Human Development: Basic Concepts, Theories, and Research Methods

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and definitions from Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 on human development, theoretical perspectives, and research methodology.

Human development

Scientific study of processes of change and stability throughout the human life span.

Life-span development

Concept of human development as a lifelong process, which can be studied scientifically.

Physical development

Growth of body and brain, including patterns of change in sensory capacities, motor skills, and health.

Cognitive development

Pattern of change in mental abilities, such as learning, attention, memory, language, thinking, reasoning, and creativity.

Psychosocial development

Pattern of change in emotions, personality, and social relationships; or in Erikson's eight-stage theory, the socially and culturally influenced process of development of the ego, or self.

Social construction

A concept or practice that may appear natural and obvious to those who accept it but that in reality is an invention of a particular culture or society.

Individual differences

Differences in characteristics, influences, or developmental outcomes.

Heredity

Inborn traits or characteristics inherited from the biological parents.

Environment

Totality of nonhereditary, or experiential, influences on development.

Maturation

Unfolding of a natural sequence of physical and behavioral changes.

Nuclear family

Two-generational kinship, economic, and household unit consisting of one or two parents and their biological children, adopted children, or stepchildren.

Extended family

Multigenerational kinship network of parents, children, and other relatives, sometimes living together in an extended-family household.

Polygamy

Family structure in which one spouse, most commonly a man, is married to more than one partner.

Socioeconomic status (SES)

Combination of economic and social factors describing an individual or family, including income, education, and occupation.

COVID-19

A novel coronavirus disease causing fatigue, loss of sense of smell, fever, and respiratory distress; the source of the 2019 pandemic.

Risk factors

Conditions that increase the likelihood of a negative developmental outcome.

Culture

A society's or group's total way of life, including customs, traditions, beliefs, values, language, and physical products—all learned behavior, passed on from parents to children.

Individualistic culture

A culture in which people tend to prioritize personal goals ahead of collective goals and to view themselves as distinct individuals.

Collectivistic culture

A culture in which people tend to prioritize collaborative social goals ahead of individual goals and to view themselves in the context of their social relationships.

Ethnic group

A group united by ancestry, race, religion, language, or national origins, which contribute to a sense of shared identity.

Ethnic minorities

Ethnic groups with national or cultural traditions different from the majority of the population.

Intersectionality

An analytic framework focused on how a person's multiple identities combine to create differences in privilege or discrimination.

Black Lives Matter

A political and social movement focused on eliminating racially based violence against Black people through nonviolent protest and activism.

BIPOC

Acronym standing for Black, indigenous and people of color.

Race

A grouping of humans distinguished by their outward physical characteristics or social qualities from other groups; not a biological construct.

Ethnic gloss

Overgeneralization about an ethnic or cultural group that obscures differences within the group.

Normative

Characteristic of an event that occurs in a similar way for most people in a group.

Historical generation

A group of people strongly influenced by a major historical event during their formative period.

Cohort

A group of people born at about the same time.

Nonnormative

Characteristic of an unusual event that happens to a particular person or a typical event that happens at an unusual time of life.

Imprinting

Instinctive form of learning in which, during a critical period in early development, a young animal forms an attachment to the first moving object it sees, usually the mother.

Critical period

Specific time when a given event or its absence has a specific impact on development.

Plasticity

Range of modifiability of performance, or modifiability/molding of the brain through experience.

Sensitive periods

Times in development when a person is particularly open to certain kinds of experiences.

Theory

Coherent set of logically related concepts that seeks to organize, explain, and predict data.

Hypotheses

Possible explanations for phenomena, used to predict the outcome of research.

Mechanistic model

Model that views human development as a series of predictable responses to stimuli.

Organismic model

Model that views human development as internally initiated by an active organism and as occurring in a sequence of qualitatively different stages.

Quantitative change

Change in number or amount, such as in height, weight, size of vocabulary, or frequency of communication.

Qualitative change

Discontinuous change in kind, structure, or organization.

Psychoanalytic perspective

View of human development as shaped by unconscious forces that motivate human behavior.

Psychosexual development

In Freudian theory, an unvarying sequence of stages of childhood personality development in which gratification shifts from the mouth to the anus and then to the genitals.

Learning perspective

View of human development that holds that changes in behavior result from experience or from adaptation to the environment.

Behaviorism

Learning theory that emphasizes the predictable role of environment in causing observable behavior.

Classical conditioning

Learning based on associating a stimulus that does not ordinarily elicit a response with another stimulus that does elicit the response.

Operant conditioning

Learning based on association of behavior with its consequences, or learning based on reinforcement or punishment.

Reinforcement

The process by which a behavior is strengthened, increasing the likelihood that the behavior will be repeated.

Punishment

The process by which a behavior is weakened, decreasing the likelihood of repetition.

Social learning theory

Theory that behaviors are learned by observing and imitating models; also called social cognitive theory.

Reciprocal determinism

Bandura's term for bidirectional forces that affect development.

Observational learning

Learning through watching the behavior of others.

Self-efficacy

Sense of one's capability to master challenges and achieve goals.

Cognitive perspective

View that thought processes are central to development.

Cognitive-stage theory

Piaget's theory that children's cognitive development advances in a series of four stages involving qualitatively distinct types of mental operations.

Organization

Piaget's term for the creation of categories or systems of knowledge.

Schemes

Piaget's term for organized patterns of thought and behavior used in particular situations.

Adaptation

Piaget's term for adjustment to new information about the environment, achieved through processes of assimilation and accommodation.

Assimilation

Piaget's term for incorporation of new information into an existing cognitive structure.

Accommodation

Piaget's term for changes in a cognitive structure to include new information.

Equilibration

Piaget's term for the tendency to seek a stable balance among cognitive elements; achieved through a balance between assimilation and accommodation.

Sociocultural theory

Vygotsky's theory of how contextual factors affect children's development.

Zone of proximal development (ZPD)

Vygotsky's term for the difference between what a child can do alone and what the child can do with help.

Scaffolding

Temporary support to help a child master a task.

Information-processing approach

Approach to the study of cognitive development by observing and analyzing the mental processes involved in perceiving and handling information.

Contextual perspective

View of human development that sees the individual as inseparable from the social context.

Bioecological theory

Bronfenbrenner's approach to understanding processes and contexts of human development that identifies five levels of environmental influence.

Evolutionary/sociobiological perspective

View of human development that focuses on evolutionary and biological bases of behavior.

Ethology

Study of distinctive adaptive behaviors of species of animals that have evolved to increase survival of the species.

Evolutionary psychology

Application of Darwinian principles of natural selection and survival of the fittest to individual behavior.

Quantitative research

Research that deals with objectively measurable data.

Scientific method

System of established principles and processes of scientific inquiry, which includes identifying a problem to be studied, formulating a hypothesis to be tested by research, collecting data, analyzing the data, forming tentative conclusions, and disseminating findings.

Qualitative research

Research that focuses on nonnumerical data, such as subjective experiences, feelings, or beliefs.

Population

The entire pool of individuals under study from which a sample is drawn and to which findings may apply.

Sample

Group of participants chosen to represent the entire population under study.

Random selection

Selection of a sample in such a way that each person in a population has an equal and independent chance of being chosen.

Random sample

A sample of individuals chosen in such a way that every individual in the population has an equal and independent chance of being chosen.

WEIRD

Acronym (Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic) for the type of societies from which research samples are typically drawn.

Naturalistic observation

Research method in which behavior is studied in natural settings without intervention or manipulation.

Laboratory observation

Research method in which all participants are observed under the same controlled conditions.

Observer bias

Any expectations, beliefs, or personal preferences of a researcher that unintentionally influence their findings.

Case study

Study of a single subject, such as an individual or family.

Ethnographic study

In-depth study of a culture, which uses a combination of methods including participant observation.

Participant observation

Research method in which the observer lives with the people or participates in the activity being observed.

Correlational study

Research design intended to discover whether a statistical relationship between variables exists.

Experiment

Rigorously controlled, replicable procedure in which the researcher manipulates variables to assess the effect of one on the other.

Experimental group

In an experiment, the group receiving the treatment under study.

Control group

In an experiment, a group of people, similar to those in the experimental group, who do not receive the treatment under study.

Independent variable

In an experiment, the condition over which the experimenter has direct control.

Dependent variable

In an experiment, the condition that may or may not change as a result of changes in the independent variable.

Operational definition

Definition stated solely in terms of the operations or procedures used to produce or measure a phenomenon.

Random assignment

Assignment of participants in an experiment to groups in such a way that each person has an equal chance of being placed in any group.

Cross-sectional study

Study designed to assess age-related differences, in which people of different ages are assessed on one occasion.

Longitudinal study

Study designed to assess age changes in a sample over time.

Sequential study

Study design that combines cross-sectional and longitudinal techniques.