1. Chapter One
Learning Goals
1. Discuss the distinctive features of a life-span perspective on development.
• What is meant by the concept of development?
• Why is the study of life-span development important?
• What are the eight main characteristics of the life-span perspective?
• What are three sources of contextual characteristic?
• What are some contemporary concerns in life-span development?
2. Identify the most important processes, periods, and issues in development.
• What are the three key developmental processes?
• What are eight main developmental periods?
• How is age related to development?
• What are three main developmental issues?
3. Describe the main theories of human development.
• How can theory and hypotheses be defined?
• What are two main psychoanalytic theories?
• What are some contributions and criticisms of the psychoanalytic theories?
• What are three main cognitive theories?
• What are the contributions and criticisms of the cognitive theories?
• What are three main behavioral and social cognitive theories, and how can they be characterized?
• What are the contributions and criticisms of the behavioral and social cognitive theories?
• What is the nature of the ethological theory?
• What are some contributions and criticisms of the theory?
• What characterizes ecological theory?
• What are some contributions and criticisms of the theory?
• What is an eclectic theoretical orientation?
4. Explain how research on life-span development is conducted.
• What methods do researchers use to collect data on life-span development?
• What research designs are used to study human development?
• How is research conducted on the time span of people’s lives?
• What characterizes research journals?
• What are researchers’ ethical responsibilities to the people they study?
• How can gender, cultural, and ethnic bias affect the outcome of a research study?
Key Terms
Development Nature-nurture issue Laboratory
Life-span perspective Stability-change issue Naturalistic observation
Normative age-graded influences Continuity-discontinuity issue Standardized test

2. Normative history-graded Theory Case study
influences
Nonnormative life events Hypotheses Descriptive research
Culture Psychoanalytic theories Correlational research
Cross-cultural studies Erikson’s theory Correlation coefficient
Ethnicity Piaget’s theory Experiment
Socioeconomic status (SES) Vygotsky’s theory Cross-sectional approach
Gender Information-processing theory Longitudinal approach
Social policy Social cognitive theory Cohort effects
Biological processes Ethology Ethnic gloss