Exam 1 Study Guide Review PDF

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Exam 1 Study Guide

1.Introduction (20 Questions on Exam) I.

An Orientation to Lifespan Development A. LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENT is the field of study that examines patterns of growth, change, and stability in behavior that occur throughout the entire life span. 1. Developmental psychologists test their assumptions about the nature and course of human development by applying scientific methods. 2. Lifespan development focuses on human development. a) Universal principles of development b) Cultural, racial, ethnic differences c) Individual traits and characteristics 3. Lifespan developmentalists view development as a lifelong, continuing process. 4. Lifespan developmentalists focus on change and growth in addition to stability, consistency, and continuity in people’s lives. 5. Lifespan developmentalists are interested in people’s lives from the moment of conception until death. B. Characterizing Lifespan Development: The Scope of the Field 1. Topical Areas in Lifespan Development a) PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT involves the body’s physical makeup, including the brain, nervous system, muscles, and senses, and the need for food, drink, and sleep as a determinant of behavior. b) COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT involves the ways that growth and change in learning, memory, problem solving, and intelligence influence a person’s behavior. c) PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT involves the ways that the enduring characteristics that differentiate one person from another change over the life span. d) SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT is the way in which individual’s interactions with others and their social relationships grow, change, and remain stable over the course of life. 2. Age Ranges and Individual Differences a) The life span is usually divided into broad age ranges. (1) Prenatal period (conception to birth) (2) Infancy and toddlerhood (birth to age 3) (3) Preschool period (ages 3 to 6) (4) Middle childhood (ages 6 to 12) (5) Adolescence (ages 12 to 20) (6) Young adulthood (ages 20 to 40) (7) Middle adulthood (ages 40 to 60)

(8) Late adulthood (age 60 to death) b) It is important to remember that people mature at different rates and reach developmental milestones at different points. (1) These broad periods of development are social constructions, a shared notion of reality, one that is widely accepted but is a function of society and culture at a given time. (2) Some developmentalists have proposed an additional stage, emerging adulthood, between the late teens and mid-20s because most people in this age range are no longer adolescents but they are not yet independent adults. c) Substantial individual differences exist in the timing of events in people’s lives. 3. The Links Between Topics and Ages a) Developmental experts may focus on specific age groups or particular areas of development. C. Cohort and Other Influences on Development: Developing With Others in a Social World 1. One’s COHORT is the group of people born around the same time and same place. a) Cohort effects are history-graded influences, the biological and environmental influences associated with a particular historical moment. b) Age-graded influences are biological and environmental influences that are similar for individuals in a particular age group, regardless of when or where they are raised. c) Sociocultural-graded influences include the impact of social and cultural factors present at a particular time for a particular individual, depending on such variables as ethnicity, social class, and subcultural membership. d) Non-normative life events are specific, atypical events that occur in a particular person’s life at a time when such events do not happen to most people. D. Cultural Dimensions: How Culture, Ethnicity, and Race Influence Development 1. Developmentalists must take into consideration broad cultural factors and ethnic, racial, socioeconomic, and gender differences if they are to achieve an understanding of how people change and grow throughout the life span. 2. Progress concerning issues of human diversity has been slow in the field of lifespan development. 3. Members of the research community have sometimes used terms such as race and ethnic group in inappropriate ways.

a) Race is a biological concept referring to classifications based on physical and structural characteristics. b) Ethnic group and ethnicity are broader terms, referring to cultural background, nationality, religion, and language. 4. There is little agreement about which names best reflect different races and ethnic groups (e.g., African American or black; Native American or Indian; Hispanic or Latino). a) Race is not independent of environmental and cultural contexts. II. Key Issues and Questions: Determining the Nature—and Nurture—of Lifespan

Development A. Continuous Change versus Discontinuous Change 1. CONTINUOUS CHANGE involves gradual development in which achievements at one level build on those of previous levels. 2. DISCONTINUOUS CHANGE is development that occurs in distinct steps or stages, with each stage bringing about behavior that is assumed to be qualitatively different from behavior at earlier stages. B. Critical and Sensitive Periods: Gauging the Impact of Environmental Events 1. A CRITICAL PERIOD is a specific time during development when a particular event has its greatest consequences. 2. Because individuals are now considered more malleable than was first thought, developmentalists are more likely to speak of SENSITIVE PERIODS as a point in development when organisms are particularly susceptible to certain kinds of stimuli in their environments, but the absence of those stimuli does not always produce irreversible consequences. a) In critical periods, the absence of certain kinds of environmental influences is likely to produce permanent, irreversible consequences for the developing child. b) In a sensitive period, the absence of particular environmental influences might hinder development, but it is possible for later experience to overcome the earlier deficits. C. Lifespan Approaches Versus a Focus on Particular Periods 1. Early developmentalists focused on infancy and adolescence. 2. Today the entire life span is seen as important for several reasons. a) Growth and change continue throughout life. b) An important part of every person’s environment is the other people around him or her, the person’s social environment. D. The Relative Influence of Nature and Nurture on Development 1. Nature refers to traits, abilities, and capacities that are inherited from one’s parents. a) It encompasses MATURATION, any factor that is produced by the predetermined unfolding of genetic information.

2. Nurture refers to the environmental influences that shape behavior. 3. Developmental psychologists reject the notion that behavior is the result solely of either nature or nurture. 4. It is useful to think of the nature-nurture controversy as opposite ends of a continuum, with particular behaviors falling somewhere between the two ends. III. Theoretical Perspectives on Lifespan Development

A. THEORIES are explanations and predictions concerning phenomena of interest, providing a framework for understanding the relationships among an organized set of facts or principles. IV. The Psychodynamic, Behavioral, and Cognitive Perspectives

A. The Psychodynamic Approach: Focusing on the Inner Person 1. The PSYCHODYNAMIC PERSPECTIVE is the approach that states behavior is motivated by inner forces, memories, and conflicts of which a person has little awareness or control. 2. Freud’s PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY suggests that unconscious forces act to determine personality and behavior. a) According to Freud (1856–1939): (1) The unconscious is a part of the personality about which a person is unaware and is responsible for much of our everyday behavior. (2) One’s personality has three aspects: (a) The id is the raw, unorganized, inborn part of personality present at birth that represents primitive drives related to hunger, sex, aggression, and irrational impulses. (i) Operates according to the pleasure principle, in which the goal is to maximize satisfaction and reduce tension. (b) The ego is the part of personality that is rational and reasonable. (i) Acts as a buffer between the outside world and the primitive id. (ii) Operates on the reality principle, in which instinctual energy is restrained in order to maintain the safety of the individual and help integrate the person into society. (c) The superego is the aspect of personality that represents a person’s conscience, incorporating distinctions between right and wrong. (i) Develops about age 5 or 6. (ii) Learned from parents, teachers, and other significant figures. b) Freud suggested that PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT is a

series of stages that children pass through in which pleasure, or gratification, is focused on a particular biological function and body part. (1) Oral stage (birth to 12–18 months) (2) Anal stage (12–18 months to 3 years) (3) Phallic stage (3 to 5–6 years) (4) Latency stage (5–6 years to adolescence) (5) Genital stage (adolescence to adulthood) c) If children are unable to gratify themselves sufficiently or receive too much gratification, a fixation, behavior reflecting an earlier stage of development, may occur. 3. Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory a) PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT is the approach that encompasses changes in our understanding of individuals, their interactions with others, and their standing as members of society. b) Erikson (1902–1994) suggested that developmental change occurs throughout our lives in eight distinct stages. (1) Trust vs. mistrust (birth to 12–18 months) (2) Autonomy vs. shame and doubt (12–18 months to 3 years) (3) Initiative vs. guilt (3 to 5–6 years) (4) Industry vs. inferiority (5–6 years to adolescence) (5) Identity vs. role diffusion (adolescence to adulthood) (6) Intimacy vs. isolation (early adulthood) (7) Generativity vs. stagnation (middle adulthood) (8) Ego Integrity vs. despair (late adulthood) c) Each stage emerges in a fixed pattern and is similar for all people. d) Each stage presents a crisis or conflict that each individual must address sufficiently at a particular age. e) No crisis is ever fully resolved, which makes life increasingly complicated. f) Unlike Freud, Erikson believed that development continued throughout the lifespan. 4. Assessing the Psychodynamic Perspective a) Contemporary psychological research supports the idea that unconscious memories have an influence on our behavior. b) The notion that people pass through stages in childhood that determine their adult personalities has little research support. c) Because Freud based his theory on a small sample of uppermiddle-class Austrians living during a strict, puritanical era, it is questionable how applicable the theory is to multicultural populations.

d) Because his theory focuses on men, it has been criticized as sexist and devaluing women. e) Erikson’s view that development continues throughout the life span is highly important and has received considerable support. f) Erikson also focused more on men than women. g) Much of Erikson’s theory is too vague to test rigorously. h) In sum, the psychodynamic perspective provides a good description of past behavior but imprecise predictions of future behavior. B. The Behavioral Perspective: Focusing on Observable Behavior 1. The BEHAVIORAL PERSPECTIVE suggests that the keys to understanding development are observable behavior and outside stimuli in the environment. a) Behaviorists reject the notion that people universally pass through a series of stages. b) Development occurs as the result of continuing exposure to specific factors in the environment. c) Development is viewed as quantitative rather than qualitative. 2. Classical Conditioning: Stimulus Substitution a) CLASSICAL CONDITIONING is a type of learning in which an organism responds in a particular way to a neutral stimulus that normally does not bring about that type of response. b) John B. Watson (1878–1958) argued that by effectively controlling a person’s environment, it was possible to produce virtually any behavior. 3. Operant Conditioning a) OPERANT CONDITIONING is a form of learning in which a voluntary response is strengthened or weakened, depending on its association with positive or negative consequences. (1) B. F. Skinner (1904–1990) claimed that people operate on their environments to bring about a desired state of affairs. (2) Reinforcement is the process by which a stimulus is provided that increases the probability that a preceding behavior will be repeated. (3) Punishment, the introduction of an unpleasant or painful stimulus or the removal of a desirable stimulus, will decrease the probability that a behavior will occur in the future. (4) When behavior receives no reinforcement, it is likely to be discontinued or extinguished. b) Principles of operant conditioning are used in BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION, a formal technique for promoting the frequency of desirable behaviors and decreasing the incidence of unwanted ones.

4. Social-Cognitive Learning Theory: Learning Through Imitation Albert Bandura suggests that a certain amount of learning is in the form of SOCIAL-COGNITIVE LEARNING THEORY, which is learning by observing the behavior of another person, called model. 5. Assessing the Behavioral Perspective a) According to classical and operant conditioning, people and organisms are black boxes in which nothing that occurs inside is understood or even cared about. b) Social-cognitive learning theory argues that what makes people different from rats and pigeons is mental activity that must be taken into account. c) Social-cognitive learning theory has come to predominate over classical and operant conditioning. C. The Cognitive Perspective: Examining the Roots of Understanding 1. The COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE focuses on the processes that allow people to know, understand, and think about the world. 2. Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development a) Jean Piaget (1896–1980) proposed that all people pass in a fixed sequence through a series of universal stages of cognitive development. b) In each stage, the quantity of information increases; the quality of knowledge and understanding changes as well. c) Piaget suggested that human thinking is arranged into schemes, organized mental patterns that represent behaviors and actions. d) Piaget suggested that the growth of children’s understanding of the world can be explained by two principles: (1) Assimilation is the process in which people understand an experience in terms of their current stage of cognitive development and way of thinking. (2) Accommodation is the process that changes existing ways of thinking in response to encounters with new stimuli or events. 3. Assessing Piaget’s Theory a) Thousands of investigations have shown it to be largely accurate. b) Some cognitive skills emerge earlier than Piaget suggested. c) Some cognitive skills emerge according to a different timetable in non-Western countries. (1) In every culture, some adults never reach Piaget’s highest level of cognitive thought—formal, logical thought. d) Some developmentalists believe cognitive thought does not develop discontinuously, but slowly, steadily, and continuously.

4. Cognitive Neuroscience Approaches a) COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE APPROACHES look at cognitive development through the lens of brain processes. b) Cognitive neuroscientists seek to identify actual locations and functions in the brain that are related to different types of cognitive activity. c) Cognitive neuroscientists are also providing clues to the cause of autism spectrum disorder, a major developmental disability that can produce profound language deficits and self-injurious behavior in young children. d) This approach is on the forefront of cutting-edge research that has identified specific genes associated with some physical and psychological disorders. V. The Humanistic and Evolutionary Perspectives

A. The Humanistic Perspective: Concentrating on Uniquely Human Qualities 1. The HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVE contends that people have a natural capacity to make decisions about their lives and control their behavior. a) According to this approach, each individual has the ability and motivation to reach more advanced levels of maturity, and people naturally seek to reach their full potential. b) This perspective emphasizes free will, the ability of humans to make choices and come to decisions about their lives. c) Carl Rogers suggests that all people have a need for positive regard that results from an underlying wish to be loved and respected. d) Abraham Maslow suggests that self-actualization, a state of self-fulfillment in which people achieve their highest potential in their own unique way, is a primary goal in life. 2. Assessing the Humanistic Perspective a) The humanistic perspective has not had a major impact on the field of lifespan development. b) It has not identified any sort of broad developmental change that is the result of age or experience. c) Self-actualization has helped describe important aspects of human behavior and is widely discussed in areas ranging from health care to business. B. Evolutionary Perspectives: Our Ancestors’ Contributions to Behavior 1. The EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVE seeks to identify behavior in today’s humans that is the result of our genetic inheritance from our ancestors. a) Evolutionary approaches grew out of the work of Charles Darwin, who argued in On the Origin of Species that a process of natural selection creates traits in a species that are adaptive

to their environment. b) The evolutionary perspective argues that our genetic inheritance determines not only such physical traits as skin and eye color, but certain personality traits and social behaviors. 2. Assessing the Evolutionary Perspective a) Some developmental psychologists criticize the evolutionary perspective for paying insufficient attention to the environment and social factors. b) Others argue that there is no good way to support experimentally theories derived from evolution. C. Why “Which Approach Is Right?” Is the Wrong Question 1. Each emphasizes different aspects of development. a) Psychodynamic approach emphasizes emotions, motivational conflicts, and unconscious determinants of behavior. b) Behavioral approaches emphasize overt behavior. c) Cognitive and humanist approaches look more at what people think than what they do. d) The evolutionary perspective focuses on how inherited biological factors underlie development. 2. Each perspective is based on its own premises and focuses on different aspects of development. 3. The same developmental phenomenon can be looked at from a number of perspectives simultaneously, termed an eclectic approach. VI. Measuring Developmental Change

1. Longitudinal Studies: Measuring Individual Change a) In LONGITUDINAL RESEARCH, the behavior of one or more individuals is measured as the subjects age. (1) They require a tremendous investment of time. (2) There is the possibility of participant attrition, or loss. (3) Participants may become “test-wise.” 2. Cross-Sectional Studies a) In CROSS-SECTIONAL RESEARCH, people of different ages are compared at the same point in time. (1) Differences may be due to cohort effects. (2) Selective dropout, where participants in some age groups are more likely to quit participating in the study than others. (3) Changes in individuals or groups are unable to be explained. 3. Sequential Studies a) In SEQUENTIAL STUDIES, researchers examine a number of different age groups over several points in time. (1) This combines longitudinal and cross-sectional research. (2) It can tell about age changes and age differences.

2. In the Womb-The Dawn of Life (4 Questions on Exam) - “In the Womb” material will NOT be tested on the Exam! However, the following information may appear on the exam: I. Birth: From Fetus to Neonate A. Birth occurs when the fetus passes through the vagina and emerges from the mother’s body. B. As soon as they are born, most babies cry to clear their lungs and begin breathing on their own. C. The Apgar Scale (See Table Below or Table 2-3 in book) (1) The APGAR SCALE is a standard measurement system that looks for a variety of indications of ...