Chapter 1 - Introduction

Question 1

Context

Answer 1

Refers to the settings in which development occurs.

Question 2

Culture

Answer 2

Encompasses the behavior patterns, beliefs, and all other products of a specific group of people that are passed on from generation to generation.

Question 3

Cross-cultural studies

Answer 3

Compare aspects of two or more cultures.

Question 4

Ethnicity

Answer 4

Is rooted in cultural heritage, nationality, race, religion, and language.

Question 5

Socioeconomic status (SES)

Answer 5

Refers to a person’s position within society based on occupational, educational, and economic characteristics.

Question 6

Gender

Answer 6

Is another key dimension of children’s development; refers to the characteristics of people as males and females.

Question 7

Social policy

Answer 7

Is a government’s course of action designed to promote the welfare of its citizens.

Question 8

Biological processes

Answer 8

Produce changes in an individual’s body.

Question 9

Cognitive processes

Answer 9

Refer to changes in an individual’s thought, intelligence, and language.

Question 10

Socioemotional processes

Answer 10

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

Question 11

Prenatal period

Answer 11

Is the time from conception to birth, roughly a nine-month period.

Question 12

Infancy

Answer 12

Is the development period that extends from birth to about 18-24 months of age.

Question 13

Early childhood

Answer 13

Is the development period that extends from the end of infancy to about 5 or 6 years of age; preschool years.

Question 14

Middle and late childhood

Answer 14

Is the development period that extends between about 6 and 11 years of age; elementary school years.

Question 15

Adolescence

Answer 15

Is the developmental period of transition from childhood to early adulthood, entered at approximately 10 to 12 years of age and ending at about 18 to 19 years of age.

Question 16

Cohort effects

Answer 16

Are due to a person’s time of birth, era, or generation but not to actual age.

Question 17

Millennials

Answer 17

Referring to the generation born after 1980 - the first to come of age and enter emerging adulthood in the new millennium.

Question 18

Nature-nurture issue

Answer 18

Involves the debate about whether development is primarily influenced by nature or by nurture.

Question 19

Continuity-discontinuity issue

Answer 19

Focuses on the extent to which development involves gradual, cumulative change (continuity) or distinct stages (discontinuity).

Question 20

Early-later experience issue

Answer 20

Focuses on the degree to which early experiences of later experiences are they key determinants of the child’s development.

Question 21

Scientific method

Answer 21

A four step process: 1) conceptualize a process or problem to be studied, 2) collect data, 3) analyze data, 4) draw conclusions.

Question 22

Theory

Answer 22

Is an interrelated, coherent set of ideas that helps to explain and to make predictions.

Question 23

Hypothesis

Answer 23

Is a specific, testable assumption or prediction.

Question 24

Psychoanalytic theories

Answer 24

Describe development as primarily unconscious and heavily colored by emotion.

Question 25

Development

Answer 25

The pattern of change that begins at conception and continues through the life span.

Question 26

Piaget’s theory

Answer 26

States that children actively construct their understanding of the world and go through four stages of cognitive development.

Question 27

Vygotsky’s theory

Answer 27

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

Question 28

Information-processing theory

Answer 28

Which emphasizes that individuals manipulate information, monitor it, strategize about it.

Question 29

Social cognitive theory

Answer 29

Holds that behavior, environment and cognition are the key factors in development.

Question 30

Ethology

Answer 30

Stresses that behavior is strongly influenced my biology, is tied to evolution, and is characterized by critical or sensitive periods.

Question 31

Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory

Answer 31

Holds that development reflects the influence of several environmental systems.

Question 32

Eclectic theoretical orientation

Answer 32

Which does not follow any one theoretical approach but rather selects from each theory whatever is considered its best aspects.

Question 33

Laboratory

Answer 33

A controlled setting from which many of the complex factors of the “real world” have been removed.

Question 34

Naturalistic observation

Answer 34

Behavioral observation that takes place in real-world settings.

Question 35

Standardized test

Answer 35

Has uniform procedures for administration and scoring.

Question 36

Case study

Answer 36

Is an in-depth look at a single individual.

Question 37

Descriptive research

Answer 37

Research that involves observing and recording behavior.

Question 38

Correlational research

Answer 38

Research in which the goal is to describe the strength of the relationship between two or more events or characteristics.

Question 39

Correlation coefficient

Answer 39

A number based on statistical analysis that is used to describe the degree of association between two variables.

Question 40

Experiment

Answer 40

A carefully regulated procedure in which one or more of the factors believed to influence the behavior being studied are manipulated while all other factors are held constant.

Question 41

Cross-sectional approach

Answer 41

A research strategy in which individuals of different ages are compared at the same point in time.

Question 42

Longitudinal approach

Answer 42

A research strategy in which the same individuals or studied over a period of time, usually several years.

Question 43

Ethnic gloss

Answer 43

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.

Question 44

Erikson’s theory

Answer 44

Description of eight stages of human development. Each stage consist of a unique developmental task that confronts individuals of the crisis that must be resolved.