Principles of Developmental Psychology Final Exam Lecture Review

What do cross-sectional studies typically show regarding changes in intelligence as we move from early to late adulthood?

It’s all downhill, reasoning peaks at 25 and then declines

What do longitudinal studies typically show regarding changes in intelligence as we move from early to late adulthood?

Longitudinal studies show a steady increase until about age 53 where there is a slow drop-off that becomes more pronounced with time

Why is there a difference between the results of these two types of studies?

Cross-sectional research uses different cohorts who all have different historical experiences while longitudinal follows one cohort with the same historical experience

Why do cross-sectional studies probably underestimate intelligence at older ages?

Older generations may have less formal education or familiarity with tests.

Why do longitudinal studies probably overestimate intelligence at older ages?

Selective attrition weeds people out and they may get used to the test questions

Crystallized Intelligence

Everything you’ve learned and can remember

Fluid Intelligence

 What’s happening in your brain as you try and solve problems

Examples of measurement in fluid intelligence

Inductive Reasoning
Spatial Orientation
Perceptual Speed
Numerical Reasoning

Example of spatial orientation

Knowing how to mentally rotate an object

Perceptual Speed

How quickly you pick up on a visual difference in your field of view

How does crystallized intelligence change over the lifespan?

Increases as you age because you keep learning and then becomes stable around middle adulthood

How does fluid intelligence change over the lifespan?

It is dependent on nervous system functions so it usually declines over time

How has research on the “Big 5” personality traits provided evidence for both stability and changed?

There is moderate stability across the lifespan but also increases in agreeableness and conscientiousness and decreases in neuroticism

What example did I give of cohort effects in relation between a particular trait and a behavior/attitude?

Leaded gasoline for older cohorts was correlated with more violent crime
Also Big 5 traits associated with life outcomes like college and divorce differed across generations due to cultural differences

How can behavioral genetics help us understand the role of environment in the stability of the big 5 personality traits?

People will niche-pick which brings evocative influences, and these choices and reactions keep our personality stable over time

Niche-picking

Choosing an environment based on genetic predisposition

Evocative influences

Our genes influence our environment

Does the Big 5 describe personality equally well for all people?

It describes personality well across many cultures, but it is a WEIRD concept so it isn’t entirely universal

What is Erikson’s 7th stage?

Generativity vs. Stagnation

When does Erikson’s 7th Stage occur and what is the “crisis”?

It occurs in middle adulthood and the crisis is will I contribute to future generations or am I self-absorbed.

Recognize examples of positive and less healthy resolutions for Erikson’s 7th Stage?

• Raising children and mentoring others are positive resolutions.

• Having a midlife crisis and being disengaged are less healthy resolutions.

How do younger and older adults differ when it comes to measures of generative attitudes and generative priorities?

Older adults have a greater focus on giving back and leaving a legacy, while younger adults are more focused on personal achievement.

What kind of happiness do older adults who are highly generative tend to enjoy?

Eudaimonic happiness

Eudaimonic happiness

Happiness from a sense of meaning and purpose, not influenced by positive or negative daily happenings

What did Erikson mean by cogwheeling?

People of different stages are interconnected and that progress at one stage supports another

What does Labouvie-Vief mean by pragmatic thought?

Using logic as a tool for solving real-world problems.

How are the types of problems/questions Labouvie-Vief uses in her research DIFFERENT from Piagetian tasks?

They are more emotionally complex and life-based, and they have no real ‘correct’ answer.

How are the types of problems/questions Labouvie-Vief uses in her research SIMILAR to Piagetian tasks?

Both assess cognitive development with reasoning and look at developmental stages of thinking.

What was the adolescents’ response to L-V’s dilemma?

Tyra should leave Ben after he broke his promise to stop drinking, with no consideration to other factors

What was the young adults’ response to L-V’s dilemma?

Young adults were more considerate of other possible factors, like if Tyra had somewhere to go and if it was better than being with Ben

What does Labouvie-Vief mean by cognitive-affective complexity?

The ability to integrate logic and emotion which involves conflicting feelings and emotional regulation

How does Labouvie-Vief characterize wisdom?

Wisdom includes uncertainty, complexity, perspective taking, self-transcendence, and humility.
Experience helps but wisdom demands cognitive-affective maturity.

How is the human lifespan unusual?

Very long post-reproductive period w/ little deterioration, important for knowledge transmission, childcare, and cultural continuity

Why did the young males in the group of young elephants relocated to a different park behave so terribly?

No older males to model appropriate behavior and regulate musth (surge in aggressive hormones)

How did introducing older elephants into the group help the situation?

The older elephants disciplined and modeled behavior by serving as social regulators which reduced aggression

Why did the elephant calves in herds with the oldest females have the highest survival rate during a severe drought?

Older females knew where to find water and lead the herd to safety, displaying crystallized and fluid intelligence

What do wear & tear theories attribute the causes of aging to?

Wear and tear theories attribute the cause of aging to free radicals and accumulated damage over time

What is a criticism/limitation of wear & tear theories?

• These theories don’t pain the entire picture because they imply you should live long by simply minimizing energy usage

• There are also genetically programmed functions like apoptosis that destroy a cell and caloric restriction proving to be able to extend life

What example did I provide for the fact that apoptosis is an important part of normal development?

The intestines demand a specific number of cells which apoptosis helps regulate

Hayflick Limit

Limit to how many times a cell can duplicate itself

Telomeres

Areas at the end of the DNA strand which protects it, and loses a little every time the cell reproduces

Telomerase

Enzyme that keeps cells alive by adding DNA to the ends of telomeres

What cells have an abundance of telomerase?

Cancer cells
Stem cells
Reproductive cells

Free radicals

Highly reactive and unstable molecules that cause damage to the cell’s inner structure and are natural byproducts of cellular metabolism

How do free radicals contribute to aging?

Accumulation contributes to oxidative stress which causes loose skins and cataracts over time

Anti-oxidants

Nutrients that reduce oxidative stress by stopping oxidation which stops free radicals

When did we begin to consider “Middle Adulthood” a distinct period of the lifespan?

Very recently due to life expectancy leading to a stage between young adulthood and old age

What is a population pyramid and what does it show?

Graphs showing age and sex distribution across a population which highlights developmental shifts like birth rates, aging and longevity.

What phenomenon does the “rectangularization” of the population age distribution describe?

Describes how people living longer and being healthier leads to a more even distribution since there are more older people

Life expectancy

The predicted age that about half of the people born in that year will die

How does U.S. life expectancy compare to other wealthy countries?

We are very low despite our high healthcare spending, revealing systemic and developmental inequity

How has life expectancy in the U.S. changed over the last century?

It steadily rose for decades but eventually stalled

What happened to the trend in life expectancy in 2015?

The opioid crisis caused a decline

What are “deaths of despair”?

Suicide, overdoses, and alcohol poisoning

What part of the population has the highest rate of deaths of despair?

Less-than-college-educated middle-aged whites had the highest rate of deaths of despair, especially if they were out of the workforce

How has the US done in terms of numbers of deaths from COVID-19 compared to other wealthy countries?

The U.S. had far more COVID deaths compared to other wealthy countries, which reflected inequality but also public distrust

What are some reasons for the difference between COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. versus other wealthy countries?

Comorbidities, healthcare gaps, vaccine resistance, and public health inconsistencies

Which ethnicity in the US incurred the greatest loss in life expectancy during the COVID pandemic?

Indigenous Americans

When it comes to the aging brain a good rule of thumb is

Last in, first out
First in, last out

How does last in first out apply to the prefrontal cortex?

It is the last to mature and first to show signs of aging

How does last in first out apply to the hippocampus?

Shrinks without use and grows with stimulation

How does last in first out apply to the visual and auditory cortices?

They are the most mature part of us at birth and the last to show signs of aging

What are the differences in brain scans among older adults solving certain cognitive tasks and how do they relate to performance on those tasks?

The differences were in areas of brain activation with bilateral processing

Bilateral processing

Recruiting areas on both sides of the brain to do something

Compensation

Adults can differ in their patterns of brain activation when asked to do things like making simple decisions

What is the relationship between body weight and brain size in older adults according to the research I cited in class (video)?

The higher than average your body weight is, the older your brain is and more shrunk it is

What possible causal mechanisms can explain this association between body weight and brain size?

Excess weight causes inflammation and insulin resistance which can affect brain health

Know the details of the research I described by Erickson et al.

Treatment - Moderate aerobic exercise

Control - Just stretching exercises

General age range - 50-80 years old, distributed equally

What were the results of Erickson’s research?

Treatment group showed hippocampal volume increase while control stayed relatively the same

What are the main characteristics of the socioemotional selectivity theory and what does it describe?

• Time remaining in life affects priorities and relationships

  • Emotional meaning and close relationships

• Present, priorities, immediate desires, and meaning

How does life satisfaction change over the lifespan?

Declines around the middle ages before going back up (like a U)

How do younger and older people differ in terms of how happy they expect to be in the near future (e.g. 5 yrs from now)?

Younger adults expect larger gains while older adults expect stability and are happier than younger adults

What is the “double whammy” of midlife in terms of factors that relate to life satisfaction at different ages?

The midlife “double whammy” is that how life was harder than you expected, you’ve lost a lot, and you don’t expect things to get much better

What is the paradox of well-being?

Despite declines in health and status, older adults are happier because they’re prioritizing their closest relationships and an emotional meaning in life

What is it about tardigrades that forces us to reconsider how we define death?

Tardigrades can live in extreme conditions by going into cryptobiosis, which puts them into a tun state (ceased metabolic processes) that they can leave after conditions have become better

How did the invention of CPR and ventilators change our understanding of death?

CPR and ventilators blurred the line between life and death by allowing a temporary revival after the heart or brain stops functioning

I described the story of a Buddhist monk who died. What happened to his body after he died?

He entered Thukdam, a controlled dying via a meditative state and his body showed no signs of decaying for 5 days even though he showed no signs of life

What is Erikson’s 8th stage?

Ego Integrity vs. Despair; coming to terms with looming death without succumbing to despair

Despair

Feeling of meaninglessness when looking back

What did Erikson mean by “integrity?”

Wholeness, where all pieces including the negative are present

What is involved in developing it at this point in life?

Life review where you look back on your life and try to make some meaningful narrative out of it

What is the difference between correlational research and an experiment?

Correlational research is cheaper, easier, and has no manipulation of any variables or random assignment

Cross sectional research

Involves a sample of individuals from a single point in time.

Pros and cons of cross sectional research

• Cheap, fast, and easy to record

• Different cohorts can have different historical experiences (cohort effects) and no trends or changes can really be measured for that cohort

Longitudinal research

Follows a cohort over time by testing them again after some time has passed

Pros and cons of longitudinal research

• Measures change over time and trends well

• Difficult, slow, selective attrition weeds people out, tasks can become easier due to repetition

How does behavior genetics help us understand how nature and nurture work together to cause a trait/characteristic’s development?

Development is the result of complex interactions between genes and environment that go both ways, demonstrated by twin and fraternal studies

Epigenome

Instructions for whether a gene will be expressed or not and how strongly, like a set of switches and dials

What is Piaget’s main orientation to cognitive development/learning?

Piaget takes a qualitative approach to cognitive development based on what kids are capable of doing and thinking of

What are the characteristics of Piaget’s Stage 1?

Sensorimotor stage (Ages 0-2) - The baby plays with objects to learn about physics, and this stage ends when the baby learns how to talk.

What are the characteristics and tasks of Piaget’s Stage 2?

• Preoperational stage (Ages 2-7) - Characterized by an inability to look past immediate appearances. 

• Conservation task where kids think the same amount of liquid is more in a taller vessel.

What are the characteristics and tasks of Piaget’s Stage 3?

• Concrete Operational stage (Ages 7-12) - No longer fooled by appearances but can’t quite think abstractly yet

• Conservation tasks - Understand the same amount of liquid was poured into a different, taller vessel. 

• Feather hits a glass question - They think a feather hitting glass would never happen because it wouldn’t in their experience.

Information processing approach

Perspective on understanding cognition that divides thinking into steps and component processes, like a computer

What are Vygotsky’s thoughts on the relationship between play, executive function/self-regulation, and academic success?

Vygotsky thought of play as a form of self-scaffolding, particularly mature-pretend play. Acting like adults let kids self-scaffold executive function and self-regulation, which helps with academic success

What are GROSS motor skills and how are they related to fine motor skills?

Gross motor skills are large muscle movements that are foundational to fine motor skills

What are FINE motor skills and how are they related to gross motor skills?

Fine motor skills are smaller muscles making more exact movements and can only be developed after mastering gross motor skills

What are the structures in the HPG Axis?

The hypothalamus, the pituitary gland, and the gonads

How is the HPG Axis like a thermostat?

Called the gonadostat because it monitors and regulates the levels of sex hormones in the body and has a set level there should be, like a thermostat

What are Gottman’s 3 keys to successful marriages?

• Love-maps - A deep understanding of everything about your partner

• Fondness and admiration - Concrete ways of showing affection to your partner

• Bids for attention - Something small, to show you still care about them and even just having their attention

What are the key features of emerging adulthood?

• Feeling in-between because you’re out of high school but not a full adult yet.

• Self-exploration, instability, and endless possibilities