CH01- Intro to Lifespan Development

Question 1

Lifespan

Answer 1

**Broad age ranges (social construction):
The prenatal | prēˈnādl period (conception to birth)&raquo_space; infancy and toddlerhood (birth to 3)&raquo_space; the preschool period (3 to 6)&raquo_space; middle childhood (6 to 12)&raquo_space; adolescence (12 to 20)&raquo_space; young adulthood (20 to 40)&raquo_space; middle adulthood ( 40 to 65)&raquo_space; late adulthood (65 to death)

Question 2

Physical development

Answer 2

Development involving the body’s physical makeup, including the brain, nervous system, muscles, and senses, and the need for food, drink, and sleep.

Question 3

Cognitive development

Answer 3

How growth and change in intellectual capabilities influence a person’s behavior.

Question 4

Social development

Answer 4

The way in which individuals’ interactions with others and their social relationships grow, change, and remain stable over the course of life.

Question 5

Personality development

Answer 5

Development involving the ways that the enduring characteristics that differentiate one person from another change over the lifespan.

Question 6

Influences on development

Answer 6

• History-graded influences (Cohort effects)
• Age-graded influences (ex: puberty, menopause,..)
• Sociocultural-graded influences (ex: ethnicity, social class,..)
• Non-normative life events ( atypical events occurring in one’s life, such as parents’ divorce/death,..)

Question 7

Cohort | ˈkōˌhôrt |

Answer 7

A group of people born at around the same time in the same place.
–> Example of Cohort effects: ppl who lived in NYC during 9/11 terrorist attack experienced shared biological and environmental challenges due to the attack.

Question 8

Maturation

Answer 8

The predetermined unfolding of genetic information.

Question 9

Critical period

Answer 9

A specific time during development when a particular event has its greatest consequences and the presence of certain kinds of environmental stimuli is necessary for development to proceed normally.

Question 10

Sensitive period

Answer 10

A point in development when organisms are particularly susceptible to certain kinds of stimuli in their environments, but the absence of those stimuli does not always produce irreversible consequences.

Question 11

Discontinuous change

Answer 11

Development that occurs in distinct steps or stages, with each stage bringing about behavior that is assumed to be qualitatively different from behavior at earlier stages.

Question 12

Continuous change

Answer 12

Is quantitative in nature, produces changes that are a matter of degree, not of kind. (ex: height)

Question 13

Psychodynamic perspective

Answer 13

Behavior is motivated by inner forces, memories, and conflicts that are generally beyond people’s awareness and control.

Question 14

Freud’s psychoanalytic theory/ Psychosexual theory

Answer 14

Unconscious forces act to determine personality and behavior.

**Freud’s 5 stages of Psychosexual Development: Development relatively complete by adolescence (Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency, Genital)

Question 15

Fixation

Answer 15

Behavior reflecting an earlier stage of development due to unresolved conflict. (Freud)

Question 16

Erikson’s psychosocial theory

Answer 16

Growth and change continue throughout the lifespan.

**Erikson’s 8 stages of psychosocial development: Trust vs. mistrust, Autonomy vs. shame and doubt, Initiative vs. guilt, Industry vs. inferiority, Identity vs. role diffusion, Intimacy vs. isolation, Generality vs. stagnation, Ego-integrity vs. despair.

Question 17

Operant conditioning

Answer 17

A form of learning in which a voluntary response is strengthened or weakened by its association with positive (reinforcement) or negative (punishment) consequences.

Question 18

Classical conditioning

Answer 18

A type of learning in which an organism responds in a particular way to a neutral stimulus that normally does not bring about that type of response. (ex: dog–meat+bell, the bell is neutral stimulus)

Question 19

Piaget’s theory of cognitive development

Answer 19

Not only does the quantity of info increase in each stage, but the quality of knowledge and understanding changes as well.

Question 20

Schemes

Answer 20

Piaget suggested that human thinking is arranged into schemes- organized mental patterns that represent behaviors and actions.

Question 21

Assimilation

Answer 21

The process in which ppl understand an experience in terms of their current stage of cognitive dep. and way of thinking.

Question 22

Accommodation

Answer 22

Changes in existing ways of thinking in response to encounters with new stimuli or events.