Chapter 2

Question 0

Hormones

Answer 0

Powerful chemicals secreted by the endocrine glands and carried through the body by the bloodstream.

Question 1

Puberty

Answer 1

A period of rapid physical maturation involving hormonal and bodily changes that take place primarily in early adolescence.

Question 2

Androgens

Answer 2

The main class of male sex hormones.

Question 3

Estrogens

Answer 3

The main class of female sex hormones.

Question 4

Adrenarche

Answer 4

Puberty phase involving hormonal changes in the adrenal glands, which are located just above the kidneys. These changes occur from about 6 to 9 years of age in girls and about one year later in boys, before what is generally considered the beginning of puberty.

Question 5

Gonadarche

Answer 5

Puberty phase involving the maturation of primary sexual characteristics (ovaries in females, and testes in males) and secondary sexual characteristics (pubic hair, breast, and genital development). This period follows adrenarche by about two years and is what most people think of as puberty.

Question 6

Menarche

Answer 6

A girl’s first menstrual period.

Question 7

Spermarche

Answer 7

A boy’s first ejaculation of semen.

Question 8

Precocious puberty

Answer 8

The very early onset and rapid progression of puberty.

Question 9

Secular trends

Answer 9

Patterns of the onset of puberty over historical time, especially across generations.

Question 10

Female athlete triad

Answer 10

A combination of disordered eating, amenorrhea, and osteoporosis that may develop in female adolescents and college students.

Question 11

Adaptive behavior

Answer 11

A modification of behavior that promotes an organism’s survival in the natural habitat.

Question 12

Evolutionary psychology

Answer 12

An approach that emphasizes the importance of adaptation, reproduction, and “survival of the fittest” in explaining behavior.

Question 13

Chromosomes

Answer 13

Threadlike structures that contain deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA.

Question 14

DNA

Answer 14

A complex molecule that contains genetic information.

Question 15

Genes

Answer 15

The units of hereditary information, which are short segments composed of DNA.

Question 16

Genotype

Answer 16

A person’s genetic heritage; the actual genetic material.

Question 17

Phenotype

Answer 17

The way am individual’s genotype is expressed in observed and measurable characteristics.

Question 18

Behavior genetics

Answer 18

The field that seeks to discover the influence of heredity and environment on individual differences in human traits and development.

Question 19

Twin study

Answer 19

A study in which the behavioral similarity of identical twins is compared with the behavioral of fraternal twins.

Question 20

Adoption study

Answer 20

A study in which investigators seek to discover whether the behavior and psychological characteristics of adopted children are more like their adoptive parents, who have provided a home environment, or more like those of their biological parents, who have contributed their heredity. Another form of adoption study involves comparing adopted and biological siblings.

Question 21

Passive genotype-environment correlations

Answer 21

Correlations that occur because biological parents, who are genetically related to the child, provide a rearing environment for the child.

Question 22

Evocative genotype-environment correlations

Answer 22

Correlations that occur because an adolescent’s genetically shaped characteristics elicit certain types of physical and social environments.

Question 23

Active (niche-picking) genotype-environment

Answer 23

Correlations that occur when children seek out environments that they find compatible and stimulating.

Question 24

Shared environmental experienced

Answer 24

Siblings’ common experiences such as their parents’ personalities and intellectual orientation, the family’s socioeconomic status, and the neighborhood in which they live.

Question 25

Nonshared environmental experiences

Answer 25

The adolescent’s own unique experiences, both within a family and outside the family, that are not shared by a sibling.

Question 26

Epigenetic view

Answer 26

Belief that development is the result of an ongoing bidirectional interchange between heredity and environment.

Question 27

Gene 3 environment (G 3 E) interaction

Answer 27

The interaction of a specific measured variation in the DNA and a specific measured aspect if the environment.