Chapter 1: History, Theory, and Research Strategies Flashcards
Developmental science
Scientific study of how/why people change or stay the same over time
Theory
Describe, explain, and predict behavior
Continuous development
Process of gradually augmenting the same types of skills that were there to begin with
Discontinuous development
Process where new ways of understanding the world emerge at specific times
Stages
Qualitative changes in thinking, feeling, and behaving that characterize a specific period of development
Contexts
Unique combinations of personal and environmental circumstances that can result in different paths of change
Nature-nurture controversy
Are genetic or environmental factors more important
Plasticity
Development is open to change in response to influential experiences
Lifespan perspective
Assumes development is lifelong, multidimensional, multidirectional, plastic, and affected by multiple interacting forces
Age-graded influences
Events that are strongly related to age (predictable when they occur)
Resilience
The ability to adapt effectively in the face of threats to development
History-graded influences
What sets people apart from other cohorts (economic prosperity, technological advances)
Non-normative influences
irregular events that don’t follow a predictable timeline (marriage, career promotion, death of a parent)
Normative approach
Measures of behavior are taken on large numbers of individuals and are computed to represent typical development
Standford-Binet Intelligence Scale
Test that predicted school achievement–> sparked interest in development of the individual
Psychoanalytic perspective
Freud, people move through stages where the confront conflicts between biological drives and social expectations. How they resolve these conflicts describes their ability to learn, get along with others and cope with anxiety
Id
Source of basic biological needs and desires
Ego
conscious, rational part of personality
Superego
conscience related to societal values
Psychosocial theory
Erikson, emphasized that in addition to mediating between id and superego, the ego makes a positive contribution to development to make the individual an active member of society
Behaviorism
A systematic approach to studying human behavior (and responses to stimuli)
Classical conditioning
A learning process that occurs when to stimuli are paired and a response that at first is just elicited by the second stimulus is now elicited by the first (Pavlov’s dog)
Operant conditioning
Positive behavior can be increased with reinforces, negative behavior can be decreased with punishments
Social learning theory
Observational learning is a powerful source of development
Behavior modification
consists of procedures that combine conditioning and modeling to eliminate undesirable responses
Piaget cognitive-developmental theory
Children actively construct knowledge as they manipulate and explore their world
Information processing
the human mind being viewed as a symbol manipulating system through which info flows (senses=input –> behavior=output)
Developmental cognitive neuroscience
Combines researchers from psych, biology, neuroscience, and medicine to study relationships between changes in the brain and people’s cognitive processing and behavior patterns
Ethology
Study of human behavior from a biological perspective (evolutionary history, looks at the survival value of behavior)
Sensitive period
A window when learning a skill is the easiest
Evolutionary developmental psych
Seeks to understand the survival value of specieswide cognitive, emotional and social competencies as they change with age
Sociocultural thoery
Vygotsky, focuses on how culture is transmitted to the next generation through social interaction
Ecological systems theory
Bronfenbrenner: Views the person as developing within a complex system of relationships affected by multiple levels of the surrounding environment (Microsystem, exosystem, macrosystem…)
Mircosystem
Activities/interaction patterns in the persons immediate surroundings (friends, daycare, nuclear family)
Mesosystem
Connections between microsystems (friends interacting with family, parent involvement in school)
Exosystem
Consists of social settings that don’t contain the developing person affect experiences in immediate settings (extended fam, neighbors)
Macrosystem
Societal values, laws, customs, resources
Chronosystem
Important events throughout a person’s lifetime
Naturalistic Observation
Go into the field and record the behavior of interest
Structured observations
An investigator sets up a lab situation that evokes the behavior of interest so that every participant has an equal opportunity to display a response
Self-reports
Clinical interviews: researchers use a flexible, conversational style to probe for participants point of view
Structured interviews: participants are asked the same questions in the same way
Ethnography
Descriptive, qualitative research directed at understanding a culture, not only a participant
Correlational design
researchers gather info on individuals without altering their experience
Cohort effects
Individuals born in the same time period are influenced by a particular set of historical and cultural conditions
Cross-sectional design
Groups of people differing in age are studied at the same point in time
Institution Review Boards
Committees that evaluate the ethical integrity of research
Sequential design
Conduct several similar cross-sectional or longitudinal studies (sequences)
