WGU C217 Human Growth and
Development Questions and Answers
Nature versus nurture controversy ✔✔experiences (nurture) or genetics (nature) influences
development
Nature versus nurture differences ✔✔nature preprogrammed and nurture experiences
Continuity theories ✔✔Steady growth process
Discontinuity (stage) vs Continuity ✔✔Stage is qualitative
Child development vs. Life Span Perspective ✔✔Freud and Piaget = child development
Erikson = life span
Child Development theory ✔✔complete once reach adolescence
Life Span theory ✔✔continues throughout life span
Universality vs. context-specific development ✔✔Universality (Piaget) = same order and same
age
Context-specific (Bronfenbrenner) = takes place in various contexts
Context-specific development ✔✔Collectivist cultures vs. individualistic cultures changes
development
Cognitive development theory ✔✔Based on the notion that cognitive abilities are developed as
individuals mature physiologically and have opportunity to interact with environment (Piaget)
,Equilibration of accommodation and assimilation ✔✔Piaget argues that normally we are in this
state, when a new stimulus presents we enter state of disequilibrium
Accommodation ✔✔Adjusting prior knowledge gained through former experiences and
interactions
Assimilation ✔✔Fitting together the new information with what has been previously known or
understood
Constructivism ✔✔Piaget position on learning. Children construct schema, organized patterns of
thought or action, Based on the experiences that they have actively exploring the environment
Piaget Constructivism ✔✔considered a stage theory
Piaget Constructivism Four Stages ✔✔1. Sensorimotor (birth - 2)
2. Preoperational (2-7)
3. Concrete Operations (7-11)
4. Formal Operaitons (11-15)
Preoperational stage ✔✔egocentrism, rigidity of thought, semi logical reasoning, limited social
cognition
Concrete Operations ✔✔Beginning of operational thinking, can perform transformations,
understand reversibility, inversion, reciprocity, and conservation, group into categories, make
inferences, inductive reasoning
Formal Operations ✔✔higher ordered critical thinking, adult thinking, ultimate stage of cognitive
development, scientific method, logical, abstract and hypothetical thought, deductive and
inductive reasoning
, Kohlberg ✔✔extended Piaget model to study of moral reasoning
Information processing approach ✔✔newer approach to studying cognitive development, uses
computer as metaphor for human mind
Learning theory (or behaviorist theory) ✔✔Developmental change as the product of learning
Learning ✔✔To find as changes in observable behavior
Behavioral psychology important figures ✔✔Pavlov, Watson, Skinner, Bandura
Learning theory ✔✔behavior is controlled by stimuli in the environment
Pavlov Classical Conditioning ✔✔Learning takes place when reflexive behavior comes under the
control of a novel stimulus in the environment
Reflex ✔✔unlearned behavior present at birth, unconscious
Generalization ✔✔Observed when a conditioned response solicited by stimuli similar to the
original CS
Discrimination ✔✔Opposite of generalization. Process of conditioning a response to occur only
after specific stimulus is presented
Extinction ✔✔Unlearning of a CR
Emotional responses at birth ✔✔Love, anger, and fear
Skinner ✔✔Operant conditioning
Development Questions and Answers
Nature versus nurture controversy ✔✔experiences (nurture) or genetics (nature) influences
development
Nature versus nurture differences ✔✔nature preprogrammed and nurture experiences
Continuity theories ✔✔Steady growth process
Discontinuity (stage) vs Continuity ✔✔Stage is qualitative
Child development vs. Life Span Perspective ✔✔Freud and Piaget = child development
Erikson = life span
Child Development theory ✔✔complete once reach adolescence
Life Span theory ✔✔continues throughout life span
Universality vs. context-specific development ✔✔Universality (Piaget) = same order and same
age
Context-specific (Bronfenbrenner) = takes place in various contexts
Context-specific development ✔✔Collectivist cultures vs. individualistic cultures changes
development
Cognitive development theory ✔✔Based on the notion that cognitive abilities are developed as
individuals mature physiologically and have opportunity to interact with environment (Piaget)
,Equilibration of accommodation and assimilation ✔✔Piaget argues that normally we are in this
state, when a new stimulus presents we enter state of disequilibrium
Accommodation ✔✔Adjusting prior knowledge gained through former experiences and
interactions
Assimilation ✔✔Fitting together the new information with what has been previously known or
understood
Constructivism ✔✔Piaget position on learning. Children construct schema, organized patterns of
thought or action, Based on the experiences that they have actively exploring the environment
Piaget Constructivism ✔✔considered a stage theory
Piaget Constructivism Four Stages ✔✔1. Sensorimotor (birth - 2)
2. Preoperational (2-7)
3. Concrete Operations (7-11)
4. Formal Operaitons (11-15)
Preoperational stage ✔✔egocentrism, rigidity of thought, semi logical reasoning, limited social
cognition
Concrete Operations ✔✔Beginning of operational thinking, can perform transformations,
understand reversibility, inversion, reciprocity, and conservation, group into categories, make
inferences, inductive reasoning
Formal Operations ✔✔higher ordered critical thinking, adult thinking, ultimate stage of cognitive
development, scientific method, logical, abstract and hypothetical thought, deductive and
inductive reasoning
, Kohlberg ✔✔extended Piaget model to study of moral reasoning
Information processing approach ✔✔newer approach to studying cognitive development, uses
computer as metaphor for human mind
Learning theory (or behaviorist theory) ✔✔Developmental change as the product of learning
Learning ✔✔To find as changes in observable behavior
Behavioral psychology important figures ✔✔Pavlov, Watson, Skinner, Bandura
Learning theory ✔✔behavior is controlled by stimuli in the environment
Pavlov Classical Conditioning ✔✔Learning takes place when reflexive behavior comes under the
control of a novel stimulus in the environment
Reflex ✔✔unlearned behavior present at birth, unconscious
Generalization ✔✔Observed when a conditioned response solicited by stimuli similar to the
original CS
Discrimination ✔✔Opposite of generalization. Process of conditioning a response to occur only
after specific stimulus is presented
Extinction ✔✔Unlearning of a CR
Emotional responses at birth ✔✔Love, anger, and fear
Skinner ✔✔Operant conditioning
