General Psychology Unit 3

What is development psychology?

The study of changes, over the life span, in physiology, cognition, emotion, and social behavior.

What is the prenatal period?

Conception to birth.

What if infancy?

Birth to 18-24 months.

What is childhood?

End of infancy to 11-14 years.

What is adolenscence?

End of childhood to 18-21 years.

What is adult hood?

Last stage.

What is conception?

During prenatal period. Sperm unites with egg to create the zygote, the first cell of a new life.

2 weeks into the prenatal period, what happens?

Zygote is firmly implanted in the uterine wall, and the next stage of development begins.

2 weeks to 2 months into prenatal period, what happens?

Developing human is known as an embryo, organs and internal systems begin to form, exposure to harmful things can have lasting effects on developing organ systems.

2 months into the prenatal period, what happens?

Growing human is called a fetus.

When is the birth of a baby?

Between 38 and 42 weeks.

What happens to the brain during the prenatal period?

Brain regions mature and gain functionality, brain regions begin to communicate, synaptic pruning and myelination occurs.

What are teratogens?

A substance that crosses the placenta and harms the fetus.

What are types of teratogens?

Infectious diseases, medications, and recreational drugs.

What is toxoplasmosis?

Parasite in raw meat and cat feces, causes sensory and cognitive impairments.

What is zika virus?

Mosquito born illness, when contracted in the 1st trimester it causes high risk of miscarriage and microcephally.

What is thalidomide?

Drug prescribed in 1950s for nausea in 1st trimesters, prevented baby’s arms and legs from fully developing.

What is streptomycin linked to?

Hearing loss.

What is tetracycline linked to?

Stained infant tooth enamel.

What do opioids cause?

Premature birth, slow growth, excessive crying and tremors in the first month of life.

What does smoking/vaping cause?

Smaller than normal, less healthy baby; inhibition of growth.

What is fetal alcohol syndrome?

Smaller than normal birth weight and brain.

What is fetal alcohol spectrum disorder?

Less severe syndrome, deficits in learning and impaired mental health.

What is grasping reflex?

Hold things.

What is rooting reflex?

Search for food source.

What is sucking reflex?

Sucking when food source is located.

Imitation is a baby’s first what?

Social interaction.

What type of sound do babies prefer?

High pitched, exaggerated, and expressive.

What type of taste do babies prefer?

Sweet.

Do babies have good or poor sight at birth?

Poor sight.

What is preferential looking technique?

How long infants look at something.

What is habituation?

Getting bored with previous stimuli.

What is dishabituation?

Looking longer at a new stimuli.

What does oxytocin play a role in?

Maternal tendencies, feelings of social acceptance and bonding. Infant sucking during nursing triggers the release of oxytocin in the mother, this release stimulates biological processes in the mother that move milk into the milk ducts so the infant can nurse.

What is the strange stimulation?

Studying attachment in young children. Mary Ainsworth.

What is imprinting?

A sensitive period during which young animals become strongly attached to a nearby adult.

What are schemas?

Ways of thinking based on personal experience.

In cognitive development, what did Piaget believe?

Every stage builds on the previous one through two learning processes: assimilation and accommodation.

What is assimilation?

The process by which new information is placed into an existing schema.

What is accommadation?

The process by which infants revise their schemas in light of new information.

What is object permanence?

The idea that objects continue to exist even when they are not visible. 9 months exhibit this skill, still limits on search skill, A not B error.

When do children develop symbolic capacity and classify objects by a single feature?

Preoperational stage.

What is egocentrism?

Failure to understand that the world appears differently to different observers.

What do children develop during concrete operational stage?

Learn how various actions or operations can affect or transform concrete objects.

Children develop what during formal operational stage?

Can solve non-physical problems, abstract logical thinking, systematic thinking, can think of hypotheticals and the future.

What is the 3 phase chain reaction?

9 or 10 years old, hypothalamus releases a hormone to stimulate pituitary gland to produce hormones. Ovaries and testes grow and secrete estrogens and testosterones. Physical chances of puberty occur.

When does the frontal cortex of the brain fully myelinate?

Mid 20s.

Trivial changes include what?

Graying and whitening of hair and wrinkling of skin.

Frontal lobes shrink when?

As people age.

What is alzheimer’s?

Profound memory deficits and personality changes.

What is socioemotional selectivity theory?

As people grow older, they view time as limited and therefore shift their focus to meaningful events, experiences, and goals.

What is group polarization?

The process by which initial attitudes of groups become more extreme over time.

What is group think?

The tendency of a group to make a bad decision as a result of preserving the group and maintaining its cohesiveness.

What is social facilitaion?

The idea that the presence of others generally enhances performance.

What is Zajonc’s model?

Social facilitation can enhance or impair performance.

What is social loafing?

The tendency for people to work less hard in a group than when working alone.

What is normative influence?

Go along with the crowd to fit in and avoid looking foolish.

What is Milgran?

Electric shock experiment for obidience.

What is foot in the door?

Agree to a small request, likely to agree to a bigger request.

What is door in the face?

Refuse a large request, likely to accept a smaller request.

What are explicit attitudes?

Know about and are able to report.

Implicit attitudes?

Influence feelings and behaviors at an unconscious level.

Cognitive dissonance?

Psychological stress caused by holding two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values.

Fundamental attribution error?

Overestimate importance of internal factors (personal) and external factors (situational.)

Temperaments?

Biologically based tendencies to feel or act in certain ways.

What is the trait approaches theory?

Focus on how individuals differ in personality dipositions.

What is the humanistic approaches theory?

In terms of personal history, and narratives to understand self.

What is the cognitive approaches theory?

In relation to how they think about abilities and control how they feel over their life.

Gray (1982) proposed what about the revised reinforcement sensitivity theory?

Personality is rooted in two motivational factors: approach rewards and avoid pain.

Behavioral approach system?

Go system.

Behavioral inhibition system?

Slow down system.

BAS is linked to what?

Extraversion.

BIS is linked to what?

Neuroticism.

What is Roger’s centered approach?

Highlights importance of how parents show affection and that treatment affects personality development.

Reciprocal determinism?

Personality expressed can be explained by the interaction of environment, person factors, and behavior itself.

Wendy has only ever seen small dogs like her pet chihuahua. When she sees a very large animal (yellow lab), she places it into her existing dog scheme. This is called?

Assimilation.

Kitty is unsure about the steps during drop off. She walks into the daycare and watches the parents drop off their child and then sign a check in sheet. She proceeds to sign in on the sheet too. What type of influence has led her to conform? 

Informational influence.

What are some factors that contribute to the bystander effect?

Diffusion of responsibility, Fear of social blunders, Anonymity , Weight of two factors (risk/benefit of helping)

In Bandura’s reciprocal determinism theory, what

3 factors are related to personality?

environment, person factors, behavior 

What is the difference between idiographic

approaches and nomothetic approaches to

studying personality?

Idiographic is person-centered approach, includes life history data and projective measures. nomothetic is approach to assessing personality that focuses on how common characteristics vary from person to person.