Unit 9: Part 1 Flashcards
Developmental psychology
A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the lifespan
Zygote
The fertilized egg: it enters a two week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo
Embryo
The developing human organism from about the end of fertilization through the second month
Fetus
The developing human organism from a week after conception to birth
Teratogens
(Literally, “monster makers”) agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)
Physical and cognitive abnormalities in children cause by a pregnant women’s heavy drinking in severe cases. Signs include a small, out-of-proportion head and abnormal facial features
Habituation
Decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation
Maturation
Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience
Cognition
All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating
Schema
A concept of framework that organizes and interprets information
Assimilation
Adding a new example into a schema
Accommodation
Adapting our current schemas to incorporate new information
Jean Piaget
Development psychologist
Sensorimotor stage
The stage (from birth to 2) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions (what they see, hear, etc and motor activities (how they move)
Object permanence
The awareness that objects continue to exist even when not perceived
Preoperational stage
The stage (from 2-6/7) during which a child learns to use language but doesn’t yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic
Conservation
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
Egocentrism
In Piaget’s theory the preoperational child’s difficulty in taking another’s point of view
Theory of mind
Peoples ideas about their own and others mental states - above their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behavior these might predict
Concrete operational stage
In Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (from 7-11) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about events
Formal operational stage
In Piaget’s theory the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning at 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts
Scaffold
A framework that offers children temporary support as they develop higher levels of thinking
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
A disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by significant deficiencies in communication and social interaction and rigidly fixated interests and repetitive behaviors
