Chapter 1 Flashcards
Development
pattern of movement or change that begins at conception and continues through the human life span
Life-span perspective of human development views development as
lifelong, multidimensional, multidirectional, plastic, multidisciplinary, and contextual
Development is lifelong
It continues into old age
Development is multidimensional
Consists of biological, cognitive, and socioemotional dimensions (components within these dimensions)
Development is multidirectional
some dimensions grow and others shrink (ex: learning a language as a kid is easier than as an adult)
Development is plastic
look at how much plasticity people have in various dimensions at diff. points in development
Plasticity
capacity for change
developmental science is multidisciplinary
experts look at development in intelligence and social relationships and how that changes with age. Does health and heredity affect diff. dimensions of development?
Development is contextual
development occurs in the context of families, schools, peer groups, churches, cities, neighborhoods, univeristy laboratories, countries, etc
Contexts are constantly changing like individuals. So contexts exert three types of influences
- normative age-graded influences
- normative history-graded influences
- non-normative/ highly individual life events
Normative age-graded influences
for individuals at a certain age group (ex: puberty, menopause, beginning school, retirement)
Normative history-graded influences
common for a certain generation (being alive during JFK assassination, WWII, 9/11, social media etc.)
Normative life events
individual unique occurrences that affect a persons life
Development involves growth, maintenance, and regulation of loss
as development occurs, there is internal conflict between growth, maintenance, and regulation of loss (ex: middle age people try to maintain and regulate loss so there’s less emphasis on growth)
Development is a co-construction of biology, culture, and individual development
Development comes from biological, cultural, and individual factors influencing each other
Culture
encompasses the behavior patterns, beliefs, and all other products of a particular group of people that are passed on from generation to generation
Factors that influence people as they go through the human lifespan
cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds, ethnicity, and gender
Biological processes
produce changes in an individual’s physical nature (ex: genes, brain development, height, weight, nutrition, exercise, hormonal changes, cardiovascular decline)
Cognitive processes
refer to changes in an individual’s thinking, intelligence, and language
Socioemotional processes
involve changes in an individual’s relationships with other people, in emotional regulation, and in personality
Prenatal developmental period
time from conception to birth (9 months)
Infancy developmental period
from birth to 18 or 24 months
Early childhood developmental period
end of infancy to age 5 or 6
Middle and late childhood developmental period
age 6 to age 11
Adolescence developmental period
from age 10/12 to 18/22
Emerging adulthood developmental period
from 18 to 25 years old
Early adulthood developmental period
late teens / twenties to early thirties
middle adulthood developmental period
from 40 to 60 years old
late adulthood developmental period
60s/70s to death
stability-change issue
debate about the degree to which early traits and characteristics persist through life or change
nature-nurture issue
debate about extent to which development is influenced by nature and my nurture. nature refers to a organism’s biological inheritance, nurture to its environmental experiences
continuity-discontinuity issue
debate about extent to which development involves gradual, cumulative change (continuity), or distinct stages (discontinuity)
Scientific method
- conceptualize a process or problem to be studied
- collect data
- analyze data
- draw conclusions
theory
interrelated coherent set of ideas that helps to explain phenomena and make predictions
hypothesis
specific assertions and predictions that can be tested
Psychoanalytic theories
theories that say development depends primarily on the unconsious mind and is heavily couched in emotion, that behavior is merely a surface characteristic, that it is important ot analyze the symbolic meanings of behavior, and that early experiences are important in development
Erikson’s theory
psychoanalytic theory in which 8 stages of psychosocial development unfold throughout the life span. Each stage consists of unique developmental task that confronts individuals with a crisis that must be faced
Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory
theory that children construct their understanding of the world and go through four stages of cognitive development
Vygotsky’s theory
sociocultural cognitive theory that emphasizes how culture and social interaction guide cognitive development
information-processing theory
theory emphasizing that individuals manipulate information, monitor it, and strategize about it. The processes of memory and thinking are central
Behavioral and social cognitive theories
theories holding that development can be described in terms of the behaviors learned through interactions with the environment
Social cognitive theory
holds that behavior, environment, and person/cognitive factors are the key factors in development
Ethology
approach stressing that behavior is strongly influenced by biology, tied to evolution, and characterized by critical or sensitive periods
Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory
holds that development reflects the influence of several environmental systems (5 environmental systems: microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, chronosystem
eclectic theoretical orientation
an approach that selects and uses whatever is considered the best in many theories
naturalistic observation
observation in real-world without any attempt to manipulate the situation
Descriptive research
aims to observe and record behavior
Correlational research
goal is to describe the strength of the relationship between two or more events/ characteristics
Cross-sectional approach
research strategy where individuals of diff. ages are compared at one time
Longitudinal approach
research strategy where the same individuals are studied over a period of time usually several years or more
Cohort effects
effects that are due to a person’s time of birth, era, or generation but not to actual age
