Psych 1 Midterm 3 Reading

Developmental psychology

The scientific study of how people change physically, cognitively, socially, and emotionally from infancy through old age.

Stages

Distinct segments of an organism’s life with sharp differences or discontinuities between them.

Maturation

A series of biological growth processes that enable orderly growth, relatively independently of experience

Cross-sectional design

A methodological approach to studying development that compares participants of different age groups to one another. It compares participants at one point in time.

Cohort effect

An effect or difference due to the members of an age group (or age cohort) sharing a common set of life experiences. The potential for cohort effects is a key disadvantage of cross-sectional research designs.

Longitudinal design

A methodological approach to studying development that tracks participants across time and compares each participant at different time points. (downsides: attrition, takes a lot of time, and it examines a single generation or cohort so it might not apply to other generations)

Attrition

This is participants withdrawing from the study before it is finished.

Sequential design

A methodological approach to studying development that tracks multiple age groups across multiple time points, and compares different age groups to one another, as well as compares participants to themselves at different time points.