General Psychology

1. Developmental Psychology

2.  When considering an issue related to a living
organism, did it become the way it is due to
genetics, life experiences, or both.
 Nature is defined as the genetic factors
or influences
 Nurture is defined as the
environmental factors & learning.
 We consider the things that may have contributed
to a person’s biological, emotional, cognitive,
personal, and social development.

3.  Is personality development due to
genetics or environmental factors?
 Answer: BOTH!
 Are social skills due to genetics or
learning?
 Answer: BOTH!
 Are physical/psychological illnesses
due to genetics or environmental
factors?
 Answer: BOTH!

4.  Jean Piaget is cited as one of the first
and most prolific researchers to
investigate cognitive development.
 Cognitive strategies are age-related
 The way that children think about things
changes with age regardless of the
specific nature of what they were
thinking about.
 Criticized for under-estimating abilities

5.  Jean Piaget’s Theories of Cognition
 Schemas or Schemes: actions or
mental representations that organize
knowledge (a mental picture)
 Limited when dealing with new concepts and
experiences, but improves with exposure and
experience.

6. How do we interpret the world around
us?
 Assimilation: interpreting new
information using existing ways of
thinking.
 Accommodation: the process of
changing existing ways of thinking to
adjust to and better understand new
experiences.

7.  Birds
 The neighbor’s great dane
 The “Tow Truck Story”
 My sister’s first intestinal virus

8.  Stages of cognitive development
 1.) Sensorimotor (birth -24 months)
 2.) Preoperational (2-7 years)
 3.) Concrete Operational (7-12 years)
 4.) Formal Operational (12+ years)

9.  1.) Sensorimotor Stage: period of time
from birth to two years of age, in
which a child understands the world
around them by using and
coordinating their senses and their
ever increasing ability to move
around and expose themselves to new
experiences.

10.  2.) Piaget’s Preoperational Stage
 Approximately age 2 – 7
 Use of symbols to represent experience (use of words,
images and drawings)
 Stable concepts begin to form
 Presence of Egocentrism
 Presence of Magical Thinking / Beliefs
 Beginning stages of reasoning

11.  2.) Piaget’s Preoperational Stage
 Mental representation
 Intuition/hypothesis  decision making
 Characteristics of preoperational thought =
inflexible
 Appearance & reality
 Easily fooled by appearance
 Symbolic representation vs Reality
 Make-believe play = pretend play
1. More sophisticated form = sociodramatic play
** Evidence of children’s understanding of representational
function

12.  Object Permanence: the understanding
that objects or events continue to exist
even if they can no longer be seen,
touched or heard.
 Occurs during sensorimotor stage
 Develops between 4 & 12 months
 Peek-a-boo
 Hiding objects to distract
 Distress when left alone (mommy leaves)

13.  Egocentrism / Egocentric Thinking:
the tendency for children to view the
world:
 as being centered around themselves
 ONLY from their point-of-view and
having difficulties appreciating someone
else’s point-of-view
 If they don’t experience it, neither does
anyone else.

14. Egocentrism
 Can’t understand that others have
different feelings, perceptions, attitudes,
likes and dislikes
 Believe that if they experience
something, that all others do as well
 Child nodding on phone with grandma
 Child likes frogs and mother doesn’t
 Child takes another child’s toy

15.  Centration:
 The focusing of attention on one
characteristic to the exclusion of all
others
 The young child’s tendency to think in
the world in terms of one variable at a
time
 Choosing what to wear for the day

16.  3.) Concrete Operational Stage:
Children between the ages of 7 and 12
start to reason logically about specific
or concrete events or examples.
 Not yet able to imagine the steps necessary to complete
an algebraic equation, which is too abstract for
thinking at this stage.
 Concrete operations allow a child the ability to
consider several characteristics rather than focus on a
single property of an object.

17.  Formal Operations Stage: The
adolescent reasons in more abstract,
idealistic, and logical ways.
 12 years and older
 Begin to entertain thoughts about their
‘possible’ future
 More systematic in solving problems
 Develop hypotheses about why
something happens

18.  Humans have the capacity to develop a
varying ability to display and control
their emotions.
 Humans also have the capacity to
develop varying abilities that allow
them to initiate social interactions with
others around them.

19. 3 Categories of Temperament
(Thomas & Chess Research)
 Easy Child: a child who is generally in
a positive mood, who quickly
establishes regular routines in
infancy, and who adapts easily to new
experiences.
 Regular eating and sleeping routines; happy
 40% of children studied

20.  Difficult Child: A child who tends to
react negatively and cries frequently,
who engages in irregular daily
routines, and who is slow to accept
new experiences.
 Less regular with bodily functions and are slow to
develop regular eating and sleeping patterns; react
vigorously and negatively to change; difficulty
adapting; cry more than others (higher pitched); easily
irritated
 10% of children studied

21.  Slow-to-warm-up Child: A child who
has a low activity level, is somewhat
negative, and displays a low intensity
of mood.
 Not as negative as difficult children; show mild or
passive resistance; few intense reactions; once adapted-
fairly positive
 15% of children studied
 NOTE: 35% did not fit into any of the 3 categories.

22.  Goodness of fit: Refers to the match
between a child’s temperament and
the environmental demands with
which the child must cope.
 Expectations by parents, grandparents, etc
 Expectations in childcare/daycare, etc
 Lack of fit can result in adjustment problems

23.  Changes in the way we think,
feel and relate to the world
and the people in it.
 Many different
issues and theories
exist within the realm of the
psychosocial perspective.

24.  Attachment: The intense emotional
tie or bond between two
individuals, such as a parent and a
child.
 Parents, older siblings, grandparents,
other consistent caregivers

25.  Early theorists believed that feeding was
the key to babies associating their mothers
with a sense of well being and
consequently wanting to be close to her.
 Wire Mother (food) vs. Cloth Mother (no food)

26.  Harry Harlow’s study with Rhesus
monkeys eliminated this belief.
 Contact comfort found to be more
important than the gratification of being
fed.

27.  “The Strange Situation”: An
observational measure of infant
attachment that requires the infant to
move through a series of introduction,
separations, and reunions with the
caregiver and an adult stranger in a
prescribed order.
 Used to classify infants into 4 categories of attachment
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTsewNrHUHU

28.  Securely Attached Babies: babies that
use the caregiver as a secure base from
which to explore their environment.
 Not overly upset by separations
 Happy with reunions
 Comfortable exploring
 Not overly upset by strangers (also uses social
referencing)

29.  Insecure-Avoidant Babies: Babies
show insecurity by avoiding their
caregiver.
 Interacts little while caregiver is in the room
 Not distressed by separations
 Usually does not reestablish contact when reunited
 Avoid contact with stranger
 If contact is established, they may lean or pull away,
look away and even ignore (more passive resistance)

30.  Insecure-Resistant Babies: Babies that
often cling to the caregiver, then resist
him or her by fighting against the
closeness, perhaps by kicking or
pushing away (active resistance).
 Cling anxiously to caregiver
 Frightened by stranger
 Will not explore room and toys
 Cries loudly / terribly upset when separated
 Resists attempts to comfort when reunited /
inconsolable

31.  Insecure-Disorganized/Disoriented: an
infant that lacks a cohesive strategy in
coping with the strange situation
 The greatest insecurity (least prevalent)
 Show a variety of confused and conflicted
behaviors (may cling to mother while leaning
away)
 Approach / withdraw behaviors
 Emotions vary greatly over time (calm, then cry)

32.  Diana Baumrind’s Research
 4 Aspects of Family Functioning
 Warmth or Nurturance
 Control: Clarity & consistency of rules
 Level of expectations, called “Maturity Demands”
 Communication between the parent and the child

33.  Permissive Style: highly involved
with their children, but place few
demands or controls on them.
 High in nurturance, but low in control,
communication, and maturity demands.
 Let their children do what they want hoping to create
creative, confident children
 Rarely learn respect for others and have difficulty
controlling their behavior, difficult, noncompliant,
difficulties in peer relations.

34.  Authoritarian Style: a restrictive,
punitive style in which parents exhort
the child to obey their rules.
 “You do what I say, when I say…no discussion!”
 Low in nurturance and communication, but high in
maturity demands and control
 Enforce rules rigidly, but do not explain them
 Children grow to be fearful, anxious, and have weak
communication skills, low self-esteem, do less well in
school, aggressive

35.  Rejecting-Neglectful Style: parent is
very uninvolved with the child’s life
 Lowe in control, maturity demands, communication
and nurturance
 Children tend to be socially incompetent, poor self-
control, low self-esteem, immature, may be alienated
from family.
 Don’t handle independence well
 Less achievement oriented in school, more impulsive,
and are often antisocial.

36.  Authoritative Style: encourage
children to be independent, but still
place limits and control on their
actions.
 High in nurturance, communication, maturity demands
and control
 Inductive Discipline: explaining to a child why a
punished behavior is wrong
 Most consistently positive results: higher self-esteem,
more independent, self-confident, better grades,
altruistic behaviors

37.  Only theory of psychosocial development
that covers the entire lifespan
 Eight stages, each involves specific
personal or social tasks that must be
accomplished if development is to proceed
in a healthy fashion.
 Overcome a specific crisis or conflict
between “internal needs” and the
environment that they are currently in.

38.  1.) Trust vs. Mistrust
 Birth – 18 months
 Infants learn to trust when they are cared for in a
consistent, predictable, timely, and nurturing manner.
(needs are met by caregivers)
 Infants learn mistrust if their needs are not met in a
consistent, reliable, timely and nurturing manner.

39.  2.) Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt: Child
begins to assert their independence and
express individuality (learning to do
things for themselves)
 Toddle years: 18 months – 3 years
 Will; new physical skills lead to demand for more
choices, most often seen as saying, “no” to caregivers;
child learns self-care skills such as toileting
 Parents view interactions with child as a series of
troublesome encounters; stubborn insistence by child

40.  3.) Initiative vs. Guilt: Child learns to
initiate tasks and to follow through with
plans.
 Motivation, curiosity, autonomy
 Conflict occurs when they make a decision to do
something on their own (pick up an item in a
store, choose their outfit for the day, talk to a
stranger). Do they feel comfortable making the
decision or are they worried about (or punished
for) offending or letting down their parents.
 Overprotective parents?

41.  4.) Industry vs. Inferiority: children
direct their energy toward mastering
knowledge and intellectual skills
(and social skills), or end up feeling
incompetent or inferior compared to
others.

42.  5.) Identity vs. Role Confusion: an
adolescent explores who they are,
what they stand for, and where they
are going in life.
 Positive outcome = solid identity
development
 Negative outcome = unsure of who they
are

43.  6.) Intimacy vs. Isolation: an
individual must find a life partner or
supportive friends in order to avoid
social isolation.
 Intimacy: the capacity to engage in a
supportive, affectionate relationship
without losing one’s sense of self; the
ability to be totally honest with an other,
and be one’s self without fear of
judgment from the other.

44.  7.) Generativity vs. Stagnation:
 Generativity: Finding meaning in
mentoring, helping or contributing to the
development of younger individuals
(own children, grandchildren, other
young family members, friends’ or
others’ children, working with younger
people).

45.  Stagnation: sometimes called “self-
absorption”, develops when
individuals sense that they have done
little or nothing for the next
generation.

46.  Stage 8: Integrity vs. Despair: involves
reflecting on the past and either
piecing together a positive review or
concluding that one’s life has not been
well spent.

47.  DANIEL LEVINSON
 Who is he?
 Daniel Levinson graduated from Yale as a
psychologist. He later developed a
comprehensive theory of adult
development. This theory is important because
it is one of the only ones which suggests that
development and growth happens well into the
adult years.

48.  The life structure: an underlying pattern of
an individual's life at any given point in
time.
 A person's life structure is shaped mainly by their
social and physical environment, and it primarily
involves family and work.
 Other variables such as religion, race, and status
are often important as well.
 There are 6 stages of adulthood in Levinson's
theory titled "Seasons of a Man's Life":

49. In his theory there are two key concepts:
1) the Stable Period - This is the time when a
person makes crucial choices in life.
2) the Transitional Period - This is the end of a
person's stage and the beginning of a new one.
Life during these transitions can be either
rocky or smooth, but the quality and
significance of one’s life commitments often
change between the beginning and end of a
period.

50. 1) Early adult transition (17-22) - leave adolescence,
make preliminary choices for adult life
2) Entering the adult world (22-28) - make initial
choices in love, occupation, friendship, values,
lifestyle
3) Age 30 transition (28-33) - changes occur in life
structure, either a moderate change or, more often, a
severe and stressful crisis

51. 4) Settling down (33-40) - establish a niche in society,
progress on a timetable, in both family and career
accomplishments
 People are expected to think and behave like a
parent, so they are facing more demanding roles
and expectations .

52. 5) Mid-life transition (40-45) - life structure comes
into question, usually a time of crisis in the
meaning, direction, and value of each person's life.
 Neglected parts of the self (talents, desires,
aspirations) seek expression.
 Men are seen more as parents than as “brothers” to
other men who are somewhat younger than them and
this message comes as an irritation at first.
 Also at this time, men becoming increasingly aware of
death and they are reminded of how short life really
is. They become involved in trying to leave a legacy
and this usually forms the core of the second half of his
life.

53. 6) Entering middle adulthood (45-50) - choices must
be made, a new life structure formed. People must
commit to new tasks.
 Some sources also stated that there was a late
adulthood stage during which time a man
spent time reflecting on past achievements and
regrets, and making peace with one's self and
others (including God).