Topic 1 - Development Flashcards
Brain
The organ in your head is made up of nerves that process information and control behaviour.
Forebrain
The anterior part of the brain, including the hemispheres and the central brain structures.
Midbrain
The middle section of the brain, a part of the central nervous system.
Hindbrain
The lower part of the brain includes the cerebellum, pons and medulla oblongata.
Anterior
Directed towards the front, when used in relation to our biology.
Posterior
Directed towards the back, when used in relation to our biology
Cerebellum
An area of the brain near the brainstem that controls motor movements (muscle activity).
Medulla oblongata
Connects the upper brain to the spinal cord and controls automatic responses.
Involuntary response
A response to a stimulus that occurs without someone making a conscious choice. They are automatic, such as reflexes.
Neural connections
Links formed by messages passing from one nerve cell (neuron) to another.
Cognitive
Thinking, including problem-solving, perceiving, remembering, and using language. And reasoning.
Operations
How we reason and think about things.
Object permanence
Knowing something exists even if it is out of sight.
Symbolic play
Children play using objects and ideas to represent other objects and ideas.
Egocentrism
Unable to see the world from any other viewpoint but one’s own.
Animism
Believing that objects that are not alive can behave as if they are alive.
Centration
Focusing on one feature of a situation and ignoring other relevant features.
Irreversibility
Not understanding that an action can be reversed to return to its original state.
Morality
General principles about what is right and wrong, including positive and negative behaviour.
Schema/schemata(s) (development)
Mental representations of the world are based on one’s own experiences. The plural of the word schema is ‘schemata’ through ‘schemas’ can also be used and is more common.
Adaptation
Using assimilation and accommodation to make sense of the world.
Assimilation
Incorporating new experiences into existing schemas.
Accommodation
When a schema has to be changed to deal with a new experience.
Equilibrium
When a child’s schema can explain all that they experience; a state of mental balance.
Subjective
Based on personal opinions or feelings.
Validity
When the results of a study represent the situation they are testing (in real life).
Mindset
A set of beliefs someone has that guide how someone responds to or interprets a situation.
Ability
What someone can do, such as maths ability or the ability to play tennis. Dweck suggests ability can be seen as either fixed and innate or as able to be improved.
Effort
When you try to do better using determination.
Fixed mindset
Believing your abilities are fixed and unchangeable.
Growth mindset
Believing practice and effort can improve your abilities.
Working memory
Has different parts for processing information coming in from our senses, including visual and sound data, and also involves a decision-making part.
Short-term memory
Our initial memory store that is temporary and limited.
Rehearse
Repeat information over and over to make it stick
Long-term memory
A memory store that holds potentially limitless amounts of information for up to a lifetime.
Motor skills
Actions that involve muscles and brain processes, result in movement.
Decenteration
Being able to separate yourself from the world and take different views of a situation, so not being egocentric.
Social learning
Learning by observing and copying others.
Self-regulation
Limiting and controlling yourself without influence from others.
Nature
Explanations of behaviour that focus on innate factors (the things we are born with).
Nurture
Explanations of behaviour that focus on environmental factors (the things that happen to us).
Qualitative data
Data that is descriptive, not numbers, such as words or pictures.
Reliability
The consistency of an outcome or result of an investigation (a measure).
Framework
A basic understanding of ideas and facts that is used when making decisions.
Person praise
Someone praises the individual rather than what they are doing.
Process praise
Someone praises what is being done, not the individual.
Entity theory/motivational framework
A belief that behaviour or ability results from a person’s nature.
Incremental theory/ motivational framework
A belief that effort drives behaviour and ability, which can change.
Ecological validity
The extent to which the findings still explain the behaviour in real-life situations.
Ethics
Moral principles about how someone should behave in society.
Debrief
After an investigation, participants are given full disclosure of the study.
Generalisability
The extent to which the results of a study represent the whole population, not just the sample used.
Morals
Standards of right and wrong behaviour can differ between cultures and can depend on the situation.
Moral development
Children’s growing understanding of right and wrong.
Heteronomous
Rules put into place by others.
Autonomous
Rules can be decided by the individual person.
Norms
Society’s values and customs, which a person in that society would be governed by.
Nativist theories
Theories that view morality as part of human nature.
