PSYCH 355 - FINAL EXAM
PSYCH 355 - FINAL EXAM STUDY GUIDE
QUETSIONS AND ANSWERS 2024
Developmental Psychology - - the scientific study of physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the
life span
- is the scientific study of age-related changes in behaviours, thinking, emotion, and personality.
Domains of Development - 1) Physical Domain: includes changes in the size, shape, and characteristics of
the body.
2: Cognitive Domain: includes changes in thinking, memory, problem-solving, and other intellectual skills.
3) Social/Emotional Domain: involves variables that are associated with the relationship of an individual to
others.
Contemporary developmental psychologists study the following three kinds of age-related changes: - 1)
Universal changes: are common to every individual in a species and are linked to specific ages.
2) Group-specific changes: are shared by all individuals in a particular group growing up together (culture -
customs, values, attitudes, goals, laws, beliefs, morals...).
3) Individual differences are changes: resulting from unique, non-shared events.
Contemporary developmental psychology uses scientific methods to achieve the following main goals to
study human development from conception to death: - - To describe development is simply to state what
happens.
- To explain development involves telling why a particular event occurs.
- To predict development, researchers test hypotheses.
- To influence development is to modify behaviour in some way.
Three basic scientific methods to study age-related changes. - 1) Cross-sectional design - study difference
groups of people of different ages.
2) Longitudinal design - Study the same people over a period of time.
3) Combination of the two in a sequential design.
,PSYCH 355 - FINAL EXAM
Cross-Sectional Design - - Compares many individuals of various ages to determine how they differ on
some important dimension.
Challenges: a participants behaviour performance in a specific task, or some other variable unrelated to
changes that come from development or aging.
Longitudinal Design - - Studies a specific group of individuals at different ages to examine changes that
have occured over a long period of time.
Challenges: takes years to complete important changes may have occurred in the participants personal or
social environment.
Historical Philosophical Perspectives - 1) Original Sin
2) The Blank Slate
3) Innate Goodness
Original Sin - Child's inherent predisposition: Sinful.
Parents responsibility: intervene to correct.
Thus, from this perspective, parents facilitate the child's struggle to overcome an inborn tendency to act
immorally by restraining and correcting the child's immoral tendencies.
The Blank Slate - Child's inherent predisposition: Neutral.
Parent Responsibility: shape behaviours.
Suggests that adults can mould children into whatever they want them to be. Therefore, differences
amongst adults can be explained in terms of differences in their childhood environments rather than a result
of a struggle to overcome their inborn tendencies, as the original sin view proposed.
Innate Goodness - Child's inherent predisposition: Good.
Parents responsibility: nurture and protect.
, PSYCH 355 - FINAL EXAM
Proposed by the 18th-century Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He believed that children need
only nurturing and protection to reach their full potential.
Evolutionary Psychology - - The study of the evolution of behavior and the mind, using principles of natural
selection.
- Is the study of how genetically inherited cognitive and social characteristics have evolved through natural
selection.
- Assumed that through a process of biological evolution, the mind, like the body, has been shaped by
natural selection to serve adaptive functions and promote survival.
- Evolutionary developmental psychology theorists suggest the mind has been genetically programmed with
a predisposition to learn and to develop in different ways over the course of a person's lifespan.
Learning Theories - Focus on how experiences in the environment shape the child.
Classical Conditioning - - A type of learning in which an organism comes to associate stimuli. A neutral
stimulus that signals an unconditioned stimulus (US) begins to produce a response that anticipates and
prepares for the unconditioned stimulus. Also called Pavlovian or respondent conditioning.
- Begins with an unconditional stimulus that prompts an automatic or unconditioned response.
- Unlearned and naturally occuring.
- Associating a person/event w/ something pleasant/unpleasant.
Operant Conditioning - - Involves learning to repeat or stop behaviours because of the consequences they
bring about.
- REINFORCEMENT: defined by its effect; something is reinforcing only if it increases the probability of
some behaviour.
- PUNISHMENT: results in the opposite outcome of reinforcement - the goal is to stop a behavior.
PIAGET PROPOSED THE FOLLOWING CONCEPTS THAT GUIDE DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH - - A
scheme
- Assimilation
- Accommodation
PSYCH 355 - FINAL EXAM STUDY GUIDE
QUETSIONS AND ANSWERS 2024
Developmental Psychology - - the scientific study of physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the
life span
- is the scientific study of age-related changes in behaviours, thinking, emotion, and personality.
Domains of Development - 1) Physical Domain: includes changes in the size, shape, and characteristics of
the body.
2: Cognitive Domain: includes changes in thinking, memory, problem-solving, and other intellectual skills.
3) Social/Emotional Domain: involves variables that are associated with the relationship of an individual to
others.
Contemporary developmental psychologists study the following three kinds of age-related changes: - 1)
Universal changes: are common to every individual in a species and are linked to specific ages.
2) Group-specific changes: are shared by all individuals in a particular group growing up together (culture -
customs, values, attitudes, goals, laws, beliefs, morals...).
3) Individual differences are changes: resulting from unique, non-shared events.
Contemporary developmental psychology uses scientific methods to achieve the following main goals to
study human development from conception to death: - - To describe development is simply to state what
happens.
- To explain development involves telling why a particular event occurs.
- To predict development, researchers test hypotheses.
- To influence development is to modify behaviour in some way.
Three basic scientific methods to study age-related changes. - 1) Cross-sectional design - study difference
groups of people of different ages.
2) Longitudinal design - Study the same people over a period of time.
3) Combination of the two in a sequential design.
,PSYCH 355 - FINAL EXAM
Cross-Sectional Design - - Compares many individuals of various ages to determine how they differ on
some important dimension.
Challenges: a participants behaviour performance in a specific task, or some other variable unrelated to
changes that come from development or aging.
Longitudinal Design - - Studies a specific group of individuals at different ages to examine changes that
have occured over a long period of time.
Challenges: takes years to complete important changes may have occurred in the participants personal or
social environment.
Historical Philosophical Perspectives - 1) Original Sin
2) The Blank Slate
3) Innate Goodness
Original Sin - Child's inherent predisposition: Sinful.
Parents responsibility: intervene to correct.
Thus, from this perspective, parents facilitate the child's struggle to overcome an inborn tendency to act
immorally by restraining and correcting the child's immoral tendencies.
The Blank Slate - Child's inherent predisposition: Neutral.
Parent Responsibility: shape behaviours.
Suggests that adults can mould children into whatever they want them to be. Therefore, differences
amongst adults can be explained in terms of differences in their childhood environments rather than a result
of a struggle to overcome their inborn tendencies, as the original sin view proposed.
Innate Goodness - Child's inherent predisposition: Good.
Parents responsibility: nurture and protect.
, PSYCH 355 - FINAL EXAM
Proposed by the 18th-century Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He believed that children need
only nurturing and protection to reach their full potential.
Evolutionary Psychology - - The study of the evolution of behavior and the mind, using principles of natural
selection.
- Is the study of how genetically inherited cognitive and social characteristics have evolved through natural
selection.
- Assumed that through a process of biological evolution, the mind, like the body, has been shaped by
natural selection to serve adaptive functions and promote survival.
- Evolutionary developmental psychology theorists suggest the mind has been genetically programmed with
a predisposition to learn and to develop in different ways over the course of a person's lifespan.
Learning Theories - Focus on how experiences in the environment shape the child.
Classical Conditioning - - A type of learning in which an organism comes to associate stimuli. A neutral
stimulus that signals an unconditioned stimulus (US) begins to produce a response that anticipates and
prepares for the unconditioned stimulus. Also called Pavlovian or respondent conditioning.
- Begins with an unconditional stimulus that prompts an automatic or unconditioned response.
- Unlearned and naturally occuring.
- Associating a person/event w/ something pleasant/unpleasant.
Operant Conditioning - - Involves learning to repeat or stop behaviours because of the consequences they
bring about.
- REINFORCEMENT: defined by its effect; something is reinforcing only if it increases the probability of
some behaviour.
- PUNISHMENT: results in the opposite outcome of reinforcement - the goal is to stop a behavior.
PIAGET PROPOSED THE FOLLOWING CONCEPTS THAT GUIDE DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH - - A
scheme
- Assimilation
- Accommodation
