Exam 1 Flashcards
Science of Human Development
The science that seeks to understand how and why people of all ages and circumstances change or remain the same over time.
Scientific Method
A way to answer questions using empirical research and data-based questions.
Theory
A comprehensive set of ideas
Hypothesis
A scientific prediction that can be tested.
Empirical
Based on observation, experience, or experiment, not theoretical
Replication
Repeating a study, usually using different participants, perhaps of another age, SES, or culture.
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)
A situation in which a seemingly healthy infant, usually between 2 and 6 months old, suddenly stops breathing and dies unexpectedly while asleep.
Nature
In development, nature refers to the traits, capacities, and limitations that each individual inherits genetically from his or her parents at the moment of conception.
Nurture
In development, nurture includes all the environmental influences that affect the individual after conception. This includes everything from the mother’s nutrition while pregnant to the cultural influences in the nation.
Critical Period
A time when a particular type of developmental growth (in body or behavior) must happen for normal development to occur.
Sensitive Period
A time when a certain type of development is most likley, although it may still happen later with more difficulty. For example, early childhood is considered a sensitive period for language learning.
Plasticity
The idea that abilities, personality, and other human characteristics can change over time. Plasticity is particularly evident during childhood, but even older adults are not always “set in their ways”
Difference-equals-deficit error
The mistaken belief that a deviation or characteristic that meet the standard.
Social Construction
An idea that is built on shared perceptions, not on objective reality. Many age-related terms (such as childhood, adolescence, yuppie, and senior citizen) are social constructions, connected to biological traits but strongly influenced by social assumptions.
Culture
A system of shared beliefs, norms, behaviors, and expectations that persist over time and prescribe social behavior and assumptions
Ethnic Group
People whose ancestors were born in the same region and who often share a language, culture and religion.
Race
A group of people who are regarded by themselves or by others as distinct from other groups on the basis of physical appearance, typically skin color. Social scientists think race is a misleading concept, as biological differences are not signified by outward appearance.
Socioeconomic Status (SES)
A person’s position in society as determined by income, occupation, education, and place of residence. (Sometimes called social class)
Dynamic Systems
A view of human development as an ongoing, ever-changing, interaction between the physical, cognitive, and psychosocial influences. The crucial understanding is that development is never static but is always affected by, and affects, many systems of development.
Ecological Systems Approach
A perspective on human development that considers all the influences from the various contexts of development. (Later renamed bioecological theory).
Cohort
People born within the same historical period who therefore move through life together, experiencing the same events, new technologies, and cultural shifts at the same ages. For example, the effect of the internet varies depending on what cohort a person belongs to.
Biopsychosocial
A term emphasizing the interaction of the three developmental domains (biosocial, cognitive, and psychosocial). All development is biopsychosocial, although the domains are studied separately.
Mirror Neurons
Cells in observer’s brain that are activated by watching an action performed by someone else as they would be if the observer had personally performed this action.
Scientific Observation
A method of testing a hypothesis by unobtrusively watching and recording participants behavior in a systematic and objective manner–in a natural setting, in a laboratory, or in searches of archival data.
Independent Variable
In an experiment the variable that is introduced to see what effect it has on the dependent variable (Also called experimental variable).
Dependent Variable
In an experiment, the variable that may change as a result of whatever new condition or situation the experimenter adds. In other words, the dependent variable depends on the independent variable.
Survey
A research method in which information is collected from a large number of people by interviews, written questionnaires, or some other means.
Cross-Sectional Research
A research design that compares groups of people who differ in age but are similar in other important characteristics.
Longitudinal Research
A research design in which the same individuals are followed over time, as their development is repeatedly assessed.
Cohort-Sequential Research
A research design in which researchers first study several groups of people of different ages (a cross sectional approach) and then follow those groups over the years (a longitudinal approach). (Also called cross-sequential research or time-sequential research).
Correlation
A number between +1.0 and -1.0 that indicates the degree of relationship between two variables, expressed in terms of the likelihood that one variable will (or will not) occur when the other variable does (or does not). A correlation indicates only that two variables are somehow related, not that one variable causes the other to occur.
Quantitative Research
Reserach that provides data that can be expressed with numbers, such as ranks or scales.
Qualitative Research
Research that considers qualities, not quanitities. Narrative accounts and individual variations are often stressed in qualitative research.
Code of Ethics
A set of moral principles or guidelines that members of a profession or group are expected to follow.
Institutional Review Board (IRB)
A group within most educational and medical institutions who ensure that research following established ethical guidelines. Unlike in prior decades, most research in human development cannot begin without IRB approval.
Developmental Theory
A group of ideas, assumption, and generalizations that interpret and illuminate the thousands of observations that have been made about human growth. A developmental theory provides a framework for explaining the patterns and problems of development.
Norm
An average, or typical, standard of behavior or accomplishment, such as the norm for age of walking or the norm for greeting a stranger.
Psychoanalytic Theory
A grand theory of human development that holds that irrational, unconscious drives and motives, often originating in childhood, underlie human behavior.
Behaviorism
A grand theory of human development that studies observable behavior. Behaviorism is also called learning theory because it describes the laws and processes by which behavior is learned.
Conditioning
According to behaviorism, the processes by which responses become linked to particular stimuli and learning takes place. The word conditioning is used to emphasize the importance of repeated practice, as when an athlete conditions his or her body to perform well by training for a long time.
Classical Conditioning
The learning processes in which a meaningful stimulus (such as in the smell of food to a hungry animal) is connected with a neutral stimulus (such as the sound of a tone) that had no special meaning before conditioning. (Also called respondent conditioning).
Operant Conditioning
The learning processes by which a particular action is followed by something desired (which makes the person or animal more likely to repeat the action) or by something unwanted (which makes the action less likely to be reapeated). (Also called instrumental conditioning).
Reinforcement
When a behavior is followed by something desired, such as food for a hungry animal or a welcoming smile for a lonely person.
Social Learning Theory
An extension of behaviorism that emphasizes the influence that other people have over a person’s behavior. Even without specific reinforcement, every individual learns many things through observation and imitation of other people. (Also called observational learning).
Modeling
The central process of social learning, by which a person observes the action of others and then copies them.
Self-efficacy
In social learning theory, the belief of some people that they are able to change themselves and effectively alter the social context.
