Chapter 1 -The Nature of Child Development

Question 1

five areas in which children’s lives need to be improved

Answer 1

health and well-being, parenting,
education, and
sociocultural contexts
Diversity

Question 2

Biological Processes

Answer 2

Biological processes produce changes in an individual’s body. Genes inherited from parents, the development of the brain, height and weight gains, acquisi-tion of motor skills, and the hormonal changes of puberty

Question 3

Cognitive Processes

Answer 3

Cognitive processes refer to changes in an individual’s thought, intelligence, and language.

Question 4

Socioemotional Processes

Answer 4

Socioemotional processes involve changes in an individual’s relationships with other people, changes in emotions, and changes in personality. A

Question 5

5 Periods of development

Answer 5

Prenatal period - Before birth
Infancy - after birth till 18-14 m
Early childhood - 24 m to 5/6yr
Middle & late childhood - 6-11Y
Adolescence -10/12-18/19

Question 6

prenatal period

Answer 6

The time from conception to birth

Question 7

infancy

Answer 7

The developmental period that extends from birth to about 18 to 24 months.

Question 8

early childhood

Answer 8

The developmental period that extends from the end of infancy to about 5 or 6 years of age, sometimes called the preschool years.

Question 9

middle and late childhood

Answer 9

The developmental period that extends from about 6 to 11 years of age, sometimes called the elementary school years.

Question 10

adolescence

Answer 10

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

Question 11

cohort effects

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Millennials

Answer 12

The generation born after 1980, the first to come of age and enter emerging adulthood in the new millennium

Question 13

Two characteristics of Millennials stand out:

Answer 13

(1) their ethnic diversity, and (2) their connection to technology

Question 14

3 ISSUES IN DEVELOPMENT

Answer 14

Nature Vs Nurture
Continuity Vs. Discontinuity
Early Vs Later Experiences

Question 15

nature-nurture issue

Answer 15

Debate about whether development is primarily influenced by nature or nurture. The “nature” proponents claim biological inheritance is the most important influence on development; the “nurture” proponents claim that environmental experiences are the most influential factors.

Question 16

continuity-discontinuity issue

Answer 16

Question about whether development involves gradual, cumulative change (continuity) or distinct stages (discontinuity)

Question 17

early-later experience issue

Answer 17

Controversy regarding the degree to which early experiences (especially during infancy) or later experiences are the key determinants of children’s development.

Question 18

4 Stages of scientific method

Answer 18

(1) conceptualize a process or problem to be studied, (2) collect research information (data), (3) analyze data, and (4) draw conclusions

Question 19

theory

Answer 19

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

Question 20

hypothesis

Answer 20

a specific, testable assumption or prediction.

Question 21

5 Theories of Childhood Development

Answer 21

Psychoanalytical
Cognitive
Behavioural & Social Cognitive
Ethological
Ecological

Question 22

Key Points of Psychoanalytic Theories

Answer 22

1. believes that development is mostly unconscious
2. Behaviour is just a surface characteristic and symbolic meanings of behaviour must be studied
3. Early development with parents shape development

Question 23

Freud’s Theory Key Points - Psychoanalytical Theory

Answer 23

• 5 stages of development -
  Oral up to 1.5 yr, Ana 1.5-3 Yrs, Phallic 3-6 Yrs, Latency 6-Puberty, Genital stage - Puberty onward
• Adult’s personality depends how one resolves conflict in each of above stages
  Primary motive for human behaviour is sexual in nature
  Early experiences important

Question 24

Ericson’s 8 Stages of Development

Answer 24

Trust versus mistrust - 1yr
Autonomy versus shame and doubt - 1-3 yr
Initiative versus guilt, 3-6 yr
Industry versus inferiority 6-Pub
Identity versus identity confusion 10-20yrs
Intimacy versus isolation
Generativity versus 20-30 yrs
stagnation
Generativity versus
stagnation 40-50s
Integrity versus despair - 60s

Question 25

4 Strategies for parenting, educating and interacting based on Ericson Theory

Answer 25

1. Nurture infants and develop their trust, then encourage and monitor toddlers’ autonomy
2. Encourage initiatives
3. Promote Industry in school
4. Stimulate identity exploration

Question 26

behaviorism,

Answer 26

belief that we can study scientifically only what can be directly observed and measured that we can study scientifically only what can be directly observed and measured

Question 27

behavioral tradition belief

Answer 27

Out of the behavioral tradition grew the belief that development is observable behavior that can be learned through experience with the environment

Question 28

classical conditioning

Answer 28

neutral stimulus (in our example, hearing a bell ring) acquires the ability to produce a response originally produced by another stimulus (in our example, tasting food).

Question 29

Social cognitive theory principle

Answer 29

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

Question 30

Ethological Theory

Answer 30

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

Question 31

eclectic theoretical orientation,

Answer 31

selecting from each theory whatever is considered its best features.

Question 32

laboratory,

Answer 32

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

Question 33

drawbacks of laboratory Experiments

Answer 33

• Participants are always aware of the experiment
• Participants can behave unnaturally
  -Participants may not represent groups of all background
• People can be intimidated by laboratory settings
  -Some developmental aspects can not be observed in labs

Question 34

Advantages of naturalistic observations

Answer 34

• Observation can be done in Real world settings
• No need to manipulate or control the situation
• Ideal for observing child behaviour

Question 35

Methods of data collection

Answer 35

1- Observation (Laboratory or Naturalistic)
2 - Surveys and interviews
3 - Standardized tests -(IQ)
4 - Case studies
5 - Physiological measures

Question 36

Types of Research Designs

Answer 36

1-Descriptive
2-corelational
3-Experimental

Question 37

Descriptive Research

Answer 37

Aims to observe and record behaviour, however can not prove any causal relationship -what causes a phenomenon

Question 38

Correlational Research

Answer 38

goal is to describe the strength of the relationship between two or more events or characteristics.
The more strongly the two events are correlated, the more eff ectively we can predict one event from the other

Question 39

correlation coefficient,

Answer 39

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

Question 40

experiment

Answer 40

carefully regulated procedure in which one or more factors believed to influence the behavior being studied are manip-ulated while all other factors are held constant.

Question 41

cross-sectional approach

Answer 41

research strategy in which individuals of diff erent ages are compared at one time

Question 42

Example of cross-sectional approach

Answer 42

group of 5-year-olds, 8-year-olds, and 11-year-olds are studies for their IQ

Question 43

4 Important Issues in Research

Answer 43

1- Informed consent
2- Confidentiality
3-Deception
4-Debriefing

Question 44

Ethnic gloss

Answer 44

using 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 45

Three key processes of development

Answer 45

biological, cognitive, and socioemotional.