| accommodation | Piaget's term for changes in a cognitive structure to include new information.
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| adaptation | Piaget's term for adjustment to new information about the environment.
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| assimilation | Piaget's term for incorporation of new information into an existing cognitive structure.
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| behaviorism | Learning theory that emphasizes the predictable role of environment in causing observable behavior.
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| bioecological theory | Bronfenbrenner's approach to understanding processes and contexts of human development.
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| case study | Study of a single subject, such as an individual or family.
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| chronosystem | Bronfenbrenner's term for effects of time on other developmental systems.
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| Classical conditioning | Learning based on association of a stimulus that does not ordinarily elicit a particular response with another stimulus that does elicit the response.
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| cognitive neuroscience | Approach to the study of cognitive development that links brain processes with cognitive ones.
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| cognitive perspective | View that thought processes are central to development.
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| cognitive-stage theory | Piaget's theory that children's cognitive development advances in a series of four stages involving qualitatively distinct types of mental operations.
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| contextual perspective | View of human development that sees the individual as inseparable from the social context.
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| control group | In an experiment, a group of people, similar to those in the experimental group, who do not receive the treatment under study.
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| correlational study | Research design intended to discover whether a statistical relationship between variables exists.
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| cross-sectional study | Study designed to assess age-related differences, in which people of different ages are assessed on one occasion.
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| dependent variable | In an experiment, the condition that may or may not change as a result of changes in the independent variable.
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| equilibration | Piaget's term for the tendency to seek a stable balance among cognitive elements.
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| ethnographic study | In-depth study of a culture, which uses a combination of methods including participant observation.
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| ethology | Study of distinctive adaptive behaviors of species of animals that have evolved to increase survival of the species.
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| evolutionary psychology | Application of Darwinian principles of natural selection and survival of the fittest to individual behavior.
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| evolutionary/sociobiological perspective | View of human development that focuses on evolutionary and biological bases of social behavior
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| exosystem | Bronfenbrenner's term for linkages between two or more settings, one of which does not contain the child.
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| experiment | Rigorously controlled, replicable procedure in which the researcher manipulates variables to assess the effect of one on the other.
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| experimental group | In an experiment, the group receiving the treatment under study.
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| hypotheses | Possible explanations for phenomena, used to predict the outcome of research.
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| independent variable | In an experiment, the condition over which the experimenter has direct control.
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| information-processing approach | Approach to the study of cognitive development by observing and analyzing the mental processes involved in perceiving and handling information.
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| laboratory observation | Research method in which all participants are observed under the same controlled conditions.
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| learning perspective | View of human development that holds that changes in behavior result from experience or adaptation to the environment.
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| longitudinal study | Study designed to assess changes in a sample over time.
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| macrosystem | Bronfenbrenner's term for a society's overall cultural patterns, including values, customs, and social systems.
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| mechanistic model | Model that views human development as a series of passive, predictable responses to stimuli.
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| mesosystem | Bronfenbrenner's term for linkages between two or more microsystems.
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| microgenetic study | Study design that enables researchers to directly observe change by repeated testing over a short time.
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| microsystem | Bronfenbrenner's term for a setting in which a child interacts with others on an everyday, face-to-face basis.
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| naturalistic observation | Research method in which behavior is studied in natural settings without intervention or manipulation.
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| observational learning | Learning through watching the behavior of others.
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| operant conditioning | Learning based on association of behavior with its consequences.
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| operational definition | Definition stated solely in terms of the operations or procedures used to produce or measure a phenomenon.
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| organismic model | Model that views human development as internally initiated by an active organism, and as occurring in a sequence of qualitatively different stages.
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| organization | Mnemonic strategy of categorizing material to be remembered.
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| participant observation | Research method in which the observer lives with the people or participates in the activity being observed.
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| psychoanalytic perspective | View of human development as being shaped by unconscious forces.
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| psychosexual development | In Freudian theory, an unvarying sequence of stages of personality development during infancy, childhood, and adolescence, in which gratification shifts from the mouth to the anus and then to the genitals.
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| psychosocial development | In Erikson's eight stage theory, the socially and culturally influenced process of development of the ego, or self.
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| punishment | In operant conditioning, a process that weakens and discourages repetition of a behavior.
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| qualitative research | Research that involves the interpretation of nonnumerical data, such as subjective experiences, feelings, or beliefs.
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| quantitative research | Research that deals with objectively measurable data.
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| random assignment | Assignment of participants in an experiment to groups in such a way that each person has an equal chance of being placed in any group.
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| random selection | Selection of a sample in such a way that each person in a population has an equal and independent chance of being chosen.
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| reciprocal determinism | Bandura's concept that behavior is determined bidirectionally, by the child and the environment acting on each other.
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| reinforcement | In operant conditioning, a process that strengthens and encourages repetition of a desired behavior.
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| sample | Group of participants chosen to represent the entire population under study.
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| scaffolding | Temporary support to help a child master a task.
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| schemes | Piaget's term for organized patterns of behavior used in particular situations.
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| self-efficacy | Sense of capability to master challenges and achieve goals.
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| sequential study | Study design that combines cross-sectional and longitudinal techniques.
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| social learning theory | Theory that behaviors are learned by observing and imitating models. Also called social cognitive theory.
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| sociocultural theory | Vygotsky's theory of how contextual factors affect children's development.
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| theory | Coherent set of logically related concepts that seeks to organize, explain, and predict data.
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| zone of proximal development (ZPD) | Vygotsky's term for the difference between what a child can do alone and what the child can do with help.
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