Chapter 1-Introduction Flashcards
Context
The settings, influences by historical, economic, and cultural factors, in which development occurs.
Development
The pattern of movement or change that begins at conception and continues through the human life span.
Culture
The behavior patterns, beliefs, and all other products of a group that are passed on from generation to generation.
Cross-cultural studies
Comparisons of one culture with one or more other cultures. These comparison provide information about the degree to which children’s development is similar, or universal, across cultures, and the degree to which it is culture-specific.
Ethnicity
A characteristic beset on cultural heritage, nationality, race, religion, and language.
Socioeconomic status (SES)
An individual’s position within society based on occupational, educational, and economic characteristics.
Gender
The characteristics of people as males or females.
Social policy
A government’s course of action designed to promote the welfare of its citizens.
Original sin view
Advocates during the Middle Ages, the belief that children were born into the world as evil beings and were basically bad.
Tabula rasa view
The idea, proposed by John Locke, that children are not innately bad but are like a “blank tablet.”
Innate goodness view
The idea, presented by Swiss-born French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, that children are inherently good.
Genetic epistemology
The study of how children’s knowledge changes over the course of their development.
Biological processes
Changes in an individual’s body.
Cognitive processes
Changes in an individual’s thought, intelligence, and language.
Socioemotional processes
Changes in an individual’s relationships with other people, changes in emotions, and changes in personality.
Prenatal period
The time from contraception to birth.
Infancy
Birth to 18-24 months of age
Early childhood
End of infancy to about 5-6 years of age…sometimes called the preschool years
Middle and late childhood
About 6-11 years of age…sometimes called the elementary school years
Adolescence
Transition from childhood to early adulthood, approximately 10-12 to 18-22 years of age
Nature-nurture issue
Nature proponents claim biological inheritance is the more inoperative influence on development; nurture proponents cliam that environmental experiences are the more important
Continuity-discontinuity issue
The issue regarding whether development involves gradual, cumulative change (continuity) or distinct stages (discontinuity)
Early-later experience issue
The issue of the degree to which early experiences (especially infancy) or later experiences are the key determinants of the child’s development
Scientific method
Conceptualizer the problem, collect data, draw conclusions, and revise research conclusions and theory.
Theory
An interrelated, coherent set of ideas that helps to explain and make predictions
Hypothesis
A specific assumption or prediction that can be tested to determine its accuracy
Psychoanalytic theories
Describe development as primarily unconscious and heavily colored by emotion. Behavior is merely a surface characteristic, and the symbolic workings of the mind have to be analyzed to understand behavior. Early experiences with parents are emphasized.
Erikson’s theory
Includes eight stages of human development. Each stage consists of a unique developmental task that confronts individuals with a crisis that must be resolved.
Piaget’s theory
States that children actively construct their understanding of the world and go through four stages of cognitive development.
Vigotsky’s theory
A sociocultural cognitive theory that emphasizes how culture and social interaction guide cognitive development.
Information-processing theory
Emphasizes that individuals manipulate information, monitor it, and strategize about it. Central to this theory are the processes of memory and thinking.
Social cognitive theory
The view of psychologists who emphasize behavior, environment, and cognition as the key factors in development.
ethology
Stresses that behavior is strongly influenced by biology, is tied to evolution, and is characterized by critical or sensitive periods.
Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory
An environmental systems theory that focuses on five environmental systems; Microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem
Eclectic theoretical orientation
An orientation that does not follow any one theoretical approach but rather selects from each theory whatever is considerered the best in it.
Laboratory
A controlled setting in which many of the complex factors of the “real world” are removed
Naturalistic observation
Observing behavior in real-world settings
Standardized test
A test with uniform procedures for administration and scoring. Many standardized tests allow a persons performance to be compared with the performance of other individuals.
Case study
An in-depth look at a single individual.
Descriptive research
A research design that has the purpose of observing and recording behavior.
Correlational research
A research design whose goal is to describe the strength of the relationship between two or more events or characteristics.
Correlation coefficient
A number based on statistical analysis that is used to describe the degree of association between two variables
Experiment
A carefully regulated procedure in which one or more of the factors believed to influence the behavior being studied are manipulated while other factors are held constant
Cross-sectional approach
A research strategy in which individuals of different ages are compared at one time
Longitudinal approach
A research strategy in which the same individuals are studied over a period of time, usually several years or more
Ethnic gloss
The use of an ethnic label such as African American or Latino in a superficial way that portrays an ethnic group as being more homogeneous than it really is
