Chapter 1 Flashcards
Baby Biographies
Detailed, systematic observations of individual children.
Applied developmental science
Uses developmental research to promote healthy development, particularly for vulnerable children and families.
Theory
A theory is an organized set of ideas that is designed to explain and make predictions about development.
Maturational theory
Child development reflects a specific and prearranged scheme or plan within the body.
Ethological theory
Views development from a evolutionary perspective.
Critical period
A critical period in development is the time when a specific type of learning can take place; before or after the critical period learning is difficult or even impossible.
Imprinting
Baby geese following the mother is the first step in imprinting, creating an emotional bond with the mother.
Psychodynamic theory
Freud created the first psychodynamic theory, which holds that development is largely determined by how well people resolve certain conflicts at different ages.
Id
The Id is a reservoir of primitive instincts and drives.
Ego
The ego is the practical, rational component of personality.
Superego
The superego is the “moral agent” in the child’s personality.
Psychosocial theory
Erikson’s psychosocial theory, development comprises a sequence of stages, each defined by a unique crisis or challenge.
Classical conditioning
Watson’s research was based on the form of learning called classical conditioning, first describe by Ivan Provlov, who showed that a previously neutral stimulus could become associated with a naturally occurring response and eventually come to elicit a similiar response.
Operant conditioning
Skinner studied operant conditioning, in which the consequences of a behaviour determine wether that behaviour is repeated.
Reinforcement
A reinforcement is a consequence that increases the likelihood of the behaviour that it follows.
Punishment
A punishment is a consequence that decreases the future likelihood of the behaviour that it follows.
Imitations or Observational learning
Children may learn simply by watching those around them, which is know as imitation or observational learning.
Social cognitive theory
Albert Bandura. The “Bobo” doll study is a classic example of both direct observational learning and the fact that observation does not always lead to imitation.
Self-efficacy
Bandura also argues that experience gives children a sense of self-efficacy, beliefs about their own abilities and talents.
Cognitive-developmental perspective
The cognitive-developmental perspective focuses on how children think and on how their thinking changes as they grow.
Culture
The knowledge, attitudes, and behaviour associated with a group of people.
Ecological systems theory
Ecological system theory the environment is divided into five components: the microsystem, the mesosystem, the exosystem, the macrosystem, and the chronosystem.
Microsystem
The microsystem consists of the people and objects in an individuals immediate environment.
Mesosytem
Microsystems themselves are connected to creat the mesosytem. The mesosystem represents the fact that what happened in one microsystem is likely to influence what happens in other.
Exosystem
The exosystem refers to social setting that a person may not experience first-hand but that still influence development. For example, a mother’s work environment is part of their children’s exosystem.
Macrosystem
The broadest environmental context is the macrosystem, the subcultures and cultures in which the micro, meso, and exosystems are embedded.
Chronosystem
Finally, these systems all change over time, in a dimension known as the chronosystem. This system reminds us that these systems are always in flux. For example when an older sisters leaves to college.
Continuity-versus-discontinuity issue
Continuity-versus-discontinuity issue is really about the “relatedness” of development: are early aspects of development consistently related to later aspects.
Nature-nurture issue
What roles do biology (nature) and environment (nurture) play in a child’s development.
Active-passive child issue
Are children simply at the mercy of their environment (passive child) or do children actively influence their own development through their unique individual characteristics (active child).
Systematic observation
Systematic observation involves watching children and carefully recording what they do or say.
Naturalistic observation
In naturalistic observation, children are observed as they behave spontaneously in a real-life situation.
Structured observation
In structured observation, the researcher creates a setting likely to elicit the behaviour of interest.
Observer bias
Observer bias occurs when the researcher tends to notice the behaviours that supports the hypothesis and to discount those that do not.
Observer influence
Observer influence is a form of participant bias, occurring when the participants change their behaviour because they are being observed.
Habituation
Habituation allows participants to get used to the researchers presence.
Microgenetic study
Children are tested repeatedly over a span of days or weeks, typically with the aim of observing change directly as it occurs.
Meta-analysis
Meta-analysis is a tool that allows researchers to synthesize the results of many studies to estimate relations between variables.
Quasi-expiremental design
A quasi-expiremental design includes multiple groups that were not formed by random assignment.
