Psych Exam III

What do developmental psychologists study?

They view development as a lifelong process that can be studied scientifically across three developmental domains—physical, cognitive, and psychosocial development. Physical development involves growth and changes in the body and brain, the senses, motor skills, and health and wellness. Cognitive development involves learning, attention, memory, language, thinking, reasoning, and creativity. Psychosocial development involves emotions, personality, and social relationships. We refer to these domains throughout the module.

Cognitive development

Domain of lifespan development that examines learning, attention, memory, language, thinking, reasoning, and creativity

Continuous development

View that development is a cumulative

Process

Gradually improving on existing skills

Developmental milestone

Approximate ages at which children reach specific normative events

Discontinuous development

View that development takes place in unique stages, which happen at specific times or ages

Nature

Genes and biology

Normative approach

Study of development using norms, or average ages, when most children reach specific developmental milestones

Nurture

Environment and culture

Physical development

Domain of lifespan development that examines growth and changes in the body and brain, the senses, motor skills, and health and wellness

Psychosocial development

Domain of lifespan development that examines emotions, personality, and social relationships

What do Stage theorist think about development?

Stage theories hold that the sequence of development is universal. and it occurs in stages

What is the achievement gap?

The achievement gap refers to the persistent difference in grades, test scores, and graduation rates that exist among students of different ethnicities, races, and—in certain subjects—sexes

Psychosexual development

Process proposed by Freud in which pleasure-seeking urges focus on different erogenous zones of the body as humans move through five stages of life

Psychosocial development

Process proposed by Erikson in which social tasks are mastered as humans move through eight stages of life from infancy to adulthood

Assimilation

Adjustment of a schema by adding information similar to what is already known

Accommodation

Adjustment of a schema by changing a scheme to accommodate new information different from what was already known

Concrete operational stage

Third stage in Piaget's theory of cognitive development; from about 7 to 11 years old, children can think logically about real (concrete) events

Conservation

Idea that even if you change the appearance of something, it is still equal in size, volume, or number as long as nothing is added or removed

Egocentrism

Preoperational child's difficulty in taking the perspective of others

Formal operational stage

Final stage in Piaget's theory of cognitive development; from age 11 and up, children are able to deal with abstract ideas and hypothetical situations

Object Permanence

Idea that even if something is out of sight, it still exists

Preoperational stage

Second stage in Piaget's theory of cognitive development; from ages 2 to 7, children learn to use symbols and language but do not understand mental operations and often think illogically

Reversibility

Understanding that objects can be changed and then returned back to their original form or condition

Schema

(plural = schemata) concept (mental model) that is used to help us categorize and interpret information

Sensorimotor stage

First stage in Piaget's theory of cognitive development; from birth through age 2, a child learns about the world through senses and motor behavior

Theory-of-mind

The understanding that people have thoughts, feelings, and beliefs that are different from our own

Stages of moral reasoning

Process proposed by Kohlberg; humans move through three stages of moral development (look for Picture)

Conception

When a sperm fertilizes an egg and forms a zygote

Critical (sensitive) period

Time during fetal growth when specific parts or organs develop

Embryo

Multi-cellular organism in its early stages of development

Mitosis

The process of cell division (Body cells)

Newborn reflexes

Inborn automatic response to a particular form of stimulation that all healthy babies are born with

Placenta

Structure connected to the uterus that provides nourishment and oxygen to the developing baby

Prenatal care

Medical care during pregnancy that monitors the health of both the mother and the fetus

Teratogen

Biological, chemical, or physical environmental agent that causes damage to the developing embryo or fetus

Zygote

Structure created when a sperm and egg merge at conception; begins as a single cell and rapidly divides to form the embryo and placenta

Cognitive empathy

Ability to take the perspective of others and to feel concern for others

Fine motor skills

Use of muscles in fingers, toes, and eyes to coordinate small actions

Gross motor skills

Use of large muscle groups to control arms and legs for large body movements

Motor skills

Ability to move our body and manipulate objects

Attachment

Long-standing connection or bond with others

Authoritarian parenting style

Parents place a high value on conformity and obedience, are often rigid, and express little warmth to the child

Authoritative parenting style

Parents give children reasonable demands and consistent limits, express warmth and affection, and listen to the child's point of view

Avoidant attachment

Characterized by child's unresponsiveness to parent, does not use the parent as a secure base, and does not care if parent leaves

disorganized attachment:

characterized by the child's odd behavior when faced with the parent; type of attachment seen most often with kids that are abused

Permissive parenting style

Parents make few demands and rarely use punishment

Resistant attachment

Characterized by the child's tendency to show clingy behavior and rejection of the parent when she attempts to interact with the child

Secure attachment

Characterized by the child using the parent as a secure base from which to explore

Secure base

Parental presence that gives the infant/toddler a sense of safety as he explores his surroundings

Temperament

Innate traits that influence how one thinks, behaves, and reacts with the environment

Uninvolved parenting style

Parents are indifferent, uninvolved, and sometimes referred to as neglectful; they don't respond to the child's needs and make relatively few demands

Adolescence

Period of development that begins at puberty and ends at early adulthood

Adrenarche

Maturing of the adrenal glands

Emerging adulthood

Newly defined period of lifespan development from 18 years old to the mid-20s; young people are taking longer to complete college, get a job, get married, and start a family

Gonadarche

Maturing of the sex glands

Menarche

Beginning of menstrual period; around 12-13 years old

Primary sexual characteristics

Organs specifically needed for reproduction

Secondary sexual characteristics

Physical signs of sexual maturation that do not directly involve sex organs

Spermarche

First male ejaculation

Crystallized intelligence

Intelligence that draw upon experience and knowledge. Measures include vocabulary tests, solving number problems, and understanding texts

Fluid intelligence

Information processing abilities, such as logical reasoning, remembering lists, spatial ability, and reaction time

Five stages of grief

Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance

Hospice

Service that provides a death with dignity; pain management in a humane and comfortable environment; usually outside of a hospital setting

Artificial concept

Concept that is defined by a very specific set of characteristicsterm-58

Cognition

Thinking, including perception, learning, problem solving, judgment, and memory

Cognitive Psychology

Field of psychology dedicated to studying every aspect of how people think

Concept

Category or grouping of linguistic information, objects, ideas, or life experiences

Cognitive Script

Set of behaviors that are performed the same way each time; also referred to as an event schema

Event schema

Set of behaviors that are performed the same way each time; also referred to as a cognitive script

Natural concept

Mental groupings that are created "naturally" through your experiences

Prototype

Best representation of a concept

Role schema

Set of expectations that define the behaviors of a person occupying a particular role

Schema

(plural = schemata) mental construct consisting of a cluster or collection of related concepts

Algorithm

Problem-solving strategy characterized by a specific set of instructions

Heuristic

Mental shortcut that saves time when solving a problem

Problem-solving strategy

Method for solving problems

Trial and error

Problem-solving strategy in which multiple solutions are attempted until the correct one is found

Working backwards

Heuristic in which you begin to solve a problem by focusing on the end result

Anchoring bias

Faulty heuristic in which you fixate on a single aspect of a problem to find a solution

Availability heuristic

Faulty heuristic in which you make a decision based on information readily available to you

Confirmation bias

Faulty heuristic in which you focus on information that confirms your beliefs

Functional fixedness

Inability to see an object as useful for any other use other than the one for which it was intended

Hindsight bias

Belief that the event just experienced was predictable, even though it really wasn't

Mental set

Continually using an old solution to a problem without results

Representative bias

Faulty heuristic in which you stereotype someone or something without a valid basis for your judgment

What is the way to determine if a phenomenon is reliable?

There is only one way to determine if a phenomenon is reliable, and that is replication. If you can't replicate an effect, then you shouldn't waste people's time reading about it in a scientific paper.

What the three different types of replication?

1. Direct Replication: Conduct exactly the same study again, usually with new participants from the same population as the original study. A successful replication would produce results similar to those in the original study.
2. Systematic Replication: Conduct a study that is similar to the original one, but using slightly different methods or stimuli.
3. Conceptual Replication: Conduct a very different study that still tests the original idea. In the current context, a conceptual replication would test the choice blindness idea using a method that did not involve choosing attractive people.

Audience design

Constructing utterances to suit the audience's knowledge

Common ground

Information that is shared by people who engage in a conversation

Ingroup

Group to which a person belongslexicon: words and expressions

Linguistic intergroup bias

A tendency for people to characterize positive things about their ingroup using more abstract expressions, but negative things about their outgroups using more abstract
expressions

Outgroup

Group to which a person does not belong

Priming

A stimulus presented to a person reminds them about other ideas associated with the stimulus

Situation model

A mental representation of an event, object, or situation constructed at the time of comprehending a linguistic description

Social brain hypothesis

The hypothesis that the human brain has evolved, so that humans can maintain larger ingroupssocial networks: networks of social relationships among individuals through which information can travel

Syntax

Rules by which words are strung together to form sentences

Grammar

Set of rules that are used to convey meaning through the use of a lexicon

Language

Communication system that involves using words to transmit information from one individual to another

Lexicon

The words of a given language