Unit 9 - Developmental Psychology

Question 1

Branch of psychology that systematically focuses on the physical, mental, and social changes that occur throughout the life cycle

Answer 1

Developmental psychology

Question 2

zygote - embryo - fetus

Answer 2

course of successful prenatal development

Question 3

agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm

Answer 3

teratogen

Question 4

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

Answer 4

fetal alcohol syndrome

Question 5

decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a visual stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner

Answer 5

habituation

Question 6

biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience

Answer 6

maturation

Question 7

stages of cognitive development
- sensorimotor
- preoperational
- concrete operational
- formal operational

Answer 7

piaget

Question 8

peoples conceptual frameworks for understanding their experiences

Answer 8

schemas

Question 9

interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas

Answer 9

assimilation

Question 10

adjusting current schemas in order to make sense of new experiences

Answer 10

accomodation

Question 11

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

Answer 11

Piaget’s sensorimotor stage

Question 12

the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived

Answer 12

object permanence

Question 13

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

Answer 13

Piaget’s preoperational stage

Question 14

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

Answer 14

conservation

Question 15

in Piaget’s theory, the preoperational child’s difficulty taking another persons point of view

Answer 15

egocentrism

Question 16

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

Answer 16

Piaget’s concrete operational stage

Question 17

in Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts

Answer 17

Piaget’s formal operational stage

Question 18

the fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age

Answer 18

stranger anxiety

Question 19

studies of monkeys raised with artificial mothers suggest that mother-infant emotional bonds result primarily from mothers providing infants with body contact

• promotes attachment

Answer 19

body contact

Question 20

phase during which certain events have a particularly strong impact on development

Answer 20

critical period

Question 21

the process by which certain birds form attachments during a critical period very early in life

Answer 21

imprinting

Question 22

a persons characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity

Answer 22

temperament

Question 23

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

Answer 23

basic trust

Question 24

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

Answer 24

self-concept

Question 25

a set of expected behaviors for males or for females

Answer 25

gender roles

Question 26

our sense of being male or female

Answer 26

gender identity

Question 27

the acquisition of a traditional masculine or feminine role.

facilitated by toys or songs when little

Answer 27

gender typing

Question 28

term describing people whose gender identity or expression differs from that associated with their birth sex

Answer 28

transgender

Question 29

the transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence

Answer 29

adolescence

Question 30

stages of moral development
- preconventional morality
obedience & punishment
individualism
- conventional morality
good boy/girl
law and order
- post conventional morality
social contract
principled consciousness

Answer 30

Lawrence kohlberg

Question 31

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

Answer 31

Erik Erikson

Question 32

the body structures (ovaries, testes, and external genitalia) that makes sexual reproduction possible

Answer 32

primary sex characteristics

Question 33

nonreproductive sexual characteristics, such as female breasts hips, male voice quality, and body hair

Answer 33

secondary sex characteristics

Question 34

the first menstrual period
marks the onset of puberty in woman

Answer 34

menarche

Question 35

an enduring sexual attraction toward members of either ones own sex (homosexual orientation), the other sex (heterosexual orientation), or both sexes (bisexual orientation)

Answer 35

sexual orientation

Question 36

the time of natural cessation of menstruation; also refers to the biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines

Answer 36

menopause

Question 37

a study in which people of different ages are compared with one another

Answer 37

cross-sectional study

Question 38

research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period

Answer 38

longitudinal study