(2) Chapter 1 - Lifespan development

Question 1

Internal influences

Answer 1

Potential influences on development that are part of the individual, such as physical or psychological variables.

Question 2

External influences

Answer 2

Potential influences on development that are not part of the individual, such as the immediate context, culture or history.

Question 3

Horizontal relationship

Answer 3

A relationship between people of equal status and/or power.

Question 4

Reciprocity

Answer 4

Refers to the principle of ‘give and take’ – that if one person ‘gives’ in some way, there will be a similar gesture made by the recipient at some point.

Question 5

Vertical relationship

Answer 5

A relationship which involves one person who has more knowledge or power than the other person in the relationship.

Question 6

Pretend play

Answer 6

Refers to play that involves the use of imagination where a person ‘pretends’ to be someone or something else, or uses an object as something else for the purposes of play.

Question 7

Symbolic interactionism

Answer 7

A theoretical approach which emphasizes the significance of social interaction and the use of ‘symbols’ within these interactions.

Question 8

I

Answer 8

A theoretical construct which refers to the conscious, decision- making part of a person’s self-concept.

Question 9

Me

Answer 9

A theoretical construct which refers to knowledge about oneself, and is suggested to be another part of the self- concept which can reflect the views of others.

Question 10

Socio-cognitive conflict

Answer 10

The experience of being aware of conflicting ideas held by peers, which forces a re-examination of one’s own understanding of that idea.

Question 11

Attachment theory

Answer 11

Bowlby’s theory that children have a drive to feel secure by forming an emotional bond with a primary care giver.

Question 12

Continuities

Answer 12

Connections between experiences at one point in life and behaviour at some later time.

Question 13

Deterministic

Answer 13

An approach that assumes that a particular outcome is fixed and inevitable.

Question 14

Probabilistic

Answer 14

An approach that assumes that outcomes are more or less likely to occur.

Question 15

Transaction

Answer 15

Refers to the idea that individuals affect their environments, that environments can affect individuals and that the combination of these influences affects development.

Question 16

Attachment

Answer 16

A strong, ongoing emotional bond between two people.

Question 17

Self-report measure

Answer 17

A measure that relies on the participant in the research making judgements about him or herself.

Question 18

Primary attachment relationship

Answer 18

An attachment to another person, normally a parent or other caregiver, formed by a child during early infancy. Is also used to refer to an older child’s or adult’s close relationship(s).

Question 19

Internal working model

Answer 19

A set of expectations for how oneself and another person will relate to each other. According to attachment theory, this is established during childhood and affects later adult relationships.

Question 20

Reunion

Answer 20

An episode in the Strange Situation when a child and mother (caregiver) are reunited after a brief separation.

Question 21

Strange Situation

Answer 21

A standardized set of episodes involving a child, their mother and a stranger in a laboratory in a sequence of separations and reunions. A way of assessing attachment security.

Question 22

Effect size

Answer 22

How strongly two variables are associated. Often assessed by a beta coefficient, which can range from -1 to 1.

Question 23

Relatedness

Answer 23

The capacities a person has to relate to another; the qualities of their approach to a relationship.

Question 24

Culturally specific

Answer 24

Something that is relevant to one specific culture.

Question 25

Ribot’s Law

Answer 25

The idea that older people remember past events better than recent ones.

Question 26

Crystallized intelligence

Answer 26

Abilities that are the product of experience (e.g. vocabulary, general knowledge).

Question 27

Fluid intelligence

Answer 27

Abilities that reflect efficient information processing (e.g. speed of processing).

Question 28

Cross-sectional design

Answer 28

A research design that compares the performance of different age groups.

Question 29

Cohort differences

Answer 29

Differences that occur between different groups because of changes in external factors across time (e.g. improvements in state education).

Question 30

Functionalism

Answer 30

The idea that changes occur in people and their behaviour because they serve a new and adaptive function.

Question 31

Stage theory

Answer 31

A theory that proposes that development occurs in a sequence of fixed order stages.

Question 32

Genetic epistemology

Answer 32

Coined by Piaget, this phrase refers to the study of intelligence as a form of adaptation to one’s environment.

Question 33

Developmental contexualism

Answer 33

An approach to studying development by examining the interactions between the person and their environmental and historical contexts.

Question 34

Dynamic interactionism

Answer 34

Used to describe the multiple interactions that can occur between different variables and different levels of explanation.

Question 35

Embeddedness

Answer 35

Refers to the way development is ‘rooted’ in multiple contexts.

Question 36

Microsystem

Answer 36

The social, symbolic and physical characteristics of a person’s immediate environment.

Question 37

Mesosystem

Answer 37

Two or more environmental microsystems inhabited by the same person.

Question 38

Exosystem

Answer 38

The links that occur between two or more environmental settings, where at least one of these settings is inhabited by the developing individual in question.

Question 39

Macrosystem

Answer 39

The patterns of environmental systems that characterize any given culture or society.2