Chapter 1

Ethnicity

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

Laboratory

A controlled setting from which man of the complex factors of the "real world" have been removed.

Social Policy

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

Case Study

A in-depth look at a single individual.

Longitudinal Approach

A research strategy in which he same individuals are studied over a period of time, usually several years or more.

Cross-Sectional Approach

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

Standardized Test

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

Genital Stage

A time of sexual reawakening; source of sexual pleasure becomes someone outside the family.

Descriptive Research

A type of research that aims to observe and record behavior.

Correlational Research

A type of research that strives to describe the strength of the relationship between two or more events or characteristics.

Theory

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

Eclectic Theoretical Orientation

An orientation that does not follow any one theoretical approach, but rather selects from each theory whatever is considere dest in it.

Experiment

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

Latency Stage

Child represents sexual interest and develops social and intellectual skills.

Phallic Stage

Child's pleasure focuses on the Genitals

Anal Stage

Child's pleasure focuses on the anus.

Socioeconomic Status (SES)

Classification of a person's position in society based on occupational, educational, and economic characteristics.

Cross-cultural Studies

Comparison of one culture with one or more other cultures. These provide informaton about the degree to which development is similar, or universal, across cultures, and the degree to which it is culture-specific.

Nature-Nurture Issue

Debate about whether development is primarily influenced by nature or nurture. Nature refers to an organism's biological inheritance and nurture refers to its environmental experiences.

Nature-Nurture Issue

Debate about whether development is primarily influenced by nature or nurture. Nature refers to an organism's biological inheritance, nurture to its environmental experiences.

Stability-Change Issue

Debate as to whether and o what degree 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).

Stability-Change Issue

Debate as to whether and to what degree we become older rendotions of our early experience (stability) or whether we develop into something dofferent from wjo we were at an earlier point in development (change).

Continuity-Discontinuity Issue

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

Cohort Effects

Effects due to a person's time of Birth, era, or generation but not to actual age.

Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Theory

His environmental systems theory that focuses of five environmental systems: microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem.

Oral Stage

Infants Pleasure centers are on the mouth.

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.

Naturalistic Observation

Observing behavior in real-world settings.

Cognitive Processes

Processes that involve changes in an individual's thought, intelligence and language.

Socioemotional Processess

Processes that invovle changes in an individual's relationship with other people, emotions, and personality.

Biological Processes

Processes that produce changes in an individual's physical nature.

Vygotsky's Theory

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

Hypothesis

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

Formal Operation Stale

The adolescent reasons in more abstract, idealistic and logical ways.

Culture

The behavior, patterns, beliefs, and all other products of a group of people that are passes on from generation to generation.

Gender

The characteristics of people as females or males.

Preoperational Stage

The child begins to represent the world with words and images. These words and images reflect increased symbolic thinking and go beyond the connection of sensory information and physical action.

Concrete Operational Stage

The child can no reason logically about concrete events and classify objects into different sets.

Sensorimotor Stage

The infant constructs an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experience with physical actions. A infant progresses from reflexive instinctual action at birth to the beginning of symbolic thought toward he end of the stage.

Development

The pattern of movement or change that begins at conception and continues through the human life span.

Social Cognitive Theory

Theoretical view that behavior, environment, and cognition are the key factors in development.

Psychoanalytic Theories

Theories that describe development as primarily unconscious and heavily colored y emotion. Behavior is merely a surface characteristic, and the symbolic workings of the mind must be analyzed to understand behavior. Early experiences with parents are emphasized.

Information-Processing Theory

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

Piaget's Theory

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

Ethology

Theory stressing that behavior is strongly influenced by biology, is ties to evolution, and is characterized by critical or sensitive periods.

Erikson's Theory

Theory that proposes eight stages of human development, Each stage consists of a unique developmental test that confronts individuals with a crisis that must be resolved. ex: Intimacy vs. Isolation

Nonnormative Life Events

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

Ethnic Gloss

Use of an ethnic label such as African American or Latino in a superficial way that portrays an ethnic group as being more homogeneous than it really is.