Psychology - Chapter 10: Developmental Psychology - important terms Flashcards
What is developmental psychology?
The study of how behaviour changes over the lifespan
What is the post hoc fallacy?
False assumption that because one event occurred before another, it must have caused that event.
Post hoc ergo propter hoc
What is a cross-sectional design?
Research design that examines people of different ages at a single point in time.
What is a cohort effect?
Confound effect due to the fact that sets of people who lived during a certain time period, called cohorts, differ from other sets of people in a systematic way.
What is a longitudinal design?
Research design that examines development in the same group of people on multiple occasions over time.
What is a gene-environment interaction?
Situation in which the effects of genes depend on the environment in which they are expressed.
What is nature via nurture?
Tendency of individuals with certain genetic predispositions to seek out and create environments that permit expression of those predispositions.
What is gene expression?
Activation or deactivation of genes by environmental experiences through development.
What is the prenatal period?
Period prior to birth.
What is a blastocyst?
Ball of identical cells early in embryonic development (in pregnancy) that haven’t yet begun to take on any specific function in a body part.
What is a zygote?
A fertilized egg
What is the embryonic stage?
weeks: 2-9 of prenatal development
Limbs, facial features, and major organs of the body take form
What is the fetal stage?
Period of prenatal development from ninth week until birth after all major organs are established and physical maturation is the primary change.
What is a teratogen?
Environmental factor that can exert a negative impact on prenatal development.
What is fetal alcohol spectrum disorder?
Condition resulting from high levels of prenatal alcohol exposure, causing learning disabilities, physical growth retardation, facial malformations, and behavioural disorders.
What are motor behaviours?
Bodily motion that occurs as a result of self-initiated force that moves the bones and muscles.
What is adolescence?
The transition between childhood and adulthood commonly associated with the teenage years.
What is puberty?
Also called sexual maturation.
Results in the potential to reproduce.
What are primary sex characteristics?
Physical features, such as the reproductive organs and genetics, that distinguish the sexes
What are secondary sex characteristics?
Sex-differentiating character that doesn’t relate directly to reproduction.
ex: breast enlargement, deepening of voices
What is menarche?
Onset of menstruation
What is spermache?
Boy’s first ejaculation
What is menopause?
Termination of menstruation, signaling the end of a woman’s reproductive potential.
Stems in a decrease in estrogen
What is the study of cognitive development?
Study of how children acquire the ability to think, learn, reason, communicate and remember.
What is assimilation?
Piagetian process of absorbing new experiences into current knowledge structures/schemas.
What is accomodation?
Piagetian process of altering a belief to make it more compatible with experience.
(i.e. alter current schema to better fit new information)
What is the sensorimotor stage?
Stage in Piaget’s theory characterized by a focus on the here and now, without the ability to represent experiences mentally.
Birth - 2 years
Lack object permanence
What is object permanence?
The understanding that objects continue to exist even when out of view.
What is the preoperational stage?
Stage in Piaget’s theory characterized by the ability to construct mental representations of experience, but not yet able to perform operations on them.
2-7 years of age
Stage hampered by egocentrism
What is egocentrism?
Inability to see the world from other’s perspective
What are conservation tasks?
Piagetian task requiring children to understand that despite a transformation in the physical presentation of an amount, the amount stays the same
What is the concrete operations stage?
Stage in Piaget’s theory characterized by the ability to perform mental operations on physical events only.
7-11 years of age
What is the formal operations stage?
Stage in Piaget’s theory characterized by the ability to perform hypothetical reasoning beyond the here and now.
What is scaffolding?
Vygotskian learning mechanism in which parents (or other care givers) provide initial assistance in children’s learning but gradually remove structure as children become more competent
What is the zone of proximal development?
Phase of learning during which children can benefit from instruction.
- children are receptive to learning a new skill but aren’t yet successful at it
What is the theory of mind?
Ability to reason about what other people know or believe.
ex: ability to understand that someone other than the child may now something, and vice versa
What is stranger anxiety?
A fear of strangers developing at 8 or 9 months of age
What is temperament?
Basic emotional style that appears early in development and is largely genetic in origin.
What is attachment?
The strong emotional connection we share with those whom we feel closest.
What is imprinting?
Phenomenon in which an animal, such as a goose, will follow around the first, large moving object they see
What is contact comfort?
Positive emotions afforded by touch
What is the average expectable environment?
An environment that provides children with the basic needs for affection and appropriate discipline
What is self-control?
Ability to inhibit an impulse to act
What is gender identity?
People’s sense of being male or female
What is gender role?
A set of behaviours that tend to be associate with being male or female
What is identity?
Our sense of who we are, and our life goals and priorities.
What is emerging adulthood?
Period of life between the ages of 18 and 25 during which many aspects of emotional development, identity, and personality become solidified
What is a midlife crisis?
Supposed phase of adulthood characterized by emotional distress about the aging process and an attempt to regain youth.
What is empty nest syndrome?
Alleged period of depression in mothers following the departure of their grown children from home.
