PSYC 3400 Exam 1 Study Guide Clemson Grandits

What is development?

the act or process of change overtime

what is lifespan developmental psychology?

Study of the change over time of the body and mind

What is another term for a researcher who studies the human lifespan?

developmentalist

What skills are needed to be a developmentalist

Planning skills

logical thinking

critical thinking

statistical skills

writing skills

What is chronological age?

Actual age

What is mental age?

Age based on the function of your brain

What is biological age?

Age based on body's function and health

How can change over time be considered a continuous process?

If the subject is growing and developing overtime in the same state, baby to adult; growth of size visibly

ex: tree growth

How can change over time be considered a discontinuous process?

If the subject changes and develops in different satges; infant-toddler-child-preteeen...

ex: caterpillar to butterfly

What is preformationism?

The view that in some sense an organism is prefromed from origination.

Development is mere growth and solidifying what the organism already formed.

What are the two approaches to preformationism?

Spermists: one who believed that the complete human was contained in the sperm

Ovists: one who believed that the complete human was contained in the ovum

What is epigenesis?

Aristotle rejected preformationism and favored epigenesis:

A process where larger entities, patterns, and regularities arise through interactions among smaller or simpler entities and that organisms themselves do not exhibit such properties.

Why do we study lifespan development?

Raising children

Understanding human nature

Choosing social policies

What does it mean to say lifespan development os multidisciplinary?

The fact that it pulls theories/ideas from a multitude of different subdivisions of psychology such as cognitive, biological, sociocultural, and clinical psychology.

What does it mean to say that lifespan development explores milestones?

Lifespan development explores the predictable milestones on our human journey

walking, puberty, menopause, etc

What does it mean to say that lifespan development examines normative life transitions?

looks at the expected action as life continues

such as graduating from school, getting married, having children, or retiring.

What does it mean to say that lifespan development examines non-normative life transitions?

looking at life events are those that occur unexpectedly,

such as natural disasters, loss of a family member and war.

What does it mean to say that lifespan development is multidirectional?

Refers to the fact that not all change is positive. In each stage of one's life, one can experience growth (improvement) or regression (decline).

What does it mean to say that lifespan development includes stability and plasticity?

looking at the ability to adapt (plasticity) and traits stay the same (stability)

What does it mean to say that lifespan development focuses on individual differences?

field of study recognizes and examines how people develop at varying rates and in unique ways throughout their lives

What does it mean to say that lifespan development is multidimensional?

it involves the dynamic interaction of factors like physical, emotional, and psychosocial development

nature/nurture debate?

nature: traits your born with and inherit genetically from parents

nurture: traits and development affected by environmental factors, things after conception

Debate: asks how much not which one (answer = combo w context too)

context: family beliefs communities etc

How does Plato's allegory of the cave relate to the nature/nurture debate?

Suggest our perceptions of reality (shadows on a cave wall) are determined by nurture (our environment) while our ability to discover whats outside the cave is within us (nurture)

Provide examples of ways in which context influences development.

peer relationships and interactions, young children learn and reinforce notions of reciprocal interactions. For example, young children learn how to share, take turns, and give and receive from interactions with other young children.

What are some of the contexts of development?

Cohort

Socioeconomics

Culture and Ethnicity

Gender

What is Cohort

The age group with whom we travel life together

Why boomers and Gen Z have different approaches to things

What are history-graded influences?

significant events or societal trends that occur within a specific historical period, impacting the development and experiences of a generation of people born around that time

ex: covid

What is SES and how can it shape development?

Socioeconomic status

access to education and money can affect development

How can culture/ethnicity shape development?

Attitude ideas and traditions shared by a large group of people and transmitted from one gen to the next

America = freedom and entrepreneurship while other, Asia= grades and self worth defined

Be able to provide examples of differences in child rearing across cultures.

differences in emphasis on independence vs interdependence, sleep arrangements, discipline methods, feeding practices, and the age at which children are given responsibilities

How can gender shape development?

Identifying as either male or female

Females more depressed at puberty than males etc

What are two ways that lifespan developmental psychology is divided for studying?

developmental domains and life stages

What are the three domains of Lifespan Development that were discussed in class?

Physical - body size

Cognitive - intellectual abilities

Emotional & Social - emotional communication, self understanding

What are the steps of the scientific method (in order)?

Ask q, background info, hyp, test exp, is it working, analyze data, results, share

What is a variable?

attitudes or characteristics that vary from person to person

independent and dependent variables?

independent: the thing that causes the effect

dependent: thing that is being affected

What are differences between correlational and experimental research designs?

Correlation: explores relationship between to variables

Experimental: only type of experiment you can draw cause and affect from

What is random assignment?

assigning participants to experimental and control groups by chance

What is a control group?

The group that does not receive the experimental treatment in an experiment.

What are differences between longitudinal and cross-sectional research designs?

longitudinal: observes one group of individuals at serval time periods, large time comit and expensive, able to exam continuity

Cross Sectional: observes a group of different ages at 1 time. Time effective, less expensive but cant observe continuity

What are similarities between longitudinal and cross-sectional research designs?

both attempt to observe development over time

What is a major limitation of both longitudinal and cross-sectional research designs?

loss of participants over time throughout the study

What is a sequential research design?

Combination of longitudinal and cross sectional design

aims to identify cohort differences

Define and identify naturalistic observation.

Observing what happens naturally in a normal setting

ex: going to a playground and observing kids play

Define and identify structured observation.

Observing what occurs in an environment you've created

Define and identify unstructured interviews

interview with follow up questions based on participants response to previous question

Define and identify structured interviews.

interview in which interviewer has a predetermined set of questions

Define and identify case studies.

in depth examination of participants

Define and identify ethnographies.

studying people in their natural environment to understand their cultural and social systems

What are the limitations of self-report?

Have validity issues, subjects an exaggerate response or under report severity/ frequency in attempt to cater toward what is being asked

What are the limitations of expert observation?

validity issues as patient may not be exhibiting typical behavior during observation period

if patient knows they are being observed they might have social desirability take over

What are aspects of a good theory?

Should describe/ explain/ predict behavior

Be logically sound

Be empirically sound

Be testable

Be parsimonious - simple

Integrate previous research

Guide for further research

What does it mean to stay that a good theory is logically sound?

if it is both valid, and all of its premises are actually true.

What does it mean to say that a good theory is empirically sound?

capable of being verified or disproved by observation or experiment.

What does it mean to say that a good theory is testable?

able to be tested

What does it mean to say that a good theory is parsimonious?

it is the simplest explanation possible, using the fewest assumptions

Be able to identify three general behaviorists.

Ivan Pavlov

BF Skinner

John Watson

Which theorist discussed in class was an evolutionary theorist?

Konrad Lorenz

Which social learning theorists were discussed in class?

Albert Bandura

Andrew Meltzoff

Lev Vygotsky

What is classical conditioning?

The learning processes by which a meaningful stimulus is connected with a neutral stimulus that had no special meaning before conditioning

if you didn't know a lion was bad if it was out of cage you wouldn't be scared but due to reppetitive natural stimuli you learn to be scared.

What is an unconditioned stimulus?

a stimulus that automatically triggers a response without any prior learning or conditioning

what is an unconditioned response?

a natural, automatic reaction to a stimulus that occurs without prior learning or conditioning

What is a conditioned stimulus?

a neutral stimulus that, after being paired with a biologically relevant stimulus, can trigger a response

What is a conditioned response?

a learned reaction to a stimulus that was previously neutral

What is operant conditioning?

The learning process by which a particular action is followed by something desired or by something unwanted in order to promote or prevent an action

What is reinforcement (in operant conditioning)?

increasing behavior by following it with

something desired

What is punishment (in operant conditioning)?

decrease behavior by adding something unwanted

positive reinforcement

Add pos stim when behavior is correct

treat when dog sits

negative reinforcement

removing stimuli following correct behavior

when you wake up you turn alarm clock off

positive punishment

add noxious stimuli following behavior

spanking child for cursing

negative punishment.

removing pos stim following behavior

phone taken away after fighting with sibling

What is evolutionary theory?

Stresses that behavior is strongly influenced by biology, is tied to

evolution, and is characterized by critical or sensitive periods.

What researcher in class was associated with evolutionary theory?

Konrad Lorenz

How does evolutionary theory explain behavior?

Suggest that most of human behavior is the result of evolutionary adaptions over time

How can imprinting tell us about critical or sensitive periods?

imprinting is the exposure to an object during a specific period that is ireiversable.

Duck will follow first moving thing when it sees when hatches

What is behavioral genetics and how is it different from evolutionary developmental

psychology?

Research strategies devoted

to examining the genetic

contribution to the

differences we see between

What are three types of heritability studies that were discussed in class?

Adoptive studies: looks at behavior in relation to genetic and adoptive parents

Twin studies: study mono and zygotic twin differences to understand genetic and behavioral differences

Adoptive twin studies: twins adoptive by different sets of parents and all 3 compared to children's development

Which type of heritability study is considered the gold standard?

Twin studies

What are limitations of heritability studies?

They apply only to pops not individuals

They apply only to a particular group living in a particular time

They underestimate the role of the environment

Higher heritability does not imply immutability

What is social learning theory?

Observing behavior when an individual observes and

replicates another's behavior.

What is imitation and how is it related to social learning theory?

imitation is the action of replication demonstrated behavior, learning by doing

What are mirror neurons and how are they related to imitation?

A neuron that fires both when an animal acts and when the animal

observes the same action performed by another

when you see someone smile you smile associating that feeling with the cation of smiling

What were Freud's three components of personality?

id: instinctual part of the mind (want now)

ego: realistic part (lets figure this out together)

super ego: moral conscious (good people don't think those things)

What is psychic energy?

The driving force behind all mental activity, originating from the "id" part of the mind

Freud's psychosexual stages.

0-1 Oral: focus is mouth, breastfeeding

1-3 Anal: focus is anus, toilet training

3-6 Phallic: focus is genitals, stimulation

6-11: Latency: focus in convention activities ex academics

Adolescence + Genital: focus on genitals again, seeking sexual stim

What is the Oedipus Complex and which of Freud's stages is it related to?

The unconscious attachment of the child to the parent of the opposite sex, accompanied by envious and aggressive feelings toward the parent of the same sex

How is the Oedipus Complex related to infant amnesia?

The aggression felt towards the same sex parent is so scaring that we block out/ forget that time of life.

Erikson's psychosocial stages.

Piaget's Cognitive stages.

What is the Zone of Proximal Development?

the space between what a learner can do without assistance and what a learner can do with guidance

What is scaffolding?

how a more knowledgeable person helps a child learn within their zone of proximal development

knowledgeable person = temporary support aka scaffolding

How are thought and language related over time for Vygotsky?

though that they were initially separate systems but then they merge around 3

Be able to identify, characterize, and order each of Kohlberg's major Stages of Moral Judgment

Be able to characterize Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model.

a person has many layers of context

Microsystem - direct relationships

exosystem -indirect relationships (school system, parental job loss)

macrosystem - social and cultural ideology (laws, religion)

Chronosystem - changes over time

Mesosystem- interactions between the microsystem or different systems

characterize and identify dynamic-systems theory.

a view of human development as an ongoing ever changing interaction bw the physical and emotional being and bw the person and every aspect of their environment

how do ppl interact with other people and do so continuously over time

What is probabilistic epigenesis?

development is viewed as a constant, complex, fluid, emergent or nonlinear, and multi determined.

considers environment, behavior, neural and genetic activity

What does it mean to say that development is emergent and multidetermined?

affected by many factors and not linear

What is self-organization in dynamic-systems theory?

bringing together and integrating components as needed to adapt to a continuously changing environment

What is an attractor state in dynamic-systems theory?

unique sets of components we feel comfortable with and lean towards

What is soft assembly in dynamic-systems theory?

using what we have in the moment to adapt