Kevin MacDonald, Ph.D.
CSULB, Department of Psychology
PSYCHOLOGY 361
Study Guide for the Midterm Essay Test
You will only be responsible for material actually discussed in class. I may not get to all of this material.
1. Be able to define the concepts related to the Developmental Issues we studied and be able to state how social cognitive (learning) theory and cognitive developmental theory stand on these issues: nature/nurture and interaction between nature and nurture; qualitative change or quantitative change; gradual or step-like development; normative development or idiographic development; active child, passive child, transactional model; intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
2. Cognitive social learning theory: be able to define reciprocal determinism and the acquisition/performance distinction; describe some of the roles of cognitive processes in social learning theory; see Chapter 2, pp. 40-42 and the lecture notes.
3. Piaget and Cognitive-Developmental Theory: scheme, organization and adaptation as innate functions that are universal among humans and unchanging throughout life, and assimilation and accommodation as subprocesses of adaptation; constructivism, clinical method. What is a stage according to Piaget? I.e., what are the criteria for a stage according to Piaget. (qualitative change, step-like change, universal, invariant sequence.) What is the cognitive-developmental theory of perception on pp. 199-200 of the text? (Know the Bruner study mentioned there and why it is illustrative of the cognitive approach to perception.)
4. Ethology: what is the methodology associated with ethological approaches? Define: Adaptation (notice this is not the same sense of adaptation as used by Piaget), fixed action pattern, Innate releasing mechanism, species-typical behavior, instinct, sensitive periods, critical periods; naturalistic observation as a method. Most of this stuff is in Chapter 2 and your lecture notes, but see also the material on the role of sensitive periods in the effects of teratogens in Chapter 5, pp. 123-124 in the text's 'General Principles of Teratology.'
5. Behavior Genetics: What two types of evidence (i.e., from adoption studies and from twin studies) are there that heritability (genetic influence) becomes more important as children get older? MAKE SURE YOU CLEARLY DISTINGUISH BETWEEN ADOPTION AND TWIN STUDIES. What was my point about the effects of abusive environments on intelligence? (This referred to the figure I drew showing that within the 'normal' range, the environment has only a limited effect on intelligence, but there is a very large effect of the environment in abusive situations.)
Define (and be able to give examples where appropriate): phenotype; genotype; active genotype-->environment effect, passive g-->e effect, evocative g-->e effect; (for all of these definitions you must mention the role of genes); reaction range; polygeny; shared and unshared environmental influences
6. Regarding the discussion of the history of childhood from early in the course, be able to discuss the themes of state versus family as agents of socialization; secular trends in parent-child and spousal affection; secular trends in parental investment and children's services; secular changes in family composition (divorce, single parenting, etc.)
7. From the film, be able to discuss the following from your notes: The theme of flexibility (openness to environmental influence) versus commitment (Gains in efficiency and stability); Theme of overproduction of neurons followed by selective retention based on usage: The mouse whisker study and the environmental theory of perceptual development mentioned in Chapter 7, p. 198; Sensitive periods for learning sounds: The baby language learning study in the film and the study described on pp. 206-207 of the text.
8. Be able to describe the ethnic differences in mother-infant interaction discussed in class. How did the researchers control for the effects of social class?
9. What would it be like to socialize a pre-term baby? Be able to contrast pre-term and normal babies on how they would respond to social games involving eye-to-eye contact. Be able to define and give examples of the continuum of reproductive casualty and the continuum of caretaking casualty. What is "self-righting?" Be able to give an example illustrating the concept.
10. What sorts of interests do scientists have that might conflict with the ideal of unbiased scientific inquiry? What types of research are most prone to scientific bias? Why do you think they are more prone to this problem?
