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56 Cards in this Set
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*Define Development |
Development is defined as systematic (i.e. orderly, patterned, and relatively enduring-not fleeting like mood swings) changes and continuities (i.e. ways we remain the same) in the individual that occur between conception and death (from "womb to tomb") |
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*What are the three domains of development? |
1. Physical (e.g. grey hair)
2. Cognitive (e.g. perception, language, learning, memory, problem solving, and other mental processes)
3. Pyschosocial (e.g. motives, emotions, personality traits, interpersonal skills, relationships) |
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*Describe the cognitive and pyschosocial domains of development |
Cognitive (e.g. perception, language, learning, memory, problem solving, and other mental processes)
Pyschosocial (e.g. motives, emotions, personality traits, interpersonal skills, relationships) |
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*What is the life expectancy in the US? |
About 78-79 years old |
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*What is the nature vs nurture issue? |
Nature emphasizes the influence of heredity, universal maturational processes guided by genes, biologically based or innate predispositions produced by evolution, and biological influences such as hormones and neurotransmitters
Nurture emphasize change in response to environment all the external physical and social conditions, stimuli and events that can affect us |
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What are the four goals of the science of Life-Span Development? |
1. Describing (e.g. describing development)
2. Predicting (e.g. identify factors to predict development)
3. Explaining (e.g. when a developmentalist is predicting something - they need to explain why it is happening - is it causal of something?)
4. Optimizing (e.g. from what developmentalists learn, how can they optimize development, e.g. overcoming difficulties) |
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What are the SEVEN key assumptions of the Lifespan Perspective
(Bonus: Who laid out these assumptions?) |
Development is:
1. A lifelong process
2. Multidirectional (some abilities change, some stay the same, some decline)
3. Involves both gain and loss
4. Characterized by lifelong plasticity (refers to the capacity to change in response to experience, whether positive or negative)
5. Shaped by historical-cultural context
6. Multiply influenced (nature AND nurture)
7. Must be studied by multiple disciplines
BONUS: Baltes |
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*Explain what lifelong plasticity is and what neuroplasticity is |
Lifelong plasticity is one of the 7 key assumptions of the lifespan perspective.
It refers to the capacity to change in response to experience (both negative and positive)
The aging process is not fixed rather can be ALTERED considerably depending on the individuals environment and experiences.
Neuroplasticity refers to the brains remarkable ability to change in response to experience throughout the life span. |
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What is the scientific method |
A belief that investigators should allow their systematic observations (or data) determine the merits of their thinking |
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What is a theory, and what are the three characteristics of a GOOD theory |
A set of concepts and propositions intended to describe and explain certain phenomena
Good theories should be: 1. Internally consistent (e.g. coherent, not contradictory) 2. Falsifiable it can be proven wrong, i.e. it can be tested 3. Supported by Data (e.g. the hypothesis will be confirmed by research results) |
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*Define "population" and "sample selection" and how it is used in the study of development |
A study of development focuses on a particular research sample (the group of individuals studied), with the intention of generalizing the results to a large population (a well defined group such as "premature infants" or "American High School Students", etc.), from which the sample is drawn and about which we want to draw conclusions. |
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What are the three major methods of data collection used by developmental researchers? |
1. Verbal Reports (e.g. surveys, questionnaires)
2. Behavioral Observations (naturalistic and structural) - observing people in their surrounding (either natural surroundings or structured for the study)
3. Physiological Measurements (e.g. fMRI - functional magnetic resonance imaging; or a breathalyzer to measure alcohol) |
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What is a case study |
An in depth examination of an individual (or individuals), typically carried out by compiling and analyzing information from a variety of sources, such as observation, testing and interviewing the person/people |
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*What are the three Critical Features in a True Experiment? |
1. Random Assignment
2. Manipulation of the Independent Variable
3. Experimental Control (all factors other than the IV are held constant so that they cannot contribute to the differences among treatment groups) |
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*What is a quasi-experiment? And what critical feature of a true experiment does this impact? |
A quasi experiment impacts the "random assignment" feature of an experiment, because:
uncontrolled differences between the two groups could influence results.
For example, studies evaluating those who have already started interventions, in this case we can not randomly assign participants to groups. |
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*What is the role of an independent and the dependent variables in an experiment? |
An independent variable, is the variable that is manipulated so that its causal effects can be assessed
The dependent variable is the behavior that we are expecting to be AFFECTED by the IV. |
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*What is meant by the "extraneous/confounding" variable and how does it impact experimental vs correlational methods? |
The extraneous/confounding variable (or "third variable") is one of the limitations of the correlation method.
It means that the association of two variables may be impacted by a third variable (e.g. parents who rely on baby videos are really just less motivated to interact with their infants).
Experiments help control against extraneous variables, b/c there are two variables, DV and IV and the goal is to only have the IV changing. |
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*What is the correlational method? |
Generally involves determining whether two or more variables are related in a systematic way.
In correlational studies, researchers often determine the strength of a relationship between two variables of interest by calculating a correlation coefficient (r) (-1 to +1) |
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*What is the correlation coefficient, and when does something have a positive correlation vs a negative correlation? |
In correlational studies, researchers often determine the strength of a relationship between two variables of interest by calculating a correlation coefficient (r) (-1 to +1)
A positive correlation (the more you study the higher your score)
A negative correlation (the more tv you watch, the lower your score) |
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What is meta-analysis? |
The results of multiple studies addressing the same question can be synthesized to produce overall conclusions through the research method (meta-analysis). When the results of different kinds of study converge |
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*What are the two types of research designs used in the study of development? |
1. cross-sectional design - the performances of people of different age groups (e.g. cohorts) are compared. Provides information on age differences
2. longitudinal design - one group of cohorts of individuals is assessed repeatedly over time. Provides information on age changes. |
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What is a cohort? |
A group of individuals born at the same time, either in the same year or within a specified span of years (for example, a generation is a cohort) |
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*What is a cross-sectional design and what are some major limitations? |
Cross-sectional design - the performances of people of different age groups (e.g. cohorts) are compared. Provides information on age differences
Major Limitations: age effects or cohort effects are confounded or entangled (e.g. studied computer usage by age at a point in time, doesn't necessarily mean that as you get older you use the computer less... |
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*What is a longitudinal design and what are some major limitations? |
Longitudinal design - one group of cohorts of individuals is assessed repeatedly over time. Provides information on age changes.
Major Limitations: age effects and time of measurement effects (e.g. the effects of historical events and trends occurring when data is collected) are confounded.
-It is also costly and time consuming -Participants drop out -Effects of repeated testing |
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What are sequential designs |
Combine both the cross-sectional and longitudinal |
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*Why is cross-cultural research important? How does ethnocentrism play a role? |
Performing developmental research across cultures is important, b/c just b/c something is true in one culture does not mean it holds true in another culture.
ethnocentrism can play a role, the belief that ones own group and its culture are superior. |
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*What are Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)? |
Federal regulations require universities and other organizations who conduct research with humans, to have IRBs.
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*How does an investigator comply with their ethical responsibilities? |
Through respecting the rights of their participants by:
1. Allowing them to freely give their informed consent
2. Debriefing them afterward if they were not told everything in advance
3. Protecting them from harm (not just physical harm, but emotional as well)
4. Teating any information they provide as confidential |
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What are the four major theoretical viewpoints on development? |
1. The psychoanalytic viewpoint,developed by Sigmund Freud and revised by Erik Erikson
2. The learning perpsective developed by Pavlov, John Watson, Skinner and Bandura
3. The cognitive development viewpoint associated with Jean Piaget
4. The systems theory approach, exemplified by Uri Bronfonbrenners biological model |
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What are the four key developmental issues on which theorists often disagree? |
1. nature-nurture
2. activity - passivity
3. continuity - discontinuity
4. universality - context |
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What is the activity vs passivity issue? |
This issue focuses on the extent to which human beings are active in creating or influencing their own environments and, in the process, in producing their own development, or are passively shaped by forces beyond their control.
Some theorists believe that humans are curious, active creatures who orchestrate their own development by exploring the world around them and shaping their environments
Other theorists view humans as passive beings shaped largely by forces beyond their control - usually environmental influences but possibly strong biological forces. |
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*What is the continuity vs discontinuity issue? |
Continuity theorists typically hold that development is gradual and quantitative
Discontinuity theorists typically hold that development is abrupt and qualitative. Discontinuity theorists often propose that people progress through developmental stages
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What is the universality vs context specificity issue? |
Universal-context-specificity issue or the extent to which developmental changes are common to all humans (universal) or are different across cultures, subcultures, task contexts, and individuals (context specific).
Stage theorists typically believe that the stages they propose are universal
VS
Other theorists believe that human development is far more varied. Paths of development in one culture, may be quite different from paths followed in another culture (or subculture, neighborhood, or even performance context) |
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*Freud strongly believed in unconsious motivation - which was what? |
The power of instincts and other inner forces to influence our behavior without our awareness.
Central to Freudian psychoanalytic theory is the notion that humans have basic biological urges or drives that must be satisfied.
Freud viewed infants as inherently selfish and aggresive creatures driven by instincts - inborn biological forces that motivate behavior. |
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What are some key differences between Erikson and Freuds theories? |
Erikson v Freud (Erikson shifted Freudian thought "upward in consciousness, outward to the social world, and forward throughout the complete lifespan)
1. Placed less emphasis on sexual urges as drivers and more emphasis on social influences (including parents, peers, teachers, schools, and culture)
2. Placed less emphasis on the unconscious irrational id, and more on the rational ego and its adaptive powers
3. Held a more positive view of human nature, seeing people as active in their development
4. Put more emphasis on development after adolescense.
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What were the eight major pyschosocial stages Erikson believed humans experience during their lives? |
1. trust vs mistrust - revolves around whether or not infants become able to rely on other people to be responsive to their needs. or whether an infant is overindulged (e.g. "too trusting"
2. autonomy - the ability to act independently
3. initiative - (as opposed to guilt) to plan and tackle big projects
4.industry - (rather than inferiority) to enable to them to master important academic and social skills in school
5. identity vs role confustion - adolescense is a time of "identity crisis". youth attempt to define who they are
6. intimacy vs isolation - early adulthood, becoming ready to share identity with someone else in a commited, long term relationship
7. generativity vs stagnation - adults gaining a sense that they have produced something that will outlive them (e.g. raising children, life contributions)
8. integrity vs dispair - elderly adults, finding a sense of meaning in their lives to help them face death |
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*Provide additional information on Erikson's FIRST psychosocial stage "trust vs mistrust". |
trust vs mistrust - revolves around whether or not infants become able to rely on other people to be responsive to their needs. or whether an infant is overindulged (e.g. "too trusting")
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*What is meant by John Locke's belief of "tabula rosa"? |
John Locke maintained that an infant is a tabula rosa, or a "blank slate," waiting to be witten on by life experiences. |
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What is the main theme learning theorists agree upon? |
Children have no inborn tendencies, so how they turn out depends entirely on environment in which they grow up and the ways in which their parents and other people in their lives treat them. |
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*What is classical conditioning?
Who was it initially discovered by? and later famously researched by? |
Classical conditioning - a simple form of learning in which a stimulus that initially had no effect on the individual comes to elicit a response through its association with a stimulus that already elicits the response.
This was first discovered by Ivan Pavlov, accidentially while studying the digestive system of dogs. Watson and Raynor did a famous study on "Little Albert" with the white rat. Conditioned him to be afraid of the white rat.
Classical conditioning explains emotional reactions (e.g. phobias) |
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*What is conditioned vs unconditioned stimulus? |
In classical conditioning, the unconditioned stimulus (US) is one that unconditionally, naturally, and automatically triggers a response. For example, when you smell one of your favorite foods, you may immediately feel very hungry. In this example, the smell of the food is the unconditioned stimulus.
the conditioned stimulus is a previously neutral stimulus that, after becoming associated with the unconditioned stimulus, eventually comes to trigger a conditioned response. |
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*What is the basic premise of operant conditioning? And who presented research on it? |
Operant conditioning - in which a learners behavior becomes either more OR less probable depending on the consequences it produces.
In operant a learner first freely behaves in a certain way, THEN associates the action with positive or negative, depending on the consequences that follow (e.g. a blind date)
Operant conditioning helps develop skills, and good and bad habits |
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What is reinforcement? And what is the difference between positive and negative reinforcement? |
Reinforcement occurs when a consequence strengthens a response, or makes it more likely to occur.
E.g. if a child cleans his or her room and receives a HUG, he or she will clean his or her room more often, therefore the hug = positive reinforcement. Positive meaning something has been added. Reinforcement meaning that a behavior is strenghtened
Negative Reinforcement (NOT punishment) occurs when a behavioral tendency is reinforced by taking something unpleasant away. E.g. the annoying sound a car makes until you put your seat belt on. "Buckling your seat belt allows you to escape the unpleasant sound" |
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What is punishment? And what is the difference between positive and negative punishment?
BONUS: what is the process of behavior extinction? |
Punishment is the contrast to reinforcement; punishment decreases the strength of the behavior or weakens it. positive punishment occurs when an unpleasant stimulus is added (e.g. a slap to the hand)
BONUS: When behavior that is ignored, or no longer reinforced, tends to become less frequent through the process of extinction. negative punishment occurs when a desirable stimulus is taken away (losing the privilege to play games, or watch tv) |
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What is social cognitive theory (aka social learning theory)? |
Social cognitive theory (also known as social learning theory) - claims that humans are cognitive beings whos active processing of information plays a critical role in their learning, behavior, and development
Bandura agrees with skinner that operant conditioning is an important type of learning BUT, he notes that people THINK about the connections between their behavior and its consequences, and often are more affected by what they BELIEVE will happen, then by the consequences they actually encounte |
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What is observational learning? and who was it studied by? |
Through observational learning, one learns skills, cognitions, and behaviors, including ones that the learner have not been directly reinforced for displaying
Bandura made his cognitive empahsis clear: observational learning simply learning by observation the behavior of other people (called models). (e.g. children imitating other people). |
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What is reciprocal determination? |
(While Watson and Skinner were hardcore "nurture-ists)
Bandura had a different perspective: reciprocal determination human development occurs through a continuous reciprocal interaction among the person, (the individuals biological and psychological characteristics or cognitions)
Bandura's reciprocal determinism involves mutual influence of the person, the person's behavior, and the environment. |
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Did Watson, Skinner and Bandura all beleive that development was continuous or discontinuous? |
Watson, Skinner and Bandura all believe that development is continuous, gradually occuring through a lifetime of learning. |
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What was Piaget's position on development? |
Piaget's position was: constructivism
constructivism was that children actively construct their own understanding of the world based on their experiences.
e.g. a preschooler inventing ideas not taught by adults, such as saying the sun is alive because it moves across the sky |
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*Piaget proposed four major periods of Cognitive Development - what were they? |
1. Sensorimotor (birth - 2 years) deal with the world directly through their perceptions (senses) and actions (motor skills)
2. Preoperational (2-7 years) has now developed the capacity for symbolic though but is not yet capable of logical problem solving
3. Concrete Operations (7-11 years) - more logical than preschoolers, they use the trial-and-error appraoch to problem solving and do well on problems involving concrete objects e.g. mentally adding or subtracting objects
4. Formal Operations (11-12 years and older) adolescents are now able to think more abstractly and hypothetically than school age children e.g. Children cant grasp the concept of conservation, that certain properties of an object or substance do not change simply because they appear to do so. e.g.water being poured into different shaped glasses (volume is the same). e.g. they can define justice abstractly in terms of fairness |
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*What were the major criticisms of Piaget's theory? |
1. Critics question whether Piagets stages really hang together as general modes of thinking that are applied to a variety of types of problems -Research suggests that development proceeds at different rates for different types of problems
2. Critics conclude that Piaget underestimated the cognitive abilities of young children
3. Critics also charge Piaget with putting too little influence on social and cultural influences on cognitive development |
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*What are systems theories? |
Systems theories of development, sometimes called contextual theories, claim that changes over the life span arise from ongoing transactions in which a changing organism and a changing environment affect one another.
Development can take a variety of paths depending on the complex interplay of multiple influences |
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What was Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model? |
bioecological model of development to get the "person" back into the picture and stress how biology and environment interact to produce development |
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In the bioecological model, what were the four environmental systems that influence and are influenced by a developing person? |
1. microsystem an immediate physical and social environment in which the person interacts face to face with other people and influences and is affected by them (e.g. infants and their parents)
2. mesosystem consists of the interrelationships between two ro more microsystems. For example: teenagers who experience stressfule vents and arguments in the family (one microsystem), then to have increased problems at school (a second microsystem)
3. exosystem consists of linkages involving social settings that individuals do not experience directly but that can still influence their development. (e.g. a child can be affected by how a parents day at work went, or a police departments decision not to enforce underage drinking aggresively)
4. macrosystem is the larger context in which the microsystem, mesosystem and exosystem are embedded. e.g. Culture is defined as the shared understandings and way of life of people |
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Describe a chronosystem |
chronosystem ("chrono" means time) to capture the idea that people and their environments and the relations between the two change over time and unfold in particular patterns or sequenes over a persons lifetime. e.g. an economic crisis |
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*Compare and contrast the major theories (pyschoanalytic aka "stage", learning and systems) in terms of their stands on the four major issues in human development.
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Stage Theorists: Freud, Erikson, Piaget Learning Theorists: Watson, Skinner, Bandura Systems and Contextual Theorists: Bronfenbrenner Many develomentalists today are eclectics who rely on many theories, recognizing that no major theory of human development can explain everything but that each has something to contribute to our understanding |
