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ch 1

Terms in this set (49)

development
-the pattern of movement or change that begins at conception and continues throughout the life span
-is the product of biological, cognitive and socioemotional processes (and is therefore complicated)
life-span perspective
-emphasizes developmental change throughout adulthood as well as during childhood
-views development as lifelong, multidimensional, multidirectional, etc.
life expectancy
-the average number of years that a person can expect live
-today, in the US, it's 79
context has three types of influences
-normative age graded influences
-normative history graded influence
-nonnormative life events
normative age graded influences
-things that are similar for individuals of the same age group
-ex: biological processes (i.e. menopause), and sociocultural and environmental processes
normative history graded influences
-things that are similar for people of a certain generation b/c of historical circumstances
-ex: baby boomers shared the experience of the cuban missile crisis
non normative life events
-are unusual occurrences that have a major impact on individual's life; these events don't happen to all people
-ex: death of a parent at a young age, early pregnancy
achieving mastery of life often involves conflict and competition among three goals of human development:
growth, maintenance and regulation of loss
the healthcare system fails older adults in many ways
-the number of older adults in the US is growing rapidly
-many of these older Americans are likely to need society's help
two concepts help provide a framework for describing and understanding an individual's development:
-developmental processes
-periods of development
biological processes
-processes that produce changes in an individual's physical nature
-i.e. genes, development of the brain, nutrition
cognitive processes
-processes that involve changes in an individual's thought, intelligence and language
-i.e. memorizing a poem, imagining what it would be like to be a movie star
socioemotional processes
-processes that involve changes in an individual's relationships with other people, emotions and personality
-ex: toddler's aggressive attack on a playmate, adolescent's joy over prom
developmental cognitive neuroscience
explores the links between development, cognitive processes and the brain
developmental social neuroscience
examines the connections between socioemotional processes, development and the brain
periods of development (stages)
-prenatal period
-infancy
-early childhood
-middle and late
-adolescence
-early adulthood
-middle adulthood
-late adulthood
emerging adulthood
-the transition from adolescence to adulthood
-lasts from approx. 18-25 years of age
-experimentation and exploration characterize this period
five key features that characterize emerging adulthood
-identity exploration
-instability
-self focused
-feeling in between
-age of possibilities (a time when individuals have an opportunity to transform their lives)
nature-nurture issue
the extent to which development is influenced by nature and by nurture
stability-change issue
-involves the degree to which early traits persist or change as the person matures
-STABILITY: argue that stability is the result of heredity
-CHANGE: later experiences can produce change
continuity-discontinuity issue
-focuses on the degree to which development involves either gradual, cumulative change (CONTINUITY) or distinct changes (DISCONTINUITY)
the scientific method is a four step process:
-conceptualize a process/problem to be studied
-collect data
-analyze data
-draw conclusions
psychoanalytic theory
-describes development as primarily unconscious and heavily emotional
-emphasizes that an understanding of development requires analyzing the symbolic meanings of behavior and the inner workings of the mind
psychosexual stages
-our adult personality is determined by the way we resolve conflict between sources of pleasure and the demands of reality each stage
-oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital
psychosocial theory
-the primary motivation for human behavior is social and this reflects our desire to affiliate with people
-each stage confronts individuals with a crisis that must be resolved
cognitive theories
-piaget's cognitive developmental theory
-vygotsky's sociocultural cognitive theory
-information-processing theory
piaget's theory
-children go through 4 stages of cognitive development as they actively construct their understanding of the world
--organization and adaptation underlie this construction of the world
operations (according to piaget)
-are internalized mental actions that allow children to do mentally what they could only do physically
vtgotsky's sociocultural cognitive theory
-emphasizes how culture and social interaction guide cognitive development
-the child's development is inseparable from social and cultural activities
through interactions with more-skilled adult and peers, children learn to use the tools that will help them adapt and be successful in their culture
information processing theory
-emphasizes that individuals manipulate info, monitor it and strategize about it
-doesn't describe development as stage-like
-focuses on the processes of memory and thinking
behaviorism
-we can study scientifically only what we can directly observe and measure
-b.f. skinner and bandura
operant conditioning
-the consequences of a behavior produce changes in the probability of the behavior's occurrence
-skinner
social cognitive theory
-behavior, environment and cognition are key factors in development
-bandura
ethology
-behavior is strongly influenced by biology, is tied to evolution and is characterized by critical/sensitive periods
-konrad lorenz & imprinting
brofenbrenner's ecological theory
-development reflects the influence of several environmental systems
-five environmental systems: microsystem, mesosystem, ecosystem, macrosystem, chronosystem
eclectic theoretical orientation
does not follow any one theoretical approach but rather selects from each theory whatever is considered best
standardized test
-has uniform procedures for administration and scoring
-allow a person's performance to be compared with the performance of other individuals
case study
-an in depth look at a single individual
-provides information about one person's experiences
descriptive research
-aims to observe and record behavior
-cannot prove what causes behavior, but can reveal information about people's behavior
correlational research
-aims to describe the strength of the relationship between 2+ events
-is predictive
correlation coefficient
-is used the describe the degree of association between 2 variables
- +1.00 to -1.00
-correlation does not equal causation
experimental research
-carefully regulated procedure in which one or more variables are manipulated and the rest are controlled
-demonstrates cause and effect
random assignment
-participants are randomly assigned to the control or experimental group
-this reduces the likelihood that the experiment's results will be due to any preexisting differences between groups
cross-sectional approach
-compares diff individuals of different ages
-PRO: the researcher doesn't have to wait for the individuals to grow up or get older
-CON: gives no info about how they change or about the stability of their characteristics
longitudinal approach
-the same individuals are studied over a period of time
-PRO: they provide a lot of info about stability and change of development
-CON: they're expensive and time consuming, attrition
cohort
group of people who are born at a similar point in history and as a result, share similar experiences
cohort effects
-characteristics attributable to a person's time of birth, era or generation, but NOT actual age
APA guidelines address 4 important issues:
-informed consent
-confidentiality
-debriefing
-deception
ethnic gloss
-superficial way that portrays an ethnic group as being more homogenous than it actually is
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