Child D. Ch. 1 Vocab

Front 1

the process by which individuals acquire the beliefs, values, and behaviors considered desirable or appropriate by their culture or subculture

Back 1

socialization

Front 2

a detailed record of an infant's growth and development over a period of time

Back 2

baby biography

Front 3

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

Back 3

theory

Front 4

a criterion for evaluating the scientific merit of theories; a parsimonious theory is one that uses relatively few explanatory principles to explain a broad set of observations

Back 4

parsimony

Front 5

a criterion for evaluating the scientific merit of theories; a theory is falsiable when it is capable of generating predictions that could be disconfirmed

Back 5

falsfiability

Front 6

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

Back 6

heuristic value

Front 7

a theoretical prediction about some aspect of experience

Back 7

hypothesis

Front 8

the idea that children are inherently selfish egoists who must be controlled by society

Back 8

original sin

Front 9

the idea that infants are born with an intuitive sense of right and wrong that is often misdirected by the demands and restrictions of society

Back 9

innate purity

Front 10

the idea that the mind of an infant is a "blank slate" and that all knowledge, abilities, behaviors, and motives are acquired through experience

Back 10

tabula rasa

Front 11

debate within developmental psychology over the relative importance of biological predispositions (nature) and environmental influences (nurture) as determinants of human development

Back 11

nature versus nurture issue

Front 12

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

Back 12

activity/passivity issue

Front 13

debate among theorists about whether developmental changes are best characterized as gradual and quantitative or abrupt and qualitative

Back 13

continuity/discontinuity

Front 14

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

Back 14

developmental stage

Front 15

normative developments that all individuals display

Back 15

universal development

Front 16

developmental outcomes that vary from person to person

Back 16

particularistic development

Front 17

an attitude or value about the pursuit of knowledge that dictates that investigators must be objective and must allow their data to decide the merits of their theorizing

Back 17

scientific method

Front 18

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

Back 18

reliability

Front 19

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

Back 19

validity

Front 20

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

Back 20

structured interview/questionnaire

Front 21

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

Back 21

clinical method

Front 22

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

Back 22

naturalistic observation

Front 23

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

Back 23

oberver influence

Front 24

a procedure in which an investigator records the frequencies with which individuals display particular behaviors during the brief time intervals that each participant is observed

Back 24

time sampling

Front 25

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

Back 25

structured observation

Front 26

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 lfie history

Back 26

case study

Front 27

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 obervations and notes

Back 27

ethnography

Front 28

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

Back 28

correlational design

Front 29

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

Back 29

correlation coefficient

Front 30

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

Back 30

experimental design

Front 31

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

Back 31

independent variable

Front 32

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

Back 32

dependent variable

Front 33

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

Back 33

confounding variable

Front 34

steps taken by an experimenter to ensure that all extraneous factors that could influence the dependent variable are roughly equivalent in each experimental condtion; 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

Back 34

experimental control

Front 35

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

Back 35

random assignment

Front 36

an experiment that takes palce in a naturalistic setting such as the home, the school, or a playground

Back 36

field experiment

Front 37

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

Back 37

ecological validity

Front 38

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

Back 38

natural (quasi) experiment

Front 39

a research design in which subjects from different age groups are studied at teh same point in time

Back 39

cross-sectional design

Front 40

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

Back 40

cohort effect

Front 41

a research design in which one group of subjects is studies repeatedly over a period of months or years

Back 41

longitudinal design

Front 42

nonrandom loss of particpants during a study, resulting in a nonrepresentative sample

Back 42

selective attrition

Front 43

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

Back 43

nonrepresentative sample

Front 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

Back 44

cross-generational problem

Front 45

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

Back 45

sequential design

Front 46

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

Back 46

microgenetic design

Front 47

a study that compares the behavior and/or development of people from different cultural or subcultural backgrounds

Back 47

cross-cultural comparison