Nature versus nurture controversy - Answers experiences (nurture) or genetics (nature) influences
development
Nurture blank slate - Answers tabula rasa
Nature versus nurture differences - Answers nature preprogrammed and nurture experiences
View of most theorists on nature versus nurture - Answers combination, interact from conception
forward
Stage theories (discontinuity theories) - Answers Development through a series of stages
Continuity theories - Answers Steady growth process
Discontinuity (stage) vs Continuity - Answers Stage is qualitative
Child development vs. Life Span Perspective - Answers Freud and Piaget = child development
Erikson = life span
Child Development theory - Answers complete once reach adolescence
Life Span theory - Answers continues throughout life span
Universality vs. context-specific development - Answers Universality (Piaget) = same order and same age
Context-specific (Bronfenbrenner) = takes place in various contexts
Context-specific development - Answers Collectivist cultures vs. individualistic cultures changes
development
Cognitive development theory - Answers Based on the notion that cognitive abilities are developed as
individuals mature physiologically and have opportunity to interact with environment (Piaget)
Equilibration of accommodation and assimilation - Answers Piaget argues that normally we are in this
state, when a new stimulus presents we enter state of disequilibrium
Accommodation - Answers Adjusting prior knowledge gained through former experiences and
interactions
Assimilation - Answers Fitting together the new information with what has been previously known or
understood
Constructivism - Answers Piaget position on learning. Children construct schema, organized patterns of
thought or action, Based on the experiences that they have actively exploring the environment
Piaget Constructivism - Answers considered a stage theory
,Piaget Constructivism Four Stages - Answers 1. Sensorimotor (birth - 2)
2. Preoperational (2-7)
3. Concrete Operations (7-11)
4. Formal Operaitons (11-15)
Preoperational stage - Answers egocentrism, rigidity of thought, semi logical reasoning, limited social
cognition
Concrete Operations - Answers Beginning of operational thinking, can perform transformations,
understand reversibility, inversion, reciprocity, and conservation, group into categories, make
inferences, inductive reasoning
Formal Operations - Answers higher ordered critical thinking, adult thinking, ultimate stage of cognitive
development, scientific method, logical, abstract and hypothetical thought, deductive and inductive
reasoning
Kohlberg - Answers extended Piaget model to study of moral reasoning
Information processing approach - Answers newer approach to studying cognitive development, uses
computer as metaphor for human mind
Learning theory (or behaviorist theory) - Answers Developmental change as the product of learning
Learning - Answers To find as changes in observable behavior
Watson - Answers Found in school psychology called behaviorism or behavioral psychology
Behavioral psychology important figures - Answers Pavlov, Watson, Skinner, Bandura
Learning theory - Answers behavior is controlled by stimuli in the environment
Pavlov Classical Conditioning - Answers Learning takes place when reflexive behavior comes under the
control of a novel stimulus in the environment
Reflex - Answers unlearned behavior present at birth, unconscious
Components of Reflex - Answers Unconditioned stimulus (UCS) - automatically elicits response without
training or conditioning
Unconditioned Response (UCR) - untrained motor response
Inborn reflex - Answers result of UCS-UCR connection
Conditioned Stimulus (CS) - Answers Consistently paired with the UCS
Conditioned Response (CR) - Answers after several pairings of UCS with CS, CR happens
, Generalization - Answers Observed when a conditioned response solicited by stimuli similar to the
original CS
Discrimination - Answers Opposite of generalization. Process of conditioning a response to occur only
after specific stimulus is presented
Extinction - Answers Unlearning of a CR
John Watson - Answers Extended work of Pavlov by studying classical conditioning of emotional
responses and children
Emotional responses at birth - Answers Love, anger, and fear
Watson argued - Answers Through experience we learned to associate new environmental stimuli with
the reflexive emotional responses of love, anger, and fear
Little Albert - Answers Watson and Raynor (assistant), fear response in little boy using rat and fear-
producing UCS, a loud noise
Mary Cover Jones - Answers Watson student, extinguished phobia in child using classical conditioning
Skinner - Answers Operant conditioning
Operant conditioning (or instrumental conditioning) - Answers Behavior is shaped by rewarding or
punishing consequences that follow
Reinforcement - Answers Process of rewarding a behavior
Shaping of behavior - Answers Skinner argued that two processes of reinforcement and punishment
control the shaping of behavior
Positive reinforcement - Answers Reward or rewarding condition that is experienced after a behavioral
response increasing the probability that the response will be repeated under the same stimulus
conditions in the future
Negative reinforcement - Answers Unpleasant condition is removed when the behavioral responses is
emitted
Bandura - Answers Social-cognitive theory of learning (social learning theory)
Social-cognitive theory - Answers Changes in behavior are acquired not only through the process of
conditioning, but also through observational learning
Modeling - Answers Observing the behavior of a model and then later imitating that behavior
Self-efficacy - Answers Subjective judgment a person makes that he or she will be successful in the
attempt to imitate a model