Chapter 4 - Vocabulary

Question 0

Zygote

Answer 0

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

Question 1

Developmental Psychology

Answer 1

A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the lifespan.

Question 2

Embryo

Answer 2

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

Question 3

Fetus

Answer 3

The developing human organism from nine weeks after conception to birth.

Question 4

Teratogens

Answer 4

Chemicals and viruses that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm.

Question 5

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)

Answer 5

Physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman’s heavy drinking. In severe cases, symptoms include noticeable facial misproportions.

Question 6

Rooting Reflex

Answer 6

A baby’s tendency, when touched on the cheek, to turn toward the touch, open mouth, and search for the nipple.

Question 7

Habituation

Answer 7

Decreased responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As Infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a visual stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner.

Question 8

Maturation

Answer 8

Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience.

Question 9

Schematic

Answer 9

A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.

Question 10

Assimilation

Answer 10

Interpreting one’s new experience in terms of existing schemas.

Question 11

Accommodation

Answer 11

Adapting one’s current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information.

Question 12

Cognition

Answer 12

All the mental processes associated with thinking, remembering, and communicating.

Question 13

Sensorimotor Stage

Answer 13

In Paiget’s theory, the stage (from birth to about 2-years) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities.

Question 14

Object Permanence

Answer 14

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

Question 15

Preoperational Stage

Answer 15

In Piaget’s theory, the stage from 2-6 years during which a child learns to use language but doesn’t comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic.

Question 16

Conservation

Answer 16

The principle (in which Piaget believed to be part of concrete operational reasoning) that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects.

Question 17

Egocentricity

Answer 17

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

Question 18

Theory of Mind

Answer 18

People’s ideas about their own and others’ mental states - about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts and behavior these might predict.

Question 19

Autism

Answer 19

A disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by deficient communication, social interaction, and understanding of others’ states of mind.

Question 20

Concrete Operational Stage

Answer 20

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

Question 21

Formal Operational Stage

Answer 21

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

Question 22

Stranger Anxiety

Answer 22

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

Question 23

Attachment

Answer 23

An emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation.

Question 24

Secure Attachment

Answer 24

If an infant has a secure attachment they will play comfortably and explore when place in a strange situation. (Usually a laboratory playroom.) when the mother leaves, the infant becomes distressed and when she returns they seek contact with her.

Question 25

Insecure Attachment

Answer 25

If the infant has an insecure attachment, they will be less likely to play or explore and may even cling to their mother. When she leaves, they either cry loudly and seem upset or be indifferent to their mother’s presence.