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PSYC 104: EXAM 2
Developmental Psychology |
branch of psych that studies physical, cognitive, an social changes throughout the lifespan |
Zygote |
fertilized egg; enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo |
Embryo |
developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month |
Fetus |
developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth |
What is the order and time period of prenatal development in humans? |
Zygote, conception to 2 weeks. Embryo, 2 weeks through second month. Fetus, 9 weeks to birth. |
Why do developmental psychologists use visual preference procedures when researching infant development? |
To test the infant's habituation to stimulus.
|
Maturation |
biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience |
Thanks to maturation, when do most infants begin walking? |
By about 12-15 months |
Cognition |
all mental activities involved in thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating
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Schema |
concept or framework that organizes and interprets information |
Assimilation |
interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas |
Accommodation |
adapting our current understanding (schemas) to incorporate new information |
Sensorimotor stage |
in Piaget's theory, from birth to 2 years of age, the stage during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities
|
Object permanence |
awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived. |
Preoperational stage |
In Piaget's theory, stage (from about 2 to 6/7 years of age) during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic
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Egocentrism |
In Piaget's theory, the preoperational child's ability/difficulty in taking another's point of view |
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 |
Theory of mind |
people's ideas about their own and others' mental states - about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and behaviors these might predict
|
Concrete operational stage |
in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 6/7 to 11 years old) 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 at age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts
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What is a milestone of the sensorimotor stage? |
object permanence
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What is a milestone of the preoperational stage? |
pretend play |
What is a milestone of the concrete operational stage? |
conservation |
What is a milestone of the formal operational stage? |
abstract logic |
What stage involves thinking about abstract concepts, such as freedom? |
formal operational stage |
What stage involves intense fear of unknown people? |
sensorimotor stage |
What stage involves enjoying imaginary play such as dressup? |
preoperational stage |
What stage involves the ability to reason with maturity about moral values? |
formal operational stage |
What stage involves understanding that physical properties stay the same even when objects change form? |
concrete operational stage |
What stage involves the ability to reverse math operation? |
concrete operational stage |
What stage involves understanding that something is not gone for good when it disappears from sight as when mom "disappears" behind a shower curtain? |
sensorimotor stage |
What stage involves difficulty taking another's point of view? |
preoperational stage |
What does theory of mind have to do with autism spectrum disorder? |
focuses on our ability to understand our own and others' mental states; those with autism struggle with this ability |
Stranger anxiety |
fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age |
Attachment |
an emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress upon separation
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Critical period |
an optimal period early in the life of an organism when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces normal development
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Imprinting |
process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life |
What distinguishes imprinting from attachment? |
Attachment is the normal process by which we form emotional ties with important others. Imprinting occurs in 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. |
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. |
Self-concept |
our understanding and evaluation of who we are
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The three parenting styles have been called too hard, too soft, and just right. Which is which? |
authoritarian is too hard, permissive is too soft, authoritative is just right.
|
What are some benefits of authoritative parenting? |
Higher self-esteem, self reliance, and social competence |
adolescence |
transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence |
puberty |
period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing. |
Primary sex characteristics |
body structures such as ovaries, testes, and external genitalia that make sexual reproduction possible |
Secondary sex characteristics |
non-reproductive sexual characteristics, such as female breasts and hips, male voice quality, and body hair. |
Menarche |
first menstrual period |
What are Kohlberg's stages of moral reasoning and their characteristics? |
Conventional morality, upholding laws and social rules. Preconventional morality, self-interest. Postconventional morality, self-defined ethical principles
|
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 |
Social identity |
the "we" aspect of our self-concept; the part of our answer to "who am I?" that comes from our group memberships |
Intimacy |
in Erikson's theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in late adolescence and early adulthood
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What are Erikson's stages of psychosocial development and their characteristics? |
Infancy, trust and mistrust. Toddlerhood, autonomy vs shame and doubt. Preschool, initiative vs guilt. Elementary school, competence vs inferiority. Adolescence, identity vs role confusion. Young adulthood, intimacy vs isolation. Middle adulthood, generativity vs stagnation. Late adulthood, integrity vs despair.
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Menopause |
time of natural cessation of menstruation; also refers to the biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines |
Cross-sectional study |
a study in which people of different ages are compared with one another
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Longitudinal study |
research in which the same people are restudied and retested our a long period
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Social clock |
culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood,and retirement |
How would Freud define a healthy adult? |
One who is able to love and to work
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What are some of the challenges and rewards of aging? |
Challenges: decline of muscular strength, reaction times, stamina, sensory keenness, cardiac output, and immune system functioning
Rewards: positive feelings tend to grow, negative emotions are less intense, and risk of depression often decreases
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What findings in psychology support a) the stage theory of development and b) the idea of stability in personality across life span? What findings challenge these ideas? |
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. Some traits, such as temperament, do exhibit remarkable stability across many years. But we do change in others, such as in our social attitudes, especially during life's early years.
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What does the Cannon-Bard theory suggest? |
our physiological response to a stimulus such as a pounding heart and the emotion we experience such as fear, occur simultaneously. |
What does the James-Lange theory suggest? |
first comes the physiological response, then the emotion we experience |
Emotion |
response of the whole organism, involving 1) a physiological arousal, 2) expressive behaviors, and 3) conscious experience |
James-Lange theory |
theory that our experience of emotion is our awareness of our physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli
|
Cannon-Bard theory |
theory that an emotionally arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers 1) physiological responses and 2) the subjective experience of emotion
|
Two-factor theory |
the Schachter-Singer theory that to experience emotion one must first be physically aroused, and also cognitively label the arousal. |
According to Schachter and Singer, what two factors lead to our experience of an emotion? |
Physical arousal and cognitive appraisal
|
Emotion researchers have disagreed about whether emotional responses occur in the absence of cognitive processing. How would you characterize their approaches: Zajonc, LeDoux, Lazarus, Schachter, and Singer? |
Zajonc and LeDoux: instant, before cognitive appraisal
Lazarus: appraisal - sometimes subconscious - defines emotion
Schachter and Singer: 2 factors, general arousal and a conscious cognitive label
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How do the two divisions of the autonomic nervous system affect our emotional response? |
Sympathetic division of ANS arouses us for more intense experiences of emotion, pumping out the stress hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine to prepare our body for fight or flight. The parasympathetic division of the ANS takes over when crisis passes, restoring our body to a calm physiological and emotional state
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Which gender experiences emotion more deeply, and tend to be more adept and reading nonverbal behavior? |
Women |
What might people from other cultures differ in their interpretations of? |
gestures |
Facial feedback effect |
tendency of facial muscle states to trigger corresponding feelings such as fear, anger, or happiness
|
Catharsis |
emotional release; in psych, the catharsis hypothesis maintains that "releasing" aggressive energy (through action or fantasy) relieves aggressive urges
|
What is an effective way to reducec anger? |
Wait, or simmer down |
Feel-good, do-good phenomenon |
people's tendency to be helpful when already in a good mood |
subjective well-being |
self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life. Used along with measure of objective well-being such as physical and economic indicators to evaluate people's quality of life |
Adaptation-level phenomenon |
our tendency to form judgements of sounds, lights, income, etc relative to a neutral level defined by our prior experience |
Relative deprivation |
the perception that one is worse-off relative to those with whom one compares oneself |
Which factors do not predict self-reported happiness? Which do? |
Age and gender do not. Personality traits, close relationships, "flow" in work and leisure, and religious faith do. |
Health psychology |
subfield of psychology that provides psychology's contribution to behavioral medicine
|
Stress |
process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging |
General adaptation syndrome |
Seyle's concept of the body's adaptive response to stress in 3 phases: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion |
Stress response system: when alerted to a negative, uncontrollable event, our _________ response system arouses us. Heart rate and respiration ______. Blood is diverted from digestion to the _________, and the body releases sugar and fat. All this prepares the body for the _________ response. |
sympathetic, increases, skeletal muscles, fight-or-flight. |
Tend and befriend |
under stress, people, esp. women, often provide support to others (tend) and bond with/seek support from others (befriend) |
Psychophysiological illness |
literally, "mind-body" illness; any stress-related physical illness such as hypertension and some types of headaches
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Psychoneuroimmunology |
study of how psychological, neural, and endocrine processes together affect the immune system and resulting health
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Lymphocytes |
2 types of white blood cells that are part of the body's immune system
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What are B-Lymphocytes? |
form in the bone marrow and release antibodies that fight bacterial infections
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What are T-Lymphocytes? |
form in the rhymus and other lymphatic tissue and attack cancer cells, viruses, and foreign substances |
What does psychoneuroimmunology study? |
mind-body interatctions, including the effects of psychological, neural, and endocrine functioning on the immune system and overall health |
What general effect does stress have on our overall health? |
Stress tends to reduce our immune system's ability to function properly, meaning higher stress generally leads to greater incidence of physical illness
|
Coronary heart disease |
clogging of the vessels that nourish the heart muscle; leading cause of death in many developed countries |
Type A |
Friedman and Rosenman's term for competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, and anger-prone people |
Type B |
their term for easy-going, relaxed people |
Which component of Type A personality has been linked most closely with coronary heart disease? |
Feeling angry and negative much of the time |
Coping |
alleviating stress using emotional, cognitive, or behavioral methods
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Problem-focused coping |
attempting to alleviate stress directly- by changing the stressor or the way we interact with that stressor |
Emotion-focused coping |
attempting to alleviate stress by avoiding or ignoring a stressor and attending to emotional needs related to one's stress reaction |
When do we tend to use problem-focused coping? |
When we feel in control of the situation or circumstances |
When do we tend to use emotion-focused coping? |
When we feel we can't change a situation
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Some research find that people with companionable pets are less likely than those without pets to visit their doctors after stressful events. How can the health benefits of social support shed light on this? |
Feeling social support might calm people, and lead to lower levels of stress hormones and blood pressure
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Aerobic exercise |
sustained exercise that increases heat and lung fitness; may also alleviate depression and anxiety |
What are some of the tactics we can use to manage successfully the stress we cannot avoid? |
Aerobic exercise, relaxation procedures, meditation, and religious engagement
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