Boyatzis Developmental Psych Chapters 1+2

Front 1

Development

Back 1

Systematic continuities and changes in the individual over the course of life

Front 2

Developmental Continuities

Back 2

Ways in which we remain stable over time or continue to reflect our past

Front 3

Developmental Psychology

Back 3

Branch of psychology devoted to identifying and explaining the continuities and changes that individuals display over time

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Developmentalist

Back 4

Any scholar, regardless of discipline, who seeks to understand the developmental process (e.g., psychologists, biologists, sociologists, anthropologists, educators)

Front 5

Maturation

Back 5

Developmental changes in the body or behavior that result from the aging process rather than from learning, injury, illness, or some other life experience

Front 6

Learning

Back 6

A relatively permanent change in behavior (or behavioral potential) that results from one's experiences or practice

Front 7

Normative Development

Back 7

Developmental changes that characterize most or all members of a species; typical patterns of development

Front 8

Ideographic Development

Back 8

Individual variations in the rate, extent, or direction of development

Front 9

Holistic Perspective

Back 9

A unified view of the developmental process that emphasizes the important interrelationships among the physical, mental, social, and emotional aspects of human development

Front 10

Plasticity

Back 10

Capacity for change; a developmental state that has the potential to be shaped by experience

Front 11

Scientific Method

Back 11

The use of objective and replicable methods to gather data for the purpose of testing a theory or hypothesis. It dictates that, above all, investigators must be objective and must allow their data to decide the merits of their thinking

Front 12

Theory

Back 12

A set of concepts and propositions designed to organize, describe, and explain an existing set of observations

Front 13

Hypothesis

Back 13

A theoretical prediction about some aspect of experience

Front 14

Reliability

Back 14

The extent to which a measuring instrument yields consistent results, both over time and across observers

Front 15

Validity

Back 15

The extent to which a measuring instrument accurately reflects what the researchers intend to measure

Front 16

Structured Interview/ Structured Questionnaire

Back 16

A technique in which all participants are asked the same questions in precisely the same order so that the responses of difference participants can be compared

Front 17

Diary Study

Back 17

A questionnaire method in which participants write answers to specified questions in a diary or notebook, either at specified times or when prompted by an electronic pager

Front 18

Clinical Method

Back 18

A type of interview in which a participants response to each successive question (or problem) determines what the investigator will ask next

Front 19

Naturalistic Observation

Back 19

A method in which the scientist tests hypotheses by observing people as they engage in everyday activities in their natural habitats (for example, at home, at school, or on the playground)

Front 20

Observer Influence

Back 20

Tendency of participants to react to an observer's presence by behaving in unusual ways

Front 21

Time-Sampling

Back 21

A procedure in which the investigator records the frequencies with which individuals display particular behaviors during the brief time interval each is observed

Front 22

Structured Observation

Back 22

An observational method in which the investigator cues the behavior of interest and observes participants' responses in a laboratory

Front 23

Case Study

Back 23

A research method in which the investigator gathers extensive information about the life of an individual and then tests developmental hypotheses by analyzing the events of the person's history

Front 24

Ethnography

Back 24

Method in which the researcher seeks to understand the unique values, traditions, and social processes of a culture or subculture by living with its members and making extensive observations and notes

Front 25

Psychophysiological Methods

Back 25

Methods that measure the relationships between physiological processes and aspects of children's physical, cognitive, social, or emotional behavior/development

Front 26

Correlational Design

Back 26

A type of research design that indicates the strength of associations among variables; though correlated variables are systematically related, these relationships are not necessarily causal

Front 27

Correlational Coefficient

Back 27

A numerical index, ranging from -1.00 to +1.00, of the strength and direction of the relationship between two variables

Front 28

Experimental Design

Back 28

A research design in which the investigator introduces some change in the participant's environment and then measures the effect of that change on the participant's behavior

Front 29

Independent Variable

Back 29

The aspect of the environment that an experimenter modifies or manipulates in order to measure its impact on behavior

Front 30

Dependent Variable

Back 30

The aspect of behavior that is measured in an experiment and assumed to be under the control of the independent variable

Front 31

Confounding Variable

Back 31

Some factor other than the independent variable that, if not controlled by the experimenter, could explain any differences across treatment conditions in participants' performance on the dependent variable

Front 32

Experimental Control

Back 32

Steps taken by an experimenter to ensure that all extraneous factors that could influence the dependent variable are roughly equivalent in each experimental condition; these precautions must be taken before an experimenter can be reasonably certain that observed changes in the dependent variable were caused by the manipulation of the independent variable

Front 33

Random Assignment

Back 33

A control technique in which participants are assigned to experimental conditions through an unbiased procedure so that the members of the groups are not systematically different from one another

Front 34

Ecological Validity

Back 34

State of affairs in which the findings of one's research are an accurate representation of processes that occur in the natural environment

Front 35

Field Experiment

Back 35

An experiment that takes place in a naturalistic setting such as home, school, or a playground

Front 36

Natural (or Quasi-) Experiment

Back 36

A study in which the investigator measures the impact of some naturally occurring event that is assumed to affect people's lives

Front 37

Cross-Cultural Comparison

Back 37

A study that compares the behavior and/or development of people from different cultural or sub cultural backgrounds

Front 38

Cross-Sectional Design

Back 38

A research design in which subjects from different age groups are studied at the same point in time

Front 39

Cohort

Back 39

A group of people of the same age who are exposed to similar cultural environments and historical events as they are growing up

Front 40

Cohort Effect

Back 40

Age-related difference among cohorts that is attributable to cultural/historical differences in cohorts' growing-up experiences rather than to true developmental change

Front 41

Practice Effect

Back 41

Changes in participants' natural responses as a result of repeated testing

Front 42

Selective Attraction

Back 42

Nonrandom loss of participants during a study that results in a nonrepresentative sample

Front 43

Nonrepresentative Sample

Back 43

A subgroup that differs in important ways from the larger group (or population) to which it belongs

Front 44

Cross-Generational Problem

Back 44

The fact that long-term changes in the environment may limit conclusions of a longitudinal project to that generation of children who were growing up while the study was in progress

Front 45

Sequential Design

Back 45

A research design in which subjects from different age groups are studied repeatedly over a period of months or years

Front 46

Microgenetic Design

Back 46

A research design in which participants are studied intensively over a short period of time as developmental changes occur; attempts to specify how or why those changes occur

Front 47

Informed Consent

Back 47

The right of research participants to receive an explanation, in language they can understand, of all aspects of research that may affect their willingness to participate

Front 48

Benefits-to-Risk Ratio

Back 48

A comparison of the possible benefits of a study for advancing knowledge and optimizing life conditions versus its costs to participants in terms of inconvenience and possible harm

Front 49

Confidentiality

Back 49

The right of participants to concealment of their identity with respect to the data that they provide

Front 50

Protection from Harm

Back 50

The right of research participants to be protected from physical or psychological harm

Front 51

Parsimony

Back 51

A criterion for evaluating merit of theories; this kind of theory is one that uses relatively few explanatory principles to explain a broad set of observations

Front 52

Falsifiability

Back 52

A criterion for evaluating the scientific merit of theories. A theory is this when it is capable of generating predictions that could be disconfirmed

Front 53

Heuristic

Back 53

A criterion for evaluating the scientific merit of theories. This kind of theory is one that continues to stimulate new research and new discoveries

Front 54

Psychosexual Theory

Back 54

Freud's theory that states that maturation of the sex instinct underlies stages of personality development, and that the manner in which parents manage children's instinctual impulses determines the traits that children display

Front 55

Unconscious Motives

Back 55

Freud's term for feelings, experiences, and conflicts that influence a person's thinking and behavior, but lie outside the person's awareness

Front 56

Repression

Back 56

A type of motivated forgetting in which anxiety-provoking thoughts and conflicts are forced out of conscious awareness

Front 57

Instinct

Back 57

An inborn biological force that motivates a particular response or class of response

Front 58

Id

Back 58

Psychoanalytic term for the inborn component of the personality that is driven by the instincts

Front 59

Ego

Back 59

Psychoanalytic term for the rational component of the personality

Front 60

Superego

Back 60

Psychoanalytic term for the component of the personality that consists of one's internalized moral standards

Front 61

Psychosocial Theory

Back 61

Eriksson's revision of Freud's theory which emphasizes sociocultural (rather than sexual) determinants of development and posits a series of eight psychosocial conflicts that people must resolve successfully to display healthy psychological adjustment

Front 62

Behaviorism

Back 62

A school in psychology that holds that conclusions about human development should be based on controlled observations of overt behavior rather speculation about unconscious motives or other unobservable phenomena; the philosophical underpinning for the early theories of learning

Front 63

Habits

Back 63

Well-learned associations between stimuli and responses that represent the stable aspects of one's personality

Front 64

Operant

Back 64

The initially voluntary act that becomes more or less probable of occurring depending on the consequence that it produces

Front 65

Reinforcer

Back 65

Any consequence of an act that increases of an act will recur

Front 66

Punisher

Back 66

Any consequence of an act that suppresses that act and/or decreases the probability that it will recur

Front 67

Operant Learning

Back 67

A form of learning in which voluntary acts become either more or less probable, depending on the consequences they produce

Front 68

Observational Learning

Back 68

Learning that results from observing the behavior of others

Front 69

Environmental Determinism

Back 69

The notion that children are passive creatures who are molded by their environments

Front 70

Reciprocal Determinism

Back 70

The notion that the flow of influence between children and their environments is a two-way street; the environment may affect the child, but the child's behavior also influences the environment

Front 71

Cognitive Development

Back 71

Age-related changes that occur in mental activities such as attending, perceiving, learning, thinking, and remembering

Front 72

Scheme

Back 72

An organized pattern of thought or action that a child constructs to make sense of some aspect of his or her experience

Front 73

Assimilation

Back 73

Piaget's term for the process by which children interpret new experiences by incorporating them into their existing schemes

Front 74

Disequilibriums

Back 74

Imbalances or contradictions between one's though processes and environmental events. On the other hand equilibrium refers to a balanced, harmonious relationship between one's cognitive structures and the environment

Front 75

Accommodation

Back 75

Piaget's term for the process by which children modify their existing Schemes in order to incorporate or adapt to new experiences

Front 76

Invariant Developmental Sequence

Back 76

A series of developments that occur in one particular order because each development in the sequence is a prerequisite for the next

Front 77

Sociocultural Theory

Back 77

Vygotsky's perspective on development, in which children acquire their culture's values, beliefs, and problem-solving strategies through collaborative dialogues with more knowledgeable members of society

Front 78

Information-Processing Perspective

Back 78

A perspective that views the human mind as a continuously developing, symbol-manipulating system, similar to a computer, into which information flows, is operated on, and is converted to output (answers, inferences, and solutions to problems)

Front 79

Ethology

Back 79

The study of the bioevolutionary basis of behavior and development with a focus on survival of the individual

Front 80

Natural Selection

Back 80

An evolutionary process, proposed by Charles Darwin, stating that individuals with characteristics that promote adaptation to the environment will survive, reproduce, and pass these adaptive characteristic to offspring; those lacking these adaptive characteristic will eventually die out

Front 81

Sensitive Period

Back 81

Period of time that is optimal for the development of particular capacities, or behaviors, and in which the individual is particularly sensitive to environmental influences that would foster these attributes

Front 82

Modern Evolutionary Theory

Back 82

The study of the bioevolutionary basis of behavior and development with a focus on survival of the genes

Front 83

Altruism

Back 83

A selfless concern for the welfare of others that is expressed through prosocial acts such as sharing, cooperating, and helping

Front 84

Ecological Systems Theory

Back 84

Bronfenbrenner's model emphasizing that the developing person is embedded in a series of environmental systems that interact with one another and with the person to influence development

Front 85

Microsystem

Back 85

The immediate system (including role relationships and activities) that the person actually encounters; the innermost of Bronfenbrenner's environmental layers or contexts

Front 86

Mesosystem

Back 86

The interconnections among an individual's immediate settings or microsystems; the second of Bronfenbrenner's environmental layers or contexts

Front 87

Exosystem

Back 87

Social systems that children and adolescents do not directly experience but that may nonetheless influence their development; the third of Bronfenbrenner's environmental layers or contexts

Front 88

Macrosystem

Back 88

The larger cultural or subcutural context in which development occurs; Bronfenbrenner's outermost environmental layer or context

Front 89

Chronosystem

Back 89

In ecological systems theory, changes in the individual or the environment that occur over time and influence the direction development takes

Front 90

Family

Back 90

Two or more persons, related by birth, marriage, adoption, or choice, who have emotional ties and responsibilities to each other

Front 91

Family Social System

Back 91

The complex network of relationships, interactions, and patterns of influence that characterize a family with three or more members

Front 92

Traditional Nuclear Family

Back 92

A family unit consisting of a wife/mother, a husband/father, and their dependent child or children

Front 93

Nature/Nurture Issue

Back 93

The debate among developmental theorists about the relative importance of biological predispositions and environmental influences as determinants of human development

Front 94

Activity/Passivity Theme

Back 94

A debate among developmental theorists about whether children are active contributors to their own development or, rather, passive recipients of environmental influence

Front 95

Continuity/ Discontinuity Issue

Back 95

A debate among theorists about whether developmental changes are quantitative and continuous, or qualitative and discontinuous (I.e. stage like)

Front 96

Quantitative Change

Back 96

Incremental change in degree without sudden transformations; for example, some view the small yearly increases in height and weight that 2- to 11- year-olds display as this kind of developmental change

Front 97

Qualitative Change

Back 97

Changes in kind that make individuals fundamentally different than they were before; the transformation of a prelinguistic infant into a language user is viewed by many as this kind of change in communication skills

Front 98

Developmental Stage

Back 98

A distinct phase within a larger sequence of development ; a period characterized by a particular set of abilities, motives, behaviors, or emotions that occur together and form a coherent pattern

Front 99

Eclectics

Back 99

Those who borrow from many theories in their attempts to predict and explain human development