DEP2004: Quiz 1

Lifelong

Development is?
Lifespan theorists believe that development is life-long, and change is apparent across the lifespan. No single age period is more crucial, characterizes, or dominates human development. Consequently, the term lifespan development will be used throughout the textbook.

Multidirectional

Development is?

Humans change in many directions. We may show gains in some areas of development, while showing losses in other areas. Every change, whether it is finishing high school, getting married, or becoming a parent, entails both growth and loss.

Multidimensional

Development is?

We change across three general domains/dimensions; physical, cognitive, and psychosocial.

Multidisciplinary

Development is?

As mentioned at the start of the chapter, human development is such a vast topic of study that it requires the theories, research methods, and knowledge base of many academic disciplines.

Characterized by plasticity

Development is?

Plasticity is all about our ability to change and that many of our characteristics are malleable. For instance, plasticity is illustrated in the brain's ability to learn from experience and how it can recover from injury.

Multicontextual

Development is?

Development occurs in many contexts. Baltes (1987) identified three specific contextual influences.

a. Normative age-graded influences

b. Normative history-graded influences

c. Non-normative life influences

Chronological Age

based on the number of years since your birth

Biological Age

- how quickly the body is aging

- our nutrition, level of physical activity, sleeping habits, smoking, alcohol consumption, how we mentally handle stress, and the genetic history of our ancestors, to name but a few.

Psychological Age

- this includes our cognitive capacity, along with our emotional beliefs about how old we are

- remember you are as young or old as you feel.

Social Age

- based on the social norms of our culture and the expectations our culture has for people of our age group

- culture often reminds us whether we are "on target" or "off target" for reaching certain social milestones, such as completing our education, moving away from home, having children, or retiring from work

Nature vs Nurture

- Why are you the way you are? As you consider some of your features (height, weight, personality, being diabetic, etc.), ask yourself whether these features are a result of heredity or environmental factors, or both

- Chances are, you can see the ways in which both heredity and environmental factors (such as lifestyle, diet, and so on) have contributed to these features

Continuity vs Discontinuity

- Is human development best characterized as a slow, gradual process, or is it best viewed as one of more abrupt change?

Active vs Passive

- How much do you play a role in your own developmental path? Are you at the whim of your genetic inheritance or the environment that surrounds you?

Stability vs Change

- How similar are you to how you were as a child? Were you always as out-going or reserved as you are now?

- Some theorists argue that the personality traits of adults are rooted in the behavioral and emotional tendencies of the infant and young child.

- Others disagree, and believe that these initial tendencies are modified by social and cultural forces over time.

Sigmund Freud (Psychosexual)

- Freud emphasized the importance of early childhood experiences in shaping our personality and behavior.

- In our natural state, we are biological beings and are driven primarily by instincts. During childhood, however, we begin to become social beings as we learn how to manage our instincts and transform them into socially acceptable behaviors.

- The ways in which parents or other caregivers interacted with children were assumed to have a long-lasting impact on children's emotional states.

Erik Erikson (Psychosocial)

- Erikson presents eight developmental stages that encompass the entire lifespan. For that reason, Erikson's psychosocial theory forms the foundation for much of our discussion of psychosocial development.

- Erikson broke with Freud's emphasis on sexuality as the cornerstone of social-emotional development and instead suggested that social relationships fostered development.

- Erikson proposed that each period of life has a unique challenge or crisis that the person who reaches it must face, referred to as psychosocial crises.

Behaviorism / Learning Theory

- this theory is based on the premise that it is not possible to objectively study the mind, and therefore psychologists should limit their attention to the study of behavior itself.

- The most famous behaviorist was Burrhus Frederick (B. F.) Skinner

- Skinner used the ideas of stimulus and response, along with the application of rewards or reinforcements, to train pigeons and other animals

- In addition, he used the general principles of behaviorism to develop theories about how best to teach children and how to create societies that were peaceful and productive

- The behaviorists made substantial contributions to psychology by identifying the principles of learning

Social Learning Theory, Reciprocal Determinism

- or learning by watching others, was developed by Albert Bandura (1977).

- His theory calls our attention to the ways in which many of our actions are not learned through conditioning, as suggested by Skinner

- Young children frequently learn behaviors through imitation. Especially when children do not know what else to do, they learn by modeling or copying the behavior of others.

- There is interplay between our personality and the way we interpret events and how they influence us. This concept is called _____ ________.

Cognitive Theory

- Three important theories are Jean Piaget's, Lev Vygotsky's, and Information-processing.

Jean Piaget

- He believed that children's intellectual skills change over time and that maturation, rather than training, brings about that change

- Children of differing ages interpret the world differently. Piaget theorized that children progressed through four stages of cognitive development

- Piaget has been criticized for overemphasizing the role that physical maturation plays in cognitive development and in underestimating the role that culture and experience plays.

- Research has shown considerable overlap among the four stages and that development is more continuous.

Lev Vygotsky

- His sociocultural theory emphasizes the importance of culture and interaction in the development of cognitive abilities.

- Vygotsky differed with Piaget in that he believed that a person not only has a set of abilities, but also a set of potential abilities that can be realized if given the proper guidance from others.

Information Processing

- is not the work of a single theorist, but based on the ideas and research of several cognitive scientists studying how individuals perceive, analyze, manipulate, use, and remember information

- This approach assumes that humans gradually improve in their processing skills; that is, cognitive development is continuous rather than stage-like.

- Brain maturation enables advancements in our information processing system. At the same time, interactions with the environment also aid in our development of more effective strategies for processing information.

Genes

- are specific sequence of nucleotides and are recipes for making proteins. Proteins are responsible for influencing the structure and functions of cells.

- Genes are located on the chromosomes and there are an estimated 20,500 genes for humans

Chromosomes

- Normal human cells contain 46 chromosomes (or 23 pairs; one from each parent) in the nucleus of the cells

- each sperm and egg possesses only 23 chromosomes and combine to produce the normal 46

Mitosis

- is defined as the cell's nucleus making an exact copy of all the chromosomes and splitting into two new cells

Meiosis

- the cells used in sexual reproduction, called the gametes (sperm or ova), are formed

Genotype

- refers to the sum total of all the genes a person inherits

Phenotype

- refers to the features that are actually expressed.

Allele

- different versions of a gene

Dominant Allele

- they express themselves in the phenotype even when paired with a different version of the gene

Recessive Allele

- express themselves only when paired with a similar version gene

Homozygous

- the same version of a gene

Heterozygous

- receive a different version of the gene from each parent

Polygenic

- meaning they are the result of several genes.

Incomplete Dominance

- the dominant gene does not completely suppress the recessive gene

Behavioral Genetics

- is the scientific study of the interplay between the genetic and environmental contributions to behavior

- Often referred to as the nature/nurture debate

Genotype-Environment Correlations

- refer to the processes by which genetic factors contribute to variations in the environment

Passive Genotype-Environment Correlations

- occurs when children passively inherit the genes and the environments their family provides

- Certain behavioral characteristics, such as being athletically inclined, may run in families

- The children have inherited both the genes that would enable success at these activities, and given the environmental encouragement to engage in these actions

Evocative GEC

- refers to how the social environment reacts to individuals based on their inherited characteristics

- whether one has a more outgoing or shy temperament will affect how he or she is treated by others.

Active GEC

- occurs when individuals seek out environments that support their genetic tendencies

- children who are musically inclined seek out music instruction and opportunities that facilitate their natural musical ability

Genotype-Environment Interactions

- involve genetic susceptibility to the environment

Epigenetics

- studies modifications in DNA that affect gene expression and are passed on when the cells divide

- Environmental factors, such as nutrition, stress, and teratogens, are thought to change gene expression by switching genes on and off

- This would explain why monozygotic or identical twins may increasingly differ in gene expression with age