PSY C505: PRELIM

• Developmental psychology


  The study of how we change over time from "womb" to "tomb"
• Cohort effect


  A group of people born at roughly the same period in a particular society, who share histories and contexts for living
• Socioeconomic status


  • Upper class
  • Upper middle class
  • Middle class
  • Working class
  • Working poor
  • Underclass
• Culture


  A blueprint or guideline shared by a group of people that specifies how to live, including ideas about what is right and wrong, what to strive for, what to eat, how to speak, what is valued, and what kinds of emotions are called for in certain situations
• Ethnocentrism


  The belief that our own culture is superior
• Cultural relativity


  An appreciation for cultural differences and the understanding that cultural practices are best understood from the standpoint of that particular culture
• Periods of development


  • Prenatal development
  • Infancy and toddlerhood
  • Early childhood
  • Middle childhood
  • Adolescence
  • Early adulthood
  • Middle adulthood
  • Late adulthood
• Prenatal development


  Conception occurs and development begins, all of the major structures of the body are forming, and the health of the mother is of primary concern
• Infancy and toddlerhood


  The first year and a half to two years of life, a time of dramatic growth and change where a newborn is transformed into a walking, talking toddler
• Early childhood


  The preschooler years, consisting of the years following toddlerhood and preceding formal schooling, where the child is busy learning language, gaining a sense of self and greater independence, and beginning to learn the workings of the physical world
• Middle childhood


  The ages of six through eleven, where much of what children experience is connected to their involvement in the early grades of school, and they begin to learn about social relationships beyond the family
• Adolescence


  A period of dramatic physical change marked by an overall physical growth spurt and sexual maturation, as well as cognitive changes as the adolescent begins to think of new possibilities and consider abstract concepts
• Early adulthood


  The twenties and thirties, a time when we are at our physiological peak but also at risk for involvement in violent crimes and substance abuse, and a time of focusing on the future and making choices to earn the status of a full adult
• Middle adulthood


  The late thirties through the mid-sixties, a period in which aging becomes more noticeable and a period of gaining expertise, becoming more realistic about possibilities, and recognizing the difference between what is possible and what is likely
• Late adulthood


  The period of the life span that has increased in the last hundred years, particularly in industrialized countries, subdivided into the "young old" (65-79) and the "old old" (80+), with the "old old" facing increased risks of diseases of old age
• Optimal aging


  Someone who is in very good health for their age and continues to have an active, stimulating life
• Normal aging


  Changes similar to most of those of the same age
• Impaired aging


  Someone who has more physical challenge and disease than others of the same age
• Confirmation bias


  The tendency to look for evidence that we are right and ignore contradictory evidence
• Sampling bias


  Selecting participants for a study in a non-random way
• Simple random sampling


  Selecting participants using a set of random numbers
• Scientific method


  1. Determining a research question

  2. Reviewing previous studies (literature review)

  3. Determining a method of gathering information

  4. Conducting the study

  5. Interpreting results

  6. Drawing conclusions, stating limitations, and suggesting future research

  7. Making findings available to others
• Types of studies


  • Descriptive studies
  • Explanatory studies
  • Evaluation research
• Research designs


  • Observational studies
  • Experiments
  • Case studies
  • Surveys
  • Secondary/content analysis
  • Developmental designs
  • Cross-sectional research
  • Longitudinal research
  • Cross-sequential research
• Theory


  Valuable tools for understanding human behavior, proposed explanations for the "how" and "whys" of development, guiding and helping interpret research findings
• Freud's psychodynamic theory


  Personality forms during the first few years of life, and the ways in which parents or other caregivers interact with children's emotional states have guided parents, educators, clinicians, and policy-makers for many years
• Freud


  • Viennese M.D. trained in neurology, who worked with hysterical patients and discovered that when they talked about early childhood experiences, their symptoms disappeared
  • Proposed that unconscious motives and desires, fears and anxieties drive our actions
  • Suggested that when upsetting memories or thoughts begin to find their way into our consciousness, we develop defenses to shield us from these painful realities
• Hysteria


  A condition marked by uncontrollable emotional outbursts, fears and anxiety that had puzzled physicians for centuries
• Freud


  • Asked to work with women who suffered from physical symptoms and forms of paralysis which had no organic causes
  • Began working with hysterical patients and discovered that when they began to talk about some of their life experiences, particularly those that took place in early childhood, their symptoms disappeared
  • Suggested the first purely psychological explanation for physical problems and mental illness
  • Proposed that unconscious motives and desires, fears and anxieties drive our actions
• Defense mechanisms


  Denying a reality, repressing or pushing away painful thoughts, rationalization or finding a seemingly logical explanation for circumstances, projecting or attributing our feelings to someone else, or outwardly opposing something we inwardly desire (called reaction formation)
• Freud believed that many mental illnesses are a result of a person's inability to accept reality
• Freud emphasized the importance of early childhood experiences in shaping our personality and behavior
• Consciousness


  That of which we are aware, represents only the tip of the iceberg that compromises our mental state
• Preconsciousness


  That which can easily be called into the conscious mind
• Id


  The part of the self with which we are born, consists of the biologically driven self and includes our instincts and drives, part of us that wants immediate gratification, later in life, it comes to house our deepest, often unacceptable desires such as sex and aggression, operates under the pleasure principle
• Ego


  Part of the self that develops as we learn that there are limits on what is acceptable to do and that often, we must wait to have our needs satisfied, realistic and reasonable, knows how to make compromises, operates under the reality principle
• Superego


  Part of the self that develops as we learn the rules, standards, and values of society, takes into account the moral guidelines that are a part of our culture, a rule governed part of the self that operates under a sense of guilt
• Oral stage


  • Infant meets needs primarily through oral gratification, a baby wishes to suck or chew on any object that comes close to the mouth, psychologically, the infant is all ID, seeks immediate gratification of needs such as comfort, warmth, food, and stimulation
• Anal stage


  • Coincides with toddlerhood or mobility and potty-training, the child is taught that some urges must be contained and some actions postponed, the child is learning a sense of self-control, the ego is being developed
• Phallic stage


  • Occurs during the preschool years (ages 3-5) when the child has a new biological challenge to face, Freud believed that the child becomes sexually attracted to his or her opposite sexed parent, boys experience the "Oedipal Complex", girls experience the "Electra Complex"