Guideposts for Study
What purposes do theories
serve?
 2. What are three basic theoretical
issues on which developmental
scientists differ?

1.
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______________: Coherent set of
logically related concepts that seeks to
organize, explain, and predict data.
________________________:
Possible explanations for phenomena,
used to predict the outcome of
research.
Basic Theoretical Issues

Issue 1: Which is More
Important—Heredity or
Environment?

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_________________/Nature: Inborn traits
and characteristics inherited from the
biological parents.
Environment/______: influences, both before
and after birth, including influences of family,
peers, schools, neighborhoods, society and
culture.
Research points to a blend of inheritance and
experience
Basic Theoretical Issues



Issue 2: Are Children Active or Passive
in their Development?
1. _____________ Model: people are
like machines that react to
environmental input
2. _____________ Model : people are
active, growing organisms that set their
own development in motion
1. Mechanistic Model


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_______: children are a clean slate,
tabula rasa, upon which society writes
People are like machines that react to
environmental input
Prediction of human behavior based
upon __________ and _________forces
at work
2. Organismic Model

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_______________: Children are “noble
savages” who would develop according to
positive natural tendencies unless
corrupted by a repressive society
Children are _________, growing,
changing organisms
People initiate events, not simply react to
them
Human behavior is a complex _______
unit; it cannot be broken down into small
parts
Basic Theoretical Issues

Issue 3: Is Development
Continuous, or Does It Occur in
Stages?
Continuous: Mechanistic
Approach



Change is quantitative, increasing in
__________ rather than changes in
quality or type
Change in the frequency with which a
response is made, rather than changes
in the __________of response
Learning Theorists, e.g., Watson and
Skinner
Stages: Organismic Approach


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Change is qualitative, occurring in a
series of _____________ stages
At each stage people cope with
different kinds of problems and
develop different kinds of
______________
Each stage builds on the previous one
and prepares the way for the next
Is development continuous, or
does it occur in stages?
Basic Theoretical Issues

An Emerging Consensus



Developmentalists are coming to a more
balanced view of active versus passive
development
Influence is ___________________:
children change their world even as it
changes them
Example: a baby girl born with a cheerful
disposition is likely to get positive responses from
adults, which strengthens her trust that her smiles
will be rewarded and motivates her to smile more