A series of preprogrammed transformations in the form, structure, or function of an individual.

EX: physical change associated with puberty; genetically inherited instructions guide development of the nervous system. 

View of development as smooth and gradual

EX: The development of vocabulary, whereby children slowly add more and more words over time.

View of development as abrupt and unstable made up of qualitative stages and changes.

EX: Acquisition of qualitatively new patterns of behavior-as seen in the transition from crawling to walking.

Periods of time during which a particular event or stimulus has to occur to have and impact on development.

EX: The strongest evidence for critical periods in child development come from studies of language development.

Periods of time that are optimal, but not necessary, for the development of certain behaviors or functions.

EX: Possible for development to occur later, though it may be more difficult or incomplete then.

Emphasized the importance of internal, or innate, forces.  He believed that from the time they are born, children posses an intrinsic character that is perfect and good.  (Children should be allowed to naturally unfold with little pressure from adults)

EX: Greater importance on nature rather than nurture

Explanation of development that focuses on the quality of the early emotional relationships developed between children and their caregivers.

EX: A child who receives sensitive and consistent caregiving comes to view himself or herself as worthy. 

Explanations of development that focus on the relationship of brain development to behavior and thinking.

EX: Early in development, the brain depends on environmental input to fine tune itself so that it is maximally sensitive to its environment. (A child's experiences help determine the patterns of connections in the brain)

Explanations of development that focus on the unconscious drives and forces that develop within the mind.

**Associate with Freud

The part of the psyche that is primitive and instinctual. Is driven by the pleasure principle-seeks immediate gratification and avoids pain and distress.

EX: Grocery shopping and hungry, Id says "EAT CANDY BAR NOW"

EX: Because infants cannot feed themselves when they become hungry, immediate gratification may not be available. Infants may seek gratification by crying,sucking,and maybe even hallucinating.

The part of the psyche that is the source of reason and operates within the conditions and demands of the real world. Seeks to fulfill the demands of the id in ways that are acceptable to society.

EX: Grocery shopping and hungry, ego says buy candy bar and then eat it

The part of the psyche that represents one's conscience, moral standards, and code of social conventions.

EX: Grocery shopping and hungry, superego creates a sense of guilt about eating candy without paying for it and fear of being caught shoplifting.

In Erikson's lifespan theory, the struggles that occur at the various stages of development between two conflicting personality characteristics

**epigenetic principle-the belief that everything that develops is controlled by a preset genetic plan

EX: Although all infants experience the natural conflict between trust and mistrust during the first year of life, individual circumstances affect the outcome of the crisis.

Pavlov's theory of how responses to neutral stimuli become conditioned

**Children learn to be fearful through classical conditioning

EX: conditioned stimulus (bright light) paired with an unconditioned stimulus (food). The food is unconditioned stimulus because it automatically elicits a response, the unconditioned response of salivation. The light begins as a neutral stimulus, but with repeated pairings the dog learns to associate it with the food thereby producing a conditioned response (salivating when the light goes on).

Learning based on the principle that the consequences of a behavior affect the likelihood that the behavior will be repeated.

EX: If an infant is praised when he or she takes a first step, the infant will be more motivated to take another step

Removal of a negative or aversive stimulus, which increases the likelihood that a behavior will recur.

EX: Seat belt alarms-once the seat belt is hooked, the annoying buzzing stops, thereby increasing the chances that one will use seat belts in the future.

Application of unpleasant consequences to decrease the likelihood that a behavior will be repeated.

**Punishment is often effective for only a short time and may have unintended negative side effects such as increasing anxiety and timidity

The process of rewarding behaviors that approximate the desired behavior.

EX: Getting children to put their toys away can be shaped by rewarding them first when they approach the toys, then when they pick them up, and then when they attempt to put them away.

Bandura's theory that individuals are greatly influenced by observing and imitating other people

**Modeling-individuals learn new behaviors

EX: Four processes involved in modeling the behavior of others:

-Attention

-Retention

-Motor Reproduction

-Reinforcement and Motivation

Changing a scheme to fit new information from the environment.

EX: The infant holding a rattle for the first time may assimilate it into an existing scheme for smooth, round objects by sucking on it.

Piaget's first stage of cognitive development (0 to 2 years), in which the child relates to objects and people through his or her senses and motor skills.

EX: Infants use sensorimotor schemes to allow them to learn about the qualities of objects-their shapes, textures, and tastes.

**During the first 2 years of life, object permanence occurs-understanding that objects continue to exist even when she or he cannot see them.

Piaget's second stage of cognitive development (2 to 7 years), in which children begin to think in symbols but are ego centric and perceptually bound in their thinking.

EX: Child will perceive that a half pint of milk poured into a tall, thin glass has more volume than the same half pint poured into a short, wide glass.

Piaget's third stage of cognitive development (7 to 11 years), in which children begin to use logic to solve problems.

EX: Child recognizes that a half pint of milk poured from a tall, thin glass into a short, wide one is still a half pint of fluid because nothing has been added or taken away.

Vygotsky's term for the distance between what a child can do unaided and what a child can do through interaction with skilled helpers.

**A person's potential for new learning is strongest.

The part of the information processing system that holds information long enough for the person to evaluate and selectively act on the input.

**Capacity of short-term memory is limited, only a few bits of information can be remembered.

The slowest, or last-developing part of a dynamic system.

EX: For many children, the last part of the "walking puzzle", the rate limiting component, is leg strength.

Method in which a number of people respond to a set of structured questions.

**Advantage: data for many people can be obtained easily

**Disadvantage: people often respond inaccurately as they try to present themselves in the most positive way

Method in which researchers observe the behavior of people in their natural environments

**Advantage: people tend to behave normally

**Disadvantage: difficulty of generalizing from one setting to another setting

Method in which researchers compare participants on two variables to determine whether the variables relate to each other.

EX: Are children who watch more tv more likely to be aggressive than children who watch less tv?

Calculated measures of the relations between variables

**1.0 to -1.0

**A positive score represents a positive relationship between variables. Zero represents no relationship. Negative represents an inverse relationship.

Method in which scientists bring people into a manipulated laboratory situation and then note the effects of the manipulation

**Causes of behavior are easier to determine with experimental rather than with correlational methods because the scientist controls the sequence of events and any extraneous variables

Condition that is assumed to be the cause of the behavior and is manipulated by the scientist.

EX: If the independent variable is exposure to violent programming, one group of children will watch a violent program and the other will watch a nonviolent one.

Group that receives the independent variable

EX: Children who watch the violent program

Comparison group that is treated in the same way as the experimental group but does not receive the independent variable.

EX: Children watching the nonviolent program.

The behavior thought to be affected by the independent variable.

EX: Aggressive behavior following the television viewing

Method in which individuals of different ages are tested at the same point in time and the results from each age group are compared.

EX: A researcher interested in developmental changes in memory capacity might test children who are 4,8,12,16 years old. Children at each age would be shown a group of objects and later asked what they remembered about the objects. By averaging the memory scores for children at each age, researchers could get an idea of how memory capacity changes.

A group of individuals who are the same age or who experience similar events at the same time.

EX: Suppose a comparison of computer skills among 10 year olds and 60 year olds reveals that more of the 10 year olds are highly skilled. The scientist might be tempted to conclude that as people grow older, they lose computer skills. However, these two cohorts have experienced different periods of history, which affected their exposure to computers in the first place.

Method in which the same group of individuals is tested at different points in time.

**Problems include a tendency for some individuals to drop out and for test scores to improve because of repeated testing. Have limited ability to identify age-related changes.

**Expensive and time consuming

A cross-sectional study expanded so that data are collected from the same cohorts at different points in time

**Children of different ages are involved and studied over time, including at least two different cohorts

**Advantage: New participants can be added at each point in time to prevent problems caused by repeated testing and attrition

The direct assessment of behavior through observation 

EX: To investigate whether children have preferences for certain toys, observers watch them play to see if they choose one type of toy over another

The portion of DNA that encodes specific genetic information

**Very little of the human genome is made up of genes

Combined effect of multiple genes

EX: Height, skin color, nose shape, and eye color are influenced by multiple genes.

Genes that control the expression of other genes.

**Play an important role in genetic expression

Situation in which parents provide a rearing environment that matches the child's own genotype

EX: Parents that enjoy reading are likely to provide their child with a rearing environment that encourages reading.

Situation in which the child's genotype draws responses from others

EX: A child who actively engages with other people by smiling, laughing, looking at them, and being pleasant is more likely to be responded to and treated positively by teachers and others.

Situation in which the child seeks out environments compatible with his or her genotype.

EX: Children who are relatively inactive may seek out others who are quiet and studious, while avoiding sports. This behavior is called niche building because it involves selecting for oneself the aspects of the environment that are most comfortable and then learning from exposure to those environments.

The process by which sperm develop.

**requires about 72 days to produce a mature sperm cell

Obtain an ovum directly from the woman's ovary, fertilize it with sperm in a culture dish, and then transfer the zygote(s) to the woman's uterus.

**Most common form of assisted reproduction and is necessary when the women's fallopian tubes are damaged

Sperm and ovum are deposited into the woman's fallopian tube, the the fertilization occurs as it would normally. 

**Rate of success for this is higher than it is for IVF

If both partners are infertile, embryo transfer may be a suitable option.

**This procedure is rare and its success rate is low

The first stage of prenatal development, which begins at conception and lasts until the fertilized egg implants itself in the uterine wall

**Cell division and differentiation are the main qualities of this stage

The second stage of prenatal development, which begins at implantation and lasts until about eight weeks.

**Major organs and body parts develop almost daily

**Most critical time in prenatal development

The third and final stage of prenatal development, which begins at about eight weeks and lasts until birth.

**Elaboration of the existing organs and structures occurs and the brain develops rapidly

Simple, coordinated, unlearned responses

EX: Rooting reflex is seen when you rub your finger against a newborn's cheek: the baby turns toward the stimulation in search of a nipple to suck

EX: Sucking reflex is seen whenever something touches an infant's lips: the baby tries to suck on it. 

EX: Moro reflex is a startle reaction to loud noises in which infants fling their arms out and then draw them in, arch their backs, and extend their legs

EX: Palmar grasping reflex is elicited by touching the inside of the baby's hand, which causes the fingers to curl around the object