Developmental Psychology — High-Yield Review

Highest-Yield Facts

• High yield: Nature vs nurture, continuity vs discontinuity, stability vs change — the core lifespan debates. Development is plastic and shaped by cohort effects.
• High yield: Longitudinal (same people over time) vs cross-sectional (different ages at once) vs sequential (combined) designs.
• High yield: Piaget (sensorimotor → preoperational → concrete operational → formal operational); Vygotsky (ZPD, scaffolding); Erikson (8 psychosocial stages); Kohlberg (preconventional → conventional → postconventional); Bowlby/Ainsworth (attachment); Bandura (social learning); Bronfenbrenner (ecological systems).
• High yield: Teratogens damage prenatal development during sensitive periods (germinal, embryonic, fetal).
• High yield: Object permanence emerges in the sensorimotor stage.
• High yield: Secure attachment predicts positive outcomes; parenting styles (authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, uninvolved).
• High yield: Erikson's key conflicts: trust vs mistrust (infancy), initiative vs guilt (early childhood), industry vs inferiority (middle childhood), identity vs role confusion (adolescence), intimacy vs isolation (early adulthood), generativity vs stagnation (middle adulthood), integrity vs despair (late adulthood).
• High yield: Dementia is not a normal part of aging — distinguish from normal cognitive change.
• High yield: Grief is individual and nonlinear; the "five stages" are descriptive, not universal.
• High yield: Equifinality (different paths → same outcome) and multifinality (same start → different outcomes).

Comparison Tables

Cumulative Self-Check (20 questions)

1. Name the three core lifespan debates.
2. Differentiate longitudinal from cross-sectional research.
3. List Piaget's four stages in order.
4. What is the zone of proximal development?
5. Name Erikson's first and last psychosocial stages.
6. What are the three prenatal periods?
7. Define a teratogen.
8. In which Piagetian stage does object permanence emerge?
9. Name Baumrind's three parenting styles and the one linked to best outcomes.
10. What is the Strange Situation, and what does it assess?
11. Name Kohlberg's three levels of moral development.
12. Differentiate primary from secondary aging.
13. Differentiate dementia from normal aging.
14. Why are the "five stages of grief" not a universal timetable?
15. Define equifinality and multifinality.
16. What is Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory?
17. Name two protective factors for adolescent mental health.
18. What is emerging adulthood?
19. Differentiate generativity from stagnation.
20. When should a learner seek qualified professional support?

Answers and Rationales

1. Nature vs nurture; continuity vs discontinuity; stability vs change.
2. Longitudinal = same people over time; cross-sectional = different ages at one time.
3. Sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational.
4. The gap between what a child can do alone and with help (Vygotsky).
5. Trust vs mistrust; integrity vs despair.
6. Germinal, embryonic, fetal.
7. An agent that can harm prenatal development.
8. Sensorimotor.
9. Authoritative, authoritarian, permissive; authoritative.
10. An attachment assessment; it assesses infant-caregiver attachment security.
11. Preconventional, conventional, postconventional.
12. Primary = universal aging; secondary = disease/environment-related changes.
13. Dementia is pathological cognitive decline; normal aging is mild change without loss of function.
14. Grief is individual and nonlinear; stages are descriptive, not a required sequence.
15. Equifinality = different paths → same outcome; multifinality = same start → different outcomes.
16. Development occurs within nested systems (micro-, meso-, exo-, macro-, chrono-).
17. Family support, peer support, healthy coping, safe environment (any two).
18. The transitional period (~18–25) between adolescence and full adult roles.
19. Generativity = contributing to the next generation; stagnation = self-absorption/lack of growth.
20. When distress is persistent, impairing, or concerning — contact a qualified professional or crisis resource if in immediate danger.

Last-Minute Review

• Research: longitudinal/cross-sectional/sequential; correlation vs causation; ethics (consent, assent, confidentiality).
• Theories: Piaget, Vygotsky, Erikson, Kohlberg, Bowlby, Bandura, Bronfenbrenner.
• Stages: infancy → early childhood → middle childhood → adolescence → early/middle/late adulthood; key physical, cognitive, and psychosocial milestones at each.
• Key concepts: attachment, temperament, parenting styles, object permanence, theory of mind, identity, generativity, primary/secondary aging, grief.
• Clinical relevance: age-appropriate care, developmental communication, caregiver support, distinguishing typical variation from disorder.

Related

• Subject overview
• Topic 03 — Major Developmental Theories
• Topic 04 — Genetics, Prenatal Development, and Birth
• Topic 15 — Late Adulthood and Aging