Psychology Study Guide

Chapter 3
Parenting Types Authoritarian: strict parenting; demanding but not responsive; allows little discussion between parent and child; the parent expects the child to follow directions without question; because I said so Authoritative: assertive democratic or balanced; places limits and controls on the child while still allowing them to be independent Indulgent: responsive but not demanding; the parent has few behavioral expectations for the child; the parents are still involved, but in a friend sort of way Neglectful: neither demanding nor responsive; invests little in the childs life, and expects little; do not set limits and are generally unsupportive Authoritative is generally viewed as the best parenting style. Zygote (about 2 weeks) --> Embryo (until about 8 weeks) --> Fetus (until birth) Stages of Development Sensorimotor Stage Age: Birth to nearly 2 years Description: Experiencing the world through senses and actions Phenomena: Object permanence, stranger anxiety Preoperational Stage Age: About 2 to 6 years Description: Representing things with words and images but lacking logical reasoning Phenomena: Pretend play, egocentrism, language development Concrete Operational Stage Age: About 7 to 11 years Description: Thinking logically about concrete events; grasping concrete analogies and performing arithmetical operations Phenomena: Conservation, mathematical transformations Formal Operational Stage Age: About 12 through adulthood Description: Abstract reasoning Phenomena: Abstract logic, potential for mature moral reasoning Object permanence - the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived; occurs at about 8 months Stranger anxiety - the fear of strangers that infants commonly display; occurs at about 8 months as a preservation mechanism because the infant is about to become mobile Conservation - the principle that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of the objects; develops around 6 years of age Cognition Schema - a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information (such as an infant seeing a UPS guy and calling him a daddy)

Assimilation - interpreting ones new experiences in terms of ones existing schemas (now the infant calls all adult males UPS guys and not daddy, this is just adding to his information bank) Accommodation - adapting ones current understandings to incorporate new information (now the infant realizes that there are UPS guys and daddies and that they are different) Remember you need an example of this. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) - physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant womans heavy drinking; this can include significant facial misproportions and can cause the baby to look like a baby with Down Syndrome; this is also the leading preventable cause for mental retardation; it is also hard to tell if problems are due to FAS because you cant tell if the child would have had the problems anyways or if they are actually due to their mothers drinking Teratogen - agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm Plasticity - the brains capacity for modification, as evident in brain reorganization following damage and in experiments on the effects of experience on brain development Gender Identity - ones sense of being male or female Gender Typing - the acquisition of a traditional masculine or feminine role Gender Schema Theory - the theory that we learn social behavior by observing and imitating and by being rewarded or punished Social Learning Theory - the theory that children learn from their cultures a concept of what it means to be male and female and that they adjust their behavior accordingly. Which do you think is best? Gender Schema Theory seems most plausible to me because we are greatly influenced by those around us (especially our parents at a young age) and we are not born with a sense of gender identity. Males are generally discouraged from being feminine, and vice versa, so we learn to adopt a masculine or feminine role depending on our gender through being praised or scolded based on our actions.

Chapter 4
Adolescence - life between childhood and adulthood; starts with the physical beginnings of sexual maturity and ends with the societal achievement of independent adult status; basically the teenage years Puberty - the period of sexual maturation, during which one first becomes capable of reproducing Primary sex characteristics - the body structures (ovaries, testes, and external genitalia) that make sexual reproduction possible Secondary sex characteristics - nonreproductive sexual characteristics, such as female breasts and hips, male voice quality, and body hair Menarche - the first menstrual period; this is considered the start of the adolescent period for females 5 Stages of Grief Denial - after a loss, the usual first step is to deny the reality of the situation; this buffers the immediate shock and acts as a waiver for the pain

Anger - after denial wears off, reality sets in but we are not ready to accept it yet, so we redirect the pain we feel to other things in the form of anger Bargaining - we now try to bargain with a higher power because we feel helpless and feel as though this is the only way to postpone the inevitable; it makes us feel better about the painful reality Depression - sadness and regret set in as we finally realize the circumstances; we worry about everything there is to worry about Acceptance - we make peace with the circumstances and become withdrawn and calm as we finally accept what has happened How to help the grieving - offer to talk to them, make them food, do chores for them or run errands, let them know that you are there for them and that this sad period will pass, comfort them, dont avoid them Longitudinal Study - research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period Cross-sectional Study - a study in which people of different ages are compared with one another

Chapter 14
Four Personality Theories Psychoanalytic Developed by: Freud Description: Unconscious conflicts between pleasure-seeking impulses and social restraints Assessment: Projective tests (Rorschach Inkblot Test) Pros: good for its time, widely used Cons: hard to test, relies too heavily on sexual impulses, more negative behaviors Trait Developed by: Gordon Allport Description: expressing biologically influenced dispositions, such as extraversion or introversion Assessment: Personality inventories that assess the strengths of different traits, Peer ratings of behavior patterns Pros: maybe that we can use an average of our personality traits to show that we actually do have a distinct personality Cons: underestimated variability of behavior in different situations

Humanistic Developed by: Rogers & Maslow Description: processing conscious feeling about oneself in the light of ones experiences Assessment: Questionnaire assessments of self-concept, Empathic interviews Pros: says people are naturally good, very pervasive (influential) Cons: self-centered and overly optimistic Social-cognitive Developed by: Albert Bandura Description: reciprocal influences between people and their situations, colored by perceptions of control Assessment: Questionnaire assessment, Observations of peoples behavior in particular situations Pros: integrates research on learning, cognition, and social behavior Cons: underestimates emotions and enduring traits, what we think we see isnt always true

3 things that foster growth in a relationship - Genuineness, acceptance, empathy Oedipus Complex - according to Freud, a boys sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father (Electra Complex is reverse for girls) Defense Mechanisms This is the egos protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality Repression - the basic defense mechanism that banished anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness Regression - defense mechanism in which an individual retreats when faced with anxiety to a more infantile psychosexual stage where some psychic energy remains fixated Reaction formation - defense mechanism by which the ego unconsciously switches unacceptable impulses into their opposites Projection - the defense mechanism by which people disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others Rationalization - defense mechanism that offers self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for ones actions Displacement - defense mechanism that shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person, as when redirecting anger toward a safer outlet Id, ego, superego Id - a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives; operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification Ego - the largely conscious executive part of the personality that mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality; operates on the reality principle, satisfying the ids desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain Superego - the part of personality that represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment and for future aspirations; our conscious, or angel Loci of Control Internal - the belief that you have the power to change circumstances External - the belief that the world or fate decides your life for you Freuds Psychosexual Stages (I dont think we actually have to know these, but Im not positive...) Oral (0-18 months) - pleasure centers in the mouth focuses on sucking, biting chewing Anal (18-36 months) - pleasure focuses on bowel and bladder elimination Phallic (3-6 years) - pleasure zone is the genitals; coping with incestuous sexual feelings Latency (6 to puberty) - dormant sexual feelings Genital (puberty on) - maturation of sexual interests