Chapter 1 Flashcards
What is development?
Systematic continuities and changes in the individual over the course of life
What are developmental continuities?
Ways in which we remain stable over time or continue to reflect our past
What is maturation?
Developmental changes in the body or behaviour that result from the aging process rather than learning, injury, illness, or some other life experience
What is learning?
Relatively permanent change in behavier (or behavioural potential) that results from one’s experiences or practice
Most developmental changes are product of:
Both maturation and learning
What are the major goals of the developmental sciences?
To describe, explain, and to optimize development
What is normative development?
Developmental changes that characterize most or all members of a species; typical patterns of development
What is ideographic development?
Individual variations in the rate, extent, or direction of development
Explanation of development focuses on both:
Normative changes within individuals and variations in development between individuals
Any definition of optimal development depends on what?
Cultural and societal values
Prenatal period:
Conception to birth
Infancy:
Birth to 18 months old
Toddler period:
18 months to 3 years
Preschool period:
3-5 years of age
Middle childhood:
5-12 years of age (approximately.) until onset of puberty
Adolescence:
12-20 years approximately
Young adulthood:
20-40 years of age
Middle age:
40-65 years of age
Old age:
65 years of age
Human development is continual and lifelong. The ore constant is:
Change
Prior to the holistic perspective; developmentalists were divided into 3 camps. What were they?
- Those who studied physical growth and dev, including bodily changes and sequencing of motor skills.
- those who studied cognitive aspects of dev., including perception language/ learning /thinking
- Those who studied psychosocial aspects of dev., including emotions, personality, and growth of interpersonal relationships
What is the holistic perspective?
Unified view of the dev. process that emphasizes the important interrelationships among the mental, physical, social, emotional aspects of human dev.
What is plasticity?
Capacity for change; a developmental state that has the potential to be shaped by experience
Development is also influenced by:
Historical and cultural context. Each culture and social class transmits a particular pattern of beliefs, values, customs, and skills to its younger generations.
Describe Hobbes’s doctrine of original sin.
He believed children are inherently selfish ego-ists who most be restrained by society,
Describe Rousseau’s doctrine of innate purity
He believed that children are born with an intuitive sense of right and wrong that society often corrupts.
Describe Locke’s view of children
Mind of an infant is a blank slate; kids have no inborn tendencies
Describe Rousseau, Hobbes, Locke perspective re: child as active or passive in their own development
Hobbes: kid is passive; most be moulded by parents,
Locke: kid is passive; mind is blank slate upon which experience writes its lessons. Rousseau: children are actively involved in the shaping of their own intellects and personalities
What were baby biographies?
Investigators began to observe the development of their kids and published the data.
Detailed records of an infant’s growth + development over a period of time.
What did Darwin believe about child development?
That young, untrained infants share many characteristics with their nonhuman ancestors, and thought the development of the individual child retraces the entire evolutionary history of the species; illustrating he “descent of man”.
What is the scientific method?
The use of objective and replicable methods to gather data for the purpose of testing a theory or hypothesis. Dictates that investigators must be objective and allow their data to decide the merits of their thinking.
What is a theory?
A set of concepts and propositions designed to organize, describe, and explain an existing set of observations.
What is a hypothesis?
A theoretical prediction abut some aspect of experience.
What does it mean for a method to be replicable?
That every time the method is used, it results in the same data and conclusions.
Regardless of the technique used, scientifically used measures must always display:
Reliability and validity
What is reliability?
The extent to which a measuring instrument yields consistent results, both over time and across observers
What is validity?
The extent to which a measuring instrument accurately reflects what the researchers intended to measure
3 common procedures developmentalists use to gather info and test hypotheses:
Interviews, questionnaires, the clinical method.
What is a structured interview or structured questionnaire?
A technique in which all participants are asked the same questions in precisely the same order so that the responses of different participants can be compared.
What is the clinical method?
A type of interview in which a participant’s response to each successive question or problem determines what the investigator will ask next.
What is naturalistic observation?
Scientist tests hypotheses by observing people as they engage in everyday activities in their natural habitats.
What is observer influence and how is it minimized?
- Tendency of participants to react to an observer’s presence by behaving in unusual ways.
A) videotaping participants from a concealed spot. B) spending time in the setting before collecting their data so he people they observe are used to them and behave naturally
What is time-sampling?
Procedure in which the investigator records the frequencies with which individuals display particular behaviours during the brief time intervals that each is observed
What is structured observation?
An observational method in which the investigator cues the behaviour of interest and observes participants responses in a lab
What is a case study?
A research method in which the investigator gathers extensive into about the life of an individual and then tests developmental hypotheses by analyzing the events of the persons life history
What is ethnography?
Method in which the research seeks to understand the unique values, traditions and social processes of a culture or subculture by living with its members and making extensive observations and notes.
What are psychophysiological methods?
Methods that measure the relationships between physiological processes and aspects of children’s physical, cognitive, social, or emotional behaviour / development.
Examples of psychophysiological methods
Heart rate, EEGs, eye tracking
Strengths + limitations of interviews and questionnaires:
- Quick way to gather lots of info, standardized format allows investigator to make direct comparisons btw data provided by different participants
- data collected may be inaccurate or less than completely honest, or may reflect variations in respondent’s verbal skills and ability to understand questions.
Strengths + limitations of clinical method:
- Flexible methodology that treats subjects as unique individuals; freedom to probe can be an aid in ensuring that the participant understands the meaning of the questions asked
- conclusions drawn may be unreliable; flexible probes = subjective interpretation of investigator; can only be used with highly verbal participants.
Strengths + limitations of naturalistic observation
Allows study of behaviour as it actually occurs in the natural environs
Observed behaviers may be influenced by observers presence; unusual or undesirable behaviers not likely to be observed during period when observations made.
Strengths + limitations of structured observation:
-Standardized ervironnt that every kid an opportunity to peforn target behaviour; excellent way to observe infrequent or socially undesirable acts.
Contrived observations may not always capture the ways kids behave in natural environment
Strengths + limitations of case studies
Broad method, considers many sources of data when drawing inferences + conclusions about individual participants.
Kind of data often differs case to case and may be inaccurate or dishonest; conclusions drawn are subjective and may not apply to others.
Strengths + limitations of ethnography
Provides a richer description of cultural beliefs, values, and traditions than is possible in brief observational or interview studies
Conclusions may be biased by investigators values and theoretical viewpoints; results cannot be generalized beyond the groups and settings that were studied
Strengths + limitations of psychophysiological methods
Used for assessing biological underpinnings of development and identifying he perceptions, thoughts, emotions of infants and toddlers (nonverbal).
Cannot indicate with certainty what patriots sense or feel; many facts other than the one being studied can produce a similar physiological response
