Chapter 1

Question 1

Discontinuous

Answer 1

Quantitative change with periods of rapid transformation followed by plateaus

Question 2

One course development

Answer 2

Universality of change (stage theories)

Question 3

Many courses of development

Answer 3

Importance of context

Question 4

Medieval times

Answer 4

6th-15th century: childhood was regarded as a separate period of life as easily as medieval Europe. Distinguished children under age 7 or 8 from other people and that recognized even young teenagers as not fully mature.

Question 5

The Reformation

Answer 5

16th century - the Puritan belief in original sin gave riser to the view that children were born evil and stubborn and had to be civilized.

Question 6

John Locke

Answer 6

The Enlightenment (17th century) - served as the forerunner of a 12th century perspective: behaviorism. Children begin with nothing at all. Tabula rasa “blank slate”.

Question 7

Jean Jacques Rousseau

Answer 7

Enlightenment (18th century) believed that children are “Nobel savages” naturally endowed with a sense of right and wrong and an innate plan for orderly, healthy growth.

Question 8

Charles Darwin

Answer 8

Mid 19th century - evolution

Question 9

Normative study of child development

Answer 9

Early 1900s - G. Stanley Hall & Arnold Gesellschaft - measure of box are taken on large numbers of individuals and age-related averages are computed to represent typical development.

Question 10

Mental Testing movement

Answer 10

Alfred Binet - also normative.

Question 11

Psychoanalytic Perspective

Answer 11

Conflict between biological drives and social expectations at various stages

+focus on individuals, inspired research in many areas
- vagueness of ideas makes it difficult to test

Question 12

Freud

Answer 12

Psychosexual theory - focus on personality development.

Question 13

Continuous development

Answer 13

quantitative, gradual change

Question 14

Ericson

Answer 14

Psychoanalytic - psychosocial theory; focus on development and the contribution an individual makes to society.

+ looks at development over the lifespan
Recognized the importance of culture

Question 15

Behaviorism and social (cognitive learning theory)

Answer 15

Focus on directly observable events

+contributed to knowledge of how people learn, helpful for eliminating bad behaviors and increasing acceptable behaviors
- underestimated children’s contribution to their own development limited environmental influences to the immediate environment.

Question 16

Watson

Answer 16

Classical conditioning responses are learned through associations

Question 17

Skinner

Answer 17

operant conditioning; reinforcers will increase behaviors and punishment will decrease behaviors

Question 18

Bandura

Answer 18

Modeling/imitation/observational learning

Question 19

Piaget’s Cognitive-Developmental Theory

Answer 19

Children construct knowledge as they actively explore and manipulate their worlds

+promoted children as active learners, stimulated vast amount of research
-underestimated competencies of learners and preschoolers
Personable on his tasks can be improved with training

Question 20

Information Processing

Answer 20

Mind is viewed as a system that manipulates symbols as info flows through it

+step-by-step approach is useful for determining where learning or processing difficulty is occurring
- doesn’t provide a comprehensive theory, creativity, and imagination

Question 21

Ethology/evolutionary psychology

Answer 21

Focus is on the adaptive or survival value of a behavior and how competencies change with age.

+seeks to understand the entire organism-environment system
- difficult to determine if behavior is truly an adaptation

Question 22

Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory

Answer 22

Focus is on how culture and social interactions affect children’s behavior and thinking.

+ recognized importance of social and cultural factors
- recognized importance of heredity and brain growth but neglects biological and child’s own contributions to development

Question 23

Bio-Ecological systems theory

Answer 23

Views the child as developing within a complex system of relationships

+ incorporates all levels of the environment
- can be difficult to examine all environmental levels in 1 study

Question 24

Dynamic systems theory

Answer 24

The child’s mind, body, and physical and social worlds form an integrated system that guides mastery of new skills.

+constantly in motion, disruptions cause reorganization, focus on why/how children vary
-can require non-trad Analysis

Question 25

Systematic observations

Answer 25

Naturalistic observations