15 Psy 101

  1. Adolescence
    The period of development that begins with the onset of sexual maturity (11-14) and ends at the beginning of adulthood (18-21)
  2. Puberty
    The bodily changes associated with sexual maturity
  3. Primary sex characteristics
    Bodily structures that are directly involved in reproduction
  4. Secondary sex characteristics
    Bodily structures that change dramatically with sexual maturity but that are not directly involved in reproduction
  5. How does the brain change at puberty?
    • The temporal and parental connections that were growing rapidly slow down.
    • Prefrontal cortex ends synaptic proliferation and begins synaptic pruning
  6. How has the onset of puberty changed over the last century?
    • Increased body fat=earlier puberty
    • Some toxins mimic estrogen which can trigger earlier development in girls
  7. Are adolescent problems inevitable?
    • No, hormones don't have as much affect as people think
    • They are more likely to do stupid things but not as drastically as its often thought
  8. What makes adolescents especially difficult?
    • Peer pressure/acceptance
    • Unrealistic expectations/goals/demands
    • Unwanted attention
    • Sexual exploration/homosexuality
  9. Is sexual orientation a matter of nature or nurture?
    It is not a matter of nurture but we still don't know exactly what it is. Is seems to be partially biological
  10. Why do adolescents make unwise choices about sex?
    They often don't have the education they need or don't get that education in time and go exploring without any guidance
  11. How do family and peer relationships change during adolescence?
    Adolescents try to create their own identity and lean more on their peers to develop it than their parents.
  12. What makes adolescence more distinct from other developmental stages?
    Rapid growth spurt/maturing of sex organs
  13. Despite the fact that adolescence is occurring earlier than ever before
    The age of entrance to adulthood is occurring later than ever before
  14. As adolescents seek to develop their adult identities
    They seek increased autonomy from their parents and become more peer oriented, forming single sex cliques followed by mixed sex cliques and finally pairing off as couples
  15. Sexual activity typically
    Follows a script, many aspects of which are standard across cultures.
  16. Adulthood
    The stage of development that begins around 18-21 and ends with death
  17. How do informational goals change in adulthood?
    Socioemotional theory: the older you get the less interested you are in new/useful information and the more interested you are in emotionally satisfying information.
  18. Is late adulthood a happy or unhappy time for most people?
    A happy time, people are more focused on sustaining positive emotions and focus less on things that make them unhappy
  19. What does research say about marriage and children and happiness?
    • Marriage: Could be that it makes you happy or that happy people are more prone to do it
    • Children: Decrease in happiness of the parents as its a baby, which slowly grows back to where it was beforehand as the child matures and finally moves out
  20. Older adults show declines in what cognitive tasks?
    • Working memory
    • Episodic memory
    • Retrieval tasks
Author
ECCammi
ID
311512
Card Set
15 Psy 101
Description
Notes from pages 451-466 and class
Updated