Midterm

Question 1

What is the lifespan perspective?

Answer 1

The lifespan perspective is the perspective that development is lifelong, plastic, and multidimensional.

Question 2

What are the 3 domains of development?

Answer 2

The 3 domains of development are:
1. Normative age graded influences - influences that are similar for those in a particular age group.

2. Normative history grade influences - common for those of a particular generation due to historical circumstance.
3. Non-normative/random individual events - unusual occurrence with a major impact on and individuals life. Impacts different individuals in different ways.

Question 3

What are the periods of development?

Answer 3

A developmental period is a time frame in a persons life characterized by certain features. The periods of development are:
1. Prenatal period (conception-birth)
2. Infancy (birth to 18/24months)
3. Toddler (18months-3yrs)
4. Middle-late childhood (6-11years)
5. Adolescence (12-18/21yrs)
6. Emerging adulthood (18-25years)
7. Early adulthood (early 20’s - early 30’s)
8. Middle adulthood (40’s-50’s)
9. Late adulthood (60’s/70’s - death)

Question 4

How many ways can we define age?

Answer 4

Age can be defined chronologically, biologically, psychologically, and socially.

Question 5

What are the 3 distinct patterns of aging?

Answer 5

There are 3 patterns of age development:
- Normal aging - psychological functioning peaks at early middle age. Describes most individuals
- pathological aging - describes individuals with above average decline as they age.
- successful/healthy aging - describes those who maintain positive physical, cognitive, and socioemotional development later in life.

Question 6

What are social policy concerns?

Answer 6

Social policy - a governments course of action designed to promote the welfare of it’s citizens.

Contemporary social policy concerns include: health/wellbeing, parenting and education, sociocultural contexts and diversity.

Question 7

3 major social policy concerns today

Answer 7

3 major social policy concerns today are:
1. Attachment theory - infants and caregivers are no longer separated in hospitals

2. Technology - major increase in use of technology at all points in human development. Technology impacts sleep, learning, and activity. What about our language development?
3. Socioeconomic Status (SES) - increase in children living in poverty and resulting stressors is an important social policy issue.

Question 8

Who is society designed for?

Answer 8

Society reflects the needs of younger, able bodied people. Planning of parks, transportation systems, etc are not built with the needs of low-strength, low-stamina people or older adults. Escalating health care costs and need for adequate health care is another important social policy issue.

Question 9

Who are the early pioneers of developmental psychology?

Answer 9

The early pioneers of developmental psychology are:
- Charles Darwin
- G. Stanley Hall
- Arnold Gesell
- Jean Piaget

Question 10

Which 2 female psychologists helped to found the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA)?

Answer 10

Mary Salter Ainsworth and Mary Wright were involved in the development of the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA).

Question 11

What are the defining characteristics of psychoanalytic theories of development and who are the 2 famous psychologists associated with it?

Answer 11

The Defining characteristics of psychoanalytic theories are:

1) a focus on the importance of emotional quality of a child’s earliest relationship with caregivers and describe development as primarily unconscious and heavily coloured by emotion.

2) behaviour is a surface characteristic. Symbolic workings of the mind have to be analyzed to understand behaviour.

The 2 psychologists associated with psychoanalytic theories are Freud and Erickson.

Question 12

Who is the founder of cognitive development? What is a major difference between how Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky grade cognitive development? What is the underlying assumption of an important processing view of cognition?

Question 13

How does BF Skinner explain development?

Answer 13

Skinner explained development as the pattern of behavioural changes brought about by rewards and punishments.

Question 14

What does Albert Bandura’s social-cognitive perspective say about development?

Answer 14

Bandura’s theory emphasizes that behaviour, environment, and cognition are key factors in development and that relations between behaviour, person/cognitive, and environmental factors are reciprocal.

Question 15

What is the main contribution of ecological theories of development?

Answer 15

Ecological theories of development classify all the individual and contextual variables that affect development and specifies how they interact.

Question 16

What are the 4 goals of conducting research under a life span perspective?

Answer 16

4 main goals of conducting research under a life-span perspective is to: explain, predict, describe, and influence. Research is about asking questions and making predictions about variables of interest.

Question 17

What are the major methods for collecting data and research designs for conducting developmental research?

Answer 17

The major methods for collecting data are:
- case studies - in depth examinations of single individuals.

• naturalistic observations - when psychologists observe people in their normal environments.
• surveys - involve the use of interviews and/or questionnaires.
• experiments - a study that tests a causal hypothesis.

Question 18

What do we need to do in order to conduct research ethically?

Answer 18

To conduct research ethically, we must practice:
- informed consent
- protection of harm
- confidentiality
- knowledge of results
- deception, if used, must be explained fully

Question 19

What is natural selection?

Answer 19

Natural selection is the evolutionary process by which individuals of a species that are best adapted are the ones that survive and leave the most fit offspring.

Question 20

Stopped at Lecture 2.1