Life Span Exam 2 Chapters 5-8

*Metacognition

"Thinking about thinking" - the ability to evaluate a cognitive task in order to determine how best to accomplish it, and then to monitor and adjust one's performance on that task.

Information processing theory

A perspective that compares human thinking processes, by analogy, to computer analysis of data, including sensory input, connections, stored memories, and output.

*Automatization

A process in which repetition of a sequence of thoughts and actions makes the sequence routine, so that it no longer requires conscious thought.

*Aptitude test

A test to measure the potential to master a specific skill or to learn a certain body of knowledge.

*Cumulative stress - how children react to stress depends on....

Accumulated stresses, both minor and major, can make coping difficult. Resilient children cope surprisingly well to stress, while some children are impervious to stress.??

*Autistic spectrum disorder

Any of several disorders characterized by impaired communication, inadequate social skills, and unusual patterns of play.

*3 parenting styles (authoritarian, permissive, authoritative)

Authoritarian - An approach to child rearing that is characterized by high behavioral standards, strict punishment of misconduct, and little communication. Permissive - An approach to child rearing that is characterized by high nurturance and communication but little discipline, guidance, or control. Authoritative - An approach to child rearing in which the parents set limits and enforce rules but are flexible and listen to their children.

Zone of proximal development

Vygotsky's term for the skills - cognitive as well as physical - that a person can exercise only with assistance, not yet independently.

Apprenticeship in thinking

Vygotsky's term for a person whose cognition is stimulated and directed by older and more skilled members of society.

*What children value - middle childhood

? All 6-11 year-olds want social acceptance and close, mutual friendships to protect against loneliness, depression, and victimization.

*Fine motor skills/gross motor skills

? During early childhood, each month brings new abilities - they move in every way they can, developing all their gross and fine motor skills as they jump into lakes, unscrew bottle caps, crawl into holes and do whatever else they can do - one reason adult supervision is needed. develop all motor skills spontaneously and diligently as they play - fine motor skills, which involve small body movements, especially with hands and fingers are harder to master (i.e. pouring into a glass, cutting food, scribbling vs drawing).

*Hygiene hypothesis

? In medicine, the hygiene hypothesis is a hypothesis that states that a lack of early childhood exposure to infectious agents, symbiotic microorganisms (e.g. gut flora or probiotics), and parasites increases susceptibility to allergic diseases by suppressing the natural development of the immune system.

*Learning to control aggression - through play

? Increasingly complex social play is due to brain maturation coupled with many hours of social play - children must learn how to make and keep friends.

*Piaget- middle childhood stage of cognitive development

? Page 239 In Piaget's view, the most important cognitive structure attained in middle childhood is concrete operational thought, the ability to reason logically about direct experiences and perceptions. Piaget that that sometime between ages 5 and 7 children begin to apply logic in concrete situation - that is situation that deal with visible, tangible things. Children become more systematic, objective and educable thinkers.

*Why is a sense of industry/competence important?

? Page 273 The four of Erikson's eight psychosocial crises, during which children attempt to master man skills, developing a sense of themselves as either industrious or inferior, competent or imcompentent. INDUSTRIOUS CHILDREN AT THIS AGE BUSILY AND ACTIVELY MASTER WHATEVER SKILLS AND ABILITIES THEIR CULTURE VALUES.

*Protective optimism

? Preschoolers predict that they can solve impossible puzzles, remember long lists of words, and control their dreams - helps them try new things

*Bullying - consequences, characteristics of the bully and victim, stopping bullying in school - who is most likely to be bullied?

? Someone who attacks others and who is attacked as well (also called a provocative victim because he or she does things that elicit bullying, such as stealing a bully's pencil). Bullies usually target victims of the same sex. Boy victims tend to be physically weaker than their tormentors, whereas girl victims tend to be socially out of step - unusually shy or self-conscious, or unfashionably dressed. Bullying occurs everywhere, the frequency and type of bullying are affected by the school, the culture, and the child's age and gender. Successful ways to halt bullying: - The whole school must be involved, not just the identified bullies - Intervention is more effective in the earlier grades. - Evaluation or results is critical

*Equifinality

? equifinality is the ability to achieve the same result from differing initial conditions.

*Multifinality

? multifinality is basically the opposite of equifinality, suggesting that similar conditions can lead to dissimilar results.

*Irreversibility

A characteristic of preoperational though whereby a young child thinks that nothing can be undone. A think cannot be restored to the way it was before a change occurred.

*Centration

A characteristic of preoperational thought whereby a young child focuses (centers) on one idea, excluding all others.

Focus on appearance

A characteristic of preoperational thought whereby a young child ignores all attributives that are not apparent.

Static reasoning

A characteristic of preoperational thought whereby a young child thinks that nothing changes. Whatever is now has always been and always will be.

*Gender schema

A child's cognitive concept or general belief about sex differences, which is based on his or her observations and experience.

Timeout

A disciplinary technique in which a child is separated from other people and activities for a specified tiem.

*Extrinsic motiviation

A drive, or reason to purse a goal, that arises from the need to have one's achievements rewarded from outside, perhaps by receive material possessions or another person's esteem.

*Intrinsic motivation

A drive, or reason to pursue a goal, that come from isde a person, such as the need to feel smart of competent.

*Corpus callosum

A long, thick band of nerve fibers that connects the left and right hemispheres of the brain and allows communication between them.

*Achievement test

A measure of master or proficiency in reading, mathematics, writing, science, or some other subject.

*Self-concept

A person's evaluation of his or her own worth, either in specifics (e.g. intelligence, attractiveness) or in general.

*Theory of mind

A person's theory of what other people might be thinking. In order to have a theory of mind, children must realize that other people are not necessarily thinking the same thoughts that they themselves are. That realization is seldom achieved before age 4.

*BMI percentile for overweight & obese - percentiles

BMI - The ration of weight to height, calculated by dividing a person's body weight in kilograms by the square of his or her height in meters. Overweight - In an adult, having a BMI of 25 to 29. In a child, having a BMI above the 85th percentile, according to the US center for Disease Control's 1980 standards for children in a give age. Obesity - In an adult having a BMI of 30 or more. In a child, having a BMI above the 95th percentile, according to the US center for Disease Control's 1980 standards for children in a give age.

*BMI during early childhood (age 5/6)

BMI - the ratio of weight to height is lower at age 5 than at any other age in the entire life span. (Guillaume & Lissau) This is significant: Young children are meant to be relatively tall and think, engaged in active play.

*Externalizing

Difficulty with emotional regulation that involves expressing powerful feelings through uncontrolled physical or verbal outbursts, as by lashing out at other people or breaking things.

*Internalizing

Difficulty with emotional regulation that involves turning one's emotional distress inward, as by feeling excessively guilty, ashamed, or worthless.

*Initiative vs guilt

Erikson's third psychosocial crisis, in which children undertake new skills and activities and feel guilty when they do not succeed

*4 dimensions of parenting styles

Expressions of warmth - some arevery affectionate; other are cold and critical. Strategies for discipline - parents vary in whether and how they explain, criticize, persuade, ignore and punish. Communication - some parents listen patiently to their children and others demand silence. Expectations for maturity - parents vary in the standards they set for their children regarding responsibility and self-control.

*Child neglect

Failure to meet a child's basic physical, education, or emotional needs

Reported/substantiated maltreatment

Harm or endangerment that has been reported, investigated and verified.

IQ

Intellectual aptitude or ability to learn in school.

Lateralization

Literally, sidedness, referring to the specialization in certain functions by each side of the brain, with one side dominant for each activity. The left side of the brain controls the right side of the body and vice versa.

*Oedipus complex/Electra complex

Page 224 ? Oedipus Complex - The unconscious desire of youg boys to replace their fathers and win their mothers' exclusive love. Electra Complex - The unconsicious desire of girls to replace their mothers and win their fathers' exclusive love.

Cognition: Vygotsky - high scoring children in math and reading ability have 3 sources of cognitive stimulation

Page 241

*Abnormality is ______________ in childhood

Page 265-267

*Disabilities/disorders tend to _______________with age

Page 265-267

*Friendship - gender differences/similarities

Page 292

*Egocentrism

Piaget's term for young children's tendency to think about the world entirely from their own personal perspective.

*Rough and tumble play

Play that mimics aggression through wrestling, chasing, or hitting, but in which there is not intent to harm.

*Piaget - cognitive stage in early childhood

Preoperational Intelligence - Piaget's term for cognitive development between the ages of about 2 and 6. Includes language and imagination - which involve symbolic thought - but logical, operational thinking is not yet possible.

Sociodramatic play

Pretend play in which children act out various roles and themes in stories that they create.

*Primary/secondary/tertiary prevention

Primary Prevention - includes any measure that reduces financial stress, family isolation and unwanted parenthood. Seondary Prevention - includes spotting warning signs and keeping a risky situation from getting worse, i.e home visits, high-quality day care and preventive social work. Tertiary Prevention -- reduces harm when maltreatment has already occurred (i.e. helping parents provide better care, removing the child from the home).

*Types of play (Parten, 1932)

Solitary play - alone Onlooker play - watches other children play Parallel play - play with similar toys and in similar ways but not together Associative play - interact, observing each other and sharing material - but not yet mutual and reciprocal Cooperative play - play together, creating and elaborating a joint activity or taking turns.

Freud's stage of psychosocial development - middle childhood

Stresses the child's achievements during these years. He called this period - latency - a time when emotional drives are quiet and unconscious sexual conflicts are submerged. Latency is a "time for acquiring cognitive skills and assimilating cultural values as children expand their world to include teaches, neighbors, peers, etc. Sexual energy continue to flow, but is channeled into social concerns.

*Scaffolding

Temporary support that is tailored to a learner's needs and abilities and aimed at helping the learner master the next task in a given learning process.

*Emotions - emotional regulation - accomplishment of early childhood concerning emotions

The ability to control when and how emotions are expressed.

*Overregularization

The application or rules of grammar even when exceptions occur, making the language seem more "regular" than it actually is.

Resilience

The capacity to adapt well despite significant adversity and to overcome serious stress.

*Family stress model

The family stress model holds that the crucial question to ask about any risk factor (including poverty, divorce, job loss, eviction) is whether or not it increases the stress on a family.

*Theory-theory

The idea that children attempt to explain everything they see and hear.

*The culture of children

The particular habits, styles, and values that reflect the set of rules and rituals that characterize children as distinct from adult society.

*Comorbid

The presence of two or more unrelated disease conditions at the same time in the same person

*Conservation

The principle that the amount of a substance remains the same (i.e. conserved) when its appearance changes.

*Myelination

The process by which axons become coated with myelin, a fatty substance that speeds the transmission of nerve impulses from neuron to neuron. Lifelong process - most noticeable in younger (slow) children.

*Fast mapping

The speedy and sometime imprecise way in which children learn new words by tentatively placing them in mental categories according to their perceived meaning.

Social comparison

The tendency to assess one's abilities, achievements, social status, and other attributes by measuring them against those of other people, especially one's peers.

*Perseveration

The tendency to persevere in, or stick to, one thought or action for a tong time.

Warning signs/consequences of maltreatment

Warning signs - delayed development (i.e. slow growth, immature communication, lack of curiosity, fearful, startled by noise, defensive and quick to attack, confused between fantasy and reality. Consequences - Suffer physiologically, academically and socially - consider other people to be hostile and exploitative. Often become drug abusesr, enter unsupportive relationships and victims or aggressors themselves.

*Erikson's stage of psychosocial development - middle childhood

a time for devoted attention and perseverance in learning. The child must forget past hopes and wishes, while his exuberant imagination is tamed and harnessed to the laws of impersonal things - becoming ready to apply himself to given skills and tasks. The fourth developmental crisis, industry versus inferiority, competent or incompetent productive or failing, winners or losers. productive is intrinsically joyous and fosters self control that defends against emotional problems.

*Increased activity of the amygdala (prolonged stress) during early childhood can result in what?

frightening nightmares or sudden terrors.

*Guilt vs shame - which is a more mature emotion?

guilt - self-blame that people experience why they do something wrong. shame - referes to people's feelings that others blame them, disapprove of them, or are disappointed in them.

*Just right

when young children are compulsive about their meals - only certain foods, prepared and presented in a particular way. Would be pathological in adults but is normal in children under age 6.