| A | B |
|---|
| Developmental theoriest | Comprehensive explanation about why people act and behave the way they do and how they change over time |
| psychological theoriest | Ideas that analyze the symbolic meaning behind behaviors |
| psychosocial development stages | Erickson's theory consisting of eight stages in which people must successfully resolve a psychological and/or social conflict before moving to the next stage in life |
| cognitive theoriest | Ideas about how people process information, think, and learn |
| moral decisions | Personal choices that evaluate what is right and what is wrong |
| observable behaviors | Things people do and say or the way they act |
| behaviorism | theory based on the belief that a person's developmental stage should be based on what can be observed or seen in his or her behavior rather than making assumption about what cannot be directly observed |
| classical conditioning | behaviors associated with emotional responses |
| operant conditioning | behaviors that continue when reinforces |
| social cognitive theory | Theory based on the assumption that people are affected by rewards and punishment but that their reaction to rewards and punishments are filtered by their own perceptions, thoughts, and motivations |
| genes | part of a DNA molecule that determines individual traits |
| genetics | The study of genes |
| ethological theory | Assigning traits and behaviors based on a person's biology or genetic make-up |
| ecological theory | Assigning traits and behaviors based on a person's environment |
| scientific method | a means of increasing knowledge by observing, formulating a hypothesis, testing the hypothesis, and formulating a theory |
| hypothesis | prediction about something that can be tested |
| descriptive studies | method of data collection used to obtain information that describes people and situations, such as their ages, attitudes, or behaviors |
| manipulative experiments | methods of data collection used to keep all the variables that affect behavior the same except for one |
| longitudinal studies | method of data collection used to observe the same individuals over a period of time |
| cross-sectional studies | method of data collection used to compare groups of various ages at the same time |
| naturalistic experiments | methods of data collection used to only observe existing groups and record observations |
