logical idea that can be tested

Question 4

Systematic observation

Answer 4

The careful observation of the natural world with the aim of better understanding it. Observations provide the basic data that allow scientists to track, tally, or otherwise organize information about the natural world

Question 5

Theories

Answer 5

Groups of closely related phenomena or observations

Question 6

Chutes and Ladders

Answer 6

A numerical board game that seems to be useful for building numerical knowledge

Question 7

Concrete operations stage

Answer 7

Piagetian stage between ages 7 and 12 when children can think logically about concrete situations but not engage in systematic scientific reasoning

Question 8

Conservation problems

Answer 8

Problems pioneered by Piaget in which physical transformation of an object or set of objects changes a perceptually salient dimension but not the quantity that is being asked about

Question 9

Continuous development

Answer 9

Ways in which development occurs in a gradual incremental manner, rather than through sudden jumps

Question 10

Depth perception

Answer 10

The ability to actively perceive the distance from oneself of objects in the environment

Question 11

Discontinuous development

Answer 11

Discontinuous development

Question 12

Formal operations stage

Answer 12

Piagetian stage starting at age 12 years and continuing for the rest of life, in which adolescents may gain the reasoning powers of educated adults

Question 13

Information processing theories

Answer 13

Theories that focus on describing the cognitive processes that underlie thinking at any one age and cognitive growth over time

Question 14

Nature

Answer 14

The genes that children bring with them to life and that influence all aspects of their development

Question 15

Numerical magnitudes

Answer 15

The sizes of numbers

Question 16

Nurture

Answer 16

The environments, starting with the womb, that influence all aspects of children’s development

Question 17

Object permanence task

Answer 17

The Piagetian task in which infants below about 9 months of age fail to search for an object that is removed from their sight and, if not allowed to search immediately for the object, act as if they do not know that it continues to exist

Question 18

Phonemic awareness

Answer 18

Awareness of the component sounds within words

Question 19

Piaget’s theory

Answer 19

Theory that development occurs through a sequence of discontinuous stages: the sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational stages

Question 20

Preoperational reasoning stage

Answer 20

Period within Piagetian theory from age 2 to 7 years, in which children can represent objects through drawing and language but cannot solve logical reasoning problems, such as the conservation problems

Question 21

Qualitative changes

Answer 21

Large, fundamental change, as when a caterpillar changes into a butterfly; stage theories such as Piaget’s posit that each stage reflects qualitative change relative to previous stages

Question 22

Quantitative changes

Answer 22

Gradual, incremental change, as in the growth of a pine tree’s girth

Question 23

Sensorimotor stage

Answer 23

Period within Piagetian theory from birth to age 2 years, during which children come to represent the enduring reality of objects

Question 24

Sociocultural theories

Answer 24

Theory founded in large part by Lev Vygotsky that emphasizes how other people and the attitudes, values, and beliefs of the surrounding culture influence children’s development