personality of others her age development demands Human Development The scientific study of age related changes in behavior thinking emotions and Norms Average ages at which developmental milestones are reached Maturation The gradual unfolding of a genetically programmed sequential pattern of change Norm Referenced Tests Standardized tests that compare an individual child s score to the average score Lifespan Development The current view of developmentalists that important changes occur throughout the entire human lifespan and that these changes must be interpreted in terms of the culture and context in which they occur thus interdisciplinary research is critical to understanding human Physical Domain Changes in the size shape and characteristics of the body Plasticity Individuals of all ages possess the capacity for positive change in response to environmental Interdisciplinary Research Research from different kinds of disciplinary perspective e g anthropology economics and psychology is needed to fully understand lifespan development Multicontextual Nature of Development Individual development occurs within several interrelated context e g family neighborhood culture Cognitive Domain Changes in thinking memory problem solving and other intellectual skills Social Domain Change in variables that are associated with the relationship of an individual to others Nature Nurture Debate The debate about the relative contributions of biological processes and experiential factors to development Quantitative Change A change in amount Qualitative Change A change in kind or type Normative Age Related Changes Changes that are common to every member of a species Stages Qualitatively distant periods of development Social Clock A set of age norms defining a sequence of life experiences that is considered normal in a given culture and that all individuals in that culture are expected to follow Ageism A prejudicial view of older adults that characterizes them in negative ways Normative History Graded Changes Changes that occur in most members of a cohort as a result of factors at work during a specific well defined historical period Nonnormative Changes Changes that result from unique unshared events Critical Period A specific period in development when an organism is especially sensitive to the presence or absence of some particular kind of experience Sensitive Period A span of months or years during which a child may be particularly responsive to specific forms of experience or particularly influenced by their absence Atypical Development Development that deviates from the typical development pathway in a direction harmful to the individual Naturalistic Changes The process by studying people in their normal environments Case Study An in depth examination of a single individual Laboratory Observation Observation of behavior under controlled conditions Survey Data collection method in which participants respond to questions Population The entire group that is of interest to a researcher Sample Subset of a group that is of a researcher who participants in a study Representative Sample A sample that is the same characteristics as the population to which a study s Correlation A relationship between two variables that can be expressed as a number ranging from 1 00 Experiment A study that tests a casual hypothesis Experimental Group The group in an experiment that receives the treatment the experimenter thinks will produce a particular effect Control Group The group in an experiment that receives either no special treatment or a neutral Independent Variable The presumed causal element in an experiment Dependent Variable The characteristic or behavior that is expected to be affected by the independent Cross Sectional Design A research design in which groups of people of different ages are compared Longitudinal Design A research design in which people in a single group are studies at different times in findings apply to 1 00 treatment variable their lives Sequential Design A research design that combines cross sectional and longitudinal examinations of development Cohort Effects Findings that are the result of historical factors to which one age group in a cross sectional study has been exposed Ethnography A detailed description of a single culture or context Research Ethics The guidelines researchers follow to protect the rights of animals used in research and humans who participants in studies