AP Psychology

1. When can babies first recognize their mother’s smell? Voice? Face?
2. Define these important terms: maturation, accommodation, menarche, critical period, object permanence, assimilation, attachment, habituation, social clock, theory of mind, rooting reflex, teratogen, menopause.
3. What is the difference between authoritative and authoritarian parenting styles?
4. What is the difference between fluid and crystallized intelligence?
5. Know all the stages of Piaget, Kohlberg and Erikson’s theories?
6. On what do females base their sense of personal identity?
7. What is the ideal parent?
8. What illnesses are more likely to occur in the elderly?
9. What is infantile amnesia and what causes it?
10. When do our physical abilities peak?
11. What are the advantages of early puberty in boys?
12. What are the symptoms of autism?
13. How can parents foster secure attachment?
14. What is the empty nest syndrome?
15. What happens to a male physically as he advances through middle adulthood?
16. How does self-esteem fluctuate for young Americans from teen years to late teen years?
17. What are women more likely to do in marriage compared to men?
18. What causes Alzheimer’s disease?
19. What is the difference between primary and secondary sex characteristics?
20. What is the best predicator of marital satisfaction?
21. What happens to our sense of hearing as we age?

Do not forget the online quiz.

Discuss your teenage life by referring your physical, intellectual, emotional and social development. Ensure that you refer to concepts discussed in class and covered in your text.
In your conclusion discuss:
· the extent to which you know who your are i. e. to what extent have you defined your identity
· which theory of adolescence makes most sense to you:
Hall’s view of adolescence as a time of storm and stress view, or Mead’s theory that adolescence is an enjoyable time or Havighust’s view that adolescence is a time of challenges.

Adolescence is the transition period between childhood and adulthood (Latin = Grow in to maturity)
Adolescence is a unique time in life as many physical, intellectual, social, emotional and sexual “firsts” are achieved.

Physical Development

Puberty (Latin = grow hairy) defines a number of physical changes characterized by a growth spurt and the development of secondary sex characteristics
Psychologists are primarily interested in the way adolescents react to these changes
The following psychological developments accompany puberty:
Increased self consciousness (the spot light effect)
Mood swings
Changing relationships with parent and peers
The timing of puberty is another key factor as very early or very late puberty can cause some anxiety with males experiencing the more adverse effects.

Intellectual development

There is a qualitative shift in development as adolescents begin to think more hypothetically, introspectively and idealistically.
There is also the development of a more mature morality based on beliefs of fairness, justice and universal laws of morality.

Social Development

Psychologists are divided on the key issue as to whether adolescence is a time of storm and stress or one of challenge and achievement.
Erikson agues that adolescence is a period when individuals must search for their identity so that they can achieve self-understanding, make commitments in life and a gain a sense of “togetherness”.
Peterson argues that only a small percentage of adolescents experience storms, crisis and turmoil.
Mead saw adolescence as a time of experimentation and fun.

There are important gender differences in the way teenagers deal with stress: females tend to have negative internal behaviors reactions e.g. depression while male tend to have negative external behaviors disobedience and rebellion.

Sexual Development

Sexuality is of high concern to adolescence. It is problematic for a number of reasons:
Most societies are still not open concerning sexual matters
Teenagers receive mixed messages from parents, schools, the media and peers
AIDS means that death and sex are now intertwined
While sexual identify is a more simple biological concepts, the sex role, i.e. acceptable behavior for men and women, is more the product of nurture and culture.
A greater degree of flexibility now exists in sex role behaviors. Strict masculine and feminine roles are not as rigidly imposed and the adoption of more androgynous roles has lead to greater depth of emotional response on the part of both sexes.

Outcomes
1. Identify the major physical, cognitive, and social developments of life.
2. Understand and evaluate the different theories of development.

Topic and Activities

1. Developmental Psychology:
Class Discussion: The Decades of Life and major project “The Life Line”
PP Presentation Chapter 4

2. Major Theories of Development
‘Ages and Stages’

3. Infancy and Early Childhood
Handout 3.1 ‘Piaget Meets Santa’
Video: The Human Body
4. Adolescence
Lecture
Readings: Adolescence: Forgotten Age Forgotten Problems
Video: The Human Body

5. Adulthood and Aging
Are you ageist or ignorant?
Video: Maturing and Aging

6. Seminar Number 2 Topic: “That our teenage years are the best and worst of times.”

Advice on preparing for a seminar. 

Weblog posting for discussion:

Posting Number 1 : My Teenage Years

Posting Number 2 : What do you see of yourself in your parents?

Posting Number 3 : Parents what do you see of yourself in your teenage child?

Conventional Wisdom

• babies were a tabula rasa i.e blank slate and totally helpless and passive
• young children were little adults who simply did not know much

New Research
1. Infants

• babies are far more able and active than earlier conceptions
• their senses are finely tuned to interact socially with adults so that they will meet their needs
• babies actively explore the environment
• the baby brain has more neurons than the adult but less connections
• the baby brain is plastic and a great deal of pruning takes place as it interacts with the environment
• physical skills develop at a predictable sequence i.e maturation

2. Childhood

• children are qualitatively different to adults
• critical periods of development occur when nurture stimulates the development of certain mental processes e.g language development entails exposure to language and a huge increase in neural connections that enable language to develop
• children are intellectually very busy as they sort out how the world works