Psych Ch. 4-6

Issues of Developmental Psychologists

Issues of Developmental Psychologists

Nature v.s. Nurture

Continuity v.s. Stages

Stability v.s. Change

Temperament

A person’s characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity

Assimilation

Interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing concepts & understandings (schemas)

Accomodation

Adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information

Object Permanence

Understanding that items and people still exist even when you can't see or hear them. Discovered by Jean Piaget

Conservation

The principle that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects. Piaget believed this to be a part of concrete operational reasoning

Egocentrism

In Piaget’s theory, the preoperational child’s difficulty taking another’s point of view

Attachment

An emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation

Social Identity

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

Identity

Our sense of self; according to Erikson, the adolescent’s task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles

Intimacy

In Erikson’s theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in young adulthood

Emerging Adulthood

A period from about age 18 to the mid-twenties, when many in Western cultures are no longer adolescents but have not yet achieved full independence as adults

Erikson’s Adulthood Stages

Piaget’s

Social Clock

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

Menopause

The time of natural cessation of menstruation; also refers to the biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce

Sex

In psychology, the biologically influenced characteristics by which people define males and females

Gender

In psychology, the socially influenced characteristics by which people define men and women

Primary Sex Characteristics

The body structures (such as ovaries, testes, and external genitalia) that make sexual reproduction possible

Secondary Sex Characteristics

Non-reproductive sexual traits, such as female breasts and hips, male voice quality, and body hair

Spermache

First ejaculation

Menarche

The first menstrual period

Role

A set of expectations about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave

Gender Role

A set of expected behaviors, attitudes, and traits for males or for females

Gender Identity

Our sense of being male, female, or some combination of the two

Asexual

Having no sexual attraction to others

Sexual Response Cycle

The four stages of sexual responding described by Masters and Johnson - excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution

Sexual Dysfunction

A problem that consistently impairs sexual arousal or function

Sexual Orientation

An enduring sexual attraction toward member’s of one’s own sex (homosexual), the other sex (heterosexual), or both sexes (bisexual)

Social Script

Culturally modeled guide for how to act in various situations

Factors Influencing Teenager Sexual Behavior

• Minimal communication about birth control

• Guilt related to sexual

• Alcohol Use

• Mass media norms of unprotected promiscuity

Sensation

The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment

Perception

The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events

Bottom-up Processing

Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain’s integration of sensory information

Top-down Processing

Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations

Absolute Threshold

The minimum stimulus energy needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time

Difference Threshold

The minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50% of the time. We experience the difference threshold as a just noticeable difference

Subliminal

Below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness

Parallel Processing

The processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain’s natural mode of information processing for many functions

Visual Cliff

A laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals

Perceptual Constancy

Perceiving objects as unchanging even as illumination and retinal images change

Perceptual Adaptation

The ability to adjust to changed sensory input, including an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field

Gestalt

An organized whole. Gestalt psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces f information into meaningful wholes

Frequency

The number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time

Pitch

A tone’s experienced highness or lowness; depends on frequency

Hypnosis

A social interaction in which one person (hypnotist) suggests to another (subject) that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors will spontaneously occur

Parapsychology

The study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis

Dissociation

A split in consciousness, which allows some thoughts and behaviors to occur simultaneously with others