Chapter 1

Question 1

What are the underlying principles of the lifespan perspective?

Answer 1

Development is:
-a lifelong process
-multidirectional (growth, decline, and stability)
-multidimensional (physical, cognitive, psychosocial development)
-multidisciplinary (education, sociology, anthropology)
-plasticity (potential for change; developmental trajectories can be shaped/altered by the environment)

Question 2

What are the 3 kinds of multi-contextual influences on development?

Answer 2

-normative age-graded influences
-normative history graded influences
-non-normative life influences

Question 3

What are Normative Age-Graded Influences?

Answer 3

-Represent the expectations for people at a given age or stage of development
–age-graded influences are called: developmental tasks/milestones
–they are shared by everyone within the age group (normative)

Question 4

What are Normative History-Graded Influences?

Answer 4

-Represent the expectations for people of a certain cohort or generation
*cohort is a group of people who are born at roughly the same period in a particular society.
–have milestones changed over time? (ex: for teens vs grandparents)

Question 5

What are Non-Normative Life Influences?

Answer 5

-Represent things that can happen to individuals at any point in the life course; such as:
–health issues
–family disruptions (ex: divorce)

Question 6

What is ethnocentrism?

Answer 6

-this belief that our own culture is superior

Question 7

What is cultural relativity?

Answer 7

-an appreciation for cultural differences and the understanding that cultural practices are best understood from the standpoint of that particular culture.

Question 8

What is the difference between lifespan and life expectancy?

Answer 8

-lifespan: refers to the length of time a species can exist under the most optimal conditions.
-life expectancy: the predicted number of years a person born in a particular time period can reasonably expect to live.

Question 9

What are the conceptions of age?

Answer 9

-chronological age: number of years since birth
-biological age: how quickly the body is aging
-psychological age: our psychologically adaptive capacity compared to others of our chronological age
-social age: based on the social norms of our culture and the expectations our culture has for people of our age group

Question 10

What are the periods of development?

Answer 10

-prenatal: conception to birth
-infancy and toddlerhood: birth to 2 years old
-early childhood: 2 to 6 years old
-middle and late childhood: 6 to onset of puberty
-adolescence: onset of puberty to 18 years old
-emerging adulthood: 18 to 29 years old
-established adulthood: 30 to 45 years old
-middle adulthood: 45 to 65 years old
-late adulthood: 65 onward

Question 11

What are the historical theories on development?

Answer 11

-Preformationist view
-John Locke
-Jean-Jacques Rousseau
-Arnold Gesell
-Sigmund Freud

Question 12

What is preformationism?

Answer 12

-the belief that a tiny, fully formed human is implanted in the sperm or egg at conception and then grows in size until birth.
-this the predominant early theory in the 18th century

Question 13

What was Locke’s view?

Answer 13

-he proposed that children are largely shaped by their social environments.
-Locke advocated thinking of a child’s mind as a tabula rasa or blank slate, and whatever comes into the child’s mind comes from the environment.

Question 14

What was Rousseau’s view?

Answer 14

-he believed that children developed according to a natural plan which unfolded in different stages
-Rousseau is considered the father of developmental psychology

Question 15

What was Gesell’s view?

Answer 15

-he believed that the child’s development was activated by genes and he called this process maturation
-he believed that development unfolded in fixed sequences,

Question 16

What was Freud’s view?

Answer 16

-he emphasized the importance of early childhood experiences in shaping our personality and behaviour
-his beliefs formed the psychodynamic perspective

Question 17

What are the contemporary theories on development?

Answer 17

-Erikson and psychosocial theory
-Learning theory/Behaviourism
-Social learning theory
-Cognitive theory (Jean Piaget; Lev Vygotsky; Information processing)
-Urie Bronfenbrenner

Question 18

What was Erikson’s view?

Answer 18

-Erikson presents eight developmental stages that encompass the entire lifespan.
-he proposed that each period of life has a unique challenge or crisis that the person who reaches it must face, referred to as psychosocial crises.

Question 19

What is Learning Theory/Behaviourism?

Answer 19

-based on the premise that it is not possible to objectively study the mind, and therefore psychologists should limit their attention to the study of behavior itself.
-Skinner used the ideas of stimulus and response, along with the application of rewards or reinforcements, to train pigeons and other animals.

Question 20

What is Social Learning Theory?

Answer 20

-learning by watching others
-young children frequently learn behaviours through imitation.
-Bandura Bobo doll study
-reciprocal determinism: interplay between our personality and the way we interpret events and how they influence us

Question 21

What is the Cognitive Theory?

Answer 21

-focus on how our mental processes or cognitions change over time.
-3 important theories are Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, and Information processing

Question 22

What was Piaget’s cognitive theory?

Answer 22

-he theorized that children progressed through four stages of cognitive development: sensorimotor; preoperational; concrete operational; formal operational

Question 23

What was Vygotsky’s cognitive theory?

Answer 23

-his sociocultural theory emphasizes the importance of culture and interaction in the development of cognitive abilities
-he believed that a person not only has a set of abilities, but also a set of potential abilities that can be realized if given the proper guidance from others.

Question 24

What was information processing as a cognitive theory?

Answer 24

-based on the ideas and research of several cognitive scientists studying how individuals perceive, analyze, manipulate, use, and remember information.
-assumes that humans gradually improve in their processing skills; that is, cognitive development is continuous rather than stage-like.

Question 25

What is Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Model?

Answer 25

-one of the lifespan development theories
-multi-system theory that positions the individual at the centre of a set of systems of direct and indirect influence

Question 26

According to Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Model, which systems affect the individual?

Answer 26

-microsystem
-mesosystem
-exo-system
-macrosystem
-chronosystem

Question 27

What is the Microsystem?

Answer 27

-it is made up of the immediate contexts within which an individual interacts
-parents, siblings, friends, and teachers are members of a child’s microsystem

Question 28

What is the Mesosystem?

Answer 28

-represents the interrelationships among the microsystems and the individual
-larger organizational structures, such as school, the family, or religion

Question 29

What is the Exo-system?

Answer 29

-includes social structures that impact individuals through their effects on microsystems
-ex: schoolboards indirectly affect children

Question 30

What is the Macrosystem?

Answer 30

-the broader cultural, ideological, political values that affect ecosystems
-ex: who can be on a schoolboard and how they are assigned to that position

Question 31

What is the Chronosystem?

Answer 31

-represents the interaction between life course stage and historical time
-relates back to the idea of history graded and cohort effects

Question 32

What are the developmental questions in descriptive research?

Answer 32

-how do people develop?
-what are the patterns of change?

Question 33

What are the developmental questions in explanatory research?

Answer 33

-why does development show pattern?
-what are the predictors of change?

Question 34

Descriptive questions determine if development is continuous or discontinuous. What does this mean?

Answer 34

-continuity: continuous expression; similar appearance throughout growth (ex: tree)
-discontinuity: distinct stages; qualitatively different; exists in one form, then transforms (ex: ladybug)

Question 35

What is an example of stability vs change & active vs passive?

Answer 35

Waddington’s epigenetic landscape contains developmental trajectories illustrated as sloping canals
-development can be considered passive when we follow the pathways of least resistance (match & stability)
-if one pathway doesn’t work out well, we may have to become more active to move ourselves to a new canal or route

Question 36

What is another example of active vs passive development?

Answer 36

-a fork in the road:
-if we have momentum, we might just maintain the trajectory
-if there is an obstacle blocking that path, we might change course

Question 37

What is the Cross-Sectional Design?

Answer 37

-A sample is selected from one or more populations at one time

Question 38

What is the Longitudinal Design?

Answer 38

-same individuals participates at different points in time

Question 39

What is the Cohort Sequential Design?

Answer 39

-multiple samples of individuals participate at different points in time in successive sequences

Question 40

What are the statistics used to quantify change?

Answer 40

Means:
-simple way to quantify age-group differences or individual changes
-do they differ between groups?
-do they differ based on time?
Correlation Coefficient:
-determine rank-order stability
-does an individual’s position (e.g., high, moderate, low) relative to others remain the same from one time to another?