PSYC MIDterm

_____— pattern of change that begins at conception and continues through life span

–Maximum human life span relatively unchanged (how many years?)

_______ — average number of years a person is expected to live when born in a particular year has changed

______ — number of years elapsed since person’s birth

______ — in terms of biological health

______ — one’s adaptive capacities (age)

_____ — social roles and expectations related to one’s age

_____— interrelated set of ideas that helps to explain data, make predictions

_____— assertions or predictions, often derived from theories that can be tested

Best theories meet scientific criteria for a theory:

Describe psychoanalytic theory

Describe Freud's theory

Freud's stages

Erickson's pyschosocial theory stages

Cognitive Theories
Emphasize conscious thoughts
Three major theories?

Emphasis on biology and evolution, sensitive periods of development, and careful observations (theory)?

Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory stages

Vygotsky's sociocultural cognitive theory

Information-Processing theory



____: important to development

____ — scientific studies can only be based on direct observations and measures

_____ theory

Behavior, environment, and cognition are key to development
Behavior is learned through observation and imitating (modeling)
Behavior of others is cognitively evaluated, strategies created for successful learning

____ research - research method that examines the relationships among two or more variables, does not imply cause and effect
Prediction based on strength of relationship
Correlation coefficient (+1.00 to -1.00)

____ Observation
In the “field” or natural environment where behavior happens

_____ Observations
Laboratory situation set up to evoke behavior of interest
All participants have equal chance to display behavior

____ Interview
Flexible, conversational style
Probes for participant’s point of view

_____ Interview
Each participant is asked same questions in same way
May use questionnaires, get answers from groups

Methods for Collecting Data

Experimental Design
Methods for Collecting Data?

___ Experiments
Use rare opportunities for random assignment in natural settings

____ Experiments
Compare differences in treatment that already exist
Groups chosen to match characteristics as much as possible

Time-Lag Research

____: Same participants studied repeatedly at different ages

Time-Lag Research

Participants of differing ages all studied at the same time.

Time-Lag Research

Several similar cross-sectional or longitudinal studies are conducted at varying times.

Time-Lag Research
Participants are presented with a novel task and their mastery is followed over a series of sessions.

Conducting Ethical Research
APA guidelines address
Informed consent, confidentiality, protection from harm
Debriefing, deception
Minimizing bias (gender, culture, ethnicity)
Ethnic gloss — overgeneralizing about ethnic group(s)

____: 2 copies of chromosome 21

Sex-linked abnormalities

___ syndrome: XXY instead of XY

____ syndrome: X in boys is fragile, breaks

____ syndrome: girl is XO instead of XX

____ syndrome: link to criminal males unprove

Chemical marker that activates either father’s or mother’s gene
Often temporary

Sudden, permanent change in a DNA segment

Gene-linked abnormalities

____ – treated by diet

____– red blood cells affected

nCystic fibrosis, diabetes, hemophilia, spina bifida, Tay-sachs and Huntington diseases

nCan sometimes be compensated for by other genes or events

Heredity-environment correlations


Parents provide/guide child’s interests

____ genotype-environment


nSome traits elicit more adult responses

Heredity-environment correlations

Child seeks/selects favorable environments

Prenatal Development stages

Teratogens

Severity of damage affected by

Any agent or agents that can cause birth defects

Stages of birth
Labor occurs in three stages

_____– from top (head) and gradual to bottom

_____ – center of body outward to extremities

Period of rapid physical and hormonal chang

Physical changes; growth spurt



úGirls – _____, hips widen, body hair

­Onset for most: 9 to 15 years of age

úBoys – first ejaculation, grow taller, body hair

­Onset for most: 10 to 17 years of age

____— fertility declines
____— menstrual periods ceases
Dramatic decline of estrogen; a negative experience for most women

–____ — specialization of functions in one hemisphere of cerebral cortex

Infancy – sleep/wake cycle
Newborns average 16-17 hours a day
Varied patterns; longest period is 11 pm to 7 am
At 1 month – infants sleep more
At 6 mos – closer to adult-like sleep patterns
Most common problem – night waking
Culture affects sleep patterns
More REM sleep than any other time of life

Shared sleeping with parents is controversial

Adulthood and aging
Many are sleep deprived (less than 7 hrs a day)
Work, school, social, or family obligations
Many adults don’t get enough sleep
Middle age may bring sleep problems
Wakeful periods at night, less deep sleep
Many older adults go to bed and wake up earlier,
Insomnia increases in late adulthood

____ memory
Retains information up to 15 to 30 seconds without rehearsal (span is very limited

___memory
Kind of mental workbench for manipulating and assembling information
More active, powerful than short-term memory

Remembering to do something in the future
Age-related; declines depend on task
Time-based tasks decline more
Event-based tasks show less decline

___memory: routine skills and procedures performed automatically (unconscious memory)

____memory: one’s knowledge about world including field of expertise

Explicit: conscious/declarative memory

LTM 2 stsyems

___ memory: retention of information about the where and when of events

Working memory and processing speed
Linked to aging, reading and math achievement
Performance peaks at 45; declines at age 57
Decline affects both new and old information

Engaging in more extensive processing of information; use of examples, self-referencing

Strategies used to improve