Exam 3 Review Lifespan Development for Non-Majors

Intelligence

The ability to solve problems, adapt to new situations, and learn from experience. It involves effective thinking and adjustment, rather than just remembering facts.

Example: A student changes an ineffective study approach after reviewing mistakes and performs better on a new kind of problem.

Divergent thinking

Generating many possible ideas or solutions instead of immediately settling on one answer.

Example: Brainstorming several ways to attach a candle to a wall without dripping wax.

Convergent thinking

 Narrowing possibilities to one best or correct solution.

Example: Evaluating the candle ideas and choosing the one that satisfies all the instructions.

Spearman: general intelligence (g)

Distinct cognitive abilities correlate, suggesting a shared general factor across tasks.

The idea that one general intelligence ability influences performance in many different areas.

Example: A student with strong numerical reasoning also tends to do well on verbal and logic tasks.

Gardner: nine intelligences

Ability can be described across multiple domains rather than a single general score.

musical, logical, and interpersonal.

Example: A musician, dancer, and botanist may show strengths in different domains.

Sternberg: triarchic theory

Analytical, creative, and practical abilities contribute to effective problem solving.

analytical, creative, and practical.

Example: Analyze a problem, invent a solution, and make the solution work in daily life.

Salovey/Mayer: emotional intelligence

Perceive, express, understand, use, and manage emotions in oneself and others.

The ability to recognize, understand, manage, and use emotions.

Example: Recognize a teammate’s frustration and adjust the discussion constructively.

Analytical intelligence

Analyzing information, evaluating solutions, and using strategies to solve structured problems. Metacognition means monitoring and directing your own thinking.

Example: A student notices that a calculation strategy is not working, checks the steps, and selects a better method.

Creative intelligence

Generating novel ideas and responding effectively to unfamiliar situations.

Example: Inventing a new activity to teach a concept when the usual explanation does not work.

Practical intelligence

Applying knowledge to everyday demands by adapting to or shaping the environment.

Example: Reorganizing a work schedule so that competing responsibilities can actually be completed

Linguistic/verbal

Using and understanding language effectively.

Example: An author writes a clear, persuasive story

Logical-mathematical

Reasoning about logical and numerical relationships.

Example: An engineer works through a calculation.

Spatial

Understanding visual and spatial relationships.

Example: An architect imagines how a building layout will fit together.

Bodily-kinesthetic

Using the body and coordinated movement skillfully.

Example: A surgeon performs precise hand movements.

Musical

Sensitivity to rhythm, pitch, and musical patterns.

Example: A composer develops a melody.

Interpersonal

Understanding and responding to other people.

Example: A teacher recognizes that a student needs encouragement.

Intrapersonal

Understanding oneself, including feelings and motives.

Example: A person identifies what triggers their own frustration.

Naturalist

Recognizing and organizing patterns in the natural world.

Example: A botanist distinguishes plant species.

Existential

Considering questions of existence, meaning, and purpose.

Example: A philosopher explores questions about mortality.

Emotional intelligence

Accurately perceiving and expressing emotions; understanding emotional information; using feelings to support thought; and managing emotions in oneself and others.

Example: A team leader notices tension, understands that members feel unheard, and slows the discussion so people can respond thoughtfully.

Standardized test

A test administered and scored in the same consistent way for all examinees, allowing meaningful comparisons.

Example: Students receive the same instructions and their answers are scored using the same rules.

IQ: mental-age calculation

The formula in your notes is IQ = (mental age ÷ chronological age) × 100. Mental age represents the age level associated with a test performance; chronological age is actual age. The lecture distinguishes this formula from current age-group comparisons.

Example: Using the supplied formula, mental age 12 and chronological age 10 yield an IQ of 120. This is a formula exercise, not how every current test is scored.

Current IQ comparison

The lecture describes calculating a general score and comparing it with performance by other test takers in the same age group.

Example: A child’s performance is compared with that of children of the same age, not directly with adults.

Prediction and limitations

The slides say IQ predicts academic achievement relatively well, while explaining only about half of the variance discussed in class. They separately report that general IQ predicts 10–30% of variation in job success. These are statements about differences across people, not percentages of an individual’s intelligence, grades, or success. Motivation, education, self-control, and other factors also matter.

Example: Two people with similar IQ scores may perform differently at school or work because their motivation, opportunities, education, and self-control differ.

Infant intelligence assessment

Because infants cannot follow ordinary verbal test instructions, assessments examine physical, motor, sensory, early-language, and information-processing abilities.

Example: An assessor observes reaching, responses to sounds, and changes in attention to repeated images.

Habituation

A reduction in attention or response as a stimulus becomes familiar through repetition; the lecture uses it as an information-processing measure.

Example: An infant looks less at a repeatedly presented image, indicating that it has become familiar.

Giftedness: Three-Ring Model

Giftedness is described as the intersection of above-average intellectual ability, creativity, and task commitment. High ability alone does not capture the full model.

Giftedness comes from the combination of above-average ability, creativity, and task commitment.

Example: A student combines strong scientific reasoning, an original project idea, and sustained work to complete the project.

Intellectual disability

An impairment beginning early in life involving deficits in intellectual, social, and adaptive functioning. Adaptive functioning concerns managing everyday demands.

Example: A person needs support with reasoning, understanding social expectations, and carrying out daily responsibilities.

Specific learning disorders

Difficulties in particular areas of academic learning, rather than the broad pattern of limitations described under intellectual disability.

Example: A student can explain ideas in discussion but has persistent difficulty with reading.

Dyslexia

Difficulties specific to language skills, particularly reading.

Example: A student understands a spoken explanation but struggles to read the same explanation fluently.

Dyscalculia

Difficulty understanding, learning, and manipulating numbers and mathematical operations.

Example: A student repeatedly struggles to understand number relationships and perform basic calculations.

Environmental deprivation

Severely limited nutrition, sensory stimulation, or social interaction can slow development. The lecture’s Iranian orphanage example illustrates these combined risks.

Example: A child with little social contact and inadequate stimulation has fewer opportunities for normal learning and brain development.

Self-fulfilling prophecy

An expectation changes behavior in ways that help bring about the expected result.

Example: A student expects to fail, stops preparing, and then performs poorly.

Expectancy effects

Expectations influence children’s effort and opportunities, which may affect achievement.

Example: A child who is repeatedly treated as incapable invests less effort in schoolwork.

Stereotype threat

Anxiety about confirming a negative stereotype concerning an aspect of one’s identity, which can interfere with performance.

Example: A girl taking a math test worries that errors will confirm a stereotype about girls in mathematics.

Language

A spoken, written, or signed system of symbols used for communication. Its organized rules allow people to express meaning and pass information between generations.

Example: A child uses spoken words or signs to ask for a favorite toy.

Phonology

The sound system of a language: its sounds and rules for combining them.

The sounds used in a language.

Example: Distinguishing the beginning sounds in “bat” and “cat.”

Morphology

Meaningful units used to form words. A morpheme is a word or word part that cannot be divided into smaller meaningful units.

How words are formed using smaller meaningful parts.

Example: “Cat” is a meaningful unit; adding “-s” makes “cats” plural.

Syntax

Rules for combining words into acceptable phrases and sentences.

The rules for putting words together into sentences.

Example: “The dog chased the child” differs from “The child chased the dog.”

Semantics

The meanings of words and sentences.

Example: “Girl” and “woman” both refer to female people but differ in age meaning.

Pragmatics

Appropriate use of language in different social contexts.

How people use language appropriately in social situations.

Example: Using a more formal greeting with a teacher than with a close friend.

Instruction/reinforcement

Adults teach some language, but reinforcement alone cannot explain development because children’s grammar is rarely systematically reinforced.

Children learn language through being taught, corrected, and rewarded.

Example: A parent teaches “please,” yet the child develops many grammatical patterns without a reward for each correct sentence.

Imitation

Children repeat language they hear, but imitation is incomplete as an explanation because children also create new utterances.

Children learn language by copying what others say.

Example: A child repeats “good morning” but also produces a sentence no one has modeled.

Active construction of grammar

Children track regularities, build grammatical rules, and fine-tune those rules through experience.

Example: A child learns that past-tense verbs often end in “-ed” and begins applying that pattern to new verbs.

Over-regularization

Applying a regular grammatical rule to a word that requires an irregular form. The error shows rule use, not simply failed imitation.

When children apply grammar rules to words that don't follow the rules

Example: Saying “goed” instead of “went,” or “gooses” instead of “geese.”

Cognitive Processing Theory: statistical learning

Children process patterns and regularities in the language they hear. The lecture compares this with the brain “crunching” data.

Children learn language by recognizing patterns and predicting which sounds and words go together.

Example: Across repeated speech, a child notices that certain sounds and word patterns occur together.

Interactionism

Biological readiness to learn language works together with language exposure and social interaction. Neither readiness nor environment is the whole explanation.

The theory that language develops through a combination of biology, thinking, and social interaction.

Example: A biologically prepared infant learns through repeated conversations and responsive exchanges with caregivers.

Joint attention as support

Caregiver and child share attention to an object or event; the adult labels what the child is already attending to.

Example: A baby looks at a dog and the adult says, “That is a dog.”

Infant-directed speech

Speech with a higher pitch, exaggerated pitch changes, and a slower pace. The slides describe increased attention as a proposed function.

Example: A caregiver slowly says “Look at the ball!” with an expressive voice.

Frequency

Children learn words they hear often.

Example: Repeatedly naming the cup during meals.

Interest

Words tied to children’s interests are easier to engage with.

Example: Naming trucks for a child watching traffic.

Responsive interaction

Interactive exchanges are more useful than passive exposure.

Example: Responding when the child points and asks.

Meaningful context

Word learning is supported by meaningful events.

Example: Saying “pour” while pouring water.

Clear meaning

Clear information helps connect the word and its referent.

Example: Pointing to the object being named.

Grammar plus vocabulary

Consider how words function in sentences as well as their meanings.

Example: Using “jump” in “The frog jumps.”

Book-based strategies

Use books to start conversations about characters’ thoughts and feelings; ask what and why questions; invite children’s questions; include rhymes and creative language; and make reading enjoyable.

Example: Pause during a story to ask, “Why is the character sad?” and “What do you think will happen next?” rather than only reading the words aloud.

Bilingual development

Learning two languages, either simultaneously or by learning a second after a first.

Example: A child hears one language at home and begins learning another through school.

Code-switching

Using words from one language while speaking another. The lecture describes this as principled, adaptive language use rather than evidence of confusion.

Example: A bilingual child changes a word or language to communicate with a listener who understands it.

Two languages cause confusion (Myth)

Rejects this claim; code-switching can demonstrate mastery and flexibility.

Bilingual children are generally slower (Myth)

Similar milestones and initially lower vocabulary followed by a later larger vocabulary. They do not specify all measurement details.

It is too late after the first language begins (Myth)

Earlier is better and identify learning before puberty as effective. A child who already speaks one language can still learn another.

Basic emotions

Identifies happiness, sadness, fear, anger, interest, and disgust and describes cross-cultural similarities in their expression and understanding. The accompanying figure also labels surprise.

Example: An infant shows interest in a new toy and withdraws from an unpleasant stimulus.

Stranger anxiety

Fear of unfamiliar people.

Example: Distress when an unfamiliar adult approaches.

Separation anxiety

Fear of separation from parents.

Example: Distress when a parent leaves for school drop-off.

Emotional display rules

Cultural norms governing when, how, and to whom emotions should or should not be shown.

Example: A child learns to express disappointment differently at a family celebration than at home.

Social referencing

Using another person’s emotional reaction to guide one’s own response when the situation is uncertain.

Example: After a small fall, a toddler checks the caregiver’s expression before deciding how alarmed to be.

Empathy

Sharing another person’s feelings. The lecture describes emotional contagion as an early origin.

Example: A child feels sad while watching a friend cry.

Emotional contagion

An early form of shared emotional response in which another person’s emotion evokes a similar response.

Example: A baby begins crying after hearing another baby cry.

Sympathy

Concern for another person’s welfare, often motivating comfort or help.

Example: A child sees an upset classmate and brings a comforting toy.

Secondary or self-conscious emotions

Later-developing emotions that depend on awareness of oneself, usually developing by age 3 in the lecture. Examples include embarrassment, pride, shame, and guilt.

Example: A child feels proud after completing a task and embarrassed after a public mistake.

Guilt

A negative evaluation of a behavior rather than of the whole person. The lecture presents moderate guilt as potentially adaptive.

Example: “Hitting hurt my friend; I should apologize and act differently.”

Shame

A negative evaluation of the self or personal worth, contrasted in class with behavior-focused guilt.

Example: “I am a bad person,” rather than “What I did was wrong.”

Emotional self-regulation

Managing emotional responses so that feelings can be handled without overwhelming ongoing activity. Young infants initially depend heavily on caregivers.

Example: A child uses words to ask for help instead of immediately acting out.

Co-regulation

A caregiver helps a child manage distress through interaction, including voice, touch, timing, and availability. This is a process within a relationship, not the same thing as attachment.

Example: A caregiver speaks calmly to a toddler startled by a loud noise, helping the child settle.

Emotion coaching

Helping children explore, label, and understand their feelings.

Example: “You are disappointed because playtime ended. Tell me what feels hard.”

Emotion dismissing

Minimizing emotions or trying to distract or cheer the child so the negative feeling passes without being explored.

Example: “There is nothing to be upset about—just forget it.”

Temperament

A person’s general emotional response style, including emotional reactivity and self-regulation. It concerns how emotions tend to arise and be managed.

A person's natural way of reacting emotionally and behaving.

Example: One child reacts quickly and intensely to change, while another responds more mildly.

Emotional reactivity

Differences in the speed and intensity of positive and negative emotional responses.

Example: A toddler becomes intensely frustrated almost immediately when a toy will not work.

Thomas & Chess pattern (Easy)

Regular routines, adaptability, and generally positive mood.

Example: A child adjusts readily to a new daily schedule.

Thomas & Chess pattern (Difficult)

Irregular routines, unpredictability, and intense reactions.

Example: A child reacts strongly to transitions and has inconsistent sleep routines.

Thomas & Chess pattern (Slow-to-warm)

Low activity, slow adaptation, and generally negative initial mood.

Example: A child watches a new group quietly before gradually participating.

Goodness of fit

Alignment between the child’s temperament and environmental expectations or supports in ways that promote favorable outcomes.

How well a child's temperament matches their environment and the expectations placed on them.

Example: A slow-to-warm child receives patient introductions and time to adjust rather than pressure to join immediately.

Internalizing behavior

Problems directed inward, including anxiety and depression.

Example: A student withdraws and experiences persistent worry rather than acting aggressively.

Externalizing behavior

Problems expressed outwardly in the environment, including aggression and destructive behavior.

Example: A child repeatedly lashes out at others or destroys objects.

Sadness versus depression

Sadness is a normal response to loss or disappointment. The lecture describes depression as extending beyond sadness to worthlessness, hopelessness, loss of pleasure, sleep/appetite disturbance, and possibly suicidal thoughts or plans.

Example: A short-lived disappointed mood differs from a broader pattern involving loss of enjoyment and hopelessness.

Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)

The course defines a recurrent pattern of negativistic, defiant, disobedient, and hostile behavior toward authority figures lasting at least 6 months.

Example: A sustained pattern of hostile defiance differs from one isolated disagreement with a teacher.

Conduct Disorder (CD)

The course defines a repetitive, persistent pattern violating others’ basic rights or major age-appropriate social rules.

Example: Repeated serious rights violations illustrate the concept rather than ordinary occasional rule-breaking.

Socio-emotional Selectivity Theory

As perceived time horizons change, people prioritize emotionally meaningful relationships and activities. The lecture connects aging with smaller but closer social circles.

Example: An older adult chooses time with a few valued friends rather than expanding a large network of casual contacts.

Attachment

An enduring emotional bond understood in relation to a particular person and attachment figure. In infancy, the focus is the specific child–caregiver relationship, not a permanent personality label.

Example: A child may seek and use comfort differently with a parent than with a grandparent.

Safe haven

The attachment figure serves as a source of comfort or support during distress or uncertainty.

Example: A frightened child runs to the caregiver to be soothed.

Secure base

Available support gives the person confidence to explore and engage with the environment.

Example: After settling, the child returns to play while the caregiver remains available.

Strange Situation

A standardized observational procedure involving brief separations and reunions. It examines exploration, proximity seeking, contact, and use of comfort, especially at reunion.

Example: Observe how an infant responds when the caregiver returns, not only how much the infant cried during separation.

Infant pattern (Secure)

Seeks or accepts comfort effectively and returns toward exploration. Separation distress can be present.

Example: Maya cries, reaches up at reunion, settles while held, then returns to a toy.

Infant pattern (Avoidant)

Avoids, ignores, or minimizes caregiver contact; may focus on toys and show little outward distress.

Example: Leo turns away from an offered hug and continues playing.

Infant pattern (Resistant/ambivalent)

Seeks proximity but resists contact or remains difficult to soothe; exploration may be limited.

Example: Nia reaches to be held, then arches away while remaining upset.

Infant pattern (Disorganized)

Apprehension, contradiction, disorientation, or interruption of an attachment strategy.

Example: An infant approaches, abruptly freezes, then shows conflicting movements.

Caregiver sensitivity

Noticing a child’s signal, interpreting the likely need, responding appropriately, and adjusting when needed. Sensitivity relates to security but is not its entire explanation.

Example: A caregiver notices a toddler’s distress, recognizes a need for comfort, and changes the response if the first attempt does not help.

Internal working models

Relationship expectations built through repeated experiences that guide interpretations and actions: Can I seek help? Will useful support be available? What should I do if someone is unavailable?

Example: Repeated useful comfort supports the expectation that asking for help is worthwhile.

Secure-base script

An expected sequence in which a difficulty occurs, support is sought and usefully provided, distress decreases, and engagement resumes.

Example: After a hard day, a student talks with a trusted person, feels calmer, and returns to studying.

Continuity is not destiny

Expectations can persist, but new experiences can also revise them. The same life event does not produce the same change in every person.

Example: A dependable later relationship may help someone revise expectations that others will always be unavailable.