Chapter Two: Theory And Research

Question 1

Hypotheses

Answer 1

Tentative explanations or predictions that can be explanations that can be tested by further research.

Question 2

Mechanistic Model

Answer 2

Model that views human development as a series of predictable responses to stimuli.

Question 3

Organismic Model

Answer 3

Model that views human development as internally initiated by an active organism and as occurring in a sequence of qualitatively different stages.

Question 4

Quantitative Change

Answer 4

Changes in number or amount

Question 5

Qualitative Change

Answer 5

Discontinuous changes in kind, structure, and organization.

Question 6

Psychoanalytic Development

Answer 6

View of human development as shaped by unconscious forces that motivate human behavior.

Question 7

Psychosexual Development

Answer 7

An unvarying sequence of stages of childhood personality development in which gratification shifts from the mouth to the anus to the genitals. (Freud’s theory)

Question 8

Psychosocial development

Answer 8

The socially and culturally influenced process of development of the ego, or self. (Erikson’s eight stage theory)

Question 9

Learning Perspective

Answer 9

View of human development that holds that changes in behavior result from experience of from adaptation to the environment.

Question 10

Behaviorism

Answer 10

Learning theory that emphasizes the predictable role of the environment in causing observable behavior.

Question 11

Classical Conditioning

Answer 11

Learning based on associating a stimulus that does not ordinarily elicit a response with another stimulus that does elicit the response.

Question 12

Operant Conditioning

Answer 12

Learning based on association of behavior with its consequences.

Question 13

Reinforcement

Answer 13

The process by which a behavior is strengthened, increasing the likelihood that the behavior will be repeated.

Question 14

Punishment

Answer 14

The process by which a behavior is weakened, decreasing the likelihood of repetition.

Question 15

Social Learning Theory (social cognitive theory)

Answer 15

Behaviors are learned by observing and imitating models.

Question 16

Reciprocal Determination

Answer 16

Bandura’s term for bidirectional forces that affect development.

Question 17

Observational Learning

Answer 17

Learning through watching the behavior of others.

Question 18

Self-efficacy

Answer 18

Sense of one’s capability to master challenges and achieve goals.

Question 19

Cognitive Perspective

Answer 19

View that thought processes are central to development.

Question 20

Cognitive-stage Theory

Answer 20

Plaget’s theory that children’s cognitive development advances in a series of four stages involving qualitatively distinct types of mental operations.

Question 21

Organization (plaget)

Answer 21

The creation of categories or systems of knowledge.

Question 22

Schemes

Answer 22

Organized patterns of thought and behavior.

Question 23

Assimilation

Answer 23

Incorporation of new information into an existing cognitive structure.

Question 24

Sociocultural Theory

Answer 24

Vygotskys’s theory of how contextual factors affect children development.

Question 25

Zone of Proximal Development

Answer 25

Vygotsky’s term for the difference between what a child can do alone and what the child can do with help.

Question 26

Scaffolding

Answer 26

Temporary support to help a child master a task.

Question 27

Information-processing Approach

Answer 27

Observing and analyzing the mental processes involved in perceiving and handling information.

Question 28

Contextual Perspective

Answer 28

View of human development that sees the individual as inseparable from the social context.

Question 29

Bioecological Theory

Answer 29

Bronfrenbrenner’s approach to understanding processes and contexts of human development that identifies five levels of environmental influence.

Question 30

Sociobiological/evolutionary Perspective

Answer 30

Focuses on evolutionary and biological based instead of behavior.

Question 31

Ethology

Answer 31

Study of distinctive adaptive behaviors of species of animals that have evolved to increase survival of the species.

Question 32

Evolutionary Psychology

Answer 32

Application of Darwinian principles of natural selection and survival of the fittest to individual behavior.

Question 33

Operational definition

Answer 33

Definition stated solely in terms of the operations or procedures used to produce or measure a phenomenon.

Question 34

Cognitive Neuroscience

Answer 34

Study of links between neural processes and cognitive abilities.

Question 35

Case Study

Answer 35

Study of a single subject or family

Question 36

Correlational Study

Answer 36

Research design intended to discover whether a statistical relationship between variables exists.

Question 37

Cross sectional Study

Answer 37

Asses age related differences

Question 38

Longitudinal Study

Answer 38

Assess age changes in a sample over time

Question 39

Sequential Study

Answer 39

Study design that combines cross sectional and longitudinal techniques.

Question 40

Theory

Answer 40

A set of logically related concepts or statements to seek to describe and explain development and to predict the kinds of behavior that might occur under certain condition.