Chapter 1 Flashcards
(35 cards)
A way to answer questions using empirical research and data-based conclusions.
Scientific method
The science that seeks to understand how and why people of all ages and circumstances change or remain the same over time.
Science of human development
A comprehensive set of ideas.
Theory
A specific prediction that can be tested.
Hypothesis
Based on observation, experience, or experiment; not theoretical.
Empirical
Repeating a study, usually using different participants, perhaps of another age, SES, or culture.
Replication
A situation in which a seemingly healthy infant, usually between 2 and 6 months, suddenly stops breathing and does unexpectedly while asleep.
Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)
In development, nature refers to the traits, capacities, and limitations that each individual inherits genetically from his or her parents at the moment of conception.
Nature
In development, nurture includes all the environmental influences that affect the individual after conception.
Nurture
A time when a particular type if developmental growth (in body or behavior) must happen for normal development to occur.
Critical period
A time when a certain type of development is most likely, although it may still happen later with more difficulty.
Sensitive period
The idea that abilities, personality, and other human characteristics can change over time.
Plasticity
The mistaken belief that a deviation from some norm is necessarily inferior to behavior or characteristics that meet the standard.
Difference-equals-deficit disorder
An idea that is built on shared perceptions, not on objective reality.
Social construction
A system of shared beliefs, norms, behaviors, and expectations that persist over time and prescribe social behavior and assumptions.
Culture
People whose ancestors were born in the same region and who often share a language, culture, and religion.
Ethnic group
A group of people who are regarded by themselves or by others as distinct from other groups on the basis of physical appearance, typically in skin color.
Race
A person’s position in society as determined by income, occupation, education, and place of residence.
Socioeconomic status (SES)
A view of human development as an ongoing, ever-changing interaction between the physical, cognitive, and psychosocial influences.
Dynamic systems
A perspective on human development that considers all the influences from the various contexts of development
Ecological-systems approach
People born within the same historical period who therefore move through life together, experiencing the same events, new technologies, and cultural shifts at the same ages.
Cohort
A term emphasizing the interaction of the three developmental domains (biosocial, cognitive, and psychosocial).
Biopsychospcial
Cells in an observer’s brain that are activated by watching an action performed by someone else as they would be if the observer had personally performed that action.
Mirror neurons
A method of testing a hypothesis by unobtrusively watching and recording participants’ behavior in a systematic and objective manner.
Scientific observation
