Developmental Psychology Test 3
Divorce and remarriage in old age
11% of US adults over 65 were divorced and not remarried, seems to be increasing with this cohort being more likely to divorce, people who remarried later in life seemed to be more trusting and accepting of their partners and less concerned about sharing their feelings with partners, men were more satisfied than women in late life marriages, these marriages can help people keep certain benefits like social security, they do not need as much help from the community,
Personality
A characteristic pattern of mood, behavior, and thinking that you share all across situations We will focus on the trait perspective!
Adolescent Growth Spurt (puberty)
A rapid increase of height, weight, and muscle and bone growth that starts for girls between 9 1/2-14 1/2 whereas for boys 10 1/2-16 It ends by about 15 for girls and 17 for boys Sudden changes in body appearance can make teens feel self conscious
Emotional Intelligence (EI): Salovely and Mayer test, four parts, why it is done, what it predicts
Ability to understand and regulate emotions based on the type of situation they are in, use the mayer salvoes caruso emotional intelligence test to measure this to measure perceive, use, understand and manage emotions, asks questions that have people judge how certain people would feel in a situation, people who score high on these tests tend to have more positive interpersonal relations with others, those that don't tend to have higher drug usage and have bad relationships, determines effectiveness at job (when to do certain behaviors) and predicts salary
Adolescence and Delinquency: Genetic and neurological factors, two types of antisocial behaviors, long term prospects, preventing and treating delinquency
Antisocial behavior tends to run in families (40-50% of variation of genes that cause antisocial and 60-65% with aggressive behaviors), neurological deficits with portions of the brain that regulate reactions to stress may explain why kids become more antisocial two types: early onset type (11, chronic antisocial behaviors that lead to chronic juvenile delinquency) (Influenced by Broffenbrenner's microsystems such as parent child hostility, poor parenting and peer deviance, and macro systems such as neighborhoods, community structures) (never rewarded good behavior and was harsh with punishment or they get attention for bad behaviors) and late onset (happens after puberty, temporarily happens in response to adolescent growth with autonomy, parents rules, etc., do milder crimes) (happens with parents of children with normal backgrounds) Children who have antisocial tendencies tend to pick friends like this, authoritative parents can help give children certain standards so they are not influenced by these other people and if they know where their kids are, antisocial behaviors increase with parents with low SES or with neighborhoods that do not help create a certain environment Most people who commit acts of crime at a young age do not become adult criminals, delinquency peaks at 15 and declines after that, violent boys are more likely to have antisocial tendencies while girls and boys who show early prosocial or academic success, not good to have teens tried in adult court for these reasons Child intervention programs can help a lot with this by teaching kids certain behaviors and giving them structure and indirectly influencing the parents, These programs use Bronfenbrenner's mesosystem by affecting a child's interaction with their home, school or center, it also affects the exosyetm by creating supportive parent networks and linking parents Ex: Chicago child parent centers: disadvantaged children, had better educational and social outcomes and did less crime, they can influence how parents and neighborhoods teach children Camps with kids that have performed criminal acts are BAD and enforce their bad behaviors while behaviors that are monitored can help,
Body Image and Eating Disorders: What are some factors on why people get it?
Body image: How one believes they look Girls are more likely to develop eating disorders because of the increased fat they put on during puberty, often happens if girls go through puberty early, more girls diet than guys, parental and media tend to have a stronger influence than peers with eating disorders, bio also causes the disorder
Piaget's formal operation stage: Hypothetical deductive reasoning, what Piaget thought, Critiques
Children are able to think abstractly, no longer are limited to here and now thoughts, understand historical time and extraterrestrial space Hypothetical deductive reasoning: On the pendulum problem, they are able to develop and consider every possible hypothesis, they can test those out to see what is causing something else Preoperational thought: random methods of trying things out to see if they work, concrete the children they can see weight and length effect however he is not able to test each on individually He thinks that brain maturation and expanding environmental opportunities, schooling and culture lead to formal operations Critiques: Formal operations is learned and it is not necessary or valued in every culture, did not consider that the role of the situation where people from particular cultures may not recognie something as being important, did not take into account metacognition (child's awareness of their own thoughts)
Being alone in adolescence, Parent and Adolescent relations (individuation), parenting style and authority, parent monitoring and adolescent self disclosure, family structure, sibling relations, peers, friendships and romantic relationships
Children like to be alone during this stage to regain their thoughts, think about societal demands and evaluate emotions, this is why they are in their rooms, some cultures people don't do this (such as India where they have personal growth with families, japanese and Korean students who felt a lot of pressure just aimlessly watched tv if they had free time), black people tend to be more connected with family while white people weren't Most parent and adolescent relationships are stable, at the same time adolescents want to break away from parents and not be dependent and parents sometimes have a hard time accepting this and trying to guide their children too much, Individuation is adolescent struggles for autonomy or personal identity, A longitudinal study found that teens that were too autonomous did more behaviors that were unsupervised and problematic behaviors while teens with parents that were too invasive gave into negative peer pressure and did more risky behaviors, Parents need to give their children some attention but not too much Levels of family conflict and positive identification is highest at 13 and diminishes at 17, family conflict is most harmful on girls (good to have a lot of decision making have higher self esteem but depression rises with less positive identifications with parents), teen conflicts decrease in happier house holds Authoritative parents foster highest psychological growth, they help their children see what is wrong with their behaviors but not their psychological well being (let them have their own thoughts), parents that do this with withdrawal of love have their kids have worse development, kids have better self image if they parents are involved, encouraging of autonomous behaviors and provide structure with rules, permissive parents who have no rules have children with less self discipline, bad if parents overstep boundaries In a study done with 276 diverse communities, both adolescents and parents thought it was good to talk about behaviors that affected one's health and safety (such as drinking), then moral issues (lying), conventional issues (bad manners), and borderline issues (seeing a rate R movie) but both thought talking about the teens personal lives was not necessary to disclose, kids tell their parents more in a warm and supportive environment Adolescent boys and girls whose parents later divorce showed more behavioral and psychological problems before they broke up, kids with married parents tend to have less behavioral problems due to father involvement (biological or step), cohabitation can be more problematic than them just getting married for the child, when living with a single parent it is important that the mother is well educated, income is good and the quality of the home life is good, if not this could cause children to do more risky behaviors, good monitoring for family or neighborhoods can help while making sure that the teen has their own pathway too Siblings: they tend to not be as close until the younger sibling is about or has reached adolescents, they tend to immolate older sibling no matter what, same sex get more intimate in middle adolescents especially with girls but mixed they do not, siblings were more accepting of one another if they had good relations with they mother, a very controlling and domineering older sibling can cause the younger sister to do more risky sexual behaviors Peers: Before in middle childhood many relationships are very dyadic (one on one) but as they get into adolescence they become more clique (structured group of friends who do things together) and crowd (based on orientation) oriented, these die down as children progress in this stage of development, 12 or 13 is when peers start to have a profound influence, they found that adolescents are more likely to take risks when they are with peers but overall they are not likely to do anything too stupid, friendships become important for emotional support especially for girls, same sex friendships are common until mid adolescents when kids get interested in members of the opposite sex, good friendships foster higher adjustment which foster friendships (these people usually have high opinions of themselves and do well in school), people choose friends like them, romantic relationships can help people form their identities and people tend to talk to them than their other friends or parents, they don't get the true emotional needs from them until early adulthood
Steele's Stereotype Theory in relation to race, gender and IQ
Claude Steele did an experiment with students at Stanford where he took individuals of a different race and gave them the GRE, he told half of the group that the test was diagnostic of their IQ while he told the other group to just take the test, he found that whites and blacks did about the same when asked to take the test but when he told people that it predicted their IQ whites did better than they did on the non diagnostic section and blacks did significantly worse He found the same women and men did about the same in the non diagnostic condition but women did significant worse and men did significant better than they did in the non diagnostic condition on diagnostic condition These tests don't actually predict IQ but this shows that when people are told it does that societal stereotypes influence their performance, this is why it is good to praise kids for their efforts and not tell them they are smart
Valliant's study on Adaptive Defenses in old age: Coping and Mental Health
Coping is the adaptive thinking or behaviors that are aimed at reducing or relieving stress that arises from stressful and harmful conditions, he found that people are more positive in old age from adaptive defenses (altruism, humor, suppression (redirecting negative emotions into productive pursuits), these defenses change people's perceptions of reality they are powerless to change, helped with their subjective well being but they are done unconsciously or they are intuitive
Correlates of ADHD (6) and what is ADHD comorbid with?
Correlates of ADHD are low academic achievement (1/3 of kids drop out of high school), peer rejection, labelled as stubborn by teachers, lower vocational achievement (low SES), more likely to be injured due to more inclined to do risky behaviors, substance abuse is more likely Comorbid with learning disabilities and conduct disorder (they are overly aggressive) More likely to get injuries, have more criminal offenses, and get less than 12 years of school.
Rest et al 1999: Mean % moral reasoning and schooling
Found that when people enter junior highm most are at stage 4 development (60%) while 40% are at stages 2 and 3 and 20% are at stage 5 and 6, there are declines with stage 2, 3, 4 and as people get more schooling, most people that are in college have 5 and 6 stage moral reasoning (50%), Most poll science/philosophy majors have stage 5 and 6 moral reasoning (65%)
Group Comparisons: Goddard and IQ testing of immigrants, what the army did with these scores
Goddard posited that people should take IQ tests before they come into the united states, created the immigration restoration act in 1924 where people had to pass an IQ test before coming in because people in the United States did not want "morons" coming into the US, these tests did not make language accommodations so many people did not understand them The army tests: Said that certain ethnic groups that did not do well on the test showed their genetic inferiority therefore they should not be let into the United States
Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences: name 8 of them and people who fit the description
Linguistic: Maya Angelou Logical/mathematical: Einstein Spatial: Stephen Hawking Musical: Yoyo Ma Bodily-Kinesthetic: Peyton Manning Interpersonal: Dalai Lama Intrapersonal: Gandhi Naturalist: Jane Goodall
Adolescent deaths
Most apparent are those from a car accident, 2 out of 5 deaths, 16-19 years old are most likely to have this happen, if there are other people in the car they are more likely to get in a worse car accident Fire arm deaths are apparent too although they are starting to be less abundant because cops are taking away guns from people Suicide is the third, it went down but it is back up to 8%, teen girls are more likely to attempt but boys are more likely to succeed, boys tend to go with a more graphic way of doing it while girls hang themselves, native american boys have the highest and african american girls have the lowest, usually these people have a history of emotional illness
Colby et al (1983): Mean % of Moral Reasoning in the United States
Most people on average are in stage 4 then 3 then 5 at 36 Stage 1: 29% at age 10 declines until it disappears at age 19 Stage 2: 65% of children have it at age 11 and gradually declines till it is 1% at 36, huge steep decline in teen years Stage 3: 15% of 11 year olds have it then a huge increase to 45% have it by 13, 60% of kids have it between 19-22, declines a bit in late 20s to early 30s, remains stable at 40% for people 30-36 Stage 4: 1% of kids have it by 13, goes up until 50% have it by 25, goes up to 65% by age 36 Stage 5: See 1% at 19, goes up to 10% by 26 and remains stable
Adolescent Rebellion, Stanley Hall
Pattern of emotional turmoil that may cause conflict with families, alienation from society, reckless behavior and rejection of adult like behaviors Hall: Bodies and demands of adulthood cause children to go through emotional turmoil, Mead found that this does not happen in cultures where they have programs that help children into adulthood It seems to have vanished for the most part at least in middle class families as long as the children live in positive atmospheres, most kids share the same views as their parents, children have a harder time in adolescence due to puberty and other changes but even well adjusted children at a young age tend to live nice lives later, it is bad to expect that children will go through rough patch though because they may have a mental disorder
SES and Health in middle adulthood
People with low SES have poorer health, shorter life expectancies, and have poorer psychological health and less access to health care, these may be brought of by psychosocial matters: they live in negative environments and stressful environments, people with higher SES tend to feel like they have more control over their lives, choose healthier options and seek out medical help if they need it and have stronger social support, Low SES can improve with strong social relationships and strong religious upbringing, 63% of people had more decline in health between 51-61 with no health insurance compared to those with it African Americans due to poverty and low SES and hispanics tend to have worse health
Eating Disorders: Heidi Guenther
Promising dancer, she lost a ton of weight and felt a lot of pressure to because of her dancing, she collapsed and died at age 22 and she weighed only 93 pounds, anorexia is the most deadly eating disorder and 5% more people are getting it now
Frey and Detterman, Gow et al (studies on g)
Score on SAT and g levels are correlated (r-.86) but this is not the end all be all, also g seems to be stable over the lifetime (found this with longitudinal study following around 11-80 year olds)
Describe Kohlberg's 6 stages of moral development (name, description, and an example of each) and the major criticisms of his theory.
Six Stages Preconventional stage: Control is external, people need to obey the rules either to avoid punishment, out of self interest, or to be rewarded 1. Punishment-obdience: Usually seen in younger children up until the age of 10 or 11, these children believe that control is external, they believe that they must follow the rules (obey) in order to avoid punishment, they see any bad behavior as needing to be punished (ex: Since Heinz stole the drug, he should go to jail because he did a bad behavior) 2. Instrumental Hedonism: Usually seen with children between the ages of 11-13, these children can see why people do certain bad behaviors but they still believe that control is external, they begin to see that people have different view points besides their own and act out of self interest (Ex: I can see that Heinz stole the drug to help his wife but it is still wrong to steal the drug. I can see that the drug dealer was wrong too though for charging a high price. Both people are at fault and did the wrong thing and should be punished) Conventional: People have internalized the societal rules but they do not do certain actions based on their own morals 3. Good girl/boy: These children do certain behaviors in order to be seen as "good" to other people, they judge the actions of other people based how good they are, if they are good they shouldn't be punished (Ex: Heinz should not be punished for his behaviors of stealing because he was doing the right thing for his wife. The drug dealer was being unfair by charging such a hefty price.) 4. Law and Order: These people see that other people may act badly out of self interest but they believe that if people do things that are against the law that it is against the rule and goes against the social order that the society is trying to uphold (Ex: Since Heinz stole the drug he should be convicted of his crimes, although it was unfair of the druggist to charge so much it isn't right either for people to steal things whenever it is most convenient for them because this does not keep order in the society) Post Conventional: People have internalized certain societal rules but they act based on their own morals 5. Social Contract: People realize that certain situations do not necessarily have a right or wrong answer, they believe it is best to follow the law but they realize that certain laws may be unjust in certain situations, they base many of their arguments based on what would be best for society with making choices (Ex: Heinz broke the law but he did not cause any harm to any people therefore he should be punished but people must realize that the law was unjust in this case because they benefitted the druggist greediness. This is something problematic with our society that we have certain rules in place that deny people of human rights 6. Universal Ethical Principle: These people make choices based on their own morals even if they break the law, these people realize that if they do not follow their own beliefs that later they will feel badly about it (Ex: Heinz should accept his punishment but he should be proud that he followed his own morals and stole the drug to save his wife) Criticism: Gender bias (more women are in stage 3 on average while men are in 4.5-5, Kohlberg suggests women are inferior of higher morals but Carol Gilligan suggest that women use more of a care argument when looking at moral issues while men use a more justice argument, Kohlberg's theory accommodates to justice not care, also he fails to take prosocial behaviors, empathy, guilt and distress into account which women do more often on average then men) Cultural Bias: People in other cultures on average cannot move past stage 4, suggests that these moral development stages are based on the promotion of individualism in Western countries while eastern countries promote more collective mindsets and moral reasoning therefore people in other cultures don't have inferior morals they are just different Kohlberg;s sample was bias and he only used boys.. no girls.
Conclusions about Kohlberg's theory of moral development
Stages seem to be invariant BUT not universal Ones methods influences their conclusion: since Kohlberg used clinical interviews and only looked at boys his sample and data was bias Several factors influence moral development: Depends on situation, people who have higher empathy and prosocial behaviors tend to have higher moral development, not based on cognitive growth but it can predict it, peers, family, education
Marcia's Identity Status theory, 4 types, gender influences, racial influences (Cultural socialization)
States of ego (self) development, developed these four identity statuses based on absence or presence of crisis (exploration) or commitment, Based on vocation, religious/political views, and sexual orientation, change over their lifetime, people in identity foreclosure often do not completely commit 4 types: Identity Achieved: Person has explored other identity alternatives and has committed to one ideal self, parents are very supportive of self exploration, these people have high egos, self esteem, moral reasoning, performance under stress, and intimacy Identity Moratorium: Person who has not committed to an identity but has explored identity alternatives, struggle with parental authority, very anxious and fearful of success, high levels of ego, self esteem, and moral reasoning Identity Foreclosure: Person has not explored any new identity alternatives but has committed to a role, parents are overly involved in their child's lives, low levels of anxiety but very dependent on other people, obedient to authority, thinks stereotypically Identity Diffusion: Has not explored any identity alternatives nor has committed themselves sot anything, parents are very laid back or they abuse the child or are not there, low levels of ego development, ego reasoning, cognitive complexity, and poor cooperative abilities Gender Influences: This theory does not take Carol Gilligan's theory into account with saying women develop based on the intimacy they have, Marcia argues that both men and women struggle with independence and connectedness in adolescents, women tend to have lower self esteem during adolescence Racial influences: Many children with race at adolescence are in moratorium or foreclosure, people who were achieved with racial identity often saw racial identity as a main part of their lives, parents who use cultural socialization to teach their children about what it means to be their race often have more positive identity growth
Information Processing in Adolescence: Structural changes (declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge, and conceptual knowledge) and Functional changes Language (social perspective taking)
Structural changes: Changes in working memory capacities and increasing the amount of long term knowledge, allows for children to think more complexly 3 types of long term memories Declarative knowledge: Factual knowledge Procedural: All the skills a person has acquired Conceptual: Knowing why certain things happen Functional Changes: Process of obtaining, handling and storing new information, children have better abilities to process new information and executive functioning (picking out information that is important to store) People develop better skills at being able to talk to people and to understand what to say to them based on how they think (social perspective taking)
Substance abuse and dependence in adolescents
Substance abuse is the harmful use of drugs while substance dependence is an addiction to a substance for the physiological, psychological affects it has on the person Nearly 50% (47%) of teens have tried illegal drugs, although drug usage has dropped it has gone up since 1991 The most popular illegal drug usage with teens is alcohol, marijuana and tobacco, many kids binge drink and this makes them more likely to do risky behaviors, also impairs memory and learning, marijuana has a lot of carcinogens and can damage the brain, heart, lungs, etc, tobacco use has gone down a lot with adolescence but still some people do it to look like they are tough Peer pressure to do these things seems to be the leading cause in doing it
What are the 3 core features, subtypes and prevalence of ADHD? Explain the terms you use in your answer. For each of the core features, describe an example behavior to illustrate the feature.
The three core features of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity disorder are inattention, impulsiveness, and hyperactivity. In order for people to be diagnosed with ADHD they have to show these symptoms for at least 6 months and parents and children have to complete a checklist to get the behavior figured out. The three subtypes of ADHD are predominantly inattentive (not paying attention in class, losing focus easily), predominantly hyperactive (not being able to sit still, running around the room, compulsively shouting out answers) and combined. Up to 11% prevalent but most statisticians believe 6% of people in the United States suffer from it compared to the UK where 1% of people have it. It is 2-9 times more common in boys and Indiana has up to 11% of children suffering from the disorder.
Name the two continua that Marcia based his identity theory on. Where on these continua does each of Marcia's identity statuses fall?
The two continua that Marcia based his identity theory on are level of commitment to an identity and level of exploration of identity alternatives. He categorized them into four identity statuses: Identity achievement, moratorium, foreclosure, and diffusion. Identity achievement have high levels of exploration and commitment, moratorium has high exploration and low commitment, foreclosure has low exploration and high commitment and diffusion has low of both.
The Bell Curve Book: What did they argue about IQ of races
They did studies where they found that whites had superior IQ on average compared to blacks (85) and hispanics (88), said that it could be a racial component and that IQ is heritable therefore racial minorities are genetically inferior (at the same time 75% of the variance in white middle class families and ignored other samples)
Horn and Cattell's theory of Fluid and Crystallized intelligence
They theorized that people have fluid intelligence (intelligence to solve new problems that are presented to them) and crystallized intelligence (use skills that they have developed throughout their lifetimes to help solve problems, such as math or verbal problems), they found that fluid intelligence peaks in young adulthood and gradually declines over the lifetime while crystallized intelligence improves in middle adulthood, Seattle longitudinal study found though that certain fluid reasoning did not decline till middle adulthood, such as inductive reasoning and spatial orientation, it is agreed that perceptual and working memory speeds do decline with age after young adulthood, At the same time much of the research done for Horn and Cattell's theory of intelligence was cross sectional and does not take cohort effects into account
Kohlberg (1969) Cultural Bias critique
Took results from turkey and yucatan mexico and saw that majority of people between the ages of 10-16 in Yucatan mexico had stage one moral development (goes from 75% to 35%) and for all the other stages at age 10 they are all below 20%, by 16 most people are either at stage one or 3 (both around 35%) then stage 2 (20%) In Turkey he found that most 10 year olds are in stage 1 (75%) and every other stage is less than 20%, by 16 most people (40%) are in stage one, then stage three (21%) and the rest are under 20% Shows inferior moral reasoning but this is not true
Gender and Health in middle adulthood
Women devote more time to helping with their own health and seek medical attention if need them, they have higher life expectancies than men, women are more likely to develop osteoporosis (bones become thin and brittle) than men due to menopause due to low BMI, fair skin and small frame, one in eight women develop breast cancer (1/2 are hereditary)
Are there gender differences in IQ? What are the protective forces against intellectual declines? Is adult intellectual decline irreversible? Can intelligence be predicted from infancy? Does attending college influence intellectual development?
men and women have the same average IQ (100) but men are more represented in the tails, certain proactive factors that help with intellectual decline are college education, lengthy marriage to a well educated spouse, financial security, physically active, high occupational status, retirement from a cognitively easy job, stimulating environments, intelligence is remediable as we age, there is a small effect size with IQ measures in infancy to current IQ, Attending college helps with IQ, methods to answer questions can drastically influence one's conclusions, Nature and nurture effect it!
Kohlberg;s Theory of Moral reasoning: why its here, Heinz Dilemma 6 stages of moral development Weaknesses
Moral Development: Taking another person's perspective to solve social issues, advances when children move out of egocentric thought and thinking abstractly, Kohlberg believed that since children had heightened cognitive abilities that they could have heightened moral reasoning skills Did an experiment where he posed Heinz's Dilemma (man stole medicine to help with his wifes cancer after he tried bargaining with the drug dealer for a better price that he reused to give) to 74 boys between the ages of 10-16, He looked at how at each stage of moral development did the boys look at justice, these stages are based not on the actual response but the reasoning for how they got to a certain response Preconventional Morality (4-10) people in this stage of moral development view that control is external and that they need to follow the rules out of self interest, keeping the peace or maintaining justice Punishment-obdience: View that breaking the rules at all is bad, they obey the rules to avoid punishment (Heinz should be punished because he stole) Individual Hedonism: They see why people break the rules out of their own self interest (people have different goals that they achieve out of self interest) (It was okay for Heinz to steal because he did not have enough money but he is still guilty because he stole, the druggist was acting out of self interest by charging a lot of money for the drug) Conventional: They have internalized the social rules but they do not question the rules Good boy/girl: These individuals realize that others view/judge the actions of others therefore they behave a certain way to appear good in the eyes of the community (Heinz was right to steal the drug for his wife because he was doing a good thing for her therefore he does not need to be punished) Law and Order: These people see why others broke the rules but they think justice ultimately needs to be served because laws are set for the common good of the people, Unlike stage one they realize that laws are here to uphold stability in society (Heinz should be punished for stealing.. although he did a good thing for his wife it would be wrong to encourage people to steal whenever necessary. The law was made to keep stability in the community) Post conventional Morality: People make judgements based off their own morals, they question the societal rules Social Contract: People define how society should be in their own terms by looking at human rights in relation to the law, They see flaws within the law and how they affect other people (It was okay for Heinz to take the drug, even though it was wrong in the eyes of the law, but even though the law says this is wrong the law was in favor for the rights of the druggist and it was not fair. He should not be punished for his wrong doing since it didn't affect the greater society) Universal Ethical Principle: These people realize that people do bad things in the eyes of the law but they make judgements about the situation based on their own moral values, they are willing to accept their punishment from the law and realize why the law is in place but they know if they do not make choices based off their own morals they will feel badly about it (It was okay for Heinz to steal the drug because he was doing the right thing for himself and by his wife, he should face the consequences of his actions but he realizes that he did the act out of a human right and what was necessary for him) Weakness: People who have high cognitive abilities do not necessarily have high moral development, cultural bias where people from certain countries may have less exposure to certain ways of thinking (China promotes that people have certain morals based on the good of the community (more on stage 5) than making their own moral but NOT all eastern countries are collective!), gender bias (says men have higher moral reasoning than women) but it may be due to the way women do moral reasoning with care, prosocial behavior and empathy, they are more concerned about responsibilities to certain people than justice or fairness (carol Gilligan) He did not consider parental influence (authoritative parents that use inductive reasoning with discipline Carol Gilligan: Saw that women use care more than justice with moral reasoning, changed argument that women display more prosocial behavior (helping others with their desires and needs and the right thing to do gets blurred) and this influences their moral reasoning, she did this because when they asked people of different ages about these they saw that most people reasoned similarly but age and the different situations had more of an influence
Erik Erikson: Ego integrity versus Despair (Late Adulthood crisis)
People have ego integrity when they have self integrity based on the achievements they have had in their lifetimes in order to accept their death, if they do not they feel a sense of despair over what they failed to do in the past, people need to develop wisdom where they accept the life they have lived without regrets or being ashamed, at the same time people need to mourn a bit of their losses but they need to keep engaging in activities that are vital for their growth still
4 Criticisms with Identity theories
Categories may not be the best way to measure identity and that continual identification may be a stronger way to measure it (via a graph) lack of longitudinal data (most of the studies are cross sectional) Ignoring larger culture and doesn't look at other observational factors Erikson theorized while Marcia did empirical research
Literacy in the world
Ability to use printed and written information to function in society, achieve goals and develop knowledge and potential, before if you had a fourth grade education you were considerate literate and now high school degrees are considered adequate, middle aged people tend to have lower literacy rates than young people but average literacy for those 50-59 has increased since 1992, people with lower literacy rates are less likely to be employed, 1 in 5 people around the world are illiterate and are mostly in Saharan Africa, and east and south asia, UN released reading programs for people that are federally funded, every state is supposed to have one in the US, can help people with problem solving, creativity and moral reasoning
Bulimia Nervosa: Prognosis and Treatment
Affects 1-2% international populations, Person goes on a short lived binge of eating food and then purges what they just ate, these episodes occur at least twice a week for more than three months, they are not overweight but they are obsessed with their weight and shapes, they have low self esteem and usually develop self contempt and depression More people are just binge eaters (3%) Treatment: Cognitive behavioral therapy, Group therapy afterwards, antidepressants can be combined if the person is feeling suicidal, 30-50% recover
List the major diagnosable criteria of Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa. What is it co morbid with
Anorexia Nervosa: (<85% expected body weight) refusal to maintain minimal normal weight (main ones), fear of weight gain, distorted body image, amennorhea (skipped periods) for 3 months or more 2 types: restricting: don't eat a certain amount of calories or binge eating/purging type: Get weight less than 85% expected weight, binge and purge Bulimia: Recurrent binge eating, recurrent compensatory behaviors (purging) (two main ones), self evaluation is overly influenced by body shape and weight People with depression are more likely to have bulimia or anorexia
Your roommate learns from a media report that "girls are more empathetic than boys". Use your knowledge of bell curves (we discussed this earlier in the course) to argue to your roommate that all girls are not more empathetic than boys. Provide a sophisticated argument that there can be significant differences between sexes, but there is variation around the mean (effect size). Be sure to draw bell curves in your answer to help explain the complexity of sex differences.
Bell curve: normal distribution where most of the scores fall close to the average (within one standard deviation away, 68% of the values), (when drawing the empathy levels of boys and girls there is a great deal of overlap, not much variation around the means which shows a small effect size (effect size is the degree to which two groups vary)), the means are close together and the standard deviations are not very large, if the means were further apart and the variation decreased between the means the effect size would be bigger
Adolescent Brain development: socioemotional network, cognitive control network, explanations for different emotional responses and impulsivity, frontal cortex development (bidirectional)
Brains of adolescents are not fully developed therefore people do not necessarily want to give them full legal responsibility for some of their behaviors Socioemotional: aware of social and emotional stimuli (more active during puberty) while cognitive control regulates how we respond to our environment (gradually matures) Teens process emotional information differently: (11-13 year olds use amygdala, which deals with emotions and instinctual responses while older adolescents use frontal lobe which handles reasoning, planning and emotional regulation Teens can be seen as more impulsive if they have delayed development in their frontal lobe Frontal Cortex: The decrease in gray matter in the brain helps the brain work more efficiently with strengthened and a smaller abundance of neural pathways, it is bidirectional because what adolescence choose to think about or how they handle situations determines how their brain maturates
Depression in adolescence
It is shown as irritability, boredom, and an inability to experience pleasure, people tend to get more depressed as puberty comes along, girls seem to have it more and it may be due to the way they are socialized, 9% of young people ages 12-17 have had a major depressive episode and 40% of them have been treated, people who drink earlier, smoke or have sex are more likely to get depression, body image and eating disorders can trigger depression, 1 out of 5 adolescence's that have a depressive episode are more likely to develop bipolar, ones who have substance dependence may need to be hospitalized, people who have depressive tendencies are more likely to develop it by the age of 25 Psychotherapy is effective for short term but SSRIS (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) are the only depression medication approved for adolescents and they may cause major side effects later
Puberty: Adrenarche, gonadarche, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), leptin, GPR54
Maturing of the adrenal glands Maturing of the sex organs DHEA is released which increasingly starting at the age of 7-8 that aids in the growth of hair in certain areas, body odor and oilier skin Leptin which is present in the bloodstream as a person gets heavier (happens earlier for obese children) stimulates the hypothalamus to signal pituitary gland which could signal sex organs to secrete hormones GPR54: gene on chromosome 19 that is essential for growth
Encapsulation and expertise
People show heightened abilities in solving problems within their given field (expertise) which is a form of crystallized knowledge, these are outside of general intelligence and of any information processing declines in the brain, fluid knowledge and information processing do not necessarily decline but they become dedicated to special kinds of knowledge (encapsulation), they see situations and interpret information from situations differently and quicker (automatic and intuitive) if they have done them a lot more (expert) than a non expert) NOT RELATED TO IQ Ex: People who were experts and had watched many horse races more predictions based on the winner based on more past experiences and complex thoughts than non expert horse race watchers Think of chess experiment from last year: Chess experts when put in a game can make decisions much
Behavioral genetics: Is personality inheritted?, what are the 3 major sources of variation that behavioral geneticists include to explain the origins of personality
Personality can be attributed to three factors: genes, shared environments (family atmosphere, siblings, etc.), and non shared environments (school, peers, etc.), Behavioral geneticists attribute personality exclusively to genes (do this with twin studies) All the big five personality traits are influenced by all three factors, it appears that shared experiences play the least import influence (maybe 10% for each), genetics play into about 40% of E, N and A 50% of C and 30% of O, non shared experiences played the BIGGEST influence (around 50% for all but N) They have found that cohort effects play a minimal role with personality
Influences on and effects of timing of puberty (secular trend)
Secular trend, which can be seen only by observing several generations, shows that people are going through puberty sooner due to increased height and weight that come with better health Genes, physical, emotional, and contextual influences can play a role, such as SES, illness, diet, environment MZ correlation is higher than DZ with age of first menarche which shows its genetic Girls that are closer to their parents seem to get their period later than girls who had cold parents Kids feel awkward if they go through sexual maturation way before or after other peers
What was Carol Gilligan's criticism of Kohlberg's theory?
She criticized Kohlberg's theory for not looking at how women moral reason with more of a care argument than a justice argument, At the same time Gilligan was not able to find many correlates with gender and moral reasoning instead she found that age and where the person grew up had more of an influence, she changed her argument to say that women may engage in more prosocial behavior and be more empathetic hence why they are more often seen in stage 3 of moral development compared to men who on average are at levels of 4.5, also men and women had different morals with situations depending on the situation
Your roommate approaches you and tells you that she thinks there is no such thing as general intelligence. You disagree and rebut with biological and social evidence indicating that g does, in fact, exist. Describe the answer you give to your friend. Include four pieces of biological evidence and 4 pieces of social evidence (predictive validity) for g.
Spearman posited that general intelligence (g) could be measured with one quantifiable number, he found this out by doing factor analysis (looking at several factors and seeing how they overlap, he said your answers on certain sections of the test should predict your scores on other areas) Four pieces of biological evidence: People with higher g have larger brain sizes (r=.4), they have more efficient brains (less blood glucose in brain), they respond to stimuli quicker (brain waves on EEG show this), and they have fast perceptual speeds Four social evidences: According to Gottfredson (1998) People with low g tend to have worse jobs, get divorced, are in poverty, imprisoned, high school drop out and/or unemployed compared to those with higher g
Schaie's Seattle Longitudinal Study
Shows that cognitively speaking people are in their prime in middle adulthood, longitudinal but measures successive cohorts, had people take tests that measured 6 primary mental abilities and every seven years the group was tested and a new cohort group was added (used people from 22-67), no uniform patterns of age related changes in cognitive abilities until age 60 with some but most e=people showed consistent cognitive abilities and some even improved with certain traits, individuals who scored highest with cognitive abilities had more schooling, had flexible personalities, intact families, cognitively stimulating jobs and married to someone that was cognitively advanced and were satisfied with accomplishments, crictisms: this study takes averages and certain people have genetic disorders where they have drastic declines in cognitive abilities while others do not and resemble the brains of young people
What were the three problematic conclusions that Kohlberg made about moral development. Why were they problematic?
1. There are six stages to moral development Problem: Many of the stages are very similar (punishment obedience and law and order) and exclusively based off a justice framework, does not consider care argument which is discussed by Carol Gilligan 2. These stages are invariant (go in order) Problem: We see that that elements of these stages are within each other and its unclear exactly when people develop certain morals 3. These stages are universal Problem: Cultural Bias where people in other cultures seem to not get past a certain stage of moral development (usually 4) and Kohlberg concludes that they are morally inferior but this isn't necessarily true they are just taught to deal with moral reasoning differently (Chinese are taught to follow group morals and not create their own morals like they would in stage 5 and 6)
Erik Erikson Identity vs. Identity Confusion
A stage in his theory where adolescents go through the crisis of identity vs. identity confusion, he said people could solve these issues by the choice of an occupation, the adoption of values and development of a satisfying sexual identity, he proposes that children need psychosocial moratorium where children explore their interests before adulthood sets in, once individuals have achieved their desired identity they develop fidelity, which is an identification with a certain set of values or feeling connected with a group of friends (shows their trust) Criticism: His theory states that males only develop through moratorium and they cannot have affectionate relationships until they fully develop and that girls develop identities after being with someone
School for adolescence Active engagement College
12.7 years of schooling attainment of information, people with high self efficacy, who believe that their achievements have been done by them and their handwork are more likely to do better at school, people with high SES tend to do better at school and also the number of books people have in their homes correlates with their IQ, girls seem to more have confidence in their academic doing, boys seem to do better with spatial reasoning problems than girls while girls do better on verbal tasks, boys brains seem to be more specialized to do things in a certain the of the brain while girls brains seem optimized for activity across the hemispheres, mat skills seem to correlate with high school abilities, Authoritative children's parents seem to foster children's academic growth because they help their children explains their successes and failures (didn't work hard enough or put in enough effort, no helplessness promotion), quality of school influences a child's growth, cultural aspects can control this too and for some children different parenting styles work Children of low SES are more likely to drop out because of the ways they have been raised and in school, if children feel that they are exhorting a lot of effort into school (active engagement) they are more likely to stay in school Children that are wanting to go to college: There are more women, gender typed behaviors still influence vocation of certain career aspirations, women are more likely to graduate, for people who are not bound for college there is no programs that help high schoolers with this transition, people with higher SES tend to balance out school and leisurely activities while low SES go straight into work force and feel lost
Teen Pregnancy
4 in 10 girls have been pregnant once before the age of 20, decrease in the amount of girls having babies although black and latina women seem to have more than whites, usually these people have bad relations with their fathers, 90 percent say they are an accident, teen pregnancy usually isn't good because the mother does not get the proper nutrition for the baby, the babies fathers often times are not there for the mother or for the child, facilities can help teen mothers, mothers are likely to drop out of school and have another baby, reasons why there are increases in the United States is that girls have more than one sexual partner and they do not use contraceptives while promoting a sexual lifestyle while Europe promotes programs to have safe sex and give out free contraceptives and abortions, its good to educate people who want to have sex that they are responsible for their choices and must deal with the consequences
Criteria of being a young adult, behavioral factors that influence wellbeing such as diet/nutrition, overweight/obesity, exercise, smoking, alcohol use Sleep! Indirect influences: SES, relationships
Accepting responsibility for oneself, making independent decisions, and becoming financially independent, diets that are heavy in cholesterol can affect one's well being and health, good to eat a diet that is mainly plant based, obesity/overweight is bad for your health and can make you feel more depressed (could be from large portions, cheap junk food, increase of sedintary activities), its good to have a healthier diet with less snacking and frequent exercising, average American is 24 lbs heavier than they were in 1960 and only 1 inch taller, inactivity kills about 10% of people so it is good to get as much physical activity as possible, exercise helps people live longer, lower blood pressure, decrease anxiety and depression, etc., smoking can cause lung cancer heart disease and stroke, people continue to do it because it is addicting, people can quit if they do counseling and nicotine patches etc., 70% of 21-25 drink and 48% of 21 year olds are binge drinkers (5 or more at a time), light to moderate consumption can help reduce fatal heart disease stroke and dimensia but heavy drinking causes cirrhosis to the liver, leads to more traffic accidents and HIV Sleep: Sleep deprivation can effect peoples cognitive, emotional and social functioning, also it causes 1 in 25 fatal car crashes, chronic sleep deprivation (less than 6 hours of sleep each night for three or more nights) causes worse cognitive skills, sleeping can help with complex motor skills and consolidates previous learning, naps help with eliminating burn out SES: People with higher SES tend to live longer and have healthier lives, Education and income do NOT mean that people are going to live longer than those without those resources but people with higher SES tend to have healthier habits such as working out and having access to better health care, at the same time african americans on average have less access to certain medical cares (problem with society) Relationships: People who are more integrated into social roles (social integration) are less likely to be anxious, depressed, susceptible to colds, and survive heart attacks, social support can help people with eating/sleeping the right amount and getting enough exercise (hence why marriage at a young age can really help with psychological well being especially for men), husbands tend to be overweight though
Describe the 3 major etiological contributions that lead to anorexia nervosa amongst people
Although perfectionism may be one influence, it is not sufficient to completely cause the disorder. Sociocultural influences, such as how beauty is perceived in the United States, may affect the way women view themselves and trigger certain anorexic or bulimic tendencies to arise. There have been genes indicated that may cause anorexia but they are not sure if it is the epigensis or regular production of them that cause the disorder. Also, some women with anorexia are more likely to release more serotonin in their blood stream but uptake it too quickly (this is said to cause the compulsion to not eat). Some psychosocial factors that influence the etiology of eating disorders are whether family compliments person based off their looks or self control, critical family environments and maternal invasion of privacy. Johnson et al found that daughters showed more eating disorders if the father and mother showed more than three maladaptive behaviors however the fathers maladaptive behaviors seem to be the biggest trigger. Certain individual factors may influence eating disorders, such as body image (the way people perceive their body). Fallon and Rozin made this apparent in their study when they averaged the scores of how women viewed themselves, how they wished they looked, what they thought men liked and what men actually liked. Perfectionism tends to predict eating disorders, according to Halmi et al but this does not mean the person will always have it if they
Imagine that one of your friends has been diagnosed with Anorexia Nervosa. Another one of your friends finds out and tells you that she developed the disease because she is a perfectionist. Respond to your friends comment thoughtfully drawing upon the concepts that you have learned in class, specifically the development is multicausal and any particular precursor may be "necessary but not sufficient".
Although perfectionism may be one influence, it is not sufficient to completely cause the disorder. Sociocultural influences, such as how beauty is perceived in the United States, may affect the way women view themselves and trigger certain anorexic or bulimic tendencies to arise. There have been genes indicated that may cause anorexia but they are not sure if it is the epigensis or regular production of them that cause the disorder. Also, some women with anorexia are more likely to release more serotonin in their blood stream but uptake it too quickly (this is said to cause the compulsion to not eat). Some psychosocial factors that influence the etiology of eating disorders are whether family compliments person based off their looks or self control, critical family environments and maternal invasion of privacy. Johnson et al found that daughters showed more eating disorders if the father and mother showed more than three maladaptive behaviors however the fathers maladaptive behaviors seem to be the biggest trigger. Certain individual factors may influence eating disorders, such as body image (the way people perceive their body). Fallon and Rozin made this apparent in their study when they averaged the scores of how women viewed themselves, how they wished they looked, what they thought men liked and what men actually liked. Perfectionism tends to predict eating disorders, according to Halmi et al but this does not mean the person will always have it if they are a perfectionist. Instead psychologists say that eating disorders are integrated models (bio, psych, social lead to personality changes which lead to dieting etc.)
This question has multiple parts. According to the information presented in class, what three qualities must an assessment of individual differences have in order to be of high quality? Define each of these qualities. Can an assessment be valid without being reliable? Why or why not? Can an assessment be reliable without being valid? Why or Why not?
An assessment of individual differences that is considered high quality must be reliable, valid and standardized. Reliable means that if you gave a person this test frequently, the person's scores would be very similar. For example, if I gave a person the SAT this week their score this week should be very close to what they would get a week later. Validity means that the test is measuring what the experimenter wanted it to measure. For example, the ACT needs to measure cognitive abilities if that is what it is designed to do. Standardization is when experimenters score people based on how their performance compares to the average performance of people in the past on the same test. ACT scores now are compared to previously standardized groups. An assessment can be reliable and not valid. We saw this with Galton's study where his test was reliable (it consistently measured people's reaction times) but it was not valid since it measured reaction time instead of people's intelligence. An assessment cannot be valid without being reliable. If the test is supposed to measure a certain trait, such as intelligence, this means that every test needs to yield similar scores for people if they take it multiple times in order to be considered reliable.
Anorexia Nervosa: Prognosis and treatment
Anorexia Nervosa: People have a distorted body image and think they are too fat when they are severely underweight, they are good students but usually they are withdrawn, depressed and may engage in perfectionist behavior, 1% of the Western population girls are affected, they are afraid of losing control and becoming overweight, the person deliberately rejects food but they cannot stop doing it even if they are punished or rewarded, may have a genetic component since we have seen it for a while Some anorexics have bulimic episodes or some bulimics lose a lot of weight Treatment: Family therapy where parents take control of the patients eating habits, kids can become more independent with eating schedules as long as they follow the parents guidelines, malnourished patients resist the treatment and may need to go to the hospital especially if they want to be autonomous, nearly half make a full recovery
Living in a nursing home
As people age there are increases that they will be living in a nursing home (1% of 65-74 year olds compared to 18% of people over the age of 85), 3/4 of them are women, most people who end up here are the ones living alone, do not have access to lots of help from other family, those who are not very social nor engage in many activities, the numbers are expected to double by 2030 but this would be bad for medicaid with paying for this so they have to be careful and make sure these places are getting funded, it is important that people feel like they have a sense of control while living in the nursing homes People who do not like this can live in alternative housing where they have facilities close by, such as a gym, and neighbors that they can talk to, assisted living has grown in popularity as well but they are not great for people that do not have a lot of money
Puberty vs. adolescence
Changes that mark sexual maturity, hormonal changes that cause physiological changes, Adolescence is development that occurs between childhood and adulthood, social construction
Erikson's Life Span Theory with Identity: Define identity, identifications, moratorium, real self vs. ideal self, identity crisis, fidelity
Developmental lifespan theory is set up into eight stages where people have developmental tasks at each stage, they have the potential to be successful in this stage or fail, the task for adolescents is identity vs. identity confusion where kids have to figure out their true identity or they are confused until they are successful in this stage He defines identity as a set of thoughts, values and behaviors that define a person, people test out new identities through identifications (shadow people in a certain role that the child may want to be someday) or moratorium (new experiences) in college, they question whether their ideal self matches with their real self and what they can achieve, children feel pressure to do this in adolescence because society demands it from them once they go to college, people either have an identity crisis where they ideally want to be something but realistically cannot do it or they achieve fidelity by committing too a role and identity Criticisms: No empirical evidence it is all theory based, men could only achieve moratorium by exploring and women had to be in relationships before they could do this
Physical and Mental Health, sleep needs, nutrition
Girls have more headaches, backaches, stomachaches, etc. due to the stressful environments, people from affluent families tend to have less health issues and are more physically active, more exercise minimizes the amount of risky behavior they participate in, 1/3 of highschoolers get the right amount of exercise Sleep: Sleep deprivation is bad for adolescents, it appears that schedules ATM are not conducive to teenagers because often times they are more awake later in the day and get tired later due to melatonin releases Nutrition: If we are raised to eat healthy those habits usually stick, obese people have a harder time doing certain things, usually caused by lack of exercise
"The Big Five" (Costa and McCrae 1999): Trait Approach of personality, what are the "big five" and some descriptors with them, what do they predict with behavior, where are the highest clusters of people
Did a factor analysis and found that personality has five critical components from a cluster of related items O: Openness: Imaginative, independent, creative, and curious, change careers more often in mid adulthood, higher IQ, perform better in job training programs, more years in school, most are on the west and east coast C: Conscientiousness: Careful, Reliable, Perserving, Ambitious, sexually faithful, live longer, drink less, get better job ratings, morning type, cleaner office/dorm room, avoid divorce, most are in the midwest and Georgia area E: Extraversion: Socialiable, fun loving, Talkative, Spontaneous, these people drink more and like to work around more people, these people see events in a more positive light, very satisfied with job, makes friends easily, predicts popularity, leadership roles, most people are in wisconsin A: Agreeableness: Courteous, selfless, trusting and cooperative, religiousness, satisfied in dating couples, community involvement, avoids divorce, love the paranormal and experiential component of religion, lots of these people in the southern states by Florida N: Neuroticism: Worrying, Vulnerable, self pitying, impatient, anxiety disorders, depression, relationship dissatisfaction, shorter life, conflict in relationships, increased divorce rates due to higher anxiety, Most live in Indiana/ohio and New York
Influences on IQ: Genes (molecular genetics, MZ vs. DZ, adoption studies), shared and nonshared environments, environment in general (early intervention, schooling effects) Which one has the greatest influence?
Genes: Did twin studies and found that MZ twins reared together had the most similar IQs (r=.85) and there IQ still were more closely related when they lived apart (r=.7) (but there are environmental influences) compared to DZ twins reared together (0.6), siblings reared together (.45) and unrelated individuals reared together (.3), other study done with G shows that shared, non shared and genes equally influence our IQ at a young age but as we get older genes have the most influence followed by non shared experiences Kids with high IQs had a gene on chromosome 6 Adoption study results: show that children's IQ are more closely correlated to biological and adopted parents but when they are 16 the adopted child's IQ resembles more of the biological parents (could be due to Scarr's niche picking theory where children choose environments that support their genetic make up) Overall, kids IQs are more correlated with biological parents than adoptive parents AND more correlated with bio siblings reared in different environments than with unrelated siblings in the same environment Environmental Influences: Early intervention programs have showed that children can get their IQs raised by living in a healthier household, Schooling effects help raise IQ
As discussed in class, describe the possible etiology and treatments for ADHD. In your answer, be sure to include the MTA study (include methods findings). Also, understand the major problems with the MTA study.
Etiology (cause) of the disorder: Biological: Different functioning frontal lobe, MZ>DZ (genetic component), need more stimulation with reward system, delayed and slowed brain growth, takes 2.5 more years for all cortical points to develop Psychological: Martial dysfunction and poor parenting (correlational though) Social/environmental: Environmental toxins such as nicotine and lead poisoning Treatments: Dietary therapy: Feeding children certain kinds of food to improve their nutritional intake (not helpful in the long run) Behavioral therapy: Reinforce good behaviors and punish bad ones, a box lights up when the child does a good behavior, it worked but not in the long term (A response cost therapy) Play Therapy: Psychologists help modify children's behaviors by watching them play with certain toys, no significant benefits come from this Drug Therapy: More drugs, such as ritalin, have been prescribed for kids with ADHD (most are in the midwest ish area), most kids experience horrible side effects but for most they are not too bad with severity but at the same time they can impede development Multimodal Treatment study for ADHD: Looked at kids from several sites, such as school and camps, and gave them one of four treatments: medication, behavior therapy, both, or community care.. they wanted to see if there was peer rejection, aggression, inattention, hyperactivity, etc., they found that the most beneficial method for treating ADHD was both behavioral and drug therapy, then drug therapy, then behavior, then community care, they saw that the medicine slightly helped positive behaviors but it drastically decreased negative behaviors such as conduct disorder, noncompliance, and interpretation
Development of Faith across the lifetime: Fowler, how he came up with his theories, what are the 6 stages, criticisms
Faith: How people see and understand the world Fowler looked at the answers given by more than 400 people that varied in certain characteristics, he developed stages saying that faith develops between the person and their environment where people undergo certain crises in order to gain a better understanding of the world based on their personal view points Stage 1: Intuituve-projective faith (18-24 months-7 years): children trust what adults are saying (basic trust crisis accomplished), egocentric thought does not allow them to see that other people have different view points, they view god that they must obey him to avoid punishment Stage 2: Mythic-literal faith (7-12 years): People in this stage believe that all mythical readings are true about the world, they understand the metacognition of God, they believe God is fair and people get what they deserve Stage 3: Synthetic conventional faith (adolescence or beyond): Abstract thought can occur, to find out more about their identity they may seek help from God, conform to community standards Stage 4: Individuative-reflection faith (early to mid twenties or beyond): Think about their own beliefs without influence from external authority Stage 5: Conjunctive Faith (middle or beyond): Deeper understanding of faith comes from understanding lives paradoxes and contradictions Stage 6: Universalizing Faith (late life): They do not cling to life and have discovered meaning in the world that they wish to spread to other people Criticisms: Sample was not random or representative, does faith develop in stages (are people better with faith in higher up stage or have better morals?), does this look at spiritual development in other cultures?
Describe the key findings from Fallon & Rozin's (1985) study of eating disorders. What are the implications of these findings?
Fallon and Rozin (1985) gave people a spectrum (1 was the thinnest and 5 was the fattest) and asked women to choose where they thought they lied on the spectrum, what men found the most attractive, what they thought men would find the most attractive and their ideal body shape. We did this study in class as well to get a few averages. Fallon and Rozin found that women's ideal was below 3, they thought men preferred women under 3, men actually preferred women that were about 3.25 and women rated their current image as being a 3.6. These findings show that women think of themselves as being quite larger than other women and they wish to be very thin. Also, men do not necessarily prefer really thin women, which is apparent from these results. Women were less satisfied with their bodies as well.
Spermarche and Menarche
First ejaculation, happens around age 13, usually happens late at night or when asleep (nocturnal emission) Fist menustration cycle, fairly late in puberty (10-16), it has been decreasing in age as time has gone on
Which of Galton's ideas were important for the early study of intelligence. What did he discover (3 things). What did he want to happen? What was one criticism of his theory?
He came up with a Psychological assessment to evaluate peoples abilities, behaviors and personal qualities, in other words individual differences. He found that individual differences in intelligence are quantifiable (can assign them a number), differences form a bell curve and objective tests can measure intelligence. He used this proponents to say that people with high intelligence scores should mate to have smart children (positive eugenics to do away with stupid people). At the same time, his theory was flawed because his objective tests measured reaction time (not valid) but it was reliable.
Describe Marcia's four identity statuses including: degree of commitment and exploration of each, 5 correlates of each of the identity statuses and the 8 factors influencing one's identity status formation.
He categorized them into four identity statuses: Identity achievement, moratorium, foreclosure, and diffusion. Identity achievement have high levels of exploration and commitment, moratorium has high exploration and low commitment, foreclosure has low exploration and high commitment and diffusion has low of both. Correlates: Degree of anxiety (f: represses, d: moderate, m: high, a: moderate), level of moral development (F: pre conventional or conventional, d: pre conventional or convetional, m: post conventional, a: post conventional), feelings about college (F: satisfied as long as guidelines are clear, D: Indifferent unless topic really engages them, M: Some dissatisfied and some good, A: Good gets high grades) dependence on others (F: very dependent, D: dependent, M and A: Self directed), and family dynamics (F: Good family relationships but lack separation, D: low levels of family warmth, M and A: allowed to voice their own opinions) Factors: Personality, abilities, gender, self concept (how we think about ourselves in the world), family, SES, school, and culture
Sternberg: Insight and Know How (Tacit knowledge)
He proposed that people have three types of intelligence: Experiential element (creative insight), contextual element (practical intelligence), and componential element (book smarts), found that most psychometric tests that measure IQ do not look for experiential or contextual element just componential factor, He found that tacit knowledge from contextual element may be the most beneficial with having later life success since they are able to self motivate, motivate others and manage tasks, They have found that IQ, tacit knowledge, and personality surveys were the greatest predictors of success
In what major way was Marcia's approach to he study of identity development different from Erikson's
His identity status theory was based off empirical research where he calculated categories to classify people's identity and did research, he based a person's identity not based on whether they were in fidelity or identity crisis about whether to follow real or ideal self, his were based off the level people explored new identity alternatives and committed to them, he had four categories to classify these results, Marcia classified these identities based on anxiety, parent relationships, stage of moral reasoning, level of vocation, level of dependence, and opinions about college. Also she said that people's identities could change throughout the lifespan while Erikson determined that only in adolescence did people determine their identity.
What was Kohlberg's method of choice to study cognitive development and what were the answers that he was most interested in from his participants?
His method of choice to study his subjects, all of which were boys between the ages of 10-16, was by having a clinical interview with them where he would see how subjects got to a certain response after he posed certain moral situations. The most famous one that he posited with Heinz's dilemma which was where people had to judge whether Heinz should be sent to jail or not after he stole medicine for his dying wife that he tried to earn money for but the drug dealer would not give him a better deal. He wanted to see if people's moral development grew based on a justice argument He did this because he wanted to see if moral development was similar in development to cognitive development that Piaget had presented.
Volunteering for retirement: General, how do people perceive older people in the work force, life after retirement (family focused lifestyle, balanced investment and serious leisure, volunteering), financial fare, living arrangements (aging in place
If people can retire they usually choose to do so, developing world people continue to work in their old age (50% compared to 2% in developed nations), older women's work has increased in the UNited States in 2005 about 20% of older men and 11.5% of older women worked, older workers tend to be more productive than younger workers since they are less stressed about their jobs and they are more accurate, the ADEA helped so workers over 40 would be protected and they wouldn't lessen the pay or fire them due to their age saying that physical well being, mental abilities, perceptual motor abilities predict job performance more than old age Life after retirement: People right after retiring go in the honeymoon stage were they feel alleviated of stress but continuos retirement can cause people to feel more depressed, people felt better if their marriage was good, SES can effect this, family focused activities usually people older than 75 enjoy because they are not very costly and get them active in the community, balanced investment is with retirees who balance family, work and leisure activities, serious leisure, where people cultivate one passion and try to master it, tend to have the most satisfaction within live of retirement, people who volunteered to do certain activities had great life satisfaction Financial fare: many people are able to live comfortably with government benefits, such as Social Security and medicare, after the age of 65 but with the decreases in employment these benefits may go away Living Arrangements: 72% of men compared to 42% of women lived with spouse, 40% of women compared to 19% of men lived alone and 19% of women and 9% of men had other living arrangements, aging in place with a spouse works very well as long as the relationship between the couple is good with health, live independently and care for each other, many women live alone because they have been widowed but they tend to live fine as long as they are in good health and keep active in the community with socialness, most people prefer not to live with their children unless it is mutual
Why is it not true that IQ is not based on race (6 pieces of evidence) (stereotype threat is on another card) A classmate makes the following claim: "Despite numerous federally funded Head Start Programs and nationwide efforts to desegregate public schools, blacks continue to lag behind their white counterparts in intelligence and academic achievement. Clearly, black Americans must be genetically inferior to white Americans" Use research evidence and logical arguments to intelligently refute your classmate's statement. Draw from what we covered in class for this answer.
If race predicted IQ than babies of a different race would have different IQs but they find that babies have equal processing speeds Race is not a meaningful biological category since multiple genes code for skin color IQ difference between whites has decreased since 1969 while IQs of blacks and hispanics have increased since then Fallacious Reasoning: People of different races are put in environments that are not suitable for their IQ growth while other races have more opportunities to be put in environments that stimulate intellectual growth Adoption Studies: Kids that are put in better environments have higher IQs compared to those in worse conditions People that live in a lower SES have lower IQs because mothers are not as healthy during and after pregnancy, babies are more likely to be born with a low birth weight, educational resources are limited on average, and lack of attention towards children occurs
Be sure to know the results of the treatment study of Bulimia Nervosa by Agras et al. 2000.
In Agras study, she measured whether cognitive behavioral therapy or psychotherapy was more effective in treating bulimia. To measure this she took a sample of 220 and had them go through either CBT (change ppls perceptions of self to get them to stop binging) or interpersonal psychotherapy (change the relationships they have with people) 19 times and then she measured the amount of purging they had after the treatment. They found that there were significant differences in the amount of purging between the start of the treatment to the end for both groups. At the same time, there were still a high number of purges after interpersonal therapy (10 (4 mo followup) then 5 (1 yr followup) in a 28 time frame compared to 15 right after the treatment) and CBT (had 0 at end of treatment and 4 mo followup but it increased to 4 at the yr followup checkup). The problems with this experiment may have been that there was no baseline between the amount that people who undergone CBT or interpersonal therapy (they started with different amounts of purging) and there may have been experimenter bias while administering the treatment.
Long term marriage with old age
Many men compared to women are married later in life, people at old ages are more likely than middle aged people to say their marriages are happy and improved, men get more satisfaction from their wives while the wives get theirs from children, friends and relatives, the way couples solve issues is vital (if there is less discord they tend to have greater life satisfaction and self esteem), the ability for older people to control emotions may help with fights being less frequent, married people tend to be healthier and live longer than unmarried people, men it is about being married but for women it is more based on the quality of the marriage, if a partner gets ill though it can increase the likelihood that the other partner will die, caregiving can be stressful to partners and if they die it can lead to more depression and bad life satisfaction especially if they viewed themselves as care givers to the older person
Personality Development into old age (five factor model): 4 ways to measuring stability and change in late adulthood, personality as a predictor of emotionality, health and well being
McCrae found that people become more agreeable and conscientiousness and declines in social vitality (gregariousness) and openness to experiences on average, when measuring individual changes, they found that neuroticism did not really vary unless something bad happened and were separate from cognitive or physical decline, you can measure it in rank order comparisons (they saw that if people were more of something at a younger age that they still had more of that compared to other people their age), by looking at cross sectional research we see that certain cohorts are more rigid with their personality than others, recently people are less rigid with their personality and have changed (mcCrae found this and Schaei with his longitudinal study) Longitudinal study that was done shows that peoples negative emotions that they feel earlier in life tend to decrease with age but it slowed after age 60, positive emotions remained stable but then had a slight decline late in life (may be because older people have a better way of controlling certain emotions and why they can feel happy more easily), people with high levels of extraversion tended to be more positive throughout their lives while people with neurotic personalities tend to be less positive and as they age they become more negative (they have low survival rates because they often times engage in risky behaviors such as drinking to elevate negative feelings), conscientiousness is the biggest predictor of longevity in life because these people are extremely careful and participate in healthful behaviors
Middle Adulthood health and SES: General, Physical, sexual
Middle adulthood is between the ages of 40-65, smartest middle age group was those of the baby boomers and they made up 30% of the population, most are pretty happy with life and feel that they have a lot of control over their lives and have time to grow as a person, some people though feel a decline and it is advertised as not being good after the mid seventies Physical Health: Many people need reading glasses for presbyopia (lessened focus on nearby objects), gradual hearing loss (presbycusis) especially of high pitched and it is heightened in men, less sensitive taste and touch, less tolerant to pain even though they cannot feel it, lose endurance to do vital tasks after 40 (basal metabolism), skin becomes less taut (more wrinkles and looser skin), important to keep physical exercise up Sexual: women go through menopause (used to be seen as a bad thing but now it is a good thing, some women have hot flashes but they aren't commonly associated with the disorder but short doses of estrogen can help, sex can hurt afterward but not usually and women still want to have sex, men have less sperm and their testosterone levels decrease, some men have erectile dysfunction when they can't get it up, people's sex lives tend to not change but some environmental factors may influence it
College with young adulthood: benefits, how many people are going, completion stats, what happens later with jobs, what factors do you need to be successful
More people now go to college than ever before (49%-69%), more people now attend more school than a four year program, mostly women (57%), women tend to major more in women's fields that have stronger verbal abilities (psychology, nursing, etc.), greater increase of minorities going to college, women and people of different races tend to score lower on standardized tests (check Steele's stereotype threat), students that do well have stronger connections with parents and peers and faculty and feel engaged in their studies, it doesn't matter what college kids attend but it is good for them to attend to realize that ambitious thought is important and nothing is definitely right, this helps students form their own opinions in a stage of uncertainty, increased cognitive growth occurs, only 1 out of 4 people get their college degrees, biggest factor on completion may be financial stability, how they feel with social community, etc., people need more education for the types of jobs that are available (working at home and on their own schedules), people are more likely to earn more when they go to school longer and have happier lives, most college students are employed while at school (49%), it is good for people to have complex work because it helps with development in the frontal lobe, these people are more likely to do activities that stimulate cognitive growth outside of work Things that help you be successful at work are: competence, personal characteristics, positive personal relationships, links between schooling and employment
Mental Health Problems in adolescence: alcoholism, drug use and abuse, Antisocial Behavior, Depression
Nearly 46.4% of adolescents have a mental illness sometime during their lifetimes, most prevalent substance abuse disorder that is 50-60% heritable is alcoholism, happens when people's neural signal transmissions in the brain change from prolonged usage of alcohol, when people have this they drink more each time because they develop a tolerance, some ways to help is through detoxification, hospitalization, medication and support groups Drug use and abuse: Use peaks at 18-20 (more than 22% admit doing it in the past month), marijuana is the most popular (16.3% have used it within the past month), about 20% of people with drug abuse problems have mood or anxiety disorders Antisocial behavior: Early onset (happens in early childhood, usually is triggered by environment but have genetic predisposition, these people usually continue to commit crimes) or late (begins in puberty and happens in response to this, commit minor offenses temporarily) Depression: 15-22 seem to be an increase of people getting the disorder, people who develop it in childhood or adolescence it may be from childhood factors such as dysfunctional family and neurological problem, some suffer with transitioning into adulthood while others see it as a fresh start
Your friend tells you that ADHD diagnoses for people completely disappear by adulthood. Are they correct necessarily?
No they are not necessarily correct... Studies have shown that these things may occur because brain growth is delayed and slowed and there is a 2.5 year difference for when all cortical points reach maturity with people with ADHD which causes later life impairments. Also, they have found that the correlation between MZ twins showing ADHD is higher than DZ twins which implies a genetic component. This may be due to frontal lobe functioning being different in people with ADHD and their reward system needing more stimulation (risky behavior explained). Poor parenting and marital dysfunction can trigger the onset of ADHD with children but it is not causation. If kids are exposed to lead or nicotine while the mother is pregnant this can cause the baby to develop ADHD.
Socioemotional Selective theory proposed by Carstensen: What is it, Balte's theory of selective optimization with compensation,
Older adults become more selective about social contacts, keeping up with friends, and relatives who can best meet their current needs for emotional satisfaction, based on Balte's theory of selective optimization with compensation (SOC) which is when people adapt to the changing balance of growth and decline throughout life by selecting fewer meaningful activities, optimizing or making the most of resources to attain certain goals (maintenance of health and management of loss) and compensating for losses by mobilizing resources in an alternative way to achieve goals such as investing in hearing aids for hearing loss, maintaining a positive attitude can help even if they have no resources, thought to be universal but some use them better or worse than others, people can use SOC have greater life well being although if they run out of resources this can be hard, people with emotional focused coping may help with this by maintaining a certain role that they value most
Widowhood in old age
Older women are more likely to be widowed since they are less likely to remarry, some men will outlive their wives and it is becoming more common
Emotion Focused coping vs. problem focused coping (Cognitive Appraisal model) (Old age) What style of coping do older people choose to do? Religion's role
People consciously choose certain coping strategies based on the way the person perceives the situation or analyzes it, these coping strategies can either be emotion focused or problem focused, problem focused involves instrumental (action) strategies that help the person deal with the situation and they use this when they see a realistic change is possible, emotion focused strategy is based on making the person feel better and this is done when the person feels that there is little that they can do to change the situation, there are two types of this (proactive is when someone expresses their emotions to seek change and passive is when they deny the situation is occurring) People tend to use more emotional focused coping during hardships and researchers think it is because hey are better able to control emotions, Most people use problem focused coping but older people may choose to use more emotion focused coping when they realize that problem focused coping will do them no good or when the situation is an ambigous loss (accept what they cannot change) (use religion with this) Religion: 50% of people between 70-89 go to church once a week, although research has showed increased well being with increased faith the research is flawed since it doesn't take many populations into account although it does show a 25% decrease of reduction of mortality if people attended church regularly
Sexuality and Identity development: Biological source of homosexuality, basic facts of sexual orientation, sexual behavior (general, risk taking, contraceptive usage, where do teens get information about Sex, Sexually transmitted Diseases (STDs)
People form these identities based on the thoughts they have and the kinds of relationships they pursue, 1-21% of people in the United States identify as the sexual orientation(focus of romantic interest) of homosexual, people who do not share peer groups with same sexual orientation struggle a lot to recognize their identity even today when it is more accepted Homosexuality was considered a mental illness at one point but now it is only partially attributed to genes (mother can not release enough androgen into the uterus, Chromosome 7,8, 10 stretches seem to be attributed to it, brain images show similar activity with homosexual men and heterosexual women and their brains are symmetrical where heterosexual men tend to have larger right brains, amygldalas are like heterosexuals of the opposite sex, different size hypothalamus (in charge of sex), Brain activated to the sweat of same gender Sexual behavior: Men used to have more sex experience but now 53% of girls have had vaginal sex between the ages of 15-19, the earlier you have sex the more likely bad things will happen such as not using contraceptive options, more people are now having oral sex (more than half), low SES can be a predictor for early sex, peer pressure is the main reason why people engage in it early, having bad relations with dad can cause it for girls, close relationships with mom may prevent it, Asian Americans wait longer (cultural), people who delay to have sex often times use more contraceptives, increase in the pill and condomusage (83% girls and 91% boys), At the same time 63% of people last asked did not use condoms the last time they had sex (can cause STDs) People learn about sex from the media mainly, the more children watch sexual intercourse shows the more likely they are to engage in it at an early age, most effective programs are those that teach abstinence along with STD prevention and ways to practice safe sex, many kids (1/2 girls and 1/3 boys) have not talked with their parents about birth control 3.2 million adolescent girls (1 in 4 between 14-19) have an STD, most people acquire gonorrhea or HPV, girls with more partners are more likely to have disease (50%), treatable diseases are gonorrhea and chlamydia, genital herpes can be lethal to a baby, HIV can be transmitted sexually and can turn into AIDS (4.1 million new people infected/year), antiviral therapies have helped people not get too sick,
Work vs. Early Retirement
People have been retiring at later ages, people now may do gradual retirement where they stop working as many hours over the course of several years or people switch to a new line of work before retiring called bridge employment, they have shown that people that have done this longer actually gain more mental benefits (which is why we see people in middle adulthood now reaping the benefits), many people may have wanted to retire early but couldn't due to not getting social security benefits before 67 and they do not have enough money to do it, Also the age discrimination act has been passed where companies do not have to retire people at a certain age and now American disabilities act helps make accommodations for workers with mental disabilities Also Use it or lose it!! People who work more cognitively stimulating jobs do not benefit from earlier retirement but those with cognitively easy jobs do!, Also, people who give older people easier jobs are not doing the older people a service since the Seattle longitudinal study found that older individuals do not have drastic cognitive declines, on average, until after they are past the working age
Relationships in older life: General, Socioemotional selective theory with Carstenson
People in old age report half as many people in their social networks as younger adults report, relationships that older people maintain are way more important than those that younger people make (1 out of 5 older people reported being lonely and 9 out of 10 reported that their families and friends gave them vitality in their lives) Social support with people that help them out are vital than keeping friends around that are not very supportive, older people choose to spend time with activities and people that gratify immediate emotional needs compared to younger people that spend time with people they would like to get to know better, they found that older people receive more support, mostly from close family ties, than what they give to others, people that do not have these social connections tend to die sooner (isolated men had more cardiovascular disease (53%) and more than twice as likely to die in an accident or suicide), older widowed women or those living alone need it a lot, at the same time this can be bad if there are too many people that families have to take care of (over 5 generations of people), cultural practices affect how they treat other members of the family (willing to take in others)
Physical complications of having anorexia or bulimia? Prevalence and incidence of each? Prognosis of each?
Physical complications: People with anorexia have slow heart rates, kidney complications, bone mass declines, skin dries out, no more periods, hair loss, anemia Prevalence: 1% of people have anorexia, 2-3% have bulimia, 10 times more likely in women Prognosis: 10% of anorexics make a full recovery and 70% of bulimics make a full recovery
McCrae and Costa (1999): Plaster hypothesis vs. Contextual hypothesis with personality Srivastava's study: What was he looking for, what type of study did he do, what did he find, what does this say about average and individual trajectory?
Plaster hypothesis: Traits reach their mature form by adulthood (we would see flat lines in the graph) Contextual hypothesis: Traits change throughout a person's life Did a cross sectional study on 132,515 people and looked at whether plaster hypothesis (traits mature in adulthood) or contextual hypothesis (personality traits change throughout the lifetime) was true He found that conscientiousness goes up, agreeableness goes up but somewhat flattens out, neuroticism goes down, openness slightly goes down, extraversion is about flat At the same time these findings are with averages and when we look at individual personality development we see that they are drastically changing, averages remain pretty consistent because they accommodate for outliers and they form a bell curve (most of the scores are in the middle)
Integrative thought
Postformal thought or integrative thought allows people to think about information that they just hear with previous knowledge and life experiences, they can think of something not as just being right or wrong but more abstractly Ex: In a study done by C Adams, she found that adolescents remembered more of the details from a story but older individuals gave a more meaningful interpretation of the story When older individuals tell stories where they learned a life lesson it can be meaningful for younger individuals
Primary and Secondary sex characteristics
Primary sex characteristics: organs necessary for reproduction (women: ovaries, fallopian tubes, uterus, clitoris and vargina, men: testes, penis, scrotum, seminal vesicles and prostate gland), they enlarge and mature Secondary Sex characteristics: Physiological signs of sexual maturation that do not directly involve the sex organs, happens earlier for women on average than men Ex: Breast growth, pubic hair growth, body growth, menarche, growth of testes, pubic hair, body growth, change in voice, acne
Cognitive Thinking in Adulthood beyond Piaget: Reflective thinking, post formal Thought
Reflective thinking: Continous evaluation of information and beliefs based on evidence and implications, this cannot happen until people are 20-25 years old and the cortical regions in their brain that participate in higher levels of thinking have become thicker and denser, environmental factors may strengthen these bonds where people can analyze certain concepts with keeping other factors in mind, college can help with this, this may be why people can not reach stage 5 or 6 in Kohlberg's theory of moral reasoning Postformal thought: This is the type of thought that incorporates both logic and emotions to solve certain problems that are ambitious, these people see the world in shades of gray and are willing to question certain aspects that they learn about, we see this type more in situations that involve emotions (in a study done with marital problems, adolescents and young adults blamed the people involved while middle aged people attributed it to the environment and people
Schaie studied the intellectual development of 7 cohorts over 4 decades of time. Describe Schaie's program of research on intellectual development including the research he was most interested in, the methods he employed, his major findings, and 2 explinations that may account for such drastic declines in intellectual ability when analyzing cross sectional data
Schaie's Seattle Longitudinal Project (1956-present) has looked at 7 cohort groups in 4 decades (22-67 yrs old and took them at 5 year intervals), gave them the primary mental abilities test, he measured 6 aspects of intelligence, his cross sectional results showed that mean of the cognitive abilities, such as verbal meaning, decrease with age, this may have declined because the later people were born the better they did on the test (cohort effects) and older people may have not been using these certain abilities therefore they use it or lose it, wide individual differences can influence the data on the graph When he ran a lag sequential design (looked at the performance of certain groups born at certain times (cohorts) as they age, he did this so he could subtract out cohort effects, he replaced each cohort group with a new one (22 year olds every 5 years) Found that only perceptual speed declines over time, peak performance for 4 of the 6 abilities occurs halfway through adulthood (middle adulthood) and have little reduction until after 70, wide individual differences can not be seen with averages, use it or lose it
Holstein (1976): Gender Bias with moral reasoning
Shows that men and women have equal distributions of 1-2 stage, men have more at 2.5 compared to women, women have more at stage 3 and men have almost none at 3.5, the number of men at stage 4 and women at stage 3 are equal and high (9 cases), very drastic decline of women present with stage 4 or more of moral reasoning and men go down but spike again at stage 5 Shows on average women have inferior moral reasoning but this isn't necessarily true
Stress and emotions in middle age
Stress is a response to a physical or psychological demand, for older people reported more frequent and, multiple and severe stressors than did older adults and had a greater degree of overload at the same time they reported less stressors that they had control over, they may deal with it better because they have experienced it in heavy loads in the past, women report more stress than men (they have tend and befriend responses where men have fight or flight), 50 percent of people become ill if they experience 150-300 life changing units in a year and 70% of people become ill if they experience 300 or more in a year, daily stressors may have less of an impact unless they build up, short term stress can strengthen an immune system (such as taking a test), if consistent it can indirectly affect other factors such as diet and sleep loss, Emotions: Negative ones can suppress action in the immune system while positive ones increase immune system, hope and curiosity led to less development of hypertension, optimism and conscientiousness are associated with longevity in life while neuroticism and hostility are not Older people are more likely to suffer from mental disorders than younger people with depression
Disengagement theory vs activity theory (benefits and criticisms) vs. continuity theory: Successful or optimal aging models in general what are they and criticisms, productive engagement
Successful or optimal aging has promoted that aging does not mean an inevitable loss of intrinsic processes of loss and decline, they do this by avoidance of disease or disease related disability, maintenance of cognitive and physical well being, and sustaining activities that are social and productive (paid or not), have good social support Criticisms: People feel that they have to uphold standards that they are aging successfully instead of realizing that they are deteriorating, pressure can be bad on development Disengagement theory: Aging brings a reduction of activities and a greater self focus, state that society wants older people to be with themselves and introspect by not providing them with roles, no recent research on this, Activity Theory: People who are more active age better, these people have more life satisfaction, these people assume different roles, they have found that when people do not assume a role of some kind they detierate very quickly, the theory is too simple though since some people who are not as active are perfectly content and life a long life, most of the research is correlational since it is hard to define activity, instead they found that the frequency that people did certain activities and the intimacy of certain activities lead to more life satisfaction Continuity Theory: People need to maintain connections with their past and present moments (ex: if someone was active and engaged a lot at a younger age it is good to continue this in old age and vice versa), sometimes the rates decrease if something happen but it is good for them to continue doing things they love Productive activity seems to be the best whether it is social or productive because it makes these people feel useful and that they have a role, doing activities for self were good as well for happiness such as reading a book, anything that makes the person happy is the best
One of your parent's friends comes to seek your advice on how to help her child become "more moral". From what you have learned in class about the factors influencing moral development, provide her with some information that she may want to know that might help her in her cause. Your answers should be based on empirical findings, not your opinion.
The empirical findings suggest that if children have peer groups that talk about moral issues with one another that the children will have more moral reasoning, education can help with raising children's moral development especially if they are able to discuss their feelings and reasoning in class, Explicit moral education seems to be the most helpful with getting students to stage 5 and 6, parents have a huge influence in the ways that they talk to their children since children will imitate their parents, its good if parents used inductive reasoning with children this makes them more moral since they realize why certain things are wrong and also more gray, power assertion and love withdrawal arguments would provide the child with more moral arguments focused on justice but less so on care At the same time cognitive growth does not mean moral growth but increases in empathy and prosocial behavior can help your child be more moral
Describe the three phases of family therapy that we discussed in class to treat anorexia nervosa.
The most effective treatment that people suffering from anorexia nervosa is family therapy. During family therapy, the first stage is being refed by their family. This means that parents and the patient take classes on proper nutrition and then the parents make the patient eat a sufficient amount of food that is healthy for their bodies. After this, if the patient successfully eats the food that parents have presented the patient with, the parents hand the control over to the patient. Also, the third stage of this therapy is to receive counseling so that the patient can discuss their families and change the way they think about their body image and eating habits. During therapy, the counselors address the underlying causes of the disorder and help them find power and control in other ways besides undereating and dieting. They can do this in groups or individually.
Schaie: A life-Span model of Cognitive development
USes of intellect in social situations to figure out what I need to know to how to use what I know to why I should know certain things, seven stages Acquisitive stage: children acquire certain information for their own sake in preparation for society Achieving stage: Young adults do not acquire knowledge for their own sake but they use what they know to accomplish a goal Responsible stage (thirties to sixties): Use skills to solve problems associated with others, such as family Executive stage: (thirties to middle age): They are responsible for societal systems Reorganizational stage: People who retire, they reorganize their life to do things that are meaningful to them rather than the work they focused on Reintegrative Stage (late adulthood):Focus on the purpose of a task and concentrate on tasks that have meaning to them (do this because of old age) Legacy creating (advanced old age): People make wills and funeral arrangements and tell life story to relatives, exert cognitive competencies within social and emotional context Not universal, some of the cognitive aspects they look at that decline in old age may be attributed to them doing things out of their self interest (such as balancing a check book instead of knowing how to do a math problem)
Discuss how identity is related to college vs. working adolescents, alcohol consumption, development (i.e. how does identity development change over time?) Be sure to draw on empirical evidence for your answer
Vocational levels in Waterman (1985): People with identity achievement tend to be the most vocal about changes and success while foreclosure follows that, moratorium and diffusion do not talk about it much Working vs. college adolescents: 18-21 year olds, people working tend to reach identity achieved before people in college while people in college mostly consist of diffused and then moratorium individuals, many people in general are not foreclosed Alcohol consumption: People with diffused identities drink more, then foreclosed, then achieved, then moratorium These things could be due to people having to pick a role early and do it well (working instead of going to college), people may drink more when they do not care nor do not want to explore any new identities. At the same time, it is good to let kids go to college and explore (Marcia and Erikson both promote this)