Modules 12-17

Question 1

Childhood

Answer 1

Before puberty

Question 2

Critical period

Answer 2

A window of time when exposure to certain stimuli is necessary for an aspect of development

ex. may be a critical period for language (i.e. if not exposed to language within first few years of life, language capabilities may never develop, debated since can’t ethically be studied experimentally)

Question 3

Brain cell development

Answer 3

Brain needs input to develop

Impoverished environment produces less developed brain cell

Enriched environment produces more developed brain cell

Question 4

Schema

Answer 4

Conceptual framework for understanding what something is, what it involves, and what it is like

Question 5

Assimilation

Answer 5

Interpreting new information based on existing schema

Question 6

Accommodation

Answer 6

adapting schema to incorporate new information

Question 7

Piaget’s stages of cognitive development

Answer 7

How we develop understanding of how the world works by interacting with the world

Question 8

Sensorimotor phase

Answer 8

Birth-nearly 2 years old

Experiencing the world through senses and actions (looking, hearing, touching, mouthing, and grasping)

Key milstones: object permanence, stranger anxiety

Question 9

Preoperational phase

Answer 9

About 2-6/7 years old

Representing things with words and images, using intuitive rather than logical reasoning

Key milestons: pretend play, egocentrism

Question 10

Concrete operational phase

Answer 10

About 7-11 years old

Thinking logically about concrete events; grasping concrete analogies and preforming arithmetic operations

Key milestones: conversation, mathematical transformations

Question 11

Formal operational

Answer 11

About 12-adulthood

Reasoning abstractly

Key milestones: abstract logic, potential for mature, moral reasoning

Question 12

Autism Spectrum Disorder

Answer 12

Deficits in communication, social interaction, interpreting emotions, unusual posture, tone of voice (or sometimes completely nonverbal), fixated interests, repetitive behaviors

Reduced communication among brain regions that normally work together in perspective taking which requires theory of mind (understanding that different minds have different perspectives and different access to information)

Genetic, prenatal influences (e.g. “extreme male” brain)

Question 13

Attachment styles of infants

Answer 13

Assessed using strange situation paradigm (infant is in room with mother and stranger, mother leaves, then mother returns)

Reflects infant’s temperament and caregivers’ responsiveness

Associated with relationships later in life

Question 14

Secure attachment

Answer 14

Infant is comfortable exploring if mother nearby, when mother leaves, infant becomes distressed, mother returns and infant can be quickly comforted

Question 15

Insecure attachment

Answer 15

Any deviation from secure attachment responses

Question 16

Parenting Styles

Answer 16

Correlated with different outcomes for children

Question 17

Permissive style

Answer 17

Few boundaries

Children tend to be aggressive and immature

Question 18

Authoritarian style

Answer 18

Extremely strict and unreceptive

Children tend to have impaired social skills, lower self-esteem

Question 19

Authoritative style

Answer 19

Clear boundaries, but communicative

Children tend to have better social skills, higher self-esteem

Question 20

Neglectful Style

Answer 20

Children tend to have poor academic and social outcomes

Question 21

Adolescence

Answer 21

Begins at puberty “sexual maturity”

End not clearly defined (somewhere around 19-24 years old)

Frontal lobe continues to develop, myelinate allows for development of reasoning, long-term planning, impulse control, moral thinking, etc.

Frontal lobe development lags behind limbic system development

Often impulsivity, struggles with emotion

Question 22

Parent relationships in adolescence

Answer 22

Parent-child arguments increase (usually over mundane things) but most adolescents report liking their parents

Question 23

Peer relationships in adolescence

Answer 23

Peers influence behavior, social inclusion important

Question 24

Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development

Answer 24

Different periods of development are characterized by different social issues/conflict that affect social development

Adolescence (teen years into 20s): identity vs. role confusion, teenagers work at refining a sense of self by testing roles and then integrating them to form a single identity or they become confused about who they are

Question 25

Social identity

Answer 25

Comes from social group memberships

Question 26

Identity

Answer 26

Sense of self Adolescents may try out various roles

Question 27

Intimacy

Answer 27

Developing close relationships

Question 28

Kohlber's levels of moral thinking

Answer 28

Preconventional morality Conventional Morality Post-conventional morality

Question 29

Preconventional morality

Answer 29

Before 9 Self interest; obey rules to avoid punishment or gain concrete rewards, "if you save your dying wife, you'll be a hero"

Question 30

Conventional morality

Answer 30

Early adolescence Uphold laws and rules to gain social approval or maintain social order "if you steal the drug for her, everyone will think you're a criminal"

Question 31

Post-conventional morality

Answer 31

Actions reflect belief in basic rights and self-defined ethical principles "people have the right to live"

Question 32

Sex

Answer 32

Biological maleness/femaleness Chromosomal (XX=female, XY=male) Genital (internal and external sex organs) Hormonal (higher levels of testosterone stimulate male development, estrogen with women) In vast majority of cases, sex is unambiguously male or female because all starts with chromosomes Chromosomes cause either male or female genitals to develop and chromosomes and genitals influence sex hormones that cause secondary sex characteristics (breasts, facial hair, etc.) and various male/female typical characteristics

Question 33

Intersex

Answer 33

Rare cases where people are "between sexes" not fully male or female e.g. missing or extra sex chromosome (X, XXX, XXY) XY with female external genitals or XX with male external genitals External genitals that are between male and female

Question 34

Gender

Answer 34

General term for societal, behavioral aspects of maleness/femaleness, masculine/feminine Exists in every culture though specific gender expressions differ

Question 35

Gender identity

Answer 35

Deeply felt sense of one's own maleness/femaleness

Question 36

Gender expression

Answer 36

All the signifiers of gender (clothing, speech, interests, etc.) which may or may not reflect one's gender identity

Question 37

Transgender "trans"

Answer 37

General term that includes various ways one's gender identity can differ from one's sex Male sex, female gender identity Female sex, male gender identity Gender identity neither male nor female, or mixture of both

Question 38

Gender dysphoria

Answer 38

Intense distress over conflict between one's sex and gender identity Typically starts in childhood, worsens in puberty Most people who identify as trans are not diagnosed with gender dysphoria

Question 39

Prenatal sexual development

Answer 39

Around 7th week: Y chromosome prompts testes develop and produce testosterone Between 4th and 5th month: sex hormones in fetal brain support male/female typical development It's thought that slightly more or less than typical amount of given sex hormone during development may lead to more 'masculinized' and 'feminized' brain in different ways depending on particular point of development Perhaps causing brain to develop in way that leads to same-sex attraction later in life, or in a way leads to transgender identity later in life

Question 40

Adolescent sexual development

Answer 40

Largely driven by sex hormones

Question 41

Primary sex characteristics

Answer 41

Sex characteristics directly related to reproduction (e.g. maturation of ovaries/testes, external genitals)

Question 42

Secondary sex characteristics

Answer 42

Sex characteristics not directly related to reproduction (e.g. breasts and widened hips in girls, voice change, body hair)

Question 43

Males vs. females sex differences

Answer 43

Exist in all sexual species Boys are more physically aggressive, girls are more relationally aggressive (using gossip, ostracization)

Question 44

Testosterone

Answer 44

Main male sex hormone In both males and females but much higher amount in males Stimulate growth male sex organs during fetal period and development of male sex characteristics during puberty

Question 45

Estrogen

Answer 45

In both males and females but much higher amounts in females Contributes to female sex organs during fetal period and development of female sex characteristics

Question 46

Sexual Response Cycle

Answer 46

Defined by William Masters and Virginia Johnson (1966) Excitement Plateau Orgasm Resolution Refractory period

Question 47

Sexual dysfunction

Answer 47

Consistent impairment of sexual arousal or functioning causing distress (erectile disorder, premature ejaculation, inability to orgasm, lack of interest/arousal, typically more physiological than psychosocial)

Question 48

Paraphilia

Answer 48

Unusual sexual interest that causes distress for the person or causes harm to self/others e.g. pedophilia (sexual interest in prepubescent children)

Question 49

Sexual orientation

Answer 49

Enduring sexual attraction to same sex, other sex, or both

Question 50

Heterosexual

Answer 50

Attraction to opposite sex Most common

Question 51

Homosexual

Answer 51

~3-4% men, ~2% in women (but women more likely to have same-sex experience)

Question 52

Bisexual

Answer 52

<1% of population

Question 53

Asexual

Answer 53

<1% of population

Question 54

Evidence for genetic influence on sexual orientation

Answer 54

Sexual orientation more common among identical twins than among fraternal twins Single gene in fruit flies determines sexual orientation (no single "gay gene" in humans)

Question 55

Prenatal influence on sexual orientation

Answer 55

Atypical hormone exposure at particular point in development may lead to development more typical of other sex in some particular way (e.g. sexuality)

Question 56

Subtle gay/straight brain differences

Answer 56

Part of hypothalamus in gay men resembles that in straight women more than in straight men On average, gay people perform between straight men and straight women on certain cognitive tasks (e.g. visual rotation)

Question 57

Same-sex attraction in other species

Answer 57

Seen in hundreds of other species (birds, bears, giraffes, gorillas, monkeys, bonobos)

Question 58

Sexual selectivity

Answer 58

Across cultures, men less selective in sexual partners than women Likely evolutionary reasons for differences in mating strategies Higher cost of mating for females (even risk of life), can only reproduce about once per year at most, with one mate at a time, so more important to find best available mate rather than maximizing number of mating opportunities We don't see all men being extremely promiscuous and all women being extremely selective because each strategy at least somewhat beneficial to both sexes (men can't invest resources in unlimited number of offspring), men and women mostly have the same genes, so if trait is beneficial enough to one sex, it can last in the gene pool and end up in both sexes unless chromosome specific

Question 59

Evolutionary basis for attraction

Answer 59

Some traits attractive in all cultures: signs of health and fertility, facial symmetry, "averageness", social dominance and affluence in men, low waist/hip ratio in women, differential sex characteristics (masculinity in men, femininity in women) Sexual selection (certain traits being more attractive to potential reproductive partners and thus lasting in the gene pool) is type of natural selection e.g. male peacock's tail evolved because sexy to females, offers no survival benefit

Question 60

Sensation

Answer 60

Process of receiving sensory information A stimulus (energy) stimulates sensory receptors Energy is transduced into electrochemical energy (in form of action potentials) and delivered to the brain e.g. receiving light bouncing off a table is sensation

Question 61

Perception

Answer 61

Process of organizing and interpreting sensations (making "sense" of them) e.g. recognizing the object is a table is perception Involves two types processing

Question 62

Bottom-up processing

Answer 62

Uses only the raw sensations

Question 63

Top-down processing

Answer 63

Uses other information (prior expectations, knowledge, etc.)

Question 64

Absolute threshold

Answer 64

Theoretical minimum intensity of stimulus needed to be detectable In actuality, typically isn't consistent minimum amount so often measured as intensity that's detectable some percentage of the time (e.g. 50%) of the time

Question 65

Difference threshold

Answer 65

JND "just noticeable difference" Theoretical minimum change in intensity of stimulus needed to be detectable In actuality isn't consistent minimum amount so often measured as change that's detectable some percentage of the time

Question 66

Probability of detecting stimulus on graph

Answer 66

Typically S-shaped function of stimulus intensity

Question 67

Weber's law

Answer 67

JND for given type of stimulus is constant proportion of stimulus intensity and not a constant absolute amount e.g. JND for weight is some constant proportion of initial weight not constant number of points, in otehr words, JND directly proportional to intensity of stimulus Not really a law (some types of stimuli approximately follow Weber's Law but not all)

Question 68

Sensory adaptation

Answer 68

Reduced sensitivity resulting from constant stimulation (e.g. stop hearing air conditioner after a while) Unchanging stimuli aren't typically important We perceive the world not exactly as it is but rather in a way that tends to be useful to use Not habituation because about perception rather than interest (loss of interest vs. sensing stimulus less)