Developmental Psychology

Question 1

developmental psychology

Answer 1

The study of how behaviour changes over the lifespan

Question 2

post hoc fallacy

Answer 2

false assumption that because one event occurred before another event, it must have caused that event / Correlation v’s causation: we can’t be sure that A equals b.

Question 3

cross-sectional design

Answer 3

research design that examines people of different ages in a single point in time

Question 4

cohort effect

Answer 4

effect observed in a sample of participants that results from individuals in the sample growing up at the same time

Question 5

longitudinal design

Answer 5

research that that examines development in the same group of people on multiple occasions over time (Attrtion – participants dropping out of a study) learning over repeated tests

Question 6

gene-environment interaction

Answer 6

The impact of genes on behaviour depends on the environment in which the behaviour develops

Question 7

nature via nurture

Answer 7

Genetic predisposition can drive us to select and create particular environments that influence our behaviour, leading to the mistaken appearance of a pure effect on nature / tendency of individuals with certain genetic predispositions to seek out and create environments that permit the expression of those predispositions.

Question 8

Gene expression

Answer 8

Some genes “turn on” only in response to specific environmental events. Activation or deactivation of genes by environmental experiences throughout development.

Question 9

Cognitive Development

Answer 9

Study of how children acquire the ability to learn, think, reason, communicate and remember

Question 10

Assimilation

Answer 10

Piagetian process of absorbing new experience into current knowledge structures

Question 11

Accommodation

Answer 11

Piagetian process of altering a belief to make it more compatible with experience

Question 12

Equilibration

Answer 12

The process of assimilating and accommodating in tandem ensures a state of harmony between the world and mind of the child – equilibration / children maintaining a balance between their experience of the world and their understanding of it.

Question 13

Schema

Answer 13

describes an organized pattern of thought or behavior that organizes or categorizes information and the relationships among them.

Question 14

sensorimotor stage

Answer 14

Birth – 2yrs old / No thought beyond immediate physical experiences / stage in Piaget’s theory characterized by a focus on the here and now without the ability to represent experiences mentally

Question 15

object permanence

Answer 15

the understanding that objects continue to exist even when out of view

Question 16

egocentrism

Answer 16

inability to see the world from other perspectives

Question 17

preoperational stage

Answer 17

2 yrs old – 7 yrs old / Able to think beyond the here and now but egocentric and unable to perform mental transformations

Question 18

conservation

Answer 18

Piagetian task requiring children to understand that despite a transformation in the physical presentation of an amount, the amount remains the same.

Question 19

concrete operations stage

Answer 19

7 yrs old – 11 years old / Able to perform mental transformations but only on concrete objects

Question 20

formal operations stage

Answer 20

11 yrs – adulthood / Able to perform hypothetical and abstract reasoning

Question 21

scaffolding

Answer 21

Vygotskian learning mechanism in which parents provide initial assistance in children’s learning but gradually remove structure as children become more competent

Question 22

zone of proximal development

Answer 22

phase of learning during when children can benefit from instruction

Question 23

theory of mind

Answer 23

ability to reason about what other people know or believe

Question 24

fluid intelligence

Answer 24

capacity to think logically and solve problems in novel situations, independent of acquiring knowledge.

Question 25

crystallised intelligence

Answer 25

is the ability to use skills, knowledge, and experience. It does not equate to memory, but it does rely on accessing information from long term memory.

Question 26

Social Development:

stranger anxiety, temperament, attachment, imprinting, contact comfort, separation anxiety,

secure attachment, insecure-avoidant attachment (or avoidant attachment), insecure-anxious

attachment (or anxious attachment), disorganised attachment, mono-operation bias,

permissive parenting, authoritarian parenting, authoritative parenting, uninvolved parenting,

average expectable environment, internal working model, social referencing, self control, gender

identity, gender role, identity, psychosocial crisis, emerging adulthood, midlife crisis,

empty-nest syndrome, generativity

Answer 26

x

Question 27

Physical Development:

adolescence

Answer 27

x

Question 28

Physical Development:

puberty

Answer 28

x

Question 29

Physical Development:

primary sex characteristic

Answer 29

x

Question 30

Physical Development:

secondary sex characteristic

Answer 30

x

Question 31

Physical Development:

menarche

Answer 31

x

Question 32

Physical Development:

spermarche

Answer 32

x

Question 33

Physical Development:

menopause

Answer 33

x