Chapter 1 - approaching psychological development

Question 1

qualitative change

Answer 1

A stagelike form of developmental change in which a new kind of structure or process emerges that was not present before the change

Question 2

stages of development

Answer 2

relatively discontinuous changes in thinking and behaving, resulting in new kinds of accomplishments and patterns of thought that were not present before that age.

Question 3

quantitative change

Answer 3

a developmental change in which the same structures and processes remain but change in in magnitude - for example, an incremental expansion to a mental process rather than a totally new kind of mental process

Question 4

global change

Answer 4

a type of development that occurs at roughly the same time in very different areas of thought or behavior

Question 5

local change

Answer 5

a specific psychological capacity that develops relatively independently of other specific capacities

Question 6

empiricism

Answer 6

a view of development that stresses the presence, at birth, of a general, all-purpose learning system, with little or no biases to acquire particular kinds of information

Question 7

nativism

Answer 7

a view of development that stresses the existence, at birth, of a set of different learning systems, each biased to acquire particular kinds of information better than others

Question 8

ethology

Answer 8

the study of traits (either body parts or behavior) from an adaptive evolutionary perspective that usually involves comparisons across species

Question 9

observational study

Answer 9

a study in which the researcher simply observes participants acting in various contexts

Question 10

experimental study

Answer 10

a study in which a certain variable (the independent variable) is manipulated while holding all other aspects of the experimental situation constant to see how the manipulation affects the dependent variable

Question 11

independent variable

Answer 11

a variable that one manipulates so as to understand patterns of variation in the dependent variable

Question 12

dependent variable

Answer 12

the variable that one is measuring in a study to see how it varies as a function of different values of the independent variables, which are manipulated as a way of exploring and explaining the nature of the dependent variable

Question 13

ecological validity

Answer 13

a quality of a study that captures all the critical factors to understanding a behavior or ability in a natural context

Question 14

longitudinal approach

Answer 14

an approach to development in which studies look at the same group of participants at different age periods

Question 15

microgenetic analysis

Answer 15

a study in which the researcher monitors the process of development by assessing participants every few days or weeks rather than every few years

Question 16

cross-sectional approach

Answer 16

an approach to development in which studies look at different groups of participants at different age periods

Question 17

cohort effect

Answer 17

an effect produced in children of a particular age group based on their experiences in the culture that differ from the experiences of those who are younger or older

Question 18

converging methods

Answer 18

using various approaches to study a problem from different vantage points in order to arrive at a more accurate, objective answer than any single method could produce alone

Question 19

reliability

Answer 19

the capability of a research design to achieve the same results when repeated with same kinds of participants

Question 20

validity

Answer 20

the capability of a research design to measure what was intended to be measured

Question 21

replicability

Answer 21

the ability for others to easily reproduce a study and find the same results

Question 22

within-subjects design

Answer 22

a research design in which the same participants are assessed in different experimental conditions

Question 23

between-subjects design

Answer 23

a design in which different but equivalent groups are assessed in each experimental condition in a study