The patterns of movement or change that begins at conception and continues through the life span.
Development
Advocated during the Middle Ages, the belief that children were born into the world as evil beings and were basically bad.
Original sin view
The idea, proposed by John Locke, that children are like a "blank tablet."
Tabula rasa view
The idea, presented by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, that children are inherently good.
Innate goodness view
The settings, influenced by historical, economic, social, and cultural factors, in which development occurs.
Context
The bahavior patterns, beliefs, and all other products of a group that are passed on from generation to generation.
Culture
Comparisons of one culture with one or more other cultures. These provide information about the degree to which children's development is similar, or universal, across cultures, and to the degree to which it is culture-specific.
cross-cultural studies
A characteristic based on cultural heritage, nationality, race, religion, and language.
Ethnicity
Categorization based on a person's occupational, educational, and economic characteristics.
Socioeconomic status
Te characteristics of people as males and females.
Gender
True or false: Resilient children are likely to have a close relationship to a caring parent figure and bonds to caring adults outside the family.
True
A government's course of action designed to promote the welfare of its citizens.
Social policy
An MFIP study found that when parents went from welfare to a higher paying job, that their children...
Improved in school and their behavior problems decreased.
Changes in an individual's body.
Biological processes
Changes in an individual's thinking, intelligence, and language.
Cognitive processes
Changes in an individual's relationships with other people, emotions, and personality.
Socioemotional processes
Explores links between development, cognitive processes, and the brain.
Developmental cognitive neuroscience
Examines connections between development, socioemotional processes, and the brain.
Developmental social neuroscience
The time from conception to birth.
Prenatal period
The developmental period that extend from birth to about 18 to 24 months.
Infancy
The developmental period that extends from the end of infancy to about 5 or 6 years of age, soemtimes called the preschool years.
Early childhood
The developmental period that extends from about 6 to 11 years of age, sometimes called the elementary school years.
Middle and late childhood
The developmental period of transition from childhood to early adulthood, entered at approximately 10 to 12 years of age and ending at 18 or 19 years of age.
Adolescence
Debate about whether development is primarily influenced by nature or nurture. The "nature" propoentns claim biological inheritance is the most important issue on development; the "nurture" proponents claim that environmental experiences are the most important.
Nature-nurture issue
Questions about whether development involves gradual, cumulative change (continuity) or distinct stages (discontinuity)
continuity-discontinuity issue
Controversy regarding the degree to which early experiences (especially during infancy) or later experiences are the key determinants of children's development.
early-later experience issue
This is objective, systematic, and testable.
Scientific research
An approach that can be used to obtain accurate information by carrying out four steps: 1. Conceptualize the problem 2. collect data 3. draw conclusions, and 4. revise research conclusions and theory
scientific method
An interrelated, coherent set of ideas that helps to explain and make predictions.
Theory
Specific assumptions and predictions that can be tested to determine their accuracy.
Hypothesis
Theories that describe development as primarily unconscious and heaevily 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.
Psychoanalytic theories
Description of eight stages of human development. Each stage consists of a unique developmental task that onfronts individuals with a crisis that must be resolved.
