PSY 220 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Jean Piaget, Cognitive Neuroscience, Naturalistic Observation
Document Summary
People have a strong tendency to model after people we admire. Focuses on cognitive perspective and mental development. Information-processing approach: slower progression while aging, gaining more and more skills over the lifetime; no sudden changes when they see everything differently. Contextual perspective: focuses on influence of society (neighborhood, school, church) Bioecological approach: different levels of environment affects development; as children age more, parent"s influence decreases and peers influence increases. Sociocultural theory: development influenced by social interactions within a culture. Reciprocal transaction: children and the people around them influence each other. Evolutionary perspective: any trait, thought process, etc. that is universal and is there for a benefit of the people. Example: pain is useful to people because it can be a signal that something is wrong. Ethology: study of behavior under natural conditions. Variables: anything that varies and can be measured. Operational definition: how a variable will be measured.
