Chapter 1 Flashcards
Developmental science
Which includes all change we experience throughout the lifespan
Child development
An area of study devoted to understanding constancy and change from conception through adolescence
Prenatal period
9 month period where the most rapid change occurs. One called organism is transformed into a human baby, adjusting to the changes of the natural world
Infancy to toddlerhood
Birth to 2. Supports the wide array of changes in motor, perceptual, and intellectual capacities, the beginnings of language and the first intimate ties to others
Early childhood
2-6; body becomes longer and leaner, motor skills are refined and children become more self controlled and self sufficient. Thought and language expand at an astounding rate. Morality becomes evident.
Middle childhood
6-11; improved athletic abilities, more logical thought process, mastery of fundamental reading, writing, and math. Advances in understanding of self, morality and others.
Adolescence
11-18; initiates the transition to adulthood, puberty leads to adult sized bodies and sexual maturity, thought becomes abstract and idealistic. Young people begin to establish autonomy from family and define personal goals and values.
Continuous
A process of adding more of the same types of skills that were there to begin with.
Discontinuous
A process in which new ways of understanding and responding to the world emerge at specific times
Stage theories
In this type development is much like climbing a ladder with each step corresponding to a more mature, reorganized way of functioning.
Contexts
Unique combinations of personal and environmental circumstances that can result in different paths of change.
Resilience
The ability to adapt effectively in the face of threats to development
Maturation
Genetically determined naturally unfolding course of growth
Normative approach
In which measures of behavior are taken on large numbers of individuals and age-related averages are computed to represent typical development
Psychoanalytic perspective
Children move through a series of stages in which they confront conflicts between biological drives and social expectations. How these conflicts are resolved determines the person’s ability to learn, to get along with others, and to cope with anxiety.
