Aguiar AP Development

Editor's Notes

• #5: I,2, 5, 6= True
• #7: Developmental psychologists study the life cycle, from conception to death, examining how we develop physically, cognitively, and socially.
• #8: Nature - the influence of our inherited characteristics on our personality, physical growth, intellectual growth, and social interactions. Nurture - the influence of the environment on personality, physical growth, intellectual growth, and social interactions. Behavioral genetics – focuses on nature vs. nurture.
• #9: Three issues pervade this study: (1) the relative impact of genes and experience on behavior, (2) whether development is best described as gradual and continuous or as a sequence of predetermined stages, and (3) whether the individual’s personality remains stable or changes over the life span.
• #10: Ovum - the female sex cell, or egg. Fertilization - the union of the ovum and sperm. Conception - the moment at which a female becomes pregnant. Zygote - cell resulting from the uniting of the ovum and sperm; divides into many cells, eventually forming the baby. A total of 200 million or more sperm deposited during intercourse approach an egg (ovum) 85,000 times their own size. The few that make it to the egg release digestive enzymes that eat away the egg’s protective coating, allowing a sperm to penetrate. The egg’s surface blocks out all others and with- in a half day, the egg nucleus and the sperm nucleus fuse. Fewer than half of all fertilized eggs, called zygotes, survive. In the first week, cell division produces a zygote of some 100 cells. Then the cells begin to differentiate, that is, to specialize in structure and function. About 10 days after conception, the zygote’s outer cells attach to the mother’s uterine wall. The inner cells become the embryo.
• #11: By 9 weeks after conception, the embryo looks unmistakably human and is now a fetus. During the sixth month, internal organs such as the stomach have become sufficiently formed and functional to allow a prematurely born fetus a chance of survival. At each prenatal stage, genetic and environmental factors affect development. The placenta, which formed as the zygote’s outer cells attached to the uterine wall, transfers nutrients and oxygen from mother to fetus.
• #12: Along with nutrients, teratogens ingested by the mother can reach the developing child and place it at risk. If the mother drinks heavily, the effects may be visible as fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS).
• #13: Newborns are surprisingly competent. They are born with sensory equipment and reflexes that facilitate their interacting with adults and securing nourishment. Touched on its cheek, a baby opens its mouth and roots for a nipple. Newborns turn their heads in the direction of human voices and gaze longer at a drawing of a facelike image than at a bull’s-eye pattern. They prefer to look at objects 8 to 12 inches away, the approximate distance between a nursing infant’s eyes and the mother’s. Within days of birth, the newborn distinguishes its mother’s odor, and at 3 weeks, the newborn prefers its mother’s voice. A simple form of learning called habituation, a decrease in responding with repeated stimulation, enables researchers to assess what infants see and remember. Using a novelty-preference proce- dure, researchers have learned that infants, like adults, focus first on the face, not the body.
• #17: A simple form of learning called habituation, a decrease in responding with repeated stimulation, enables researchers to assess what infants see and remember. Using a novelty-preference procedure, researchers have learned that infants, like adults, focus first on the face, not the body. Research on the perceptual abilities of newborns indicates that they look more at a facelike image than at a bull's-eye pattern.
• #18: Within the brain, nerve cells form before birth. After birth, the neural networks that enable us to walk, talk, and remember have a wild growth spurt. From ages 3 to 6, growth occurs most rapidly in the frontal lobes, which enable rational planning. The association areas linked with thinking, memory, and language are the last cortical areas to develop. Maturation, the biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, sets the basic course of development; experience adjusts it. Maturation accounts for commonalities, from standing before walking to using nouns before adjectives. As the infant’s muscles and nervous system mature, ever more complicated skills emerge. The sequence is universal; the timing varies. Babies roll over before they sit unsupported, and they usually creep before they walk. Genes play a major role. Identical twins typically begin sitting up and walking on nearly the same day. Experience has a limited effect for other physical skills as well, including those that enable bowel and bladder control. The average age of earliest conscious memory is 3.5 years. By 4 to 5 years, this infantile amnesia is giving way to remembered experiences. Experiments do show, however, that infants can retain learning over time. For example, 3-month-olds who learn to propel a mobile by moving their legs retain the association for at least a month. Studies of older children indicate that sometimes what the conscious mind cannot recall in words from the earliest years, the nervous system somehow remembers.
• #19: #1) C # 2) B
• #21: #1) C # 2) B
• #23: Jean Piaget (French: [ʒɑ̃ pjaʒɛ]; 9 August 1896 – 16 September 1980) was a Swiss developmental psychologist and philosopher known for his epistemological studies with children. His theory of cognitive development and epistemological view are together called "genetic epistemology". Piaget placed great importance on the education of children. As the Director of the International Bureau of Education, he declared in 1934 that "only education is capable of saving our societies from possible collapse, whether violent, or gradual."[2] Piaget created the International Center for Genetic Epistemology in Geneva in 1955 and directed it until his death in 1980.[3] The number of collaborations that its founding made possible, and their impact, ultimately led to the Center being referred to in the scholarly literature as "Piaget's factory."[4]
• #24: Cognition refers to all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating. Jean Piaget maintained that the mind of the child is not a miniature model of the adult’s. He theorized that the mind tries to make sense of experience by forming schemas, concepts or frameworks that organize and interpret information. We assimilate new experiences, that is, interpret them in terms of our current understandings. But we also sometimes adjust, or accommodate, our current understanding to incorporate new information. Example Question: Nageeb thought all nurses were young females until a middle-aged male nurse took care of him. Nageeb's altered conception of a “nurse” illustrates the process of accomodation Incorporating new information into existing theories is to assimilation as modifying existing theories in light of new information is to accomodation.
• #25: SPCF: Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Fruit During the sensorimotor stage (birth to age 2) of cognitive development, children experience the world through their senses and actions. By about 8 months, an infant exhibits object permanence, an awareness that things still exist even when they are out of sight. 1 is a bun: think cinnaMotorcycle, pair of ants Sensorimotor - Children explore the world using their senses and ability to move. Birth to 2 years old They develop object permanence and the understanding that concepts and mental images represent objects, people, and events. Lisa attempts to retrieve her bottle after her father hides it under a blanket. This suggests that Lisa has developed a sense of object permanance
• #26: SPCF: Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Fruit During the sensorimotor stage (birth to age 2) of cognitive development, children experience the world through their senses and actions. By about 8 months, an infant exhibits object permanence, an awareness that things still exist even when they are out of sight. 1 is a bun: think cinnaMotorcycle, pair of ants Sensorimotor - Children explore the world using their senses and ability to move. Birth to 2 years old They develop object permanence and the understanding that concepts and mental images represent objects, people, and events. Lisa attempts to retrieve her bottle after her father hides it under a blanket. This suggests that Lisa has developed a sense of object permanance
• #27: Piaget maintained that up to about age 6 or 7, children are in a preoperational stage—too young to perform mental operations. They are egocentric, that is, they cannot perceive things from another’s point of view and lack a theory of mind. (Autism is also marked by impaired ability to infer others’ mental states.) Preacher…magical thinking rabbit out of the hat, Smokey the bear Ass, Preoperational - Piaget’s second stage of cognitive development in which the preschool child learns to use language as a means of exploring the world. Egocentrism - the inability to see the world through anyone else’s eyes. Centration - in Piaget’s theory, the tendency of a young child to focus only on one feature of an object while ignoring other relevant features. Conservation - in Piaget’s theory, the ability to understand that simply changing the appearance of an object does not change the object’s nature. Irreversibility - in Piaget’s theory, the inability of the young child to mentally reverse an action. The principle that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects is called conservation According to Piaget, an egocentric child can best be described as cognitively limited
• #28: Piaget maintained that up to about age 6 or 7, children are in a preoperational stage—too young to perform mental operations. They are egocentric, that is, they cannot perceive things from another’s point of view and lack a theory of mind. (Autism is also marked by impaired ability to infer others’ mental states.) Preacher…magical thinking rabbit out of the hat, Smokey the bear Ass, Preoperational - Piaget’s second stage of cognitive development in which the preschool child learns to use language as a means of exploring the world. Egocentrism - the inability to see the world through anyone else’s eyes. Centration - in Piaget’s theory, the tendency of a young child to focus only on one feature of an object while ignoring other relevant features. Conservation - in Piaget’s theory, the ability to understand that simply changing the appearance of an object does not change the object’s nature. Irreversibility - in Piaget’s theory, the inability of the young child to mentally reverse an action. The principle that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects is called conservation According to Piaget, an egocentric child can best be described as cognitively limited
• #29: Piaget thought that at about age 6 or 7, children become capable of performing concrete operations, for example, those required to comprehend the principle of conservation. They think logically about concrete events, grasp concrete analogies, and comprehend mathematical transformations. Concrete block, log, commode, Concrete Operational - Children at this stage are able to conserve, reverse their thinking, 7 to 12 years old and classify objects in terms of their many characteristics. They can also think logically and understand analogies but only about concrete events.
• #30: Piaget thought that at about age 6 or 7, children become capable of performing concrete operations, for example, those required to comprehend the principle of conservation. They think logically about concrete events, grasp concrete analogies, and comprehend mathematical transformations. Concrete Operational - Children at this stage are able to conserve, reverse their thinking, 7 to 12 years old and classify objects in terms of their many characteristics. They can also think logically and understand analogies but only about concrete events.
• #31: By age 12, reasoning expands from the purely concrete to encompass abstract thinking, which Piaget called formal operational thinking. Four males…. Formal Operational - People at this stage can use abstract reasoning about hypothetical 12 years old to events or situations, think about logical possibilities, use abstract adulthood analogies, and systematically examine and test hypotheses. Not everyone can eventually reason in all these ways. Personal fable - type of thought common to adolescents in which young people believe themselves to be unique and protected from harm. Imaginary audience - type of thought common to adolescents in which young people believe that other people are just as concerned about the adolescent’s thoughts and characteristics as they themselves are.
• #32: By age 12, reasoning expands from the purely concrete to encompass abstract thinking, which Piaget called formal operational thinking. Formal Operational - People at this stage can use abstract reasoning about hypothetical 12 years old to events or situations, think about logical possibilities, use abstract adulthood analogies, and systematically examine and test hypotheses. Not everyone can eventually reason in all these ways. Personal fable - type of thought common to adolescents in which young people believe themselves to be unique and protected from harm. Imaginary audience - type of thought common to adolescents in which young people believe that other people are just as concerned about the adolescent’s thoughts and characteristics as they themselves are.
• #34: Complementing Piaget’s emphasis on how the child’s mind grows through interaction with the physical environment, the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky emphasized how the child’s mind grows through interaction with the social environment. He noted that children internalize their culture’s language and rely on inner speech, making them increasingly capable of thinking in words and of using words to work out solutions to problems. Today’s researchers have shown that young children are more capable and their development more continuous than Piaget believed. The cognitive abilities that emerge at each stage have begun developing at earlier ages. Today’s researchers also see formal logic as a smaller part of cognition than Piaget did. Nonetheless, studies support his idea that human cognition unfolds basically in the sequence he proposed. Scaffolding: The more highly skilled person gives the learner more help at the beginning of the learning process and then begins to withdraw help as the learner’s skills improve beyond her zones of proximal development. Zone of proximal development (ZPD) - Vygotsky’s concept of the difference between what a child can do alone and what that child can do with the help of a teacher.
• #35: Answer D
• #36: Answer D
• #40: Stranger anxiety is the fear of unfamiliar faces that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age (soon after object permanence emerges). They greet strangers by crying and reaching for their familiar caregivers. EQ: Infants develop a fear of strangers at about 8 months of age because they can't assimilate unfamiliar faces into their schemas
• #41: The attachment bond is a survival impulse that keeps infants close to their caregivers. Infants become attached to their parents or primary caregivers not simply because they gratify biological needs (nourishment) but because they provide body contact that is soft and warm. Familiarity provides another key to attachment. In animals, attachments based on familiarity often form during a critical period shortly after birth. This rigid attachment process is called imprinting. Although humans do not imprint, they do become attached to what they have known. Clearly, familiarity provides a safety signal. Responsive parenting contributes most positively to the development of secure attachment between human infants and their mother
• #44: When placed in a strange situation such as a laboratory playroom, about 60 percent of children display secure attachment; they play comfortably in their mother’s presence, are distressed when she leaves, and seek contact when she returns. Other infants, who are insecurely attached, are less likely to explore their surroundings, and when their mother leaves, cry loudly and remain upset, or seem indifferent to her going and returning. Sensitive, responsive parents tend to have securely attached children. Insensitive, unresponsive parents have infants who often become insecurely attached. Many young children with divorced or unmarried parents have been deprived of parental care and attention. This is likely to put them at increased risk for Insecure attachment
• #45: temperament (the infant’s characteristic emotional excitability and intensity) may elicit responsive parenting, parental sensitivity has been taught and does increase secure attachment to some extent. From the first weeks of life, some babies are easy (more relaxed and cheerful), while others are difficult (more tense and irritable). Still others are slow to warm up (Cannot be comforted) These differences in temperament tend to persist. For example, the most emotionally intense preschoolers tend to be relatively intense young adults. Compared with fraternal twins, identical twins have more similar temperaments, indicating that heredity may predispose temperament differences. Identical Twins are likely to show the greatest similarity in temperament Temperament - the behavioral characteristics that are fairly well established at birth. Easy - regular, adaptable, and happy Difficult - irregular, nonadaptable, and irritable Slow to warm up - need to adjust gradually to change.
• #46: Although genetically influenced temperament (the infant’s characteristic emotional excitability and intensity) may elicit responsive parenting, parental sensitivity has been taught and does increase secure attachment to some extent. From the first weeks of life, some babies are easy (more relaxed and cheerful), while others are difficult (more tense and irritable). Still others are slow to warm up. These differences in temperament tend to persist. For example, the most emotionally intense preschoolers tend to be relatively intense young adults. Compared with fraternal twins, identical twins have more similar temperaments, indicating that heredity may predispose temperament differences. Identical Twins are likely to show the greatest similarity in temperament
• #49: self-concept, our understanding and evaluation of who we are, develops gradually. At about 15 to 18 months, infants will recognize themselves in a mirror. By school age, children start to describe themselves in terms of their gender, group memberships, and psychological traits. They also com- pare themselves with other children. By age 8 or 10, children’s self-images are quite stable. Children with a positive self-concept are more confident, independent, optimistic, assertive, and sociable.
• #50: Authoritarian parents impose rules and expect obedience. Permissive parents submit to their children’s desires, make few demands, and use little punishment. Authoritative parents are both demanding and responsive. Children with the highest self-esteem, self-reliance, and social competence usually have warm, concerned, and authoritative parents. Studies in cultures worldwide reflect the positive correlates of authoritative parenting.
• #51: Authoritarian parents impose rules and expect obedience. Permissive parents submit to their children’s desires, make few demands, and use little punishment. Authoritative parents are both demanding and responsive. Children with the highest self-esteem, self-reliance, and social competence usually have warm, concerned, and authoritative parents. Studies in cultures worldwide reflect the positive correlates of authoritative parenting.
• #52: The effects are stronger when children are embedded in authoritative communities with connected adults who model a good life. However, correlation is not causation. Socially mature and agreeable children may evoke authoritative parenting, or competent parents and their competent children may share genes that predispose social competence. Child-rearing practices reflect cultural values that vary across time and place. In Westernized cul- tures, parents prefer independence in their children. Many Asians and Africans live in cultures that value emotional closeness. Whatever the cultural preference, children across place and time have thrived under various child-rearing systems. The diversity in child-rearing cautions us against pre- suming that our culture’s way is the only way to rear children successfully.
• #55: Males and females are similar in genetic makeup as well as levels of intelligence, vocabulary, and happiness. Males and females differ in body fat, muscle, height, and life expectancy. Females are more vulnerable to depression, anxiety, and eating disorders. In contrast, males are more likely to commit suicide and suffer alcohol dependence. They are also much more likely to be diagnosed with autism, color-blindness, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder as children and antisocial personalities as adults. In surveys, men admit to more aggression than women, and experiments confirm that men tend to behave more aggressively, such as by delivering what they believe are painful shocks. The same difference in physical aggression is reflected in violent crime rates. The gender gap in physical aggression appears in many cultures and across various ages. Throughout the world, men are perceived as more dominant, forceful, and independent, while women are viewed as more deferential, nurturant, and affiliative. In groups, leadership tends to go to males. In everyday behavior, men are more likely to talk assertively, to interrupt, to initiate touching, to smile less, and to stare. In comparison to men, women are more concerned with making social connections. This gender difference surfaces early, in children’s play. As teens, girls spend more time with friends and less time alone. Both in play and other settings, females are more open and responsive to feedback than are males. Asked difficult questions, men are more likely than women to hazard answers rather than admit they don’t know, a phenomenon called the male answer syndrome. Women emphasize caring, often assuming responsibility for the very young and very old. Both men and women indicate that their friendships with women tend to be more intimate, enjoyable, and nurtur- ing. In coping with stress, women more often turn to others for support—they tend and befriend.
• #56: Biological sex is determined by the twenty-third pair of chromosomes, the sex chromosomes. The member of the pair inherited from the mother is an X chromosome. The X (female) or Y (male) chromosome that comes from the father determines the child’s sex. The Y chromosome triggers the production of the principal male sex hormone, testosterone, which in turn triggers the develop- ment of external male sex organs. During the fourth and fifth prenatal months, the male’s greater testosterone and the female’s ovari- an hormones have an impact on the brain’s wiring. Recent research confirms male-female differ- ences in brain areas with abundant sex hormone receptors during development. For example, dur- ing adulthood the part of the frontal lobes involved in verbal fluency is thicker in women, and the part of the parietal cortex involved in space perception is thicker in men.
• #57: Although biology influences our gender, gender is also socially constructed, as the biopsychosocial approach reminds us. Culture shapes our roles: A role is a cluster of prescribed actions. For exam- ple, gender roles—our expectations about the way men and women should behave—vary across cultures and time, as well as across generations. For instance, in nomadic societies of food- gathering people, there is little division of labor by sex. Thus, boys and girls receive much the same upbringing. In agricultural societies, women stay close to home, while men often roam more freely. Such societies typically socialize children into more distinct gender roles. Even among industrialized countries, gender roles vary greatly, for example, in the expectation that life will be more satisfying when both spouses work and share child care.
• #58: Society assigns each of us to the social category of male and female. The result is our gender identity, our sense of being male or female. To varying degrees, we also become gender typed, acquiring a traditional male or female role. Social learning theory assumes that children learn gender-linked behaviors by observing and imitating significant others and by being rewarded and punished. Thinking also matters. From their culture, children learn a concept or gender schema of what it means to be male or female and adjust their behavior accordingly.
• #60: In the womb, embryos receive different nutrition and varying levels of exposure to toxic agents. Normal stimulation during the early years is critical for optimal brain development. After brain maturation provides us with an abundance of neural connections, experience preserves our activated connections and unused connections degenerate through the process of pruning. Throughout life, our actions strengthen some neural pathways, while others weaken from disuse. We learn to keyboard or skateboard with increasing skill as our brain incorporates the learning.
• #61: In the womb, embryos receive different nutrition and varying levels of exposure to toxic agents. Normal stimulation during the early years is critical for optimal brain development. After brain maturation provides us with an abundance of neural connections, experience preserves our activated connections and unused connections degenerate through the process of pruning. Throughout life, our actions strengthen some neural pathways, while others weaken from disuse. We learn to keyboard or skateboard with increasing skill as our brain incorporates the learning.
• #62: Parental influence is clearest at the extremes, for example, in the abused who become abusive and in the loved but firmly handled children who become self-confident and socially competent. Parental influence is also reflected in children’s political attitudes, religious beliefs, and personal manners. However, environmental influences typically account for less than 10 percent of chil- dren’s personality differences. This finding suggests that parents be given less credit for their chil- dren’s successes as well as less blame for their failures. Parental and peer influences are complementary. Parents are more influential when it comes to education, discipline, responsibility, orderliness, charitableness, and ways of interacting with authority figures. Peers are more important for learning cooperation, for finding the road to popu- larity, and for inventing styles of interaction among people of the same age. Parents can influence the culture that shapes the peer group by helping to select their children’s neighborhood and schools.
• #66: Adolescence, the transition period from childhood to adulthood, typically begins at puberty with the onset of rapid growth and developing sexual maturity. A surge of hormones triggers a two-year period of growth that begins in girls at about age 11 and in boys at about age 13. Brain development includes a selective pruning of unused neurons and connections. The growth of myelin, the fatty tissue that forms around axons and speeds neurotransmission, enables better communication with other brain regions. Frontal lobe maturation that improves judgment, impulse control, and the ability to plan for the long term lags the emotional limbic system. The pubertal hormonal surge, early development of the emotional limbic system, and later maturation of the frontal lobe help explain teens’ occasional impulsiveness, risky behaviors, and emotional storms.
• #67: Lawrence Kohlberg contended that moral thinking likewise proceeds through a series of stages, from a preconventional morality of self-interest, to a conventional morality that cares for others and upholds laws and rules, to (in some people) a postconventional morality of agreed-upon rights or basic ethical principles. Kohlberg’s critics argue that the postconventional level represents morality from the perspective of the European and North American educated middle class, which prizes individualism—giving priority to one’s own goals rather than to group goals—and is biased against the moral reasoning of those in collectivist societies, whose morality may be based more on a sensitivity to group goals.
• #68: Stage one (obedience): Heinz should not steal the medicine because he will consequently be put in prison which will mean he is a bad person. Or: Heinz should steal the medicine because it is only worth $200 and not how much the druggist wanted for it; Heinz had even offered to pay for it and was not stealing anything else. Stage two (self-interest): Heinz should steal the medicine because he will be much happier if he saves his wife, even if he will have to serve a prison sentence. Or: Heinz should not steal the medicine because prison is an awful place, and he would more likely languish in a jail cell than over his wife's death. Stage three (conformity): Heinz should steal the medicine because his wife expects it; he wants to be a good husband. Or: Heinz should not steal the drug because stealing is bad and he is not a criminal; he has tried to do everything he can without breaking the law, you cannot blame him. Stage four (law-and-order): Heinz should not steal the medicine because the law prohibits stealing, making it illegal. Or: actions have consequences. Stage five (human rights): Heinz should steal the medicine because everyone has a right to choose life, regardless of the law. Or: Heinz should not steal the medicine because the scientist has a right to fair compensation. Even if his wife is sick, it does not make his actions right. Stage six (universal human ethics): Heinz should steal the medicine, because saving a human life is a more fundamental value than the property rights of another person. Or: Heinz should not steal the medicine, because others may need the medicine just as badly, and their lives are equally significant.
• #70: Jonathan Haidt’s social intuitionist explanation is that moral feel- ings precede moral reasoning, and so moral judgment involves quick gut feelings. Character edu- cation programs teach children to empathize with others and to delay gratification. As thinking matures, behavior also becomes less selfish and more caring.
• #71: Answer: D
• #74: Bun – (Trust vs. Mistrust) a rusty red (rust-colored) bun
• #76: Trust versus mistrust - first stage of personality development in which the infant’s basic sense of trust or mistrust develops as a result of consistent or inconsistent care. Bun – (Trust vs. Mistrust) a rusty red (rust-colored) bun
• #78: Autonomy versus shame and doubt - second stage of personality development in which the toddler strives for physical independence. Shoe (Autonomy vs. Shame): a huge automobile (maybe a humvee?) stuffed into your shoe. The auto is driven by a guy named Shane (shame)
• #80: Initiative versus guilt - third stage of personality development in which the preschool-aged child strives for emotional and psychological independence and attemps to satisfy curiosity about the world. Tree (Initiative vs. Guilt) a tree with an Inn and/or with Shia Leboef in it. A quilt (guilt) is wrapped around the tree.
• #82: Industry versus inferiority - fourth stage of personality development in which the adolescent strives for a sense of competence and self-esteem. Dinasaur (Industry vs. Inferiority): industry: A dinosaur with dust all over it. He feels very inferior as a result
• #84: Identity versus role confusion - fifth stage of personality development in which the adolescent must find a consistent sense of self. The teenager must choose from among many options for values in life and beliefs concerning things such as political issues, career options, and marriage (Feldman, 2003). Sky Dive (Identity vs. Identity Diffusion) picture a sky diver jumping out of a plane and falling onto a car denting it. He of course is very confused as a result.
• #85: Identity versus role confusion - fifth stage of personality development in which the adolescent must find a consistent sense of self. The teenager must choose from among many options for values in life and beliefs concerning things such as political issues, career options, and marriage (Feldman, 2003).
• #86: In young adulthood, Erikson saw the primary task to be finding a mate. True intimacy is an emotional and psychological closeness that is based on the ability to trust, share, and care, while still maintaining one’s sense of self. Young adults who have difficulty trusting others and who are unsure of their own identities may find isolation instead of intimacy—loneliness, shallow relationships with others, and even a fear of real intimacy. Sticks (Intimacy vs. Isolation): picture two sticks in love (intimacy) they have their little twigs around each other and they kissing. I will also picture a stick all by itself (isolation).
• #89: In middle adulthood, persons who have found intimacy can now focus outward on others. Erikson saw this as parenting the next generation and helping them through their crises, a process he called generativity. Heaven (Generativity vs. Stagnation). picture a generator (generativity) that ran out of gas and “died” and so is in heaven and a stag (stagnation) is pulling the rope to try start up the generator. Or picture all your previous generations (grandparents, etc.) are in heaven. Granda riding a stag. OR: general: you could picture a general in heaven who just shot a stag
• #91: In the life review people must deal with mistakes, regrets, and unfinished business. If people can look back and feel that their lives were relatively full and come to terms with regrets and losses, then a feeling of integrity or wholeness results. Integrity is the final completion of the identity, or ego. If people have many regrets and lots of unfinished business, they feel despair, a sense of deep regret over things that will never be accomplished because time has run out. Plate (Integrity vs. Despair): picture a plate of grits (integrity) with a pear (despair) next to it on the plate.
• #97: Muscular strength, reaction time, sensory keenness, and cardiac output crest in the mid-twenties and then slowly begin to decline. These barely perceptible physical declines of early adulthood begin to accelerate during middle adulthood. For women, a significant physical change of adult life is menopause, the ending of the menstrual cycle. A woman’s attitudes and expectations influ- ence the emotional impact of menopause. Men experience no equivalent of menopause and no sharp drop in sex hormones. After middle age, most men and women remain capable of satisfying sexual activity.
• #98: As the years pass, recognition memory remains strong, although recall begins to decline, especial- ly for meaningless information. Older adults may take longer than younger adults to produce the words and things they know. Older people’s capacity to learn and remember skills declines less than their verbal recall. Prospective memory (“remember to . . .”) remains strong when events help trigger memories. Without reminder cues, time-based tasks (“Remember the 8 A.M. meeting”) and habitual tasks, such as remembering to take medications, can be especially challenging.
• #100: Some adults do suffer a substantial loss of brain cells, and up to age 95 the incidence of mental disintegration doubles roughly every 5 years. Alzheimer’s disease strikes 3 percent of the world’s population by age 75.
• #101: Some adults do suffer a substantial loss of brain cells, and up to age 95 the incidence of mental disintegration doubles roughly every 5 years. Alzheimer’s disease strikes 3 percent of the world’s population by age 75.
• #103: Cross-sectional studies, in which people of different ages are compared with one another, suggest- ed that intelligence declines after early adulthood. Later, longitudinal studies, in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period, reported that intelligence remained stable until late in life. While the cross-sectional studies failed to consider generational differences in income and life experience, longitudinal studies failed to account for those who dropped out of studies and who may have been less intelligent than the survivors. Furthermore, intelligence is not a single trait, and tests that assess speed of thinking may place older adults at a disadvantage because of their slower neural mechanisms for processing information.
• #104: Today’s view is that crystallized intelligence—one’s accumulated knowledge and verbal skills as reflected in vocabulary and analogies tests—increases up to old age. Fluid intelligence—one’s ability to reason speedily and abstractly, as when solving novel logic problems—declines slowly up to age 75 and then more rapidly, especially after age 85.
• #106: Answer: C
• #109: Some psychologists have suggested that adults progress through an orderly sequence of life stages. They argue, for example, that as people enter their forties, they undergo a midlife transition to middle adulthood, which, for many, is a crisis. However, research has failed to support the idea that distress peaks anywhere in the midlife range. Moreover, critics suspect that, given variations in the social clock and individual experience, any proposed timetable of adult ages and stages will have limited applicability. Marriage, parenthood, retirement, and other life events that make transitions to new life stages are occurring at unpredictable ages. Even chance encounters and events can have lasting significance and, as a result, adults may change far more, and far less predictably, than stage theories suggest.
• #111: Two basic aspects of our lives dominate adulthood. Erik Erikson called them intimacy (forming close relationships) and generativity (being productive and supporting future generations). Evolutionary psychologists suggest that marriage had survival value for our ancestors in that par- ents who stayed together and raised children to a child-bearing age had a greater chance of passing their genes on to posterity. Compared with their counterparts of 40 years ago, people in Western countries are better educated and marrying later. Yet they are nearly twice as likely to divorce. Does cohabiting before marriage lessen the likelihood of divorce? No. In Europe, Canada, and the United States, those who cohabit before marriage have had higher rates of divorce and marital dys-function than those who did not cohabit. Nonetheless, more than 9 in 10 heterosexual adults marry, and research indicates that married people are generally happier when compared with the unmarried. Often, love bears children. As children begin to absorb more and more time, money, and emotional energy, satisfaction with the marriage may decline.
• #112: Most parents are happy to see their children grow up, leave home, marry, and have careers. For adults, a large part of the answer to “Who are you?” is the answer to “What do you do?” Choosing a career path is difficult, especially in today’s changing work environment. It frequently takes time for people to settle into an occupation. Most people shift from their initially intended majors, many find their postcollege employment in fields not directly related to their majors, and most will change careers. Happiness is having work that fits your interests and provides a sense of competence and accomplishment.
• #113: Although the over-65 years are not totally unhappy, newer surveys of 2 million people worldwide suggest happiness is slightly higher among both young and older adults than among those middle- aged. If anything, positive feelings grow after midlife and negative feelings subside. Older adults increasingly use words that convey positive emotions. Moreover, the bad feelings we associate with negative events fade faster than do the good feelings we associate with positive events. As the years pass, feelings mellow and the highs become less high and the lows less low. More and more people flourish into later life, thanks to biological, psychological, and social-cultural influences. Usually, the most difficult separation is from one’s spouse. Grief is especially severe when the death of a loved one comes before its expected time on the social clock. The normal range of reac- tions to a loved one’s death is wider than most people suppose. Some cultures encourage public weeping and wailing; others hide grief. Within any culture, some individuals grieve more intensely and openly. Research discounts the popular idea that terminally ill and bereaved people go through predictable stages. Life itself can be affirmed even at death, especially if one’s life has been meaningful and worthwhile.