Chapter 4- Development Flashcards
Zygote
The fertilized egg; it enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo.
Developmental Psychology
A branch of psychology that studies, physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span.
Embryo
The developing human organism from 9 weeks from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month.
Fetus
The developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception and birth.
Teratogens
Agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm.
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
Physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman’s heavy drinking.
Rooting Reflex
A baby’s tendency, when touched on the cheek, to turn toward the touch, open the mouth and search for the nipple.
Habituation
Decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation.
Maturation
Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience.
Jean Piaget
Revolutionized our understanding of children’s minds
Schemas
A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.
Assimilation
Interpreting ones new experience in terms of ones existing Schemas.
Accommodation
Adapting ones current understanding (Schemas) to incorporate new information.
Cognition
All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering and communication.
Sensorimotor Stage
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.
Object Permanence
The awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived
Preoperational Stage
The stage from about 2 to 6 or 7 during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic
Conservation
The belief that properties such as mass, volume and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects
Egocentrism
The Preoperational Childs difficulty taking another’s point of view
Theory of mind
Peoples ideas about their own and others mental states - about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts and the behavior these might predict.
Autism
A disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by deficient communication, social interaction, and understanding of others states of mind
Concrete Operational Stage
Stage of cognitive development (6/7 to 11 years) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events.
Formal Operational Stage
Stage of cognitive development (age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts.
Harry Harlow
Attachment
Stranger Anxiety
The fear of strangers that infants commonly display beginning by about 8 months of age
Mary Ainsworth
Attachment differences
Insecure vs Secure
Attachment
An emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation
Secure Attachment
Comfort
Mom leaves - they explore
Insecure Attachment
Distress
Mom leaves - they cry