Chapter: 10,11,12 - Stages of life

During each of the life stages, an individual will require some sort of care need that must be fulfilled. Therefore, care workers provide a specific service depending on the needs of the individual person. Care needs often depend on the age.

Infancy As soon as a child is born, they require 24 hour attention by their carer. Therefore, it requires physical well- being such as being given food, warmth, shelter and sense of safety. This is the key stage when emotional relationships develop; therefore, initial relationships are important to the new born. Childhood Even during childhood, a child is very dependent on the carer for day to day care tasks, although they have gathered some in dependency. They still rely on their parents to provide them with an emotionally secure environment. A child's intellectual needs are met through regular attendance at school. Furthermore, a child's external relationships develop; so to keep a child sociable, social needs must be met.
Adolescence, as soon as a child becomes an adolescent, they are beginning to become more and more independent on mom and that, because they are now becoming what is known as an adult. An  adult is the middle stage of life, where you are now by yourself facing the real problems of life, like paying bills, etc. Then you get to the last stage which is "elder" which is the time people die.

The adolescent growth spurt usually lasts two to three years. Puberty refers to the specific development changes that lead to the ability to reproduce. Characteristics that are directly involved with reproduction are called primary sex characteristics. Other characteristics that are not directly involved in reproduction are called secondary sex characteristics which also develop during puberty.
The production of estrogen, which becomes cyclical in puberty, regulates the menstrual cycle. The first menstrual cycle or menarche is a major life event for most girls and most societies consider it the beginning of womanhood. Cliques are peer groups of 5 to 10 people who spend a great deal of time with one another, sharing activities and confidences. Larger groups of people who do not spent as much time together but share attitudes and group identity are called crowds.
An identity crisis is a turning point in a person’s development when the person examines his or her values and makes or changes decision about life roles.  To avoid an identity crisis, adolescents in the identity foreclosure category make a commitment, but the commitment is based on other people.
In most western societies men have traditionally played the dominant role in marriage, as well as in the larger society.  Although most couples get married because they are in love, about have of the marriages in the United States end in divorce. Divorce can be difficult for children, even when they are almost adults.   Research shows that children of divorced people are more likely to have behavioral problems, engage in substance abuse, and earn lower grades. The midlife-transition, is a period in middle adulthood when people’s perspective change in such a way.

To conclude, The stages of life, are a very powerful topic, there´s alot of explanations of how we start to decompose throghout life span, but there´s also alot of questions; like why do our cells just randomly start to die when we reach certain age? 

Chapter 9: Intelligence

Intelligence is the ability to learn from experience. And from this experience to think rationally and decide what actions you should do. In this Essay it will be explained all types of intelligence a human has. Analytical ability, creativity and street smarts breaks intelligence into analytically 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 corporate with others.

There are several intelligence test to try our intelligence. Stanford-Binet scale is one in which Binet assumed that intelligence increased with age. This score was called mental age. Mental ageshows 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. 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.Intelligence is something that people naturally are born with, this intelligence can be improved through time passes by, doesn´t matter you are you can always improve it, unless you are a genius who was born like this. then that way don´t need to worrie about nothing.

Chapter 8: THINKING

Thinking is the mental activity that is involved in the understanding, processing, and communicating of information. 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. 

There are variety of smaller parts to thinking. 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.Then; 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. 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. The second type of thinking is; Divergent thinking which 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 premise 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.

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. learning 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.

To conclude, Thinking is a very interesting and complex part of humas. It has a variety of different elements that explains it detailed, like divergent and convergent thinking. Also language is the basic path used to communicate to each other.

Chapter 7: Memory

Memory is the process by which we collect prior experiences and information and skills learned in the past. One way to classify memory is according to the different kinds of information t contains, events, general knowledge and skills.

There are three different types of memory; Episodic memory, is memory of a specific event. Then there is Semantic memory; is general knowledge that people remember, for example that George Washington is the president of the United states, or counting from one through ten. Explicit memory are things that are clearly stated or explained. Then there is another one called, Implicit memory, which is the memory that carries things that are implicit or implied, basically not clearly stated. Also there is something called flashbulb memories, these are the important events that we always remember with every detail, just like a photograph.

There is also three processes of memory. Encoding, which is the translation of information into a form in where it can be stored. Storage is the second process; This consists in the maintenance of encoded information on a period of time. The third and last memory process is Retrieval; consists of locating stored information and returning it to conscious thought.

Three stages of memory. Sensory memory is the first stage of memory, it consists of the immediate initial recording of information that enters through our senses. Then there is short memory, it transfers information here into this memory, also called "working memory" The third and final stage of memory of information is when you want to remember something more than just briefly, meaning something longer and more complex.

After that there is forgetting and memory improvement. First the basic memory tasks, which are Recognition, Recall, and Relearn. Recognition involves identifying objects or events that have been encountered before. Recall is the second memory task, and it means to bring back to mind. Finally the third memory task; Relearning, which literally means to learn again. Then forgetting involves Repression and amnesia which both are involved with forgetting experiences. Then improving can be improved with practice, relating things that you already know. construct links, form unusual associations; meaning to think weird and unusual ways to improve memory.

To conclude, memory is a very complex process controlled by the human mind, it has a-lot of specific things involve to it, its a very complex and mysterious process used to for memory. This process of memory involves different types of processes, starting from the different types of memory, to the three different types of processes, stages of memory, and ending with all ways we can improve our memory or even forget make us forget things.