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Kaplan GRE Psychology-Chp. 2
Developmental Psychology
11
Psychology
Not Applicable
09/23/2005

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Term
Developmental Psychology
Definition
The task of developmental psychology is to describe and explalin changes in human behavior over time.
Term
The Nature of Children
Definition
Middle Ages-children were thought of as small, nferior adults who were expected to conform to adult standards for behavior. Paintings from this era depicted children as miniture adults.

Renaissance- children were depicted in their own costumes and pictured at play.

17th and 18th centuries- Thomas Hobbes, George Berkely, David Hume, James Mill, and John Stuart Mill formed the British empiricist school of thought. They believed that all knowledge is gained through experience. Locke believed that a child's mind is a tabula rasa, or blank slate.
Term
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Definition
Opposed John Locke's view of development, he believed that society was not only unnecessary, but also a detriment to optimal development. He wrote his thoughts on child-rearing in
a book called Emile: Concerning Education.
Term
G. Stanley Hall
Definition
"The father of developmental psychology." One of the first psychologists to do empirical research on children. He was one of the founders of the APA and the founder of child and adolescent psychology.
Term
John B. Watson
Definition
Believed in the importance of environmental influences on child development and thus supported Locke's view of tabula rassa.

He believed that emotions, as well as thought, were acquired through learning. He maintained that the only useful methods in the study of behavior were objective methods. Watson felt that concepts such as consciousness, mental states, will, and imagery and the goal of psychology should be to predict behavioral responses.
Term
Arnold Gesell
Definition
Development occurred as a biological process regardless of practice or training. "Nativist" in that he believed that a developmental blueprint existed from birth.
Term
Research Methodologies
Definition
Type of study Groups Studied At

Time 1 Time 2 Time 3

Longitudinal Group1 Group1 Group1
Cross-Sectional Grp.1,2,3
Sequentional CohortGrp.123,Grp123,Grp123

Cross-sectional: studies compare groups of subjects at different ages

Longitudinal: compare a specific group of people over an extended period of time

Sequential: combine cross-sectional and longitudinal methods.
Term
Nature/Nurture Controversy
Definition
If you don't know this all hope is lost, don't waste your money on the GRE's
Term
Gregor Mendel
Definition
A 19th century Austrian monk who initiated the study of genetics by observing the inheritance of certain traits in pea plants he hypothesized the basic unit of heredity, the gene.

He suggested that each specific trait was controlled by an alternative form of a gene, called an allele, either dominant or recessive. For any given gene there are two alleles.

If both parents contribute a dominant allele, or one dominant and one recessive then the dominant allele will be expressed.

The total genetic makeup of an individual is called the genotype and the total collection of expressed traits that is the individual;s observalbe characteristics is called the phenotype. Identical genotypes can also produce different phenotypes due to variations in the environment.

Genes are located on chromosomes. 23rd determines the sex of the child. XX=FEMALE, XY=MALE. The mother's egg always contributes an X chromosome.
Term
Diploid and haploid cells
Definition
Diploid: The nucleus of these cells holds 23 pair of chormosomes, 46 total. They are called diploid because they contain chromosomes that exist in pairs.

Gametes are not diploid they cfontain only 23 single chromosomes. During conception these cells come together to make a full diploid.

* Children can be said to have an average of 50% of their genes in common with each parent.
Term
R.C. Tryon's
Definition
Studied the inheritance of maze-rnning ability in lab rats. Maze-bright rats were only bred with Maze-bright rats and Maze-Dull rats were only bred with other Maze-Dull rats. He used this over several generations and found that the difference between rats intensified from generation to generation.

However, the learning was specific to Tryon's maze and the two types of rats did not differ in ability on other maze tasks.
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