Test 2 Flashcards
Theory
Coherent set of related concepts that seeks to organize and explain data.
Data
Information gathered from research.
Quantitative Development
Changes, occurring with age, in number or amount of something, such as how many items can be remembered.
Qualitative Development
Changes, occurring at successive times of life, in kind, nature, structure, or organization of phenomena, such as stages of development.
Metatheory
Hypothesis about the operation of the universe, which embraces a group of theories having similar assumptions and values.
Model
Concrete image or other representation of a theory, which helps in understanding meaningful relationships among data.
Mechanistic Perspective
Metatheory, based on the machine as a metaphor, that views development as a response to internal and external stimuli and studies phenomena by analyzing the operation of their component parts.
Information-Processing Theory
Study of mental processes that underlie intelligent behavior: these involve manipulation of symbols and perceptions to acquire, store, and retrieve information and solve problems.
Organismic Perspective
Metatheory that views development as internally initiated and controlled and as occurring in a universal sequence of qualitatively different stages culminating in full maturation.
Contextual Perspective
Metatheory that views development as the product of an ongoing process of interaction between an individual and the context within which the individual acts to achieve goals.
Valid
With regard to research, yielding conclusions appropriate to the phenomena and population under study.
Reliable
With regard to research method or tool, consistent in measuring performance.
Quantitative Research
Research that focuses on change in degree or amount, such as numbers of learning experiences.
Qualitative Research
Research that focuses on changes in kind, such as new behaviors or new stages. One example would be moving from preoperational stage to concrete operational stage.
Scientific Method
System of established principles and processes of scientific inquiry, including careful observation and recording of data, testing of alternative hypotheses, and widespread dissemination of findings and conclusions so that other scientists can check, analyze, repeat, learn from, and build on the results.
Sample
Group of research participants chosen to represent a population under study.
External Validity
Generalizability of experimental results beyond the study situation.
Random Selection
Technique used to ensure representativeness of a sample by giving each member of a population an equal chance to be selected.
Naturalistic Observation
Method of research in which people’s behavior is noted and recorded in natural settings without the observer’s intervention or manipulation.
Laboratory Observation
Research method in which the behavior of all participants is noted and recorded in the same situation, under controlled conditions.
Observer Bias
Tendency of an observer to misinterpret or distort data to fit his or her expectations.
Case Study
Research design covering a single case or life, based on observations, interviews, or biographical and documentary material.
Correlational Study
Research design intended to discover whether a statistical correlation can be calculated showing the direction and strength of a relationship between variables.
Variables
Phenomena that change or vary among members of a group, or can be varied for purposes of research.
Experiment
Rigorously controlled procedure in which the experimenter systematically manipulates one or more variables to see whether this manipulation causes change in other, uncontrolled variables.
Independent Variable
In an experiment, the variable over which the experimenter has direct control; its manipulation is call the treatment.
Dependent Variable
In an experiment, the variable that may or may not change as a result of manipulation of the independent variable.
Treatment
Manipulation of an independent variable whose effects an experiment is designed to study.
Experimental Group
In an experiment, the group receiving the treatment under study; any changes in these people are compared with any changes in the control group.
Control Group
In an experiment, a group of people who are similar to the people in the experimental group but who do not receive the treatment under study. Results obtained with the control group are compared with results obtained with the experimental group.
Internal Validity
Assurance that the outcome was due to the treatment and only the treatment.
Random Assignment
Technique used in assigning members of a study sample to experimental and control groups, in which each member of the sample has an equal chance to be assigned to each group and to receive or not receive the treatment.
Construct Validity
Ability of a researcher to demonstrate that the manipulations and measures used in a study pertain to, or represent, the concept or phenomenon under study.
Factorial Invariance
Issue of whether a dimension(s) represents or pertains to the same construct in all age groups.
Quasi Experiment
Study which resembles an experiment in that it attempts to measure change or to find differences among groups, but which lacks control based on random assignment.
Cross-Sectional Study
Quasi-experimental research design in which people of different ages are assessed on one occasion, providing comparative information about age differences.
Cohort
Group of people with a common experience; often, people born at the same point in time.
Longitudinal Study
Quasi-experimental research design in which data are collected about the same person or persons over a period of time, to assess developmental changes that occur with age.
Time-Lag Study
Quasi-experimental research design in which data are collected about different age cohorts on two or more occasions when the groups of people being studied are the same chronological.
Intelligent Behavior
Behavior that is goal-oriented (conscious and deliberate) and adaptive &used to identify and solve problems effectively).
Psychometric Approach
Study of intelligence through quantitative measurements of intellectual functioning.
Intelligence Quotient (IQ)
Measurement of intelligence traditionally obtained by dividing a person’s metal age by his or her chronological age and multiplying the result by 100.
Deviation IQ
Measurement of intelligence based on distribution of raw scores and standard deviation from the mean.
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)
Intelligence test for adults, consisting of eleven subtests that yield verbal IQ, performance IQ, and total IQ scores.
Cultural Bias
Tendency of psychometric intelligence tests to include questions involving content or skills more familiar and meaningful to some cultural groups than to others.
Culture-Free
Tests with no culture-linked content.
Culture-Fair
Tests consisting only of experiences common to people in various cultures.
Factor Analysis
Statistical method that seeks to identify underlying dimensions (factors) common to a group of tests on which the same people score similarly.
Componential Element
In Sternberg’s triarchic theory, the analytic aspect of intelligence, which determines how efficiently people process information and solve problems.
Experiential Element
In Sternberg’s triarchic theory, the insightful aspect of intelligence, which determines how effectively people process both novel and familiar tasks.
Contextual Element
In Sternberg’s triarchic theory, the practical aspect of intelligence, which determines how effectively epople deal with their environment.
Tacit Knowledge
In Sternberg’s terminology, information that is not formally taught or openly expressed but is necessary to get ahead; includes self-management and management of tasks and of others.
Classic Aging Pattern
On Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), greater and sharper age-associated decline in performance IQ than in verbal IQ.
Fluid Intelligence
Type of intelligence, proposed by Horn, that is applied to novel problems and is relatively independent of educational and cultural influences.
Crystallized Intelligence
Type of intelligence, proposed by Horn, that involves remembering and applying learned information; it is relatively dependent on education and cultural background.
Dual-Process Model
Model of intellectual functioning in late adulthood, proposed by Baltes, which identifies and seeks to measure two dimensions of intelligence: mechanics and pragmatics.
Mechanics of Intelligence
In Baltes’s dual-process model, basic physiological functions or procedures used to process information (similar to fluid intelligence); the dimension of intellect in which there is often an age-related decline.
Pragmatics of Intelligence
In Baltes’s dual-process model, processes that involve application of the contents of the mind - an accumulation of culture-based factual and procedural knowledge; the dimension of intellect that tends to grow with age.
Terminal Drop
Sudden decrease in intellectual performance shortly before death.
Selective-Optimization with Compensation
In Baltes’s dual-process model, strategy for maintaining or enhancing overall intellectual functioning by careful choice of tasks, increased practice, and use of stronger abilities to compensate for those that have weakened.
Reflective Thinking
Complex abstract thinking that constantly reevaluates facts and ideas, and the subsequent conclusions.
Encapsulation
In Hoyer’s terminology, progressive dedication of information processing and fluid thinking to specific knowledge systems, making knowledge more readily accessible and compensating for declines in cognitive machinery.
Postformal Thought
Mature thinking which relies on experience and intuition as well as logic, can transcend particular systems, and can deal with ambiguity, uncertainty, inconsistency, contradiction, imperfection, and compromise.
Commitment Within Relativism
In Perry’s terminology, final stage of college students’ cognitive development, in which they commit themselves to self-chosen beliefs and values despite uncertainty and recognition of other valid possibilities.
Intrasystemic Level
First level of Labouvie-Vief’s model of adult cognitive development, characterized by ability to reason only within a single system of thought.
Intersystemic Level
Second level of Labouvie-Vief’s model of adult cognitive development, characterized by awareness of multiple, contradictory systems of thought.
Integrated Level
Third and final level in Labouvie-Vief’s model of adult cognitive development, characterized by openness, flexibility, and autonomous choice of principles; integration of subjectivity with objectivity; and judgment of truth claims on the basis of rational, disciplined reflection and collective thought and discussion.
Necessary Subjectivity
In Sinnott’s terminology, characteristic of social interactions in which each person’s view of the situation inevitably affects the other’s and the situation as a whole.
Acquisitive Stage
First of Schaie’s cognitive stages, characterized by a child’s of adolescent’s learning of information and skills largely for their own sake or as preparation for participation in society.
Achieving Stage
Second of Schaie’s cognitive stages, in which young adults use knowledge to gain competence and independence.
Responsible Stage
Third of Schaie’s cognitive sages, in which middle aged people are concerned with long-range goals and practical problems related to their responsibility for others.
Executive Stage
Fourth of Schaie’s cognitive stages. Thirties of fourties through middle age. May overlap with achieving and responsible stages, are responsible for societal systems (such as governmental or business organizations) or social movements. They deal with complex relationships on multiple levels.
Reorganizational Stage
Fifth of Schaie’s cognitive stages. End of middle age, beginning of late adulthood. People who enter retirement reorganize their lives and intellectual energies around meaningful pursuits that take the place of paid work.
Reintegrative Stage
Sixth of Schaie’s cognitive stages. Late adulthood. Older adults, who may have let go of some social involvement and whose cognitive functioning may be limited by biological changes, are often more selective about what tasks they expend effort on. They focus on the purpose of what they do and concentrate on tasks that have the most meaning for them.
Legacy-Creating Stage
Seventh of Schaie’s cognitive stages. Advanced old age. Near the end of life, once reintegration has been completed (or along with it), older people may create instructions fr the disposition of prized possessions, make funeral arrangements, provide oral histories, or write their life stories as a legacy for their loved ones. All of these tasks involve the exercise of cognitive competencies within a social and emotional context.
Ecological Validity
Tests that show competence in dealing with real-life challenges, such as balancing a checkbook, reading a railroad timetable, or making informed decisions about medical problems.
Metacognition
Knowledge about what one knows and about one’s own thinking processes.
Archetypes
In Jung’s terminology, images of ideas important in a culture’s mythic tradition, which survive in the “collective unconscious.”
Fundamental Pragmatics of Life
In Baltes’s terminology, the area in which a wise person is expert, including knowledge of facts and procedures concerning the essence of the human condition.
Intrapersonal Wisdom
According to Achenbaum and Orwoll, one of the three facets of wisdom, characterized by self-examination, self-knowledge, and integrity.
Interpersonal Wisdom
According to Achenbaum and Orwoll, one of three facets of wisdom, characterized by empathy, understanding, and maturity in social relationships.
Transpersonal Wisdom
According to Achenbaum and Orwoll, one of three facets of wisdom, characterized by capacity for self-transcendence.
Preconventional Morality
Kohlberg’s first level of moral reasoning, in which right conduct is based on external control or self-interest.
Morality of Conventional Role Conformity
Kohlberg’s second level of moral reasoning, in which standards of authority figures are internalized. Also called conventional morality.
Morality of Autonomous Moral Principles
Kohlberg’s third level of moral reasoning, in which morality is fully internal and principled. Also called postconventional morality.
Cosmic Perspective
Viewpoint achieved in Kholberg’s proposed seventh stage of moral reasoning, characterized by a sense of unity with the cosmos, nature, or the divine.
Encoding
In information-processing models of memory, the process by which information is prepared for long-term storage and later retrieval.
Storage
In information-processing models of memory, the process by which, or location in which, memories are retained for future use.
Retrieval
In information-processing models of memory, the process by which information is accessed or recalled from storage.
Sensory Memory
In information-processing models, initial storage facility where sensory information registers but decays rapidly without attention.
Working Memory
In information-processing models of memory, intermediate storage where information from sensory memory or from long-term memory is consciously manipulated or reorganized.
Rehearsal
Conscious repetition of information to keep it in working memory or transfer it to long-term memory.
Central Executive
In information-processing models of memory, component of working memory that selects and processes sensory inputs and transforms them into meaningful mental representations; it also can retrieve information from long-term memory.
Articulatory Loop (Phonological Loop)
In information-processing models of memory, component of working memory that allows information about sounds and language to be kept in consciousness.
Visual (Spatial) Scratch Pad
In information-processing models of memory, component of working memory that allows information about the shape and location of visual images to be kept in consciousness.
Episodic Buffer
Allows retrieval of information, which has been stored in episodes, to be retrieved from multiple sources.
Short-Term Memory
Temporary storage for information.
Long-Term Memory
In information-processing models of memory, storage of virtually unlimited capacity, which holds information for very long periods.
Organization
Encoding strategy or mnemonic device, consisting of arranging or categorizing material to be remembered.
Elaboration
Encoding strategy or mnemonic device, consisting of making associations, often between new information and information already in memory.
Digit Span
Number of digits a person can remember at one time; it usually consists of 5 to 9 digits but can be increased by chunking.
Attentional Resources
In Craik’s terminology, amount of mental energy a person has available to focus on a task.
Declarative Memory
In information-processing models, memory for facts and events that can be recalled or recognized and stated verbally or can cause feelings of familiarity.
Nondeclarative Memory
In information-processing models, memory for procedures, habits, skills, or other types of information that generally do not require effort to recall. Also called procedural memory.
Explicit Memory
In information-processing models, processing that is intentional and conscious.
Episodic Memory
In information-processing models, memory for personal experiences, activities, and events linked with specific times and places. Most susceptible to age effects.
Implicit Memory
In information-processing models, processing that is unintentional and unconscious.
Semantic Memory
In information-processing models, memory for general factual knowledge about the world, social customs, and language.
Classical Conditioning
Form of unconscious learning in which a previously neutral stimulus (One that does not ordinarily elicit a particular involuntary response) come to elicit the response as a result of repeated association with a stimulus that normally produces the response.
Priming
Increase in ability to do a task or remember information as a result of a previous encounter with the task or information.
Hippocampus
Structure in the medial temporal lobe of the brain, actively involved in initial encoding and storage and immediate retrieval of new information.
Frontal Lobes
Front portions of the brain’s cerebral cortex, or outer layer, which form and direct strategies for encoding, storage and retrieval of memories.
Intrusion Errors
“Remembering” information that was not originally presented, through associations retrieved from long-term memory.
Prospective memory
Remembering to perform future actions.
Production Deficiency
Failure to generate efficient encoding strategies in working memory.
Developmental Reserve
In Baltes’s terminology, extent to which memory can be improved with training.
Metamemory
Knowledge or beliefs about how one’s own memory works.
Mnemonics
Strategies for enhancing memory.
E-I-E-I-O Model
Camp’s model for classifying mnemonic techniques according to type of processing (explicit or implicit) and in site of storage (external or internal).
Method of Loci
Mnemonic technique in which a series of places (loci) are associated with items to be remembered and then mentally revisited during recall.
Spaced Retrieval
Mnemonic technique involving priming or classical conditioning, in which people are trained to recall information for an increasingly long time.
Convergent Thinking
Thinking aimed at finding the single right answer to a problem, usually the conventional answer.
Divergent Thinking
Thinking that produces a variety of novel possiblities; believed to be a factor in creativity.
Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking
Widely used psychometric tests of creativity.
Intrinsic Motivation
Urge to solve problems for the gains achieved in solving them, rather than for external rewards; believed to be a factor in creativity.
Problem Finding
Ability to identify and formulate novel and important problems to be solved; believed to be a characteristic of creativity and postformal thought.
Coping
Adaptive thinking or behavior aimed at reducing or relieving stress that arises from harmful, threatening, or challenging conditions.
Congruence Model
Model, proposed by Kahana, which holds that life satisfaction or stress depends on the match between an individual’s needs and an environment’s ability to meet those needs.
Environmental Press Model
Model, proposed by Lawton, which holds that stress and adaptation depend on the fit between environmental demands and an individual’s competence to meet them.
Learned Helplessness
Adaptive pattern in which an organism learns to cope with an extremely stressful and uncontrollable situation by doing nothing.
Adaptive Mechanisms
Characteristic ways in which an individual copes or interacts with the environment.
Cognitive Appraisal Model
Model, proposed by Lazarus and colleagues, that views coping as dynamic interaction between individual and environment, in which an individual chooses effortful coping strategies on the basis of cognitive appraisal of a situation that taxes or exceeds his or her resources.
Problem Focused Coping
In Lazarus’s cognitive appraisal model, coping strategy directed toward eliminating, managing, or improving a stressful situation.
Emotion Focused Coping
In Lazarus’s cognitive appraisal model, coping strategy directed toward managing the emotional response to a stressful situation so as to lessen its physical or psychological impact.
Disengagement Theory
Theory of aging, proposed by cumming and henry, which holds that successful aging is characterized by mutual withdrawal between the older person and society.
Activity Theory
Theory of aging, proposed by Neugarten and others, which holds that in order to age successfully a person must remain as active as possible.
Continuity Theory
Theory of aging, proposed by atchley, which holds that in order to age successfully, people must maintain a balance of continuity and change in both the internal and the external structures of their lives.
Substance Abuse
Maladaptive behavior pattern, lasting more than 1 month, in which a person continues to use a substance after knowingly being harmed by it or uses it repeatedly in a hazardous situation.
Substance Dependence
Physiological or psychological addiction to a substance.
Intimate Partner Violence (IPV)
Includes physical violence, sexual violence, threats of physical or sexual violence, psychological or emotional abuse, and stalking.
Child Abuse
Maltreatment of a child involving physical and mental injury.
Elder Abuse
Maltreatment or neglect of dependent older people, or violation of their personal rights.
Neglect
Withholding of adequate care; usually refers to physical needs, such as food, clothing, and supervision.
Schizophrenia
Group of mental disorders involving loss of contact with reality and such symptoms as delusions, hallucinations, and thought disturbances.
Major Depressive Episode
Mental disorder lasting at least two weeks and not caused by substance abuse, medication, a medical condition, or recent bereavement, in which a person shows extreme sadness or loss of interest or pleasure in normal activities, as well as at least four of the following: change in weight or appetite; insomnia; agitation; fatigue; feelings of worthlessness or guilt; inability to think, concentrate or make decisions; and thoughts of death or suicide.
Antidepressant Drugs
Drugs used to treat depression by restoring the chemical balance of neurotransmitters in the brain.
Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)
Electric shocks administered to treat severe depression; also called shock therapy.
Cognitive Therapy
Therapeutic method aimed at teaching patients to recognize and correct negative thinking.
Behavior Therapy
Therapeutic method that uses positive and negative reinforcement to modify behavior.
Interpersonal Therapy
Short-term psychotherapy that focuses on improving interpersonal and social functioning to treat mental illness; has proven to be very effective in treating depression.
Brief Dynamic Therapy
Therapeutic method based on a genuine, non manipulative working alliance between therapist and client.
Music Therapy
Therapeutic method used to treat depression by teaching the patient how to reduce stress by listening to music.
Parkinson’s Disease
Slowly progressive neurological disorder characterized by tremor, rigidity, slowed movement, and unstable posture.
Pseudodementia
Cognitive impairment due to major depression; sometimes called transitory dementia.
Hypochondriasis
Mental disorder characterized by preoccupation with fear of having a serious disease; this fear is based on misinterpretation of physical symptoms.
Biological Death
Cessation of bodily processes
Social Aspects of Death
Attitudes tward death, care of and behavior tward the dying, where death takes place, and efforts to postpone or hasten it.
Psychological Aspects of Death
How people feel about their own death and about the death of those close to them.
Hospice Care
Warm, personal, patient and family centered care for the terminally ill, focused on palliative care that aims toward the relief of pain, control of symptoms, and quality of life. Can be given in institution, at home, or combination of both.
Kubler-Ross Stages of Dying
Denial, anger, bargaining for extra time, depression, ultimate acceptance.
Bereavement
Loss of someone to whom one feels close and the process of adjustment to that loss.
Grief
Emotional response experienced in the early phases of bereavement.
Mourning
Behaviors usually culturally accepted in which the bereaved and the community act while adjusting to a death.
Anticipatory Grief
Symptoms of grief experienced while the person is still alive. May help survivors handle the actual death more easily.
Grief Work
Bereaved person accepts the painfull reality of loss, gradually lets go of the bond with the dead person, readjusts to life without that person, and develops new interests and relationships. Three Stages: Shock and disbelief, preoccupation with the memory of the dead person, and resolution.
Active Euthanasia
Action taken deliberately to shorten a life, in order to end suffering or allow a terminally ill person to die with dignity.
Passive Euthanasia
Deliberately withholding or discontinuing treatment that might extend the life of a terminally ill patient, such as medication, life-support systems, or feeding tubes.
Assisted Suicide
Physician or someone else helps a person die.
Advance Directive
Mentally competent person’s wishes that are spelled out in advance in a document.
Living Will
Advance directive that may contain specific provisions with regard to circumstances in which treatment should be discontinued, what extraordinary measures should be taken to prolong life, and what kind of pain management is desired.
Stratified Random Sample
Best approach to getting sample. Makes sure a sample includes representative percentages of certain subgroups, such as women, minorities, and older adults by randomly selecting within each of these subgroups.
Information Processing Research
Explores the mental operations involved in remembering: the software of memory
Assumes that: human beings actively seek useful information about their world, human beings can handle only a limited amount of information at a given time; information not currently being used must be stored in memory, and information that comes in through the senses is transformed by a series of mental processes into a form suitable for storage and later recall.
Biological Research
Maps the physical structures, biochemical mechanisms, and wiring of the brain and nervous system: hardware of memory.
Encoding Problems
Older adults seem less efficient than younger ones at encoding new information to make it easier to remember.
Storage Problems
Stored material may deteriorate to the point where retrieval becomes difficult or impossible.
Retrieval Problems
Older adults may be able to answer a multiple choice question but not an open-ended one. While they have more trouble recalling items, they do about as well in recognizing them.
