Psych Final Exam Review1. What are three historical/philosophical views of childhood?• Tabula rasa: John Locke; children are like blank tablets; childhood experiences determine adult characteristics• Original sin: during the Middle Ages; children were born into the world as evil beings and were basically bad; goal was to remove sin from the child’s life• Innate goodness: Jean-Jacques Rousseau; children are inherently good; they should be permitted to grow naturally, without monitoring or constraint2. Nature vs. nurture: debate about what primarily influences development• Nature: an organism’s biological inheritance• Nurture: environmental experiences3. What is the discontinuity (or stage) concept? What is the continuity concept?• Discontinuity: development involves distinct stages; nature• Continuity: based on gradual, cumulative change; nurture4. Phenotypes vs. genotypes• Genotype: person’s genetic heritage; actual genetic material• Phenotype: way an individual’s genotype is expressed in observable and measurable characteristics5. Zone of proximal development: Vygostsky; the range of tasks that are too difficult for children to master alone but that can be mastered with the guidance and assistance of adults or more-skilled children• Scaffolding: changing the level of support to fit the child’s performance6. Piaget’s sensorimotor development theory: from birth to 2 years; infants construct an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences with physical, motoric actions1) Simple reflexes: 1st month after birth; sensation and reaction are coordinated primarily through reflexes2) 1st habits and primary circular reactions: habits (scheme based on a reflex that has become completely separated from its eliciting stimulus) and primary circular reactions (scheme based on the attempt to reproduce an event that initially occurred by chance); infants’ body remains the center of attentiono Circular reaction: repetitive action3) Secondary circular reactions: between 4 and 8 months; infant becomes more object-oriented, moving beyond the self; imitate some simple actions; schemes are not intentional or goal-oriented4) Coordination of secondary circular reactions: between 8 and 12 months; infant must coordinate vision and touch; actions become more outwardly directed; coordination of schemes and intentionality5) Tertiary circular reactions, novelty and curiosity: between 12 and 18 months; tertiary circular reactions (schemes in which infant purposely explores new possibilities with objects, continually doing new things to them and exploring the results); start of curiosity and interest in novelty6) Internalization of schemes: between 18 and 24 months; ability to use primitive symbols (internalized sensory images or words that represent and event)allowing the infant to manipulate and transform the represented events in simple ways• Conservation: the awareness that altering an object’s appearance does not change is basic properties (water in glasses)• Centration: centering of attention on one characteristic to the exclusion of all others7. Aspects of cognitive development:• Theory of mind: awareness of one’s own mental processes and the mental processes of others• Object permanence: the understanding that objects and events continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, heard or touched• Egocentrism: the inability to distinguish between one’s own perspective and someone else’s perspective (view of mountains task)8. Aspects of infantile attention:• Habituation: decreased responsiveness to a stimulus after repeated presentations• Dishabituation: recovery of a habituated response after a change in stimulation• Joint attention: individuals focus on the same object or evento Requires an ability to track another’s behavior, one person directing another’s attention, and reciprocal interaction9. Intelligence: the ability to solve problems; the capacity to adapt and learn from experience; creativity and interpersonal skills• Intelligence quotient (IQ): mental age, divided by actual age, times 100• Measure of giftedness vs. mental retardationo Mental retardation: limited mental ability; IQ below 70; difficulty adapting to life Mild: 55-70 Moderate: 40-54 Severe: 25-39 Profound: below 25o Giftedness: IQ above 130; superior talent for something10. Aspects of grammar:• Phoneme: language’s sound system; syllables• Morpheme: unit of meaning involved in word formation• Syntax: forming acceptable phrases and syntax• Semantics: meaning of words and sentences• Pragmatics: appropriate use of language in different contexts • Metalinguistic awareness: knowledge about language, knowing what a verb is or discussing language sounds11. Chomsky’s language acquisition device: a biological endowment that enables the child to detect certain features and rules of language; ability to acquire or develop language skills12. Memory tools:• Imagery: creating mental images• Rehearsal: restating information repeatedly for short-term memory• Elaboration: more extensive processing of information• Organization: putting information in an order or categories13. Parenting styles:• Authoritarian: restrictive, punitive style in which parents make the child follow their directions and respect their work and effort• Authoritative: encourages children to be independent but still places limits and controls on their actions• Indulgent: parents are highly involved but place few demands or controls on them• Neglectful: uninvolved parents14. Concepts of self:• Self-concept: domain-specific evaluations of the self• Self-esteem: person’s self-worth or self-image; global evaluation of the self• Possible self: what adolescents hope to be (ideal), an actual self, as well as what they dread they will become• Perspective taking: taking another’s point of view; ability to assume other people’s perspectives and understand thoughts and feelings15. James Marcia periods of self identification:• Moratorium vs. crisiso Moratorium: the gap between childhood security and adult autonomy during which societies leave adolescents relatively free of responsibility; free to try out different identitieso Crisis: period of identity development during which the adolescent explores alternatives• Identity diffusion: individuals who have not yet experienced a crisis or made any commitments• Identity foreclosure: individuals who
View Full Document