GRE Psych - Developmental

Critical period

A specific time during development when certain skills or abilities are most easily acquired.

In the context of moral development, Lawrence Kohlberg's theory is primarily focused on…

The reasoning process behind moral decision-making.

According to Carol Gilligan, traditional theories of moral development…

Overemphasize the role of justice and underemphasize the role of care and responsibility.

Telegraphic speech

Early two-word utterances that convey meaning with content words (e.g. want cookie).

Piaget’s stages

Sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational

Harlow’s monkeys

Studies showing infant monkeys preferred a cloth ‘comfort’ mother over a wire one with food.

Conservation

Understanding that quantity stays the same despite changes in shape; mastered in the concrete operational stage.

Attachment

The enduring emotional bond between a child and caregiver.

Identity vs. role confusion

Erikson’s fifth psychosocial stage (12-18 years): adolescent explore identity and forming a stable sense of self.

Assimilation

Fitting new information into existing mental schemas.

Object permanence

Understanding that objects exist when out of sight; develops in the sensorimotor stage.

Preconventional morality

Kohlberg’s earliest level; judging right and wrong by rewards and punishments.

Preoperational stage

Piaget’s second stage (2-7): symbolic thought and language, but egocentric and lacking conservation.

Egocentrism

The preoperational child’s difficulty taking another person’s point of view.

Sensorimotor stage

Piaget’s first stage (birth-2): learning through senses and movement, object permanence emerges.

Kohlberg’s stages of moral development

Preconventional, conventional, and postconventional levels of moral reasoning.

Adolescent egocentrism

Heightened self-focus in adolescence (the imaginary audience and personal fable).

Habituation

A decrease in response to a stimulus after repeated presentation.

Concrete operational stage

Piaget’s third stage (7-11): logical thought about concrete events, conservation and reversibility.

Accommodation

Changing existing schemas to incorporate new information.

Secure attachment

An attachment style in which the child uses the caregiver as a safe base and is comforted on reunion.

Zone of proximal development

Vygotsky’s gap between what a learner can do alone and with guidance.

Erikson’s psychosocial stages

Eight lifespan stages, each with a crisis that must be dealt with.

Strange Situation

Ainsworth’s procedure classifying infant attachment as secure, avoidant, or anxious ambivalent.

Schema

A mental framework that organizes and interprets information.

Formal operational stage

Piaget’s fourth stage (11+): abstract and hypothetical reasoning.

Identity foreclosure

Committing to an identity, often a parents’, without exploring alternatives.

Temperament

A child’s biologically based, early-appearing style of emotional reactivity.

Scaffolding

Temporary guidance from a more knowledgeable other that is withdrawn as the learner improves.

Theory of mind

The understanding that others have beliefs and intentions different from one’s own.

Postconventional morality

Kohlberg’s highest level: reasoning from abstract ethical principles.

Authoritative parenting

Pairs high responsiveness with firm, reasonable demands; linked to high self-esteem, social competence, and academic success.

Authoritarian parenting

High control but low warmth.

Permissive parenting

High warmth but low control.

Uninvolved/neglectful parenting

Low warmth and low control.

Avoidant attachment

Develops when caregivers reliably rebuff or ignore the infant's bids for comfort, so the infant learns to minimize attachment behavior.

Resistant attachment

Produced from inconsistent, unpredictably responsive caregiving.

How is secure attachment formed?

From consistently sensitive and responsive caregiving.

Disorganized attachment

Formed from frightening caregiving.

Conventional morality

Moral reasoning that emphasizes social rules and approval.

Trust vs. mistrust

Erikson’s first psychosocial stage (0-1 y.o.): responsive, dependable caregiving leads the infant to develop basic trust in the world.

Autonomy vs. shame and doubt

Erikson’s second psychosocial stage (1-3 years): toddlers develop a sense of personal control and independence.

Initiative vs. guilt

Erikson’s third psychosocial stage (3-6 years): children assert control through directing play and social interactions.

Industry vs. inferiority

Erikson’s fourth psychosocial stage (6-12 years): children develop a sense of pride in accomplishments and abilities.

Intimacy vs. isolation

Erikson’s sixth psychosocial stage (18-40 years): young adults form intimate, loving relationships with others.

Generativity vs. stagnation

Erikson’s seventh psychosocial stage (40-65 years): adults create or nurture things that will outlast them, contributing to society.

Ego death vs. despair

Erikson’s eighth psychosocial stage (65-death): seniors reflect on life and either feel a sense of fulfillment or regret.

Microsystem

The immediate environment in which a person lives and interacts.

Mesosystem

Connections between microsystems, e.g. parent-teacher conferences.

Exosystem

Indirect influences one doesn’t directly experience.

Macrosystem

Broader cultural context shaping all systems.

Moratorium

When a person is actively exploring but has not yet committed to an identity.

Identity diffusion

People who have not explored identity, are uncommitted, and are easily swayed by others.

Identity achievement

When a person has both explored their options and made a decision, which means they have constructed their own identity.

What are the five Kubler-Ross stages of grief?

Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

What are some limitations of the Kubler-Ross stages of grief?

Assumes grief is a linear process; grief is deeply personal; and shaped by sociocultural processes.

What did Marcia contribute to developmental psychology?

The four identity statuses

What did Bronfenbrenner contribute to developmental psychology?

Ecological systems model

What did Piaget contribute to developmental psychology?

The four cognitive stages.

Cephalocaudal development

Development that proceeds from bottom to top.

Proximodistal development

Development in young children that starts from the torso and emanates outwardly to the extremities.

Behavioral genetics

Studies how individual differences arise, in the present, through the interaction of genes and the environment.

Nature vs. nurture debate

The extent to which heredity and the environment each influence behavior.

Normative development

The typical sequence of developmental changes for a group of people.

Cohort effect

When there are differences in the experiences of each age group as a result of growing up in different historical times.

Maturation

The biological and genetic processes of growth and development that occur naturally over time, independent of environmental influences.

What six reflexes is the neonate equipped with?

Sucking, palmar (grabbing finger), Babinski (splaying the toes when the bottom of the foot is stroked), head-turning, Moro (hugging oneself when the head is suddenly moved), and orienting reflexes.

How do psychologists test theory of mind?

False-belief task

Internalization

The absorption of knowledge into the self from environmental and social contexts.

John Bowlby is considered to be the father of what theory?

Attachment theory

Social referencing

Observing the behavior of others in social situations to obtain information or guidance.

What is the most common attachment style?

Secure attachment

Anxious/ambivalent attachment in Strange Situation

Often show signs of distress when parents leave the room, but resist or refuse comforting from them when they return.

What are the six stages of motivators of Kohlberg’s moral schema?

Obedience and punishment, self-interest, conformity and seeking social approval, social order, social contract, universal principles.

Heinz dilemma

Man’s wife is dying and needs a drug, but pharmacist is selling it for 10x what it’s worth.

What is the difference between stage one and stage two of Kohlberg’s stages of preconventional morality?

In stage one, children make judgments motivated by fear, whereas in stage two they make judgments by evaluating benefits and reciprocity.

Gender schematic processing theory

Proposes that once children label themselves with a gender, they begin to pay more attention to that gender’s behaviors.

Tabula rasa

States that all development is the direct result of learning; the organism develops more complex behaviors and cognition because it acquires more associations.

What did John B. Watson emphasize in shaping a child’s behavior?

The role of environment, especially parents in creating well-formed children.

Arnold Gesell’s theory of development

Proposes that child development is guided by biological maturation: it unfolds in a predictable sequence of stages, though the rate of progression differs for each child.

______ twins share fifty percent of the same genetic material, just like non-twin siblings.

Dizygotic (fraternal)

Name and describe two s** chromosome abnormalities.

1. Klinefelter’s Syndrome (XXY in males - infertility and abnormal body proportions)

2. Turner’s Syndrome (X in females - lack of secondary sex characteristics and oddly-shaped physical appearance)

Germinal stage

When the zygote begins to divide and is eventually implanted in the uterine wall; about two weeks.

Embryonic stage

The embryo increases in size rapidly, it begins to develop fingers, toes, and genitals.

Fetal stage

The zygote experience rapid growth, movement, and sexual differentiation.

Language acquisition device

Chomsky’s idea that children had an internal ability to acquire language through a specific region of the brain.

Categorical perception

The ability that infants have to denote different kinds of sounds that either differentiate meaning or do not.

What are the three kinds of infant temperaments?

Easy, slow to warm up, and difficult.

What did Wolff discover by analyzing infant cry patterns?

There are three basic kinds of cries that an infant uses: pain, anger, and a basic cry (usually because of hunger).

At what age do most children begin to sit without support?

6-8 months

By what age do most children start walking independently?

12-15 months

Dishabituation

Recognition of a change or new stimulus.

How do researchers measure depth perception using the visual cliff?

By observing whether infants will crawl over a perceived drop-off.

What does an increase in looking time during a preferential-looking task suggest about an infant’s perception?

Recognition of a novel or more complex stimulus.

What are Freud’s psychosexual stages in order?

Oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital.

Which emotional regulation strategy involves suppressing emotional expression?

Expressive suppression.

What strategy involves altering one’s thoughts to change emotional impact?

Cognitive reappraisal

What are the three components of Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence?

Analytical, creative, and practical intelligence.