PSY 101 Study Guide Unit 6: Developmental Psychology
Learning Objective 1 (pp. 229-232): Exploring Human Development
1.
What is developmental psychology? What kinds of research questions do developmental
psychologists study?
2.
What is a tabula rasa? How is this concept related to the behaviorist view of human
development?
3.
What is maturation? How is this concept related to human development in general, and
what are some examples of maturational processes?
4.
What is behavioral genetics? How does it help psychologists understand the relationship
between nature and nurture?
5.
Why is it difficult to separate the influences of nature and nurture on development?
Learning Objective 2 (pp. 232-233): Beginnings, Prenatal Development, Stages of
Prenatal Development, Prenatal Risks
1.
What is a zygote? What event creates a zygote?
2.
What is the first stage of prenatal development?
3.
What developmental changes take place during the embryonic stage?
4.
What developmental changes take place during the fetal stage?
5.
What are the roles of the placenta and umbilical cord in prenatal development?
6.
What are teratogens? When are they especially damaging?
7.
What is fetal alcohol syndrome?
8.
What effects can a mother’s smoking have on development?
Learning Objective 3 (pp. 234-236): The Newborn, Vision and Other Senses,
Perception, Reflexes and Motor Skills
1.
How do researchers determine what infants know, see and feel?
2.
How is a newborn’s vision different from that of an adult? What visual stimuli do
newborns prefer looking at?
3.
What auditory stimuli do newborns prefer listening to?
4.
Do newborns exhibit preferences for certain tastes and smells?
5.
What are habituation and dishabituation, and how are they used to learn about infants’
perception?
6.
What are reflexes, and what are three reflexes that are present in newborn infants?
Unit 6: Developmental Psychology Learning Objective 4 (pp. 236-238): Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development,
Changes in the Brain, The Development of Knowledge: Piaget’s Theory, Building
Blocks of Development
1.
What topics do cognitive developmental psychologists study?
2.
Are all of the brain’s neurons present at birth? How does the brain continue to develop
after birth?
3.
Why is Piaget’s theory of cognitive development considered a stage theory?
4.
In Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, what is a schema?
5.
In Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, what is assimilation? What are some
examples?
6.
In Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, what is accommodation? What are some
examples?
Learning Objective 5 (pp. 238-240): Sensorimotor Development, Preoperational
Development, Concrete and Formal Operational Thought
1.
What are the stages in Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, and approximately when
does each begin?
2.
In the sensorimotor stage of Piaget's theory, what kind of "thinking" do babies do? What
kind of schema are they not yet able to form?
3.
What is object permanence, and how do children demonstrate that they have achieved it?
How is object permanence related to the sensorimotor stage?
4.
What are symbols? In which of Piaget’s stages do children begin to use symbols?
5.
What are some limitations in children’s mental abilities in the preoperational stage?
6.
What is conservation? In which of Piaget’s stages do children begin to solve conservation
problems?
7.
What key mental abilities does Piaget claim children have at the concrete operational stage,
and what key mental abilities are they lacking?
8.
In which stage of Piaget’s theory do adolescents begin to engage in hypothetical thinking?
What are some examples of hypothetical thinking?
9.
What factors affect whether someone reaches the final stage of thinking in Piaget's theory?
Learning Objective 6 (pp. 240-243): Modifying Piaget’s Theory, New Views of Infants’
Cognitive Development, New Views of Developmental Stages, Information Processing
During Childhood
1.
In what ways is Piaget’s theory of cognitive development correct?
2.
In what ways are infants’ cognitive abilities different from what Piaget claimed?
3.
What evidence is there that infants have object permanence before Piaget claimed?
4.
What are some examples of young children’s thinking that are not “stage-like”?
5.
How does the information processing approach to cognitive development differ from
Piaget’s approach?
6.
How do children’s memory and information processing skills change as they grow older?
PSY 101 Study Guide Learning Objective 7 (pp. 243-246): Culture and Cognitive Development, Improving or
Endangering Cognitive Development
1.
How does Vygotsky’s view of cognitive development differ from Piaget’s?
2.
According to Vygotsky, how does a child’s culture and language influence cognitive
development?
3.
What are some examples of culture or language shaping thought?
4.
How can the conditions that occur in many deprived households affect cognitive
development?
5.
What can parents do to stimulate their young children’s cognitive development?
Learning Objective 8 (pp. 246-247): The Development of Language, The First Year,
The Second Year, The Third Year and Beyond
1.
How does the perception of language sounds change during a baby’s first year?
2.
What is babbling, and what are some examples?
3.
When do children typically say their first words? What kinds of words are the first that
babies understand and say?
4.
What are some examples of how children overextend words?
5.
What is the one-word stage, and when does it occur?
6.
What is telegraphic speech, and why is it called this?
7.
By what age is grammatical acquisition mostly complete?
Learning Objective 9 (pp. 247-249): How Is Language Acquired?, Conditioning,
Imitation, and Rules, Biological Bases for Language Acquisition, Bilingualism
1.
How are reinforcement, modeling, and imitation related to a child’s acquisition of language?
2.
What evidence is there that imitation cannot be the whole story in language acquisition?
3.
What is a universal grammar? How might it enable language acquisition?
4.
What is a critical period for language learning, and what is the evidence for it?
5.
How does being raised bilingually affect children’s language acquisition? How does
bilingualism affect other cognitive abilities?
Learning Objective 10 (pp. 249-251): Infancy and Childhood: Social and Emotional
Development, Individual Temperament
1.
If early mother-infant bonding is not possible, what effect might this have on their later
relationship?
2.
What is social referencing, and what are some examples?
3.
What is temperament? What factors help determine an infant’s temperament?
4.
What are the characteristics of easy babies, difficult babies, and slow-to-warm-up babies?
Unit 6: Developmental Psychology Learning Objective 11 (pp. 251-254): Attachment, Motherless Monkeys—and Children,
Forming an Attachment Variations in Attachment, Consequences of Attachment
Patterns, Thinking Critically: Does Day Care Harm the Emotional Development of
Infants?
1.
What is attachment?
2.
Based on the experiment with newborn monkeys, how do reinforcement (by feeding) and
physical comfort relate to attachment?
3.
What are the consequences of being deprived of any social contact early in life?
4.
What is the Strange Situation and what is it used for?
5.
Describe the secure and insecure attachment patterns infants typically display in the Strange
Situation.
6.
How are parental and cultural factors related to an infant’s attachment pattern?
7.
What are the consequences of secure versus insecure attachment later in life?
8.
What is the relationship between day care, infants’ attachment patterns, and emotional
development? What aspects of day care affect this relationship?
Learning Objective 12 (pp. 254-256): Parenting Styles, Parenting Styles and Culture
1.
What is socialization?
2.
How do authoritarian parents interact with their children?
3.
What are the characteristics of permissive parents?
4.
How do authoritative parents interact with their children?
5.
What are the characteristics of uninvolved parents?
6.
How are parenting styles linked to children’s social and emotional development?
7.
How do the consequences of the authoritarian parenting style differ among cultures?
Learning Objective 13 (pp. 256-258): Peer Friendships and Popularity, Social Skills and
Understanding, Risk and Resilience
1.
In what ways are friendships important for development?
2.
What is one very important factor a child needs to develop friendships?
3.
How can parents and others help children develop social skills?
4.
What is self-regulation? Why is it important?
5.
How do divorce and marital conflict affect a child’s development and later outcomes?
6.
What is resilience? What factors are associated with resilience?
PSY 101 Study Guide Learning Objective 14 (pp. 258-261): Gender Roles, Biological Factors in Gender Roles,
Socialization of Gender Roles, Cognitive Factors in Gender Roles
1.
What are gender roles?
2.
What are some common physical and behavioral differences between young boys and girls?
3.
What evidence supports biological influences on gender roles?
4.
What evidence supports social and environmental influences on gender roles?
5.
What evidence supports cognitive influences on gender roles?
Learning Objective 15 (pp. 261-263): Moral Development, Kohlberg’s Levels of Moral
Reasoning, Limitations of Kohlberg’s Theory, Moral Reasoning and Moral Action
1.
Describe the moral reasoning of someone at the preconventional level, and give an
example.
2.
Describe the moral reasoning of someone at the conventional level, and give an example.
3.
Describe the moral reasoning of someone at the postconventional level, and give an
example.
4.
Which aspects of Kohlberg’s theory have held up to later research? Which aspects of his
theory have not held up to later research?
5.
What factors influence moral behavior, as contrasted with moral reasoning?
Learning Objective 16 (pp. 263-265): Adolescence, Changes in Body, Brain, and
Thinking, Adolescent Feelings and Behavior, Love and Sex in Adolescence
1.
What is puberty? What physical changes lead up to puberty?
2.
Which part of the brain is undergoing significant change during adolescence? What are the
consequences of this neural maturation for adolescent thinking?
3.
What impact does an adolescent’s relationships with his or her parents have on his or her
experiences during this time?
4.
How much “storm and stress” do most adolescents experience?
5.
What are some of the results of sexual activity during adolescence?
Learning Objective 17 (pp. 265-267): Identity and Development of the Self, Emerging
Adulthood, Facing the Identity Crisis
1.
What is ethnic identity? How does a positive ethnic identity relate to development?
2.
What is emerging adulthood?
3.
What is an identity crisis? How and when does the identity crisis tend to get resolved?
Unit 6: Developmental Psychology Learning Objective 18 (pp. 268-270): Adulthood, Physical Changes, Cognitive
Changes, Cognitive Advances in Early, Middle, and Late Adulthood, Declining
Cognitive Abilities in Late Adulthood
1.
What physical changes do adults typically go through in early, middle, and late adulthood?
2.
In what ways do cognitive abilities typically improve in early and middle adulthood?
3.
What cognitive declines typically occur in late adulthood?
4.
What factors influence cognitive declines in late adulthood? What can aging adults do to
preserve their cognitive functioning?
5.
What is Alzheimer’s disease?
Learning Objective 19 (pp. 270-274): Social Changes, Early Adulthood: Work, Marriage,
Parenthood, Middle Adulthood: Reappraising Priorities, Late Adulthood: Retirement
and Restriction
1.
How do early attachment patterns affect relationships in young adulthood?
2.
How does working motherhood affect women, men, and children?
3.
What does research on gay and lesbian parents reveal?
4.
What are the effects of divorce on adults?
5.
What is the midlife transition?
6.
How does retirement affect older adults? How do the effects of voluntary retirement differ
from the effects of involuntary retirement?
7.
What coping strategies do older adults tend to employ?
Learning Objective 20 (pp. 274-275): Death and Dying, Developmental Trajectories,
Longevity: The Length of Life
1.
What is terminal drop?
2.
What reflections tend to occur as the elderly confront the reality of death?
3.
What aspects of a person tend to remain relatively stable throughout the lifespan?
4.
What factors are related to longevity?
5.
What can older adults do to improve their quality of life both physically and
psychologically?