Unit 1 Key Terms

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Human development

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Scientific study of processes of change and stability throughout the human life span.

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Life-span development

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Concept of human development as a lifelong process, which can be studied scientifically.

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Goals of the Study of Human Development

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Study processes of change and stability in all domains, or aspects, of development throughout all periods of the life span

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Physical Development

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Growth of body and brain, including patterns of change in sensory capacities, motor skills, and health.

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Cognitive Development

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Pattern of change in mental abilities, such as learning, attention, memory, language, thinking, reasoning, and creativity.

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Psychosocial Development

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(1) Pattern of change in emotions, personality, and social relationships. (2) In Erikson's eight-stage theory, the socially and culturally influenced process of development of the ego, or self.

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Social Construction

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A concept or practice that may appear natural and obvious to those who accept it, but that in reality is an invention of a particular culture or society.

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Eight Periods of Human Development

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Prenatal period (conception to birth)
Infancy to Toddlerhood (birth to age 3)
Early Childhood (ages 3 to 6)
Middle Childhood (ages 6 to 11)
Adolescence (ages 11 to 20)
Emerging and Young Adulthood (ages 20 to 40)
Middle Adulthood (ages 40 to 65)
Late Adulthood (age 65 and over)

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Nature vs nurture

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The relative importance of inborn traits or characteristics and environmental influences

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Normative Influences

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Characteristic of an event that occurs in a similar way for most people in a group.

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Normative age-graded influences

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Highly similar for people in a particular age group. The timing of biological events is fairly predictable within a normal range.

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Normative history-graded influences

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Significant events (such as the Great Depression or World War II) that shape the behavior and attitudes of a historical generation

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Historical Generation

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A group of people who experience the event at a formative time in their lives.

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Cohort

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A group of people born at about the same time.

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Nonnormative Influences

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Unusual events that have a major impact on individual lives because they disturb the expected sequence of the life cycle

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Imprinting

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Instinctive form of learning in which, during a critical period in early development, a young animal forms an attachment to the first moving object it sees, usually the mother.

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Critical Period

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A specific time when a given event, or its absence, has a specific impact on development.

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Sensitive Period

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Times in development when a person is particularly open to certain kinds of experiences.

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Baltes's Life-Span Developmental Approach

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1. Development is lifelong
2. Development is multidimensional

3. Development is multidirectional

4. Relative influences of biology and culture shift over the life span.

5. Development involves changing resource allocations.

6. Development shows plasticity.

7. Development is influenced by the historical and cultural context.

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Mechanistic Model

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Model that views human development as a series of predictable responses to stimuli.

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Organismic Model

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Model that views human development as internally initiated by an active organism and as occurring in a sequence of qualitatively different stages.

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Quantitative vs Qualitative Change

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Model that views human development as internally initiated by an active organism and as occurring in a sequence of qualitatively different stages

Discontinuous changes in kind, structure, or organization.

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Psychoanalytic Perspective

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View of human development as shaped by unconscious forces that motivate human behavior.

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Id

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Operates under the pleasure principle—the drive to seek immediate satisfaction of their needs and desires. When gratification is delayed, as it is when infants have to wait to be fed, they begin to see themselves as separate from the outside world.

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Ego

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Represents reason, develops gradually during the first year or so of life and operates under the reality principle. The ego's aim is to find realistic ways to gratify the id that are acceptable to the superego.

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Superego

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Develops at about age 5 or 6. The superego includes the conscience and incorporates socially approved “shoulds” and “should nots” into the child's value system. The superego is highly demanding; if its standards are not met, a child may feel guilty and anxious.

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Freud's Psychosexual Development Stages

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Oral (birth to 12-18 months)
Anal (12-18 months to 3 years)
Phallic (3 to 6 years)

Latency (6 years to puberty)
Genital (puberty to adulthood)

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Erikson's Psychosocial Development

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(1) Pattern of change in emotions, personality, and social relationships. (2) In Erikson's eight-stage theory, the socially and culturally influenced process of development of the ego, or self.

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Learning Perspective

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View of human development that holds that changes in behavior result from experience or from adaptation to the environment.

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Behaviorism

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Learning theory that emphasizes the predictable role of environment in causing observable behavior.

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Classical Conditioning

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Learning based on associating a stimulus that does not ordinarily elicit a response with another stimulus that does elicit the response.

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Operant Conditioning

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(1) Learning based on association of behavior with its consequences. (2) Learning based on reinforcement or punishment.

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Reinforcement

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The process by which a behavior is strengthened; increasing the likelihood that the behavior will be repeated

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Punishment

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Process by which a behavior is weakened; decreasing the likelihood that the behavior will be repeated

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Social Learning (Social Cognitive)

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Theory that behaviors are learned by observing and imitating models.

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Reciprocal determinism

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Bandura's term for bidirectional forces that affect development

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Observational learning

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Learning through watching the behaviors of others

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Self-efficacy

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Sense of one's capability to master challenges and achieve goals

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Piaget's Cognitive-Stage Theory

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Theory that children's cognitive development advances in a series of four stages involving qualitatively distinct type of mental operations.

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Organization

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Piaget's term for the creation of categories or systems of knowledge. (2) Mnemonic strategy of categorizing material to be remembered.

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Schemes

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Piaget's term for organized patterns of thought and behavior used in particular situations.

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Adaptation

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Piaget's term for adjustment to new information about the environment, achieved through processes of assimilation and accommodation.

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Assimilation

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Piaget's term for incorporation of new information into an existing cognitive structure

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Accommodation

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Piaget's term for changes in a cognitive structure to include new information.

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Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory

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Theory of how contextual factors affect children's development

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Zone of Proximal Development

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Vygotsky's term for the difference between what a child can do alone and what the child can do with help.

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Scaffolding

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Temporary support to help a child master a task

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Information-Processing Approach

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(1) Approach to the study of cognitive development by observing and analyzing the mental processes involved in perceiving and handling information.
(2) Approach to the study of cognitive development that analyzes processes involved in perceiving and handling information.

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Contextual Perspective

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View of human development that sees the individual as inseparable from the social context

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Bioecological Theory

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Bronfenbrenner's approach to understanding processes and contexts of human development that identifies five levels of environmental influence.

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Five levels of environmental influence

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Microsystem

Mesosystem

Exosystem

Macrosystem

Chronosystem

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Evolutionary/Sociobiological Perspective

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View of human development that focuses on evolutionary and biological bases of behavior

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Quantitative Research

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Research that deals with objectively measurable data

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Scientific method

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System of established principles and processes of scientific inquiry, which includes identifying a problem to be studied, formulating a hypothesis to be tested by research, collecting data, analyzing the data, forming tentative conclusions, and disseminating findings.

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Qualitative Research

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Research that focuses on nonnumerical data, such as subjective experiences, feeling, or beliefs

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Sample

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Group of participants chosen to represent the entire population under study

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Population

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A group to whom the findings may apply

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Random selection

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Selection of a sample in such a way that each person in a population has an equal and independent chance of being chosen

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Random sample

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The result of random selection

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Self-reports

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Verbal or visual reports by study participants

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Diary

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The simplest form of self-report

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Parental self-report

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Used in studying young children

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Interview
(structured vs open-ended)

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Structured = each participant is asked the same set of questions

Open-eneded = Interviewer can vary the topics and order of questions and can ask follow up questions based on the responses

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Questionnaire

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Participants fill out and return

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Naturalistic Observation

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Research method in which behavior is studied in natural settings without intervention or manipulation

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Laboratory Observation

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Research method in which all participants are observed under the same controlled conditions

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Case Study

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Study of a single subject, such as an individual or family

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Ethnographic Study

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In-depth study of a culture, which uses a combination of methods including participant observation

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Correlational Study

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Research design intended to discover whether a statistical relationship exists between variables.

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Experimental vs. Control Group

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An experimental group consists of people who are to be exposed to the experimental manipulation or treatment—the phenomenon the researcher wants to study. Afterward, the effect of the treatment will be measured one or more times to find out what changes, if any, it caused. A control group consists of people who are similar to the experimental group but do not receive the experimental treatment or may receive a different treatment.

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Independent and Dependent Variable

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An experimental group consists of people who are to be exposed to the experimental manipulation or treatment—the phenomenon the researcher wants to study. Afterward, the effect of the treatment will be measured one or more times to find out what changes, if any, it caused. A control groupconsists of people who are similar to the experimental group but do not receive the experimental treatment or may receive a different treatment

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Random Assignment

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Assigning the participants to groups in such a way that each person has an equal chance of being placed in any group.

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Cross-sectional study

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Study designed to assess age-related differences, in which people of different ages are assessed on one occasion

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Longitudinal study

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Study designed to assess age changes in a sample over time

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Sequential study

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Study design that combines cross-sectional and longitudinal techniques

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Right of Participants

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Beneficence

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The obligation to maximize potential benefits to participants and to minimize potential harm

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Respect

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The second principle is respect for participants' autonomy and protection of those who are unable to exercise their own judgment

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Justice

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The inclusion of diverse groups together with sensitivity to any special impact the research may have on them