Chapter 1
History, Theories, and Methods
Students should be able to answer the following questions (from text):
1. What is child development? (pp. 2-3)
2. Why do researchers study child development? (pp. 3-4)
3. What views of children do we find though our history? (pp. 4-6)
4. What are theories? Why do we have them? (pg. 7)
5. What is Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of child development? (pp. 7-9)
6. How does Erikson’s theory differ from Freud’s? (pp. 10-12)
7. What is the theory of behaviorism? (pp. 13-16)
8. How does social cognitive development differ from behaviorism? (pg. 17)
9. What are Jean Piaget’s views on development? (pp. 18-21)
10. What is information processing theory? (pp. 21-22)
11. What is the scope of the biological perspective? (pg. 22)
12. What is ethology? (pg, 22)
13. What is the ecological systems theory of development? (pp. 23-25)
14. What is meant by the socio-cultural perspective? (pg. 26)
15. What are the key concepts of Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory? (pp. 26-27)
16. What is the connection between the sociocultural perspective and human diversity? (pp. 27-29)
17. Which exerts the greatest influence on children, nature and nurture? (pg. 32)
18. Is development continuous or discontinuous? (pp. 32-33)
19. Are children active (“prewired” to act on the world) or are they passive (shaped by experience)?
(pp. 33-34)
20. What is the scientific method? (pp. 34-35)
21. What is naturalistic observation? (pp. 35-36)
22. What is the case study? (pg. 36)
23. What does it mean to correlate information? (pp. 36-38)
24. What is an experiment? (pp. 38-39)
25. How do researchers study development over time? (pp. 39-41)
26. What ethical guidelines are involved in research in child development? (pp. 41-42)