Chapter 5: Developing Through The Life Span

Question 1

a branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social development throughout the life span

Answer 1

developmental psychology

Question 2

research that compares people of different ages at the same point in time

Answer 2

cross-sectional study

Question 3

research that follows and retests the same people overtime

Answer 3

longitudinal study

Question 4

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

Answer 4

zygote

Question 5

the developing human organism from about 2 weeks after feralization through the second month

Answer 5

embryo

Question 6

the developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth

Answer 6

fetus

Question 7

agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm

Answer 7

teratogens

Question 8

physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman’s heavy drinking. In severe cases, signs include a small, out of proportion head and abnormal facial features

Answer 8

fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)

Question 9

decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. as infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner

Answer 9

habituation

Question 10

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

Answer 10

maturation

Question 11

all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

Answer 11

cognition

Question 12

a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information

Answer 12

schema

Question 13

interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas

Answer 13

assimilation

Question 14

adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information

Answer 14

accommodation

Question 15

in Piaget’s theory, the stage (birth to 2) at which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities

Answer 15

sensorimotor stage

Question 16

the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived

Answer 16

object permanence

Question 17

in Piaget’s theory, the stage (2- 6 or 7) at which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic

Answer 17

preoperational stage

Question 18

the principle (Piaget believed to be part of concrete observational reasoning) that properties such as mass, volumes, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of object

Answer 18

conservation

Question 19

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

Answer 19

egocentrism

Question 20

in Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development ( 7 - 11) at which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events

Answer 20

concrete operational stage

Question 21

in Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (beginning at 12) at which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts

Answer 21

formal operational stage

Question 22

in Vygotsky’s theory, a framework that offers children temporary support as they develop higher levels of thinking

Answer 22

scaffold