Developing Through the Life Span - Chapter 5 Flashcards
Developmental psychology
A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout lifespan
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
Teratogens
Agents, such as chemicals and viruses that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm
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
Cognition
All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating
Schema
A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information
Assimilation
Interpreting our new experience in terms of our existing schemas
Accommodation
Adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information
Object Permanence
The awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived
Egocentrism
In Piaget’s theory, the preoperational child’s difficulty taking another’s point of view
Social Identity
Our sense of self; according to Erickson, the adolescent’s task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles
Primary sex characteristics
The body structures (ovaries, testes, and external genitalia) that make sexual reproduction possible
