Intro Flashcards
Development
The pattern of movement or change that begins at conception and continues through the life span
5 areas in which children’s lives need to be improved
- Health & wellbeing
- Parenting
- Education
- Sociocultural contexts
- Diversity
Context
The settings in which development occurs
Influenced by historical, economic, social, and cultural factors
Culture
The behaviour patterns, beliefs, and all other products of a group that are passed on from generation to generation
Cross-cultural studies
Comparisons of one culture with one or more other cultures
These provide info about the degree to which children’s development is similar, or universal, across cultures, and the degree to which it is culture-specific.
Ethnicity
A characteristic based on cultural heritage, nationality, race religion, and language
Socioeconomic Status (SES)
Categorization based on a person’s occupational, educational, and economic characteristics
Gender
The characteristics of people as males and females
Social Policy
A government course of action designed to promote the welfare of its citizens
Biological Processes
Produce changes in an individuals body
- Genes inherited from parents, development of brain, height & weight gain, acquisition of motor skills, hormonal changes of puberty
Cognitive Processes
Changes in an individual’s thought, intelligence, and language
- Thinking, putting together a two-word sentence, memorizing a poem, solving a math problem, imagining what it would be like to be a movie star
Socioemotional Processes
Changes in an individual’s interpersonal relationships, emotions, and personality
- infants smile in response to mothers touch, a child’s attack on a playmate, adolescent’s joy at the senior prom
Prenatal Period
- Conception to birth
- Roughly a nine-month period
- Single cell grows into an organism, complete with a brain and behavioural capabilities
Infancy
- Birth to about 18-24 months
- Time of extreme dependence on adults
- Psychological activities are beginning: ability to speak, coordinate sensations and physical actions, to think symbols, and to imitate and learn from others
Early Childhood
- End of infancy to about 5-6 years of age
- Preschool years
- Children learn to become more self-sufficient and to care for themselves, they develop school readiness, and they spend many hours in play and with peers
- First grade marks end of period
Middle and Late Childhood
- 6 to 11 years
- Elementary school years
- Children master the fundamental skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic, and they are formally exposed to the larger world and its culture
- Achievement becomes a more central theme in child’s world
- Self-control increases
Adolescence
- Childhood to early adulthood. 10-12 years, ending at 18-19 years
- Begins with rapid physical change
- Development of sexual characteristics
- Pursuit of independence and an identity are prominent features of this period
- More time spent outside the family
- Thought becomes more abstract, idealistic, and logical
Cohort Effects
Effects due to a persons time of birth, era, or generation but not to actual age
Millennials
- Generation born after 1980
- First to come of age and enter emerging adulthood in the new millennium
- 2 characteristics: their ethnic diversity, their connection to technology
Nature-Nurture Issue
Debate about whether development is primarily influenced by nature or nurture
Nature
Biological inheritance is the most important influence on development
Nurture
Environmental experiences are the most influential on development
Continuity-Discontinuity issue
Debate about whether development involves gradual, cumulative change (continuity) or distinct stages (discontinuity)
Early-Later Experience Issue
Controversy regarding the degree to which early experiences or later experiences are the key determinants of children’s development
Scientific Method
Approach used to obtain accurate information
- Conceptualize the problem
- Collect data
- Draw conclusions
- Revise Research conclusions and theory
Theory
An interrelated, coherent set of ideas that helps to explain and make predictions
Hypotheses
Specific assumptions and predictions that can be tested to determine their accuracy
Psychoanalytic Theory
Theories that describe development as primarily unconscious and heavily coloured by emotion.
Freud and Erikson theories
Discuss Resilience in Children
Some children develop confidence in their abilities despite negative stereotypes about their gender or their ethnic group
Some children triumph over poverty or other adversities