Chapter 1

Question 1

What is Development?

Answer 1

The systematic changes over the lifespan - these include gains, loss or neutral changes in physical, cognitive and psychosocial functioning (where the development of one functioning affects others).

Question 2

What is aging?

Answer 2

It is not just growth in childhood and biological aging (decline) in adulthood - its both gain and losses (such as losing old abilities when gaining new ones in a young age and intelligence in older people). Although biological aging overall can be seen in a gain-stability-loss model.

Question 3

What is the relationship between development and aging?

Answer 3

Both involve gains and losses in the lifespan of an individual. Aging is a part of development.

Question 4

How has development been impacted historically?

Answer 4

1. Starting in the 17th century, children came to be seen as innocents
2. In the late 19th century, adolescence emerged as a distinct phase
3. In the 20th century, our society recognised emerging adulthood (most recent after WW2 as jobs became more complex and students went to uni)
4. In the 20th century, a middle- aged “empty nest” period was determined
5. In the 20th century, old age was characterised by retirement.

Question 5

What is an age grade? How does it affect development?

Answer 5

Socially defined age groups in a society which are assigned different statuses, roles, privileges and responsibilities. They can by defined by culture, subculture and historical periods and affect the development of individuals by giving them these different tasks. A transition of one age grade to another is a “rite of passage.”

Question 6

What is an age norm? How does it affect development?

Answer 6

The expectations of society on what people should or should not do at different points in their life span. They can by defined by culture, subculture and historical periods and affect the development of individuals by having different expectations at different ages.

Question 7

What is a social clock? How does it affect development?

Answer 7

It is a person’s sense of when things should be done and when they are ahead of or behind the “schedule” dictated by age norms. Just as how age norms are impacted by different factors, so is the social clock - which determines development by socially making people start or stop taking actions.

Question 8

What are the 7 messages of life-span perspective?

Answer 8

Developed by Paul Baltes, it suggests that development:
1. occurs throughout the life span
2. can take many different directions
3. involves gains and interlinked losses at every age
4. is characterized by plasticity
5. is affected by its historical and cultural context
6. is influenced by multiple interacting causal factors
7. can best be understood if scholars from multiple disciplines join forces to study it.

Question 9

In Baltes’s life-span perspective, what is meant by” development occurs throughout the life span?”

Answer 9

Development isn’t just children forming into adults, it involves changes throughout lifespan and that development in any period of life needs to be seen in the context of the WHOLE life.

Question 10

In Baltes’s life-span perspective, what is meant by” development can take many different directions ?”

Answer 10

He meant that it is multidirectional, not just towards mature functioning. Different aspects of human functioning have different trajectories of change and peak at different times.

Question 11

In Baltes’s life-span perspective, what is meant by” development involves gains and interlinked losses at every age?”

Answer 11

It suggests that there is gain and loss in each phase of life and that gain inevitably brings a loss of some kind and vice versa.

Question 12

In Baltes’s life-span perspective, what is meant by” development is characterized by plasticity?”

Answer 12

Plasticity is the capacity to change in response to experience, positive or negative. Development can be damaged by a deprived environment or optimized by a rich one. Even people in old age can enhance cognitive abilities with enough mental/physical excercise.

Question 13

In Baltes’s life-span perspective, what is meant by” development is affected by its historical and cultural context?”

Answer 13

That historical and cultural contexts impact the development, not only of the people who lived through it, but also in the generations after them

Question 14

In Baltes’s life-span perspective, what is meant by” development is influenced by multiple interacting causal factors?”

Answer 14

It suggests that human development is the product of many interacting causes both inside and outside a person, between a changing person and their changing world.

Question 15

In Baltes’s life-span perspective, what is meant by” development can best be understood if scholars from multiple disciplines join forces to study it?”

Answer 15

Since human development is influenced by a multitude of factors, multiple disciplines and perspectives must come together to give a full picture on development.

Question 16

How did the study of human development begin?

Answer 16

The study of human development began with the baby biographies written by Charles Darwin and others and the questionnaires of G. Stanley Hall - founder of developmental psychology

Question 17

What is a theory for human development and what makes a good theory?

Answer 17

A theory of human development organizes facts and explains development; a good theory should be falsifiable and supported by data.

Question 18

What are the three major issues addressed by theories of human development?

Answer 18

1. Nature-Nurture
2. Universality-Context Specificity
3. Continuity-Discontinuity
4. Activity-Passivity

Question 19

What is the issue of Nature-Nurture when is comes to development theories?

Answer 19

The issue describes whether development is primarily from the product of genes, biology and maturation or of experience, learning and social influence. Generally, it is the complex interplay of both that lead to developmental changes - with nature affecting nurture and vice versa - so we can’t differentiate them.

Question 20

What is the issue of Universality-Context Specificity when is comes to development theories?

Answer 20

The issue describes whether development is similar from person to person and form culture to culture or do pathways of development vary depending on social context. Other theorists believe that human development is more varied since it is influenced by environmental and contextual factors. Unlike most other theories, time of measurement is important to determine gradualism/other.

Question 21

What is the issue of Continuity-Discontinuity when is comes to development theories?

Answer 21

Th issue described whether humans change gradually and in quantitative ways or progress through qualitatively different stages (abrupt) and develop very different competencies and characteristics as they get older. It is two different concepts: gradual change and if there is change from characteristics earlier in life.

Question 22

What are the 5 theoretical perspectives that dominate the study of development?

Answer 22

1. Evolutionary
2. Psychoanalytic
3. Learning
4. Cognitive- developmental
5. Bioecological systems theories.

Question 23

What is the theoretical perspective of evolutionists?

Answer 23

Developed by Darwin, it suggests that human development and behaviour reflect a genetic makeup that evolved since it aided ancestors in adapting to their environment. It considers issues such as N-N, C-D (sensitive periods) and emphasises universal traits.

Question 24

What is the theoretical perspective of psychoanalytics?

Answer 24

Developed by Freud and Erikson, it suggests that humans progress through universal stages of development with inner psychic conflicts. Freud suggested psychosexual development and introduced the idea that early childhood affects adult life - Erikson extended developmental conflicts through adulthood than childhood such as trust vs. mistrust in babies with/without needs met and storm of adolescence period. It considers issues such as N-N, D (stages that carryover from early to late personality), universal emphasis by Freud and attention to cultural differences by Erikson.

Question 25

What is the theoretical perspective of learning theorists?

Answer 25

Developed by B. F. Skinner and Albert Bandura, it suggests early learning theories such as Skinner’s viewed development as learning - behaviour shaped by environment; Bandura’s more modern social learning theory highlights the role of cognition in learning and views observational learning as the major part of learning. Others include Watson (classical conditioning) and Skinner’s operant conditioning. It considers issues such as Nurture (emphasized), continuity (strengthening or weakening of behavior) and context-specificity

Question 26

What is the theoretical perspective of cognitive-developmentalists?

Answer 26

Developed by Piaget, it suggests that humans develop through four universal stages of cognitive development, progressing through the sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational stages. It considers issues such as nature and nurture (maturation and experience interacting with the world),
discontinuity (stages) and universal (emphasis)

Question 27

What is the theoretical perspective of bioecological systems theorists?

Answer 27

Developed by Bronfenbrenner and systems theorists, it suggests that ongoing transactions between a changing person and changing environment (microsystem, mesosystem etc.) produce context-specific differences in development at different social addresses. It considers theories such as nature and nurture (with a nurture emphasis), continuity or discontinuity and context-specificity (emphasized)

Question 28

What are the 4 goals of research in human development? Describe them.

Answer 28

1. Description - Describing both normal development and individual differences.
2. Prediction - Identify factors that predict development
3. Explanation - Determining if these factors actually explain development
4. Optimisation - Using this knowledge to better help and improve humans to positive directions.

Question 29

What is the scientific method?

Answer 29

It involves testing hypotheses derived from a theory by conducting research with a sample (ideally a random sample) representative of a larger population of interest.

Question 30

What data collection methods are there?

Answer 30

1. Verbal reports - Interviews, written questionnaires or surveys, ability and achievement tests, and personality scales with self-report measures or reports on someone else (such as children) - comprehension and socially desired responding can affect it though.
2. Behavioural observations (naturalistic and structured) - observing people in their everyday (natural) surroundings. Some behaviours occur too infrequently/unexpectedly to be studied, there are many causes at once and being observed can make people behave differently. Structured creates specific environments to deal with this - however it may not be generalisable.
3. Physiological measures - using instruments to take measurements that are physiological. they can be hard to fake, and are good when feelings cant be expressed verbally, but they are not always clear in what they are assessing.

Question 31

What are the strengths and weaknesses of case studies, experiments and correlational studies?

Answer 31

1. Case study: May reveal complexities but may have limited generalizability.
2. Experiment: The best of the three for explaining development. It involves random assignments to conditions, manipulation of an independent variable, and experimental control. However, some studies can not be done ethically through experiments.
3. Correlational study: It can ethically determine a relationship, however the directionality and third variable problems limit our ability to draw firm cause–effect conclusions.

Meta-analyses synthesize the results of multiple studies of the same issue.

Question 32

What are the strengths and weaknesses of cross-sectional, longitudinal, and sequential designs?

Answer 32

1. Cross-sectional studies compare different age groups and it is easy/quick but it confounds age effects and cohort effects since development is influenced by historical/cultural context and does not show individual change.
2. Longitudinal studies study age change in individuals but confound age effects and time-of-measurement effects as well as ignores historical context.
3. Sequential studies are the strongest design because they combine the cross-sectional and longitudinal approaches and show individu, but are very expensive and time-consuming

Question 33

What is a cross-sectional study?

Answer 33

Measures assessing people of different age groups or cohorts are compared. It provides information about age differences by seeing how age groups differ - however, researchers don’t learn about how individuals change with age: so its more on what the differences are between cohorts.

Question 34

What is a longitudinal study?

Answer 34

When one cohort of individuals is assessed repeatedly over time. It provides information about age changes than differences. It can really look at change over time however depending on when measurements are taken, different results may apply and are therefore no generalisable to people in other historical/cultural contexts.

Question 35

What is a sequential design?

Answer 35

It combines both cross-sectional approach and the longitudinal approach in a single study, assessing multiple cohorts of individuals multiple times. They can tell which age-related trends and age effects regardless of cohort, which age trends differ from each cohort and what trends and cohorts are affected by events in history.

Question 36

What are the challenges in conducting culturally sensitive research?

Answer 36

Researchers must study a variety of populations, not just WEIRD ones, develop culturally sensitive methods and measures, and keep their own cultural values and ethnocentrism from biasing their conclusions.

Question 37

What are the four major ethical obligations of investigators to their research participants?

Answer 37

1. Ensuring informed consent
2. Debriefing individuals from whom information has been withheld
3. Protecting research participants from harm
4. Maintaining confidentiality of data.

Question 38

What are the characteristics of WEIRD people?

Answer 38

People living in societies that are Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich and Democratic.

Question 39

What other impacts, other than cultural, subcultural and historical contexts, affect development?

Answer 39

Race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status etc.

Question 40

What is the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem and the chronosystem?

Answer 40

1. Microsystem: the immediate physical and social environment in which the person interacts face-to-face with other people.
2. Mesosystem: the interrelationships between two or more microsystems.
3. Exosystem: the social settings that individuals do not experience directly but that can still influence their development.
4. Marcosystem: the larger cultural or societal context in which the person and various micro-, meso-, and exosystems are embedded.
5. Chronosystem: the idea that people and their environments and the relations between the two change over time and unfold in particular patterns or sequences.

Question 41

What is the issue of Activity-Passivity when is comes to development theories?

Answer 41

It discusses whether people actually make choices or are other factors more in play in terms of development

Question 42

What is the baby albert experiment and the Bandura doll experiment?

Answer 42

Baby Albert was the one with the rat being associated with the loud sound showcasing classical conditioning and the Doll was how children “observationall learnt” to be abusive by watching adults hit a doll and hitting the doll, therefore.