Chapter 1- Discovering the Lifespan – Flashcards

The field of study that examines patterns of growth, change, and stability throughout the entire human lifespan

A group of people born at around the same time and in the same place

Biological and environmental influences associated with a particular historical moment

Biological and environmental influences that are similar for individuals in a particular age group, regardless of when or where they are raised

Social and cultural factors present at a particular time for a particular individual, depending on such variables as ethnicity, social class, and subcultural membership

Specific atypical events that occurred in particular person's life at a time when such events do not happened to most people

People who lived in New York City during the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center experienced shared biological and environmental challenges due to the attack

Puberty and menopause

When child grows up in poverty and the other in affluence

A child whose parents die in an accident when she is six

Continuous change versus discontinuous change; critical periods versus sensitive periods; Lifespan approach versus particular periods approach; nature versus nurture

Physical, social, cognitive, personality

Continuous change is quantitative. Development is gradual with achievements at one level building on those of previous levels.

Discontinuous change is qualitative. Changes occur in distinct stages.

A specific time in development when a particular event has the greatest consequences. It produces irreversible change.

A time when an organism is susceptible to certain kinds of stimuli in their environments

Early developmentalists tended to focus their attention on infancy and adolescents. Today however, developmentalists believe the entire lifespan is important, largely because developmental growth and change continue during every part of life.

Traits, abilities, and capacities that are inherited from one's parents. It encompasses any factor that is produced by the predetermined unfolding of genetic information.

Environmental influences that shape behavior

Broad explanations and predictions about phenomena of interest

The predetermined unfolding of genetic information

Development involving the body's physical makeup, including the brain, nervous system, muscles, and senses. And the need for food drink and sleep.

Development involving the ways that growth and change in intellectual capabilities influence a person's behavior

(Freud, Erikson) The approach that states behavior is motivated by inner forces, memories, and conflicts that are generally beyond peoples awareness and control

(Freud) suggests that unconscious forces act to determine personality and behavior

(Freud) A series of stages that children pass through in which pleasure or gratification is focused on a particular biological function and body part

(Erikson) development that encompasses changes both in the understandings individuals have of themselves as members of society and in their comprehension of the meaning of others' behavior

(Watson, Skinner, Bandura) The keys to understanding development are observable behavior and outside stimuli in the environment

(Watson) type of learning in which an organism responds in a particular way to a neutral stimulus that normally does not bring about that type of response

(Skinner) A form of learning in which a voluntary response is strengthened or weekend by its association with positive or negative consequences

Formal technique for promoting the frequency of desirable behaviors and decreasing the incidence of unwanted ones

(Bandura) Learning by observing the behavior of another person, called a model

(Piaget) focuses on the processes that allow people to know, understand, and think about the world

(Piaget) The model that seeks to identify the ways individuals take in, use, and store information

The approach that examines cognitive development through the lens of brain processes

(Rogers, Maslow) Theory that contends that people have a natural capacity to make decisions about their lives and control their behavior

(Brofenbrenner, Vygotsky) Theory that considers the relationship between individuals and their physical, cognitive, personality, and social worlds

(Brofenbrenner) Suggesting that levels of the environment simultaneously influence individuals

(Vygotsky) Emphasizes how cognitive development proceeds as a result of social interactions between members of a culture

(Darwin, Lorenz) Theory that seeks to identify behavior that as a result of our genetic inheritance from our ancestors