Life-Span Development- Section 1: The Life Span Perspective

Scientific Method

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.

Experimental Group

An experimental group is a group whose experience is manipulated.

Case Study

An in-depth look at a single individual.

Independent Variable

An independent variable is a manipulated, influential, experimental factor; potential cause.

Psychological Age

An individuals adaptive age compared with those of other individuals of the same chronological age.

Theory

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

Electric Theoretical Orientation

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

Forth Age

Approximately eighty years and older.

Third Age

Approximately sixty to seventy-nine years of age.

Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Theory

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

Socioemotional Processes

Changes in an individual's interpersonal relationships, emotions, and personality.

Biological Processes

Changes in an individual's physical nature.

Cognitive Processes

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

First Age

Childhood and adolescence.

Cross-Cultural Studies

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.

Social Age

Connectedness with others and the social roles individuals adopt.

Continuity-Discontinuity Issue

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

Nature and Nurture Issue

Debate about whether development

Stability Change Issue

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).

Cohort Effects

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

Information-Processing Theory

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

Developmental Social Neuroscience

Examines connections between socioemotional processes, development, and the brain.

Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience

Explores links between development, cognitive processes, and the brain.

Normative History-Graded Influences

Influences that are common to people of a particular generation because of historical circumstances.

Normative Age-Graded Influences

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

Culture

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

Life Expectancy

The average number of years that a person born in a particular year can expect to live.

Plasticity

The capacity for change.

Gender

The characteristics of people as males of females.

Infancy

The developmental period from birth to eighteen or twenty-four months.

Early Childhood

The developmental period from three through five years of age.

Middle and Late Childhood

The developmental period of transition from about six to ten or eleven years of age, approximately corresponding to the elementary school years.

Late Adulthood

The developmental period that begins during the sixties or seventies and lasts until death.

Adolescence

The developmental period that begins in the early twenties and lasts through the thirties.

Chronological Age

The number of years that have elapsed since birth.

Development

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.

Life-Span Perspective

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

Imprinting

The rapid, innate learning that involves attachment to the first moving object seen.

Prenatal Period

The time from conception to birth.

Social Cognitive Theory

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

Psychoanalytic Theories

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.

Piaget's Theory

Theory stating that children actively construct their understanding of the world and go through four stages of cognitive development.

Nonnormative Life Events

Unusual occurrences that have a major impact on an individual's life.

Ethnic Gloss

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

Experiment

A carefully regulated procedure in which one or more factors believed to influence the behavior being studied are manipulated while all other factors are held constant.

Ethnicity

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

Toddler

A child from about one-and-a-half to three years of age. Toddlers are in a transitional period between infancy and early childhood.

Control Group

A control group is a comparison group that is as similar to the experimental group as possible and that is treated in every way like the experimental group except for the manipulated factor.

Laboratory

A controlled setting in which many of the complex factors of the "real world" are removed.

Dependent Variable

A dependent variable is a factor that can change in an experiment, in response to changes in the independent variable.

Cortisol

A hormone produced by the adrenal gland that is linked to the body's stress level and has been measured in studies of temperament, emotional reactivity, and peer relations.

Social Policy

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

Correlational Coefficient

A number based on a statistical analysis that describes the degree of association between two variables.

Biological Age

A persons age in terms of biological health.

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

A physiological measure in which electromagnetic waves are used to construct images of a person's brain tissue and biochemical activity.

Electroencephalography (EEG)

A physiological measure that monitors overall electrical activity in the brain.

Cross-Sectional Approach

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

Vygotsky's Theory

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

Standardized Test

A test with uniform procedures for administration and scoring. Many standardized tests allow a person's performance to be compared with the performance of other individuals.

Developmental Period

A time frame in a person's life that is characterized by certain features.

Normal Aging

Normal aging characterized most individuals, for whom psychological functioning often peaks in early middle age, remains relatively stable until the late fifties to early sixties, and then shows a modest decline through the early eighties. However, marked decline can occur as individuals near death.

Pathological Aging

Pathological aging characterizes individuals who show greater than average decline as they age through the adult years. In early old age, they may have mild cognitive impairment, develop Alzheimer disease later on, or have a chronic disease that impairs their daily functioning.

Second Age

Prime adulthood, ages twenty through fifty-nine.

Socioeconomic Status (SES)

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

Correlational Research

Research that attempts to determine the strength of the relationship between two or more events or characteristics.

Hypothesis

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

Ethology

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

Descriptive Research

Studies designed to observe and record behavior.

Naturalistic Observation

Studies that involve observing behavior in real-world settings.

Successful Aging

Successful aging characterizes individuals whose positive physical, cognitive, and socioemotional development is maintained longer, declining later in old age than is the case for most people.