Psych Exam #3 – Flashcards

The study of changes over a life span involving physiology, cognition, emotion, and social behavior.

Begins with conception and ends with birth.

Begins at birth and lasts between 18 and 24 months.

Begins at the end of infancy and lasts between the ages of 11 and 14.

Begins at the end of childhood and lasts somewhere between the ages of 18 and 21.

Begins at the end of adolescence and lasts until death.

Development begins in the womb. The process begins at the moment of conception, when sperm unites with egg to create the zygote.

The first cell of a new life.

Zygote is firmly implanted in the uterine wall.

Developing human is known as an embryo. Organs and internal systems begin to form. Exposure to harm can have lasting effects on developing organ systems.

A developing human

Growing human is called a fetus. No new structures emerge after prenatal month 2. The fetus simply grows larger, stronger, and fatter as the body organs mature.

Most healthy, full-term pregnancies end with the birth of the baby between 38-42 weeks.

Hormones that circulate in the womb influence the developing fetus. The mother's emotional state can affect the developing fetus.

Alcohol, bacteria, viruses, and chemicals. The extent to which a teratogen causes damage depends on when the fetus is exposed to it, as well as the length and exposure.

Drinking alcohol can lead to a variety of defects that collectively are referred to as fetal alcohol syndrome disorders (FASD).

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)

Newborns have various basic reflexes that aid in survival such as grasping and the rooting reflex. Further brain development appears necessary for cognitive development to occur.

The brain organizes itself in response to its environmental experiences, preserving connections it needs in order to function in a given context. The brain's way of insulating its "wires."

Refers to the process by which extra neurons and synaptic connections are eliminated in order to increase efficiency of neuronal transmissions.

Time periods when specific skills develop most easily. Examples include language and attachment.

Attachment is a strong emotional connection that persists over time and across circumstances. It is adaptive and facilitates survival.

Attachment behaviors begin during the first months of life, but may vary somewhat, depending on cultural practices.

A sensitive period during which young animals become strongly attached to a nearby adult.

Harlow's monkeys and their "mother's" finding established the importance of contact comfort (physical touch and reassurance) in aiding social development.

Using the strange-situation test, Ainsworth identified infant/caregiver pairs.

Classified by children who show some distress when their caregiver leaves but are able to compose themselves and do something knowing that their caregiver will return.

Children will avoid or ignore the caregiver - showing little emotion when the caregiver departs or returns. The child will not explore very much regardless or who is there.

Researchers show an infant two things. If the infant looks longer at one of the things, the researchers know the infant can distinguish between the two and finds one more interesting.

Develops binocular vision around 4.5 months. Develops 20/20 vision around 6 months.

The infant's abilities to recognize sounds and locate those sounds in space improve continuously as he or she gains experience with objects and people as the auditory cortex develops.

Rovee revealed that from a very young age, infants possess some types of memory. In one experiment (with infants ranging from 2-18 months), older infants remembered the link between kicking and a mobile moving for longer periods.

The inability to remember events from early childhood?

Piaget developed the theory that children go through 4 stages of development: 1. Sensorimotor 2. Preoperational 3. Concrete operational 4. Formal operational

Piaget believed that each stage builds on the previous one through two learning processes: 1. Assimilation 2. Accomodation

The process by which we place new information into an existing schema.

The process by which we create a new schema or drastically alter an existing schema to include new information that otherwise would not fit into the schema.

Birth - 2 years. Infants acquire information about the world through their senses and motor skills. Object permanence occurs.

The understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be observed.

2 - years old. Children think symbolically about objects, but they reason based on intuition and superficial appearance rather than logic. Centration and decentration occur.

The tendency to focus on one noticeable or salient aspect of a situation and neglect other, possibly relevant aspects.

Refers to the ability to consider multiple aspects of a situation.

7 - 12 years old. Children begin to think about and understand logical operations, and they are no longer fooled by appearances.

12 years old - adulthood. People can think abstractly, and they can formulate and test hypotheses through deductive logic.

1. Different areas in the brain are responsible for different skills. Therefore, development does not necessarily follow strict and uniform stages. 2. Without specific training, many adults continue to reason in concrete operational ways - instead of employing critical and analytic thinking skills. 3. Some people develop more quickly than others.

The term used to describe the ability to explain and predict another person's behavior as a result of recognizing his or her mental state.

Children's development of theory appears to coincide with the maturation of the brain's frontal lobes.

A meaningful morphological unit of language that cannot be further divided. (in, come, -ing ---> incoming).

Any of the perceptually distinct units of sounds in a specified language that distinguish one word from another. (p, b, d, and t in pad, pat, bad, and bat).

The system of rules that govern how words are combined into phrases and how phrases are combined to make sentences.

The tendency for toddlers to speak using rudimentary sentences that are missing words and grammatical marking, but follow a logical syntax and convey a wealth of meaning.

The simplified and repetitive type of speech, with exaggerated intonation and rhythm, often used by adults when speaking to babies.

Petitto found that deaf babies exposed to signed languages from birth acquire these languages on an identical maturational timetable as hearing babies acquire spoken languages.

Affect - feelings that involve subjective evaluation, physiological processes, and cognitive beliefs.

Feelings that accompany an emotion.

Increases in heart rate, in skin temperature, and in brain activation.

People's beliefs and understandings about why they feel the way that they do.

Diffuse - long-lasting emotional states. Rather than interrupting what is happening, they influence thought and behavior.

Causes people to not experience the subjective components of emotions. Physiological messages associated with emotions do not reach the brain centers that interpret emotion.

Emotions that are evolutionary adaptive, shared across cultures, and associated with specific physical states. Include anger, fear, sadness, disgust, happiness, and possibly surprise and contempt.

Blends of primary emotions. Include remorse, guilt, submission, and anticipation.

Valence indicates how negative or positive emotions are.

Activation indicates how arousing emotions are.

Physiological activation (such as increased brain activity) or increased autonomic responses (such as increased heart rate, sweating, or muscle tension).

Depression is a state of negative affect and low arousal.

Positive activation appears to be associated with an increase in DOPAMINE.

Negative activation states appear to be associated with an increase in NOREPINEPHRINE.

In 1884, William James asserted that a person's interpretation of the physical changes in a situation leads that person to feel an emotion.

According to the James-Lange Theory of Emotion, we perceive specific patterns of bodily responses, and as a result of that perception we feel emotion.

In 1963, Silvan Tomkins proposed the facial feedback hypothesis. This states that facial expressions trigger the experience of emotions. Therefore, putting a smile on your face can trigger a happy response.

Processes the emotional significance of stimuli and generates immediate emotional and behavioral reactions.

The amygdala is the most important brain structure for emotional learning, as in the development of conditioned fear responses.

The right and left prefrontal cortices are associated with negative and positive affect, respectively.

According to the Schachter-Singer Two-Factor Theory of Emotion, a situation evokes a physiological response (arousal) and a cognitive interpretation (emotional label). Whatever the person believes caused the emotion will determine how the person labels the emotion.

Misattribution of Arousal

Gross outlined methods of self-regulation. For instance, not attending an event with a boyfriend that broke up with you...

1. Stimulates endocrine secretion. 2. Improves the immune system. 3. Stimulates the release of hormones, dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins.

People attempt to not feel or respond to the emotion at all. Often leads to a rebound effect, in which people think more about something than they did before.

Involves thinking about, elaborating, and focusing on undesired thoughts or feelings. Prolongs the mood, and impedes successful mood regulation strategies, such as distracting oneself or focusing on solutions for the problem.

Involves doing something other than the troubling activity or thinking about something other than the troubling thought.

An area of study that integrates research on health and on psychology to promote health and well-being. It is interdisciplinary.

A positive state that includes striving for optimal health and life satisfaction.

A model of health that integrates the effects of biological, behavioral, and social factors on health and illness. Contrasts with the traditional medical model that views the individual as passive recipient of both disease and treatment.

Heart disease and accidents.

48% are due to accidents, 13% are due to homicide, and 11% due to suicide.

Improvement in health attributed to an inert drug or bogus treatment. Participants must believe it will work and not know that the pills are chemically inert.

A pattern of behavioral and physiological responses to events that match or exceed an organism's ability to respond in a healthy way.

An environmental event or stimulus that threatens an organism.

Response an organism makes to avoid, escape from, or minimize an aversive stimulus. Inludes eustress and distress.

Stress of positive events.

Stress of negative events.

Stressors activate a complex chain of events known as the HYPOTHALAMIC-PITUITARY-ADRENAL (HPA) AXIS.

HPA helps the body prepare to respond to the stressor (fighting an attacker).

Stressful event -> Various brain areas -> Hypothalamus (chemical message) -> Pituitary gland (hormones) -> Adrenal glands -> Cortisol (stress hormone).

Canon's flight-or-fight response discusses physiological responses to perceived harmful events. These include increased heart rate, redistribution of blood to muscles and brain, deepening of respiration, dilation of the pupils, inhibition of gastric secretions, and an increase in glucose released from the liver.

It is possible that the release of oxytocin during social stress encourages women to affiliate with or befriend others.

A consistent pattern of responses to stress that consist of three stages: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.

Prepares the body to fight or flee.

The defenses prepare for a longer, sustained attack against the stressor.

A variety of physiological and immune system failures.

Field in which the response of the body's immune system to physiological variables is studied.

Short-term stress BOOSTS the immune system; chronic stress WEAKENS it.

Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death for adults in the industrialized world.

Type A people are competitive, achievement-oriented, aggressive, hostile, impatient, and time-pressed.

Type B people are noncompetitive, relaxed, easygoing, and accommodating people.

Lazarus' two-part cognitive appraisal process included primary appraisals and secondary appraisals.

We decide whether stimuli are stressful, benign, or irrelevant.

Once we perceive an event as stressful, we evaluate our response options and choose coping appraisals.

Coping that occurs before the onset of a future stressor?

Folkman and Lazarus' two general coping categories are: 1. Emotion-focused coping 2. Problem-focused coping

A type of coping in which people try to prevent having an emotional response to a stressor.

A type of coping in which people take direct steps to confront or minimize a stressor.

1. Downward comparison 2. Creation of positive events

Comparing yourself to someone who is worse-off than you are in order to make yourself feel better.

Readjusting the way in which you look at things. Events that you would not have previously deemed as positive you now do.

HARDY people are capable of adapting to life changes by viewing events constructively.

Commitment, challenge, and control

STRESS RESISTANT people show greater emotional flexibility and recover from threats more quickly than others.

Martire and Schulz discovered that research shows that including family members in a treatment plan is often not effective because patients feel as though family members are controlling their life.