PSYCH Chapter 5: Developing Through the Life Span

Teratogens

Agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm.

Cognition

All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

Critical period

An optimal period early in the life of an organism when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces normal development.

5-18 How does memory change with age?

As the years pass, recall begins to decline (especially for meaningless information) but recognition memory remains strong. Older adults rely more on time management and memory cues to remember time-based and habitual tasks. Developmental researchers study age-related changes such as in memory with cross-sectional studies (comparing people of different ages) and longitudinal studies (retesting the same people over a period of years). "Terminal decline" describes the cognitive decline in the final few years of life.

Habituation

Decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner.

Example of the Preoperational stage of cognitive development

-pretend play -egocentrism

Enjoying imaginary play is part of which stage of cognitive development? (Piaget)

Preoperational

What findings in psychology support (1) the stage theory of development and (2) the idea of stability in personality across the life span? What findings challenge these ideas?

(1) Stage theory is supported by the work of Piaget (cognitive development), Kohlberg (moral development), and Erikson (psychosocial development), but it is challenged by findings that change is more gradual and less culturally universal than these theorists supposed. (2) Some traits, such as temperament, do exhibit remarkable stability across many years. But we do change in other ways, such as in our social attitudes.

Example of Formal Operational stage of cognitive development

-abstract logic -potential for mature moral reasoning

Example of Concrete Operational stage of cognitive development

-conservation -mathematical transformations

Example of the Sensorimotor stage of cognitive development

-object permanence -stranger anxiety

Schema

A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.

5-6 What is autism spectrum disorder?

A disorder marked by significant deficiencies in communication and social interaction, and by rigidly fixated interests and repetitive behaviors

Accommodation

Adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information.

5-12 How is adolescence defined, and how do physical changes affect developing teens?

Adolescence is the transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to social independence.

5-20 What themes and influences mark our social journey from early childhood to death?

Adults do not progress through an orderly sequence of age-related social stages. Chance events can determine life choices. The social clock is a culture's preferred timing for social events, such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement. Adulthood's dominant themes are love and work, which Erikson called intimacy and generativity.

5-7 How do parent-infant attachment bonds form?

After about 8 months, soon after object permanence emerges and children become mobile, they develop stranger anxiety. Children have schemas for familiar faces, so they become distressed when they can't assimilate the new face into these remembered schemas. Infants form attachments not simply because parents gratify biological needs but, more important, because they are comfortable, familiar, and responsive. Many birds and other animals have a more rigid attachment process, called imprinting, that occurs during a critical period.

5-4 During infancy and childhood, how do the brain and motor skills develop?

After birth, the branching neural networks that eventually enable us to walk, talk, and remember grow at an extremely high rate. From ages 3-6, the most rapid growth is in our frontal lobes, which enable rational planning. The brain's association areas - those linked with thinking, memory, and language - are the last cortical areas to develop. As they do, mental abilities surge. Fiber pathways supporting agility, language, and self-control increase rapidly into puberty. Under the influence of adrenal hormones, tens of billions os synapses form and organize, while a use-it-or-lose-it pruning process shuts down unused links.

5-8 How have psychologists studies attachment differences, and what have they learned?

Attachment has been studied in strange situation experiments, which show that some children are securely attached and others are insecurely attached. Infants' differing attachment styles reflect both their individual temperament and the responsiveness of their parents and child-care providers. Adult relationships seem to reflect the attachment styles of early childhood, lending support to Erik Erikson's idea that basic trust is formed in infancy by our experience with responsive caregivers.

What distinguishes imprinting from attachment?

Attachment is the normal process by which we form emotional ties with important others. Imprinting, however, occurs only in certain animals that have a critical period very early in their development during which they must form their attachments, and they do so in an inflexible manner. ,

5-11 What are the different styles of parenting, and how do children's traits relate to them?

Authoritarian, permissive, authoritative, and uninvolved. Children with high self-esteem tend to have authoritative parents and to be self-reliant and socially competent, but the direction of the cause and effect in this relationship is not clear. Child-raising practices reflect both individual and cultural values.

Maturation

Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience.

5-9 How does childhood neglect or abuse affect children's attachments?

Children are very resilient, but those who are severely neglected by their parents, or otherwise prevented from forming attachments at an early age, may be at risk for attachment problems.

Having the ability to reverse math operations is part of which stage of cognitive development? (Piaget)

Concrete operational

Understanding that physical properties stay the same even when objects change form is part of which stage of cognitive development? (Piaget)

Concrete operational

Developmental researchers who emphasize learning and experience are supporting _____; those who emphasize biological maturation are supporting _____.

Continuity; stages

5-15 How do parents and peers influence adolescents?

During adolescence, parental influence diminishes and peer influence increases, in part because of the selection effect - the tendency to choose similar others. But adolescents also do sometimes adopt their peers' ways of dressing, acting, and communicating. Parents have more influence in religion, politics, and college career choices.

5-14 What are the social tasks and challenges of adolescence?

Erikson theorized that each life stage has its own psychological task, and that a chief task of adolescence is solidifying one's sense of self - one's identity. This often means trying out a number of different roles. Social identity is the part of the self-concept that comes from a person's group memberships.

Thinking about abstract concepts, such as "freedom" is part of which stage of cognitive development? (Piaget)

Formal operational

Egocentrism

In Piaget's theory, the preoperational child's difficulty taking another's point of view. (PRESCHOOL AGE)

Preoperational stage

In Piaget's theory, the stage (from about 2 to about 6 or 7 years of age) during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic.

Sensorimotor stage

In Piaget's theory, the stage (from birth to nearly 2 years of age) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities.

Concrete operational Stage

In Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 7 - 11 years of age) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events.

Formal operational stage

In Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts.

5-19 How do neurocognitive disorders and Alzheimer's disease affect cognitive ability?

NCDs are acquired (not lifelong) disorders marked by cognitive deficits, which are often related to Alzheimer's disease, brain injury or disease, or substance abuse. This damage to brain cells results in the erosion of mental abilities that is not typical of normal aging. Alzheimers disease is marked by neural plaques, often with an onset after age 80, entailing a progressive decline in memory and other cognitive abilities.

Having difficulty taking another's point of view (as when blocking someone's view of the TV) due to egocentrism is part of which stage of cognitive development?

Preoperational

Assimilation

Interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas.

The biological growth process, called ____, explains why most children begin walking by about 12-15 months.

Maturation

According to Kohlberg, ______ morality focuses on self-interest; ______ morality focuses on self-defined ethical principles; ______ morality focuses on upholding laws and social rules.

Preconventional; post-conventional; conventional

5-1 What three issues have engaged developmental psychology?

Nature and nurture Continuity and stages Stability and change

5-3 What are some newborn abilities, and how to researchers explore infants' mental abilities?

Newborns are equipped with automatic reflex responses, such as withdrawing their limbs to escape pain, turning their heads if face is covered, rooting for a nipple to drink milk, sucking, tonguing, swallowing, and breathing.

Object permanence, pretend play, conservation, and abstract logic are developmental milestones for which of Piaget's stages, respectively?

Object permanence - sensorimotor Pretend play - preoperational Conservation - concrete operational Abstract logic - formal operational

5-22 A love one's death triggers what range of reactions?

People do not grieve in predictable stages, as was once supposed. Strong expressions of emotion do not purge grief, and bereavement therapy is not significantly more effective than grieving without such aid. Erikson viewed the late-adulthood psychosocial task as developing a sense of integrity (versus despair).

What does theory of mind have to do with autism spectrum disorder?

People with ASD have an impaired theory of mind (ideas about their own and other's mental states - feelings, perceptions, and thoughts - and what these behaviors might predict).

5-13 How did Piaget, Kohlberg, and later researchers describe adolescent cognitive and moral development?

Piaget theorized that adolescents develop a capacity for formal operations and that this development is the foundation for moral judgment. Lawrence Kohlberg proposed a stage theory of moral reasoning, from a preconventional morality of self-interest, to a conventional morality of universal ethical principles. Other researchers believe that morality lies in moral intuition and moral action as well as thinking. Some critics argue that Kohlberg's postconventional level represents morality from the perspective of individualist, middle-calss people.

5-5 From the perspectives of Piaget, Vygostky, and today's researchers, how does a child's mind develop?

Piaget: proposed that children actively construct and modify their understanding of the world through the processes of assimilation and accommodation. They form schemas that help them organize their experiences. (Know about sensorimotor stage, pre-operational, concrete operational, formal operational stages). Research supports this sequence, but it also shows that young children are more capable, and their development more continuous, than he believed. Vygostky: his studies of focused on the ways a child's mind grows by interacting with the social environment. In his view, parents and caretakers provide temporary scaffolds enabling children to step to higher levels of learning.

Kohlberg's levels of moral thinking

Preconventional morality (before age 9) Conventional morality (early adolescence) Postconventional morality (adolescence and beyond)

Theory of mind

Preschoolers, although egocentric, develop the ability to infer's mental states when they begin forming Theory of Mind: People's ideas about their own and others' mental states - about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict.

Moral intuition

Quick gut feelings, or affectively laden intuitions.

5-10 How do children's self-concepts develop?

Self-concept, an understanding and evaluation of who we are, emerges gradually. By 15 to 18 months, children recognize themselves in a mirror. By school age, they can describe many of their own traits, and by age 8 or 10 their self-image is stable.

Understanding that something is not gone for good, even when it disappears from sight is part of which stage of cognitive development? (Piaget)

Sensorimotor

Object permanence

The awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived.

Conservation

The principle (which Piaget believed to be a part of concrete operational reasoning) that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects.

Moral reasoning

The thinking that occurs as we consider right and wrong.

5-16 What is emerging adulthood?

The transition from adolescence to adulthood is now talking longer. Emerging adulthood is the period from age 18 to mid-twenties, when many young people are not yet fully independent. But observers mote that this stage is found mostly in today's Western cultures.

Name erikson's stages of psychosocial development

Trust vs mistrust Autonomy vs shame and doubt Initiative vs guilt Competence vs inferiority Identity vs role confusion Intimacy vs isolation Generativity vs stagnation Integrity vs dispair

5-2 What is the course of prenatal development?

Zygote period (conception to 2 weeks) Embryo period (weeks 2-9) Fetus period (week 9-birth)

Freud defined the healthy adult as one who is able to _____ and to _____.

love; work