PSYC 3320 MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE
Reasons to learn about child development (3) - Answers -1. raising children
2. choosing social policies
3. understanding human nature
alternatives to spanking (3) - Answers -1. expressing sympathy
2. postitive alternatives to expressing feelings
3. timeouts/timeins
turtle technique - Answers -when a child feels distressed they are instructed to step
away from other children and go into their "shell" to think about the problem until they
are in control of their emotions and ready to emerge from the shell
Two examples of "choosing social policies" reason for learning about CD - Answers --
making decisions (like allowing violent video games)
-effect of interview biases on children giving testimonies in court
examples for "understanding human nature" for learning about CD - Answers --what
are people like before they are affected by influences (family/society)
nativists - Answers -major group of contemporary philosophers and psychologists who
argued that evolution has created many remarkable capabilities that are present even in
early infancy (having an understanding of basic properties of physical objects, plants
and animals, and other people)
empiricists - Answers -argued that infants possess general learning mechanisms that
allow them to learn a great deal quite quickly, but that infants and young children lack
the specialized capabilities that nativists attribute to them
amygdala - Answers -area of the brain involved in emotional reactions
Romanian adoption study - Answers -found: children were sufficiently flexible to
overcome the effects of living in the Romanian institutions if the deprivation ended by
age 6 months. The later the age of adoption, the greater the long-term harmful effects of
early deprivation.
early philosophers usually based their conclusions on... (2) - Answers -general beliefs
and informal observations of only a few children
when did scientists start using the scientific method - Answers -early 20th century
who proposed some of the earliest recorded and most influential ideas about children's
development - Answers -Plato and Aristotle
