section 1 test review (pt.1)

development

Pattern of movement or change that begins at conception

and continues through the life span.

birth to adolescence

extensive change

adulthood

little to no change

old age

decline

life-span perspective

Developmental change takes place throughout adulthood as well as during childhood

Normative age-graded influence

similar for individuals sharing the same age group

Normative history-graded influence

common to people of a particular generation due to historical circumstances

Nonnormative life events

Unusual occurrences that have a major impact on an individual’s life.

Culture

behavior patterns, beliefs, and other products of a people that are passed on from generation to generation

Cross-cultural studies

compare two or more cultures

Ethnicity

characteristics based on cultural heritage, nationality characteristics, race, religion, and language

Socioeconomic status (SES)

a person’s position within society based on occupational, educational, and economic characteristics

Gender

the characteristics of people as males and female

Social policy

government’s course of action designed to promote the welfare of its citizens

Biological processes

produce changes in an individual’s physical nature

Cognitive processes

involve changes in an individual’s thought, intelligence, and language

Socioemotional processes

involve changes in an individual’s relationships with other people, in emotions, and in personality

emerging adulthood

Period of transition from adolescence to adulthood: Characterized by identity exploration, instability, self-focus, feeling in-between, and the possibility of transformation

Chronological age

number of years since birth

Biological age

age in terms of biological health

Psychological age

adaptive capacities compared with others of the same chronological age

Social age

Connectedness with others and the social roles that individuals adopt

Nature–nurture issue

biological inheritance or environmental experience

Stability–change issue

forever shaped by early experience, or is there a capacity to change

Continuity–discontinuity issue

gradual, cumulative change or distinct stages

Theory

an interrelated, coherent set of ideas that helps explain phenomena and make predictions

Hypotheses

specific assertions and predictions that can be tested.

Psychoanalytic theories

Describe development as primarily unconscious and heavily influenced by emotions; stress that early experiences with parents deeply shape

development

Freud

five stages of psychosexual development; personality is determined by how we resolve conflicts between sources of pleasure at each stage and the demands of reality

Oral Stage

Infant’s pleasure centers on the mouth.

Ana1 Stage

child’s pleasure focuses on the anus

Phallic Stage

Child’s pleasure focuses on the genitals

Latency Stage

The child represses sexual interest and develops social and intellectual skills

Genital Stage

A time of sexual reawakening; the source of sexual pleasure becomes someone outside the family

Erikson’s theory.

The primary motivation for human behavior is social and reflects a desire to affiliate with other people

Piaget’s theory

Four cognitive developmental stages.

Children actively construct their understanding of the world.

Sensorimotor Stage

The infant constructs an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences with physical actions. An infant progresses from reflexive, instinctual action at birth to the beginning of symbolic thought toward the end of the stage.

Birth to 2 Years of Age

Preoperational Stage

The child begins to represent the world with words and images. These words and images reflect increased symbolic thinking and go beyond the connection of sensory information and physical action.

2 to 7 Years of Age

Concrete Operational Stage

The child can now reason logically about concrete events and classify objects into different sets.

7 to 11 Years of Age

Formal Operational Stage

The adolescents reasons in more abstract, idealistic, and logical ways.

11 Years of Age Through Adulthood

Vygotsky’s theory

Sociocultural cognitive theory emphasizes how culture and social interaction guide cognitive development; Social interaction with more-skilled adults and peers is indispensable to their cognitive development

Information-processing theory

Individuals manipulate information, monitor it, and strategize about it; development is gradual rather than stage-like, allowing them to acquire increasingly complex knowledge and skills.

Social cognitive theory

behavior, environment, and cognition are key to development, which is shaped by observation

Ethology

Behavior is strongly influenced by biology, tied to evolution, and characterized by a critical or sensitive period

Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory

Development reflects the influence of several environmental systems

eclectic theoretical orientation

No single theory explains the complexity of lifespan development; each theory has an advanced understanding of the factors that shape development; rather than strictly following a single approach, select from each theory whatever is considered best.

Laboratory

observation in a controlled setting where many complex factors of the “real world” have been removed

Naturalistic observation

observation of behavior in real-world settings

Standardized test

Uniform procedures for administration and scoring; Allows a person’s performance to be compared with the performance of others; Con: assumes behavior is consistent

Case study

In-depth examination of a single individual

Descriptive research

Aims to observe and record behavior

Correlational research

Strives to describe the strength of the relationship between two or more events or characteristics; Prediction is based on the strength of the relationship

Correlation coefficient

a number based on statistical analysis, used to describe the degree of association between two variables

Experiment

uses carefully regulated procedures in which one or more factors are manipulated while all other factors are held constant

Cross-sectional approach

Research strategy that simultaneously compares individuals of different ages

Longitudinal approach

Research strategy in which the same individuals are studied over a period of time; Provides information about stability and change.

Cohort effects

Effects due to a person’s time of birth, era, or generation— not to actual age; Cross-sectional studies can confuse age changes with cohort effects; Longitudinal studies are effective in studying age changes, but only within one cohort.

Ethnic gloss

use of an ethnic label that portrays an ethnic group as more homogeneous than it really is