Developmental Psychology
96 flashcards by MentisLibrary
The whole lifespan, from prenatal teratogens to terminal decline, covering attachment, moral reasoning, adolescent risk taking, and aging. Includes what the marshmallow test and the grief stages really showed.
- What is developmental psychology?
- The scientific study of how and why people change and stay the same across the whole lifespan.
- What is the lifespan perspective in development?
- The view that development is lifelong, multidimensional, multidirectional, plastic, and shaped by history and context.
- What is the nature versus nurture debate?
- The question of how much behavior and traits are shaped by genetic inheritance versus environmental experience.
- What is heritability, and what does it not mean?
- The proportion of variation in a trait within a population attributable to genetic variation. It says nothing about how much of an individual's trait is genetic, and it can change with environment.
- What is epigenetics?
- Changes in gene expression, without changes in DNA sequence, that can be influenced by environment and in some cases inherited.
- What is a gene-environment correlation?
- A situation where a person's genotype is associated with the environments they encounter, whether passively, evocatively, or actively.
- What is the difference between a critical period and a sensitive period?
- A critical period is a fixed window during which specific input is required for normal development; a sensitive period is a window of heightened but not exclusive responsiveness.
- What is a cross-sectional design in developmental research?
- Comparing people of different ages at one point in time.
- What is a longitudinal design?
- Following the same people over time to measure change within individuals.
- What is a cohort effect?
- A difference between age groups caused by their differing historical experiences rather than by aging itself.
- What is a sequential design?
- Combining cross-sectional and longitudinal approaches by following several cohorts over time to separate age, cohort, and time of measurement.
- What are the three prenatal periods?
- The germinal period, the embryonic period, and the fetal period.
- What is a teratogen?
- An environmental agent that can cause harm to a developing embryo or fetus, such as alcohol, certain infections, radiation, or some medications.
- Why does the embryonic period carry the highest teratogenic risk for structural defects?
- Because major organ systems are forming then, so disruption produces structural rather than functional damage.
- What is fetal alcohol spectrum disorder?
- A range of lifelong physical, cognitive, and behavioral effects from prenatal alcohol exposure, with no established safe amount.
- What is habituation, and why is it used to study infants?
- Decreased responding to a repeated stimulus. Renewed looking to a change shows the infant discriminated it, giving researchers a window into preverbal cognition.
- What did the visual cliff experiment study?
- Depth perception in crawling infants, using a glass-covered apparent drop.
- What is Piaget's sensorimotor stage?
- Birth to about two years, when infants understand the world through sensory and motor action and develop object permanence.
- What is object permanence?
- Understanding that objects continue to exist when out of sight.
- What is the A-not-B error?
- An infant who has repeatedly found a hidden object at location A continues to search there after watching it hidden at location B.
- What are Piaget's four stages of cognitive development?
- Sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational.
- What is conservation?
- Understanding that quantity remains unchanged despite a change in appearance.
- What is Vygotsky's sociocultural theory of development?
- The view that higher mental functions develop through social interaction and cultural tools, especially language, before being internalized.
- What is the zone of proximal development?
- The gap between independent performance and what can be achieved with support from a more capable partner.
- What is information processing theory of cognitive development?
- The view that development is gradual improvement in attention, working memory capacity, processing speed, and strategy use rather than stage shifts.
- What is theory of mind?
- Understanding that others hold mental states, including beliefs that differ from reality and from one's own.
- What are Erikson's eight psychosocial stages?
- Trust versus mistrust, autonomy versus shame and doubt, initiative versus guilt, industry versus inferiority, identity versus role confusion, intimacy versus isolation, generativity versus stagnation, and ego integrity versus despair.
- What is Erikson's identity versus role confusion stage?
- Adolescence, when the central task is forming a coherent sense of self across roles, values, and future direction.
- What is Erikson's intimacy versus isolation stage?
- Young adulthood, when the task is forming close committed relationships without losing one's identity.
- What is Erikson's generativity versus stagnation stage?
- Middle adulthood, when the task is contributing to the next generation through parenting, mentoring, or productive work.