Exam 3-260 Flashcards
Myelination
The process by which axons become coated with myelin, a fatty substance that speeds the transmission of nerve impulses from neuron to neuron.
Corpus Callosum
A long, thick band of nerve fibers that connects the left and right hemispheres of the brain and allows communication between them.
Lateralization
Literally, sidedness, referring to the specialization in certain functions by each side of the brain, with one side dominant for each activity. The left side of the brain controls the right side of the body, and vice versa.
Perseveration
The tendency to persevere in, or stick to, one thought or action for a long time.
Amygdala
A tiny brain structure that registers emotions, particularly fear and anxiety.
Hippocampus
A brain structure that is a central processor of memory, especially memory for locations.
Hypothalamus
A brain area that responds to the amygdala and the hippocampus to produce hormones that activate other parts of the brain and body.
Injury control/harm reduction
Practices that are aimed at anticipating, controlling, and preventing dangerous activities; these practices reflect the beliefs that accidents are not random and that injuries can be made less harmful if proper controls are in place.
Primary Prevention
Actions that change overall background conditions to prevent some unwanted event or circumstance, such as injury, disease, or abuse.
Secondary Prevention
Actions that avert harm in a high-risk situation, such as stopping a car before it hits a pedestrian
Tertiary Prevention
Actions, such as immediate and effective medical treatment, that are taken after an adverse event (such as illness or injury) occurs and that are aimed at reducing the harm or preventing disability.
Child Maltreatment
Intentional harm to or avoidable endangerment of anyone under 18 years of age.
Child Abuse
Deliberate action that is harmful to a child’s physical, emotional or sexual well-being.
Child Neglect
Failure to meet a child’s basic physical, educational, or emotional needs.
Reported Maltreatment
Harm or endangerment about which someone has notified the authorities
Substantiated Maltreatment
Harm or endangerment that has been reported, investigated, and verified
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
An anxiety disorder that develops as a delayed reaction to having experienced or witnessed a profoundly shocking or frightening event, such as rape, severe beating, war, or natural disaster. Its symptoms may include flashbacks to the event, hyperactivity and hypervigilance, displaced anger, sleeplessness, nightmares, sudden terror or anxiety, and confusion between fantasy and reality.
Permanency Planning
An effort by child welfare authorities to find a long-term living situation that will provide stability and support for a maltreated child. A goal is to avoid repeated changes of caregiver or school, which can be particularly harmful to the child
Foster Care
A legal, publicly supported system in which a maltreated child is removed from the parents’ custody and entrusted to another adult or family, which is reimbursed for expenses incurred in meeting the child’s needs.
Kinship care
A form of foster care in which a relative of a maltreated child, usually a grandparent, becomes the approved caregiver.
Adoption
A legal proceeding in which an adult or couple unrelated to a child is granted the joys and obligations of being that child’s parent(s).
Preoperational Intelligence
Piaget’s term for cognitive development between the ages of about 2 and 6; it includes language and imagination (which involve symbolic thought), but logical, operational thinking is not yet possible at this stage.
Symbolic Thought
A major accomplishment of preoperational intelligence that allows a child to think symbolically, including understanding that words can refer to things not seen and that an item, such as a flag, can symbolize something else (in this case, for instance, a country).
Centration
A characteristic of preoperational thought in which a young child focuses (centers) on one idea, excluding all others.
Egocentrism
Piaget’s term for children’s tendency to think about the world entirely from their own personal perspective.
Focus on Appearance
A characteristic of preoperational thought in which a young child ignores all attributes that are not apparent.
Static Reasoning
A characteristic of preoperational thought in which a young child thinks that nothing changes. Whatever is now has always been and always will be.
Irreversibility
A characteristic of preoperational thought in which a young child thinks that nothing can be undone. A thing cannot be restored to the way it was before a change occurred.
Conservation
The principle that the amount of a substance remains the same (i.e., is conserved) even when its appearance changes.
Animism
The belief that natural objects and phenomena are alive.
Guided Participation
The process by which people learn from others who guide their experiences and explorations
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
Vygotsky’s term for the skills–cognitive as well as physical–that a persona can exercise only with assistance, not yet independently.
Scaffolding
Temporary support that is tailored to a learner’s needs and abilities and aimed at helping the learner master the next task in a given learning process.
Overimitation
When a person imitates an action that is not a relevant part of the behavior to be learned. Overimitation is common among 2-6 year olds when they imitate adult actions that are irrelevant and inefficient
Private Speech
The internal dialogue that occurs when people talk to themselves (either silently or out loud)
Social Mediation
Human interaction that expands and advances understanding, often through words that one person uses to explain something to another.
Theory-theory
The idea that children attempt to explain everything they see and hear by constructing theories.
Theory of Mind
A person’s theory of what other people might be thinking. In order to have theory of mind, children must realize that other people are not necessarily thinking the same thoughts that they themselves are. That realization seldom occurs before age 4.
Fast-mapping
The speedy and somethings imprecise way in which children learn new words by tentatively placing them in mental categories according to their perceived meaning.
Overregularization
The application of rules of grammar even when exceptions occur, making the language seem more “regular” than it actually is.
Balanced Bilingual
A person who is fluent in two languages, not favoring one or the other.
Montessori Schools
Schools that offer early-childhood education based on the philosophy of Maria Montessori, which emphasizes careful work and tasks that each young child can do.
Reggio Emilia
A program of early-childhood education that originated in the town of Reggio Emilia, Italy, and that encourages each child’s creativity in a carefully designed setting.
Head Start
A federally funded early childhood intervention program for low-income children of preschool age.
Emotional Regulation
The ability to control when and how emotions are expressed.
Initiative Versus Guilt
Erikson’s third psychosocial crisis, in which children undertake new skills and activities and feel guilty when they do not succeed at them.
Self-concept
A person’s understanding of who he or she is, in relation to self-esteem, appearance, personality, and various traits.
Intrinsic Motivation
A drive, or reason to pursue a goal, that comes from inside a person, such as the need to feel smart or competent.
Extrinsic Motivation
A drive, or reason to pursue a goal, that arises from the need to have one’s achievements rewarded from outside, perhaps by receiving material possessions or another person’s esteem.
Imaginary Friends
Make-believe friends who exist only in a child’s imagination; increasingly common from ages 3 through 7, they combat loneliness and aid emotional regulation.
Psychopathology
An illness or disorder of the mind.
Externalizing Problems
Difficulty with emotional regulation that involves expressing powerful feelings through uncontrolled physical or verbal outbursts, as by lashing out at other people or breaking things.
Internalizing Problems
Difficulty with emotional regulation that involves turning one’s emotional distress inward, as by feeling excessively guilty, ashamed, or worthless.
Rough-and-Tumble Play
Play that mimics aggression through wrestling, chasing, or hitting, but in which there is no intent to harm.
Sociodramatic Play
Pretend play in which children act out various roles and themes in stories that they create.
Authoritarian Parenting
An approach to child rearing that is characterized by high behavioral standards, strict punishment of misconduct, a little communication.
Permissive Parenting
An approach to child rearing that is characterized by high nurturance and communication but little discipline, guidance, or control. (Also called indulgent parenting.)
Authoritative Parenting
An approach to child rearing in which the parents set limits but listen to the child and are flexible.
Neglectful/Uninvolved Parenting
An approach to child rearing in which the parents are indifferent toward their children are unaware of what is going on in their children’s lives.
Empathy
The ability to understand the emotions and concerns of another person, especially when they differ from one’s own.
Antipathy
Feelings of dislike or even hatred for another person.
Prosocial Behavior
Actions that are helpful and kind but are of no obvious benefit to oneself.
Antisocial Behavior
Actions that are deliberately hurtful or destructive to another person.
Instrumental Aggression
Behavior that hurts someone else because the aggressor wants to get or keep a possession or a privilege.
Reactive Aggression
An impulse retaliation for another person’s intentional or accidental action, verbal or physical
Relational Aggression
Nonphysical acts, such as insults or social rejection, aimed at harming the social connection between the victim and other people.
Bullying Aggression
Unprovoked, repeated physical or verbal attack, especially on victims who are unlikely to defend themselves.
Psychological Control
A disciplinary technique that involves threatening to withdraw love and support and that relies on a child’s feelings of guilt and gratitude to the parents.
Time-Out
A disciplinary technique in which a child is separated from other people for a specified time.
Sex Differences
Biological differences between males and females, in organs, hormones, and body type
Gender Differences
Differences in the roles and behaviors of males and females that are prescribed by the culture.
Phallic Stage
Freud’s third stage of development, when the penis becomes the focus of concern and pleasure.
Oedipus Complex
The unconscious desire of young boys to replace their father and win their mother’s romantic love.
Superego
In psychoanalytic theory, the judgmental part of the personality that internalizes the moral standards of the parents.
Electra Complex
The unconscious desire of girls to replace their mother and win their father’s romantic love.
Identification
An attempt to defend one’s self-concept by taking on the behaviors and attitudes of someone else.
Gender Schema
A cognitive ceoncept or general belief based on one’s experiences–in this case, a child’s understanding of sex differences.
