Chapter 1

Question 1

Arnold Gessell focussed on what? (+ Definition)

Answer 1

Maturation: A genetically determined process of growth that unfolds naturally over a period of time.

Question 2

John Watson believed that…

Answer 2

… biological factors placed no restrictions on the ways that the environment can shape the course of a child’s development.

Question 3

Two basic patterns of developmental change are debated …

Answer 3

1. Development is continuous, where each new event builds on an earlier one.
2. Development occurs in steps.

Question 4

Sleeper Effects

Answer 4

Problems are exhibited later in development.

Question 5

Theories … (2)

Answer 5

1. Organize and integrate existing information into coherent and interesting accounts.
2. Generate testale hypotheses or predictions about children’s behaviour.

Question 6

Theoretically Eclectic

Answer 6

Mix and match concepts from different theories to explain different types of observations.

Question 7

Structuralism

Answer 7

Formal structure of the system would provide insight into function.

Question 8

Freud and Piaget used the …

Answer 8

… Structural - Organismic Perspective

Question 9

Structural - Organismic Perspective

Answer 9

Theoretical approaches that describe psychological structures and processes that undergo stage-like changes.

Question 10

Psychodynamic Theory (3 Components)

Answer 10

Id: Person’s instinctual drives, the first component to evolve. Operates on the basis of the pleasure principle.

Ego: Rational, controlling component. Tries to satisfy need through appropriate, socially acceptable behaviours.

Superego: Component that is the repository of parental or societal values, morals, and roles.

Question 11

Freud’s Five Stages

Answer 11

Oral Stage: Pleasurable activities such as eating, biting, and sucking.

Anal (2-3): Learns to postpone personal gratification, such as the pleasure of expelling feces.

Phallic (3-6): Curiosity about sexual anatomy and sexuality appears. Critical stage to the formation of gender identity.

Latency (6-Puberty): Sexual drives are temporarily submerged and children avoid relationships with peers of the other gender.

Genital: Sexual desires emerge and are directed toward peers.

Question 12

Psychosocial Theory

Answer 12

Erikson’s theory of development that sees children developing through a series of stages largely through accomplishing tasks that involve them in interaction with their social environment.

Question 13

Piagetian Theory

Answer 13

Theory of cognitive development that sees the child as actively seeking new information and incorporating it into his knowledge base through the process of assimilation and accomodation.

Question 14

Piaget’s 4 Stages of Cognitive Development

Answer 14

• Infants rely on sesnsory and motor skills to learn.
• Preschool children rely on mental structures and language.
• In the school years, children rely more on logic.
• In adolescence, children can reason about abstract ideas.

Question 15

Piaget states cognitive development is …

Answer 15

… a process in which the child shifts from a focus on the self, immediate experiences, and simple problems to a more complex, multi-faceted, and abstract understanding of the world.

Question 16

Behaviourism

Answer 16

School of thought that holds theories of behaviour must be based on direct observations of behaviour.

Question 17

Classical vs. Operant Conditioning

Answer 17

Pavlov vs. Skinner

Pairing stimuli vs. Punishment

Question 18

Cognitive Social Learning Theory

Answer 18

Stresses learning by observation and imitation mediated by cognitive processes and skills.

Question 19

Four processes govern how well a child learns through observation… they are?

Answer 19

• Child must attend to a model’s behaviour.
• Child must retain the observed behaviour in memory.
• Child must have the capacity, physically and intellectually, to reproduce the observed behaviour.
• Child must be motivated or have a reason to reproduce the behaviour.

Question 20

Information Processing Approaches

Answer 20

Focus on the flow of information through cognitive system.

- Operations child performs between input and stimulus phases.

Question 21

Dynamic Systems Perspectives

Answer 21

Theory that proposes that individuals develop and function within systems.

Question 22

Sociocultural Theory

Answer 22

Sees development as evolving out of children’s interactions with more skilled others in their environment.

Question 23

Ecological Theory

Answer 23

Theory of development that stresses the relations among systems themselves.

Question 24

Microsystem

Answer 24

Context in which children live and interact with their closest people.

Question 25

Mesosystem

Answer 25

Interrelations that occur among the components of the microsystem (between parents and teachers).

Question 26

Exosystem

Answer 26

Collection of settings that impinge on a child’s development but in which the child does not play a drect role.

Question 27

Macrosystem

Answer 27

System that surrounds the other 3 that represents values, ideologies, and laws of the society or culture.

Question 28

Chronosystem

Answer 28

Time based dimension that can alter the operation of all other levels.

Question 29

Lifespan Perspective

Answer 29

Sees development as an ongoing process throughout life.

Question 30

Age Cohort

Answer 30

People born within the same generation or the same general historical period of time.