Chapter 8 Psychology: Human Development – Flashcards

refers to the pattern of continuity and change in human capabilities that occurs throughout the course of life - most involves growth although it also involves decline

What are the research methods in Developmental psychology

a number of people are assessed at one point in time - age differences are noted - by examining how the ages of these individuals relate to the characteristics measured, researchers can find out wether younger people differ from older ones - age differences hover are not the same as developmental changes - problem: cohort effects

differences between individuals that stem not necessarily from their ages but from the historical and social time period in which they were born and developed - differences observed between groups may be due to something like experiences that differ rather than their age

assesses the same participants multiple times over a lengthy period - can find out NOT only whether age groups differ but also wether the same individuals change with repeat to particular characteristics as they age - strong statements about developmental changes in psychological characteristics require these study designs

development is about the complex interactions of genes and experience that built the hole person

refers to a person's biological inheritance especially his or her genes

refers to the individual's environment and social experiences

the ___ shoes the contributions of BOTH nature and nurture

key question in developmental psycholog

a key concept in understanding the role of negative early experiences in later development refers to a person's ability to recover from o adapt to difficult times

in individuals efforts to experience life in optimal ways they develop _____ that involve activities, social relationships and life goals - some people are more successful at constructing optimal life experiences than others

What are the 3 domains of life that make development complex

traced cognitive development through childhood into adulthood - human beings use schemas to make sense of their experience described 2 processes responsible for how people use and adapt to their schemas: assimilation and accomidation

a mental concept or framework that organizes information and provides a structure for interpreting it

occurs when individuals incorporate new information into existing knowledge - as a result of this, the person hen faced with a new experience applies old ways of doing things

occurs when people adjust their schemas to new information - means that rather than using one's old ways of doing things, a new experience promotes new ways of dealing with experience

What re the 4 stages we go to according to Paiget in understanding the world?

birth to 2 years - infants construct an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences (seeing and hearing) with motor (physical) actions - by the end of this stage, 2 year olds show complex sensorimotor pattens and are beginning to use symbols or words in their thinking - object permanence

Paigest's term for the crucial accomplishment of understanding that objects continue to exist when when they cannot be directly seen heard or touched

second stage of cognitive development 2-7 - this thought is more symbolic than sensorimotor and children in reshool years begin to represent their world with words, images and drawings thus, their thoughts begin to exceed simple connections of sensorimotor information and physical action - limit: they still cannot perform OPERATIONS by which he meant mental representations that are REVERSIBLE - have a hard time understanding that reversing an action may restore the original conditions from which the action began 3 beaks test - thought is egocentric - cannot put themselves in someone else's shoes - thought is intuitive- make judgements based on GUT feelings rather than logic

7-11 - involves using operations and replacing intuitive reasoning with logical reasoning in concrete situations - can successfully complete the beaker task - able to mentally imagine the operation of reversing - concrete operations are related to the properties of objects (Plah doh is not changing the amount by changing the shape) - one important skill at this stage of reasoning is tha ability to classify and sub classify or divide things into different sets or subsets and to consider their interrelations concrete operational thought involves operational thinking, classification skills and logical reasoning in concrete BUT NOT HYPOTHETICAL SITUATIONS

11-15 - this stage continues to adulthood - more abstract and logical than concrete operational - includes thinking about things that are NOT concrete, making predictions, and using LOGIC to come up with hypothesis about the future - conceive hypothetical, purely abstract possibilities IDEALISTIC thinking- involves comparing how things are to how they might be - also think more logically- begin to think more as scientists by devising plans to solve problems and systematically testing solutions = hypothetical deductive reasoning (denotes the ability to develop hypothesis, or best hunches about ways to solve a problem such as a math equation) also denotes their ability to systematically deduce or come to a conclusion about the best path for solving the problem (in contrast, before teen years, children are more likely to solve problems by trial and error)