unit 9

Question 1

developmental psychology

Answer 1

a branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive and social

Question 2

zygote

Answer 2

the fertilized egg; it enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo

Question 3

embryo

Answer 3

the developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month

Question 4

fetus

Answer 4

the developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth

Question 5

teratogens

Answer 5

literally, “monster maker”) agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm

Question 6

fetal alcohol syndrome

Answer 6

physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman’s heavy drinking. In severe cases, signs include a small, out-of-proportion head and abnormal facial features.

Question 7

habituation

Answer 7

decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a visual stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner. For example, a new sound in your environment, such as a new ringtone, may initially draw your attention or even be distracting. Over time, as you become accustomed to this sound, you pay less attention to it and your response will diminish.

Question 8

maturation

Answer 8

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

Question 9

cognition

Answer 9

all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

Question 10

schema

Answer 10

a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information. For example, your schema for your friend might include information about her appearance, her behaviors, her personality, and her preferences. Social schemas include general knowledge about how people behave in certain social situations.

Question 11

assimilation

Answer 11

interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas. When a child learns the word for dog, they start to call all four-legged animals dogs

Question 12

accommodation

Answer 12

adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information. When the child encounters a horse, they might assimilate this information and immediately call the animal a dog. The process of accommodation then allows the child to adapt the existing schema to incorporate the knowledge that some four-legged animals are horses

Question 13

sensorimotor stage

Answer 13

in Piaget’s theory, the stage (from birth to about 2 years of age) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities. .During this stage, the child would experience the world through its actions and senses, which included: grasping, touching, looking, and the like.

Question 14

object permanence

Answer 14

the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived

Question 15

preoperational stage

Answer 15

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

Question 16

conservation

Answer 16

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 17

egocentrism

Answer 17

in Piaget’s theory, the preoperational child’s difficulty taking another’s point of view. For example, if someone breaks the child’s toy, the child would not forgive the other and the child would not be able to understand that the person who broke the toy did not intend to break it.

Question 18

theory of mind

Answer 18

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

Question 19

autism spectrum disorder

Answer 19

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 20

concrete operational stage

Answer 20

in Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 6 or 7 to 11 years of age) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events. A child who is in the concrete operational stage will understand that both candy bars are still the same amount, whereas a younger child will believe that the candy bar that has more pieces is larger than the one with only two pieces.

Question 21

formal operational stage

Answer 21

in Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts.The formal operational stage is characterized by the ability to formulate hypotheses and systematically test them to arrive at an answer to a problem

Question 22

stranger anxiety

Answer 22

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

Question 23

attachment

Answer 23

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

Question 24

critical period

Answer 24

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

Question 25

imprinting

Answer 25

the process by which certain animals form strong attachments during an early-life critical period.

Question 26

temperament

Answer 26

a person’s characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity.

Question 27

basic trust

Answer 27

according to Erik Erikson, a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy; said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers.

Question 28

self-concept

Answer 28

all our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question, “Who am I?

Question 29

gender

Answer 29

the socially constructed roles and characteristics by which a culture defines male and female.

Question 30

aggression

Answer 30

any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy.

Question 31

gender role

Answer 31

a set of expected behaviors for males or for females

Question 32

role

Answer 32

a set of expectations (norms) about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave.

Question 33

gender identity

Answer 33

our sense of being male or female

Question 34

social learning theory

Answer 34

the theory that we learn social behavior by observing and imitating and by being rewarded or punished. In the Bobo doll experiment, children who observed an adult acting aggressively towards a blow up “Bobo doll” toy would emulate and mimic that behavior

Question 35

gender typing

Answer 35

the acquisition of a traditional masculine or feminine role. For example, a male child may attribute himself to the male gender by growing up and wanting to be the stereotypical man. Because of society, the child may play with trucks and avoid societally dictated “girly” toys when growing up.

Question 36

transgender

Answer 36

an umbrella term describing people whose gender identity or expression differs from that associated with their birth sex

Question 37

adolescence

Answer 37

the transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence

Question 38

identity

Answer 38

our sense of self; according to Erikson, the adolescent’s task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles.

Question 39

social identity

Answer 39

the “we” aspect of our self-concept; the part of our answer to “Who am I?” that comes from our group memberships

Question 40

intimacy

Answer 40

in Erikson’s theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in late adolescence and early adulthood

Question 41

emerging adulthood

Answer 41

for some people in modern cultures, a period from the late teens to mid-twenties, bridging the gap between adolescent dependence and full independence and responsible adulthood

Question 42

X chromosome

Answer 42

the sex chromosome found in both men and women. Females have two X chromosomes; males have one. An X chromosome from each parent produces a female child.

Question 43

Y chromosome

Answer 43

the sex chromosome found only in males. When paired with an X chromosome from the mother, it produces a male child.

Question 44

testosterone

Answer 44

the most important of the male sex hormones. Both males and females have it, but the additional testosterone in males stimulates the growth of the male sex organs in the fetus and the development of the male sex characteristics during puberty

Question 45

puberty

Answer 45

the period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing

Question 46

primary sex characteristics

Answer 46

the body structures (ovaries, testes, and external genitalia) that make sexual reproduction possible

Question 47

secondary sex characteristices

Answer 47

nonreproductive sexual traits, such as female breasts and hips, male voice quality, and body hair.

Question 48

menarche

Answer 48

the first menstrual period

Question 49

AIDS

Answer 49

a life-threatening, sexually transmitted infection caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). AIDS depletes the immune system, leaving the person vulnerable to infections

Question 50

sexual orientation

Answer 50

an enduring sexual attraction toward members of either one’s own sex (homosexual orientation), the other sex (heterosexual orientation), or both sexes (bisexual orientation).

Question 51

menopause

Answer 51

the time of natural cessation of menstruation; also refers to the biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines.

Question 52

cross-sectional study

Answer 52

study in which people of different ages are compared with one another.

Question 53

longitudinal study

Answer 53

research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period.

Question 54

social clock

Answer 54

the culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement

Question 55

jean piaget

Answer 55

Piaget is known for his stages of cognitive development. These stages include: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational. Piaget studied the intellectual development of his own three children and created a theory that described the stages that children pass through in the development of intelligence and formal thought processes.

Question 56

lev vygotsky

Answer 56

Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky saw cognitive development as much more fluid. Instead of occurring naturally and in fixed stages, Vygotsky theorized that cognitive development occurred gradually and is furthered by language and social interaction.

Question 57

konrad lorzenz

Answer 57

researcher who focused on critical attachment periods in baby birds, a concept he called imprinting

Question 58

harry harlow

Answer 58

Field: development; Contributions: realized that touch is preferred in development; Studies: Rhesus monkeys, studied attachment of infant monkeys (wire mothers v. cloth mothers)

Question 59

Margaret Harlow

Answer 59

Who conducted the Harlow monkey experiment, Harlow removed young monkeys from their natural mothers a few hours after birth and left them to be “raised” by these mother surrogates. The experiment demonstrated that the baby monkeys spent significantly more time with their cloth mother than with their wire mother.

Question 60

mary ainsworth

Answer 60

Ainsworth’s maternal sensitivity hypothesis argues that a child’s attachment style is dependent on the behavior their mother shows towards them. ‘Sensitive’ mothers are responsive to the child’s needs and respond to their moods and feelings correctly. After the study, Ainsworth scored each of the responses and grouped them into four interaction behaviours: closeness and contact seeking, maintaining contact, avoidance of closeness and contact, resistance to contact and proximity.

Question 61

diana baumrind

Answer 61

Diana Baumrind identified 4 main styles of parenting: authoritarian, authoritative, uninvolved and permissive. Baumrind theorized that children’s behavior can be attributed to the specific parenting style they experienced in their homes. She developed was she called the Pillar Theory to describe the important aspects of parenting that shape the way they interact with their children.

Question 62

carol gilligan

Answer 62

Gilligan argued that girls exhibit distinct patterns of moral development based on relationships and on feelings of care and responsibility for others. Her work soon inspired and informed a feminist-oriented movement in philosophical ethics known as the ethics of care.

Question 63

albert bandura

Answer 63

creator of the social learning theory. This theory states that people can learn simply by observing others in a social context. His most famous social learning experiment was the Bobo Doll experiment.

Question 64

Lawrence Kohlberg

Answer 64

arguably the most influential psychologist in the field of moral development, particularly in children. He posits that humans can fall into three different stages of morality: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional morality.

Question 65

erik erikson

Answer 65

Erik Erikson developed the idea behind identity vs. role confusion, which comes from his theory of psychosocial development. Erikson’s theory proposed eight stages: trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs. shame, initiative vs. guilt, competence vs. inferiority, identity vs. role confusion, intimacy vs. isolation, generativity vs. stagnation, and integrity vs. despair.

Question 66

sigmund freud

Answer 66

founded the idea of psychoanalysis, which has evolved into the psychoanalytical/psychodynamic perspective. He believed that unconscious thoughts or motivations of an individual would directly correlate with the way they behaved in their conscious actions