45- 49 Flashcards
Developmental psychology
A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span.
Zygote
The fertilized egg; it enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo.
Embryo
The developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month.
Fetus
The developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth.
Teratogens
(literally, “monster maker”) agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm.
Fatal alcohol syndrome (FAS)
Physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant women’s heavy drinking. In severe cases, signs include a small, out-of-proportion head and abnormal facial features.
Habituation
Decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a visual stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner.
Maturation
Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively influenced by experience.
Cognition
All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.
Schema
A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.
Assimilation
Interpreting our nee experiences in terms of our existing schemas.
Accommodation
Adapting our current understandings (schrmas) to incorporate new information.
Sensorimortor stage
In Piaget’s theory, the stage (from birth to about 2 years of age) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities.
Object permanence
The awareness that things continue to exist when not perceived.
Preoperational stage
In piaget’s theory, the stage (from about 2 to about 6 or 7 years of age) during which a child learns to use language but does nor yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic.
Conservation
The principle (which Piaget believed to be a part of concrete operational reasoning) that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects.
Egocentrism
In piaget’s theory, the preoperational child’s difficulty taking another’s point of view
Theory of the mind
People’s ideas about their own and others mental states- about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
A disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by significant deficiencies in communication and social interaction, and by rigidly fixated intrested and repetitive behaviors.
Concrete operational stage
In piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 6 or 7 to 11 years of age) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events.
Formal operational stage
In Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts
Stranger anxiety
The fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age.
Attachment
an emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation.
Critical period
An optimal period early in the life of an organism when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces normal development.
