Midterm 1 Flashcards
stage theories
Approaches that propose taht development involves a series of discontinuous, age related phases
cognitive development
The development of thinking and reasoning
Scientific Method
An approach to testing beliefs that involves choosing a question, formulating a hypothesis, testing the hypothesis, and drawing the conclusion
hypothesis
educated guess
reliability
the degree to which independent measurements of a given behavior are consistent
interrater reliability
the amount of agreement int he observations of different raters who witness the same behavior
test-retest relability
the degree of similarity of a child’s performance on two or more occasions
validity
the degree to which a test measures what it is intended to measure
internal validity
the degree to which effects observed within experiments can be attributed to the factor that the researcher is testing
external validity
the degree to which results can be generalized beyond the particulars of research
nurture
the environments, both physical and social that influence our development
epigenetics
the study of stable changes in gene expression that are mediated by the environment
socioeconomic status
a measure of social class based on income and education
structured interview
a research procedure in which all participants are asked to answer the same questions
naturalistic observation
examination of ongoing behavior in an environment not controlled by the researcher
three contexts of gathering data
interview, naturalistic observation, structured observation
correlational designs
studies intended to indicate how two variables are related to each other
correlation
the association between two variables
disadvantages to to correlational studies
direction of causation problem, third variable problem
direction of causation problem
the concept that a correlation between two variables does not indicate which, if either, variable is the cause of the other
third-variable problem
the concept that a correlation between two variables may stem from both being influenced by some third variable