Chapter 4: The Developing Person Flashcards
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Sensorimotor, Pre-operational, Concrete Operational, Formal Operational. -
Developmental Psychology
a branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span. -
Zygote
the fertilized egg; it enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo. -
Embryo
the developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month. -
Fetus
the developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth. -Biological
Teratogens
agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm. -
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)
a medical condition in which body deformation or facial development or mental ability of a fetus is impaired because the mother drank alcohol while pregnant. -
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. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a visual stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner. -
Maturation
biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience. -
Schema
a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information. -
Assimilation
interpreting one’s new experience in terms of one’s existing schemas. -
Accommodation
adapting one’s current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information. -
Cognition
all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating. -
Sensorimotor Stage
in Piaget’s theory, (~birth to ~2yrs) the stage 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
in Piaget’s theory, (~2yrs to ~6-7yrs) the stage during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic. -
Conservation
(Piaget: part of concrete operational reasoning) the principle 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 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
in Piaget’s theory, (~6-7yrs to ~11yrs) the stage of cognitive development during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events. -
Formal Operational Stage
in Piaget’s theory, (~12 to +) the stage of cognitive development during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts. -
Stranger Anxiety
the fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age. -
Attachment
an emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation. -
Critical Period
an optimal period shortly after birth when an organism’s exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development. -
Imprinting
the process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life. -
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. -
Self-Concept
a sense of one’s identity and personal worth. -
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. -
Primary Sex Characteristics
the body structures (ovaries, testes, and external genitalia) that make sexual reproduction possible. -
Secondary Sex Characteristics
non-reproductive sexual characteristics, such as female breasts and hips, male voice quality, and body hair. -
Menarche
the first menstrual period. -Biological
Intimacy
in Erikson’s theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in late adolescence and early adulthood. -
Menopause
the time of natural cessation of menstruation; also refers to the biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines. -
Alzheimer’s Disease
an irreversible, progressive brain disorder, characterized by the deterioration of memory, language, and eventually, physical functioning. -
Cross-Sectional Study
a study in which people of different ages are compared with one another. -
Longitudinal Study
research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period. -
Crystallized Intelligence
one’s accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age. -
Fluid Intelligence
one’s ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease during late adulthood. -
Social Clock
the culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement. -
Death-Deferral Theory
Parenting Styles
Authoritarian-
Authoritative-
Permissive-
Rejecting/Neglecting-
