cohort
a group of people who are born at roughly the same period in a particular society. Cohorts share histories and contexts for living
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continuous development
the idea that development is a progressive and cumulative process, gradually improving on existing skills
culture
blueprint or guideline shared by a group of people that specifies how to live; passed down from generation to generation; learned from parents and others
discontinuous development
idea that development takes place in unique stages and occurs at specific times or ages
lifespan perspective
an approach to studying development which emphasizes that development is lifelong, multidimensional, multidirectional, plastic, contextual, and multidisciplinary
nature
the influences of biology and genetics on behavior
nonnormative influences
unpredictable influences not tied to a certain developmental time, personally or historical period
normative age-graded influences
biological and environmental factors that have a strong correlation with chronological age
normative history-graded influences
influences associated with a specific time period that define the broader bio-cultural context in which an individual develops
nurture
environmental, social, and cultural influences of behavior
attrition
reduction in the number of research participants as some drop out over time
case study
exploring a single case or situation in great detail. Information may be gathered with the use of observation, interviews, testing, or other methods to uncover as much as possible about a person or situation
content analysis
involves looking at media such as old texts, pictures, commercials, lyrics or other materials to explore patterns or themes in culture
control group
a comparison group that is equivalent to the experimental group, but is not given the independent variable
correlation
the relationship between two or more variables; when two variables are correlated, one variable changes as the other does
correlational research
research design with the goal of identifying patterns of relationships, but not cause and effect
correlation coefficient
number from -1 to +1, indicating the strength and direction of the relationship between variables, and usually represented by r
cross-sectional research
used to examine behavior in participants of different ages who are tested at the same point in time; may confound age and cohort differences
dependent variable
the outcome or variable that is supposedly affected by the independent variable
descriptive studies
research focused on describing an occurrence
double-blind
a research design in which neither the participants nor the researchers know whether an individual is assigned to the experimental group or the control group
evaluation research
research designed to assess the effectiveness of policies or programs
experimental group
the group of participants in an experiment who receive the independent variable
experiments
designed to test hypotheses in a controlled setting in efforts to explain how certain [Show Less]