Ch 1

Question 1

Hypothesis

Answer 1

specific prediction about what will hold true if we observe a phenomenon

Question 2

Theory

Answer 2

set of concepts and propositions designed to organize, describe, and explain a set of observations

Question 3

relatively permanent change in behavior (or behavioral potential) that results from a person’s experiences or practice

Answer 3

Learning

Question 4

well-defined group that a researcher is interested in drawing conclusions about

Answer 4

Population

Question 5

period of the life span extending from about age 18 to age 25 or later

Answer 5

Emerging adulthood

Question 6

set of developmental changes biologically programmed by hereditary material rather than caused primarily by life experience

Answer 6

Maturation

Question 7

developmental research in which one group of subjects is studied repeatedly over months or years

Answer 7

longitudinal design

Question 8

attitude dictating that investigators must be objective and allow data to decide merits of their theorizing

Answer 8

Scientific method

Question 9

set of conditions outside the person that are presumed to influence and be influenced by the individual

Answer 9

Environmenr

Question 10

hereditary material passed from parents to child at conception

Answer 10

Genes

Question 11

set of systematic changes in the individual occurring between conception and death

Answer 11

Development

Question 12

Growth

Answer 12

The physical changes that occur from conception to maturity

Question 13

Culture

Answer 13

A system of meanings shared by a population of people and transmitted from one generation to the next.

Question 14

Socially defined age groups or strata, each with different statuses, roles, privileges, and responsibilities in society.

Answer 14

Age grade

Question 15

Expectations about what people should be doing or how they should behave at different points in the life span = ___

Answer 15

Age norms

Question 16

A personal sense of when things should be done in life and when the individual is ahead of or behind the schedule dictated by age norms

Answer 16

Social clock

Question 17

person’s classification in or affiliation with a group based on common heritage or traditions

Answer 17

Ethnicity

Question 18

Socioeconomic Status (SES)

Answer 18

The position people hold in society based on such factors as income, education, occupational status, and the prestige of their neighborhoods.

Question 19

The transitional period between childhood and adulthood that begins with puberty and ends when the individual has acquired adult competencies and responsibilities; roughly ages 10 to 18 or later.

Answer 19

Adolescence

Question 20

Life expectancy

Answer 20

The average number of years a newborn baby can be expected to live; now about 78 years in the United States

Question 21

Nature-nurture issue

Answer 21

The debate over the relative roles of biological predispositions (nature) and environmental influences (nurture) as determinants of human development.

Question 22

Developmental changes that are biologically programmed by genes rather than caused primarily by learning, injury, illness, or some other life experience

Answer 22

Maturation

Question 23

A functional unit of heredity made up of DNA and transmitted from generation to generation

Answer 23

Genes

Question 24

Events or conditions outside the person that are presumed to influence and be influenced by the individual

Answer 24

Environment

Question 25

Events or conditions outside the person that are presumed to influence and be influenced by the individual

Answer 25

Environment

Question 26

A relatively permanent change in behavior (or behavioral potential) that results from a person’s experiences or practice

Answer 26

Learning

Question 27

Grounding what professionals do in research and ensuring that the curricula and treatments provided to students or clients have been demonstrated to be effective

Answer 27

Evidence-based practice

Question 28

Baby biographies

Answer 28

Carefully recorded observations of the growth and development of children by their parents over a period; the first scientific investigations of development

Question 29

G. Stanley Hall’s term for the emotional ups and downs and rapid changes that he believed characterize adolescence

Answer 29

Storm and stress

Question 30

A perspective that views development as a lifelong, multidirectional process that involves gain and loss, is characterized by considerable plasticity, is shaped by its historical–cultural context, has many causes, and is best viewed from a multidisciplinary perspective

Answer 30

Life-span perspective

Question 31

An openness of brain cells or of the organism as a whole to positive and negative environmental influence; a capacity to change in response to experience.

Answer 31

Plasticity

Question 32

The brain’s remarkable ability to change in response to experience throughout the life span, as when it recovers from injury or benefits from stimulating learning experiences

Answer 32

Neuroplasticity

Question 33

A research method in which the scientist observes people as they engage in common everyday activities in their natural habitats. Contrast with structured observation

Answer 33

Naturalistic observation

Question 34

A research method in which scientists create special conditions designed to elicit the behavior of interest to achieve greater control over the conditions under which they gather behavioral data. Contrast with naturalistic observation

Answer 34

Structured observation

Question 35

A brain-scanning technique that uses magnetic forces to measure the increase in blood flow to an area of the brain that occurs when that brain area is active. By having children and adults perform cognitive tasks while lying very still in an fMRI scanner, researchers can determine which parts of the brain are involved in particular cognitive activities

Answer 35

functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

Question 36

A research strategy in which the investigator manipulates or alters some aspect of a person’s environment to measure its effect on the individual’s behavior or development

Answer 36

Experiment

Question 37

The aspect of the environment that a researcher deliberately changes or manipulates in an experiment to see its effect on behavior; a causal variable. Contrast with dependent variable

Answer 37

Independent variable

Question 38

The aspect of behavior measured in an experiment and assumed to be under the control of, or dependent on, the independent variable

Answer 38

Dependent variable

Question 39

A technique in which research participants are placed in experimental conditions in an unbiased or random way so that the resulting groups are not systematically different

Answer 39

Random assignment

Question 40

The holding of all other factors besides the independent variable in an experiment constant so that any changes in the dependent variable can be said to be caused by the manipulation of the independent variable

Answer 40

Experimental control

Question 41

A research technique that involves determining whether two or more variables are related. It cannot indicate that one thing caused another, but it can suggest that a causal relationship exists or allow us to predict one characteristic from our knowledge of another

Answer 41

Correlational method

Question 42

A measure, ranging from +1.00 to −1.00, of the extent to which two variables or attributes are systematically related to each other in either a positive or a negative way

Answer 42

Correlational coefficient

Question 43

The problem in correlational studies of determining whether a presumed causal variable is the cause or the effect. See also third variable problem

Answer 43

Directionality problem

Question 44

In correlation studies, the problem posed by the fact that the association between the two variables of interest may be caused by some third variable; see also directionality problem.

Answer 44

Third variable problem

Question 45

A research method in which the results of multiple studies addressing the same question are synthesized to produce overall conclusions

Answer 45

Meta-analysis