Chapter 4 Flashcards
What is developmental psychology?
A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span
What is a zygote?
The fertilized egg; it enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo
What is a embryo?
The developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month
What is a fetus?
The developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth
Developmental psychology examines our physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span with a focus on three major issues
1) Nature and nurture
2) Continuity and stages
3) Stability and change
Define teratogens
Literally “monster maker” agents such as toxins, chemicals, and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm
What is the fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)
Physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman’s heavy drinking. In severe cases, symptoms include noticeable facial misproportions
Prenatal development
zygote: conception to 2 weeks
embryo: 2 weeks through 8 weeks
fetus: 9 weeks to birth
Decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a visual stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner
Habituation
Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively influenced by experience
Maturation
What is the critical period?
An optimal period early in the life of an organism when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces normal development
Cognition is?
All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating
Interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing shemas
assimilation
Accommodation is?
Adapting our current understandings (shemas) to incorporate new information
What is the sensorimotor stage?
Jean Piaget’s theory, the stage (from birth to about 2 years of age) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities
What is object permanence?
The awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived
What is the preoperational stage?
In Piaget’s theory, the stage (from about 2 to about 6 or 7 years) during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic
Conservation
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 the forms of objects
Egocentrism
In Piaget’s theory, the preoperational child’s difficulty taking another’s point of view
Theory of mind
People’s ideas about their own and others mental states-about their feelings, perceptions and thoughts and the behaviors these might predict
Concrete operational stage
In Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development ( from about 6 or 7 to 11 years of age) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events
Formal operational stage
In Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts
The fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age
Stranger anxiety
An emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation
Attachment
The process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life
Imprinting
Temperament
A person’s characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity
Basic trust
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
Adolescence
The transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence
Puberty
The period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing
According to Kohlberg, ________ morality focuses on upholding laws and social rules, _________ morality focuses on self-interest, and _________ morality focuses on self defined ethical principles
Conventional
Preconventional
Postconventional
Our sense of self; according to Erikson, the adolescent’s task is to solidify a senses of self by testing and integrating various roles
Idendity
The “we” aspect of our self-concept; the part of our answer to “who am I?” that comes from our group memberships
Social idendity
What findings in psychology support the stage of development? What findings challenge these ideas
Stage theory is supported by the work of Piaget (cognitive develop). Kohlberg (moral development), and Erikson (psychosocial development), but it is challenged by findings that change is more gradual and less culturally universal than these theorists supposed.
Study in which people of different ages are compared with one another
Cross-sectional study
Research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period
Longitudinal study
Body organs first begin to form and function during the period of the _______ ; within 6 months, during the period of the __________, the organs are sufficiently functional to allow a chance of survival
Embryo; fetus
Stroke a newborn’s cheek and the infant will root for a nipple. This illustrates
A reflex
Between ages 3 and 6, the human brain experiences the greatest growth in the _______ lobes, which we use for rational planning, and which continue developing at least into adolescence
Frontal
Which of the following is true of motor-skill development?
The sequence, but not the timing, is universal
Use Piaget’s first 3 stages of cognitive development to explain why young children are not just miniature adults in the way they think
Infants in Piaget’s sensorimotor stage tend to be focused only on their own perceptions of the world and may, for example, be unaware the objects continue to exist when unseen. A child in the preoperational stage is still egocentric and incapable of appreciating simple logic, such as the reversibility of operations. A preteen in the concrete operational stage is beginning to think logically above concrete events but not about abstract concepts
In Erikson’s stages, the primary task during adolescence is?
Forging an identity
Some developmental psychologists now refer to the period that occurs in some Western cultures from age 18 to the mid-twenties and beyond (up to the time of social independence as?
Emerging adulthood
Developmental researchers who emphasize learning and experience are supporting _________, those who emphasize biological maturation are supporting ________
Continuity; stages
Freud defined the healthy adult as one who is able to love and work. Erikson agreed, observing that the adult struggles to attain intimacy and _________
generativity
Although the development is lifelong, there is stability of personality over time. For example
Temperament tends to remain stable throughout life
The first two weeks of prenatal development is the period of the ______. The period of the _____ lasts from 9 weeks after conception until birth. The time between those two prenatal periods is considered the period of the ________.
Zygote; fetus; embryo
Schema
A concept or framework that organizes & interprets information
