Chapter 3

Question 1

What is developmental psychology?

Answer 1

A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social development throughout the life span.

Question 2

What is a cross-sectional study?

Answer 2

Research that compares people of different ages at the same point in time.

Question 3

What is a longitudinal study?

Answer 3

Research that follows and retests the same people over time.

Question 4

What are chromosomes?

Answer 4

Threadlike structures made of DNA molecules that contain the genes.

Question 5

What is DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid)?

Answer 5

A molecule containing the genetic information that makes up the chromosomes.

Question 6

What are genes?

Answer 6

The biochemical units of heredity that make up the chromosomes; segments of DNA

Question 7

What is heredity?

Answer 7

The genetic transfer of characteristics from parents to offspring

Question 8

What is a genome?

Answer 8

The complete instructions for making an organism, consisting of all the genetic material in that organism’s chromosomes.

Question 9

What is an environment?

Answer 9

Every external influence, from prenatal nutrition to social support in later life.

Question 10

What is an interaction?

Answer 10

The interplay that occurs when the effect of one factor (such as environment) depends on another factor (such as heredity)

Question 11

What is epigenetics?

Answer 11

The study of the molecular ways by which environments can influence gene expression (without a DNA change).

Question 12

What is a zygote?

Answer 12

The fertilized egg; it enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo

Question 13

What is a embyro?

Answer 13

The developing organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month.

Question 14

What is a fetus?

Answer 14

the developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth.

Question 15

What are teratogens?

Answer 15

agents, such as chemicals or viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm.

Question 16

What is fetal alcohol syndrome(FAS)

Answer 16

physical and mental function deficits in children caused by their birth mother’s heavy drinking during pregnancy. In severe cases, symptoms include a small, out-of-proportion head and distinct facial features.

Question 17

What is a reflex?

Answer 17

a simple, automatic response to a sensory stimulus, such as the knee-jerk response.

Question 18

What is temperament?

Answer 18

a person’s characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity.

Question 19

What are identical (monozygotic) twins?

Answer 19

individuals who developed from a single fertilized egg that split in two, creating two genetically identical siblings.

Question 20

What are fraternal (dizygotic) twins?

Answer 20

individuals who developed from separate fertilized eggs. They are genetically no closer than ordinary siblings, but shared a prenatal environment.

Question 21

What is maturation?

Answer 21

biological growth processes leading to orderly changes in behavior, mostly independent of experience.

Question 22

What is a critical period?

Answer 22

a period early in life when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences is needed for proper development.

Question 23

What is cognition?

Answer 23

all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

Question 24

What is a schema?

Answer 24

a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.

Question 25

What is assimilation?

Answer 25

interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas.

Question 26

What is accommodation?

Answer 26

adapting our current schemas to incorporate new information.

Question 27

What is sensorimotor stage?

Answer 27

in Piaget’s theory, the stage (from birth to nearly 2 years of age) at which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities.

Question 28

What is object permanence?

Answer 28

the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived.

Question 29

What is the preoperational stage?

Answer 29

in Piaget’s theory, the stage (from about 2 to 6 or 7 years of age) in which a child learns to use language but cannot yet perform the mental operations of concrete logic.

Question 30

What is egocentrism?

Answer 30

in Piaget’s theory, the preoperational child’s difficulty taking another’s point of view.

Question 31

What is the concrete operational stage?

Answer 31

in Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 7 to 11 years of age) at which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events.

Question 32

What is conservation?

Answer 32

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 shapes.

Question 33

What is formal operational stage?

Answer 33

in Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) at which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts.

Question 34

What is scaffold?

Answer 34

in Vygotsky’s theory, a framework that offers children temporary support as they develop higher levels of thinking.

Question 35

What is the theory of mind?

Answer 35

people’s ideas about their own and others’ mental states — about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict.

Question 36

What is stranger anxiety?

Answer 36

the fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age.

Question 37

What is attachment?

Answer 37

an emotional tie with others; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to caregivers and showing distress on separation.

Question 38

What is basic trust?

Answer 38

according to Erik Erikson, a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy; said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers.

Question 39

What is adolescence?

Answer 39

the transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence.

Question 40

What is puberty?

Answer 40

the period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing.

Question 41

What is identity?

Answer 41

our sense of self; according to Erikson, the adolescent’s task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and blending various roles.

Question 42

What is social identity?

Answer 42

the “we” aspect of our self-concept; the part of our answer to “Who am I?” that comes from our group memberships.

Question 43

What is intimacy?

Answer 43

in Erikson’s theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in early adulthood.

Question 44

What is emerging adulthood?

Answer 44

a period from about age 18 to the mid-twenties, when many in Western cultures are no longer adolescents but have not yet achieved full independence as adults.

Question 45

What is menopause?

Answer 45

the end of menstruation. In everyday use, it can also mean the biological transition a woman experiences from before until after the end of menstruation.

Question 46

What is the social clock?

Answer 46

the culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement.