Deck 11: Section 1: Development

Question 1

Compare and contrast the major physical changes of puberty for girls and boys. How does the timetable of these changes differ for the two sexes?

Answer 1

The answer should include the following information: Boys and girls undergo many physical changes when they go through puberty during adolescence. The first change for girls is acceleration in growth rate. It begins around age 10 and ends when girls reach their full height at about the age of 15 1/2 years. Boys typically experience a similar growth spurt at about 12 years of age and reach their full height at around 17 1/2 years. The growth spurts signal the onset of puberty, which involves the bodily changes associated with sexual maturity. One change is the development of primary sex characteristics, which are body structures directly involved in reproduction. For example, girls experience the onset of menstruation, and boys experience the enlargement of the testes, scrotum, and penis and the emergence of the capacity for ejaculation. Another change is the development of secondary sex characteristics, which are body structures that change dramatically with sexual maturity but are not directly involved in reproduction. For example, in girls, the breasts enlarge and the hips widen. In boys, facial hair appears and the voice lowers (girls' voices lower too).

Question 2

Describe and discuss the visual abilities, reflexes, and motor capabilities of the newborn child.

Answer 2

The answer should include the following information: (1) Unlike an adult, who can see detail at up to 600 feet away, a newborn can see equivalent detail at only about 20 feet away. However, when visual stimuli are close enough to be seen, newborns are very responsive: They follow stimuli with their eyes and distinguish unknown stimuli. Newborns are especially attuned in many ways to social stimuli: They track visual stimuli, such as faces, and engage in motor activities, such as pursing their lips and sticking out their tongues; (2) Visual capabilities are present within their first hours of life, but motor development is a longer process that includes the ability to execute physical actions such as reaching, grasping, crawling, and walking. The development of these behaviors tends to obey two general rules. The first of these rules is the cephalocaudal rule: Infants tend to develop motor skills in sequence from their heads to their feet (they learn to maneuver their heads first, then their arms and trunks, and so on). The second rule is the proximodistal rule: Infants tend to develop motor skills from the center to the periphery of their bodies (they learn to control their trunks before their elbows and knees, and so on). However, the development of motor skills does not occur on a strict timetable. Motor skills typically emerge depending on an infant's incentive, body weight, muscular development, and level of activity; (3) Infants are also born with a small set of reflexes-specific patterns of motor responses that are triggered by specific patterns of sensory stimulation. Examples of infant reflexes include the rooting reflex and the sucking reflex. The rooting reflex is the tendency for infants to move their mouths toward any object that touches their cheek. The sucking reflex is the tendency to suck any object that enters their mouths. Both these reflexes serve the basis of their survival: finding the mother's nipple to begin feeding.

Question 3

Compare and contrast the characteristics of preoperational and concrete operational stages of cognitive development with respect to the principle of conservation.

Answer 3

The answer should include the following information: There are several similarities in and differences between the preoperational and concrete operational stages of cognitive development; (1) According to Piaget, the preoperational stage begins at about 2 years and ends at about 6 years of age. During this stage, the child cannot perform concrete operations. The child also lacks the ability to grasp the notion of conservation, which is the concept that the quantitative properties of an object are invariant despite changes in the object's appearance. Example: When preoperational children are shown two glasses of the same size and shape filled with equal amounts of liquid, they say that neither glass has more liquid. However, after watching the contents of one glass being poured into a taller, thinner glass, children will now say that the taller glass has more liquid when, in fact, the amounts of liquid in the two glasses are still equal. It is believed that children of this stage lack the ability to grasp conservation because they have a tendency to focus on just one property of an object The concrete operational stage begins at about 6 years of age and continues until about 11 years of age. Children in this stage can perform concrete operations and understand the concept of conservation. For example, concrete operational children understand that when a ball of clay is rolled, stretched, or flattened, it is still the same amount of clay, even though it may look larger in one form than another.

Question 4

Describe Piaget's and Kohlberg's stages of moral development. Give examples of each stage.

Question 5

Discuss the role of genes and the environment in determining sexual orientation.

Question 6

Define object permanence, and describe an experiment illustrating how the principle of habituation can be used to determine if babies exhibit object permanence.

Question 7

Describe the major developments of the germinal, embryonic, and fetal stages of development.

Question 8

Provide several examples of how egocentrism leads to false beliefs in young children. Then describe how passing the false belief test illustrates the acquisition of a theory of mind.

Question 9

The bonding experience between an infant and her mother during breast-feeding is an important component to the development of a secure attachment. Fathers of newborns often are worried that their babies will not form an emotional bond with them because they cannot participate in this experience. Using the results from Harry Harlow's studies on socially deprived rhesus monkeys as a rationale, explain why this worry is unfounded.

Question 10

Compare and contrast the effectiveness of sex education and abstinence-only education programs on (a) the age at which teenagers begin having sex, (b) teenage pregnancy, and (c) the incidence rate of sexually transmitted diseases.

Question 11

Compare and contrast the secure, avoidant, ambivalent, and disorganized attachment styles. Describe how each of these styles is manifested in the Strange Situation test.

Question 12

An elderly grandfather does not get out as much as he formerly did. Although he is healthy and still drives, he tends to associate with family and a few close friends, whereas in the past, he was busy with social activities. He seems satisfied with his life, but his family is worried that his social circle is too limited and that he may be unhappy yet unwilling to talk about his unhappiness. Discuss briefly the cognitive, social, and emotional changes that occur in later adulthood.

Question 13

You and your husband are going to have a baby. Your doctor gave you a prescription for prenatal vitamins along with various pamphlets on diet and exercise during pregnancy, and encouraged you to do some research on teratogens and their effects. Discuss two common teratogens and their effects on the developing fetus. At what point(s) in pregnancy are teratogens most dangerous?

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