1.8 What Have You Learned?

1. What are the five steps of the scientific method?

2. What basic question is at the heart of the nature–nurture controversy?

3. Give an example of discontinuity and of continuity as it relates to your development.

4. What does it mean to say that development is multicontextual?

5. How does the exosystem affect your life today?

6. What are some cohort differences between you and your parents?

7. What factors comprise a person’s socioeconomic status?

8. Give an example of a social construction. Why is it a construction, not a fact?

9. Explain the concept of guided participation, as described by Vygotsky.

10. What is the difference between race and ethnicity?

11. How do both specialization and multidisciplinary research add to our understanding of a topic?

12. What is the difference between “genetics” and “epigenetics”?

13. In what two ways is human development plastic?

14. What is implied about human development when it is described as dynamic?

15. Give an example that explains the concept of “differential sensitivity.”

16. What main idea underlies Freud’s psychoanalytic theory?

17. What is the main difference between Erikson’s theory of human development and Freud’s?

18. How can behaviourism be seen as a reaction to psychoanalytic theory?

19. How do classical and operant conditioning differ?

20. Why is social learning also called modelling?

21. What is the basic idea of cognitive theory?

22. According to Maslow, what is the five-step hierarchy of people’s basic needs and drives?

23. How does the theory of evolution help explain human development?

24. Explain the following concept: “Observation provides issues to explore, not proof.”

25. Why do experimenters use a control (or comparison) group as well as an experimental group?

26. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the survey method?

27. Why would a scientist conduct a cross-sectional study?

28. What are some advantages and disadvantages of longitudinal research?

29. Explain the following statement: Cross-sequential research combines cross-sectional and longitudinal research.

30. Why does correlation not prove causation?

31. Why do some researchers prefer quantitative research while others prefer qualitative research?

32. Why is it important for academic disciplines and professional societies to follow codes of ethics?

33. What is one additional question about development that should be answered?

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