CLEP Human Growth and Development cheat sheet

Human Growth and Development

• Developmental periods: prenatal, infancy (birth–2), early childhood (2–6), middle childhood (6–11), adolescence (11–18), emerging adulthood (18–25), early adulthood (25–40), middle adulthood (40–65), late adulthood (65+).

• Research designs: cross-sectional compares age groups at one time (fast, confounded by cohort effects); longitudinal follows one cohort over time (controls cohort, vulnerable to attrition and practice effects); sequential combines both.

• Prenatal stages: germinal (weeks 0–2, zygote implantation), embryonic (weeks 3–8, major organogenesis, most vulnerable to teratogens), fetal (week 9–birth, growth and maturation).

• Teratogen decision rule: effect depends on dose, timing (embryonic period most critical for structural defects), and genetic susceptibility; fetal alcohol spectrum disorder is a leading preventable cause of intellectual disability.

• Piaget's stages: sensorimotor (0–2, object permanence, circular reactions), preoperational (2–7, symbolic play, egocentrism, lack of conservation), concrete operational (7–11, conservation, reversibility, classification), formal operational (11+, hypothetical-deductive reasoning).

• Erikson's eight psychosocial stages pair a crisis with a virtue: trust/mistrust, autonomy/shame, initiative/guilt, industry/inferiority, identity/role confusion, intimacy/isolation, generativity/stagnation, integrity/despair.

• Attachment classifications in Ainsworth's strange situation: secure (distress at separation, greeted on return), insecure-avoidant (indifferent), insecure-resistant/ambivalent (clingy and angry), disorganized (contradictory behavior).

• Kohlberg's moral stages: preconventional (punishment and self-interest), conventional (social approval and law/order), postconventional (social contract and universal ethical principles); Gilligan argued women emphasize an ethic of care over abstract justice.

• Classic aging theories: disengagement (mutual withdrawal of individual and society), activity (continued engagement supports well-being), continuity (stable personality and habits persist); Kübler-Ross grief stages (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance) are descriptive, not a required sequence.