Unit 9: Developmental Psychology

Question 0

Schema

Answer 0

A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information

Question 1

Cognition

Answer 1

All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

Question 2

Assimilation

Answer 2

Interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas

Question 3

Accommodation

Answer 3

Adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information

Question 4

Sensorimotor stage

Answer 4

In Piaget’s theory, the stage (from birth to about 2 years of age) during which infants know the world most in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities

Question 5

Object permanence

Answer 5

The awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived

Question 6

Preoperational Stage

Answer 6

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 foes not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic

Question 7

Conservation

Answer 7

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

Question 8

Egocentrism

Answer 8

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

Question 9

Concrete operational stage

Answer 9

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

Question 10

Formal operational stage

Answer 10

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

Question 11

Stranger anxiety

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Attachment

Answer 12

An emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation

Question 13

Critical period

Answer 13

An optimal period early in the life of an organism when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces normal development

Question 14

Imprinting

Answer 14

The process by which certain animals form strong attachments during an early-life critical period

Question 15

Temperament

Answer 15

A person’s characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity

Question 16

Adolescence

Answer 16

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

Question 17

Identity

Answer 17

Our sense of self; according to Erikson, the adolescent’s task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles

Question 18

Social identity

Answer 18

The “we” aspect of our self-concept; the part of our answer to “Who am I?” that comes from our group memberships

Question 19

Intimacy

Answer 19

In Erikson’s theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in late adolescence and early adulthood

Question 20

Emerging adulthood

Answer 20

For some people in modern cultures, a period from the late teens to mid-twenties, bridging the gal between adolescent dependence and full independence and responsible adulthood

Question 21

Puberty

Answer 21

The period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing

Question 22

Fetus

Answer 22

The developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to brith

Question 23

Embryo

Answer 23

The developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month

Question 24

Longitudinal study

Answer 24

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

Question 25

Cross-sectional study

Answer 25

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

Question 26

Developmental psychology

Answer 26

A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span

Question 27

Gender identity

Answer 27

Our sense of being male or female

Question 28

Maturation

Answer 28

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

Question 29

Zygote

Answer 29

The fertilized egg; it enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo

Question 30

Fetal alcohol syndrome

Answer 30

Physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman’s heavy drinking. In severe cases, signs include a small, our-of-proportion head and abnormal facial features

Question 31

Menarche

Answer 31

The first menstrual period

Question 32

Menopause

Answer 32

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

Question 33

Gender

Answer 33

The socially constructed roles and characteristics by which a culture defines male and female

Question 34

Teratogens

Answer 34

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