Readings Lecture 3

Question 1

What are the recognized purposes of the death penalty?

Answer 1

Deterrence and retribution.

Question 2

What are some characteristics of adolescents?

Answer 2

Less mature decision making, impulsivity, risk-taking, peer orientation, temporal perspective, vulnerability to coercion and false confession

Question 3

Why does deductive reasoning improve in adolescence?

Answer 3

Due in part to the adolescents ability to think before responding

Question 4

What does adolescent self-perception rely on?

Answer 4

More on what they believe others think of them

Question 5

What can the personal fable help with?

Answer 5

Self-esteem and self-importance

Question 6

How does an adolescent become better able to understand sarcasm?

Answer 6

Able to attend to different aspects of speech (context, content, and tone)

Question 7

What is the Piagetian view?

Answer 7

Cognitive development proceeds through a fixed sequence of qualitatively distinct stages-each stage governs a particular type of thinking

Question 8

How does one transition into the next stage according to Piaget?

Answer 8

Have to be biologically ready to meet environmental demands

Question 9

Why does memory improve during adolescence?

Answer 9

Chemicals are released when we experience something that elicits strong negative or positive emotions. Adolescent brain is chemically inclined to encode deeper.

Question 10

Why does self-consciousness arise?

Answer 10

Due to more advanced cognitive abilities

Question 11

What is developmental plasticity?

Answer 11

Malleability of the brain during periods in which the brain is still being built, anatomy is still changing

Question 12

What is adult plasticity?

Answer 12

Doesn’t fundamentally alter the neural structure of the brain but provides minor modifications to existing circuits. Far less malleable.

Question 13

How do the brains of more intelligent adolescents mature?

Answer 13

More dramatic and longer period of synapse production before adulthood, more pruning after, longer plasticity

Question 14

What are the three parts to Stenbergs Triarchic theory of intelligence?

Answer 14

1) componential
2) experiential
3) contextual

Question 15

What is componential intelligence?

Answer 15

Ability to acquire, store, and process information

Question 16

What is experiential intelligence?

Answer 16

Ability to use insight and creativity

Question 17

What is contextual intelligence?

Answer 17

Ability to think practically (street smarts)

Question 18

What are the 7 types of intelligence included in Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences?

Answer 18

Mathematical, verbal, spatial, kinesthetic, self-reflective, interpersonal, musical

Question 19

What was Vgotsky’s idea on children’s intelligence?

Answer 19

Individuals use intelligence in response to their environment. Children and adolescents learn best when they encounter tasks that are not too challenging, but not too simple (zone of proximal development)

Question 20

What is scaffolding?

Answer 20

Structuring the learning situation so that it is in reach of the student

Question 21

What are the 4 aspects of social cognition?

Answer 21

1) theory of mind 2) Social relationships 3) Understanding social conventions 4) conception of laws, civil liberties and rights

Question 22

What is mentalizing?

Answer 22

The ability to better understand someone else’s mental state.

Question 23

What is behavioural decision making?

Answer 23

Decision making as a rational process through which individuals calculate cost and benefit of alternate actions and behave in ways that maximize benefits

Question 24

What is the idea of invulnerability?

Answer 24

Adolescents overestimate risks, but the interpretation of the risk causes them to overlook this

Question 25

What is criminal activity related to in adolescents?

Answer 25

Reward beliefs