PSY 240 Midterm: Lifespan exam 2 ch7-12 ELON Thurman
10 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Early Childhood
Middle Childhood
Adolescence
Age & characteristics
(birth - 6)
Age 6-11
Period between childhood &
adulthood (preteens - 18)
There are some universal
characteristics, largest
differences concern the length
of adolescence (in many
cultures, adolescence ends
with marriage)
Puberty
Girls mature earlier than boys
Nutrition influences onset of
puberty
Physical & Cognitive
Fine Motor Skills (physical
development)
Planning (cognitive
development)
Attention (cognitive
development)
Goal-Oriented Behavior
(cognitive development)
Sports involvement
Psychological impacts of
pubertal changes:
Moodiness
Stronger emotional reactions
Parent teen conflict becomes
more intense
Psychological distancing (hide
in room, form different views
from parents)
Risk taking: limbic system
(gas pedal) develops earlier
than prefrontal cortex (brake).
Mental Capacities
Egocentrism: difficulty
thinking about things from
others perspectives (teddy
bear)
Concrete Operations
We can learn from what can
be visualized easily (because it
is concrete and obvious), learn
from what is tangible, usually
Formal Operations
(adolescence onward) rules
things operate by, usually
involves extensive guidance
and training
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Inability to conserve
Magical Thinking: dog with
cat mask, boy with long hair
Theory of Mind: the ability to
put oneself in someone else’s
shoes, it is tested with the
false belief tasks
Metacognition: thinking about
thinking
Memory Scripts: having an
idea of the way certain
situations will play out (ex:
restaurant)
Fast-Mapping: using context
clues to figure something out
Private Speech: audible
talking with oneself, often done
when solving complex
problems, eventually becomes
inner speech (self-scaffold)
Emergent Literacy: children’s
active efforts to construct
literacy knowledge through
informal experiences
in real world
Cognitive Development
Theory: (Piaget) learners
actively construct their own
knowledge, mental operations
develop slowly over time and
are based on manipulation of
concrete operations
Reversibility & decentration:
allow for conservation (ex: dad
is dad but also someone’s son)
Classification: relations
between categories; inhibit
perceptual comparisons (ex: in
the preoperational phase
*early childhood* children can
sort by color, in the concrete
operational phase *middle
childhood* children can sort by
herbivores, carnivores and
omnivores)
Seriation: order items along
quantitative dimension;
transitive inference think about
multiple relationships (ex: If A
> B and B > C, then A > C)
Transitive inference:
Conservation: young children
will focus or concentrate on
irrelevant information or
Hypothetical & Abstract
Thinking (ex: giving thought to
living on another planet)
Idealistic Thinking: thinking
about an ideal world or perfect
person
Hypothetico-Deductive
Reasoning: Form hypotheses
and make inferences,
systematic testing of
hypotheses (ex: Piaget’s
pendulum problem, the child is
asked what influences how
long it will take for the
pendulum to complete a full
arc)
Propositional Thought: the
accuracy of conclusions drawn
from premises rests on the
rules of logic, not on real-world
confirmations, not thinking in
terms of ties of real-world
experience (removing self &
using logic; not based on real
world confirmations)
Cognitively: learning, critical
thinking, problem solving, and
decision making
Psychosocially: self-concept
and personal relationships
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
factors, older children can
think logically and reason to
think about reversibility and
decentration
Gains in Info Processing:
working memory, inhibition,
flexible shifting of attention,
planning, strategic
thinking(chess), self
monitoring/correction
Working memory changes:
mem. Capacity increases use
Memory Strategies:
(rehearsal, organization,
elaboration, strategic thinking
*ex: acronym RAVEN*)
(think about things more
complexly than based on
physical appearance), being
able to visualize relationships
Drawing (Influences on
Children’s Artwork)
Developmental Differences:
Fine Motor Skills (control)
Perceptual Abilities (floor,
depth, thickness)
Attention Span
Representational Insight
Influences on Learning in
Schools and Academic
Achievement
Family (e.g. parenting styles,
parent-school relationships)
Peer Influences
School Characteristics (e.g.
classroom learning
experiences, tracking)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Period between childhood & adulthood (preteens - 18) There are some universal characteristics, largest differences concern the length of adolescence (in many cultures, adolescence ends with marriage) Psychological distancing (hide in room, form different views from parents) Risk taking: limbic system (gas pedal) develops earlier than prefrontal cortex (brake). Egocentrism: difficulty thinking about things from others perspectives (teddy bear) We can learn from what can be visualized easily (because it is concrete and obvious), learn from what is tangible, usually. Formal operations (adolescence onward) rules things operate by, usually involves extensive guidance and training. Magical thinking: dog with cat mask, boy with long hair. Theory of mind: the ability to put oneself in someone else"s shoes, it is tested with the false belief tasks. Memory scripts: having an idea of the way certain situations will play out (ex: restaurant) Fast-mapping: using context clues to figure something out.
