Week 2

Question 1

What are Devries’s studies and what did they show?

Answer 1

He had children aged 3-6 play with a cat. When he put a dog mask on the cat, the 3 year olds incorrectly identified him as a dog, but the 6 year olds could tell he was still a cat.

Question 2

What are the stages of Piaget’s stage theory.

Answer 2

1. Sensorimotor Stage (0-2)
2. Preoperational Reasoning Stage (2-7)
3. Concrete Operational Reasoning Stage (7-12)
4. Formal Operational Reasoning Stage (rest of life)

Question 3

What are conservation problems? In what stage can children solve them?

Answer 3

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. The ability to solve these is developed by the concrete operational stage.

Question 4

Continuous development

Answer 4

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

Question 5

Concrete operations stage

Answer 5

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

Question 6

Formal operations stage

Answer 6

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 7

Information processing theories

Answer 7

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

Question 8

Object permanence task

Answer 8

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 9

Phonemic awareness

Answer 9

Awareness of the component sounds within words.

Question 10

Preoperational reasoning stage

Answer 10

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 11

Qualitative changes

Answer 11

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 12

Quantitative changes

Answer 12

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

Question 13

Sensorimotor stage

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Sociocultural theories

Answer 14

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.

Question 15

What did Diamond’s study find?

Answer 15

Object permanence develops more gradually that initially thought. Children as young as 3-4 years display an underdeveloped framework of object permanence, and it becomes better leading up to 9 months, when it becomes fully formed.

Question 16

Strange situations study

Answer 16

the caregiver is instructed to leave the child to play alone in a room for a short time, then return and greet the child while researchers observe the child’s response. Depending on the child’s level of attachment, he or she may reject the parent, cling to the parent, or simply welcome the parent—or, in some instances, react with an agitated combination of responses.

Question 16

Authoritative parenting style

Answer 16

A parenting style characterized by high (but reasonable) expectations for children’s behavior, good communication, warmth and nurturance, and the use of reasoning (rather than coercion) as preferred responses to children’s misbehavior.

Question 17

Conscience

Answer 17

The cognitive, emotional, and social influences that cause young children to create and act consistently with internal standards of conduct.

Question 18

Effortful control

Answer 18

A temperament quality that enables children to be more successful in motivated self-regulation.

Question 19

Family Stress Model

Answer 19

A description of the negative effects of family financial difficulty on child adjustment through the effects of economic stress on parents’ depressed mood, increased marital problems, and poor parenting.

Question 20

Gender schemas

Answer 20

Organized beliefs and expectations about maleness and femaleness that guide children’s thinking about gender.

Question 21

Goodness of fit

Answer 21

The match or synchrony between a child’s temperament and characteristics of parental care that contributes to positive or negative personality development. A good “fit” means that parents have accommodated to the child’s temperamental attributes, and this contributes to positive personality growth and better adjustment.

Question 22

Security of attachment

Answer 22

An infant’s confidence in the sensitivity and responsiveness of a caregiver, especially when he or she is needed. Infants can be securely attached or insecurely attached.

Question 23

Social referencing

Answer 23

The process by which one individual consults another’s emotional expressions to determine how to evaluate and respond to circumstances that are ambiguous or uncertain.

Question 24

Temperament

Answer 24

Early emerging differences in reactivity and self-regulation, which constitutes a foundation for personality development.

Question 25

Theory of mind

Answer 25

Children’s growing understanding of the mental states that affect people’s behavior.