Chapter Four Flashcards
Zygote
The fertilized egg; it enters a 2 week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo.
Less than 1/2 of all zygotes survive beyond the first 2 weeks.
Developmental Psychology
A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the lifespan.
Focuses on 3 major issues: Nature/Nurture, Continuity/Stages, Stability/Change
Differentiation
When cells begin to specialize in certain areas, such as cells specializing as brain cells or blood cells.
Differentiation begins in zygotes within the first week
Embryo
The developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the 2nd month
Fetus
Latin for “offspring” & “little one”
The developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth
Teratogens
Agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)
Physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant person’s heavy drinking. In severe cases, symptoms include noticeable facial misproportions.
FAS affects 1/750 infants and is the leading cause of mental retardation.
Rooting Reflex
A baby’s tendency, when touched on the cheek, to turn toward the touch, open the mouth, and search for a nipple
Habituation
Decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to visual stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner
Maturation
Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience
ex: We all learn to crawl before we walk, speak nouns before we use adjectives…
Infantile Amnesia
The inability to remember memories made before our 3rd birthday
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
Piaget’s Sensorimotor Stage of Cognitive Development
Birth - roughly 2 years
Experiencing the world through senses and actions (looking, touching, grasping)
Associated developmental phenomena: Object permanence, stranger anxiety
Piaget’s Preoperational Stage of Cognitive Development
2 years - 6/7 years
Representing things with words and images; using intuitive rather than logical reasoning
Associated developmental phenomena: Pretend play, egocentrism, language development
Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage of Cognitive Development
7 years - roughly 11 years
Thinking logically a about concrete events; grasping concrete analogies and performing arithmetical operations
Associated developmental phenomena: Conservation, mathematical transformations
Piaget’s Formal Operational Stage of Cognitive Development
12 years - Adulthood
Abstract reasoning
Associated developmental phenomena: Abstract logic, potential for mature moral reasoning
Conservation
The principle (which Piaget believed to be a part of Concrete Operational reasoning) that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in form ex: Younger children think a tall, skinny glass holds more liquid than a short, wide glass
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
ex: Putting something other than Bandaids in a Bandaid box, showing it the child, and questioning them as to what others would think was in the box
Autism
A disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by deficient communication, social interaction, and understanding of others’ states of mind
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