Life-Span Human Development: Developmental Psychology - Test 1 - Ch. 1 & 2 Flashcards

The fact that development often involves continuities speaks to the fact that over time humans tend to

Albert, a developmental psychologist, conducts research on children's emotional reactions to studying math in school. Albert is concerned with children's ____ development.

Key aspects of motor development:

A defined age group in a society is called an age

Maturation is to learning as

Urie Bronfenbrenner is BEST associated with the ____ model of development.

The PRIMARY advantage of the experimental design over other research methods is that only it can be used to

John Locke believed that human nature was

Learning thought to become more or less probable depending on consequences it produces (Skinner)

Consequences that strengthen a response (increase probability of future response) (Skinner)

something pleasant added in attempt to strengthen behavior, best when continuous and when skill first being learned (Skinner)

something unpleasant taken in attempt to strengthen behavior

consequences that suppress future response

something unpleasant added in attempt to weaken behavior

something pleasant taken in attempt to weaken behavior

no consequence given and behavior becomes less frequent

emphasized positive reinforcement in child rearing

Involves systematic continuities and changes from conception to death

Three domains of development:

changes in size and shape from conception to maturity

positive and negative changes in maturing organism

biological unfolding of plan contained in genes

external physical and social conditions

______ is an interplay between nature and nurture

Periods of the lifespan:

status, roles, privileges, and responsibilities based on age group

expectations based on age grades

sense of timing for life transitions

Considered founder of Psychology, had first laboratory in 1879

Wrote "Elemente der Psychophysik (1860), "stimuli give rise to perceptions according to mathematical laws" Weber-______ Law.

Started baby biographies, observed his own children, not systematic observations, late 19th century

Began very systematic observations, started the case study method, 1920's

First president of American Psychological Association

Types of Research Methods:

Three major methods of data collection:

_________ is the search for the relationship between variables

Characteristics of Experimental Studies:

Characteristics of Correlational Designs:

_________ study different age groups measured at the same time. provides information about age differences.

_________ studies same group measured repeatedly, provides information on age changes.

Cross Sectional Design, Strengths and Weaknesses:

Longitudinal Design, Strengths and Weaknesses:

combine cross-sectional and longitudinal approaches, can untangle age effects, time of measurement effects, and cohort effects, method is extremely costly and complex

Qualities of a good theory:

Six major theories of development:

prevailing way of looking at reality - bias about human nature

English academic/ philosopher, children are selfish and bad, and society must teach them to behave in a civilized way

English academic/ philosopher/ doctor/ empiricist - everything through the senses, tabula rosa, children born neutral - become what we make them

________ World View: Passive and react to stimuli, form a copy of reality based on experience - learning is reacting and trying to copy, reductionisit - fix/ break apart, focus on individual differences

Swiss philosopher, natural state of humans is good, inborn capabilities lead to optimal developemental path, society (parents, educators, religious leaders, government) get in the way. children are little organisms, ready to flourish.

________ World View: humans not passive nor reactive but active organisms, self motivated to grow and develop - seek change, reality is not copied, but constructed, not reductionist - but holistic - whole greater than sum of parts.

Viennese Physician and founder of Psychoanalytic theory. considered both a product of and a person beyond his time. Lasting contributions: emphasis on humans being driven by motive and emotions of which we are unaware, belief that we are shaped by earliest experiences in life.

Libido expressed through two main channels:
-__________ - survival, sexual pleasure and reproduction.
-__________ - static equilibrium, resulting in death, postulated this after seeing so much self- and other destruction.

Behavior and Development (Freud) - _________ model

__________ - energy - ___________

Components of Personality:

all psychic energy contained here, seeks immediate gratification (pleasure principle)

realistic ways to gratify instincts (reality principle)

adhere to moral standards (perfection principle)

Stages of Psychosexual Development (Freud):

Psychic energy needs gratification

Oedipus and Electra stages begin to form

Oedipus and Electra complexes resolve

Development can become _________.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Psychoanalytic Theory:

Important disciples of Psychoanalytic Theory

Notable Neo-Freudians

_________ is the most important lifespan neo-Freudian theorist

- Less empahasis on sexual and more on social influences
- Less emphasis on irrational id, more on rational ego
- More emphasis on development after adolescence

- Trust vs. Mistrust
- Autonomy vs. Shame
- Initiative vs. Guilt
- Industry vs. Inferiority

key is general responsiveness of caregiver

"terrible twos" considered part of this stage

- Identity vs. Role Confusion
- Intimacy vs. Isolation
- Generativity vs. Stagnation
- Integrity vs. Despair

adolescence acquisition of identity

Young adult commitment

middle age sense of having produced something meaningful

elderly sense of life meaning and success

_________ believed that personality was NOT "set in stone" during the first five years of life.

_________ believed stage development was due to biological maturation and environmental demands.

Founder of the Cognitive Developmental Theory. Swiss Scholar. First scientific work at age 10. blended interest in zoology and philosophy - influenced by Charles Darwin. Emphasizes errors in thinking (wrong answers). Work was unknown in the US until writings were translated to English by John Flavell

active construction of knowledge based on experience.

- Everything we see, hear is filtered through our "frame of reference". We construct our knowledge out of what we already know.
- drive for cognitive equilibrium

basic unit of stored knowledge

processing and adding new things using our current schemes - what we know.

Sensorimotor Stage, Preoperational Stage, Concrete Operations Stage, Formal Operations Stage.

ranges from birth to age two. deal with world directly through perceptions and actions. unable to use symbols to help solve problems mentally.

preschool age. capacity for symbolic thought arises. lack tools of logical thought. cling to ideas they want to be true.

school-age. use trial-and-error strategy. perform mental operations in their heads. difficulty with abstract and hypothetical concepts.

adolescents. can understand abstract concepts. can think abstractly and can formulate hypotheses. can devise "grand theories" about others.

Formed the Cognitive Mediation Theory. Born the same year as Piaget. Russian Psychologist who took issue with Piaget. very well read and educated in western philosophy. attended moscow university. his work was banned in Russia and completely unavailable to the west until the early 1970's.

According to Vygotsky, the child is a(n) __________, and development is a(n) _________.

Tools are "functions" that develop because of cultural impact development. Culture, especially in the form of language, shapes behavior and thinking. society helps shape and regulate the mind to further develop.

Learning theories

Known for Classical Conditioning. Rejected Psychoanalytic theory and explained Freud using learning principles. Rejects stage conceptualization of development. Believes children have no inborn tendencies, use environment determines which way they grow up.

belief that only observed behavior should be studied

Known for Operant Conditioning. emphasized positive reinforcement in child rearing.

learning thought to become more or less probable depending on consequences it produces.

consequences that strengthen a response (increase probability of future response)

something pleasant added in attempt to strengthen behavior, best when continuous and when skill first being learned.

something unpleasant taken in attempt to strengthen behavior.

consequences that suppress future response

something unpleasant added in attempt to weaken behavior.

something pleasant taken in attempt to weaken behavior

no consequence given and behavior becomes less frequent

known for the social learning (cognitive) theory. believed humans' cognitive abilities distinguish them from other animals. observational learning is the most important mechanism for behavior change.

ways in which humans deliberately exercise control over environments and lives

sense of one's ability to control self or environment

mutual influence of individuals and social environments determines behavior

known for Organismic theory, also known for distancing. argued it solved the continuity/ discontinuity as both it is a synthesis of two opposing trends.

known for the ethological theory. major concepts: complex action patterns, adaptive importance, and evolutionarily significance. demonstrated imprinting and critical periods.

species specific behaviors have fixed action patterns. species specific behaviors (instincts) have specific releasing mechanisms (stimuli)

Critical to development is the formation of attachments to others.

Changes over life span arise from ongoing transactions and mutual influences between organism and changing world, no single end-point to development.

Systems Perspectives:

-Influenced by Darwin's work
- Focus on how genes aid in adapting to the environment

-Development product of interacting between biological and environmental forces in a larger system
-evolution has endowed us with genes
-predisposition to develop in certain direction
-genes don't dictate what happens in development

process through which genes and environment jointly bring forth particular course of development

normal species-specific environment contributes to normal patterns of development, instinctive behaviors may not be expressed if environmental conditions do not exist, genes do not determine anything, just partner with environment to influence behavior