human development
the multidisciplinary study of how people change and how they remain the same over time.
nature-nurture issue
the degree to which genetic or hereditary influences (nature) and experiential or environmental influences (nurture) determine the kind of person you are.
continuity-discontinuity issue
whether a particular developmental phenomenon represents a smooth progression throughout the life span (continuity) or a series of abrupt shifts (discontinuity).
universal and context-specific development issue
whether there is just one path of development or several paths.
biological forces
include all genetic and health-related factors that affect development.
psychological forces
include all internal perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and personality factors that affect development.
sociocultural forces
include interpersonal, societal, cultural, and ethnic factors that affect development.
life-cycle forces
reflect differences in how the same event affects people of different ages.
biopsychosocial framework
a useful way to organize the biological, psychological, and sociocultural forces on human development.
neuroscience
the study of the brain and nervous system, especially in terms of brain-behavior relationships.
theory
an organized set of ideas that is designed to explain development.
psychodynamic theories
theories proposing that development is largely determined by how well people resolve conflicts they face at different ages.
psychosocial theory
Erikson's proposal that personality development is determined by the interaction of an internal maturational plan and external societal demands.
epigenetic principle
in Erikson's theory, the idea that each psychosocial strength has its own special period of particular importance.
operant conditioning
learning paradigm in which the consequences of a behavior determine whether a behavior is repeated in the future.
reinforcement
a consequence that increase the future likelihood of the behavior that it follows.
punishment
a consequence that decreases the future likelihood of the behavior that it follows.
observational (imitation) learning
learning that occurs by simply watching how others behave.
self-efficacy
people's beliefs about their own abilities and talents.
information-processing theory
theory proposing that human cognition consists of mental hardware and mental software.
ecological theory
theory based on idea that human development is inseparable from the environmental contexts in which a person develops.
microsystem
the people and objects in an individual's immediate environment.
mesosystem
provides connections across microsystems.
exosystem
social settings that a person may not experience firsthand but that still influence development.
macrosystem
the cultures and subcultures in which the microsystem, mesosystem, and exosystem are embedded.
competence
a person's abilities
environmental press
demands put on people by the environment.
life-span perspective
view that human development is multiply determined and cannot be understood within the scope of a single framework.
selective optimization with compensation (SOC) model
model in which three processes: selection, optimization, and compensation; form a system of behavioral action that generates and regulates development and aging.
life-course perspective
description of how various generations experience the biological, psychological, and sociocultural forces of development in their respective historical contexts.
systematic observation
watching people and carefully recording what they do or say.
naturalistic observation
technique in which people are observed as they behave spontaneously in some real-life situation.
structured observations
technique in which a researcher creates a setting that is likely to elicit the behavior of interest.
self-reports
people's answers to questions about the topic of interest.
reliability
extent to which a measure provides a consistent index of a characteristic.
validity
extent to which a measure actually assesses what researchers think it does.
populations
broad groups of people that are of interest to researchers.
sample
a subset of the population.
correlational study
investigation looking at relations between variables as they exist naturally in the world.
correlation coefficient
an expression of the strength and direction of a relation between two variables.
experiment
a systematic way of manipulating the key factor or factors that the investigator thinks causes a particular behavior.
independent variable
the factor being manipulated.
dependent variable
the behavior being observed.
qualitative research
method that involves gaining in-depth understanding of human behavior and what governs it.
longitudinal study
longitudinal study research design in which the same individuals are observed or tested repeatedly at different points in their lives.
cross-sectional study
study in which developmental differences are identified by testing people of different ages.
cohort effects
problem with cross-sectional designs in which differences between age groups (cohorts) may result as easily from environmental events as from developmental processes.
sequential design
developmental research design based on cross-sectional and longitudinal designs.
meta-analysis
a tool that enables researchers to synthesize the results of many studies to estimate relations between variables.
stem cells
are unspecialized human or animal cells that can produce mature specialized body cells and at the same time replicate themselves.