Child Development: Chapters 1-3

Maturational theory:

a theory that views development
as unfolding according
to a specific and pre-arranged
scheme or plan within the body.

Ethological theory:

a theory that views development
from an evolutionary
perspective, such that human
behaviours can be adaptive
and have survival value.

Imprinting:

the instinctive creation of an
emotional bond between a
newborn animal and the animal's
mother.

Attachment:

the emotional bond that forms
between people, particularly
children and their parents; also,
an enduring social-emotional
relationship.

Psychoanalysis:

Freud's psychological theory and
method of treatment for unresolved
unconscious conflict

Id:

one of three Freudian components
of personality; a reservoir
of primitive instincts and drives.

Ego:

one of three Freudian components
of personality; tries to
realistically meet the demands
of the id.

Superego:

one of three Freudian components
of personality; acts as
the moral agent of personality.

Libido:

an instinctive energy or force
that motivates humans to experience
pleasure.

Environmental reactions:

a family's responses to hereditary
conditions.

Body ego:

a person's sense of the self as
an individual.

Psychic skin:

a person's capacity for protecting
and containing his or her
internal emotional states.

Neuropsychoanalysis:

the study of the relationship
between psychoanalytic theory
and biological approaches in
psychology.

Psychodynamic theories:

theories that are offshoots of
Freudian psychoanalysis.

Oral stage

Freud, psychosexual, Erogenous zone: mouth;
gratify oral sucking urges, Birth to 1 year

Anal stage

1 to 3 years, Erogenous zone: anus; release
and withhold feces, Freud, psychosexual

Phallic stage

3 to 6 years, Erogenous zone: genitalia;
learn to suppress attraction to
the parent of the opposite sex
and identify with the parent of
the same sex, Freud, psychosexual

Latency stage

6 to adolescence, Erogenous zone: none; libido
is repressed as children go
about daily business, freud, psychosexual

Genital stage

Adolescence, Erogenous zone: genitalia;
attraction to the opposite sex
(not the parent), freud, psychosexual

Basic trust vs mistrust

birth to age 1, erikson psychosocial, To develop a sense that
the world is safe, a "good
place"

Autonomy vs shame and doubt

1 to 3 years old, erikson psychosocial, To realize that one is an
independent person who
can make decisions

Initiative vs guilt

3 to 6 years, erikson psychosocial, To develop a willingness
to try new things and to
handle failure

Industry vs inferiority

6 to adolescence, erikson psychosocial, learn basic skills and to work with others

identity vs identity confusion

adolescence, erikson psychosocial, to develop a lasting and integrated sense of self

intimacy vs isolation

young adulthood, erikson psychosocial, to commit to another in a loving relationship

generativity vs stagnation

middle adulthood, erikson psychosocial, To contribute to younger
people through childrearing,
child care, or other
productive work

Integrity vs despair

Later life, to view one's life as satisfactory and worth living

Classical conditioning:

a theory of associative learning
that later gave rise to behaviourism;
also a form of learning
in which a previously neutral
stimulus elicits a response that
was originally produced by another
natural stimulus.

Operant conditioning:

a behavioural theory about
how the consequences of a
behaviour can affect future occurrences
of that behaviour

Reinforcement:

an action or consequence that
increases the future likelihood
of the behaviour it follows.

Punishment:

an action or aversive consequence
that decreases the
future likelihood of the behaviour
it follows, primarily when
the child is in the presence of
an authority figure.

Imitation:

behaving in the manner one
sees others behaving.

Vicarious (observational)
learning:

a method of learning in which
one acquires knowledge by
watching others' behaviours
and the consequences or outcomes
of those behaviours.

Social cognitive theory:

a theory of personality that
views the environment, behaviour,
and cognitions as important
in shaping development.

Self-efficacy:

beliefs about one's own levels
of ability, skill, and talent.

Sensorimotor

birth to 2 years, piaget cognitive development, Infant's knowledge of the world is based on senses and
motor skills. By the end of the period, infant uses mental
representations.

preoperational thought

2 to 6 years, piaget, cognitive development, Child learns how to use symbols such as words and
numbers to represent aspects of the world but relates to
the world only through his or her perspective.

Concrete operational thought

7 to 11 years, piaget cognitive development, Child understands and applies logical operations to experiences,
provided the experiences are focused on the
here and now.

Formal operational thought

Adolescence and beyond, piaget cognitive development, Adolescent or adult thinks abstractly, speculates on
hypothetical situations, and reasons deductively about
what may be possible.

Culture:

the knowledge, attitudes, beliefs,
symbolic representations,
and behaviours associated
with a group of people.

Ecological theory:

a theory of development that
views the child as embedded
in a series of complex and interactive
systems.

Resilience:

the capacity of an individual to
deal with difficulties in life.

Entrepreneurship:

the capacity of an individual to
shape their interactions with
others.

Mental hardware:

cognitive structures, including
memories and where they are
stored.

Mental software:

organized sets of cognitive
processes, such as reading.

Evolutionary
developmental
psychology:

an approach to developmental
psychology using evolutionary
theory as a metatheory
of human development in an
attempt to have psychologists
agree on a unified perspective
of humanity.

Developmental
psychopathology:

a theory of child development
that tries to explain how abnormal
development occurs
within a view of development
as a dynamic process involving
continual transformation during
the lifespan.

Biological perspective: key assumptions and specific theories

Development is determined
primarily by biological forces. Maturational theory, ethological theory

Psychodynamic perspective: key assumptions and specific theories

Development is determined
primarily by how a child resolves
conflicts at different
ages. Freud's theory, eriksons theory

Learning perspective: key assumptions and specific theories

Development is determined
primarily by a child's
environment. Skinners theory, Banduras theory

Cognitive development perspective: key assumptions and specific theories

Development reflects children's
efforts to understand
the world. Piaget's theory

contextual perspective: key assumptions and specific theories

Development is influenced by
immediate and more distant
environments, which typically
influence each other. Vygotsky's theory, Bronfenbrenner's theory

Vygotsky:

emphasizes the role of parents (and other
adults) in conveying culture to the next generation.

Bronfenbrenner:

emphasizes the influences of the microsystem,
mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and
chronosystem.

information-processing perspective: key assumptions

Development is understood
by analogy to the workings of
a computer, with mental hardware
and software as well as
input and output processes.

evolutionary perspective: key assumptions and specific theories

Development is influenced
by the process of evolution,
which favours characteristics
of children that have value to
the survival of the species. Bjorklund and Pellegrini

developmental psychopathology perspective: key assumptions and specific theories

Developmental outcome is
shaped by many different
variables, including both
biological-genetic and environmental
factors.Mash and Wolfe: emphasize dynamic transformation
throughout the lifespan and focus on how abnormal
development can occur.

Systematic observation:

a research technique that
involves watching and
carefully recording what
people do or say.

Naturalistic observation:

a research technique that
involves observing people
in real-life situations and
recording data about their
behaviour based on certain
predetermined variables of
interest for study.

Variables:

factors of interest that
researchers study that are
subject to change under
various research conditions.

Ecological validity:

the degree to which
conclusions from research
can provide information
about behaviour in real-life
situations.

Self-reports:

answers to questions that elicit
people's thoughts or ideas
about a topic of interest for
study.

Demand characteristics:

situational cues that suggest
to a research participant
how a researcher wants the
participant to respond.

Reliability:

statistical information about
the degree to which a measure
yields consistent results over
time.

natualistic observation pros and cons

Captures children's behaviour in
its natural setting,
Difficult to use with behaviours that are
rare or private

Sampling Behaviour with
Tasks pros and cons

Convenient: can be used to study
most behaviours.
May be invalid if the task does not
sample behaviour as it occurs naturally

Structured Observation pros and cons

Can be used to study behaviours
that are rare or private
May be invalid if the structured setting
distorts the behaviour

Self-Reports (Written
Questionnaires
or Interviews) pros and cons

Convenient: can be used to study
most behaviours.
May be invalid because respondents
answer incorrectly due to forgetting,
demand characteristics, or bias

Validity:

statistical information
about the degree to which
conclusions based on a measure
actually mean what a
researcher hypothesized they
would mean.

Convergent validity:

statistical information
about the degree to which a
measure yields results that
are theoretically similar to
and positively correlated with
another well-established
measure of the same variable.

Divergent validity:

statistical information
about the degree to which a
measure yields results that
are theoretically different
from and negatively correlated
with another well-established
measure of an opposite
variable.

Population:

the set or group of all people
from which a sample is drawn
in a research study.

Sample:

a subgroup of a population
who participates in a study.
Results based on the sample
are generalized to the entire
population if the sample
is representative of that
population.

Correlational study:

the study of the relationship
between variables that
naturally coexist in the world.

Correlation coefficient (r):

a numerical, statistical value
representing both the direction
and the strength of the
relationship between variables.

P-value:

the probability of obtaining a
particular measurement if, in
fact, no real difference existed
between the conditions being
compared.

Descriptive statistics:

basic numerical summaries of
research data.

Inferential statistics:

statistical calculations that
go beyond basic description
of research data to infer or
predict how well the data
represents the total population
of observations from which
data might be gathered.

Experiment:

a research method in which
variables are systematically
manipulated in order to
discover the causal effect of
one variable on another.

Independent variable:

the variable that is
manipulated in a study.

Dependent variable:

the variable in a study that is
measured and that changes
as a result of the action of the
independent variable.

Mediator variable:

a variable that explains or
accounts for any relationship
observed between an
independent and a dependent
variable.

Field experiment:

a type of experiment in which
the independent variable is
manipulated in a naturalistic
setting.

Longitudinal study:

a type of research study
in which the variables of
interest are measured in the
same research participants
repeatedly over time.

Microgenetic study:

a type of research study
in which the variables of
interest are measured in the
same research participants
repeatedly over a short period
of time, such as days or weeks,
in order to capture an aspect of
rapid developmental change.

Sequential design:

a type of research study in
which the variables of interest
are measured repeatedly over
time in the same groups of
research participants, with
each group having been born
in a different time period.

Cohort effect:

the impact of a particular
event, culture, or historical
experience on a particular
group of people.

Practice effect:

becoming "test-wise" and
achieving better scores on
a test than on previous
occasions because of repeated
exposure to the test.

Attrition:

loss of participants in a study.

Cross-sectional study

a research study in which
a variable of interest is
measured at one point in time
across persons of different
ages or characteristics.

Respect for the dignity of
persons: priority level and description

First priority. Given greatest weight except in circumstances of a true emergency,
when the physical safety of a person is imminently
threatened.

Responsible caring: priority level and description

Second priority. Responsible caring can be carried out only if the psychologist
is competent in the area of practice or research being done,
with the highest respect for the dignity of persons.

Integrity in relationships: priority level and description

Third priority. Values such as openness and straightforwardness are reflected
in this category, which, at times, might be overridden
by the need to respect the dignity of and responsible caring
for a person.

Responsibility to society: priority level and description

Fourth priority. If a person's needs conflict with what is of greatest benefit to
society, a solution might be difficult to reach. According to this
code of ethics, the dignity and well-being of a person should
not be violated in favour of what a society wants or values.

Family policy:

laws and regulations that
directly or indirectly affect
families with children.

Quasi-experimental design:

an approach to research
involving comparison of
groups whose members are
not randomly selected.

Gamete:

an egg or sperm cell.

Chromosomes:

organic structures in the cell's
nucleus that contain genetic
material.

Meiosis:

the biological process of cell
division resulting in gametes
that have 23 chromosomes,
which is half the amount of
genetic material normally seen
in a human cell.

Mitosis:

the biological process of cell
division resulting in bodily
cells that are exact copies of
their parent cells and have a
full set of 46 chromosomes.