Unit 9 Development Psychology

Question 1

Developmental psychology

Answer 1

A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the lifespan

Question 2

What three major issues does developmental psychology focus on?

Answer 2

1. Nature and nurture
2. Continuity and stages
3. Stability and change

Question 3

Zygotes

Answer 3

The fertilized egg; it enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo

Question 4

Embryo

Answer 4

The developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month

Question 5

Fetus

Answer 5

The developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth

Question 6

Teratogens

Answer 6

Agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm

Question 7

Fetal alcohol syndrome

Answer 7

Physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman’s heavy drinking. In severe cases, symptoms include noticeable facial misproportions

Question 8

Habituation

Answer 8

Decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a visual stimulus, their interest waned and they look away sooner

Question 9

What brain area experiences the most rapid growth? What are the last cortical areas to develop?

Answer 9

Frontal lobes
Association areas - those linked w memory, thinking, and language

Question 10

What was Jean Piagets core idea?

Answer 10

The driving force behind our intellectual progression is an unceasing struggle to make sense of our experiences

Question 11

Schemas

Answer 11

Concepts or frameworks that organize and interpret information

Question 12

Assimilation

Answer 12

We interpret new experiences in terms of our current understandings (schemas)

Question 13

Accommodation

Answer 13

The adjusting of schemas to incorporate information provided by new experiences

Question 14

Sensorimotor stage (Piagets 1st stage of cognitive development)

Answer 14

The stage (from birth to about 2 years old) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities.

Question 15

Preoperational stage (Piagets 2nd stage)

Answer 15

The stage (from about 6 or 7) during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic

Question 16

Concrete operational stage (Piagets 3rd stage)

Answer 16

The stage (from about 6 or 7 to 11) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete answers

Question 17

Formal operational stage (Piagets 4th stage)

Answer 17

The stage (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts

Question 18

Stranger anxiety

Answer 18

The fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age

Question 19

Attachment

Answer 19

An emotional tie with another person

Question 20

Critical period

Answer 20

An optimal period shortly after birth when an organisms exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development

Question 21

Imprinting

Answer 21

The process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life

Question 22

Secure attachment vs Insecure attachment

Answer 22

With secure attachment when a child is with their mother they will explore, but with insecure attachment when the child is with their mother they will cling to her

Question 23

Temperament

Answer 23

A persons characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity

Question 24

What is basic trust? What type of children approach life with a sense of basic trust? Who declared this?

Answer 24

Asense that the world is predictable and trustworthy
Securely attached children
Erik Erickson

Question 25

When does Darwin believe self-awareness begins?

Answer 25

When we recognize ourselves in a mirror which happens in about a year

Question 26

Authoritarian parenting style

Answer 26

Parents impose rules and expect obedience

Question 27

Permissive parenting style

Answer 27

Parents submit to their children’s desires; they make few demands and use little punishment

Question 28

Authoritative parenting style

Answer 28

Parents are both demanding and responsive; they exert control by setting rules and enforcing them, but they also explain the reasons for their rules and encourage open discussion about them

Question 29

Who sought to describe the development of moral reasoning (right vs wrong), in his stages of moral development?

Answer 29

Lawrence Kohlberg

Question 30

Preconventional morality

Answer 30

Before age 9, most children’s morality focuses on self-interest: they obey rules either to avoid punishment or to gain concrete reward

Question 31

Conventional morality

Answer 31

By early adolescence, morality focuses on caring for others and on upholding laws and social rules, simply because they are the laws and rukes

Question 32

Postconventional morality

Answer 32

With the abstract reasoning of formal operational thought, people may reach a third moral level. Actions are judged “right” because they flow from peoples rights or basic ethical principles

Question 33

Identity

Answer 33

Our sense of self: according to Erickson, the adolescents task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles

Question 34

Social identity

Answer 34

The “we” aspect of our self-concept; The part of our answer to “Who am I?” that comes from our group memberships

Question 35

Emerging adulthood

Answer 35

For some people in modern cultures, a period from the late teens to mid twenties, bridging the gap between adolescent dependence and full independence and responsible adulthood

Question 36

When do our physical abilities peak?

Answer 36

By mid-twenties

Question 37

What causes Alzheimer’s?

Answer 37

A loss of brain cells and deterioration of neurons that produce the neurotransmitter acetylcholine

Question 38

What type of memory remains strong as we get older?

Answer 38

Prospective memory

Question 39

Cross-sectional study

Answer 39

A study in which people of different ages are compared with one another

Question 40

Longitudinal study

Answer 40

A research in which the same people are testified and retested over a long period of time

Question 41

Crystallized intelligence

Answer 41

Our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase w age

Question 42

Fluid intelligence

Answer 42

Our ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease during late adulthood

Question 43

Social clock

Answer 43

The culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement

Question 44

Chance events

Answer 44

Events that are unplanned and unexpected but can have lasting significance (Ex. Romantic attraction)

Question 45

What are the two effective ways to study nature-nurture?

Answer 45

1. Twin studies 2. Adoption studies

Question 46

Genetic plan

Answer 46

Determines how all of the organs will be formed

Question 47

Differentiation

Answer 47

Stem cells that are capable of forming into any organ in the body

Question 48

Mitosis

Answer 48

The process during which zygote divides first into two cells, then four, and so on till the mass of the cells becomes a baby