Theories of Development

Question 1

What are biology and evolutionary theories?

Answer 1

human development is rooted in biological processes that have evolved to promote adaptation and survival

Question 2

Ethology

Answer 2

emphasizes genetically determined survival behaviours presumed to have evolved through natural selection

Question 3

Behaviour genetics

Answer 3

the study of the role of heredity in individual differences

Question 4

Evolutionary psychology

Answer 4

the view that genetically inherited cognitive and social traits have evolved through natural selection

Question 5

What are psychoanalytic theories?

Answer 5

focusing primarily on the role that the psyche (soul, spirit, or mind) plays in development

Question 6

Libido

Answer 6

instinctual drive or energy of sexual natures and desires

Question 7

Id

Answer 7

primitive instincts and desires in personality

Question 8

Ego

Answer 8

thinking element in personality (mediator)

Question 9

Superego

Answer 9

moral judgment in personality

Question 10

Freud’s psychosexual stages

Answer 10

-stages of personality development and maturation in children
-libido is centered on a different part of the body

Question 11

What are learning theories?

Answer 11

focusing on how experiences in the environment shape individual development

Question 12

Classical conditioning

Answer 12

learning that results from the association of stimuli

Question 13

Operant conditioning

Answer 13

learning to repeat or stop behaviours because of their consequences

Question 14

Reinforcement

Answer 14

any immediate consequence that follows a behaviour
-increases the likelihood that the behaviour will be repeated

Question 15

Positive reinforcement

Answer 15

adding a consequence (something pleasant) to increase the likelihood of the behaviour

Question 16

Negative reinforcement

Answer 16

taking away a condition (something unpleasant) to increase the likelihood of the behaviour

Question 17

Punishment

Answer 17

any immediate consequence that follows a behaviour
-decreases the likelihood that the behaviour will be repeated

Question 18

Positive punishment

Answer 18

taking away a condition (something pleasant) to decrease the likelihood of the behaviour

Question 19

Negative punishment

Answer 19

adding a consequence (something unpleasant) to decrease the likelihood of the behaviour

Question 20

What are cognitive theories

Answer 20

focusing on how changes in the ways people think brings about changes in their behaviours, personality, and their basic interactions with others

Question 21

Sensorimotor

Answer 21

understanding the world through senses and motor actions
-object permanence

Question 22

Preoperational

Answer 22

thinking symbolically using words and pictures
-logic/problem solving

Question 23

Concrete operational

Answer 23

thinking more logically and organized (still concrete)
-conservation of mass

Question 24

Formal operational

Answer 24

thinking more abstractly and hypothetically
-scientific reasoning

Question 25

Scheme

Answer 25

internal cognitive structure that provides a person with a procedure to follow in a specific circumstance

Question 26

Example of a scheme

Answer 26

picking up a ball and throwing it to someone

Question 27

Piaget's scheme processes

Answer 27

assimilation, accommodation, equilibration

Question 28

Assimilation

Answer 28

using schemes to make sense of events or experiences

Question 29

Accommodation

Answer 29

changing a scheme as a result of some new information

Question 30

Equilibration

Answer 30

balancing assimilation and accommodation to create schemes that fit the environment

Question 31

What are system theories

Answer 31

development is the result of the interaction of the individual and environmental contexts

Question 32

Holism

Answer 32

idea that the whole is often greater than the sum of its parts (the bigger picture)

Question 33

Ecological systems theory

Answer 33

development is influenced by relationships between individual and environment

Question 34

Macrosystem

Answer 34

socio-cultural ideologies, customs, laws, and governing policies in which a person grows up in -child abuse laws

Question 35

Exosystem

Answer 35

settings that affect a person's development indirectly -educational systems, social services, healthcare services

Question 36

Microsystem

Answer 36

immediate settings where a person interacts with and is exposed to directly -family, school, peers, workplace