Final Exam Review Topics
Culture, ethnicity, and race
Developed and developing countries
Socioeconomic status
Evolution, natural selection and major changes (or lack thereof) in humans since the
evolution of homo sapiens
Major theories: Freud, Piaget, Erikson, Bronfenbrenner
Continuous vs. discontinuous development
Research - samples, population, generalizability, validity, reliability, correlation,
ethnography, experiments (control and experimental groups, independent and
dependent variable), longitudinal and cross-sectional research
Genotype and phenotype
reaction range
teratogens
periods of prenatal development (germinal, embryonic, fetal - what happens when?)
prematurity and age of viability – what poses the greatest challenge?
stages of birth and birth assistants (doctors vs. midwives, etc.)
newborn senses (what is well developed, what is not?)
newborn and infant brain development (what is well-developed - or not - synapses,
neurons, myelination, plasticity, etc.)
effects of early deprivation on cognitive development (esp. conclusions from
Romanian orphanage research)
breastfeeding vs. formula feeding (pros, cons, recommendations)
Piaget - assimilation, accommodation, schemes, stages (major accomplishments of
each), what did he get right and what did he get wrong?, object permanence,
animism, egocentrism, centration, conservation, classification, mental operations,
adolescent egocentrism, personal fable)
Vygotsky - ZPD, scaffolding, how different from Piaget?
language development - major milestones, timeline (first words?), comprehension
vs. production, over- and under extension
temperament and goodness-of-fit
attachment (what is attachment theory? primary caregivers, attachment styles,
strange situation, function of stranger anxiety - there’s an evolutionary argument
here)
social referencing
co-sleeping (dangers, advantages, relationship to SIDS)
Toddlerhood and tantrums - role of culture?
sex vs. gender
Brain development in early childhood - what’s changing?
Parenting styles
Co-regulation
ADHD
middle childhood social statuses
divorce and effects on children (coercive cycle)
bullying
puberty rituals
effects of pubertal timing for boys and girls
patterns of self-esteem across the lifespan
emerging adulthood (what is it?)
pragmatism
reflective judgement - dualistic thinking, multiple thinking, relativism
identity development - Marcia’s identity statuses, culture and identity (bicultural
identity), ethnic identity development
changes in basal metabolic rate in adulthood
key markers of transition to adulthood across cultures
expertise and creativity
IQ tests (what are they? what are they good predictors of? what are the problems
with them?)
Sternberg’s triangular theory of love
hearing loss (causes, gender differences)
menopause
osteoporosis
fluid vs. crystallized intelligence
self-acceptance (when does it peak?)
midlife crisis
functional age vs. chronological age
primary vs. secondary aging
Alzheimer’s
selective optimization with compensation
positive and negative emotions in late adulthood