PSYC 100 GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY EXAM 3 STUDY GUIDE Remember this is only a guide to help you study Material not listed here may still appear on the exam Anything presented in class or the textbook is fair game but I am not looking to test you about the minor details Memorization will NOT be enough I want you to focus on understanding and applying your knowledge so use some of the i clicker and Assignment questions to also guide how you should be thinking about the material Happy Studying HUMAN DEVELOPMENT The nature vs nurture debate Nature Genetic predisposition to certain behaviors Nurture behaviors arise because of environment Why was the Genie case study important Showed that there are sensitive and critical periods in life where development happens could not interact with the environment during the sensitive period of development so development was hindered o Advantages and disadvantages of a case study Advantage can study unique situations can be basis for future research Disadvantage cannot be sufficient for basis of theories Periods of prenatal development o Which period is most susceptible to teratogens Teratogens are things in the environment that can inhibit development alcohol drugs tobacco Babies in the embryonic stage are most susceptible Early brain development o Myelination the process of encasing nerve fibers with a fatty sheath genetically hardwired myelin conducts the electrical signals faster o Synaptogenesis burst production of synaptic connections between neurons Twice as many will be produced than will be used o Synaptic Pruning death of cells and elimination of synapses allows brain to be more efficient allows brain to not be too overwhelmed with synapses o Review previous course content on the brain Sensitive periods time periods in development when specific skills develop more easily Certain experiences need to occur in order for development to continue in a similar manner o Tie this concept back to the Genie case study o Tie this concept back to examples of face and language recognition discussed during class Kittens and visual development study no visual input meant those parts of the brain could not be used in the critical period Face Recognition Babies younger than 6 months can recognize differences in faces of primates Attachment o Bowlby Stresses importance of attachment in first year and responsiveness of caregiver Attachment to the mother ensures survival adequate care system infant signals and parental responses laughing baby makes you want to make the baby happy o Harlow s experiments with monkeys People thought infants need mothers as a food source In experiment one mother was made of cloth and could not give milk The other was made of wire and could give milk The monkeys felt more comfortable with the cloth mother showed that attachment to mother is more than food contact comfort allows for development Without contact comfort they miss out social and emotional skills Parenting skills are not genetically wired no real mother bad parenting skills o The Strange Situation is the situation where children cry when their mothers leave and either feel better when their mothers return or react indifferently or angrily The Strange Situation is a procedure devised in the 1970s to observe attachment relationships between a caregiver and child What are the categories that the babies can be classified into Secure Attachment calmed down when mother returns 65 Mother is sensitive available and responsive Insecure Attachement Ambivalent want parent back but cannot use the parent to calm down 10 Resistant mother is unpredictable inconsistent Insecure Attachment Avoidant Ignores parent 20 Mother is emotionally unavailable depressed rejecting Disorganized less than 5 neglect physical abuse Internal Working Models show what to expect from a caregiver Benefits of a secure attachment better adjusted more socially skilled emotional expression communication emotional intelligence Techniques to study infants o What kinds of considerations do we have to make when we do research on infants We must consider the ethics of children being used in experiments that cannot speak for themselves Orienting reflex tendency for babies to pay attention to new stimuli than to stimuli they ve already grown accustomed to Language development How might the development of language map onto the understanding of sensitive periods and early brain development Babies can discriminate sounds of all languages but after about 6 months they specialize to speak in their culture language Babies can begin to learn any language put in front of them o Humans are necessary for learning a language social interaction is very important o Children are active learners by exploring the world but also have other people that direct their learning Piaget o Assimilation using existing schemas to understand new information or experience o Accommodation adjust existing schemas to create new schemas when new information is gathered o What are the stages and the key developments for each stage believed that each stage builds on the previous stage through the 2 learning processes above 1 Sensory motor Stage a Infants actively construct understanding of the world b Big milestone is object permanence understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen heard or touched 2 Preoperational Stage a Children begin to use symbolic thinking i But reasoning is based on intuition ii Don t understand the law of conservation iii Centration focus on one aspect of the problem ex M M s changed the motivation to tell which line has more were asked Which one do you want to eat they chose the correct line of M M s shows they do understand somewhat that the shorter line has more 3 Concrete Operational Stage 4 Formal Operational Stage a Logical reasoning replaces intuitive reasoning if applied to specific concrete examples a Individuals more beyond concrete operations and think in more abstract and logical ways b Children solve problems by trial and error whereas adolescents think more like scientists different skills and types of development develop at different rates Vygotsky s Sociocultural Theory Development is inseparable from cultural and social interaction Knowledge is constructed through interaction with other people NO STAGES Gradual Development Zone of Proximal Development Independently you are capable of a certain amount but there is a maximal amount you can gain with help from someone Zone difference