Ch 1. The Lifespan Perspective

Question 1

Development

Answer 1

The pattern of change that begins at conception and continues through the life span. Most development involves growth, although it also includes decline brought on by aging and dying.

Question 2

Life-span perspective

Answer 2

The perspective that development is lifelong, multidimensional, multidirectional, plastic, multidisciplinary, and contextual; involves growth, maintenance, and regulation; and is constructed through biological, sociocultural, and individual factors working together.

Question 3

Normative age-graded influences

Answer 3

Influences that are similar for individuals in a particular age group.

Question 4

Nonnormative life events

Answer 4

Unusual occurrences that have a major impact on an individual’s life. Ex: Winning the lottery.

Question 5

Normative history-graded influences

Answer 5

Influences that are similar for individuals in a particular age group.

Question 6

Culture

Answer 6

The behavior patterns, beliefs, and all other products of a group that are passed on from generation to generation.

Question 7

Cross-cultural studies

Answer 7

Comparison of one culture with one or more other cultures. These provide information about the degree to which development is similar, or universal, across cultures, and the degree to which it is culture-specific.

Question 8

Ethnicity

Answer 8

A characteristic based on cultural heritage, nationality characteristics, race, religion, and language.

Question 9

Socioeconomic status (SES)

Answer 9

Refers to the grouping of people with similar occupational, educational, and economic characteristics.

Question 10

Gender

Answer 10

The characteristics of people as males or females.

Question 11

Social policy

Answer 11

A national government’s course of action designed to promote the welfare of its citizens.

Question 12

Biological processes

Answer 12

Changes in an individual’s physical nature.

Question 13

Cognitive Processes

Answer 13

Changes in an individual’s thought, intelligence, and language.

Question 14

Socioemotional Processes

Answer 14

Changes in an individual’s relationships with other people, emotions, and personality.

Question 15

Nature-Nurture Issue

Answer 15

Debate about whether development is primarily influenced by nature or nurture. Nature refers to an organism’s biological inheritance, nurture to its environmental experiences.

Question 16

Stability-Change Issue

Answer 16

Debate about whether we become older renditions of our early experience (stability) or whether we develop into someone different from who we were at an earlier point in development (change).

Question 17

Continuity-Discontinuity Issue

Answer 17

Debate about the extent to which development involves gradual, cumulative change (continuity) or distinct stages (discontinuity).

Question 18

Scientific Method

Answer 18

An approach that can be used to obtain accurate information. It includes the following steps: (1) conceptualize the problem, (2) collect data, (3) draw conclusions, and (4) revise research conclusions and theory.

Question 19

Theory

Answer 19

An interrelated, coherent set of ideas that helps to explain phenomena and facilitate predictions.

Question 20

Hypotheses

Answer 20

Specific assumptions and predictions that can be tested to determine their accuracy.

Question 21

Psychoanalytic Theories

Answer 21

Theories that describe development as primarily unconscious and heavily colored by emotion. Behavior is merely a surface characteristic, and the symbolic workings of the mind have to be analyzed to understand behavior. Early experiences with parents are emphasized.

Question 22

Vygotsky’s Theory

Answer 22

A sociocultural cognitive theory that emphasizes how culture and social interaction guide cognitive development.

Question 23

Information-processing theory

Answer 23

Emphasizes that individuals manipulate information, monitor it, and strategize about it. Central to this theory are the processes of memory and thinking.

Question 24

Behaviorism

Answer 24

We can study scientifically only what can be directly observed and measured

Question 25

Social Cognitive Theory

Answer 25

The view of psychologists who emphasize behavior, environment, and cognition as the key factors in development.

Question 26

Ethology

Answer 26

Stresses that behavior is strongly influenced by biology, is tied to evolution, and is characterized by critical or sensitive periods.

Question 27

Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Theory

Answer 27

Bronfenbrenner's environmental systems theory that focuses on five environmental systems: microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem.

Question 28

Microsystem

Answer 28

The setting in which the individual lives. These contexts include the person's family, peers, school, and neighborhood. It is in the microsystem that the most direct interactions with social agents take place—with parents, peers, and teachers, for example. The individual is not a passive recipient of experiences in these settings, but someone who helps to construct the settings.

Question 29

Mesosystem

Answer 29

Involves relations between microsystems or connections between contexts. Examples are the relation of family experiences to school experiences, school experiences to religious experiences, and family experiences to peer experiences. For example, children whose parents have rejected them may have difficulty developing positive relations with teachers.

Question 30

Exosystem

Answer 30

Consists of links between a social setting in which the individual does not have an active role and the individual's immediate context. For example, a husband's or child's experience at home may be influenced by a mother's experiences at work. The mother might receive a promotion that requires more travel, which might increase conflict with the husband and change patterns of interaction with the child.

Question 31

Macrosystem

Answer 31

Involves the culture in which individuals live. Remember from earlier in the chapter that culture refers to the behavior patterns, beliefs, and all other products of a group of people that are passed on from generation to generation. Remember also that cross-cultural studies—the comparison of one culture with one or more other cultures—provide information about the generality of development.

Question 32

Chronosystem

Answer 32

The patterning of environmental events and transitions over the life course, as well as sociohistorical circumstances. For example, divorce is one transition. Researchers have found that the negative effects of divorce on children often peak in the first year after the divorce (Hetherington, 1993, 2006). By two years after the divorce, family interaction has become more stable. As an example of sociohistorical circumstances, consider how career opportunities for women have increased since the 1960s.

Question 33

Eclectic Theoretical Orientation

Answer 33

An orientation that does not follow any one theoretical approach but rather selects from each theory whatever is considered the best in it.

Question 34

Correlation Coefficient

Answer 34

A number based on statistical analysis that is used to describe the degree of association between two variables.

Question 35

Cross-Sectional Approach

Answer 35

A research strategy in which individuals of different ages are compared at one time.

Question 36

Longitudinal Approach

Answer 36

A research strategy in which the same individuals are studied over a period of time, usually several years or more.

Question 37

Cohort Effect

Answer 37

Effects due to a person's time of birth, era, or generation rather than the person's actual age.

Question 38

Cohort

Answer 38

A group of people who are born at a similar point in history and share similar experiences as a result, such as living through the Vietnam War or growing up in the same city around the same time.

Question 39

Ethnic Gloss

Answer 39

Using an ethnic label such as African American or Latino in a superficial way that portrays an ethnic group as being more homogeneous than it really is.