Developmental Psychology Week 1 Flashcards

Flashcards covering the vocabulary and key concepts from the Introduction to Developmental Psychology lecture, including goals, research methods, and major theories by Freud, Erikson, Skinner, Bandura, and Piaget.

Description

A goal of developmental psychology involving recording behaviour and changes in behaviour to develop age norms.

Age norms

The recording of what is average or typical behaviour at a certain age.

Explanation

A goal of developmental psychology that involves generating and testing predictions to assess the merit of possible explanations for behaviour.

Optimisation

A goal of developmental psychology focused on making things better for people, whether in educational, clinical, or other roles.

Physical Domain

A domain of development that encompasses biological changes.

Cognitive Domain

A domain of development that includes thinking, language ability and use, and memory.

Socioemotional Domain

A domain of development focused on emotions and interpersonal relationships.

Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Model

A lifespan perspective that identifies four ecological settings for developmental change: microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem.

Microsystem

The level of Bronfenbrenner's model involving face-to-face interactions with entities like family, school, peers, and health services.

Mesosystem

Connections between different microsystems within Bronfenbrenner's ecological model.

Exosystem

Indirect influences on development, such as a spouse's workplace, mass media, legal services, and social welfare services.

Macrosystem

The general aspects of society in Bronfenbrenner's model, including the attitudes and ideologies of the culture.

Dynamic systems perspective

Ford and Lerner's perspective where development occurs through transaction with the environment and modifies in response to biological or environmental changes.

Baltes' Model

A lifespan perspective focusing on normative age-graded, normative history-graded, and non-normative influences on development.

Cross-sectional studies

A research design that compares different people of different ages or age groups at one point in time to describe age-related trends.

Cohort effects

A susceptibility in cross-sectional studies where differences between groups may be due to the era of birth rather than actual developmental changes.

Longitudinal studies

A research design that compares the same people over time via tests or observations at several different times.

Selective attrition

A disadvantage of longitudinal studies where certain participants drop out over the course of the research.

Sequential studies

A combination of cross-sectional and longitudinal designs where at least 2 cohorts are followed over time.

Theory

A set of orderly statements used to describe, explain, and predict behaviour in various domains.

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)

The founder of psychoanalytic theory who proposed three components of personality (id, ego, superego) and stages of psychosexual development.

Oral Stage

Freud's first psychosexual stage (Birth-1 year) where the mouth is the focus of stimulation and interaction.

Anal Stage

Freud's second psychosexual stage (1-3 years) where the focus is on elimination and toilet training.

Phallic Stage

Freud's third psychosexual stage (3-6 years) where focus shifts to the genitals and includes the Oedipus and Electra complexes.

Latency Stage

Freud's fourth psychosexual stage (6-12 years) characterized by suspended sexual activity and shifts toward social and intellectual activities.

Genital Stage

Freud's final psychosexual stage (12-adulthood) involving the re-merging of sexual impulses and mature sexual relationships.

Erik Erikson (1902-1994)

A psychoanalytic theorist who emphasized social and cultural aspects of development through eight qualitative psychosocial stages.

Basic trust versus mistrust

Erikson's first stage (Birth-18 months) focused on developing trusting relationships and the virtue of hope.

Autonomy versus shame and doubt

Erikson's second stage (1-2 years) where children wish to make decisions for themselves to develop the virtue of will.

Initiative versus guilt

Erikson's third stage (3-6 years) where children experiment with who they can become, developing a sense of purpose.

Industry versus inferiority

Erikson's fourth stage (7-11 years) focused on mastery, competence, and productivity.

Identity versus role confusion

Erikson's teenage stage focused on forming a coherent self-concept and personal identity (fidelity).

Intimacy versus isolation

Erikson's early adulthood stage (20s and 30s) focused on achieving intimate relationships and career direction (love).

Generativity versus stagnation

Erikson's middle adulthood stage (40s to 60s) focused on creative and productive activity contributing to future generations (care).

Ego integrity versus despair

Erikson's final stage (60s on) where individuals reflect on their lives to achieve a sense of wisdom.

B. F. Skinner (1904 - 1991)

A behaviourist who developed the concept of operant conditioning involving reinforcement, punishment, extinction, and shaping.

Albert Bandura

A social cognitive theorist known for roles of observational learning, imitation, and modelling.

Jean Piaget

A cognitive-developmental theorist who proposed children move through four sequential stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational.

Assimilation

The process in Piaget's theory where new problems are solved using existing schemes.

Accommodation

The process in Piaget's theory where existing schemes are altered, modified, or adapted to meet new challenges.

Sensorimotor Stage

Piaget's first stage (Birth-2 years) involving the coordination of sensory and motor activity and achievement of object permanence.

Preoperational Stage

Piaget's second stage (2-7 years) involving the use of language, symbolic representation, and egocentric thinking.

Concrete Operational Stage

Piaget's third stage (7-11 years) involving logical operations to solve concrete problems and hierarchical organization.

Formal Operational Stage

Piaget's final stage (11-adulthood) involving the capacity for abstract, systematic thinking and deducing testable inferences.

Sensory register

The first memory store in information-processing theory where initial information from the environment is held.

Short-term (working) memory

A limited capacity and limited time memory store where material can be kept via rehearsal.

Long-term memory

An unlimited memory store involving processes such as recognition, recall, reconstruction, and metacognition.