Psych 236 ccsu exam 1 ch 1-6

albert bandura 1925

____ was the most influencial american psychologist who devised a social learning theory that emphasized modeling / imitation / observational learning as a powerful source of development

Continuous

a process of gradually becoming better at the same type of skills that were there to begin with (ie Sophie was born with perception of a piano melody but only developed the skill as she got older)

behavior modification

consists of procedures that combine conditioning and modeling to eliminate undesirable behaviors and increase desirable responses

history graded influences

explain why people born around the same time (called a cohort) tend to be alike in ways that set them apart from people born at other times (ie baby boomers are different as middle aged adults from how the generation before them was)

Developmental Science

field of study devoted to understanding constancy and change throughout the lifespan

survey

representative sample (small amount of people from a larger pool of the population that you're trying to test / get info about) are asked specific questions (structured interview)

clinical interview

researchers use a flexible, conversational style to probe for the participant's point of view (ie asking kids several questions about dreams, each question follows the answer to the prior, like a conversation)

stages

used to describe discontinuous development. the qualitative changes in thinking, feeling, and behaving that characterize specific periods of development.

Sofie Lentschner

Born in 1908, German Jewish woman who overcame many obstacles throughout her life and development

discontinuous

a process in which new ways of understanding and responding to the world emerge at specific times (ie Sophie could not recognize a piano melody as a child and was only able to after she grew older and had other life experiences and reached a specific age in her life)

lifespan perspective

development is: lifelong, multidimentional and multidirectional, highly plastic, and affected by multiple interacting forces

structured interview

each participant is asked the same exact questions, in the same exact way

case study

in depth analysis of ONE person's behaviors

structured observations

investigator sets up a laboratory situation that evokes the behavior of interest so that every participant has an equal opportunity to display the response (ie doll with broken leg set-up to observe kids responses)

correlation coefficient statistic

measures the strength and direction of the relationship between two variables. values range from -1 to +1. weakest has value of 0. acceptable correlations in real life are between 0.6-1 or -1 to -0.6 positive numbers / correlation = both inc or both dec negative numbers / correlation = one inc, other dec and vice versa

Theory

orderly, integrated set of statements that describe, explain, and predict behavior

contexts

this unique combination of personal and environmental circumstances can cause different paths of change/development (ie kids in the South vs kids in CT)