Ch 1 Flashcards
Development
Best defined as systematic changes, continues from conception to birth.
Lifespan Developmental Psych
Involves systematic description and explanation of age related behavioral change.
Age Norms
Expectations associated with a persons age.
i.e. It is expected that 8 year old are too young to drive a car but an appropriate age to attend elementary school.
Social Clock
A person’s sense of the age of which he or she should experience certain events.
i.e. By age 18 I should have graduated from HS; by age 32 I should be married; by age 68 I should be retired.
People of _______ income tend to reach milestones earlier than average.
Lower income.
i.e. First marriage, first child.
Emerging Adulthood
Age 18-29. At this age, many people believe in a life of limitless possibilities. This belief makes them work harder. These young people are neither teens nor full adults.
The gap in average life expectancy for high and low socioeconomic groups has widened more in the past several decades than has the gap in _______.
average life expectancies for…..
The 2 processes for developmental psych:
Can these processes observable?
1) Maturation: involves the biological unfolding of genetic potential which results in full body growth and development in all physiologically normal members of a species. Driven by a plan contained in out genes.
2) Learning: A relatively long-lasting behavior change due to experience.
M & L can not be directly observed but are inferred processes. (Body growth in terms of internal, cellular, an hormonal changes).
______ is to ______ as genes, maturation, heredity is to environment, learning.
Nature is to Nurture
In more recent decades, optimization has been a goal among many developmental psychologists. What does it involve?
It involves helping people at then full capacities, given any challenge that may be present.
i.e. Dr. Jones helps elementary school students whose parents are divorced to adjust to most satisfactorily to this loss (they learn to deal constructively with this divorce).
G. Stanely Hall
Founder as developmental psych.
In his book called “Adolescence,” he described the period between childhood and adulthood as a time of storm & stress.
Freud believed the same thing. Claimed this was due the normal changes in puberty.
According to Hall & Freud, the teen years do not involve as much stress in other cultures where the transition from childhood to teen years is ______.
less abrupt.
Neuroplasticity
Involves formation of new brain cell connections as a result of studying/reading.
Historical Trends may influence ______.
May influence development.
i. e. The fact that many males lived through the Great Depression later had erratic careers and unstable marriages- exemplifies the impact on the context of development.
i. e. Baby Boomers- kids grew up a lot easier than their parents, but harder than expected as adults (hi demand for jobs and many applicants.)
Cohort Effects (what are they, from what type of studies are they obtained?)
Cohort: a group of people born within a certain time span. Effects obtained in cross sectional or longitudinal studies.
i.e. a cohort group born between 1920-1930 (great depression) may have behavior impacted by what was happening historically when they were developing.
