Chapter 1: History, Theory and Research Strategies Flashcards
Major Periods of child development. Which period has the most rapid time of change?
prenatal; womb (most rapid time of change), infancy to toddlerhood (birth to 2), early childhood (2 - 6), middle childhood, (6 - 11), adolescence (11 - 18).
What is a theory? Why are they vital tools?
orderly, integrated set of statements that describes, explains, and predicts behavior. vital tools (2) 1) guide and give meaning to what we see. 2) understand, know how to improve.
Continuous vs discontinuous views of development. Give examples of theories/theorists.
continuous - a process of gradually adding more of the same types of skills that were there to begin with. discountinuous - a process in which new ways of understanding and responding to the world emerge at specific times. ; (stages) - qualitative changes in thinking, feeling, and behaving, that characterized by periods of development Theories/theorist stage theorist - might try to identify the common influxes that lead children to represent their world through language and make-believe play in early childhood, to changes later on in development. context - unique combinations of personal and environmental circumstances that can result in different paths of change. contemporary theorist - context that mold development as many-layered and context. personal - genetic make up. environmental - setting & circumstances, diversities.
Nature vs nurture. Which theory/theorist take on a balance approach?
environmental factors vs genetics. Most theories/theorist have a balance view.
Normative Approach. Who devised this approach?
Standley Hall and Arnold Gesell. Normative Approach - measures of behavior are taken on large numbers of individuals and age-related averages are computed to represent typical development.
Who described children as tabula rasa? who described children as noble savages?
John Locke. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
What is the approach focus of psychological research, according to behavioralism.
behavioralism - directly observable events-stimulus and responses are the appropriate focus of study.
What is behavior modification? observational learning (modeling)? Classical conditioning? operant conditioning?
behavior modification - consists of procedures that combine conditioning and moiling to eliminate undesirable behaviors and increase desirable responses observational learning (modeling) - Albert Bandura; coping what they see. classical conditioning - John Watson: dog and bell experiment, turned a neutral stimulus into a conditional response. operant conditioning - Skinner: reinforcement and punishment to increase or decrease behavior.
What are some criticisms of behaviorism and social learning theory?
they offer too narrow a view of important environmental influences. underestimation of children’s contributions to their own development.
classroom environments that are based on piaget vs vygotsky theory on how development might differ.
Piaget stage development: sensorimotor, pre operational, concrete operational, formal operational. vygotsky emphasized on social contributions to development.
How (with what research design) might an information-processing theorist study children’s problem solving?
they would use flowcharts to map the precise steps individuals use to solve problems and complex task, much like plans devised by programmers to get computers to perform a series of “mental operations”.
similarities and differences piaget vs information-processing theory.
information-processing approach regards children as active sense-making beings who modify their own thinking in response to environmental demands, but piaget’s theory does not divide development into stages, but rather, through processes studied -perception, attention, memory, categorization of information, planning, problem solving, and comprehension of written and spoken prose.
which field of psychology would researchers be likely to use brain-imaging techniques in studies of cognitive development?
developmental cognitive neuroscience
John Dowlby’s contributions to attachment theory.
Bowlby believed that the earliest bonds formed by children and their caregivers have tremendous impact that continues throughout life. He suggested attachmed also serves to keep the infant close to their mother, thus improving the child’s chance for survival.
Bronfenbrenner’s ecologic systems theory and types of factors (influences) that are associated with each.
micro - self and immediate environment meso - connections between immediate environments exo - social settings (friends, neighbors, workplace, health services environments, extended families) macro - customs, values, laws.
