Questions and Answers 2025-2026
Edition.
Lifespan Development - Answer It is the field of study that examines patterns of growth,
change, and stability in behavior that occur throughout the entire lifespan.
Lifespan Development focuses on human development - Answer 1) universal principles of
development
2) Cultural, Racial, Ethnic differences
3) Individual traits & Characteristics
Psychodynamic Theory - Answer (Freud/Erikson) Theories proposing that development is
largely determined by how well people resolve conflicts they face at different ages.
Psychosocial Theory - Answer (Erikson) Personality development is determined by the
internal maturational plan & external societal demands.
Neuroscience - Answer The study of the brain & nervous system. Helps with understanding
brain-behavior relationships.
physical development - Answer Involves the body's physical makeup, including the brain,
nervous system, muscles, and senses, and the need for food, drink, and sleep as a determinant
of behavior.
Cognitive Development - Answer Involves the ways that growth and change in learning,
memory, problem solvinf, and intelligence influence a person's behavior.
Personality Development - Answer Involves the ways that the enduring characteristics that
differentiate one person from another change over the lifespan.
social Development - Answer Is the way in which individual's interactions with others and
their social relationships grow, change, and remain stable over the course of life.
, Developmental Diversity - Answer It is how Culture, Ethnicity, and Race Influence
Development.
One's Cohort - Answer It is the group of people borne around the same time and same
place.
continuous change - Answer Involves gradual development in which achievements at one
level build on those of previous levels.
discontinuous change - Answer It is development that occurs in distinct steps or stages, with
each stage bringing about behavior that is assumed to be qualitatively different from behavior
at earlier stages.
Critical Period - Answer Is a specific time during development when a particular event has its
greatest consequences.
Sensitive Periods - Answer As a point in development when organisms are particularly
susceptible to certain kinds of stimuli in their environments, but the absence of those stimulis
does not always produce irreversible consequences.
Compare to early developmentalits , who focused on " infancy and adolescent" - Answer
Today the entire lifespan is seen as important for several reasons:
1) Growth and change countunie throughout life.
2) An important part of every person's environment is the other people around him or her, the
person's social environment.
Influence of Nature on Development - Answer nature refers to traits, abilities, and capacities
that are inherited from one's parent.
Influence of Nuture on Development - Answer
What is a gene and its role in fetal development? - Answer A unit of DNA which has the job
on directing the manufacture of proteins for your body's use.
monozygotic twins - Answer twins who are genetically identical