Chapter 9 Flashcards
Developmental Psychology
Concerned with changes over the life span in physiology, cognition, emotion, and social behavior.
Teratogens
Environmental agents that harm the embryo or fetus.
ex: alcohol, tobacco, etc
Dynamic Systems Theory
View that development is a self-organizing process.
New behaviors emerge through interactions between a being and his or her culture and environment.
Synaptic Pruning
Process where the synaptic connections in the brain that are used are preserved, and those that are not used are lost.
Sensitive Periods
Time periods when specific skills develop most easily.
Attachment
Strong emotional connection that persists over time.
Secure Attachment
Attachment style for majority of infants.
Confident in unusual environments as long as caregiver is present and comforting the infant during distress.
Insecure Attachment
Attachment style for minority of infants.
Infants shows this through various behaviors like avoiding contact.
Infantile Amnesia
The inability to remember events from early childhood.
Assimilation
Process by which we place new info into an existing schema or category.
Accomodation
Process by which we create a new schema or alter an existing one to include new info.
Sensorimotor Stage
First stage in Piaget’s theory of cognitive development.
Infants acquire info about the world through senses and motor skills.
Reflexive responses develop into more deliberate actions.
Object Permanence
The understanding that an object continues to exist even when it is not seen.
Preoperational Stage
Second stage in Piaget’s theory of cognitive development.
Children think symbolically about objects.
Reason based on intuition and superficial appearance rather than logic.
Concrete Operational Stage
Third stage in Piaget’s theory of cognitive development.
Children begin to think about and understand logical operations.
No longer fooled by appearances.
