Chapter 2: Theories and Context of Development

Question 1

Sociohistorical Context

Answer 1

The values, tools, and institutions found in one’s society

Question 2

Mechanistic Theories

Answer 2

Theories of development that liken people to machines, such as the mind-as-a-computer model of information-processing approaches

Question 3

Organismic Theories

Answer 3

Developmental theories that take a holistic (organism-like) view of development, seeing people as whole beings who begins who cannot be understood by decomposing them into their constituent parts

Question 4

Behaviorism

Answer 4

Theory popular in the United States throughout the middle of the 20th century, holding that behavior and development are shaped by environmental influences

Question 5

Applied Behavioral Analysis

Answer 5

Extention of B.F.Skinner’s behaviorism to practical setttings

Question 6

Social Learning/ Social Cognitive Theory

Answer 6

Bandura’s theory of how individuals operate cognitively on their social experiences and how these cognitive operations influence behavior and deveopment

Question 7

Operant (instrumental) Conditioning

Answer 7

Learning procedure where behavior is shaped through rewards and punishment

Question 8

Vicarious Reinforcement

Answer 8

In Bandura’s social cognitive theory, learning from observing others’ behaviors and their consequences, without the need to receive specific reinforcement for one’s behavior

Question 9

Reciprocal Determinism

Answer 9

In Bandura’s theory, the belief that children have as much of an effect on their environment as their environment has on them

Question 10

Sensorimotor Period

Answer 10

In Piaget’s theory, the first major stage of cognitive development (birth to 2yrs), in which children understand their world through sensory motor experiences

Question 11

Preoperational Period

Answer 11

In Piaget’s theory, the second major stage of cognitive development (2-7 years old), characterized by prelogical, intuitive thought

Question 12

Concrete Operational Period

Answer 12

The third major stage of cognitive development in Piaget’s theory, in which children can decenter their perception, are less egocentric, and can think logically about concrete objects

Question 13

Formal Operational Period

Answer 13

In Piaget’s theory, the final stage of cognitive development, in which children are able to apply abstract logical rules

Question 14

Developmental Contextual Approaches

Answer 14

Perspective that views development as the result of bidirectional interaction between all levels of biological and experiential variables

Question 15

Dynamic System

Answer 15

A set of elements that undergoes change over time as a result of interactions among the elements. Dynamic systems theories propose that developmental differences emerge as a result of the self-organization of lower-level elements

Question 16

Sociocultural Theory

Answer 16

A perspective of cognitive development that emphasizes that individual development is socially mediated, and historically and culturally conditioned

Question 17

Tools of Intellectual Adaptation

Answer 17

Vygotsky’s term for tools a culture provides for thinking and problem solving

Question 18

General Genetic Law of Cultural Development

Answer 18

In Vygotsky’s theory, the idea that cognition occurs on two planes: first the social, between individuals, and later the psychological, as it is internalized by the child

Question 19

Zone of Proximal Development

Answer 19

In Vygotsky’s theory, the difference between a child’s actual level of ability and the level of ability that he or she can achieve when working under the guidance of a more qualified instructor (adult or older child)

Question 20

Guided Participation

Answer 20

The process and system of involvement of individuals with others as they communicate and engage in shared activities

Question 21

Apprenticeship in Thinking

Answer 21

Routine transactions between children and adults, with novice children improving their skills and understanding through participation with more skilled partners in culturally organized activities

Question 22

Ecological Systems Theory

Answer 22

Bronfenbrenner’s theory that views development as occurring within embedded spheres: mircosystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem, and the chronosystem

Question 23

Microsystem

Answer 23

In Bronfenbrenner’s theory, all of the different social system in which a child is an active participant (E.x. a child’s family, school, and peer group)

Question 24

Mesosystem

Answer 24

In Bonfenbrenner’s theory, all the possible microsystems in interaction

Question 25

Exosystem

Answer 25

In BF theory, all of the social systems in which children are not regularly part of, but which nonetheless influence their lives

Question 26

Macrosystem

Answer 26

In BF theory, all the values, attitudes, laws, ideology, and so forth of the culture in which children and adolescents live

Question 27

Choronsystem

Answer 27

In BF theory, the system that reflects the fact that the child and the other systems change with time

Question 28

Natural Selection

Answer 28

Primary mechanism for species evolution described by Darwin that, in which some members of a species are more fit than others and thus more likely to survive and reproduce

Question 29

Evolutionary psychology

Answer 29

The application of the principles of modern evolutionary biology to explain human behavior

Question 30

Evolved Cognitive Mechanisms

Answer 30

Information-processing mechanisms shaped by natural selection during the environments of evolutionary adaptedness to deal with specific and recurrent problems faced by our ancestors, such as getting food, avoiding predators, and finding and keeping a mate

Question 31

Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness

Answer 31

Ancestral environments during which human nature was shaped

Question 32

Hominids

Answer 32

Group of animals in the line that led to Homo Sapiens

Question 33

Domain-specific Mechanisms

Answer 33

Cognitive abilities to one cognitive domain under control of a specific mind/brain function

Question 34

Domain-general Mechanisms

Answer 34

General, underlying cognitive abilities that influence performance over a wide range of situations

Question 35

Adaptions

Answer 35

In evolutionary theory, universal and reliably developing inherited features that arose as a result of natural selection and helped to solve some problems in the environment of evolutionary adaptedness

Question 36

Evolutionary Developmental Psychology

Answer 36

The application of the principles of modern evolutionary biology to explain human development

Question 37

Naturalistic Fallacy

Answer 37

The erroneous idea that something is good because it is natural

Question 38

Deferred Adaptions

Answer 38

Aspects of childhood that serve as preparations for adulthood and were selected over the course of evoltion

Question 39

Ontogenetic Adaptions

Answer 39

Behaviors that play a specific role in survival for an individual at one time only and the disappear when they are no longer needed