Middle Childhood: Cognitive, Social, and Emotional Development

Flashcards covering the cognitive, social, and emotional development of children in middle childhood (ages 7-11), including Piaget's stages, ADHD, intelligence testing, and family dynamics.

Sensorimotor Stage

The first of Piaget’s stages, occurring from birth to $18–24$ months old, characterized by object permanence.

Preoperational Stage

The second of Piaget’s stages, occurring from $2$ to $7$ years old, characterized by symbolic thought.

Concrete Operational Stage

The third of Piaget’s stages, occurring from $7$ to $11$ years old, characterized by operational thought.

Formal Operational Stage

The final of Piaget’s stages, occurring from adolescence to adulthood, characterized by abstract concepts.

Seriation

The ability to arrange things in a logical order, such as shortest to longest, thinnest to thickest, or lightest to darkest.

Executive Function

Cognitive processes including planning, working memory, attention, problem solving, verbal reasoning, inhibition, mental flexibility, multi-tasking, initiation, and monitoring of actions.

Stroop Effect

A phenomenon that demonstrates selective attention by requiring individuals to solve problems containing conflicting or misleading cues.

ADHD

Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, which includes problems of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsiveness; diagnosed in $8-11\%$ of children ages $5-9$ in the U.S.

Rehearsal

A mnemonic strategy involving repeating information over and over.

Organization

A mnemonic strategy involving placing things into categories.

Elaboration

A mnemonic strategy involving transforming bits of information to connect them, such as using "BLAM" for butter, lettuce, apples, and milk.

Metamemory

An understanding of how one's own memory works.

WISC-IV

The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, the most widely used intelligence test that provides an intelligence quotient (IQ) score.

Reaction Range

A concept indicating that intelligence is impacted by a combination of genes and environment, similar to the diathesis-stress model.

Flynn Effect

The observation that median IQ scores rose significantly during the $20^{th}$ century.

Linguistic Intelligence

One of Gardner's multiple intelligences, described as the ability to use language.

Musical Intelligence

One of Gardner's multiple intelligences, described as the ability to compose and/or perform music.

Logical-Mathematical Intelligence

One of Gardner's multiple intelligences, described as the ability to think logically and solve mathematical problems.

Spatial Intelligence

One of Gardner's multiple intelligences, described as the ability to understand how objects are oriented in space.

Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence

One of Gardner's multiple intelligences, described as having speed, agility, and gross motor control.

Interpersonal Intelligence

One of Gardner's multiple intelligences, involving sensitivity to others and understanding their motivation.

Intrapersonal Intelligence

One of Gardner's multiple intelligences, involving the understanding of one's own emotions and how they guide actions.

Naturalist Intelligence

One of Gardner's multiple intelligences, described as the ability to recognize patterns found in nature.

Pragmatics

The aspect of language development that involves understanding humor and social usage of language.

Metalinguistic Skills

Cognitive benefits of bilingualism involving a deeper understanding of language structure.

Experience Sampling Method

A research technique used to measure emotional well-being which found that $28\%$ of individuals reported being "very happy."

Ambivalence

The emotional capacity to understand and experience multiple, often conflicting, feelings simultaneously.

Self-Concept

How an individual views and evaluates themselves, often described in psychological or personality-related terms during middle childhood.

Self-Esteem

A person’s overall sense of worth and well-being.

Independent Self

A cultural concept mainly found in Western societies that encourages reflection about the self and being an independent person.

Interdependent Self

A cultural concept that encourages the importance of the group and focuses on the interests of others.

Externalizing Behaviors

Conflict-related outcomes of divorce that include impulsivity and conflicts with family.

Internalizing Problems

Conflict-related outcomes of divorce that include depression, anxiety, phobias, and sleep disturbances.

Selective Association

The tendency to prefer friendships with others who are similar to ourselves.

Bullying

An interaction occurring in approximately $20\%$ of children involving aggression, repetition, and a power imbalance.