Midterm 2 Flashcards
the process by which infants and children gain the ability to think and understand
Cognitive Development
Piaget suggested that during cognitive development, infants/children learn 3 essential things:
- how the physical world works
- how their own minds work
- how other people’s minds work
Piaget’s 4 Stages of Development
- sensorimotor stage
- preoperational stage
- concrete operational stage
- formal operational stage
Piaget’s stage of Birth-2 years
Sensorimotor stage
Skills of sensorimotor stage (2)
-ability to sense (perceptual skills)
-ability to move (motor skills)
Piaget’s stage of 2-7 years
Preoperational
Piaget’s stage of 7-12 years
Concrete operational
Piaget’s stage of 12+ years
Formal operational
infants make theories about the way the world works
schemas
infants apply their schemas in novel situations
Assimilation
infants revise their schemas in light of new information
Accommodation
4 cognitive processes of sensorimotor stage
-schemas
-assimilation
-accommodation
-Object permanence
the fact that objects continue to exist even when they are not visible
Object permanence
Infants acquire object permanence ____ than Piaget suspected
earlier
Robert Fantz’s technique for finding out what is going on in a baby’s mind
Preferential looking time
Preferential looking time
Because you naturally stare longer at things that violate your beliefs, psychologists can use the duration of your stare to figure out what your beliefs must be!
the stage of cognitive development that begins at about 18 to 24 months and lasts until about 11 to 14 years
Childhood
Preoperational stage
children develop a preliminary understanding of the physical world.
Children enter childhood at ____ stage and leave at ____ stage
Enter at preoperational, leave at concrete operational
Concrete operational stage
Children learn how actions, or operations, can transform the concrete objects of the physical world.
Children at preoperational stage think spreading objects out means _______
There are more of them
Children at concrete operational stage think spreading objects out means _______
there are the same amount as if they were close together (conservation)
the understanding that the quantitative properties of an object are invariant, despite changes in the object’s appearance
Conservation
Piaget said children develop conservation at _____ stage
Concrete operational
Once a child learns conservation, they understand what?
That they can change what an object looks like without changing what the object is like
Formal operational stage
children learn the ability to generate, consider, reason about, or mentally “operate on” abstract concepts
Piaget believes some people never move on to _____ stage
Formal operational
Children at ___ stage think that others see things from the same perspectives that they do (egocentrism)
Preoperational stage
the failure to understand that the world appears different to different people
Egocentrism
False-belief task
Children watch a puppet see where a chocolate is put, then the puppet goes away and the children see the chocolate move. When the puppet comes back, children with egocentrism think the puppet will know the new location despite the fact that he didn’t see it, because they saw it.
The study of continuity and chance across the lifespan
Developmental psychology
Infancy
Birth to 18-24 months
Childhood
18-14 months to 11-14 years
Adolescence
11-14 years to 18-21 years
Adulthood
18-21 years +
3 prenatal stages
- Germinal
- Embryonic
- Fetal
Germinal stage
conception to 2 weeks
Term for baby in the germinal stage
zygote
Fertilized egg containing chromosomes from both a sperm + egg
Zygote
Does a zygote have a sex?
Yes
How many fertilized eggs implant in the uterus
50%
Embryonic stage
Week 2 - week 8
Embryo is how big at 30 days
poppy seed
Embryo is how big at 8-9 weeks
Olive
Embryos of either sex have beginnings of _____ reproductive system
female
Stage where baby has arms/legs/beating heart
Embryo
Fetal stage
week 9 to birth
Stage where baby has skeleton + muscles
fetal stage
What stage does the brain of the baby start to develop
fetal stage
What can a baby in the womb hear
heartbeat and voice of mother
Infants suckle _____ when familiar
more
Infants cry in _____ of their native language
tonal and pitch fluctuations
Organ in the womb that links bloodstream of mother to fetus, allows exchange of biological materials
Placenta
agents that pass from the mother to the fetus and impair development
Teratogens
Most common teratogen
alcohol
Developmental disorder that stems from heavy alcohol use by mother during pregnancy
Fetal alcohol syndrome
Examples of teratogens
Viruses, drugs, diseases, chemicals, etc.
Newborn brain is ____ the size of an adult brain
25%
Newborns can only see within ____ inches
8-12 inches
Newborns ____ to repeated visual stimuli
Habituate
newborns can mimic facial expressions within _____
the first hour
innate patterns of motor response triggered by sensory stimulation
Motor reflexes
Examples of infant motor reflexes
-Rooting
-Sucking
-Grasping
-Moro
-Stepping
rule that says motor skills emerge in sequence from head to feet
Cephalocaudal rule
rule that says motor skills emerge in sequence from centre to periphery
Proximodistal rule
3 ways of measuring what infants know
-Suckling
-Eye movement
-Preferential looking time
2 main criticisms of Piaget’s theory
-Stages were discrete, now we see them as continuous
-Underestimated how fast children acquire certain skills
Vygotsky believed that children develop through…
interactions with members of their own culture
Vygotsky’s 3 fundamental skills for learning from others
- Joint attention
- Imitation
- Social referencing
Ability to focus on what someone else is focusing on
Joint attention
Ability to do what another person does
Imitation
Ability to use another person’s reactions as info about how to think about the world
social referencing
Which skill is a prerequisite for social learning?
Joint attention
Death rate of WWII orphans who received safety, warmth food but no love/care
40%
Who conducted attachment experiments on baby monkeys
Harlow
Harlow discovered that, when deprived of social contact in the first 6 months, they (4)
-develop behavioural abnormalities
-were incapable of communication
-abnormal sexual behaviour
-became rejecting mothers
Who discovered concept of imprinting in goslings
Lorenz
Who argued infants channel signals to primary care giver to form attachment?
Bowlby
When do infants realize their primary caregiver?
6 months
Emotional bond that forms with primary caregiver just after birth
Attachment
Strange situation test measures what?
Determine’s infants attachment style
4 infant attachment styles
- Secure
- Avoidant
- Ambivalent
- Disorganized
Population percentages for each of the infant attachment styles
- Secure (60%)
- Avoidant (20%)
- Ambivalent (15%)
- Disorganized (5%)
Infant not distressed when caregiver leaves, acknowledges when caregiver returns. If distressed, is consolable.
Secure attachment
Not distressed when caregiver leaves, does not acknowledge return
Avoidant attachment
Distressed when caregiver leaves, difficult to console when returns
Ambivalent attachment
No consistent response pattern in caregiver leaving/returning
Disorganized attachment
Disorganized attachment is most likely caused by _____
child abuse
Characteristic patterns of emotional reactivity
Temperaments
How is temperament of infants measured?
Physiology + parental self-reports
Temperaments are ____ and biological
stable
3 types of infant temperaments
Easy babies (40%)
Difficult babies (10%)
Slow-to-warm-up babies (15%)
Biggest contributor to attachment style
Caregiver’s sensitivity/response to needs
Set of beliefs about the self, the primary caregiver, and the relationship between them
Internal working model of relationships
Children with secure attachment have better (5)
-Academic achievement
-Cognitive functioning
-Psychological well-being
-Success in adulthood
-Emotional adjustment
Age of onset of sexual maturity is determined by age it occurred for ____ parent
same-sex parent
Onset of sexual maturity
11-14 years
Bodily changes associated with sexual maturity
Puberty
Sex characteristics directly involved in reproduction
Primary sex characteristics
Sex characteristics that change with sexual maturity, but are not directly related to reproduction
Secondary sex characteristics
In 3-4 years of puberty, people grow ___ and gain ___ lbs
10 inches, 40 lbs
Onset of puberty is affected by
cultural variation
Puberty has began younger in recent decades due to (3)
-improved diet/health (extra fat mimics hormones)
-Chemicals (mimic estrogen)
-Stress
Age of adulthood responsibility has ____ overtime
Increased
Lengthening of period of adolescence leads to____
restricitons, angst, turmoil
Do hormones make teens moodier than children/adults
No
Why are teens moodier than adults (3)
-lower emotional regulation
-are more impulsive
-Susceptible to peer influence
Does risky experimentation in teen years lead to long term negative behaviour patterns?
Rarely
Overall, teens make ____ decisions
Good
Adolescents make better decisions when ______
No one is around
Effects of early maturation is more negative for _____ than ____
Girls than boys
Negative consequences in early maturation for girls (4)
-Depression
-Delinquency
-Distress
-Disease
Evidence that sexual orientation is built into DNA
Identical twins are highly likely to have same sexual orientation as one another
Child _____ behaviour predicts sexual orientation
Gender-nonconforming behaviour
Acceptance rate of homosexuality in Canada
80%
Rate at which young canadians engage in sex is ____
Decreasing
Rate at which young canadians use condoms is
Increasing
In adolescence, _____ play an active role in development as opposed to family
Peers
Teens go through which of Erikson’s stages
Identity vs. role confusion
Teen struggle for autonomy leads to (3)
-conflict w parents
-Reduced time w family
-Reduced closeness w family
Development slows down during _____
Adulthood
Abilities/health peak at ___ and deteriorate after
20s, 26-30
Adult cognitive decline is caused by
Deterioration of profrontal cortex
Cognitive decline affects
task initiation, strategy, effort
What declines faster, working memory or long-term memory?
Working memory
What declines faster, episodic memory or semantic memory?
Episodic memory
Why does overall cognitive performance remain high during adulthood? (4)
-Compensation by other neural structures
-Use brain more efficiently
-Knowledge accumulation
-Brain becomes de-differentiated/bilateral asymmetry disappears
Younger adults orient towards future-pertinent info, whereas older adults focus on emotional satisfaction at present
Socioemotional selectivity theory
Adults feel ____ attractive at 65 than at 34
More attractive
____ adulthood is the happiest/most satisfying time
Late adulthood
Women tend to be ___ happy while raising children
Less happy
Married people have ____ health
better health
Greatest source of joy for adults
Partners/children
Average canadian parents have ____ children
1.7
Individual’s characteristic style of behaviour, thinking, feeling
Personality
How are personality differences sometimes explained?
In terms of prior events + anticipated events
Developing explanations of the basis for psychological differences among people is the study of ______
personality
How is personality measured (2)
Projective techniques and self report
Questionnaire where people describe their own behaviour or mental state
Self-report
What is a problem with personality self-reports?
Response bias
How is response bias mediated in personality self-reports
Validity scales
MMPI-2-RF
Well-researched clinical questionnaire for personality and psychological problems
Standard series of ambiguous stimuli designed to elicit unique responses that reveal inner aspects of individual’s personality
Projective test
Problems with projective personality tests
Subjective interpretation of administrator
Examples of projective personality tests (2)
Rorschach Inkblot Test
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
Individual interpretations of unstructured inkblots are analyzed to identify respondent’s inner feelings/interpret personality structure
Rorschach Inkblot Test
Respondents reveal underlying motives, concerns, when they make up stories about ambiguous pictures of people
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
Relatively stable disposition to behave in a particular and consistent way
Trait
Traits can be a ________ that causes behaviour or a ________ that guides behaviour
preexisting disposition, motivation
Big 5 personality traits
-Openness
-Neuroticism
-Agreeableness
-Conscientiousness
-Extraversion
Acronym for big 5
OCEAN or CANOE
The _____ personalities are on a spectrum
Big 5
Is personality stable overtime
Yes
Are perceiver’s ratings of someone’s Big 5 personality traits usually accurate
Yes
