After reading and studying the material in this chapter, you should be
able to answer the following questions.
1. What is development? What processes underlie developmental changes across the life span?
2. How has our understanding of different periods of the life-span changed historically? What cultural and subcultural differences exist in perspectives of the life span?
3. What are the three goals of developmental psychology and the seven assumptions of the life-span perspective on human development?
4. How is the scientific method used to study development?
5. What are the important features of the experimental method? What sorts of information can be gathered from an experimental study?
6. What are the important features of the correlational method? What sorts of information can be gathered from this type of study?
7. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the cross-sectional and longitudinal designs and how does the sequential design resolve the weaknesses of the cross-sectional and longitudinal designs?
8. What is the bioecological model of development?
9. What problems or issues arise in studying development?