Developmental Psyc - Chapter 1

The field of study that examines patterns of growth, change, and stability in behavior that occurs throughout the entire lifespan.

Examining the ways in which the body’s makeup -the brain, nervous system, muscles, and senses, and the need for food, drink, and sleep - helps determine behavior.

Seeking to understand how growth and change in intellectual capabilities influence a person’s behavior.

The study of stability and change in the enduring characteristics that differentiate one person from another over the lifespan

Shared notion of reality, one that is widely accepted but is a function of society and culture at a given time.

Biological and environmental influences associated with a particular historical moment

Example: People who lived in New York during 9/11

Biological and environmental Influences that are similar for individuals in a particular age group, regardless of when or where they are raised

Example: puberty and menopause

Social and cultural factors present at a particular time for a particular individual, depending on such variables as ethnicity, social class, and subcultural membership

Example: children who are white and affluent than children who are members of a minority group and living in poverty

Originated as a biological concept and initially referred to classifications based on physical and structural characteristics of species

Relates to cultural back ground, nationality, religion and language

Specific, atypical events that occur in a persons life at a time when such events do not happen to most people.

Example: 6 year old parents did in car accident

• - Continuous change vs discontinuous change
• - critical period vs sensitive period
• - life span approach vs focus on particular periods
• - nature vs nurture

• - Developmental is gradual, with achievements at one level building on those of previous levels
• - quantitative in nature

Occurring in distinct stages. Each stage or change brings about behavior that is assume to be qualitatively different from behavior at earlier stages.

Is a specific time during development when a particular event has his greatest consequences.

Example: mothers who take drugs at particular times during pregnancy may cause permanent harm to the developing child.

Organisms are particularly susceptible to certain kinds of stimuli in their environment. Represents the optimal period For particular capacities To emerge and children are particularly sensitive to environmental influences.

Traits, abilities, and capacities that are inherited from one’s parents. Peoples behavior is due to their genetically determined nature.

Environmental influences that shape behavior. The influences of the physical and social environment in which a child is raised

• Psychodynamic
• Behavioral
• Cognitive
• Humanistic
• Contextual
• Evolutionary

Behavior is motivated by inner forces, memories, and conflicts of which a person has little awareness or control. The inner forces, which may stem from one’s childhood continually influence behavior throughout the lifespan.

Unconscious forces act to determine personality and behavior

• Id
• Ego
• Superego

Raw, unorganized, inborn part of personality that is present at birth. It represents primitive drives related to hunger, sex, aggression, and irrational impulses.

Part of personality that is rational and reasonable. The ego acts as a buffer between the real world outside of us and the primitive ID.

Represents a persons conscious, incorporating distinctions between right and wrong. It begins to develop around age 5 or 6 and is learned from an individual’s parents, teachers, and other significant figures.

According to Sigmund Freud, a series of stages that children pass through in which pleasure, or gratification, focuses on a particular biological function and body part.

Is behavior reflecting an earlier stage of development due to unresolved conflict.

According to Erickdon, development that encompasses changes both and understanding individuals have of themselves as members of society and in their comprehension of meaning of the others behavior

The approach suggesting that the keys to understanding development are observable behavior and outside stimuli in the environment

A type of learning in which an organism responds in a particular way to a neutral stimulus that normally does not bring about the type of response

A form of learning in which a voluntary response to strengthen or weaken by its association with positive or negative consequences

a type of associative learning process through which the strength of a behavior is modified by reinforcement or punishment.

Example: child starts working harder after getting praised for getting some work done

The process by which a stimulus Is provided that increases the probability that a preceding behavior will be repeated.

The introduction of an unpleasant or painful stimulus or the removal of a desirable stimulus, will decrease the probability that a preceding behavior will occur in the future.

A formal technique for promoting the frequency of desirable behaviors and decreasing the incidence of unwanted ones

Learning by observing the behavior of another person, called a model

The approach that focuses on the processes that allow people to know, understand, and think about the world.

Organize mental patterns that represent behaviors and actions.

The process through which people understand and experience in terms of their current stage of cognitive development and way of thinking.

Refers to Change in existing ways of thinking response to encounters with new stimuli or events

Models that seek to identify the ways individuals taken, use, and store information

Cognitive development proceeds quickly in certain areas and more slowly in others. This experience plays a greater role in advancing cognitive development than traditional.

Approaches that examine cognitive development through the lens of brain processes

A major developmental disability that can produce profound language deficits in self injurious behavior in young children.

The theory contending that people have a natural capacity to make decisions about their lives and control their behavior

A state of self fulfillment in which people achieve their highest potential in their own unique way. Any person who realizes his or her own potential and possibilities.

The theory that considers the relationship between individuals and their physical, cognitive, personality, and social worlds.

The perspective suggest in the different levels of the environment simultaneously influence individuals

• Microsystem
• Mesosystem
• Exosystem
• Macrosystem
• Chronosystem

The every day, immediate environment in which children leave their daily lives. Homes, caregivers, friends, and teachers all are influences that a part of this system.

Provides connections between the various aspects of the microsystem. It acknowledges the Direct and indirect influences that bind us to one another, such as those that affect a mother or a father who has a bad day at the office and then a short tempered with his or her son or daughter at home.

Represents broader influences, encompassing societal institutions such as local government, the community, schools, places of worship, and the local media.

Example the quality of the school will affect a child’s cognitive development and potentially can have long-term consequences.

• Represents the larger cultural influences on an individual.
• Example the value a culture society places on education or the family will affect the values of the people who live in that society.

• Involves the way the passage of time, including historical events in more gradual historical changes affect children’s development.
• Example: 9/11

The dominant Western philosophy that emphasizes personal identity, uniqueness, freedom, and the worth of the individual.

The notion that the well-being of the group is more important than that of the individual. People raised in collectivistic cultures tend to emphasize the word file of the groups to which they belong.

The approach that emphasizes that cognitive development proceeds as a result of social interactions between members of a culture

Between the people in a child’s environment and the child

The theory that seeks to identify behavior that is a result of our genetic inheritance from our ancestors

Examines the ways in which our biological make up influences our behavior

Studies the effects of hereditary on behavior

When a parent provides less and less guidance each time a child tries a puzzle, this is an example of it

The process of posing in answering questions using careful, control techniques that include systematic, orderly observation in the collection of data

• 1. identifying questions of interest
• 2. formulating an explanation
• 3. Caring out research that either Lends support to the explanation or refutes it

Explanations and predictions concerning phenomena of interest, providing a framework for understanding the relationships among an organize set of facts or principles

A prediction stated in a way that permitted to be tested

• Correlational
• Experimental

Research that seeks to identify whether an association or relationship between two factors exist

Example: is there an association between the number of minutes a mother and her newborn child or together immediately after birth and the quality of the mother-child relationship when the child reaches two years of age.

Research design to discover casual relationships between various factors

The strength and direction of relationship between two factors is represented by mathematical score. It ranges from +1.0 to -1.0.

Correlation indicates that as the value of one factor increases, it can be predicted that the value of the other will also increase. Close the number to +1.0

Example: how are values of the factor salary associated with higher values of the factory job satisfaction and lower values of salary associated with lower values of job satisfaction

Informs us that as the value of one factor increases the value of the other factor declines. Coefficient range between 0 to -1.0

Example: we found at the greater the number of hours adolescence spend texting, the worst their academic performances.

A type of correlation study in which some naturally occurring behavior is observed without intervention in the situation

Example: an investigator who wishes to learn how often preschool children share toys with one another might observe a classroom of a three week period, recording how often a preschooler spontaneously share with one another.

A method borrowed from the field of anthropology and use to investigate cultural questions

Researchers choose particular signs of interest and seek to carefully describe, in narrative fashion, what is occurring and why. Qualitative research can be used to generate hypothesis that can lead to be tested using more objective, quantity of methods

Involves extensive, in depth interviews with a particular individual or small group of individuals

A type of study where a group of people chosen to represent some larger population is ask questions about their attitudes, behavior, or thinking on a given topic.

Research that focuses on the relationship between physiological processes and behavior

• - Electroencephalogram (EEG)
• - Computerize axial tomography (CAT) scan
• - Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan

Reports electrical activity within a brain recorded by electrodes placed on the outside of the skull. That brain activity is transformed into a pictorial representation of the brain, permitting the representation of brainwave patterns and diagnoses of disorder such as epilepsy and learning disabilities.

A computer construction image of the brain by combining thousands of individual x-rays taken at a slightly different angle. Although it does not show brain activity it does illuminate the structure of the brain.

Provide a detailed, three-dimensional computer generated image of brain activity by aiming a powerful magnetic field at the brain. It offers one of the best ways of learning about the operation of the brain down to the level of individual nerves.

A process in which an investigator, called an experimenter, devices to different experiences for participants then studies and compares the outcomes

The group exposed to treatment variable being study

The group not exposed to the treatment variable being studied

The variable that research is manipulate an experiment

Example: the type of movie participants are-violent or nonviolent

The variable that researchers measure an experiment and expect to change as a result of the experimental manipulation

Example: the degree of aggression behavior shown by the participants after viewing violent or nonviolent movies

Permits researchers to combine the results of many studies until one of rock and collusion

The group of participants chosen for the experiment

• A research investigation carried out in a naturally occurring setting
• Capture behavior in real life settings

Research investigation conducted in a controlled setting explicitly design to hold events constant

Research design specifically to test some developmental explanation and expand scientific knowledge

Gathers knowledge about a phenomenon or idea whose conclusions may not have any immediate real-world application.

Research meant provide practical solutions to immediate problems

Real world question and attempt to solve problem

• - Longitudinal research
• - Cross-sectional research
• - Sequential research

• - Research in which the behavior of one or more participants in the study is measured as they age
• - Measures change over time

Research in which people of different ages are compared at the same point in time

Research on which researchers examine a number of different age groups over several points in time (Combination of longitudinal And cross-sectional studies)

• - researchers must protect participants from physical and psychological harm
• - Researchers must obtain informed consent from participants
• - The use of deception in research must be justified and cause no harm
• - Participants privacy must be maintained