Study Guide for Exam#1 - Took as a freshman, got an A PDF

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Took as a freshman, got an A...

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Psychology 230 - Study Guide for Examination I THE FATHER OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY IS G. STANLEY HALL 1. Be able to describe the major controversies in developmental psychology such as nature-nurture, continuity-discontinuity, and universal vs context-specific development. Be able to identify examples of each of these concepts. Nature-Nurture -> This debate within psychology is concerned with the extent to which particular aspects of behavior are a product of either inherited (i.e. genetic) or acquired (i.e. learned) characteristics Continuity-Discontinuity -> here are two major theories about how people develop. Continuity theory says that development is a gradual, continuous process. Discontinuity theory says that development occurs in a series of distinct stages (ei. Terrible twos). Universal vs context-specific -> universal development are things that all children learn to do the same or develop in the same way no matter what culture they come from. for example, all children learn to crawl, stand and walk the same. Context- specific development is the aspects of the child's life that would be directly affected by their culture. example- it may be normal for one culture to walk around naked whereas in another culture someone walking around naked may be institutionalized. 2. Be able to describe the normative (age-graded, history-graded) and non-normative influences on development. Normative age-graded influences are those influences within the life course that are correlated with chronological age. For example, marriage and retirement are two normative age-graded influences. These influences are the result of either biological or environmental determinants or an interaction of the two. Normative history-graded influences are those influences within the life course that are correlated with historical time and are experienced by the majority of a culture. For example, wars and epidemics are considered history-graded events Non-Normative unusual occurrences that have a major impact on an individual's life; events do not happen to all people Examples - death of a parent when child is young, pregnancy in adolescence, home burned down, winning the lottery, unexpected career opportunity 3. Be familiar with the assumptions of a lifespan developmental approach. Know who was the founder of developmental psychology and what his beliefs about development were. What factors influenced adolescence being identified as a distinct period of development? How have views of children changed over time? Who was Rousseau, Locke, and Hobbes and what were their views on development? THE FATHER OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY IS G. STANLEY HALL Piaget believed that children go through 4 universal stages of cognitive development. Adolescence is a distinct period of development because of a lot of physical and sexual development takes place. Adolescence is the developmental period of transition from childhood to early adulthood. Adolescence begins with rapid physical changes-

dramatic gains in height and weight, changes in body contour, and the development of sexual characteristics such as enlargement of the breasts, growth of public/facial hair, and deepening of voice. Children used to be treated like “small adults” but with time people realized that children didn’t have as much brain development as adults and had to be given the time and tools to learn and gain different abilities that we already had. They are “innocent and need to be protected”. Rousseau: People are naturally free and equal. People are “Noble Savages” and are corrupted by civilization. Locke: People have freedom of choice. Life itself is not necessarily good or bad but is chaotic and can be random. People utilize free choices as part of and in order to utilize advantages of civilized society. Hobbes: No morality exists. Because of fear that people experience, no one is really free but we're equal due to the ability to defend oneself, battle with each other, etc. 4. Be aware of where different developmental theories stand on issues of nature vs nurture and continuity vs discontinuity. Nature vs. Nurture -> Major Group: Cognitive-Developmental Theories Innate programmed psychological structures evolve Dev. occurs in discontinuous stages Nature (unfolding of structures) and nurture (a stimulating environment) are emphasized Major Group: Ecological Systems Theory Person develops within a series of interacting systems (parents, school, culture) Person’s development is a continuous and gradual growth Nature (personality characteristics) and nurture (family, neighborhood, govt. policies) constantly interact Bandura’s Cognitive Social-Learning Theory Observational Learning (OL) Cognitive Activity We anticipate consequences We develop self-efficacy We reinforce ourselves w/mental praise or criticism 5. Be able to describe the primary elements of the major developmental theories. Be familiar with: Freud's theory - 5 stages of pleasure that children go through a. Oral - the mouth (sucking, swallowing ;) ect..) (This is where the ego develops) b. Anal - being potty trained, not crapping yourself c. Phallic - penis/clitoris (This is where superego develops) d. Latent - little to no sexial desires and/or pleasure e. Genital - penis/vagina, sexual intercourse Erikson’s Theory

Infancy (Birth to 18 months) - The child will develop optimism, trust, confidence, and security if properly cared for and handled. If a child does not experience trust, he or she may develop insecurity, worthlessness, and general mistrust to the world. Basically Trust vs. Mistrust – Hope Toddler (18 months to 3 yrs) - Can build self-esteem, learns new skills, learns right and wrong, carries self with pride if cared for, defiance, temper tantrums, and stubbornness can also appear. Autonomy vs. Shame – Will Preschooler (3 yrs to 5 yrs) - Follows others example, creates play situations (this is where toys come into play) Always ask WHY, begin to find their purpose Initiative vs. Guilt – Purpose School age child (6-12) - capable of learning, creating and accomplishing numerous new skills and knowledge, thus developing a sense of industry, problems in terms of competence and self-esteem, parents are no longer main authorities Industry vs. Inferiority – Competence Adolescent (12-18) - struggle to discover and find his or her own identity, while negotiating and struggling with social interactions and “fitting in”, and developing a sense of morality and right from wrong, delay entrance to adulthood and withdraw from responsibilities Identity vs. Role Confusion – Fidelity Young adult (18-35) - seek companionship and love, seek deep intimacy and satisfying relationships, but if unsuccessful, isolation may occur Intimacy and Solidarity vs. Isolation – Love Middle Age (35-65) Generativity vs. Self absorption or Stagnation – Care Late Adult (65-death) Integrity vs. Despair – Wisdom Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Dev. -> theory stating that children actively construct their understanding of the world and go through four stages of cognitive development. 1. Sensorimotor (Birth to 2 years) - experiences with physical actions, goes from reflexes to “symbolic thought” or decision making 2. Preoperational (2-7 years) - child begins to represent the world with words and images reflect increased symbolic thinking and go beyond the connection of sensory thinking and go beyond sensory information and physical action. 3. Concrete Operational Stage (7 to 11 years) - child can now reason logically about concrete events and classify objects into different sets. 4. Formal Operational Stage (11 through Adulthood) - adolescent reasons in more abstract, idealistic, and logical ways. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory -> environmental systems theory that focuses on five environmental systems: 1. Microsystem - the setting in which the individual lives-> family, peers, school, and neighborhood. 2. Mesosystem - involves relations between microsystems or connections between context. I.e. relationship of family experiences to school experiences 3. Exosystem - links between the individual’s immediate context and a social setting in which the individual does NOT play an active role. example= a husband’s or child’s experience at home may be influenced by a mother’s experience at work. 4. Macrosystem - the culture in which individuals live 5. Chronosystem - patterning of environmental events and transitions over life course. example=divorce is a transition. Social Learning Theory Social learning theory integrated behavioral and cognitive theories of learning in order to provide a comprehensive model that could account for the wide range of learning experiences that occur in the real world. Learning is not purely behavioral; rather, it is a cognitive process that takes place in a social context.

a. Learning can occur by observing a behavior and by observing the consequences of the behavior (vicarious reinforcement). b. Learning involves observation, extraction of information from those observations, and making decisions about the performance of the behavior (observational learning or modeling). Thus, learning can occur without an observable change in behavior. c. Reinforcement plays a role in learning but is not entirely responsible for learning. d. The learner is not a passive recipient of information. Cognition, environment, and behavior all mutually influence each other (reciprocal determinism). Classical conditioning theory Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov. phenomenon he labeled “psychic reflexes.” Pavlov’s dogs, restrained in an experimental chamber, were presented with meat powder and they had their saliva collected via a surgically implanted tube in their saliva glands. Over time, he noticed that his dogs who begin salivation before the meat powder was even presented, whether it was by the presence of the handler or merely by a clicking noise produced by the device that distributed the meat powder. Fascinated by this finding, Pavlov paired the meat powder with various stimuli such as the ringing of a bell. After the meat powder and bell (auditory stimulus) were presented together several times, the bell was used alone. Pavlov’s dogs, as predicted, responded by salivating to the sound of the bell (without the food). The bell began as a neutral stimulus (i.e. the bell itself did not produce the dogs’ salivation). However, by pairing the bell with the stimulus that did produce the salivation response, the bell was able to acquire the ability to trigger the salivation response. Pavlov therefore demonstrated how stimulus-response bonds (which some consider as the basic building blocks of learning) are formed. In technical terms, the meat powder is considered an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) and the dog’s salivation is the unconditioned response (UCR). The bell is a neutral stimulus until the dog learns to associate the bell with food. Then the bell becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS) which produces the conditioned response (CR) of salivation after repeated pairings between the bell and food. Operant Conditioning Theory and Behaviorism it means roughly changing of behavior by the use of reinforcement which is given after the desired response. Skinner identified three types of responses or operant that can follow behavior. • Neutral operants: responses from the environment that neither increase nor decrease the probability of a behavior being repeated. • Reinforcers: Responses from the environment that increase the probability of a behavior being repeated. Reinforcers can be either positive or negative. • Punishers: Responses from the environment that decrease the likelihood of a behavior being repeated. Punishment weakens behavior. Positive/negative reinforcement and punishment. He believed that the best way to understand behavior is to look at the causes of an action and its consequences. He called this approach operant conditioning.

6. Be familiar with Piaget’s stages and the primary achievements of each stage. 1) Sensorimotor (Birth to 2 years) - experiences with physical actions, goes from reflexes to “symbolic thought” or decision making (seeing and hearing) - motoric actions (actions are voluntary and not reflexes)

2) Preoperational (2-7 years) - child begins to represent the world with words and images reflect increased symbolic thinking and go beyond the connection of sensory thinking and go beyond sensory information and physical action. 3) Concrete Operational Stage (7 to 11 years) - child can now reason logically about concrete events and classify objects into different sets. 4) Formal Operational Stage (11 through Adulthood) - adolescent reasons in more abstract, idealistic, and logical ways.

7. Be able to describe the research methods and research designs discussed in class. If given an example of a study, be able to determine what kind of research design is being used. Be able to identify independent and dependent variables in an experiment. You should also know the advantages and disadvantages of the correlational, experimental, and each of the developmental research design. Be familiar with correlation coefficients and how to interpret them. Correlational Designs “Degree of association” – gathering info in already existing groups of people without altering their experiences, the range of -1.0 to +1.0.NOT CAUSATIVE  Advantages: allows us to study relationships between variables that we can’t manipulate  Disadvantages: correlation doesn’t mean causation! There may be other variables responsible for the results making them inconclusive Experimental Designs “Cause and effect” – behaviors of interest are divided into two types Independent Variable – the variable manipulated by the experiment. Dependent Variable – the variable that is expected to be influenced by changes to the independent variable.  Advantages: permits inference about cause & effect  Disadvantages: may not generalize to the real world as well because so many factors are controlled Developmental Designs – TIME IS ALWAYS A VARIABLE, 3 General types. Limits: Age effect(changes which occur due to age), Conhort effect(born in one historical context), Time of measurement effects(which result from the time at which the data are collected) 1) Longitudinal “the classic design” – study same group of participants repeatedly at different ages. o Advantage: you can look at relationships, study common patterns & individual differences in development o Disadvantage: selective drop out, time of measurement effects (something major happens during the study that might not have happened in a different generation) 2) Cross-sectional – study groups of people of different ages at the same time o Advantages: more efficient – quicker, cheaper, easier o Disadvantages: can’t study individual changes (Cohort Effect can be a big problem) 3) Sequential Design – a combination of both cross-sectional and longitudinal designs

o Advantage: advantages of both designs, gives info about age related trends of: age effect, truly cohort effect, effect of historical events o Disadvantages: Same draw backs as longitudinal designs

8. Be familiar with dominant and recessive genes and be able to determine the likelihood that children would inherit a given trait using Mendelian heredity. Dominant gene – sometimes one gene of a pair exerts its effects; it is dominant, overriding the potential influence of the other gene Recessive gene – only exerts its influence if both genes of a pairing are recessive, the recessive gene must come from BOTH of your parents. If it comes from one of your parents, then the other gene will be dominant and you may never know that you have this trait. Mendelian heredity – The manner by which genes and traits are passed from parents to their children. 9. Be familiar with studies on identical twins and what their general findings are. Be familiar with what concordance rates are and how they are used in genetics research. Be familiar with active, passive, and evocative genetic influences.  Identical twins are caused by an egg splitting in 2, they share 100% of their genes were as fraternal twins are from 2 eggs dropping at the same time and the share 50% no more then as if they were normal brother and sister.  On study found that conduct problems were more prevalent in identical twins than in fraternal twins; the researchers concluded that the study demonstrated an important role for hereditary conduct problems.  Active – children actively seek out “niches” in their environment that reflect their own interests and talents and are thus in accord with their genotype, example=libraries, sports fields are places kids might seek out if they are intellectual or athletic  Passive – children inherit genetic tendencies from their parents, and parents also provide an environment that matches their own genetic tendencies, example=musically inclined parents usually have musically inclined children  Evocative – child’s genetic tendencies elicit stimulation from the environment that supports a particular trait, thus genes evoke environmental support, example=happy, outgoing child elicits smiles and friendly responses from others 10. What is genotype and how does it relate to phenotype? What is a polygenic characteristic? Be able to define this and give some examples of it. What is the difference between monozygotic and dizygotic twins? Be familiar with the different genetic disorders. What chromosome abnormality characterizes Down Syndrome?  Genotype is the set of genes in our DNA which is responsible for a particular trait.  Phenotype is the physical expression, or characteristics, of that trait. o Polygenic traits are those traits that are controlled by more than one gene. Such traits may even be controlled by genes located on entirely different chromosomes. Human

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height, eye and hair color are examples of polygenic traits. Skin color is another polygenic trait for humans and a variety of other animals. Monozygotic=Identical twins 100% alike, Dizygotic=Fraternal twins 50% alike Disorders: Klinefelter syndrome(males have an extra X and Y chromosome or two extra X chromosomes), Fragile X Syndrome(abnormality in the X chromosome, becomes constricted and often breaks), Turner Syndrome(disorder in females in which wither an X chromosome is missing(making a person XO) or part of one X chrosome is “deleted”), XYY Syndrome(an extra Y chromosome can cause aboveaverage height), other gene-linked abnormalities: Cystic fibrosis, Diabetes, Hemophilia, Huntington’s disease, Phenylketonuria(PKU), Sickle-cell anemia(blood disorder), Spina bifida, Tay-Sachs disease Down syndrome is caused by extra chromosome “the presence of an extra copy of the 21 chromosome”

11. Be familiar with the three stages of prenatal development. How long do each of them last? What are the primary events that take place during each period? Be able to identify which prenatal period a child is in by an example of what structure is forming. What is the "age of viability" and what is its significance? What does the amnion, the umbilical cord, and the placenta do? Stage 1; Germinal (0-2 weeks): shortest stage, zygote is the original cell, 46 chromosomes, cell splits into 2 identical cells with 46 chromosomes in each, 23rd chromosome= the sex of the baby, each cell the splits into 2 more, ect., cells rapidly divide into a moss of cells called the BLASTOCYTE, Blactocyte then travels down the fallopian tubes to the uterus where 58% successfully implant themselves into the uterus by day 10-12. Stage 2; Embryonic (3-8 weeks): Blastocyst’s outer shell Will become the placenta, differentiate into 3 layers of cells that become the embryo -> Ectoderm: outer cells form skin & nervous system (brain & spinal cord) Endoderm: Inner cells form internal body organs Mesoderm: Middle cells form muscles & bones, Stage 3; Fetal (9 weeks-birth): growth & finishing phase, is divided into 3 trimesters o 1st Trimester (ends after 12 weeks): brain and muscles are connected, external/internal genitals are formed o 2nd Trimester (4-6 months): movement felt by mom, brain’s nerve cells are developed, fetus will hide eyes from light, baby will NOT survive if born due to premature lungs and brain control over breathing o 3rd Trimester (7-9 months): baby has higher chance of ...