A Topical Approach to Life-Span Development - Chapter 1

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, theories, stages, and research methodologies from Chapter 1 of 'A Topical Approach to Life-Span Development'.

Development

Pattern of movement or change that begins at conception and continues through the life span.

Traditional View of Development

View that development is characterized by extensive change from birth to adolescence and decline in old age.

Life-Span Perspective

The view that developmental change takes place throughout adulthood as well as during childhood.

Maximum Life Span

The upper boundary of the human life span.

Life Expectancy

The average number of years a person is expected to live; currently $79.24$\,years in the United States for individuals born in 2024.

Normative History-Graded Influences (911)

Influences that are common to people of a particular generation due to historical circumstances.

Cross-Cultural Studies

Studies that compare two or more cultures.

Ethnicity

A characteristic based on cultural heritage, nationality characteristics, race, religion, and language.

Gender

The characteristics of people as males and females.

Biological Processes

Processes that produce changes in an individual’s physical nature.

Socioemotional Processes

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

Emerging Adulthood (school)

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

Chronological Age

The number of years that have elapsed since birth.

Biological Age (flip around)

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.

Stability–Change Issue (cancer)

The debate regarding whether an individual is forever shaped by early experience or has the capacity to change.

Hypotheses

Specific assertions and predictions that can be tested.

Psychoanalytic Theories

Theories that describe development as primarily unconscious and heavily influenced by emotions.

Oral Stage

Freudian psychosexual stage from birth to $1.5$\,years where the infant’s pleasure centers on the mouth.

Anal Stage

Freudian psychosexual stage from $1.5$\,to $3$\,years where the child’s pleasure focuses on the anus.

Phallic Stage

Freudian psychosexual stage from $3$\,to $6$\,years where the child’s pleasure focuses on the genitals.

Latency Stage

Freudian psychosexual stage from $6$\,years to puberty where the child represses sexual interest and develops social and intellectual skills.

Genital Stage

Freudian psychosexual stage from puberty onward representing a time of sexual reawakening where the source of sexual pleasure becomes someone outside the family.

Sensorimotor Stage

Piagetian cognitive stage from birth to $2$\,years of age where the infant constructs an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences with physical actions.

Preoperational Stage

Piagetian cognitive stage from $2$\,to $7$\,years of age where the child begins to represent the world with words and images reflecting increased symbolic thinking.

Concrete Operational Stage

Piagetian cognitive stage from $7$\,to $11$\,years of age where the child can reason logically about concrete events and classify objects into different sets.

Formal Operational Stage

Piagetian cognitive stage from $11$\,years of age through adulthood where the adolescent reasons in more abstract, idealistic, and logical ways.

Operant Conditioning

Skinner's theory that consequences of a behavior produce changes in the probability of the behavior’s occurrence.

Social Cognitive Theory

Bandura's theory stating that behavior, environment, and cognition are key factors in development, which is shaped by observational learning.

Ethological Theory ( eth-evolve)

Theory stating that behavior is strongly influenced by biology, tied to evolution, and characterized by critical or sensitive periods.

Imprinting

Rapid, innate learning that involves attachment to the first moving object seen during a critical period.

Ecological Theory

Theory that emphasizes environmental factors in development.

Eclectic Theoretical Orientation (considerd)

An approach that does not follow any one theoretical approach but rather selects from each theory whatever is considered best in it.

Naturalistic Observation

Observation of behavior in real-world settings.

Standardized Test

A test with uniform procedures for administration and scoring that allows a person’s performance to be compared with others.

Case Study

An in-depth examination of a single individual.

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

A neuroimaging method that uses electromagnetic waves to construct images of brain tissue and biochemical activity.

Correlation Coefficient (#)

A number based on statistical analysis used to describe the degree of association between two variables, ranging from $-1.00$ to $+1.00$.

Experiment

A research design that uses carefully regulated procedures in which one or more factors are manipulated while all other factors are held constant.

Experimental Group

The group whose experience is manipulated by the researcher in an experiment.

Cross-Sectional Approach

A research strategy that simultaneously compares individuals of different ages.

Longitudinal Approach

A research strategy in which the same individuals are studied over a period of time.

Cohort Effects (effects)

Effects due to a person’s time of birth, era, or generation—not to actual age.

Ethnic Gloss

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