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Vocab for Chapter 4
Myers 7th Edition - Chapter 04 Vocabulary
| TERM | DEFINITION |
|---|---|
| Developemental psychology | A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span. |
| Zygote | The fertilized egg; it enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo. |
| Embryo | The developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month. |
| Fetus | The developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth. |
| Teratogens | Agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal developement and cause harm. |
| Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) | Physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman's heavy drinking. In severe cases, symptoms include noticeable facial misproportions. |
| Rooting reflex | A baby's tendency, when touched on the cheek, to open the mouth and search for the nipple. |
| Habituation | Decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a visual stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner. |
| Maturation | Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience. |
| Schema | A concept of framework that organizes and interprets information. |
| Assimilation | Interpreting one's new experience in terms of one's existing schemas. |
| Accommodation | Adapting one's current understanding (schemas) to incorporate new information. |
| Cognition | All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating. |
| Sensorimotor stage | 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. |
| Object permanence | The awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived. |
| Preoperational stage | 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. |
| 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 inability of the preoperational child to take another's point of view. |
| Theory of mind | People's idea about their own and others' mental states - about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts and the behavior these might predict. |
| Autism | A disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by deficient communication, social interaction, and understanding of others' states of mind. |
| Concrete operational stage | In Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive developement (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. |
| Formal operational stage | In Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive developement (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts. |
| Stranger anxiety | The fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age. |
| Attachment | An emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation. |
| Critical period | An optimal period shortly after birth when an organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produce proper developement. |
| Imprinting | The process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life. |
| Basic trust | 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. |
| Self-concept | A sense of one's identity and personal worth. |
| Adolescence | The transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence. |
| Puberty | The period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing. |
| Primary sex characteristics | The body structures (ovaries, testes, and external genitalia) that make sexual reproduction possible. |
| Secondary sex characteristics | Nonreproductive sexual characteristics, such as female breasts and hips, male voice quality, and body hair. |
| Menarche [meh-NAR-key] | The first menstrual period. |
| Identity | One's sense of self; according to Erikson, the adolescent's task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles. |
| Intimacy | In Erikson's theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developemental task in late adolescence and early adulthood. |
| Menopause | The time of natural cessation of menstruation; also refers to the biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines. |
| Alzheimer's disease | A progressive and irreversible brain disorder characterized by gradual deterioration of memory, reasoning, language, and, finally, physical functioning. |
| Cross-sectional study | A study in which people of different ages are compared with one another. |
| Longitudinal study | Research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period. |
| Crystallized intelligence | One's accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age. |
| Fluid intelligence | One's ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease during late adulthood. |
| Social clock | The culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement. |
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shellenberger
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