Chapter 4 Flashcards
The fertilized egg, enters a 2 week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo
Zygote
A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive and social change throughout the lifespan.
Developmental psychology
The developing human organism from about 2-8 weeks after fertilization through the second month
Embryo
9 weeks- birth the developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth.
Fetus
Agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during development and cause harm.
Teratogens
Born with many reflexes to help them survive
Reflexes
The baby’s tendency when touched on the cheek to turn toward the touch, open the mouth and search for the nipple
Rooting reflex
Decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation.
Habituation
Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience
Maturation
Revolutionized our understanding of children’s minds. Best know for studying the Cognitive abilities change over the lifespan.
Jean Piaget
Birth 2 years in which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities
Sensorimotor period
A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.
Schemas
Assimilation
Interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas.
Adapting our current schemas to incorporate new information.
Accommodation
The awareness that objects continue to exist even when not perceived.
Object permanence
In piagets theory the pre-operational Childs difficulty taking another’s point of view
Egocentrism
In piagets theory the belief that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects.
Conservation
Ages 2 to 7. Language development is rapid, but the child is unable to understand the mental operations of concrete logic
Preoperational stage
Peoples ideas about their own and others mental states- about their feelings, perceptions,
Theory of mind
A disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by deficient communication, social, interaction, and understanding of other states of mind,
Autism
Age 6 to 7 to 11 where children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events
Concrete operational stage
Formal operational stage
Normally begins around age 12. The stage of cognitive development during which people,begin to think logically about abstract thinking
Stranger anxiety
The fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by aBout 8 months of age
Study of infant monkeys and looking at attachment
Harry Harlow
Focused on attachment, she worked with humans, mothers and infants
Mary ainsworth
An optimal period shortly after birth when an organisms exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development.
Critical period
The process by which certain animals form attachments during critical period very early in life.
Imprinting
Body structures that enable reproduction
Primary sex traits
Secondary sex traits
Non reproductive sexual characteristics
Described the development of moral reasoning, the thinking that occurs as we consider right and wrong.
Lawrence kohlberg
Children obey either to avoid punishment or to gain concrete rewards.
Preconventional morality
By this stage of character development, children uphold laws and social rules simply because they are the laws and rules.
Conventional morality
By young adulthood, (around15-16) people begin to affirm their own agreed upon rights or follows what one personally perceives as basic ethical principles
Post conventional morality
Physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman’s heavy drinking. In severe cases, symptoms include noticeable facial misproportions.
Fetal alcohol syndrome
All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating
Cognition
An emotional tie with another person
Attachment
According to Erik Erikson, a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy
Basic trust
A sense of ones identity and personal worth.
Self concept
The transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence.
Adolescence
The period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing.
Puberty
The first menstrual period.
Menarche
Theorist that contended that each stage of life has its own psychosocial task, a crisis that needs resolution.
Erik Erikson
Ones self of self
Identity
Eriksons theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships, a primary development task in late adolescence and early adulthood
Intimacy
The time of natural cessation of mensturation
Menopause
A progressive and irreversible brain disorder characterized by gradual deterioration of memory, reasoning, language, and finally physical functioning.
Alzheimer’s disease
A study in which people of different ages are compared with one another.
Cross sectional study
Research in which the same people are re studied and retested over a long period.
Longitudinal study
Ones accumulated knowledge and verbal skills
Crystallized intelligence
Ones ability to reason speedily and abstractly
Fluid intelligence
The culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement
Social clock
