Development Flashcards
Define Developmental Psychology
A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the lifespan.
Define Zygote
The fertilized egg; it enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo.
Define Embryo
The developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month.
Define Fetus
The developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth.
Define Teratogens
Agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm.
Define Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)
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.
Define 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.
Define Maturation
Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience.
Define Cognition
All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.
Define Schema
A concept or framework that organizes or interprets information.
Define Assimilation
Interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas.
Define Accommodation
Adapting our current understandings to incorporate new information.
Define Sensory Motor Stage
In Piaget’s theory, the stage (from birth to about 2 years of age) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities.
Define Object Permanance
The awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived.
Define Preoperational Stage
In Piaget’s theory, the stage (from about 2 to about 6 or 7 years of age) during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic.
Define 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 the forms of objects.
Define Egocentricism
In Piaget’s theory, the preoperational child’s difficulty taking another’s point of view.
Define Theory of Mind
People’s ideas about their own and others’ mental states—about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict.
Define Autism Spectrum Disorder
A disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by significant deficiencies in communication and social interaction, and by rigidly fixated interests and repetitive behaviors.
Define Concrete Operational Stage
In Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 6 or 7 to 11 years of age) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events.
Define Formal Operational Stage
In Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts.
Define Stranger Anxiety
The fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age.
Define Attachment
An emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation.
Define Critical Period
An optimal period early in life of an organism when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces normal development.
Define Imprinting
The process by which certain animals form strong attachments during an early-life critical period.
Define Temperment
A person’s characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity.
Define Basic Trust
According to Erik Erikson, a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy; said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers.
Define Self-Concept
All our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question, “who am I?”
Define Gender
The socially constructed roles and characteristics by which a culture defines male and female.
Define Aggression
Any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy
Define Gender Role
A set of expected behaviors for males or for females.
Define Role
A set of expectations about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave.
Define Gender Identity
Our sense of being male or female.
Define Social Learning Theory
The theory that we learn social behavior by observing and imitating and by being rewarded or punished.
Define Gender Typing
The acquisition of a traditional masculine or feminine role.
Define Transgender
An umbrella term describing people whose gender identity or expression differs from that associated with their birth sex.
Define Adolescence
The transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence.
Define Identity
Our sense of self; according to Erikson, the adolescent’s task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles.
Define Social Identity
The “we” aspect of our self-concept; the part of our answer to “Who am I?” that comes from our group memberships.
Define Intimacy
In Erikson’s theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in late adolescence and early adulthood.
Define Emerging Adulthood
For some people in modern cultures, a period from the late teens to mid-twenties, bridging the gap between adolescent dependence and full independence and responsible adulthood.
Define X Chromosome
The sex chromosome found in both men and women. Females have two X chromosomes; males have one. An X chromosome from each parent produces a female child.
Define Y Chromosome
The sex chromosome found only in males. When paired with an X chromosome from the mother, it produces a male child.
Define Testosterone
The most important of the male sex hormones. Both males and females have it, but the additional testosterone in males stimulates the growth of the amle sex organs in the fetus and the development of the male sex characteristics during puberty.
Define Puberty
The period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing.
Define Primary Sex Characteristics
The body structures (ovaries, testes, and external genitalia) that make sexual reproduction possible.
Define Secondary Sex Characteristics
Non-reproductive sexual traits, such as female breasts and hps, male voice quality, and body hair.
Define Menarche
The first menstrual period.
Define AIDS
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. A life-threatening, sexually transmitted infection caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). AIDS depletes the immune system, leaving the person vulnerable to infections.
Define Sexual Orientation
An enduring sexual attraction toward members of either one’s own sex (homosexual orientation), the other sex (heterosexual aorientation), or both sexes (bisexual orientation).
Define Menopause
The time of natural cessation of menstruation; also refers to the biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines.
Define Cross-Sectional Study
A study in which people of different ages are compared with one another.
Define Longitudinal Study
Research in which the same people are retested and restudied over a long period.
Define Social Clock
The culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement.
Name the stages of Piaget’s theory
Sensory motor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational
Piaget’s theory vs. Kohleberg’s theory
Cognitive development and morality
The rooting reflex occurs when…
the baby’s cheek is touched
Who is associated with imprinting?
Konrad Lorenz
