Key Terms

Theory

An organized set of ideas that serves as a framework for interpreting facts and findings and a guide for scientific research.

Nativist perspective

A theory of human development that emphasizes the intrinsic potential for optimal development to occur, given a healthy environment. Development is viewed as genetically determined and occurring primarily through maturation.

Behavioral perspective

A theory of human development that stresses the role of experience in shaping behavior. Learning is believed to occur as a result of external reinforcement of associations between environmental stimuli and behavioral responses. Skinner was the major advocate of behaviorism.

Information processing model

A theory of human development that uses the computer as a metaphor for explaining thought processes. Similar to computers, humans transform information to solve cognitive problems. Development is viewed in terms of changes in memory-storage capacities and use of different types of cognitive strategies.

Interactionist perspective

A theory that views development as the result of an interaction between the organism and the environment. Dewey and Piaget were advocates of the interactionist perspective.

Connectionist model

A neurobiological model of information processing. The connectionist model draws an analogy to the central nervous system in which neurons activate and inhibit each other in complex networks. In turn, information processing involves large numbers of units stimulating or inhibiting each other through networks of connections.

Zone of proximal development (ZPD)

A concept formulated by Vygotsky to represent the difference between what a child can achieve independently and what a child can achieve when provided with adult assistance.

Mediation

A form of adult-child interaction in which the adult or a more knowledgeable peer interposes him- or herself between a child and the world to make experiences more meaningful.

Reductionist models

Theories and methodologies that try to explain the properties of complex wholes (e.g., human beings, societies) by reducing them or breaking them down into the units of which they are composed.

Systems theory

A theory designed to study unified whole and self-organizing systems. Systems theory is based upon the idea that the whole is different from the sum of the individual parts. It stresses the interdependent and interactional nature of the relationships that exist among all components of a system. The family, for example, is viewed as consisting of subsystems (parents, siblings, grandparents) in which events affecting any one member will have an impact on all family members.