Development

systematic continuities and changes in the individual that occur between conception and death.

developmental continuities

Ways in which we remain stable over time or continue to reflect our past

Developmental Psychology

branch of psychology devoted to identifying and explaining the continuities and changes that individuals display over time

Developmentalist

any scholar who seeks to understand the developmental process

maturation

the biological unfolding of the individual according to species-typical biological inheritance and an individual person's biological inheritance

Learning

the process through which our experiences produce relatively permanent changes in our feelngs, thoughts, and behaviours

normative development

typical patterns of change pertaining to a certain species

ideographic development

individual variations in patterns of change. 

Human development is best described as a ________ and a __________ process

continual / cumulative

holistic perspective

Plasticity

A capacity for change in response to positive or negative life experiences

(a characteristic of human development)

doctrine of original sin

- Thomas Hobbes

- held that children are inherently selfish egoists who mus tbe restrained by society

Doctrine of innate purity

- Jean Jacques Rousseau

- maintained that children are born with an intuitive sense of right and wrong that society often corrupts

Doctrine of the Tabula rasa

- John Locke

- The mind of the child is a blank slate and that children have no inborn tendencies. How they turn out depends entirely on their worldly experiences

Hobbes and Locke believe children are _______ whereas Rousseau believed children are _______ in their environment

passive / active

baby biography

A detailed record of an infant's growth and development over a period of time

Most influential of the baby biographers was _______

Charles Darwin

Conducted the first large-scale scientific investigation of children

Stanley Hall

psychoanalytic theory

Sigmund Freud

Theory

 - set of concepts and propositions that describe and explain some aspect of experience

- have the ability to predict future events

Hypotheses

theoretical prediction about some easpect of experience

scientific method

the use of objective and replicable methods to gather data for the purpose of testing a theory or hypothesis

Investigators must be objective and must allow their data to decide the merits of their thinking

reliability

the extent to which a measuring instrument yields consistent results, both over time and across observers

validity

the extent to which a measuring instrument accurately reflects what the researchers intended to measure

structured interview/questionnaire

a technique in which all participants are asked the same questions in precisely the same order so that the responses of different participants can be compared

clinical method

a type of interview in which a participant's response to each successive question (or problem) determines what the investigator will ask next

naturalistic observation

observing people in their common, everyday surroundings

observer influence

when the mere presence of an observer sometimes makes people behave differently than they otherwise would

time-sampling

a procedure in which the investigator records the frequencies with which individuals display particular behaviours during the brief time intervals that each is observed

what is difficult to pinpoint in naturalistic research?

the exact cause of the findings

structured observations

 - each participant is exposed to a setting that might cue the behaviour in question and si then surreptitiously observed to see if he or she performs the behaviour

- ensure that every participant in the sample is exposed to the same stimuli and has equal oportunity to perform the target behaviour

case study 

- the investigator gathers extensive information about the life of an individual and then tests developmental hypotheses b analyzing the events of the person's life history

- lack generalizability

 Ethnography

 - researcher tries to understand the effects of culture on developing children and adolescents

- consists largely of naturalistic observations, notes made from conversations with members of the culture, and interpretations fo these events, subjective

psychophysiological methods 

 - techniques that measure the relationship between physiological responses and behaviour to explore the biological underpinnings of children's perceptual, cognitive, and emotional responses.

- difficult to pin down which aspect of the stimuli creates the response

 primary cause of developmental change is

maturation and learning

correlational design

the investigator gathers information to determine whether two or more variables of interst are meaningfully related

correlational coefficient

numerical index, ranging from -1.00 to +1.00, of the strength and direction of the relationship between two variables

experimental design

permits a precise assessment of the cause and effect relationship that may exist between two variables

counfounding variable

some factor other than the independent variable that, if not controlled by the experimenter, could explain any differences across treatment conditions in participants' performance on the dependent variable

random assignment

each research participant has an equal probability of being exposed to each experimental treatment

experimental control

steps taken by an experimenter to ensure that all extraneous factors that could influence the dependent variable are rougly equivalent in each experimental condition; these precautions must be taken before an experimenter can be reasonabl certain that observed changes in the dependent variable were caused by manipulation of the independent variable

ecological validity

state of affairs in which the findings of one's research are an accurate representation of processes that occur in the natural environment

field experiment

procedure: combines all the advantages of naturalistic obserbation with the more rigorous contral that exprimentation allows

strenghts: permits cause-and-effect relationships and generalizations

limitations: experimental treatments may be less potent and harder to control when presented in the natural environment

natural (quasi-) experiment

 procedure: we observe the consequences of a natural event that participants have experienced

strengths: permits a study of the impact on natural events that would be difficult or impossible to simulate in an experiment

limitations: lack of precise control over natural events

 cross-cultural comparisons

- compares the behaviour and/or development of people from different cultural or subcultural backgrounds

- guards against overgeneralization

cross-sectional design

people who differ in age are studied at the same point in time

cohort

a group of people of the same age who are exposed to similar cultural environments and historical events as they are growing up

cohort effect

age-related difference among cohorts that is attributable to cultural/historical differences in cohorts' growing-up experiences rather than to true developmental change

longitudinal design

the same participants are observed repeatedly over a period of time. The period may be relatively brief- six months to a year- or it mayb be very long, spanning a lifetime

practice effects

when participants who are repeatedly interviwed or tested may become test-wise or increasingly familiar with the content of the test itself

selective attrition

nonrandom loss of participants during a study that results in a nonrepresentative sample

nonrepresentative sample

a subgroup that differs in important ways from the larger group to which it belongs

cross-generational problem

the fact that long-term changes in the environment may limit the conclusions of a longitudinal project to that generation of children who were growing up while the study was in progress

sequential designs

subjects from different age groups are studied repeatedly over a peiod of months or years (Combines cross-sectional and longitudinal studies) 

microgenetic design

research design in which children who are thought to be ready for an important developmental change are exposed repeatedly to experiences that are thought to produce the change and their behaviour is monitored as it is changing