PSY 2114 Week 1 - Lifespan Development and Research Methods

Flashcards covering key developmental psychology theories, aging definitions, operant conditioning, ecological systems, and research methodology/ethics from PSY 2114 Week 1 lecture materials.

What is the definition of lifespan development?

The multidisciplinary scientific study of how people change and how they stay the same throughout their lives.

What is the maximum human lifespan mentioned in the lecture, and how does lifespan differ from life expectancy?

The maximum human lifespan mentioned is $122\text{ years}$. Lifespan is the maximum possible length of life for a species under ideal circumstances, whereas life expectancy is the predicted number of years an individual will live based on context and circumstances.

What are the four distinct types of age evaluated in lifespan psychology?

1. Chronological age (actual age based on time elapsed since birth).
2. Biological age (how 'aged' the body is physical structure/health).
3. Psychological age (psychological adaptive capacity and thinking compared to peers).
4. Social age (culturally defined expectations and social roles).

According to Paul Baltes, what are the key characteristics of development in the lifespan perspective?

Development is lifelong, multidirectional (involving concurrent growth and loss), multidimensional (physical, cognitive, psychosocial), multidisciplinary, plastic (ability to change/adapt), and multicontextual.

What are the three types of contextual influences on development described by Paul Baltes?

1. Normative age-graded influences (experiences tied to a specific age/period, like toddlerhood).
2. Normative history-graded influences (experiences shared by a generation, such as major historical events).
3. Non-normative life influences (unique personal events that do not happen to most people at that age).

What official measure is used to assess poverty in Canada according to the lecture?

The Market Basket Measure (MBM), which determines poverty based on whether a family has enough income to purchase a specific basket of necessary goods and services (food, clothing, housing, transportation, essential services) in its specific community.

What clinical term is cited in the lecture as being attributed to physicians and Rizq (2016) to describe the adverse health consequences of poverty or abuse?

Shit Life Syndrome (SLS).

How do ethnocentrism and cultural relativity differ?

Ethnocentrism is the belief that one's own culture is superior to others ('My culture is the best'), while cultural relativity is consciously attempting to appreciate cultural differences and evaluate practices within their cultural context.

Which four forces interact within the biopsychosocial framework to shape human development?

Biological forces (genetics/health), psychological forces (cognition/personality/emotions), sociocultural forces (society/culture/ethnicity), and life-cycle forces (age/life-stage context).

What were the historical views on child development held by preformationists, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Arnold Gesell?

Preformationists believed a tiny fully formed human existed in the egg/sperm; John Locke viewed children as a blank slate (tabula rasa) shaped by environment; Rousseau proposed children develop through natural stages according to their own timing; Arnold Gesell proposed development occurs via genetic/biological maturation.

According to this 2x2 operant conditioning framework, how are reinforcement and punishment categorized by action and outcome?

Positive reinforcement adds a stimulus to increase behaviour; negative reinforcement removes a stimulus to increase behaviour; positive punishment adds a stimulus to decrease behaviour; negative punishment removes a stimulus to decrease behaviour.

What is reciprocal determinism in Albert Bandura's social learning theory?

A continuous bidirectional interaction between the person and the environment, meaning individuals influence their surroundings and their surroundings simultaneously influence them.

What are the five environmental systems in Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory?

1. Microsystem (immediate environments/people like family and parents).
2. Mesosystem (interconnections between microsystems, e.g., home-school link).
3. Exosystem (indirect environments that affect the person without direct participation).
4. Macrosystem (overarching cultural or societal context).
5. Chronosystem (historical time and generational context).

What are the three components of Baltes' Selective Optimization with Compensation (SOC) model?

1. Selection (choosing specific goals, either elective or loss-based).
2. Optimization (maximizing personal skills and abilities in those chosen goals).
3. Compensation (finding alternative methods to accomplish goals when abilities decrease).

What is the core distinction between test reliability and test validity?

Reliability refers to consistency and repeatability of measurement results across time, whereas validity refers to whether the test accurately measures what it intends to measure. A test can be reliable without being valid, but an unreliable test can never be valid.

Based on the comparison table of developmental research designs, what are the characteristics, strengths, and problems of longitudinal, cross-sectional, and sequential designs?

Longitudinal designs track the same cohort over multiple times to show change/stability (problem: time, cost, attrition, practice effects). Cross-sectional designs test different ages at one time to be fast and cheaper (problem: cohort effects). Sequential designs test multiple age groups repeatedly over time to address cohort and practice effects (problem: very expensive and time-consuming).

What two properties of a relationship are indicated by the Pearson correlation coefficient ($r$)?

Direction (indicated by the positive or negative sign) and strength (indicated by how close the absolute value of $r$ is to $1$).

What is a cohort effect in cross-sectional developmental studies?

A phenomenon where differences between age groups stem from unique generational, historical, or environmental experiences rather than true developmental aging.

What occurred during the Tuskegee Syphilis Study ($1932$–$1972$) and what impact did its exposure have on research ethics?

Nearly $400$ African American men with syphilis were deceived and intentionally denied effective treatments like penicillin to study untreated disease progression. Its exposure led directly to the $1979$ Belmont Report, federal regulations, establishment of OHRP, and institutional review systems.

What are the three core principles of Canada's Tri-Council Policy Statement (TCPS) for research ethics, and which three funding agencies form the Tri-Council?

The three core principles are Respect for Persons, Concern for Welfare, and Justice. The three agencies are CIHR (Canadian Institutes of Health Research), NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada), and SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada).