Unit 9: Developmental Psychology (Pt. 1) Flashcards
A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span
Developmental Psychology
The fertilized egg, it enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo
Zygote
The developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month
Embryo
The developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth
Fetus
“Monster makers” Agents scum has chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo and fetus during prenatal development and cause harm
Teratogens
Physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnancy woman’s heavy drinking. In sever cases, signs include a small, out of proportion head and aboral facial features.
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)
Decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity, with repeated exposure to a stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner.
Habituation
Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior relatively uninfluenced by experience.
Maturation
All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating
Cognition
A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information
Schema
Interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas
Assimilation
Adapting our current understanding (schemas) to incorporate new information
Accommodation
In Piaget’s theory, the stage (from birth to nearly 2 years of age) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities
Sensorimotor Stage
The awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived
Object Permanence
In Piaget’s theory, the stage (from about 2 to 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
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’s point of view
Egocentrism
People’s ideas about their own and others’ mental states - about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts and the behaviors these might predict
Theory of Mind
In Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive developmental (from about 7 to 11 years of age) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to thank logically about concrete events.
Concrete Operational Stage
In Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive developmental (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts
Formal Operational Stage
A framework that offers children temporary support as they develop higher levels of thinking.
Scaffold
A disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by significant deficiencies in communication and social interaction, and by rigidly fixated interests and repetitive behaviors
Autism Spectrum Disorder
The fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age
Stranger anxiety
An emotional tie with another person, shown in young children by their seeking closeness to their caregiver and showing distress on separation
Attachment
An optimal period early I life of an organism when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces normal development
Critical period
The process by which certain animals form strong attachments during early life
Imprinting
A procedure for styling child-caregiver attachment, a child is placed in an unfamiliar environment while their caregiver leaves and then returns, the child’s reactions and observed
Strange situation
Demonstrated by infants who comfortably explore environments in the presence of their caregiver, show only temporary distress when the caregiver leaves, and finds comfort in the caregiver’s return
Secure attachment
Demonstrated by infants who display either a clinging anxious attachment or an avoidant attachment that resists closeness
Insecure attachment
A person’s 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?”
Self-concept
In psychology, the biologically influenced characteristics by which people define male and female
Sex
