The Phases of the Life Cycle

Flashcards about the phases of the life cycle.

What are the psycho-social life tasks?

Infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood

What are the domains of development?

Physical, cognitive, and social/emotional

What are the phases of development?

Prenatal development and the newborn, infancy and childhood, adolescence, and adulthood

What are the three phases of prenatal development?

Germinal stage, embryonic stage, and fetal stage

What is the germinal stage?

The first phase of prenatal development, encompassing the first two weeks after conception

What is the role of the placenta?

Allows oxygen and nutrients to pass into the fetus from the mother’s bloodstream and bodily wastes to pass out to the mother

What is the embryonic stage?

The second stage of prenatal development, lasting two weeks until the end of the second month, where vital organs and bodily systems begin to form

What are teratogens?

External agents, such as drugs and viruses, that can damage the developing embryo or fetus

What is Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)?

Cognitive, behavioral, and body/brain structure abnormalities caused by exposure to alcohol in the fetal stage

What occurs during the fetal stage?

Rapid body growth, muscle and bone formation, organ growth, and the development of sensory functions

What is the threshold of viability?

The age at which a baby can survive in the case of a premature birth, around 23-26 weeks

What automatic reflex responses do newborns have?

Rooting, sucking reflex, and stepping reflex

What happens to neural connections during infancy?

Growth in neural connections takes place initially in the less complex parts of the brain (the brainstem and limbic system), as well as the motor and sensory strips, enabling body functions and basic survival skills

What happens to neural connections during early childhood?

Neural connections proliferate in the association areas, enabling advancements in controlling attention and behavior (frontal lobes) and also in thinking, memory, and language

What is the function of the frontal lobes?

Enable rational planning

Why do preschoolers display a rapidly developing ability to control their attention and behavior?

Due to the rapid growth in the frontal lobes

What enables physical coordination?

The developing brain

What is the universal sequence of motor development?

Babies roll over before they sit unsupported, and they usually crawl on all fours before they walk.

What brain areas underlie memory?

Hippocampus and frontal lobes

What is habituation?

Familiarity with a stimulus reduces, slows, or stops a response

What is dishabituation?

Increase in response after the presentation of a new stimulus

What does Jean Piaget believe about a child's mind?

A child's mind is not a miniature model of an adult's; children reason differently than adults

What is assimilation?

Process of matching external reality to an existing cognitive structure

What is accommodation?

When there’s an inconsistency between the learner’s cognitive structure and the thing being learned, the child will reorganize his/her thoughts

What is Piaget's core idea?

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

What is the sensorimotor stage?

From birth to 2 years: Babies take in the world through their senses and actions- through looking, hearing, touching, mouthing, and grasping

What is object permanence?

Infants younger than 6 months seldom understand that things continue to exist when they are out of sight

What is egocentrism?

Difficulty perceiving things from another’s point of view

What is theory of mind?

People’s ideas about their own and others’ mental states-about their feelings, perception and thoughts, and the behaviours they predict

What is the preoperational stage?

From about 2 to 6 or 7 years: The stage is characterized by language development and egocentric thought

What is the concrete operational stage?

From about 6 or 7 to 11 years: During this stage, children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events

What is the formal operational stage?

By age 12: During this stage, reasoning expands from purely concrete (involving actual experience) to include abstract thinking (involving imagined realities and symbols)

What did Lev Vygotsky believe?

The mind grows through interaction with the social environment

What is the zone of proximal development?

The distance between the actual development level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers

Who is the more knowledgeable other?

Someone who has a higher level of knowledge than the learner and provides guidance and instruction

What is scaffolding?

Activities, instructions, tools, and resources that provide assistance to students within their zone of proximal development

What is infancy’s major social achievement?

Attachment

What is childhood’s major social achievement?

A positive sense of self

What is adolescence?

The transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence

What is puberty?

The time when we mature sexually

What are primary sex characteristics?

The reproductive organs

What are secondary sex characteristics?

The nonreproductive characteristics, such as female breasts and hips and male voice quality and body hair

What happens to the adolescent’s brain?

Frontal lobes continue to develop which leads to improved judgement, impulse control, and long-term planning

What are the crucial tasks of childhood and adolescence?

Discerning right from wrong and developing character

What is Kohlberg’s most influential theory?

The development of moral reasoning, the thinking that occurs as we consider right or wrong.

What are the levels of Kohlberg's moral thinking?

Preconventional morality, Conventional morality, and Post-conventional morality

What characterizes early adulthood?

A peak in natural physical abilities

What characterizes middle adulthood?

A realization that life will soon be mostly behind instead of ahead.

What does life expectancy refer to?

The average expected life span

Why are there more aged women?

More men die than women at every age

What is the affect of aging on sensory abilities?

Diminished visual sharpness, muscle strength, reaction time, stamina, sense of smell & hearing

What is Dementia?

An overall term that describes a wide range of symptoms associated with a decline in memory or other thinking skills severe enough to reduce a person’s ability to perform everyday activities

What is Alzheimer’s disease?

The most common type of dementia

How does the ability to learn new skills change with age?

Declines less than the ability to learn new information

What is midlife transition?

A crisis, a time of great struggle, regret, or even feeling struck down by life

What aspects of our lives dominate adulthood?

Intimacy & Generativity and Love & Work

What is emerging adulthood?

A new phase between adolescence and adulthood, ages 18-25, characterized by delayed full adult independence

Describe the trends in feelings as we age.

Positive feelings grow after midlife and negative feelings subside

What is Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial theory?

Emphasized the role of culture and society and the conflicts that can take place within the ego itself (ego psychologist). He developed Psychosocial Theory and was the first to acknowledge lifespan development

What is a psychosocial task?

A crisis that needs to be resolved at each stage of life, according to Erik Erikson

According to Erikson, what happens during each stage of development?

The individual develops on three levels simultaneously: Biological, social, and psychological

What is the consequence of failing to fully complete a stage from Erikson's Theory?

Can result in a reduced ability to complete further stages and therefore a more unhealthy personality and sense of self

What is Erikson’s theory based on

Development through life is a series of stages which are each defined by a crisis or challenge

What is the basic conflict during infancy (Stage 1 – Infancy)?

Trust vs. Mistrust

What is the basic conflict during early childhood (Stage 2 – Early Childhood)?

Autonomy vs. Shame/Doubt

What is the basic conflict during school age (Stage 3 – School Age)?

Initiative versus guilt

What is the basic conflict during adolescence (Stage 4 – Adolescence)?

Industry vs. Inferiority

What is the basic conflict during adolescence (Stage 5 – Adolescence)?

Identity vs. Role Confusion

What is the basic conflict during young adulthood (Stage 6 – Young Adulthood)?

Intimacy vs. Isolation

What is the basic conflict during middle adulthood (Stage 7 – Middle Adulthood)?

Generativity vs. Stagnation

What is the basic conflict during Maturity (Stage 8 – Maturity)?

Integrity vs. Despair

How do adolescents form and identity?

Synthesizing past, present and future possibilities into a clearer sense of self.

How do peers influence adolescents?

Interaction with peers can teach new social skills.