Check Your Understanding Handout 1
Early Childhood: Physical Development
1. Discuss the role of the corpus callosum in children’s brain development – what it
is, and what it does. And what happened if it does not develop correctly.
2. What are some of the gross motor skills that most 5-year olds have mastered?
Compare the gross motor skills of 2-year-olds with those of 5-year olds. Include
examples. Why does the difference in motor skills occur? Is there a difference
between the development of gross motor skills and fine motor skills? If there is,
what is it?
3. Describe at least three different signs of maltreatment in children between the
ages of 2 and 10. How might maltreatment affect a child’s development?
Check Your Understanding Handout 2
Early Childhood: Cognitive Development
1. What is conservatism? Describe two examples of how conservation tasks are
preformed?
2. Francesca is frustrated trying to tie her shoelaces. According to Vygotsky, should
the parents get involved or should they let her try to master this task on her own?
If they decide to get involved, what should her parents do?
4. Explain the theory of mind. In our video clip, we saw a boy describing different
objects to a younger child who was unable to see the objects himself. How might
this be explained by Piaget?
5. Explain and discuss the process of fast-mapping and its relationship to
overgeneralization give examples.
Check Your Understanding Handout 3
Chapter Early Childhood Psychosocial Development
1. Describe the four types of parenting (Baumrind’s Three plus the later added one).
Include the level of warmth, type of discipline, expectation of maturity, and
communication between parent and child. How do these different types of
parenting styles typically affect children? What are the shortcomings of
Baumrind’s findings?
2. What are the four types of aggression discusses in our text? Describ
Check Your Understanding 4
1. Define bullying. According to our texts, What are the possible causes of bullying, and
what are the consequences of bullying? According to the research of Berger (2007),
list three successful ways to halt bullying?
Check Your Understanding Handout 5
Define analytical thinking and intuitive thinking, and give an example of each. Why
do adolescents tend to use intuitive thinking to a greater extent than analytic
thinking?
Explain the concepts of sunk cost fallacy and base rate neglect. Provide an example
of each type of thinking.
Check Your Understanding Handout 6
1. Name the four ways in which young people approach identity formation, and identify
for each one whether it is characterized by no commitment or commitment and by not
questioning or questioning.
2. What factors influence individuals to become life-course-persistent offenders?
If the federal government offered you a large grant of money to help prevent children
from becoming life-course-persistent offenders, on which children would you focus?
Describe what you would do with the money.
3. Longitudinal research suggests that drug use causes more problems than it solves for
adolescents. Discuss some of the physical and emotional problems that alcohol,
tobacco, and marijuana cause for teenagers.
Check Your Understanding Handout 7
(Cognition)
Examine the proposition of a fifth stage of cognitive development. Describe the
proposed fifth stage of cognitive development. Explain how is this different than
adolescent formal operational thinking. Include the findings of the study by Demetrio &
Bakracevic, 2009). Explain the biological basis for the support of the postformal thought
stage, and also explain, according to your text, why some say it is not a cognitive stage.
Check Your Understanding Handout 8
(Psychosocial Development)
According to Robert Sternberg (1988), what at the three distinct aspects of love?
Describe each one. How do romantic love, companionate love, and consummate love
differ from each other based on Sternberg’s three distinct aspects?
Check Your Understanding Handout 9
1. Name and define the four measures of health discussed in the text. On which measure
do you think the medical profession should focus the most? Why?
2. What were the two significant findings in the Seattle Longitudinal Study?
Describe fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence. Remember to include the
types of abilities associated with fluid intelligence and examples of crystallized
intelligence. How are each of these affected by aging?
Check Your Understanding Handout 10
1. Discuss terror management theory (TMT). Remember to address the following
questions in your discussion:
How does Ernest Becker define culture? What are the four common human reactions
(in sequence) to those who have opposing beliefs? What is terror management theory?
Describe the terror management theory study involving judges. What positive
outcome can we have by being aware of our death-defying beliefs? How might
understanding terror management theory influence the care of those who are
terminally ill or in hospice?
Check Your Understanding Handout 11
1. What are stratification theories? On what do they focus? Describe the three common
forms of stratification. Explain how each one can have limiting consequences for
individuals in late adulthood.
2. According to our text, what is grief? Describe complicated grief. List and describe
the three types of complicated grief. Provide an example of each one.