Psychology Ch. 5

Sensorimotor stage

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

Preoperational stage

in Piaget's theory, the stage (from about 2 to 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

Stranger anxiety

the fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age

Puberty

the period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing

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

Imprinting

the process by which certain animals form strong attachments during early life.

Concrete operational stage

in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 7 to 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

Scaffold

in Vygotsky's theory, a framework that offers children temporary support as they develop higher levels of thinking

identity

our sense of self; according to Erikson, the adolescent's task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles

Teratogens

(literally, "monster makers") agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm.

Developmental psychology

A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span.

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. Boys seem to benefit (though with risks) from "early" maturation, girls from "late" maturation. The brain's frontal lobes mature and myelin growth increases during adolescence and the early twenties, enabling improved judgement, impulse control, and long-term planning.

How do parent-infant attachment bonds form?

At about 8 months, soon after object permanence develops, children separated from their caregivers display stranger anxiety. Infants form attachments with caregivers who gratify biological needs but, more importantly, who are comfortable, familiar, and responsive. Many birds and other animals have a more rigid attachment process, called imprinting, that occurs during a critical period.

How have psychologists studied attachment differences, and what have they learned?

Attachment has been studied in stage situation experiments, which show that some children are securely attached and others are insecurely (anxiously or avoidantly) 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, leading support to Erik Erikson's idea that basic trust is formed in infancy by our experiences with responsive caregivers.

What outcomes are associated with each parenting style?

Authoritative parenting is associated with greater self-esteem, self-reliance, self-regulation, and social competence; authoritarian parenting with lower self-esteem, less social skill, and a brain that overreacts to mistakes; permissive parenting with greater aggression and immaturity; and negligent parenting with poor academic and social outcomes. However, correlation does not equal causation (it's possible that children with positive characteristics are more likely to bring out positive parenting methods)

What is autism spectrum disorder?

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a disorder marked by social deficiencies and repetitive behaviors with differing levels of severity. Children with ASD have an impaired theory of mind. By age eight, 1 in 68 US children now gets diagnosed with ASD (though the reported rates vary by place). The increase in diagnoses has been offset by a decrease in the number of children with a "cognitive disability" or "learning disability." Genetic influences, abnormal brain development, and the prenatal environment-especially when altered by infection, drugs, or hormones-likely contribute to ASD.

What are some newborn abilities, and how do researchers explore infant's mental abilities?

Babies are born with sensory equipment and reflexes that facilitate their survival and their social interactions with adults. For example, they quickly learn to discriminate their mother's smell, and they prefer the sound of human voices. Researchers use techniques that test habituation, such as the novelty-preference procedure, to explore infants' abilities.

The three major issues that interest developmental psychologists are nature/nurture, stability/change, and __________/___________

Continuity/stages

In a series of experiments, the Harlows found that monkeys raised with artificial mothers tended, when afraid, to cling to their cloth mother, rather than to a wire mother holding the feeding bottle. Why was this finding important?

Before these studies, many psychologists believed that infants simply became attached to those who nourished them.

Maturation

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

Habituation

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

What three issues have engaged developmental psychologists?

Developmental psychologists study physical, cognitive, and social changes throughout the life span. They focus on three issues: nature and nurture (the interaction between our genetic inheritance and our experiences); continuity and stages (which aspects of development are gradual and continuous and which change relatively abruptly); and stability and change (whether out traits endure or change as we age).

What is emerging adulthood?

Due to earlier sexual maturity and later independence, the transition from adolescence to adulthood is taking longer than it once did. Emerging adulthood is the period from age 18 to the mid-twenties, when many young people are not yet fully independent. This stage is found mostly in today's Western cultures.

How do parents and peers influence adolescence?

During adolescence, parental influence diminishes and peer influence increases. Adolescents adopt their peers' ways of dressing, acting, and communicating. Parents have more influence in religion, politics, and education and career choices.

What are the social tasks and challenges of adolescence?

Erik Erikson proposed eight stages of psychological development across the life span. He believed we need to achieve the following challenged: trust, autonomy, initiative, competency, identity (in adolescence), intimacy (in young adulthood), generativity, and integrity. Each life stage has its own psychological task. Solidifying one's sense of self in adolescence 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.

From the perspective of Piaget, Vygotsky, and today's researchers, how does a child's mind develop?

In his theory of cognitive development, Jean 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. Progressing from the simplicity of the sensorimotor stage of the first two years, in which they develop object permanence, children move to more complex ways of thinking. In the proportional stage (about age 2 to about 6 or 7), they develop a theory of mind. In the preoperational stage, children are egocentric and unable to perform simple logical operations. By about age 7, they enter the concrete operational stage and are able to comprehend the principle of conversation. By age 12, children enter the formal operational stage and can reason systematically. Research supports the sequence Piaget proposed, but it also shows that young children are more capable, and their development more continuous, than he believed. Lev Vygotsky's studies of child development 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 thinking.

Use Piaget's first three stages of cognitive development to explain why young children are not just miniature adults in the way they think.

Infants in Piaget's sensorimotor stage tend to be focused only on their own perceptions of the world and may, for example, be unaware that objects continue to exist when unseen. A child in the preoperational stage is still egocentric and is incapable of appreciating simple logic, such as the reversibility of operations. A preteen in the concrete operational stage is beginning to think logically about concrete events but not about abstract concepts.

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

Most children are 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. Extreme trauma in childhood may alter the brain, affecting our stress responses or leaving epigenetic marks.

Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)

Physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman's heavy drinking. In severe cases, signs include a small, out-of-proportion head and abnormal facial features.

An 8-month-old infant who reacts to a new babysitter by crying and clinging to his father's shoulder is showing __________ ___________

Stranger anxiety

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 or self-interest, to a conventional morality concerned with upholding laws and social rules, to (in some people) a post-conventional morality of universal ethical principles. Other researchers believe that morality lies in moral intuition and moral action as well as thinking. Kohlberg's critics note that post-conventional level is culturally limited, representing morality only from the perspective of an individualist society.

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.

Chemicals that the placenta isn't able to screen out that can harm an embryo or fetus are called __________

Teratogens

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

The brain's nerve cells are sculpted by heredity and experience. As a child's brain develops, neural connections grow more numerous and complex. Experiences then trigger a pruning process, in which unused connections weaken and heavily used ones strengthen. Early childhood is an important period for shaping the brain, but our brain modifies itself in response to our learning throughout life. In childhood, complex motor skills-sitting, standing, walking-develop in a predictable sequence, though the timing of that sequence is a function of individual maturation and culture. We have few or no conscious memories of events occurring before about age 4. Thus infantile amnesia occurs in part because major brain areas have not yet matured.

Fetus

The developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth.

Embryo

The developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month.

Zygote

The fertilized egg; it enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo.

What is the course of prenatal development, and how do teratogens affect that development?

The life cycle begins at conception, when one sperm cell unites with an egg to form a zygote. The zygote's inner cells become the embryo, and the outer cells become the placenta. in the next 6 weeks, body organs begin to form and function, and by 9 weeks, the fetus is recognizably human. Teratogens are potentially harmful agents that can pass through the placenta and harm the developing embryo or fetus, as happens with fetal alcohol syndrome.

What are the four main parenting styles?

The main parenting styles are authoritarian (coercive), permissive (restraining), negligent (uninvolved), and authoritative (conformative)

Why can't we consciously recall how we learned to walk when we were infants?

We consciously recall little from before age 4, in part because major brain areas have not yet matured.

Schema

a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information

Autism spectrum disorder

a disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by significant deficiencies in communication and social interaction, and by rigidly fixated interests and repetitive behaviors

Emerging adulthood

a period from about age 18 to the mid-twenties, when many in Western cultures are no longer adolescents but have not yet achieved full independence as adults

Although Piaget's stage theory continues to inform our understanding of children's thinking, many researchers believe that a) Piaget's stages begin earlier and development is more continuous than he realized b) children do not progress as rapidly as Piaget predicted c) few children progress to the concrete operational stage d) there is no way of testing much of Piaget's theoretical work

a) Piaget's stages begin earlier and development is more continuous than he realized

Stroke a newborn's cheek and the infant will root for a nipple. This illustrates a) a reflex b) nurture c) a preference d) continuity

a) a reflex

Basic trust

according to Erik Erikson, a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy; said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers

Accommodation

adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information

Self-concept

all our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question, "Who am I?"

Cognition

all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

Attachment

an emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation

Critical period

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

Which of the following is true of motor-skill development? a) It is determined solely by genetic factors b) The sequence, but not the timing, is universal c) The timing, but not the sequence, is universal d) It is determined solely by environmental factors

b) The sequence, but not the timing, is universal

In Erikson's stages, the primary task during adolescence is a) attaining formal operations b) forging an identity c) developing a sense of intimacy with another person d) living independent of parents

b) forging an identity

Adolescence is marked by the onset of a) an identity crisis b) puberty c) separation anxiety d) parent-child conflict

b) puberty

Although development is lifelong, there is stability of personality over time. For example, a) most personality traits emerge in infancy and persist throughout life. b) temperament tends to remain stable throughout life c) few people change significantly after adolescence d) people tend to undergo greater personality changes as they age

b) temperament tends to remain stable throughout life

Body organs first begin to form and function during the period of the __________; within 6 months, during the period of the __________, organs are sufficiently functional to provide a good chance of surviving and thriving. a) zygote; embryo b) zygote; fetus c) embryo; fetus d) placenta; fetus

c) embryo; fetus

Egocentrism

in Piaget's theory, the preoperational child's difficulty taking another's point of view

Some developmental psychologists refer to the period that occurs in some Western cultures from age 18 to the mid-twenties and beyond (up to the time of full adult independence) as __________ __________

emerging adulthood

According to Piaget, a person who can think logically about abstractions is in the __________ __________ stage

formal operations

Between ages 3 and 6, the human brain experiences the greatest growth in the __________ lobes, which enable rational planning and aid memory.

frontal

Intimacy

in Erikson's theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in young adulthood

Assimilation

interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas

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.

Social identity

the "we" aspect of our self-concept; the part of our answer to "Who am I?" that comes from our group memberships

Object permanence

the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived

Adolescence

the transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence