Chapter 1 Flashcards
Child development
Feild of sudy in which reaserchers from many diciplines work to discribe and understand the important changes that take place as children grow through childbirth.
Cognitive development
Component of development related to changes in how children precieve the world, think, remember informtion, and communicate.
Sociemotional development
Component of development related to changes in how children interact with other people and manage their emotions.
Nature
The biological forces (genetics) that govern development.
Nurture
The enviormental supports and conditions that impact development. Also refers to learning and experience.
Theory
An explanation of how facts fit together, allowing us to understand and predict behavior.
Hypothesis
Specific inferences drawn from theories; reasearchers test hypothesis by collectiong scientific behavior.
Psychoanalytic theories
Theories that focus on the structure of personality and how the concious and unconsous portions of the self influence behavior and development.
Behaviorism
A movement to develop a psychology that was objective and scientific, based on principles of classical and operant conditioning.
Classical conditioning
Learning through association where neutral stimuli are pared with unconditioned stimuli until they come to evoke conditioned responses.
Operant conditining
A type of learning where a pearson’s actions are reinforced or punished.
Social Learning
A type of learning where children observe and imitate the behaviors of others.
Cognitive developmental theory
A theory that focuses on how children adjust their own understanding as they explore and learn about the world.
Assimilation
The process of bringing new objects or information into a scheme that already exists in the mind. If assimilation is not sucessful, then the sceme needs to be accommodated.
Accommodation
The process of adjusting or adapting a scheme so it better fits the new experience. Through accommodation the infant would learn that grasping sometimes requires two hands. He understands how to grasp smaller objects with one hand and larger ones with two hands.
Sociocultural theory
A theory that focuses on how language and culture influences the growth of thought in children.
Information-processing approach
A theoretical approach focusing on how children precieve, store, and retrieve information, and on how they solve problems and communicate with others.
Ethology
An area of study focusing on the adaptive significance and survival value of behaviors.
Ecological systems theory
Theory focusing on the complex set of systems and interacting social layers that can affect childrens development.
Dynamic systems theory
Theories that use models from mathmatics and physics to understand complex systems of development.
Scientific method
Process where reaserchers test hypotheses by making systematic observations.
Descriptive Methods
Research method that describes a behavior of interest, such as how often it occurs and under what conditions.
Correlational method
Reaserch method that measures the degree to which two or more variables are related or associated.
Experiment
Method where reaserchers systematically manipulate an independent variable to determine if it causes a difference in a dependent variable.
Cross-sectional method
A type of reaserch design that studies development by comparing groups of children of different ages against one another at the same point in time.
Longitudinal method
A type of reaserch design that studies developent by measuring or observing the same children across time as they grow and mature.
Social policy
Attempts to improve the lives of the children and families by using child development reaserch to affect laws, regulations, and programs.
