PSYC 2201 Final Exam Study Guide - Flashcards

Cumulative Material

  • Operant Conditioning: Developed by Skinner. Learning through reinforcement.
    • Behaviors that are reinforced are repeated.
    • Extinction: Behaviors that are not reinforced stop.
    • Use age-appropriate conversation.
  • Reinforcement: Increases behavior.
    • Positive: Adding a consequence to increase behavior (e.g., giving food for cleaning).
    • Negative: Removing a consequence to increase behavior (e.g., removing chores for getting along).
  • Punishment: Decreases behavior.
    • Positive: Adding a consequence to decrease behavior (e.g., more yard work for misbehaving).
    • Negative: Removing a consequence to decrease behavior (e.g., taking away phone for breaking curfew).
  • Correlational Design: Examines natural relationships without intervention.
    • Correlation coefficient: Ranges from +1.00 to -1.00. Indicates strength & direction of association, but not cause and effect.
  • Experimental Design: Manipulates independent variable(s) to measure effects on the dependent variable.
    • Includes treatment group(s), control group, and random assignment.
    • Preferred method for cause & effect investigation.
    • Experiments test a hypothesis.

Motor Development

  • Head Control:
    • Neonates can move head to avoid suffocation.
    • Lift head at 1 month.
    • Lift chest at 2 months.
    • Support head when holding neonate; can hold it up between 3-6 months.
  • Hand Control:
    • 3 months: Clumsy swipes toward objects.
    • Ulnar grasp.
    • 4-6 months: Successful grasping, transferring objects between hands.
    • 9-12 months: Pincer grasp (can pick up tiny objects).
    • 15-24 months: Progression in stacking ability.
  • Locomotion:
    • 6 months: Rolls over, can sit if supported.
    • 7 months: Sits independently.
    • 8-9 months: Crawls/creeps, may walk with support.
    • 11 months: Pulls themselves up.
    • 12-15 months: Walks independently (as a toddler), falls easily due to being top-heavy.
    • 2 years: Climbs stairs one at a time, runs well, walks backward, kicks a ball.

Language Development

  • Begins with prelinguistic vocalizations.
    • 2 months: Vowel-like sounds (cooing).
    • Echolalia (10-12 months).
    • Intonation (end of 1st year).
    • First word spoken between 11-13 months (brief, consistent, or 2 syllables).

Attachment

  • Separation anxiety: Fussing, crying when caregiver contact is lost.
  • Ainsworth: Attachment quality depends on attention received.
  • Caregiver hypothesis

Development of Self-Concept

  • Emerges during infancy (18 months).
    • Rouge test: Recognition in mirror.
  • Preschool years (2-6 years): Sense of self continues to develop.
  • Categorical self: Describing self in terms of concrete external traits & groups (hair color).

Piaget’s 4 Stages of Cognitive Development

  1. Sensorimotor: 0-2 years
  2. Preoperational: 2-7 years
  3. Concrete operational: 7-12 years
  4. Formal operational: 11/12 years
  • Seriation: Arranging objects in a series (e.g., small to big).
  • Centration: Focusing on only one aspect of a situation/object.

Baumrind’s Parenting Styles

  1. Authoritative: Controlling but flexible, reasonable demands, provides explanations.
    • Parent: Accepting, responsive, rational + democratic control.
    • Child: Cheerful, responsible, self-reliant, cooperative.
  2. Authoritarian: Very restrictive, expects obedience, rarely explains rules.
    • Parent: Punitive, insensitive.
    • Child: Hostile/defiant (boys), low independence (girls), anxious, irritable.
  3. Permissive-Indulgent: Accepting but lax, few demands, permits free expression.
    • Parent: Does not closely monitor child’s activities, rarely exerts firm control over behavior.
    • Child: Less competent in school, more misconduct/substance abuse, high social competence/self-confidence.
  4. Rejecting-Neglecting: Extremely lax & undemanding.
    • Parent: Low in responsiveness & support.
    • Child: Least competent, responsible, mature.

Primary and Secondary Sex Characteristics in Adolescence

  • Primary: Involved in reproduction.
    • Female: Ovaries, vagina, uterus, fallopian tubes.
    • Male: Penis, testes, prostate gland, seminal vesicles.
  • Secondary: Not directly involved in reproduction.
    • Breast development, voice deepening, facial/pubic/underarm hair.

Marcia’s Identity Statuses

  • Four statuses based on exploration and commitment:
    • Diffusion: No exploration, no commitment
    • Foreclosure: No exploration, yes commitment
    • Moratorium: Yes exploration, no commitment
    • Achievement: Yes exploration, yes commitment

Chapter 13: Early Adulthood (20-40 years)

  • Physical and Sensory Changes:
    • Peaks in 20s-30s, then declines.
    • Hearing declines in late 20s/early 30s.
    • Women's fertility: After 35, increased risk of chromosomal abnormalities, reduced egg quality. Checked for Down syndrome. Number of eggs are reduced & quality isn’t good
    • Men's fertility: May decline after 40.
    • Leading causes of death: Accidents, suicide, homicide.
  • Crystallized and Fluid Intelligence
    • Crystallized intelligence increases with age.
    • Memory shows decline with age
    • Retain verbal skills and may improve vocabulary & general knowledge.
    • Fluid intelligence more likely to decrease with age.
  • Perry’s Theory of Epistemic Cognition:
    • Views on knowledge become more complex in college.
    • Epistemic cognition: Ideas about how beliefs are formed.
    • Dualistic thinking: Right vs. wrong, good vs. evil.
    • Relativistic thinking: Deeper, more nuanced thinking.
  • Super’s Stages of Career Development
    • Fantasy Stage: Up to age 11, unrealistic views.
    • Tentative Choice Stage: Ages 11-17, self-assessment and exploration.
    • Realistic Choice Stage: After 17, weighs job requirements vs. interests.
    • Maintenance Stage: In later 30s, career development and advancement.
    • Possible job hopping due to factors like corporate downsizing, mergers, and acquisitions
    • Return to school for different training. May occur out of necessity as well as interest.
    • Retirement Stage: Severs bonds with workplace, may start second/third careers.

Chapter 14: Erikson’s Intimacy vs. Isolation

  • Establishment of intimate relationships as key “crisis”. Young adults with firm identity seek to fuse relationships into marriage or abiding friendships
  • Commitment to others is difficult without ego identity. Erickson believed it difficult to commit to others until ego identity is achieved
  • It was normal to develop intimate relationships and bear children within a generally stable & nurturing environment
  • Attraction
    • Psychological forces drawing people together.
    • Elliot & Niesta (2008): Red enhances attractiveness.
    • May have biological roots (signals good health/fertility).
  • Attraction-Similarity Hypothesis
    • People form relationships with similar individuals.
    • Opposites DO NOT attract
  • Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love
    • Three components: Intimacy, Passion, Commitment.
    • Couples matched by levels of these components.
    • Combinations represent different types of love (e.g., romantic love = intimacy + passion).
  • Marriage, Parenthood, and Divorce
    • Many marry believing they'll be happier, but research doesn't confirm (males seem to be happier than females).
    • Parenthood delayed until late 20s.
    • Motivations: Personal happiness, strengthening marital bonds, social security, family lineage, assistance with labore, care for one in old age, secure property rights and inheritance
    • Divorce rates: 40%-50% in the U.S.
    • Tends to affect women more than men.
      • Women’s household income drops by 24%.
      • Men’s household income drops by 6%.
    • Benefits of divorce
      • May permit personal growth and renewal
      • Opportunity for a new, more rewarding life.
  • Dual-earner families: Both parents working.

Chapter 15: Middle Adulthood (40-60/65 years)

  • Physical and Sensory Changes
    • Interindividual variability: Varying rates of aging.
    • Exercise & diet can moderate changes.
    • Gray hair: Decreased melanin.
    • Hair loss accelerates in men.
    • Sensory functioning → presbyopia: vision decline.
    • Reaction time increases due to nervous system changes.
    • Lung capacity may decline by half between early & late adulthood
  • Cancer and Heart Disease
    • Leading causes of death: Heart disease, cancer, accidents..
    • Disease as a cause of death > than it was in previous developmental stages
    • Screening necessary for prostate, breast, colon, and rectal cancer.
    • Cancer can be controlled or cured if caught early
    • Influenced by biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors.
      • Biological → family history, physiological conditions (obesity)
      • Psychological (personality & behavior) Patterns of consumption: smoking, drinking alcohol (especially in women), eating animal fat, prolonged stress may increase vulnerability by depressing activity of the immune system
      • Sociocultural: socioeconomic status - Access to health care, timing of diagnosis & treatment, higher death rates are found in nations w/ higher rates of fate intake
  • Heart Disease
    • Insufficient blood flow to the heart.
    • Most commonly results from arteriosclerosis (impairs circulation & increase risk of blood clot)
    • Most common form is atherosclerosis
  • Sexuality in Middle Adulthood
    • Rich sex lives possible.
    • Gradual decline in sex frequency.
    • Women: Lack of sexual desire, difficulty arousing.
    • Men: Erectile dysfunction.
    • Women: middle adulthood marked by changes in reproductive capacity climacteric: transition from reproductive to NON-reproductive perimenopause: fluctuation hormone levels & irregular menstrual cycles - menopause: decline in reproductive hormones
    • Changes increase with age.
    • Men: Decline in testosterone & fertility is very gradual process.
  • Changes in Intellectual Abilities
    • Multidirectionality: able to move, function, or operate in more than 1 direction
    • Interindividual variability: the differences that exist between individuals in a population concerning 1 or more characteristics, behaviors, or traits
    • Plasticity: the quality of being easily shaped or molded
  • Crystallized and Fluid Intelligence
    • Crystallized intelligence: Improves in middle adulthood, depends on accumulated information and experience awareness of social conventions capacity to make good decisions & judgements
    • Fluid intelligence: Declines in middle adulthood. skills/speed at processing & analyzing information - Ability to comprehend relationships in visual stimuli

Chapter 16: Erikson’s Generativity vs. Stagnation

  • Major psychological challenge of middle years
  • Generativity: Ability to generate or produce; based on instinctual drive toward bearing & rearing children
  • Stagnation: Rejection of generativity drive life stripped of meaning & purpose
  • Life-Events Approach
    • Focuses on challenges rather than stages.
    • Stressful events: Death of loved ones, health changes, caring for parents, appearance concerns, employment changes, relationship issues.
    • Another event is children moving out.
      • Empty nest syndrome.
      • Many take advantage of their new time & spend more time in the workplace or find life satisfaction on other activities beside childbearing & homemaking
  • Social Support
    • Minimizes stress effects.
  • Grandparenting
    • Recreational & educational activities with grandchildren.
    • More involvement with maternal grandparents.
    • Less influence if living with grandchildren.
    • Custodial grandparents face lifestyle and emotional challenges.
    • Benefits for single-parent & 2-parent families when grandmother are involved
    • # of grandparents raising grandchildren increases Skip-generation parent: is done w/o parent present
  • Sandwich Generation
    • Caring for elderly parents and children.

Chapter 17: Late Adulthood (60/65 years - death)

  • Longevity, Life Expectancy, and Ageism
    • Longevity: Maximum lifespan (115 years).
    • Life Expectancy: Average expected lifespan (77 for men, 82 for women).
    • Factors: Men's habits, healthcare utilization.
    • Physical and Cognitive decline Aging involves adjustment to physical & cognitive function as well as to social factors
    • Ageism: Prejudice against the elderly.
  • Physical and Sensory Changes
    • Vision: Presbyopia, cataracts, glaucoma.
    • Hearing: Presbycusis (affects 1 in 3 over 65), declines more quickly in men than women.
    • Taste & smell: decreases almost ninefold from youth to late adulthood
  • Osteoporosis
    • Bone density loss.
    • Increased fracture risk.
    • More common in women (smaller bones).
  • Sexuality in Late Adulthood
    • Normal part of aging.
    • Decline in daydreaming, drive, activity.
    • Satisfaction may remain.
  • Normal and Pathological Aging
    • Disease is NOT inevitable.
      • Normal aging: Natural physiological changes.
      • Pathological aging: decline in function; changes associated w/ age-related disease.
  • Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease
    • Dementia: Brain tissue damage (not aging).
    • Causes: Infections, alcoholism, strokes, tumors.
    • Alzheimer's disease (AD): Most common cause of dementia (6+ million Americans in 2023), 6th leading killer of those 65+.
    • Some forms of dementia may be reversible (those caused by tumors, treatable infections, & result from depression or substance abuse
    • AD is progressive & irreversible.

Chapter 18: Erikson’s Integrity vs. Despair

  • 8th and final stage of life.

  • Challenge: Maintaining life's meaning despite physical decline.

  • Ego integrity: Acceptance of lifespan.

  • Adjustment requires wisdom to let go Depression

  • About 10% of people aged 65+ suffer from depression

  • Sometimes this is a continuation of depression from earlier periods of life & sometimes a new development

  • Depression possibly connected to structural changes in brain Genetic predisposition to norepinephrine imbalances Loss of friends & loved ones

  • Researchers investigating links to physical disease & illness

  • Depression is a mental disorder that goes beyond sadness or bereavement

  • Loss of friends will cause profound sadness, but mentally healthy people bounce back w/in a year Depression goes undetected, untreated in older people

  • May be overlooked because symptoms masked by physical complaints (low energy, loss of appetite, insomnia) Healthcare providers tend to focus on older people’s physical health rather than mental health.

  • Untreated depression can lead to suicide (especially in men)

  • Elder Abuse

  • Elderly are sometimes abused or neglected, particularly in nursing homes World elder abuse is June 15th

  • Successful Aging

    • Maximizing experiences.
    • Absence of cognitive impairment & depression.
    • Absence of disabilities & chronic disease (arthritis, diabetes).
    • Seeking emotional fulfillment.
    • High cognitive functioning & high networking

Chapter 19: Kübler-Ross and 5 Stages of Dying

  1. Denial
  2. Anger
  3. Bargaining
  4. Depression
  5. Final acceptance
  • Support dying people to achieve acceptance.
  • Critics note limitations (limited to terminal illness diagnoses, approach may not be much use in helping us understand their reactions)
  • Hospice Care
    • Offers palliative care
    • Treats the person, not the disease.
    • Addresses medical, emotional, psychological, & spiritual needs of patient, family, and friends.
    • Emphasizes quality rather than length of life.
    • Considers the entire family to be the unit of care.
    • Bereavement counseling provided after death
    • Support is available to the patient & family 24/7
    • National Hospice and Palliative Care: about 67% of hospice patients die in their own home or relative’s home, nursing home, or residential facility
    • About 50% of deaths in the U.S. occur in hospitals
    • Supporting a Dying Person
  • Be there for the person don’t withhold touching, listening, talking, or sharing experiences
  • Give them opportunity to talk about death & grieve Don’t be afraid to talk about ongoing lives of mutual acquaintances
  • Be aware of their emotional state on any given day Don’t minimize their emotional pain or need to grieve by changing the subject/refusing to acknowledge it
  • Be sensitive to their feelings, offering consolation & support People w/ cognitive impairment may repeat certain thoughts many times Go with it or gently guide the conversation in another direction now & then They may repeatedly ask whether certain tasks have been taken care of (simple yes or no may do each time)
  • Coping and Helping Others Cope
  • Take care of yourself
  • Allow yourself to feel your loss Share your feelings w/ a trusted friend or counselor Don’t try to cover up/not address your feelings
  • Don’t reject offers of help from friends & family (tell them what you need)
  • Give yourself time to grieve
  • Join a bereavement support group Sharing experiences may help you cope better & work through grief)
  • Spend time w/ the bereaved person
  • Don’t feel that you need to have all the answers (sometimes there aren’t any)Don’t be afraid to talk about the deceased person, but don’t force talking about them either (follow the grieving person’s cues)
  • Keep in touch regularly (don’t assume that because you don’t get a call, the person doesn’t want to talk)
  • The bereavement person may be too depressed or lack the energy to reach out Offer to help w/ shopping, running errands, babysitting