Psychology 2040A/B Lecture Notes - Tabula Rasa, Sigmund Freud, Observational Techniques

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2040A/B
• Professor: Michael G Mac Donald

Document Summary

Development: systematic continuities and changes between conception and death. Developmental continuities: ways in which we remain stable over time. Maturation: developmental changes in the body that result from hereditary aging processes (eg. height) Affected by emotional and nutritional needs learning: relatively permanent changes in behavior due to experience (eg. accommodation, assimilation) Normative development: typical patterns of change ideographic development: individual variations in patterns of change: explain. Why do individuals develop differently: optimize. Apply research findings to the real world . Tabula rasa: all knowledge, abilities, behaviors, and motives are acquired through experience. Baby biographers: record an infant"s growth and development. Charles darwin most influential: believed development of an individual child retraces entire evolutionary history of man. Problems with this method lack of objectivity lack of generalizability. Questionnaire method identified adolescence as unique period. Theory: a set of concepts and propositions designed to organize, describe and explain existing observations.