PSY 231 1st EditionExam # 1 Study Guide Lectures: 1 - 3Lecture 1- Chapter 1 (January 28)Key Terms:Developmental science- a field of study devoted to understanding constancy and change throughout the lifespanTheory- an orderly, integrated set of statements that describes explains, and predicts behaviorContinuous Development- a process of gradually augmenting the same types of skills that were there to begin withDiscontinuous- a process by which new ways of understanding and responding to the world emerge at different timesStages- qualitative changes in thinking, feeling, and behaving that characterizes specific periods of developmentContexts- unique combinations of personal and environmental circumstances that can result in different paths of changeNature-nurture controversy- the question debating whether genetic or environmental factors are more important to developmentLifespan perspective- a broader view made up by four assumptions that development is 1) lifelong, 2) multidimensional and multidirectional, 3) highly plastic, and 4) affected by multiple, interacting forcesAge-graded influences- events that are strongly related to age and therefore fairly predictable in when they occur and how long they lastHistory-graded influences- 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 timesNon-normative influences- events that are irregular—they happen to just one person or a few people and do not follow a predictable timetableNormative approach- measures of behavior are taken on large numbers of individuals, and age-related averages are computed to represent typical developmentPsychoanalytic perspective- people move through a series of stages in which they confront conflicts between biological drives and social expectation. How these conflicts are resolved determines the person’s ability to learn, to get along with others, and to cope with anxiety.Psychosexual theory- Freud’s theory which emphasizes that how parents manage their child’s sexual and aggressive drive in the first few years is crucial for healthy personality development.Psychosocial theory- Erikson’s theory which emphasizes that in addition to mediating between id impulses and superego demands, the ego makes a positive contribution to development, acquiring attitudes and skills at each stage that make the individual and active, contributing member to societyBehaviorism- directly observable events—stimuli and responses—are the appropriate focus of studySocial Learning Theory- the most influential of its kind was created by Albert Bandura, and emphasizes modeling, also known as imitation or observational learning, as a powerful source of developmentBehavior modification- consists of procedures that combine conditioning and modeling to eliminate undesirable and increase desirable responsesCognitive-developmental theory- children actively construct knowledge as they manipulate andexplore their world (Piaget)Information Processing- the human mind might also be viewed as a symbol-manipulating system through which information flowsDevelopmental cognitive neuroscience- brings together researchers from psychology, biology, neuroscience, and medicine to study the relationship between changes in the brain and the developing person’s cognitive processing and behavior patternsEthology- concerned with the adaptive, or survival, value of behavior and its evolutionary historySensitive period- a time that is optimal for certain capacities to emerge and in which the individual is especially responsive to environmental influences. Boundaries are less well defined than those of a critical period. Development can occur later, but it is harder to induceEvolutionary developmental psychology- seeks to understand the adaptive value of species-wide cognitive, emotional, and social competencies as those competencies change with ageSociocultural theory- the way in which culture (the values, beliefs, customs, and skills of a socialgroup) is transmitted to the next generation. According to Vygotsky, social interaction is necessary for children to acquire the ways of thinking and behaving that make up a community’s cultureEcological systems theory- views the person as developing within a complex system of relationships affected by multiple levels of the surrounding environmentMicrosystem- innermost level of the environment, which consists of activities and interaction patterns in the person’s immediate surroundingsMesosystem- second level of Bronfenbrenner’s model encompasses connections between microsystemsExosystem- consists of social settings that do not contain the developing person but nevertheless affect experiences in immediate settingsMacrosystem- consist of cultural values, laws, customs, and resourcesChronosystem- temporal dimension of Bronfenbrenner’s model. Life changes can be imposed externally or can arise from within the person, since individuals select, modify, and create many of their own settings and experiencesNaturalistic Observation- going into the field or natural environment and recording the behavior of interestStructured observations- the investigator sets up a laboratory situation that evokes the behavior of interest so that every participant has an equal opportunity to display the responseClinical interview- researchers use a flexible, conversational style to probe for the participant’s point of viewStructured interviews- includes tests and questionnaires in which each participant is asked the same set of questions in the same wayClinical (case study) method- brings together a wide range of information on one person, including interviews, observations, and sometimes test scoresEthnography- descriptive, qualitative technique directed towards understanding a culture or a distinct social group through participant observationCorrelational design- researchers gather information on individuals, generally in natural life circumstances, without altering their experiences. They then look at the relationships between participants’ characteristics and their behavior or developmentCorrelation coefficient- a number that describes how two measures, or variables, are associatedwith each otherExperimental design- permits influences about cause and effect because researchers use an evenhanded procedure to assign people to two or more treatment conditionsIndependent variable- the one the investigator expects to cause changes in