Exam 3 Study Guide Includes Human Development and Social Psychology Parts 1 and 2 This information is taken from class lectures notes and the textbook I ve come to class every day and read the textbook Good luck Human Development 1 What does developmental psychology study a Developmental psychology change over the lifespan study of how behavior and mental processes 2 Be able to define and differentiate between cross sectional design and longitudinal design What are the problems with each a Cross sectional design single point in time design that examines people of different ages at a i A problem with this is cohort effects effects due to individuals growing up in the same time period Examples of this are how old people can be influenced by life experiences like war and young people are usually better with technology This limits the ability to measure the difference between the groups b Longitudinal design design that examines development in same group at multiple time points For example checking up on the same people every year i Costly takes a lot of time and resources to keep checking up on this is the main idea that people will probably these people ii Selective attrition drop out of the study and those people are probably different than the people that stay An example of this is a study on marriage where people that get divorced or are less satisfied with their marriage are more likely to drop out of the study c The main difference between these two is that cross sectional uses different people at once where the longitudinal uses the same people over time 3 What is post hoc fallacy What are bi directional effects How do these things relate to the study of human development false assumption that because A precedes B A must a Post hoc fallacy have caused B i This type of reasoning becomes tempting when the earlier behavior seems logically related to the later one Many factors could have influenced both behaviors so we don t have the grounds for inferring causation from this correlation b Bi directional effects environment but individuals also affect those around them and shape their own environment An example is people say that violent video games individuals are affected by parents peers make people more violent but maybe the aggressive people are more likely to play more violent video games Children s experiences influence their development but their development also influences their experiences i Children change their environment by acting in ways that create changes in the behaviors of their parents siblings friends and teachers Furthermore as children grow older they play an increasingly active role in altering and selecting their environments 4 Is our development due to nature or nature Know three ways discussed in class that nature and nurture work together to shape our development a They both play powerful roles in shaping development but it s hard to b Gene environment interaction effects of genes depend on environment isolate their effects since nature and nurture intersect in many interesting ways and vice versa c Nature via nurture people to seek out create certain environments An example is an anxious person avoiding things that make them anxious which would maintain the anxiety and make it seem worse when they are approached with that stimulus d Gene expression experiences throughout development activation deactivation of genes by environmental tendency of genetic predispositions to encourage 5 Who was Piaget and what were his three important contributions to understanding cognitive development in children discussed in class a Piaget was the first to present a comprehensive account of cognitive development He attempted to identify the stages that children pass through on their way to adult like thinking b First to present comprehensive account of cognitive development c Major contribution children are not mini adults understanding of world is d Posited stages of development marked by radical reorganization of different from an adult s thinking 6 What are schemas What is equilibration Be able to define and differentiate a Schema b Equilibration between assimilation and accommodation Be able to give an example of each knowledge structures mental models of our world maintain a balance between our experiences of the world and our thoughts about it You know the podium is a podium and not a dinosaur c Assimilation example of this is a little kid going to the zoo for the first time They know what a horse is so the recognize that but they don t recognize a zebra so they fit it into the horse category fitting new experiences into existing mental models An d Accommodation changing mental models to account for new experiences In this case the child will understand that the zebra is not a horse and even make a new schema for zebras 7 Know Piaget s four stages of development when they generally occur and what cognitive abilities and limitations occur in each a Sensorimotor stage i Birth 2 years ii Learning through own actions consequences like touching something sharp that hurting and not doing that again iii No thought beyond immediate experience Can t think far in the future what we believe animals do too iv Milestone object permanence understanding that objects exist even when out of sight Peek a boo They truly believe that you are disappearing Object permanence is when they understand that s not the case b Preoperational stage i 2 7 years ii Able to think beyond immediate situation understand symbolic representation An example of symbolic representation is a child pretending a banana is a phone on not really seeing it as talking into a banana inability to see the world from another s perspective iii egocentric iv unable to perform mental transformations 1 Fail conservation tasks Putting the same amount of water into a different shaped glass Children can t understand that the taller thinner glass holds the same amount as the fatter shorter glass This is part of the reason that little kids have a hard time with math because they have such a hard time understanding this c Concrete operations stage i 7 11 years ii Mental transformations but only physical objects iii Difficult to imagine hypothetical situations d Formal Operations i 11 adulthood ii Can think abstractly model hypothetical situations 8 What are three problems with Piaget s stages of cognitive development discussed in class a Development appears to be more continuous not stage like b Dome children show cognitive
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