Chapter 1: Introduction

Question 1

development

Answer 1

pattern of movement or change that starts at conception and continues through the human life span

Question 2

life-span perspective

Answer 2

development is lifelong, multidimensional, multidirectional, plastic, multidisciplinary, and contextual; that it involves growth, maintenance, and regulation; and that it is constructed through biological sociocultural, and individual factors working together

Question 3

normative age-graded influences

Answer 3

biological and environmental influences that are similar for individuals in a particular age group

Question 4

non-normative life events

Answer 4

unusual occurrences that have a major impact on a person’s life; the occurrence, pattern, and sequence of these events are not applicable to many individuals

Question 5

biological process development

Answer 5

changes in an individual’s physical nature

Question 6

cognitive process development

Answer 6

changes in an individual’s thought, intelligence, and language

Question 7

socioemotional process development

Answer 7

changes in an individual’s relationships with other people, emotions, and personality

Question 8

nature-nurture issue

Answer 8

the debate about the extent to which development is influenced by nature (biological inheritance) and by nurture (environmental experiences

Question 9

stability-change issue

Answer 9

the debate about the degree to which early traits and characteristics persist through life or change

Question 10

continuity-discontinuity issues

Answer 10

the debate about the extent to which development involves gradual, cumulative change (continuity) or distinct stages (discontinuity)

Question 11

hypotheses

Answer 11

assertion or predictions, often derived from theories, that can be tested

Question 12

Freud’s psychoanalytic theory

Answer 12

psychoanalytic theory in which problems were result of experiences early in life; change in focus of pleasure and sexual impulses; oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital stages

Question 13

Erikson’s psychosocial theory and stages

Answer 13

a psychoanalytic theory in which 8 stages of psychosocial development unfold throughout the human life span; each stage consists of a unique development task that confronts individuals with a crisis that must be faced

Question 14

Piaget’s cognitive theory

Answer 14

theory that children construct their understanding of the world and go through four stages of cognitive development; sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational

Question 15

Vygotsky’s cognitive theory

Answer 15

sociocultural cognitive theory that emphasizes how culture and social interaction guide cognitive development

Question 16

information-processing approach

Answer 16

emphasizes that individuals manipulate information, monitor it, and strategize about it; process of memory and thinking are central

Question 17

Skinner’s operant conditioning theory

Answer 17

consequences of a behavior produce changes in the probability of the behavior’s recurrence; behavior followed by a rewarding stimulus is more likely to recur and behavior followed by a punishing stimulus is less likely to recur

Question 18

Bandura’s social cognitive theory

Answer 18

behavior, environment, and person/cognition factors are key factors in development; observational learning/imitation/modeling

Question 19

ethological theory

Answer 19

stresses that behavior is strongly influenced by biology, is ties to evolution, and is characterized by critical or sensitive periods

Question 20

Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory

Answer 20

development reflects the influence of 5 environmental systems; microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, chronosystem

Question 21

naturalistic observation

Answer 21

observations that occur in a real-world setting without any attempt to manipulate the situation

Question 22

case study

Answer 22

an in-depth examinations of an individuals

Question 23

experiment

Answer 23

regulated procedure in which one or more factors believed to influence the behavior being studied is manipulated and all other factors are held constant; permits determination of cause

Question 24

correlational research

Answer 24

focuses on describing the strength of relation between two or more events or characteristics; does not prove causation

Question 25

cross-sectional research

Answer 25

individuals of different ages are compared at one time

Question 26

longitudinal research

Answer 26

same individuals are studied over a period of time, usually several years or more

Question 27

cohort group effects

Answer 27

effects that are due to a subject’s time of birth or generation but not age