EDHD320 "Exploring Lifespan Development" Chapter 1 Key Terms

A field of study devoted to understanding contancy and change throughout the lifespanan

An orderly, integrated set of statements that describes, explains, and predicts behavior

A process of gradually augmenting the same types of skills that were there to begin with

A process in which new and different ways of understanding and responding to the world emerge at specific times

Qualitative changes in thinking, feeling, and behaving that characterize specific periods of development

Unique combinations of personal and environmental circumstances that can result in different paths of change

Are genetic or environmental factors more important?

Four assumptions make up this broader view: that development is (1) lifelong (2) multidimensional and multidirectional (3) highly plastic and (4) influenced multiple interacting forces.

Events that are strongly related to age and therefore fairly predictable in when they occur and how long they last

The ability to adapt effectively in the face of threats to development

Explain why people born around the same time - called a cohort - tend to be alike in ways that set them apart from people born at other times

Events that are irregular - they happen to just one person or a few people and do not follow a predictable timetable

Measures of behavior are taken on large numbers of individuals, and age-related averages are computed to represent typical development

Children actively construct knowledge as they manipulate and explore their world

The human mind might also be viewed as a symbol-manipulating system through which information flows.