DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY FINAL STUDY GUIDE

SHORT ANSWERS 

1. Name at least three theories of Freud’s that have been rejected or completely re-evaluated by modern day psychology. P17

o He assumed that once you find the root of a problem, it is solved. He created an unethical dependence to therapists. He had a bad cure for
heroin which was cocaine. We also disagree with the Oedipus Complex which was penis envy and the belief that we really wanted to kill our
fathers and be with our mothers. The details of the three levels on consciousness such as the ID are rejected, although they hold some truth.

2. Name and describe in detail the scientific method. P26-29

o FORM A QUESTION: Psychologists begin a study by forming a research question from which many rise from daily experience. (What do fighting
fish do to each other when placed together?) Others arise from psychological theory. (What effects does watching television violence have on
viewers?) Some arise from folklore and common knowledge. (Are two heads better than one? Do opposites attract?)
o FORM A HYPOTHESIS: After they ask a question, they form a hypothesis about the answer to the question. A hypothesis is an educated guess
whose accuracy can be tested. (The fish will attack each other.)
o TESTING THE HYPOTHESIS: A hypothesis cannot be considered to be correct until it has been scientifically testes and proved to be right. They
examine evidence and draw their own conclusions. (Put two fish in take and observe.)
o ANALYZING THE RESULTS: They ask what their findings mean. They look for patterns and relationships in the data and decide which data
support their hypothesis and which data do not.
o DRAWING CONCLUSIONS: Scientists draw conclusions about their questions and hypotheses. When observations do not support their thesis,
they often must change the theories or beliefs from which the hypotheses were derived. They must keep open minds. They must be willing to
adjust their hypotheses if their findings make it necessary to do so.
o  REPLICATION: Findings might represent a random occurrence even when a study carefully follows a proper procedure. Replication is
necessary so that findings may be confirmed. The study is repeated and must produce the same results as before. They can use slightly different
circumstances or different sets of participants.
o  NEW QUESTIONS: New answers results in more and more research questions.
4. Correlation does not infer CAUSALITY.

o Just because A and B are related to each other, you cannot just guess that A causes B or that B causes A because it is possible that even a
third variable C may cause both A and B.

5. How is the method of flooding used to reduce people’s fears? P133

o It is an application of classical conditioning which is based on the principle of extinction. In flooding, a person is exposed to the harmless stimulus
until the fear responses to that stimulus are extinguished (become extinct).

6. According to Piaget, in what two ways do people organize new information? P241

o Human beings organize new information in two ways: through ASSIMILATION and ACCOMODATION
o ASSIMILATION: the process by which new information is placed into categories that already exist. A child might know the word doggie because
the family has a pet Chihuahua. If he sees a Weenie dog and says “doggie,” he has assimilate the new information about the Weenie dog into
the category “dog.”
o ACCOMODATION: it is a change brought about because of new information. If the child sees a cat and says “doggie,” they will be corrected and
learn that the category “dog” does not apply to cats and that a new category is needed.

7. Identify and describe four anxiety disorders. P415

o GENERAL SYMPTOMS: nervousness, inability to relax, concern about losing control, trembling, sweating, rapid heart rate, shortness of breath,
increased blood pressure, flushed face, feelings of faintness or light-headedness.
o PHOBIC DISORDER: Simple phobia is the most common of all anxiety disorders and refers a persistent excessive or irrational fear of a particular
object or situation. They generally feel extremely anxious when they are confronted by the objects or situations they fear. As a result, they tend to
avoid what they fear.
 SOCIAL PHOBIA: is characterized by a persistent fear of social situations in which one might be exposed to social situations in which
one might be exposed to the close scrutiny of others and thus be observed doing something embarrassing or humiliating. They
generally try to avoid social gatherings or situations they fear
o PANIC DISORDER: These people have recurring and unexpected panic attacks. A panic attack is a relatively short period of intense fear or
discomfort, characterized by shortness of breath, dizziness, rapid heart rate, trembling or shaking, sweating, choking, nausea, and other
distressing physical symptoms. May last from minutes to hours. They believe they are dying or “going crazy.” There are no apparent causes,
however many who have panic disorder, also have AGORAPHOBIA which is the fear of being in places or situations in which escape may be
difficult or impossible. Most people with agoraphobia respond with panic attacks when they cannot avoid the situations they fear

o GENERALIZED ANXIETY DISORDER (GAD): GAD is an excessive or unrealistic worry about life circumstances that lasts for at least six months.
The worries focus primarily on finances, work, interpersonal problems, accidents, or illness. Few people get treated for this because it does not
differ, except in intensity and duration, from the “normal” anxiety of everyday life. They often have other anxiety disorders, most often phobic
disorders.
o OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDER (OCD): OBESSIONS: are unwanted thoughts, ideas, or mental images that occur over and over again.
They are often repulsive and most people try to ignore or suppress them. They do this through COMPULSIONS: repetitive ritual behaviors, often
involving checking or cleaning. This may reduce the anxiety that their obsessions produce.
 A woman who is obsessed with the idea that she would pick up germs from nearly everything she touched, she compulsively washed her
hands over and over again.
 This can make many extremely anxious, and they can seriously interfere with daily life. Compulsions may alleviate some of the anxiety
associated with obsessions, but the compulsions are time-consuming and are maladaptive.

8. Please list and describe in detail the criterion used to determining the presence of a psychological disorder. P411

o TYPICALITY: The normality of a behavior or mental process if often determined by the degree to which it is average or typical of the behavior or
mental processes of the majority of people. The fact that a behavior is not typical of most people does not mean it is abnormal.
 Marie Curie and Picasso were not “typical” humans in general but they are not necessarily abnormal.
o MALADAPTIVITY: What makes a behavior abnormal is the fact that it is maladaptive or impairs an individual’s ability to function adequately in
everyday life. Behavior that causes misery and distress rather than happiness and fulfillment may be maladaptive. Behavior that is hazardous to
oneself or others is also maladaptive.
 Alcohol abuse often has strong negative effects on the drinker’s health, job, and family life.
 Threatening or attempting suicide as well as threatening or attacking other people.
o (SEVERE) EMOTIONAL DISCOMFORT: Psychological disorders such as anxiety and depression cause most people great emotional discomfort.
They often feel hopelessness, helplessness, worthlessness, guilt, and extreme sadness. Such feelings are so stressful that they may lead to the
person committing suicide.
o SOCIALLY UNACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOR: Behavior that violates a society’s accepted norms may also be an indication of a psychological
disorder. This may depend on the particular society or culture in which it occurs. The cultural context of a behavior must be taken into account
before deciding that the behavior indicates a psychological disorder. CULTURAL-BOUND SYNDROMES: clusters of symptoms that define or
describe an illness … demonstrates the importance of culture.

10. Describe persuasion in detail. P462-465

o Attitudes tend to remain consistent unless people are strongly motivated to change them. People may change their attitudes because they are
persuaded. PERSUASION: a direct attempt to influence other people’s attitudes. Parent persuade their children to adopt the parents’ values
while the children persuade their parents to grant them more freedom and privileges.
o TWO METHODS TO PERSUADE PEOPLE: through the CENTRAL ROUTE and the PERIPHERAL ROUTE.
 CENTRAL ROUTE: uses evidence and logical arguments to persuade people. Ads and parents may use statistics and facts
that point out the superior quality of a product or service.
 PERIPHERAL ROUTE: an indirect route that attempts to associate objects, people, or events with positive or negative cues. Ads with
athletic shoes may show Kobe Bryant or Serena Williams. A PSA for staying in school might feature an admired actor. The AIM: to
influence people to associate their positive feelings for the famous individual with the product or the message that is being endorse.
o Research shows that repeated exposure to a stimulus eventually results in a more favorable attitude toward that stimulus. Advertisers, political
candidates, and others who want to persuade others use REPETITION to encourage people to adopt a favorable attitude toward their product
or idea. On may think that this may offend or annoy people, but research suggests that commercials are more effective when they are
repeated regularly. Political candidates also tend receive more votes if they appear regularly in television commercials.
o TWO SIDED ARGUMENTS tend to me more effective than ONE SIDED ARGUMENTS.
 TWO SIDED ARGUMENTS: people present not only their side of the argument but also the opposition’s side. The purpose is to
discredit the opposition’s views. Cereal ads may admit to be less sweet but shows evidence that it is more nutritious. Admitting
weaknesses in this way makes the message seem more honest.
o EMOTIONAL APPEALS: persuade by arousing such feelings as loyalty, desire, or fear rather than convincing through evidence and logic.
Thus, it is a PERIPHERAL ROUTE in persuasion. Smokers are more likely to be convinced to quit smoking when they are presented with
frightening photos of blackened lungs rather than dry statistics of lung cancer. When the audience believes them and that they can avoid the
danger by changing its behavior.
o THE MESSENGER: some people are more persuasive than others
 Experts, Trustworthy, Physically attractive, Similar to them in ethnicity, age, and other physical characteristics
o THE SITUATION: People tend to be more receptive to persuasion when they are feeling good. Thus, putting people in a good mood tends to
boost the acceptance of persuasive messages.
o THE AUDIENCE: Most messages are aimed at a specific demographic. Differences in age, sex, and other characteristics influence how the
message should be delivered to be more persuasive. Emotional appeal is better with children whereas logic may be more effective with adults.
o SALES-RESISTANCE: These people have no trouble in turning down requests to buy products or services or make donations. Others have
little or no sales resistance. Two personality factors may be involved in sales resistance, SELF-ESTEEM and SOCIAL ANXIETY
 People who find it easy to refuse requests tend to hand high self-esteem and low social anxiety. They believe in themselves, stand up
for what they want, and are not overly concerned about what other people think of them.
 People who find it difficult to say no are likely to have lower self-esteem and greater social anxiety. They may worry what the sales-
people will think of them. They believe that they should help others rather than act self-centered. They maybe more easily persuaded
to engage in activities that go against their attitudes, beliefs, and values, such as sing alcohol and drugs.

11. Explain the actor-observer bias and social loafing. P470 & P480

o Generally, people tend to attribute the behavior of others to dispositional, or internal, factors and to attribute their own behavior to situational,
or external, factors.
o ACTOR-OBSERVER BIAS: occurs because we tend to judge others only by the behavior we witness, and people’s behavior may not always
be a true reflection of their personalities.
 If you see a stranger acting rude, and this is your only encounter with the person, you are likely to assume that the stranger has a rude
disposition. In most other situations, the same person might behave in a very polite fashion. Observing ht person in most other
situations would then lead to the assumption that he or she has a polite, respectful disposition. The person may have acted rudely only
because of the circumstances. Maybe he or she was provoked.

o SOCIAL LOAFING: When people are working together toward a common goal rather than working on individual tasks, they may “slack off”
and not try as hard. It is especially likely to occur when people see that other members of the group are not pulling their share of the load.
 Social loafing may occur because of DIFFUSION OF RESPONSIBILITY: the tendency for people to feel less responsible for accomplishing a
task when the effort is shared among members of a group. They are less likely to feel accountable for their actions and therefore less likely to
worry about what others think about the. They may also feel that their contribution to the group’s effort is not very important.

ESSAYS 

1. Compare and contrast the longitudinal and cross-sectional methods of observation (describe, advantages/disadvantages). P36

o Both methods are used to address psychological studies that observe participants over a period of time. They are concerned with
development throughout the life span, and deal with how organisms change over time.
o LONGITUDINAL METHOD: Researchers select a group of participants and then observe them over a period of time, often years/decades.
They observe how individuals change over time. Usually the observations are conducted at intervals, once a year/month. They are extremely
time-consuming, expensive, and risky. There is often no guarantee that participants will remain available over the long time period that they
are being studied (death, move away). BUT, they have EXTREMELY accurate and clean data.
 Expensive, takes a long time, high attrition rates, extreme accuracy

o To avoid ^ problems they use the CROSS-SECTIONAL METHOD: Rather than following a set of individuals over a number of years, they
select a sample that includes people of different ages. They compare the behaviors of the participants in the different age groups, then
compare them with one another in order to make generalizations about how they change over time. Their information is less reliable than
longitudinal.
 Cheaper, less time consuming, low attrition rates, not as accurate, does not account for individual differences

o When people study one individual over a period of time (longitudinal), they know that any changes they observe in that individual are due to
his/her experiences or development. But when they compare groups of people of different ages at the same time (cross-sectional),
psychologists cannot be certain of what factors are responsible for differences among the participants.

3. Identify and describe Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development. Explain the specific cognitive characteristics of each stage. P242

o Piaget theorized that children’s thinking develops in a sequence of stages. Some are more advances, but the sequence is the same for
everyone. He identified four stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational stages.
o SENSORIMOTOR STAGE (0-2):
 coordinate sensation and perception with motor activity (play with a rattle and sustain the sound)
 act instead of react (not only reflexive but can make their own actions)
 explore cause and effect relationships (if they push something it will move or make a sound)
 OBJECT PERMANENCE: understanding that objects exist even when they cannot be seen or touched
o PREOPERATIONAL STAGE (2-7):
use symbols and words to represent objects
thinking is only one-dimensional (one aspect of a situation at a time)
 lack understanding of LAW OF CONSERVATION: weight, volume, and number stay the same even if their shape or arrangement have
changed
 EGOCENTRISM: the inability to see another person’s point of view (world exists to meet their needs)
 ANIMISTIC: inanimate objects are alive and conscious
 ARTIFICIALISTIC: natural events/things are made by people
CONCRETE-OPERATIONAL STAGE (7-PUBERTY):
logical only when they think about specific objects, not about abstract ideas
grounded mostly on concrete experiences
can focus on two dimensions of a problem at the same time (understand laws of conservation & both height and weight)
less egocentric than children in earlier stages
FORMAL-OPERATIONAL STAGE (PUBERTY-DEATH):
think abstractly
ideas can be compared and classified mentally just as objects can
x in algebra
 deduce rules of behavioe from moral principles
focus on many aspects of a situation simultaneously when reasoning and solving problems
solve a situation in several ways
capable of dealing with hypothetical situations
o CRITICISMS: It underestimates the abilities of children, preschoolers are less egocentric than Piaget suggests, and several cognitive skills
appear to develop more continuously than Piaget thought.

4. Describe Schizophrenia in detail. (symptoms/causes) P426

o SCHIZOPHRENIA: usually considered most serious of psychological disorders, and its characterized by loss of contact with reality. It is very
disabling and usually develops gradually, but can also appear suddenly. It is extremely difficult to treat, and frequently worsens over time.
o SYMPTOMS: hallucinations, delusions, thought disorder, catatonic stupor
o HALLUCINATIONS: may hear voices
o DELUSIONS: may experience delusion of grandeur, that they are superior to others. They may believe they are on a special mission to save the
world, or is being pursued by the CIA or FBI.
o THOUGH DISORDERS: involve problems in the organization or he content of mental processes. They may skip from topic to topic in an illogical
way. Disorganized speech, seems confused, repeat the same word or phrase over and over.
o CATATONIC STUPOR: an immobile, expressionless, comalike state.
o PARANOID SCHIZOPHRENIA: People have delusions or frequent auditory hallucinations, all relating to a single theme. They may have
delusions of grandeur, persecution, or jealousy. They may be agitated, confused and afraid. They may be convinced that people have been
plotting against him or her even when there is no evidence for it.
o DISORGANIZED SCHIZOPHRENIA: they are incoherent in their thought and speech and disorganized in their behavior. They are either
emotionless or show inappropriate emotions. May neglect their appearance and hygiene and even lose control of their bladders and bowels.
o CATATONIC SHIZOPHRENIA: Most obvious symptom is disturbance of movement. Activity may slow to a stupor and suddenly switch to
agitation. They may hold unusual positions for longs periods of time. They may also have waxy flexibility.
o CAUSES: (PSYCHOLOGICAL VIEWS) Psychoanalytic believe that schizophrenia is the result of the overwhelming of the ego by urges from the
ID. The urges threaten the ego and cause intense conflict. Fantasies become confused with reality. Some also focus on the family
environment as the root of schizophrenia. Parents who are pushy and have a critical attitude puts children at risk of developing schizophrenia.
(BIOLOGICAL VIEWS) Genetic factors also play a role. The risk of developing schizophrenia is higher among relatives of people with
schizophrenia. The closer the relationship, the higher the risk. Genes also play a role. People who have a traumatic event or suffered an injury
at the time of their birth have a higher risk. People who are born during winter may increase risk, possibly due to viral infection. Years in which
large amounts of people with schizophrenia were born were also years with high rates of viral illness.
o MULTIFACTORIAL MODEL: complications during pregnancy and birth, viral infections, genetic factors, stress, quality of parenting all play a
role in developing schizophrenia. The model suggests that environmental factors along are not enough for people to develop schizophrenia.
People who are not genetically vulnerable are unlikely to develop the disorder.

6.