Exploring Human Psychology: Development, Emotion, Motivation, Personality, and Health

1. What is the definition of development in human capabilities?

Development refers to the pattern of continuity and change in human capabilities that occurs throughout life, involving both growth and decline.

2. Explain a cross-sectional research design in developmental psychology.

It's a research design where a group of people are assessed on a psychological variable at one point in time.

3. What are cohort effects in developmental research?

Cohort effects are differences between individuals that may be a result of the historical and social time periods they were born into, not necessarily from their age.

4. Differentiate between 'nature' and 'nurture' in human development.

Nature refers to biological inheritance (genes), while nurture refers to environmental and social experiences. Both are crucial for understanding development.

5. Define resilience in the context of human development.

Resilience is a person’s ability to recover from or adapt to difficult times and challenging situations.

6. Name the three main domains of human development.

The three domains are physical processes, cognitive processes, and socioemotional processes.

7. What is a schema according to Jean Piaget?

A schema is a mental concept or framework that organizes information and provides a structure for interpreting it.

8. Explain the difference between assimilation and accommodation in Piaget's theory.

Assimilation is incorporating new information into existing knowledge, while accommodation is adjusting schemas to new information.

9. What is object permanence and in which of Piaget's stages does it develop?

Object permanence is the understanding that objects continue to exist even when not directly perceived. It develops during the sensorimotor stage.

10. Describe two key characteristics of thought during Piaget's preoperational stage.

Thought is egocentric, meaning children cannot take another person's mental states into account, and it is intuitive, based on gut feelings rather than logic.

11. What characterizes formal operational thought in Piaget's theory?

Formal operational thought is more abstract, idealistic, and logical, allowing individuals to think in hypothetical possibilities and use hypothetical-deductive reasoning.

12. What is the core idea of the nativist approach to infant cognitive development?

It suggests that infants are born with domain-specific knowledge systems, bringing more innate knowledge into the world than Piaget realized.

13. How did Vygotsky's view on cognitive development differ from Piaget's?

Vygotsky emphasized that cognitive development is an interpersonal process that happens within a cultural context, unlike Piaget who did not think culture played a significant role.

14. List the three basic types of temperament in children.

The three basic types of temperament in children are easy, difficult, and slow-to-warm-up.

15. What is secure attachment in infants?

Secure attachment refers to how infants use their caregivers as a secure base from which to explore their environment.

16. What is the key challenge of adolescence according to Erik Erikson?

The key challenge of adolescence is identity versus identity confusion, where individuals seek to find out who they are and where they are going in life.

17. According to Jeffrey Arnett, what is emerging adulthood?

Emerging adulthood is the transitional period from adolescence to adulthood, approximately between 18 to 25 years of age, characterized by experimentation and exploration.

18. Name two of Gottman's four principles for successful marriages.

Two principles are nurturing fondness and admiration, and turning toward each other as friends. Other principles include giving up some power and solving conflicts together.

19. List at least three of Kübler-Ross's five stages of coping with death.

The five progressive stages are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

20. What is the primary role of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) in emotion?

The SNS is involved in the body's arousal and is responsible for the immediate 'fight-or-flight' reaction to a stressor, preparing the body for action.

21. What are the two elements of emotion according to the two-factor theory?

The two-factor theory of emotion states that emotion has two elements: physiological arousal and cognitive labeling.

22. What is the highest and most elusive need in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs?

Self-actualization is the highest need, representing the motivation to realize one's full potential as a human being, and can only be satisfied after other needs are met.

23. Briefly describe the function of the 'ego' in Freud's psychoanalytic theory.

The ego is the Freudian structure of personality that deals with the demands of reality, abiding by the reality principle and mediating between the id and superego.

24. Name the five factors in the Five-Factor Model of Personality (OCEAN).

The five factors are Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness.

25. What characterizes the precontemplation stage in the Stages of Change Model?

In the precontemplation stage, individuals are not yet genuinely thinking about changing and may even be unaware that they have a problem behavior.