Unit 9 - Developmental Psychology Flashcards
Branch of psychology that systematically focuses on the physical, mental, and social changes that occur throughout the life cycle
Developmental psychology
zygote - embryo - fetus
course of successful prenatal development
agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm
teratogen
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
fetal alcohol syndrome
decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a visual stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner
habituation
biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience
maturation
stages of cognitive development
- sensorimotor
- preoperational
- concrete operational
- formal operational
piaget
peoples conceptual frameworks for understanding their experiences
schemas
interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas
assimilation
adjusting current schemas in order to make sense of new experiences
accomodation
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
- grasping and sucking easily available objects
Piaget’s sensorimotor stage
the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived
object permanence
in Piaget’s theory, the stage (form 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
Piaget’s preoperational stage
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
conservation
in Piaget’s theory, the preoperational child’s difficulty taking another persons point of view
egocentrism
in Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 6 to 7 to 11 years of age) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events
- understands conservation
Piaget’s concrete 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
Piaget’s formal operational stage
the fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age
stranger anxiety
studies of monkeys raised with artificial mothers suggest that mother-infant emotional bonds result primarily from mothers providing infants with body contact
- promotes attachment
body contact
phase during which certain events have a particularly strong impact on development
critical period
the process by which certain birds form attachments during a critical period very early in life
imprinting
a persons characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity
temperament
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
basic trust
all our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question, “who am I”
a child’s ability to recognize that a face seen in a mirror is his or her own
self-concept
a set of expected behaviors for males or for females
gender roles
our sense of being male or female
gender identity
the acquisition of a traditional masculine or feminine role.
facilitated by toys or songs when little
gender typing
term describing people whose gender identity or expression differs from that associated with their birth sex
transgender
the transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence
adolescence
stages of moral development
- preconventional morality
obedience & punishment
individualism
- conventional morality
good boy/girl
law and order
- post conventional morality
social contract
principled consciousness
Lawrence kohlberg
stages of psychosocial development
- infancy: trust vs. mistrust
- toddler hood: autonomy vs shame & doubt
- preschool: initiative vs guilt
- elementary school: competence vs inferiority
- adolescence: identity vs role confusion
- young adulthood: intimacy vs isolation
- middle adulthood: generativity vs stagnation
- late adulthood: integrity vs despair
Erik Erikson
the body structures (ovaries, testes, and external genitalia) that makes sexual reproduction possible
primary sex characteristics
nonreproductive sexual characteristics, such as female breasts hips, male voice quality, and body hair
secondary sex characteristics
the first menstrual period
marks the onset of puberty in woman
menarche
an enduring sexual attraction toward members of either ones own sex (homosexual orientation), the other sex (heterosexual orientation), or both sexes (bisexual orientation)
sexual orientation
the time of natural cessation of menstruation; also refers to the biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines
menopause
a study in which people of different ages are compared with one another
cross-sectional study
research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period
longitudinal study
