Lifespan development exam 1
Questions with Accurate Answers
How is development defined? - ANSWERS• Change
• Age-related
• Orderly
• Cumulative
• Directional
How is lifespan development defined? - ANSWERS- A field of study that describes and
explains intra individual change and inter individual differences in change from
conception through the lifespan
- Development comes from biological, individual, and cultural factors influencing each
other
Why is it important to study lifespan development? - ANSWERS• Understand typical
and atypical development
• Prediction and intervention
• Basic Research
• Applied Research
• Interdisciplinary discipline
- The more you learn about children, the better you can raise them, teach them, and
help them in a variety of other ways. Perhaps you hope to gain some insight about your
own history—as an infant, a child, an adolescent, or a young adult. Perhaps you want to
know more about what your life will be like as you grow through the adult years—as a
middle-aged or older adult. Perhaps you wish to help aging parents or grandparents.
What are the characteristics of lifespan development? - ANSWERS• Lifelong (see
increases inlife-expectancy)
• Multidimensional (biological, cognitive, social, emotional)and multidirectional•
- Plastic: capacity for change• Multidisciplinary
• Contextual: setting in which development occurs, and the setting can be influenced by
historical, economic ,social and cultural factors
• Growth, Maintenance, Loss
• Co-construction
What are the 3 influences contexts exerts? - ANSWERS- normative-age graded: similar
for all individuals of the same age. Normative age-graded influences are similar for
individuals in a particular age group. These influences include biological processes such
as puberty and menopause. They also include sociocultural environmental processes
such as beginning formal education.
, Normative-history graded: same for age cohort because of historical evens such as
9/11, the Great Depression, etc
Non normative life events: unique to each individual, unpredictable
What is Brofenbrenner's Ecological Theory? - ANSWERSdevelopment reflects the
influence of several environmental systems
What are the three domains of development? - ANSWERSPhysical/biological processes
• Cognitive processes
• Emotional and Social processes
What are the 4 conceptions of age? - ANSWERS• Chronological age: counted from
birth
• Biological age: biomarkers, vital organs
• Psychological age: adaptive capacities
• Social age: connectedness with others,social roles
What is the difference between qualitative and quantitative change? -
ANSWERSQualitative: Fundamental transformation in a child's abilities over time -
changes in kind
Quantitative: Increases in the amount of an ability a child already has
- Stages are distinguished by qualitative changes
What is the plasticity issue? - ANSWERSThe degree to which and the conditions under
which development is open to change and intervention
What is the critical period vs the sensitive period? - ANSWERScritical : Period during
which specific environmental or biological events MUST occur if development is to
proceed normally
sensitive: Time window during which a particular experience (or lack thereof) has a
more pronounced effect on the organism than does exposure to the same experience at
another time
What are the two questions pertinent to individual differences? - ANSWERS(a) What
makes individuals different from one another?
(b) To what extent are individual differences stable over time?
What is preformatism? Why was It abandoned? - ANSWERSPreformatism: human
is"preformed" at the instant of conception and only grows in size and mass until birth;
infants, children = miniature adults
Discoveries in biology about prenatal development
Economic changes (free market, capitalism)required extended period of education to
meet occupational demands, which resulted already in 16th century to decline of
preformatism in folk-psychology
Questions with Accurate Answers
How is development defined? - ANSWERS• Change
• Age-related
• Orderly
• Cumulative
• Directional
How is lifespan development defined? - ANSWERS- A field of study that describes and
explains intra individual change and inter individual differences in change from
conception through the lifespan
- Development comes from biological, individual, and cultural factors influencing each
other
Why is it important to study lifespan development? - ANSWERS• Understand typical
and atypical development
• Prediction and intervention
• Basic Research
• Applied Research
• Interdisciplinary discipline
- The more you learn about children, the better you can raise them, teach them, and
help them in a variety of other ways. Perhaps you hope to gain some insight about your
own history—as an infant, a child, an adolescent, or a young adult. Perhaps you want to
know more about what your life will be like as you grow through the adult years—as a
middle-aged or older adult. Perhaps you wish to help aging parents or grandparents.
What are the characteristics of lifespan development? - ANSWERS• Lifelong (see
increases inlife-expectancy)
• Multidimensional (biological, cognitive, social, emotional)and multidirectional•
- Plastic: capacity for change• Multidisciplinary
• Contextual: setting in which development occurs, and the setting can be influenced by
historical, economic ,social and cultural factors
• Growth, Maintenance, Loss
• Co-construction
What are the 3 influences contexts exerts? - ANSWERS- normative-age graded: similar
for all individuals of the same age. Normative age-graded influences are similar for
individuals in a particular age group. These influences include biological processes such
as puberty and menopause. They also include sociocultural environmental processes
such as beginning formal education.
, Normative-history graded: same for age cohort because of historical evens such as
9/11, the Great Depression, etc
Non normative life events: unique to each individual, unpredictable
What is Brofenbrenner's Ecological Theory? - ANSWERSdevelopment reflects the
influence of several environmental systems
What are the three domains of development? - ANSWERSPhysical/biological processes
• Cognitive processes
• Emotional and Social processes
What are the 4 conceptions of age? - ANSWERS• Chronological age: counted from
birth
• Biological age: biomarkers, vital organs
• Psychological age: adaptive capacities
• Social age: connectedness with others,social roles
What is the difference between qualitative and quantitative change? -
ANSWERSQualitative: Fundamental transformation in a child's abilities over time -
changes in kind
Quantitative: Increases in the amount of an ability a child already has
- Stages are distinguished by qualitative changes
What is the plasticity issue? - ANSWERSThe degree to which and the conditions under
which development is open to change and intervention
What is the critical period vs the sensitive period? - ANSWERScritical : Period during
which specific environmental or biological events MUST occur if development is to
proceed normally
sensitive: Time window during which a particular experience (or lack thereof) has a
more pronounced effect on the organism than does exposure to the same experience at
another time
What are the two questions pertinent to individual differences? - ANSWERS(a) What
makes individuals different from one another?
(b) To what extent are individual differences stable over time?
What is preformatism? Why was It abandoned? - ANSWERSPreformatism: human
is"preformed" at the instant of conception and only grows in size and mass until birth;
infants, children = miniature adults
Discoveries in biology about prenatal development
Economic changes (free market, capitalism)required extended period of education to
meet occupational demands, which resulted already in 16th century to decline of
preformatism in folk-psychology
