devpsy midterm

• Developmental psychology


  Branch of psychology devoted to identifying and explaining the continuities and changes that individuals display over time
• Development


  Systematic continuities and changes in the individual that occur between conception and death
• What causes us to develop?

  • Maturation
  • Learning
• Maturation


  Biological unfolding of the individual according to species-typical biological inheritance and an individual person's biological inheritance
• Learning


  The process through which our experiences produce relatively permanent changes in our feelings, thoughts, and behaviors
• Patterns of change


  • Normative development
  • Ideographic development
• Normative development


  Developmental changes that characterize most or all members of a species; typical patterns of development
• Ideographic development


  Individual variations in the rate, extent, or direction of development
• Classical Ethology


  Bioevolutionary basis of behavior and development with a focus on survival of the individual
• Charles Darwin


  • Natural Selection
• Modern Evolutionary Theory


  Bioevolutionary basis of behavior and development with a focus on survival of the genes
• Ecological Systems Viewpoint


  Urie Bronfenbrenner
• Themes

  • Our personality traits are in our nature
  • We are nurtured to behave a certain ways
• Genotype


  The genetic makeup of an organism, representing the specific combination of genes and alleles it inherits from its parents
• Phenotype


  The observable traits and characteristics of an organism, which result from the interaction between its genotype and the environment
• Zygote


  A single cell formed at conception from the union of a sperm and an ovum
• Chromosome


  A threadlike structure made up of genes; in humans there are 46 chromosomes in the nucleus of each body cell
• Genes


  Hereditary blueprints for development that are transmitted unchanged from generation to generation
• Meiosis


  The process by which a germ cell divides, producing gametes (sperm or ova) that each contain half of the parent cell's original complement of chromosomes; in humans, the products of meiosis contain 23 chromosomes
• Mitosis


  The process in which a cell duplicates its chromosomes and then divides into two genetically identical daughter cells
• Independent assortment


  The principle that each pair of chromosomes segregates independently of all other chromosome pairs during meiosis
• Genetic Counseling


  A service designed to inform prospective parents about genetic diseases and to help them determine the likelihood that they would transmit such disorders to their children
• Twin Design


  Study in which sets of twins that differ in zygosity (kinship) are compared to determine the heritability of an attribute
• Adoption Design


  Study in which adoptees are compared with their biological relatives and their adoptive relatives to estimate the heritability of an attribute or attributes
• Canalization Principle


  Genetic restriction of phenotype to a small number of developmental outcomes
• Range-of-Reaction Principle


  The idea that genotype sets limits on the range of possible phenotypes that a person might display in response to different environments
• Selective Breeding Experiment


  Method of studying genetic influences by determining whether traits can be bred in animals through selective mating
• Evocative genotype


  The notion that our heritable attributes affect others' behavior toward us and thus influence the social environment in which development takes place
• Active genotype

  The notion that our genotypes affect the types of environments that we prefer and seek out
• Behavioral genetics has had a strong influence on our outlook on human development by showing that many attributes previously thought to be environmentally determined are influenced, in part, by genes
• Passive genotype


  The notion that the rearing environments that biological parents provide are influenced by the parents' own genes, and hence are correlated with the child's own genotype