Ch 09: Human Development Flashcards
developmental psychology
the study of how behavior changes over the life span
gene-environment interaction
situation in which the effects of genes depend on the environment in which they are expressed
epigenetics
a field that examines how environmental influences affect the expression of genes
cross-sectional design
research design that examines people of different ages at a single point in time
- cohort effect
effect observed in a sample of participants that results from individuals in the same sample growing up at the same time
- longitudinal design
research design that examines development in the same group of people on multiple occasions over time
- zygote
fertilized egg
- post hoc fallacy
(“after this”), dales assumption that because one even occurred before another event, it must have caused that event; within the context of psychology, refers to the reciprocal relationship between two variables or factors
- blastocyte
ball of identical cells early in pregnancy that haven’t yet begun to take on any specific function in a body part
- fetus
an animal embryo in the later stages of development. In humans, the fetal period is from the end of the 8th week after fertilization until birth
- teratogens
an environmental factor that can exert a negative impact on prenatal development
- fetal alcohol syndrome
condition resulting from high levels of prenatal alcohol exposure, causing learning disabilities, physical growth retardation, facial malformations, and behavioral disorders; a disorder that can occur when a fetus is exposed to alcohol, and it’s caused by alcohol’s teratogenic effects
- motor behavior
bodily motion that occurs as result of self-initiated force that moves the bones and muscles
- Michael Hermanussen
“mini growth spurts” occur every 30-55 days in children ages 3 to 16, followed by lulls during which growth was much slower
- puberty
(also, sexual maturation): the achievement of sexual maturation resulting in the potential to reproduce
- primary sex characteristics
a physical feature, such as the reproductive organs and genitals, that distinguishes sexes
- secondary sex characteristics
a sex-differentiating characteristic that does not relate directly to reproduction, such as breast enlargement in women and deepening voices in men
- menarche
start of menstruation
- spermarche
boys’ first ejaculation
- menopause
the termination of menstruation, marking the end of a woman’s reproduction potential
- Sensorimotor
stage in Piaget’s theory characterized by a focus on the here and now without the ability to represent experiences mentally (birth-2yo)
- cognitive development
study of how children acquire the ability to learn, think, communicate, and remember
- Preoperational
stage in Piaget’s theory characterized the ability to construct mental representations of experience but not yet perform operations with them
Concrete Operations
stage in Piaget’s theory characterized by the ability to perform mental operations on physical events only
Formal Operations
stage in Piaget’s theory characterized by the ability to perform hypothetical reasoning beyond the here and now
- assimilation
Piagetian process of absorbing new experience into current knowledge structures; Fitting new information into existing mental schemas
- accommodation (cognitive)
Piagetian process of altering a belief to make it more compatible with experience; already existing structures (schema) are changed to accommodate new information
Vygotsky’s social development theory
asserts that a child’s cognitive development and learning ability can be guided and mediated by their social interactions. His theory (also called Vygotsky’s Sociocultural theory) states that learning is a crucially social process as opposed to an independent journey of discovery.
- scaffolding
Vygotskian learning mechanism in which parents provide initial assistance in children’s learning but gradually remove structure as children become more competent
- zone of proximal development
a phase of learning during which children can benefit from instruction (Vygotsky)
- theory of mind
ability to reason about what other people know or believe (coined by Premack and Woodruff, 1978)