Chapter 1 – Introduction to Lifespan Development

Flashcards cover definitions, theories, perspectives, research methods, ethical principles, and key developmental issues from Chapter 1 of Development Across the Life Span, 10th Edition.

What is the primary focus of lifespan development?

To examine patterns of growth, change, and stability in behavior across the entire life span.

Which scientific method do lifespan researchers rely on to test assumptions?

They apply systematic, controlled scientific methods involving observation and data collection.

Name the four broad topical areas of lifespan development.

Physical, cognitive, personality, and social development.

Which topical area studies the brain, nervous system, and biological needs as determinants of behavior?

Physical development.

What does cognitive development investigate?

Changes in learning, memory, problem solving, and intelligence.

Which topical area examines enduring personal traits and their changes?

Personality development.

What is social development concerned with?

Growth, change, and stability in individuals’ interactions and relationships.

List the eight traditional age periods used by developmentalists.

Prenatal, infancy & toddlerhood, preschool, middle childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, middle adulthood, late adulthood.

Define the term cohort.

A group of people born at around the same time in the same place.

What are history-graded influences?

Biological or environmental influences associated with a specific historical moment affecting a cohort.

How do age-graded influences differ from history-graded influences?

They are similar biological or environmental influences for individuals in a certain age group regardless of when or where they are raised.

What are sociocultural-graded influences?

Social and cultural factors (e.g., ethnicity, social class) uniquely affecting an individual at a given time.

Define non-normative life events.

Atypical events that occur in a person's life at a time when they do not happen to most people.

Continuous change vs. discontinuous change – explain.

Continuous change is gradual and builds on previous levels; discontinuous change occurs in distinct, qualitatively different stages.

Differentiate critical periods from sensitive periods.

Critical periods require specific stimuli for normal development and have irreversible consequences if missed; sensitive periods denote heightened sensitivity where absence of stimuli is usually reversible.

Nature in development refers to what?

Inherited genetic traits and capacities produced by maturation.

What does nurture encompass?

Environmental influences shaping behavior.

What is the core idea of the psychodynamic perspective?

Behavior is motivated by inner forces, memories, and conflicts beyond conscious awareness.

Identify Freud’s three components of personality.

Id, ego, and superego.

In Freud’s psychosexual stages, which stage spans birth to 12–18 months?

Oral stage.

According to Freud, what is fixation?

Behavior reflecting an earlier developmental stage due to too little or too much gratification.

Erikson’s stage for early adulthood is called what?

Intimacy vs. isolation.

Key premise of the behavioral perspective?

Development is understood through observable behavior and environmental stimuli.

Define classical conditioning.

Learning in which a neutral stimulus elicits a response after being paired with a stimulus that naturally produces that response.

What is operant conditioning?

Learning in which voluntary responses are strengthened or weakened by their consequences.

In operant conditioning, reinforcement does what?

Increases the probability that a behavior will be repeated.

Punishment has what effect on behavior?

Decreases the likelihood of the behavior’s future occurrence.

Behavior modification is based on which learning principles?

Operant conditioning.

Social-cognitive learning involves learning by __.

Observing a model (imitation).

List the four steps of social-cognitive learning.

Attention, recall, reproduction, motivation.

What does the cognitive perspective study?

Processes that allow people to know, understand, and think about the world.

Piaget called organized mental patterns __.

Schemes.

Differentiate assimilation from accommodation.

Assimilation uses existing schemes to understand new info; accommodation modifies schemes to fit new info.

Information-processing theories view cognitive growth as mainly __.

Quantitative.

What do cognitive neuroscience approaches examine?

Links between brain processes and cognitive development using techniques like fMRI.

Central idea of the humanistic perspective.

People possess free will and a natural drive toward self-actualization.

According to Carl Rogers, humans have a basic need for __.

Positive regard (to be loved and respected).

Maslow’s term for reaching one’s highest potential.

Self-actualization.

The contextual perspective stresses what?

That development must be considered within a rich social and cultural context.

Bronfenbrenner’s immediate everyday environment is called the __.

Microsystem.

What level in Bronfenbrenner’s model refers to broader cultural influences?

Macrosystem.

Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory emphasizes development through __.

Social interaction within a culture.

What is the focus of the evolutionary perspective?

How inherited, adaptive traits influence behavior across generations.

Natural selection was proposed by whom?

Charles Darwin.

Define behavioral genetics.

A field studying the influence of heredity on behavior.

Why is using multiple perspectives valuable in lifespan development?

Each perspective highlights different aspects, giving a more comprehensive understanding.

In the scientific method, hypotheses are __.

Testable predictions derived from theories.

How does correlational research differ from experimental research?

Correlational identifies relationships; experimental determines causal relationships.

What does a correlation coefficient of –.80 indicate?

A strong negative relationship between two variables.

Name two common psychophysiological methods.

EEG and fMRI (also CT scans).

In an experiment, the manipulated factor is the __ variable.

Independent.

What is random assignment?

Placing participants into groups by chance to equalize characteristics across conditions.

Compare longitudinal and cross-sectional research.

Longitudinal tracks the same individuals over time; cross-sectional compares different age groups at one time.

What is a sequential study?

A design combining longitudinal and cross-sectional methods to study multiple cohorts over time.

List two ethical requirements for psychological research.

Informed consent and protection from physical/psychological harm (others: privacy, justified deception, equity).