PSHD TEST OUTCOMES

CHAPTER 1
PART 1

 Define development, aging, and their relationship to each other

*Development- Systematic changes and continuities in the individual that occur

between conception and death
-There is biologicak/physical drvelopmen, cognitive development and psychosocial
development
*Aging- Aging: Physical, cognitive, and psychosocial changes, positive and negative,
in the mature organism
*And aging involves much more than biological aging or decline; it is
biological/physical, cognitive, and psychosocial changes and continuities, positive
and negative, in mature organisms(like the examples of development)

 Explain and illustrate the role played by age grades, age

norms, and the social clock in making human development
different in different historical, cultural, and subcultural contexts

*Each culture has its own ways of carving up the life span and of treating the people
in different age groups

*Role by age grades-firstly an age grade is socially defined age group in a

society
-Assigned different roles, responsibilities, statuses, and privileges
-Separating children into grades in school based on age
- Adults granted voting privilege

*Role by age norms-Society’s way of telling people how to act their age
− Influence people’s decisions about how to lead their lives
 *In our culture, for example, most people agree that 6-year olds are too young to date
or drink beer but are old enough to dress themselves and attend school

*Role by the social clock- Person’s sense of when things should be done and
when they are ahead of or behind the schedule dictated by age norms

 Summarize the messages of the life-span perspective on

development.
*Development
- Is lifelong: we change throughout the life span
:not just kid stuff
: For instance, our understanding of adolescent career choices is bound to be richer if we
know how those choices took shape during childhood and whether and how they affect adult
career decisions and success
: we understand bet
:ter of how someone made their decisions, if they see them from the begging

− Is multidirectional: development does not all lead in one direction

: toward mature functioning; they appreciate that different capacities show different patterns
of change over time
: For example, some intellectual abilities peak in adolescence whereas others do not peak
until a person’s 50s or so

− Involves gains and losses-:builds on the knowledge that development is not all gain in
childhood and loss in old age
: both gain and loss are evident in each phase of the life span
: gain inevitably brings with it loss of some kind, and loss brings gain, that gain and loss are
linked
: . Similarly, choosing to perfect one set of skills in your education or career or leisure time
often means letting other skills slide

− Is plastic: is characterised by lifelong plasticity

: plasticity refers to the capacity to change in response to experience, positive or negative
: Developmental scholars have long appreciated that child development can be damaged by a
deprived environment and optimized by an enriched one
: plasticity continues into later life and that the aging process is not fixed but rather can take
many directions depending on the individual’s environment and experiences
: older adults who retain their intellectual abilities, and is sometimes helped by nutrition, diet
and exercise. Such cognitive benefits are rooted in neuroplasticity, the brain’s remarkable
ability to change in response to experience throughout the life spa
− Is shaped by the historical-cultural context: history influences i-family
: This economic crisis proved to be especially difficult for children if their out-of-work and
demoralized fathers became less affectionate and less consisitent in disciplining them. When
this happened, children displayed behavior problems and had low aspirations and poor
records in school
− Is multiply influenced : scientists believe that human development is the product of many
interacting causes, both inside and outside the person, both biological and environmental in
nature
: , development is the outcome of ongoing interactions between a changing person and her
changing world
− Is multidisciplinary: Because human development is influenced by everything from
biochemical events in cells to historical changes, it is impossible for one discipline to have all
the answers.
-A full understanding of human development will come only when many disciplines, each
with its own perspectives and tools of

 Describe how the study of human development began

*Baby biographies: − Scholars observe the growth and development of their own children.
− Biographies were difficult to compare.
− Not generalizable to other children

PART 2

 Explain three major issues addressed by theories of human

development. (slide 20:page 38)
*Nature–nurture Is development primarily the product of genes, biology, and maturation—
or of experience, learning, and social influences?
 2. Continuity–discontinuity Do humans change gradually and in quantitative ways—or do
they progress through qualitatively different stages and develop very different competencies
and characteristics as they get older?
3. Universality–context specificity Is development similar from person to person and from
culture to culture—or do pathways of development vary considerably depending on the social
context

 Compare and contrast the main ideas of the five theoretical

perspectives that have dominated the study of development:
evolutionary, psychoanalytic, learning, cognitive-
developmental, and bioecological systems theories

*Evolutionary theory looks to the evolution of the human species for explanations of
why humans are as they are and develop as they do.
:Charles Darwin
: Main message- Human development and behavior reflect a genetic makeup that
evolved because it aided our ancestors in adapting to their environment

* Psychoanalytic theory focused on the development and dynamics of the

personality. : People are driven by motives and emotional conflicts.
: Shaped by their earliest experiences in the family.
:Sigmund Freud and Erik Erikson
: Main message- Humans progress through universal stages of development in which
they grapple with inner psychic conflicts; Erikson expanded on Freud’s thinking,
extending developmental conflicts through adulthood

* Social cognitive theory: Humans are cognitive beings whose active processing of
information plays a critical role in their learning, behaviour, and development
:Jean Piaget viewed intelligence as a process that helps an organism adapt to its environment
: Main message-Humans develop through four universal stages of cognitive
development, progressing through the sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete
operational, and formal operational stages

*Systems theories view changes over the life span arise from ongoing transactions in
which a changing organism and a changing environment a
: Urie Bronfrnbrenner
: Main message- Ongoing transactions between a changing person and changing
environment (microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem, moving through
the chronosystem) produce context-specific differences in development at different
social addresses

Learning theory-
:BF Skinner, Albert Bandura
:Main message-Early learning theories such as Skinner’s viewed development as
learning—behavior shaped by the environment; Bandura’s more modern social
learning theory highlights the role of cognition in learning and views observational
learning as the major vehicle for human learning

 Summarize the four goals of research on human

development(slide 25: page 44)
Goals of life-span development:
− Description: To achieve the goal of description, developmentalists characterize the
functioning of humans of different ages and trace how it changes with age
: . Although average trends in human development across the life span can be described, it is
clear that no two people (even identical twins) develop along precisely the same pathways.

− Prediction: Developmental scientists seek to identify factors that predict development

and, better yet, establish that these factors actually explain development—that is, cause
humans to develop as they typically do or cause some individuals to develop differently than
others
: To do this, developmentalists often address nature–nurture issues
:A first step is often finding a relationship between a possible influence on development and
an aspect of development—for example, a relationship between whether or not an
adolescent’s friends use drugs and whether or not the adolescent does
: If there is a positive relationship, knowing whether an adolescent’s friends use drugs allows
us to predict whether the adolescent uses drugs

− Explanation:
: If there is a positive relationship, knowing whether an adolescent’s friends use drugs allows
us to predict whether the adolescent uses drugs
: But is this a causal relationship?
That’s what must be established before the goal of explanation is achieved

− Optimization: How can humans be helped to develop in positive directions?

:How can their capacities be enhanced, how can developmental difficulties be prevented or
overcome?
: Pursuing the goal of optimizing development might involve evaluating through research
studies ways to stimulate intellectual growth in preschool programs, to prevent opiate
addiction among young adults, or to support older adults making the often stressful move to a
nursing home

 Describe the scientific method and the choices

involved in selecting a sample and choosing data
collection methods

* Scientific method: − Belief that investigators should allow facts to determine the merits
of their thinking
* The scientific method involves generating theories and testing them by making observation
* Once developed, theories are used to generate specific predictions, or hypotheses, about
what to expect in a study conducted to test the theory

* Theory: − Concepts and propositions intended to describe and explain certain

phenomena*

*Hypotheses: − Specific predictions generated from theories

*Sample selection

- Although it is advocated more than it is used, the best approach is to study a random sample
of the population of interest
: Random sampling: − Sample formed by identifying all members of the larger population
and then by a random means selects a portion of the population to study

*Data collection

: Major types of data collection

* Verbal reports involve asking people questions about themselves or others: − Interviews −
Written questionnaires or surveys − Ability and achievement tests − Personality scales
*Behavioral observations: − Naturalistic observation observing people in their everyday
surroundings:
 Some behaviors occur too infrequently and unexpectedly to be observed.

 Observer presence can sometimes

PART 3

 Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the case

study, experimental, and correlational methods.
*Case study:
− In-depth examination of an individual or a small number of individuals
− Can complement correlational and experimental research
− Can be a good source of hypotheses
− Can provide a rich picture of atypical development
− Results may not generalize to other individual

Experimental method:
− Investigator manipulates some aspect of the environment to see how this affects the
behavior of the sample of individuals studied
*Independent variable (IV): − Variable that is manipulated so that its causal effects can be
assessed
* Dependent variable (DV): − Variable expected to be affected
Three critical features of a true experiment:
− Random assignment of participants to different experimental conditions
--Manipulation of the IV
− Experimental control - All factors other than the independent variable are controlled or held
constant

Correlational method:
− Determine whether two or more variables are related in a systematic way.
− No random assignment or manipulation of IV
− Calculate correlation coefficient.

 Index of the strength of the relationship between two variables of interest

 Ranges from +1.00 to −1.00

 Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the cross-

sectional, longitudinal, and sequential design

Cross-sectional design:
− Age effects and cohort effects are confounded.
− Cohort differences can tell us about the influence of the sociocultural environment
on development
− Researchers learn nothing about how people change with age.
− Quicker and easier than longitudinal studies and sequential designs

Longitudinal design:
− One cohort of individuals is assessed repeatedly over time.
− Provides information about age changes rather than age differences
− Can indicate whether the characteristics and behaviours measured remain consistent
over time

Sequential design:
− Combines cross-sectional approach and longitudinal approach in a single study
− Can reveal

 Which age-related trends are developmental in nature

 Which age trends differ from cohort to cohort  Time-of-measurement effects

− Very complex and expensive

 Discuss the challenges in conducting culturally

sensitive research
*Baltes’s life-span perspective emphasizes that development is shaped by its cultural context.
*Most developmental research is WEIRD: − People living in societies that are Western,
Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic
* Ethnocentrism can impact research.

 Explain the four major ethical obligations of

investigators to their research participants

* Informed consent:
− Must be voluntary.
− Obtain at least the “assent” or agreement of the individual in vulnerable populations.
− Must not to pressure anyone to participate
− Must respect participants’ right to:

 Refuse to participate.

 Drop out during the study.

 Refuse to have their data used by the investigator

Debriefing:
− Tell participants about the study afterward if they are not told everything in advance or are
deceived.
− Explain the true purpose of the study.
− Obligation to make sure that participants do not leave feeling upset

Protection from harm:

− Researchers are bound to not harm research participants either physically or
psychologically.
− If harm seems likely, researcher needs to find another method.
− Federal regulations provide extra protection from harm to children
Confidentiality:

− Ethical responsibility to keep the information collected confidential

− Information collected can be shared only if:

 Participants give explicit permission.

 Law requires disclosure of information