Lesson 1 (Chapter 1)

Question 1

What is the Development in the science world?

Answer 1

The science of human development seeks to understand how and why people — all kinds of people in all parts of the world, of all ages — Change or remain the same over time.

Critical to this ‘definition’ is its emphasis on “all kinds of people, everywhere.

Question 2

Three domains of development are…

Answer 2

1. Physical
2. Cognitive
3. Psychosocial

Question 3

What is the physical domain of development?

Answer 3

The physical domain consists of all things related to biological growth.

Question 4

What are some examples of the physical domain of development?

Answer 4

Changes in body (e.g. brains, organs, muscles, bones), use of the body (e.g. motor skills, sexual development), and effects of aging (e.g. eyesight, muscle strength)

Question 5

What is the cognitive domain of development?

Answer 5

The cognitive domain consists of the intellect and thought processes.

Question 6

What are some examples of the cognitive domain of development?

Answer 6

Perception, learning memory, language

Question 7

What is the psychosocial domain of development?

Answer 7

The psychosocial domain is concerned with social and emotional aspects of development.

Question 8

What are some examples of the psychosocial domain of development?

Answer 8

Relationships, the individual’s sense of self, and the influence on the individual of his/her family, school, culture, etc.

Question 9

The three domains are interrelated, or ‘holistic’.

True or False

Why?

Answer 9

No moment of life can be fully understood without considering all three domains.

Question 10

Example of interrelated domains:

If we were interested in understanding how an infant learns language.

Answer 10

In the physical domain, we would consider the infant’s hearing, health, and motor skills (such as development of control of the tongue and lips). In the cognitive domain, we would look at learning and understanding, things like the infant’s ability to translate thoughts into words. In the psychosocial domain, we would look at the infant’s experiences and interactions with others as these influence the development of communication as a precursor to language development.

Question 11

What are the three crucial elements?

Answer 11

1. Science
2. Diversity
3. Connections

Question 12

What is science in regards to human development?

Answer 12

The study of human development is a science, meaning that it is based on and interested in the development of theories, relies on the collection and analysis of data(empirical), and involves critical hinting and sound scientific methodology.

The purpose of this science of human development is to understand how and why people change over time, and how and why they stay the same.

Question 13

What does the element of diversity consist of?

Answer 13

Human development is concerned with diversity. Researcher study all kinds of people — old and young, rich and poor, all ethnicities and backgrounds, every sexual orientation, etc. The goal of this all-encompassing study is to identify universalities (i.e. things that apply to all humans) as well as those factors which contribute to individuality and uniqueness

Question 14

What are the four characteristics of development?

Answer 14

1. Multidirectionality
2. Multicontextual
3. Multicultural
4. Plasticity

Question 15

What is multidirectionality?

Answer 15

Development is ever-changing, and this change may be characterized in many ways. This means that when describing change in a particular characteristic of human development, we may say that it increases or decreases, speeds up of slows down, proceed in a straight (linear) or crooked manner, changes steadily or in a jerky fashion.
For example, a toddler may learn to walk faster than another toddler the same age. Some infants may walk sudden (no crawling) and just take off or some infants may roll, crawl, then walk.

Multidirectionality is the idea in development that simplifies the ever changing and unpredictable nature or development into one term.

Question 16

What are the two different periods of development?

Answer 16

1. Critical

2. Sensitive

Question 17

What is the critical period of development?

Answer 17

A critical period is:
A time when a specific facet of development must occur to ensure normal development. (For example, during prenatal development, there are very specific times during the approx. 9 months of gestation when specific organs and body structures must form. If such formation does not occur during these critical periods, it never will, and the entire development process will be disrupted.)

Question 18

What is the sensitive period?

Answer 18

The sensitive period is a time when a certain type of development is most likely to happen or can happen most easily. (Example: Language development. Early childhood is viewed as learned beyond this period, but never will this learning be as natural or easy as during the sensitive period.

Question 19

What is the Multicontextual characteristic?

Answer 19

Humans develop in dozens of contexts that profoundly affect their development. Contexts include physical surroundings (climate, noise, population density, etc.) and family configurations.

Question 20

What are the two examples of multicontextual considerations?

Answer 20

Historical Context and Socioeconomic Contex

Question 21

What is the Historical Context?

Answer 21

All persons born within a few years of one another are said to be a cohort, defined as a group of people whose shared age means that they travel through life together. Members of a cohort are all affected by the values, events, technologies, and culture of their era.

Question 22

What is an example of Historical Context?

Answer 22

The war in Iraq has a different meaning for U.S. adults whose lives were changed by World War II, the Vietnam War, or the Gulf War.

Similarly, those who lived trough the Great Depression are likely to view life differently than those who did not, just as those who lived through the 9-11 terrorist attacks are likely to be different from those who were and will be born later.

Question 23

What is the Socioeconomic Context?

Answer 23

When social scientists study the socioeconomic context they often focus on socioeconomic status, abbreviated SES. Sometimes SES is called “social class” (as in “middle class” or “working class”).

SES also consider not only present status, but also past history and future prospects.

SES involves more than money, in the form of income or wealth. It is also measured by factors such as occupation, education, and neighborhood.

Question 24

What is the multicultural characteristic?

Answer 24

Considered the within this category are the specific effects on development of a person’s culture.

Culture includes things like values, customs, clothes, dwellings, cuisine, and even ways of thinking and behaving. Culture affects every action.

Question 25

What is Plasticity?

Answer 25

Human development is malleable and durable. The term plasticity denotes two complementary aspects of development: Human traits can be molded, yet people maintain a certain durability of identity (like plastic, which takes decades to disintegrate).

Question 26

What is dynamic-systems approach?

Answer 26

A view on development as an ever occurring, ever changing interaction between the person and all the systems (family, school, neighborhood), domains (physical, cognitive, psychosocial) and cultures relevant to his/her life.

Question 27

What are the four steps to the scientific method?

Answer 27

1. Ask a question: On the basis of previous research or a particular theory or personal observation, pose a question.
2. Develop a hypothesis: Reformulate and segment the question into a hypothesis, or specific prediction to be tested.
3. Test the hypothesis: Design and conduct research to provide empirical evidence (data) about the validity or falsehood of the hypothesis.
4. Draw conclusions: Use the evidence to support or refute the hypothesis.

Question 28

Studying Development (Change) over The Life Span means:

Answer 28

The study of development is concerned with question of how people change (and remain the same) over time. Thus, researchers must have ways to study change.

Question 29

What is Cross-sectional design?

Answer 29

This design involves the simultaneous study of several, different-aged groups of people. So if we were to study changes in intellectual functioning over time, we would see groups of 10-, 20-, 30-, 40-, 50-, 60-, and 70-year olds. Testing the intelligence of all members of each group and comparing the average performance for each age-group would provide information about differences in intelligence that the researcher would assume were a function of age.

Question 30

Explain the problem with cross sectional design.

Answer 30

The problem with this design is that it DOES NOT MEASURE CHANGE. More specifically, if the 70 year old group performs at a lower level than the 20 year old group, we may want to conclude that “as you grow older you grow less intelligent.” The fact is that the design tells us nothing about how people change, because studying change would require following the same people over time.

Representation of cross-sectional design, which measures AGE DIFFERENCES but does not directly measure change.

Question 31

What is Longitudinal design?

Answer 31

This design involves studying the same group of subjects at multiple points in time. For example, starting with a group of 20 year olds, intellectual functioning is measure. Ten years later, this same group is assessed when they are 30. And again ten years later they are assessed at the age of 40, etc. This design measures change and thus provides information about development.

Representation of longitudinal design (same group, several times of measurement [at different ages]), which measures AGE DIFFERENCES AND CHANGE, but does not measure the effects of the study.

Question 32

What is Cross-Sequential design?

Answer 32

This design combines elements of the previous two designs. There are multiple times of assessment. At the first assessment, a cross-sectional study is conducted, with multiple groups of different ages. The second time of testing makes this a longitudinal design in that the subjects assessed at time 1 will be assessed again. IN ADDITION, new subjects will be added to each age group. This way, researcher can protect against the effects of testing.

Representation of sequential design (combination of cross-sectional and longitudinal: several groups, different times of measurement), which measures AGE DIFFERENCES, CHANGE AND EFFECTS OF STUDY.