When students have mastered the material in Chapter 1, they should be able to:
1. Define what is meant by development and describe the nature of developmental change.
2. Describe the three domains of developmental psychology and indicate how they interact.
3. Describe Bronfenbrenner’s ecological framework for understanding development.
4. Discuss the reasons for studying development and what benefits developmental psychology provides to children and society.
5. Sketch the history of the concept of childhood and indicate how certain historical situations contributed to the emergence of developmental psychology.
6. Identify and discuss the basic issues in developmental psychology.
7. Describe the four features of the scientific method and how it is used in psychology.
8. Discuss the strengths and limitations of the cross-sectional approach.
9. Discuss the strengths and limitations of the longitudinal approach.
10. Differentiate between naturalistic and experimental studies.
11. Describe the experimental approach. Be able to differentiate between experimental and
control groups, and between independent and dependent variables.
12. Describe what a correlation is and what it shows.
13. Identify and describe other methods for investigating developmental issues, including
surveys, interviews, and case studies. Discuss the strengths, limitations, and usefulness
of each technique.
14. Discuss the ethical constraints on conducting research with children.
15. Define what is meant by informed consent and describe the special concerns that exist
when children are involved as research participants.
CHAPTER 2 Theories of Development
When students have mastered the material in Chapter 2, they should be able to:
1. Define what is meant by a developmental theory and describe its characteristics.
2. Discuss how developmental theories differ on the issues of maturation versus experience,
active versus passive, stages, and breadth of the theory.
3. Discuss the basic ideas in Sigmund Freud’s psychosexual theory of development, including the id, ego, and superego. Be able to describe each stage.
4. Discuss the basic ideas in Erik Erikson’s psychosocial theory of development and compare
it to Freud’s theory. Be able to describe each stage.
5. Describe alternative psychodynamic theories, including Mahler’s infant stages and Stern’s
theory of the self, and contrast them with Freud’s and Erikson’s approaches.
6. Describe classical conditioning and be able to identify and define the key concepts,
including conditioned stimulus, conditioned response, unconditioned stimulus, and
unconditioned response.
7. Describe operant conditioning and be able to identify and define the key concepts, including positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment, and response cost..
8. Describe Bandura’s social cognitive theory. Discuss the difference between imitation and
modeling and differentiate between direct and vicarious reinforcement.
9. Compare and contrast social cognitive theory with the traditional behavioral approaches.
Give examples of the application of social cognitive theory to everyday life.
10. Discuss the basic ideas in Jean Piaget’s theory of development, including the notion of
schemes, the processes of assimilation and accommodation, and equilibrium.
11. Discuss the neo-Piagetian approaches and describe how these have influenced Piagetian
thought.
12. Describe the basic features of the information processing approach. Identify and describe
the various components of memory.
13. Describe how development changes based on the information-processing approach,
ncluding changes in control processes, metacognition, and the knowledge base.
14. Compare, contrast, and evaluate Piaget’s, neo-Piagetian, and information-processing
approaches. Give examples of everyday applications of cognitive developmental theories.
15. Describe the contextual approach to development, including Bronfenbrenner’s ecological
systems theory. Be able to describe each of the system levels within his theory.
16. Discuss Vygotsky’s theory and other contextual theories, including transactional theory
and ethological theory. Describe how these theories view development and contrast them
with Bronfenbrenner’s approach. Give examples of the application of contextual theories
to everyday life.
17. Compare and contrast the major approaches and theories covered in the chapter. Be able
to indicate how each accounts for development.