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PSY 658 MIDTERM EXAM STUDY SET
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PSY 658 MIDTERM EXAM STUDY SETWeek 1: Chapters 1 & 2
Is development continuous or discontinuous?
(a) Some theorists believe that development
is a smooth, continuous process. Individuals
gradually add more of the same types of skills.
(b) Other theorists think that development takes place in discontinuous stages.
People change rapidly as they step up to a new level and then change very little for
a while. With each new step, the person interprets and responds to the world in a
reorganized, qualitatively different way.
Other theorists believe that development is characterized by both continuous and
discontinuous change.
Continuous vs. Discontinuous Development (class lecture & asynch)
Continuous:
Gradual process
Skills are generalized but consistent
Development of additional skills through time
- A process of gradual augmenting of skills over
time
Discontinuous:
Stages
Qualitative instead of quantitative
- A process of new ways and skills emerging at particular times; belief in stages or
qualitative changes during periods of development
,Continuous (book)
How can we best describe the differences in capacities among infants, children,
adolescents, and adults?
One view holds that infants and preschoolers respond to the world in much the
same way as adults do. The difference between the immature and mature being is
simply one of amount or complexity.
For example, when Sofie was a baby, her perception of a piano melody, memory
for past events, and ability to categorize objects may have been much like our own.
Perhaps her only limitation was that she could not perform these skills with as
much information and precision as we can. If this is so, then changes
in her thinking must be:
continuous—a process of gradually augmenting
the same types of skills that were there to begin with.
Discontinuous (book)
According to a second view, infants and children have unique ways of thinking,
feeling, and behaving, ones quite different from those of adults.
If so, then development is discontinuous— a process in which new ways of
understanding and responding to the world emerge at specific times.
From this perspective, Sofie could not yet perceive, remember, and categorize
experiences as a mature person can. Rather, she moved through a series of
developmental steps, each with unique features, until she reached the highest level
of functioning.
Stage theories of development (book)
The discontinuous perspective regards development as taking place in stages:
qualitative changes in thinking, feeling, and behaving that characterize specific
periods of development.
Stage Theories: development is like climbing a
staircase, with each step corresponding to a more mature, reorganized way of
,functioning.
- assumes that people undergo periods of rapid transformation as they step up from
one stage to the next.
- change is fairly sudden rather than gradual and ongoing.
- assumes that people everywhere follow the same sequence of development
Context theory of development (book)
The field of human development is becoming increasingly aware that children and
adults live in distinct contexts—unique combinations of personal and
environmental circumstances that can result in different paths of change.
EX: a shy individual who fears social encounters develops in very different
contexts from those of an outgoing agemate who readily seeks out other people.
These different circumstances foster different
intellectual capacities, social skills, and feelings about the self and others
Contemporary theorists regard the contexts that shape development as
many-layered and complex.
- Personal: heredity and biological makeup.
- Environmental: home, school, and neighborhood community resources, societal
values, and historical time period
- cultural diversity impt too
Bi-directional influence between individuals and their contexts: People not only are
affected by but also contribute to the contexts in which they develop
Nature vs. nurture (class lecture & asynch)
Nature VS Nurture
False dichotomy
Heredity vs social influences
Nature: hereditary information we receive from our parents
, Nurture: complex forces of the physical and social world influencing our biological
and psychological experiences before and after birth
Nature vs. Nurture on Development (book)
By nature, we mean the hereditary information we receive from our parents at the
moment of conception.
By nurture, we mean the complex forces of the physical and social world that
influence our biological makeup and psychological experiences before and after
birth.
Although all theories grant roles to both nature and nurture, they vary in emphasis.
A theory's position on the roles of nature and nurture affects how it explains
individual differences.
Plasticity VS Stability (class lecture & async)
Plastic: Changes throughout life
Stability: Stays constant
Plasticity: development is open to change throughout our lives
Stability: primary focus on hereditary indicates that people remain who they are
later in life as they are characterized early in life
Stability vs. Plasticity (book)
Theorists who emphasize stability—that individuals who are high or low in a
characteristic (such as verbal ability, anxiety, or sociability) will remain so at later
ages— stress the importance of heredity.
If they regard environment as impt, they point to early experiences as establishing a
lifelong pattern of behavior. Powerful negative events in the first few years, they
argue, cannot be fully overcome by later, more positive ones (Bowlby, 1980;
Sroufe, Coffino, & Carlson, 2010).
Other theorists, taking a more optimistic view, see development as having
substantial plasticity throughout life—as open to change in response to
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