EDF 3110 Exam 1 Questions and Answers

Definition of developmental science - Answer- studying both change and constancy throughout the lifespan theory - Answer- an orderly, integrated set of statements that describes, explains, and predicts behavior **used to organize observations discontinuous development - Answer- the view that development is a process in which new ways of understanding and responding to the world emerge at specific times continuous development - Answer- the view that development is a process of gradually augmenting the same types of skills that were there to begin with Nature-Nurture debate - Answer- disagreement among theorists about whether genetic or environmental factors are more important influences on development nature - Answer- inborn and biological, based on genetic inheritance, stability of characteristics nurture - Answer- physical and social world, influence biological and psychological development, plasticity (development is open to lifelong change and change occurs based on influential experiences) stability - Answer- persistence of individual differences; lifelong patterns established by early experiences resilience - Answer- ability to adapt effectively in the face of threats to development; factors include personal characteristics, warm parental relationship, social support outside family, and community resources and opportunities **boy's close, affectionate relationship with father who combines warmth with appropriate expectations for maturity age-graded influence - Answer- influences on lifespan development that are strongly related to age and therefore fairly predictable in when they occur and how long they last **walking shortly after first birthday, acquire native language at school, each puberty around age 12-14, menopause for women in late 40s and 50s, etc. history-graded influence - Answer- influences on lifespan development that are unique to a particular historical era and explain why people born around the same time (called a cohort) tend to be alike in ways that set them apart from people born at other times **baby boomers nonnormative influence - Answer- influences on lifespan development that are irregular, in that they happen to just one or a few individuals and do not follow a predictable timetable **piano lessons during childhood with an inspiring teacher, battle with cancer, etc. lifespan perspective - Answer- a dynamic systems approach to development that assumes development is lifelong, multidimensional and multidirectional, highly plastic, and affected by multiple interacting forces psychoanalytic perspective (Freud & Erikson) - Answer- emphasis on individual's unique life history; conflicts between biological drives and social expectations; interprets human development in terms of motives and drives (drives are often unconscious and influence every aspect of a person's life; stages of development occur in sequence; first theory to consider parent/child relationship; how parents manage child's innate impulses and drives Freud's three parts of the personality - Answer- Id: largest portion of the mind; unconscious, present at birth; source of biological needs/desires Ego: conscious, rational part of personality; emerges in early infancy, redirects id impulses in acceptable ways; **mediates between id and superego Superego: the conscience; develops from ages 3 to 6 through interactions with caregivers **when the id impulse to grab an attractive toy from a playmate confronts the superego's warning that such behavior is wrong, the ego must mediate between these two forces behaviorism - Answer- development involves an increase in learned behaviors and may vary person to person classical conditioning - Answer- Pavlov; the creation of a new involuntary response to a stimulus that did not normally produce that response **Office episode operant conditioning - Answer- B.F. Skinner; increasing the rate of an already occurring response through reinforcement **Big Bang Theory episode Social Learning Theory - Answer- Bandura; learning occurs through modeling, also known as imitation or observational learning **2 year old watching mom get ready for work and after several mornings, 2 year old picks up brush and rubs it against her face. monkey see, monkey do! reinforcement - Answer- using certain stimuli to increase the occurrence of a response Ecological Systems Theory - Answer- biologically influenced dispositions join with environmental forces at multiple levels to mold development (Microsystem, Mesosystem, Exosystem, Macrosystem, Chronosystem) Piaget's Cognitive-Developmental Theory - Answer- Piaget proposed 4 discontinuous stages *sensorimotor: birth-2 years-infants "think" by acting on the world with their senses *preoperational: 2-7 years-preschoolers use symbols *concrete operations: 7-11 years-school-age children understand that a certain amount lemonade or play dough remains the same even after its appearance changes *formal operations: 11 years on-capacity for abstract, systematic thinking ****children actively construct and explore their world sensitive period - Answer- an optimal time for certain capacities to emerge; individual is especially responsive to environment; boundaries less defined than critical period correlational study - Answer- reveals relationships between characteristics and behaviors, but does not permit cause-and-effect inferences (correlation does NOT equal causation) cross-sectional study - Answer- different groups are studied at the same time longitudinal study - Answer- investigator studies the same group of participants repeatedly at different times; can be affected by dropout rates and practice effects (more exposure results in more progress) sequential study - Answer- investigators might study participants over the same ages but in different years, or they might study participants over different ages but during the same year experimental study - Answer- participants randomly assigned to treatment conditions; detects cause-and-effect relationships; findings may not apply in real-world conditions random assignment - Answer- unbiased procedure used to assign participants to treatment conditions; increases chances that characteristics will be equally distributed across conditions dependent variable - Answer- variable being measured and not manipulated; expected to be influenced by the independent variable independent variable - Answer- manipulated by the experimenter; expected to cause changes in another variable correlation coefficient - Answer- a number ranging from +1.00 to -1.00 that describes the strength and direction of the relationship between two variables genotype - Answer- genetic makeup of an individual phenotype - Answer- observable characteristics of an individual mitosis - Answer- process by which DNA duplicates itself; produces new body cells containing the same genetic information gametes - Answer- sex cells: sperm and ovum (each has 23 chromosomes) schemes - Answer- a specific psychological structure or an organized way to make sense of an experience accommodation - Answer- adjusting old schemes and creating new ones to better fit environment adaptation - Answer- building schemes through direct interaction with environment assimilation - Answer- using current schemes to interpret the external world X-linked inheritance - Answer- a pattern of inheritance in which a recessive gene is carried on the X chromosome, so that males are more likely than females to be affected niche-picking - Answer- a type of gene-environment correlation in which individuals actively choose environments that complement their heredity embryo - Answer- 6 weeks; groundwork laid for all body structures and internal organs blastocyst - Answer- hollow, fluid-fill