Chapters 10, 11 and 12. Infancy, Adolescence and Adulthood.

We live our lifes in stages, we change from being a baby to an adult. As we grow we change our ideas, the way we think, physically, in religion, philosophies and other things. As we grow, we learn many thing, we gain experience and knowledge.

Chilhood and infancy is the first stage of life. Nature means heredity and nurture means environment which is whaat we learn of our surroundings. Maturation is the automatic and secuential process of development that results from genetic signals. Critical period is a stage or point in development during which a person or animal is the best suited to learn a particular skill or behavior pattern. Babies grow at an amazing rate, but their most dramatic gains are in height and weight. Soon after the baby is born, the doctor or nurse places a finger against the palm of the baby's hand. By doing this babies usually grasp their finger firmly. Some reflexes are essential to our survival. Breathing is a reflex, but we can also breathe consciously if we wish. Attachment is the emotional ties that form between people. This feeling keeps people together. Stranger anxiety is a fear created by babies from about eight months. Separation anxiety as the word says causes the infant to cry or behave in other ways that indicate distress if their mothers leave them. There are different styles of parenting. There are parents that are warm or cold, warm parect show a great deal of affection to their children. For example, they hug and kiss them and often smile at them. Cold parents may not be as affectionate toward their children or appear to enjoy them as much. There are also strictive or permissive parents, strictive parents impose many rules and supervise their children closely. Permissive parents tend to be less concerned about neatness and cleanliness than are strict parents. Authoritarian parents believe in obedience for its own sake. Self-esteem is the value or worth that people attach to themselves. Self-esteem helps protect people against the stresses ans struggles. Unconditional positive regard means that parents love and accept their children for who they are, no matter how they behave. Conditional positive regard means that parents show their love only when the children behave in certain acceptable ways. Assimilation is the process by which new information is placed into categories that already exist. Accommodation is a change brought about because of new information. Precoventional moral reasoning base their judgments on the consequences of behavior. Conventional moral reasoning makes judgements in terms of whether and act conforms to conventional standards of right and wrong. Postconventional moral reasoning is reasoning based on a person´s own moral standards.

Adolescence is the period of transition from childhood to adulthood. Adolescent growth spurt usually lasts 2 to 3 years in which the body grows 8-12 inches in height. Puberty refers to the specific developmental changes that lead to the ability to reproduce. During puberty males and females change. Some changes in males are hormones from pituitary gland cause the testes to increase output of the hormone testosterone. Sexual organs grow, their voices deepens, hair grows on their face and chest. They also develop broader shoulders and thicker body. And for females: Hormones from the pituitary gland stimulate the ovaries to secrete more estrogen. Estrogen makes the growth of breast tissue and supportive tissue in the hips and buttocks. Pelvic region widens, hips become wider. Production f androgens (similar to testosterone). Growth of pubic underarm hair, menstrual cycle. Menarche is a major life event for most girls, most societies see this as the beginning of ¨womanhood¨. Some adolescents reach physical maturation before others. Many people think that adolescence is constant rebellion but the truth is that most of our changes are more positive than negative. Most adolescent conflicts are because of homework, chores, money, appearance, curfews and dating. There are stages for dating. Stage 1 is when adolescents will places themselves in situations where they can meet people of the other sex. And stage 2 is when adolescents participate in group dating. According to psychoanalyst Erik Erikson the main task of adolescence is to search for an identity. Identity status: Reaction to  patterns and processes. Identity moratorium: Making commitments about important questions. Identity foreclosure: Make a commitment that forcloses (or shutsout) other possibilities. This commitments are usually made by the suggestions of other people. Identity diffusion: Adolescents in this category seem to be constantly searching for a meaning in life and for the identity because they have not committed themselves to a set of personal beliefs or an occupational path. Identity achievement: In this category adolescents have coped with crises and have explored options.

Young adulthood also calles early adulthood, covers a span of approximately 20 years- 40 years old. Young adulthood is characterized by deciding new ways of doing things and by changing relationships with parents. After the upheal of early 30´s the mid- to late 30´s is often characterized by sttling down in life. In the United States 51% of marriages end up being divorced for many reasons. In middle adulthood are people between 40. Middle transition is a period in middle adulthood when people´s perspectives change in a major way. Middle life crisis is in some people, the middle life transition triggers a second period of reassessment. Menopause is the end of menstruation, usually occurs in a woman´s late 40´s or early 50´s. In late adulthood we face many physical changes. There are programmed theories that are the developmental theories that maintain the aging is the result of genetics. During this period we tend to forget things We get diseases such as alzheimer´s disease that is a progressive form of mental deterioration that affect 10% of people over the age of 65. Ego integrity is the belief that life is meaningless even when physical abilities are not able to accept it. There are stages of dying such as denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. 

Life is full of stages, in which we change with nature or nurture. Childhood is a stage of new discoveries and learning how to react in many simple situations. Adolescence is dealing with what we really want in life and our thoughts change dramatically and in adulthood we experience middle life and late adulthood is where we take important decisions and where we stablize in life. 

Chapter 9. Intelligence

We are applying our intelligence in our daily lives. But we usually think of intelligence as if we have more capacity to do or solve things than others. But that is not true! Intelligence is the ability to learn from experience, to think rationally. People can also know a lot because they have the ability to get along well with other people.

Achievement refers to knowledge and skills gained from experience. Achievement focuses on the things that you know and can do. The Spearman´s two-factor theory  was made by the psychologist Charles Spearman about 100 years ago suggested that intelligence, which he labeled g, underlies all of our intellectual abilities. The g factor represents the abilities to reason and solve problems. Gardner´s theory of multiple intelligences proposes that they are actually multiple intelligences instead of just one. Analytical ability, creativity and street smarts breaks intelligence into analytical intelligence, creative intelligence and practical intelligence. Emotional intelligence is the interest in why smart people are not always successful as might be expected. This consists of five factors that are involved in success in school or on the job: self-awareness that is to recognize our own feelings, mood management that is the ability to distract one-self from an uncomfortable feeling, self-motivation that is the ability to move ahead with confidence and enthusiasm, impulse control which is the ability to delay pleasure until the task at hand has been accomplished and people skills that is the ability to empathize, understand, communicate and coorporate with others.

There are several intelligence test to try our intelligence out. Stanford-Binet scale is one in which Binet assumed that intelligence increased with age. This score was called mental age. Mental age shows the intellectual level at which a child is funtioning. Wechsler scales are more widely used. Wechsler developed intelligence tests for children and adults. This scale consists in several subtests, each of them measures a different intellectual skill. Reliability refers to its consistancy. Test-retest reliability is determined by comparing scores earned by the same person on the same test taken at different times. Test validity measures what it is supposed to measure.

While having an IQ score at or below 70 is the technical term for mental retardation. According to the American Association mental retardation is also associated with problems in communication, taking care of oneself, social skills, use of leisure time, travel in the community, self-direction, personal hygiene and vocational training. There are several levels of mental retardation: mild retardation with an IQ ranging of 50-70. Most children with mild retardation are more likely to learn how to read and do arithmetic, moderate retardation peoples IQ is 35-49. They can learn how to speak, to feed and dress themselves, to take care of their own hygiene and to work under supportive conditions, severe retardation are people with an IQ  below 20, that barely communicate. They show basic emotion responses, but they cannot feed or dress themselves. Retardations can be cause by accidents that result in brain damage and difficulties during childbirth, Some people where born gifted which means they have an IQ fo 130 or above. To be gifted is to possess outstanding talent or to show the potential for performing at remarkably high levels of accomplishment when compared with othe rpeople of the same age, experience or environment. Creativity is the ability to invent new solutions to problems or to create original or ingenious materials which is linked with giftedness.

We gain experience in our daily life, and as we gain experience we get more intelligence and knowledge. This is happening since we were born. We see new things, commit errors and hopefully learn from them. We achieve to learn from our mistakes and expand our intelligence.

Thinking is the mental activity that is involved in the understanding, processing, and communicating of information. Thinking is made possible by the use of symbols, concepts, and prototypes. Symbols are an object or an act that stands for something else. Concepts to mentally group together objects, events, or ideas that have similar characteristics. Prototypes is an example of a concept that best exemplifies that concept.


In many cases, people do not go straight from a problem to its solution in a series of steps. Algorithms is an specific procedure that, when used properly and in the right circumstances, will always lead to the solution of a problem. An example of algorithms are formulas. Heuristics are rules of thumb that often, but not always, help us find the solution to a problem, meaning that they are shorcuts.  There are multiple problem solving methods such as trial and error, difference reduction in which we identify our goal, where achieve that goal. Means-end analysis, we know that certain things we can do will have certain results.  Working backward this method is particularly useful when we know what we want to accomplish but are not sure how best to begin. Analogies that are similarities between two or more items, events, situations. Insights and Incubation is making connections that something that might have happened to you and incubation is taking a break after doing a very long problems to see if when your break has ended you have new approaches. Mental set is the tendency to respond to a new problem with an approach that was successfully used with similar problems. Functional fixedness is the tendency to think of an object as being useful only for the function that the object is usually used for. Functional fitness can be overcomed with creativity. Creativity requires divergent thinking rather that convergent thinking. In convergent thinking thought is limited to available facts. One tries to narrow one´s thinking to find the single best solution. Divergent thinking is when one associates more freely to the various elements of a problem. Some psychologists advise to use the ABDCE of problem solving  which are Assess the problem that means examining its parts and making sure that you understand it, Brainstorm approaches to the problem is the free spontaneous production of possible approaches or solution to a problem, Choose the approach that seems most likely to work after brainstorming the person must choose which approach to take and which course of action to follow, Do it- try most likely approach that is to do the problem, by trying out the approach, Evaluate the results that is to see if the goal was achieved.

Reasoning is the use of information to reach conclusions. There are two main types of reasoning: deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning. Deductive reasoning when the conclusion is true if the premises are true. A permise is an idea or statement that provides the basic information that allows us to draw conclusions, an example of deductive reasoning is that South Korea is in Asia. Inductive reasoning on the other hand, we reason from individual cases or particular facts to reach a general conclusion. An example of this can be that Spain and Portugal are near each other, and they have similar languages. To prove, or confirm a hypothesis rather disprove them is a confirmation bias. 

The basic elements of language are phonemes, morphemes, syntax  and semantics. Phonemes are basic sounds of a language. Morphemes are the units of meaning in a language. This are made of phonemes. Syntax is the way in which words are arranged to make phrases and sentences. English syntax usually follows the pattern of subject, verb, and object of the verb. Semantics is the study of meaning. There are stages of language development. Crying, cooing and babbling is the first stage. After this comes wording when we start true language. Then development of grammar. We learn language by hereditary influences meaning that people have a natural tendency to acquire language and environmental influences that are teachings that come from our surroundings.

Thinking and language are very extensive and interesting topics. There are various stages for both of them. By thinking we usually use reasoning. And as we grow old we learn how to extend our language or even better, learn others!

Chapter 7. Memory

Memory is the process by which we recollect prior experiences, information and skills learn in the past. There are three kinds of memory: episodic memory, semantic memory and implicit memory. There are also three processes of memory:encoding, storage and retrieval. Memory has three stages: sensory memory, short-term memory and long-term memory.

Episodic memory is a memory of a specific event. Some examples of episodic memory are the dinner you had last night and your last quiz. Sometimes memories are so important to us that we make them flashbulb memories, that is like if we took pictures in our head. Semantic memory is general knowledge people remember. For example we remember that Mel Zelaya was president before Pepe Lobo. Episodic and semantic memories are bot examples of explicit memory. Memories that are explicit are clear, or clearly stated or explained. Implicit memory are things that are implied or not clearly stated. This consists of the skills or procedures we have learned. For example throwing a ball, riding a bicycle, skipping rope or swimming.

Encoding is the first process of memory. This is the translation of information and a form in which it can be stored. Visual codes make images in our minds. Acoustic codes find the sense of things. Storage is the second process of memory, and it is the maintanence of encoded information over a period of time. Maintenance rehearsal is repeating information over and over again. Elaborative rehearsal are things we already know and organized systems are stored memories becoming organized. Retrieval is locationg stored information and returning it to conscious thoughts. Context-depending memories are memories that come back, and state-dependent memories is remembering every detail.

Sensory memory is the first stage of memory. It consists of the immediate, initial recording of information that enters through our senses. Short-term memory or algo known as working memory. Long-term memory is the third and final stage of memory. We can learn using schemas that are mental representations that we form of the world organizing bits of information into our knowledge.

We have many basic memory tasks. Recognition is one which involves identifying objects or events that have been encountered before. Recall is the second memory task which is to bring something back into your mind. And relearning is to learn things we were taught in the past again.

Memory is a very detailed process. Sometimes we think is just learning and remembering. But it takes more than just that. We use memory in every second of our lifes and we must understand how it works.