exam #1 Flashcards
Developmental psychology
branch of psychology concerned with development
Developmental psychology + basic issues
concerns :
- continuity vs. discontinuity: are changes in development smooth and continuous or more abrupt (stairs or escalator)
- How many paths to development : context and culture
- Nature vs nurture : why are we not all the same(variability or?)
- Is a person stable or changeable: *changes(emotional, physical, psychological, perceptive and mental)
theory
theories are set of statements to explain and predict behavior (based on culture, personal beliefs and experience)
reliability
consistency or repeatability of participant behavior
validity
accurately measure characteristics that researcher set up to measure
goof research methods have high validity
Types of validity
Content validity: how well an instrument covers all parts of the construct it aims to measure ex. Testing for your license
Predictive validity: ability of a test or other measurements to predict a future outcome ex. An outcome can be a behavior or performance
Concurrent validity: comparing a test with an existing test (of the same nature)to see if they produce similar results
External validity: study is the extent to which you can generalize the findings of the study to other situations, people, settings and measures
Internal validity: degree of confidence that the casual relationship being tested is trustworthy and not influenced by other factor or variables
John locke
17th century, british philosopher (basis for behaviorism), pure nurture position
Believed in the blank slate=Tabula rasa
Charles darwin
scientific father of development (natural selection and survival of the fittest)
John Watson
stimulus- response , psychologist, behaviorism ( theory of operant) reinforcements
Jacques Rousseau
- we have inborn plan or program for growth,
childhood = distinct period - recognized the development stages
infancy , childhood, late childhood, adolescence - maturation
Binet and Simon
first intelligence testing
Lewis Terman
pioneer for educational psychology
added to Binet testing (intelligence)
G Stanley Hall
founder of child study movement Normative approach: how is a child suppose to act at certain ages
systematic observation
naturalistic : observation of behavior in natural contents
structured: observation in lab; where conditions all the same for participants
clinical or case study method
full picture of individuals psychological functioning, obtained by combining interviews, observations, test scores
ethnography
participant observation of a culture or distinct social group
researcher tries to get participants entire culture and environment
neurobiological research methods
measure the relationship between nervous system process and behavior
research methods (types)
1.systematic observation:
naturalistic
structured
2. self reports:
clinical interview
questionnaire or tests
3. neurobiological
4. clinical or case study
5. ethnography
research designs
Longitudinal: study people at different times but the same people , age changes
problems :subject attraction, practice effects, cohort effect, time-consuming
Cross sectional: age differences, study 2 or more groups, same time but different ages
problems : cohort effects( having been born at a certain time,region, period or having same life experience, has development on your perception
Co twin control
maturation
genetically influenced, naturally unfolding plan for growth
experimental vs natural experiments
The key difference between observational studies and experiments is that, done correctly, an observational study will never influence the responses or behaviours of participants. Experimental designs will have a treatment condition applied to at least a portion of participants.
independent variable
a variable whose variation does not depend on another
dependent variable
depends on the independent variable for an outcome
generalizable age effect
