PSYC 500: Human Growth and Development Flashcards

Question

Longitudinal Design

Answer 1

An observational research method in which data is gathered at least twice (preferable more) from the same subjects over an extended period of time, usually over several years. This type of study allows researchers to measure effects and changes in population over time and account for individual differences. It can provide a wealth of knowledge but are often time-consuming and expensive. Ex: A study on the long term effects of CBT was conducted in 100 individuals diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder over 10 years. A questionnaire is given to assess the effectiveness of the CBT treatment every year for 10 years. This study is longitudinal due to its extended duration (10 yrs) and the same 100 people being "followed" and recorded.

Answer 2

A term from human development that describes ones ability to think about thinking or having awareness of cognitive processes, often including a conscious effort to control these cognitive processes. Metacognition includes a critical awareness of one’s thinking and learning and helps one to become aware of the strengths and weaknesses of their own knowledge/cognitive abilities. In a therapeutic context, metacognition allows people to develop strategies that enable them to learn things that better influence their own emotions and behaviors. Ex: A client tells their therapist that they are having many negative thoughts about their body image. As soon as one starts they can feel the downward spiral on negative thoughts starting. The client is exhibiting metacognition by being aware of and thinking about these thoughts.

Answer 3

A term from human development, this is a phenomenon in middle adulthood. It is an emotional state of unusual anxiety, radical self-examination, doubt, uncertainty and sudden transformation from the reflection of the first half of one's life. Research suggests that it is not pervasive, making it more of an exception than a rule and is often brought on by negative life change (job loss, financial problems or illness). Resolution of this crisis depends on reducing polarities and accepting them as integral parts of their advancement in adulthood. Ex: A 43-year-old male presents to therapy with high anxiety about wasting his life and concerns about making the wrong decisions in the past. He is worried that his time on Earth is shrinking way more quickly than he expected. He may be experiencing the phenomenon known as a midlife crisis. Luckily, many adults successfully move into midlife without experiencing crises.

Answer 4

A term from Bandura's social learning theory, modeling is a type of vicarious or observational learning in which an individual learns a behavior by watching another perform it first. Social learning theorists believe that a majority of learning behaviors, thoughts and feelings is done this way, making it crucial to lifespan development. This concept was first studied by Bandura in his "Bobo Doll" experiment. Ex: Parent brings in her daughter after noticing a change in her food consumption and an increase in her body image awareness. After speaking with the child, the clinician finds out that the young girl watches her mother pinch her stomach and grimace in the mirror. She repeats this behavior in her own bedroom in front of the mirror. She is modeling her mother's behavior. A young boy watches his father stub his toe and then curse loudly in reaction to the pain. The next week, when the boy is at school, he falls and scratches his knee while on the playground and curses loudly. He is modeling his father's behavior.

Answer 5

A term from neurodevelopment and neuropsychology describing the process of encasing axons of neurons with fat cells, which increases speed and efficiency of information traveling from one neuron to the next within the nervous system. This process begins during pregnancy and continues after birth, even into adolescence. It is important for the development of many abilities (like hand-eye coordination) and a lack of myelination could contribute to neurodevelopment disorders. Ex: At age 4, Daniel does not have the hand-eye coordination to throw a ball accurately at a target. Instead it gets launched above his head or off to either side of the target. By age 8, Daniel's hand-eye coordination has drastically improved, partially being due to the myelination that occurred through his development.

Answer 6

A term from B.F. Skinner's theory of operant conditioning, negative reinforcement happens when a negative stimulus or aversive consequence is withheld or withdrawn in order to encourage or strengthen the probability of a behavior happening again in the future. This can be used in place of positive reinforcement to avoid saturation of rewards. This is an important concept that explains learning and human behavior. Ex: A car makes a loud beeping sound when a seatbelt is not fastened. Once the driver or passenger fastens their seatbelt (behavior) the beeping ceases (removal of aversive stimulus). The driver/passenger was negatively reinforced to fasten their seatbelt in the car.

Answer 7

A term from Bandura's social learning theory that describes a form of learning by observing others perform (behaviors, attitudes, emotional expressions) and/or receive consequences for behavior (reinforcement or punishment), also known as vicarious learning. This allows an individual to learn from others' successes and mistakes and avoid lengthy trail and error periods when possible. Social learning theorists argue that a wide range of behaviors, thoughts and feelings are learned by observational learning, playing a central role in lifespan development. Ex: A teenage girl observes a few of her friends at school get compliments (reinforcement) for their new short haircuts. She considers getting her hair cut to a short length as well after seeing the positive feedback her friends received. A dog watches another dog get punished for eating out of the trash can. The dog never eats out of the trashcan after seeing the other dog be punished for that behavior.

Answer 8

A term from B.F. Skinner as a key element of behavior theory. Operant conditioning is the strengthening and weakening of behaviors by systematically changing their consequences with reinforcement and/or punishment. A behavior followed by a rewarding consequence is more likely to occur; a behavior followed by a punishing consequence is less likely to occur. Ex: Clinician is working with client that has low attendance. To increase client's therapy attendance, they provide verbal affirmations (positive reinforcement) to encourage the client's behavior of sessions attendance. The concept of operating conditioning is used to increase the clients target behavior (session attendance) by providing positive reinforcement. Principles of operant conditioning are part of everyday life. For example, a person continues to work at their job (even if they don’t necessarily enjoy it) for the positive reinforcement of the paycheck. These principles are often found in therapy, especially when working with children. A therapist may instruct a parent to utilize positive punishment (i.e. timeouts) in order to decrease an unwanted behavior. Words of encouragement and praise can also be used (positive reinforcement) in order to increase/maintain a wanted behavior.

Answer 9

A term in genetics, this term appears in human growth and development. The term refers to the observable and measurable characteristics expressed from a person's genotype. This includes physical characteristics and psychological characteristics, though the phenotype and genotype may not match or be identical because there are many variations of phenotypes that may expressed from a person's genotype. Ex: A person diagnosed with Trisomy 21 (i.e. “down syndrome”) will often outwardly express key physical characteristics associated with the disorder. Some of these may include almond-shaped eyes, palmar crease, and small stature. These outward characteristics are the phenotype of the Trisomy 21 found on the individuals genotype (i.e. genetic makeup). Fred has come to therapy because he is convinced his wife is cheating on him, even though she vehemently denies it. He says he has suspected her ever since their child was born. Fred explains that he and his wife both have brown hair, but their child is now 5 years old and he has blonde hair. The therapist explains that both parents may have the recessive gene for light hair which is not expressed in the phenotype of either parent but was passed down to their child genetically (genotype).

Answer 10

A term from human development, this is the tendency for the development of motor skills to start at the center of the organism and radiate outwards. Movement begins to develop in the core/torso and gradually moves to the limbs. Proximodistal development occurs in infants. Fine-tunes movements develop as a final stage of proximodistal development. Ex: Tummy time!

Answer 11

A theory descendent from Freud's psychoanalytic theory and developed by Adler and Jung. Psychodynamic theory roots much of psychological health or dysfunction in unconscious impulses, childhood experiences, and unresolved conflicts between what Freud calls the id, ego, and superego. In his theory, the clinician is the expert and interprets the patient's behavior. The goal of psychodynamic therapy is to being the unconscious impulses causing problems in the patient's life to the surface. Ex: A therapist is asked to assess an elementary student who appears to not be reaching his academic and social potential. Through discussion with the child, the therapist learns that the boy often only gets fed at school and does not have a proper bed to sleep in. Under a psychodynamic theory approach, the therapist would prioritize the child’s basic needs (i.e. food and sleep) before addressing more advanced intrinsic needs like social relationships. The therapist theorizes that the boy’s academic struggle stems from his lack of fulfilled basic needs. Sue is seeing a psychodynamic therapist for relationship problems. The therapist begins the session by asking Sue to speak freely about whatever is on her mind. The therapist hones in on a mention of a distant and cold relationship with her father as the potential source for her current problems. The therapist then starts to take on some of those qualities, acting slightly cold, to encourage transference and help Sue work through the issues. The therapist is using a psychodynamic approach.

Answer 12

A term coined by Skinner in operant conditioning of his behavioral theory. Punishment is the presentation of an aversive stimulus or the removal of a desirable stimulus following a behavior in order to decrease the frequency of that behavior. Punishment is a useful concept to understand for behavior modification. Ex: Positive punishment: spanking Negative punishment: phone privileges revoked for a teenager Emma's parents say that if she does not arrive home by her curfew, she will have to do extra chores for a week. This is an example of positive punishment, because an aversive stimulus is added with the intent of decreasing the behavior (arriving home late).

Answer 13

A research design in which a treatment is administered to only one of the two groups whose members are randomly assigned. There cannot be random selection in this design because the members naturally fit into a group already and it cannot be altered. Quasi-experimental disowns are useful in situations where true experiments can't be used because of ethical or pragmatic reasons. Ex: Researchers want to conduct a study examining how opioid addiction affects depression. Because they cannot ethically assign the condition of opioid addiction to their participants, the must have participants that already fit into the criterion of opioid addiction. Since this variable cannot be controlled by the researchers, the experiment is quasi-experimental. Psychologists are interested in how gender identity affects a new method of memory recall. Participants are randomly assigned to either the new memory recall task or the control group. Participants already fit into their respective group of gender identity and this cannot be altered for an experiment, making the design quasi-experimental.

Answer 14

A term from psychoanalytic and psychodynamic theories. Rationalization is a defense mechanism (unconscious way to reduce anxiety or protect oneself) in which controversial behaviors or feelings are justified in a seemingly logical manner to avoid true explanation. It is important to recognize rationalization (and other defense mechanisms) in therapy so that the clinician may help the client explore these controversial or anxiety-provoking feelings safely. Ex: Charlotte mentions in therapy that she "drinks a few glasses of wine every night... to relax." Charlotte's slight pause and explanation of her amount of drinking is rationalizing her drinking behavior to herself so she doesn't have to face the truth that she has a drinking problem.

Answer 15

A term used in statistics and psychometrics, it is part of assessing psychometric soundness of a measure. Reliability refers to the degree to which an assessment tool produces stable and consistent results. Measures are believed to be reliable if they produce similar results under consistent conditions. Reliability coefficients are then used to indicate the amount of error in the scores. The different types of reliability testing are parallel tests, test-retest, split-half and inter-rater reliability. Ex: To test the reliability of a new intelligence test, a researcher employs the test-retest method by giving the same test to the same group within a few months. Participants should score about the same on both trials if the test is reliable.

Answer 16

A term from human development, this is a behavioral response to being separated from their home or attachment figure. It is characterized by crying and excessive fear or anxiety. Though the anxiety is generally seen in young children (8-15 months), it can be present at any stage of life but is seen as abnormal behavior in older age groups. It is important for clinicians to know that this is typically a normal part of development for the young age group, but may indicate abnormality at older ages that may require treatment. Ex: Harriet is a new mother and fears she is far too inexperienced to handle the task. She feels she cannot leave her 7 month old daughter with anyone, because as soon as she leaves, the infant cries. The therapist explains that this level of separation anxiety is normal after about 6 months and should peak around 15 months. For weeks following a head-on collision, a child displays extreme anxiety of being separated from their father. The child follows the parent everywhere and often gets themselves so worked up they vomit or actually display a fever if they are without their father. This intense fear is characteristic of separation anxiety.

Answer 17

A term used in genetics to describe traits that are influenced by genes located on the sex chromosomes - usually the X-chromosome. Sex-linked traits, such as color blindness, are more likely to occur in males because they only have one X chromosome. Females have two X chromosomes and therefore the recessive allele (i.e. sex-linked trait) can be masked by a dominant allele. Ex: A heterosexual couple come to therapy with concerns that their unborn child will have muscular dystrophy, as the disease runs on the mother’s side of the family. The father wants to find out the sex of baby prior to birth, whereas the mother doesn’t want to know “just in case it is [her] only chance to envision life with a healthy baby.” The therapist educates the couple on how if the baby is biologically female, they would be less likely to have the disease. Whereas there is a higher chance of muscular dystrophy in biological males because of the single X-chromosome.

Answer 18

A term from social and cognitive development that refers to the 'reading' of cues in others to determine how to respond in a particular situation, especially in regard to which emotions and actions are appropriate in the given context. This skill begins between 8-10 months and by the end of the first year, determine whether the child will explore unfamiliar environments based on mother's facial expression. Clients with developmental disorders may not have developed this skill and therefore struggle to understand social referencing cues. Ex: 6 month old Jill is at Storytime at the library with her caregiver. She looks frequently at the caregiver as she encounters new people and toys. When the caregiver smiles and encourages her, she engages. She is using social referencing to engage with her environment. A 16-year-old boy with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is referred to therapy to work on “social cues.” The boy’s parents tell the therapist that they do not know how to teach him to “stay in his own bubble,” especially with peers at school and his teachers. Individuals with ASD often have a hard time understanding the covert rules, so-to-speak, of social engagement. The therapist helps ease the parent’s anxiety by normalizing the boy’s struggle and then provides suggestions to help with this behavior.

Answer 19

A term from human development, this is a form of distress that children experience when exposed to people unfamiliar to them. It first appears around 6 months with increasing intensity until around 1 year of age, then beginning to decrease. Infants show less stranger anxiety in familiar settings and tend to be less fearful of child strangers than adult strangers. This anxiety if a typical part of the developmental sequence and can be beneficial as it encourages children to seek out their caregiver. However it can also be negative if the caregiver does not meet the child’s needs or if they are overly fearful around peers. Ex: Fiona is concerned because her new daughter Abigail seems to be scared of everything. She says every time they go anywhere and someone approaches them, Abigail gets scared and clings to her mother. The therapist explains that a certain level of stranger anxiety is normal and healthy in infants.

Answer 20

A term from human development that refers to an individual's behavior; style and characteristic way of emotionally responding to their environment and to others. There are three general styles of temperament: difficult, easy, and slow to warm up. These traits are relatively stable from birth and one style is not better/worse than another. Understanding one's temperament helps one be more sensitive to the individual's needs. Ex: A mother brings one of her 8-year-old twins into therapy. She tells the therapist, “I just don’t know what to do with her. She’s so different from [her sister}.” When the therapist asks the mother to elaborate, she explains how the other twin is “laid back” and “sweet”, while the one she brought to therapy is “stand-offish” and “impossible.” The therapist explains how different individuals, even twins, have different temperaments or way of interacting with their surroundings. Rather than viewing the child’s temperament as the problem, the therapist helps the mother brainstorm ways of coping or handling each of her twin girls in ways that would best serve them.

Answer 21

A term from Vygotsky's sociocultural theory of development (proximal meaning close to developing or mastering this skill); the term refers to the space between what a learner can do independently without any assistance and what a learner can do with adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers. This is important in understanding stages of learning in development. Ex: Luke can go to the bathroom all of his own, without any assistance, every time. This task is at the lower limit of his zone of proximal development. Luke cannot tie his shoes independently yet and needs the assistance of his teacher or parents when trying to tie them. This task is at the upper limit of his zone of proximal development. A counseling graduate student starts internship at a facility and needs coaching and assistance in practice, but can write session notes independently. Her zone of proximal development lies between writing session notes and practicing counseling independently.

PSYC 500: Human Growth and Development Flashcards

(45 cards)