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Psychology Chapter 5
Developmental Psychology
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| developmental 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 development and cause harm. |
| fetal alcohol syndrome | 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. |
| habituation | decreasing responsiveness with repeated exposure to a stimulus |
| 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 or framework that organizes and interprets information. |
| assimilation | interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas. |
| accommodation | adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information. |
| sensorimotor stage | 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. |
| object permanence | the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived |
| egocentrism | in Piaget's theory, the preoperational child's difficulty taking another's point of view. |
| 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. |
| theory of mind | people's ideas about their own and others' mental states—about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict. |
| concrete operational stage | in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 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 development (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts. |
| autism | 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. |
| 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 their caregiver and showing distress on separation. |
| critical period | : an optimal period early in the life of an organism when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces normal development. |
| imprinting | the process by which certain animals form strong attachments during early 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 | all our thoughts and feelings about ourselves in answer to the question, "Who am I?" |
| 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 characteristic | the body structures (ovaries, testes, and external genitalia) that make sexual reproduction possible. |
| secondary sex characteristic | non-reproductive sexual traits, such as female breasts and hips, male voice quality, and body hair. |
| menarche | the first menstrual period. |
| identity | our sense of self |
| social identity | the "we" aspect of our self-concept; the part of our answer to "Who am I?" that comes from our group memberships. |
| intimacy | in Erikson's theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in young adulthood. |
| emerging adulthood | a period from about age 18 to the mid-twenties, when many in Western cultures are no longer adolescents but have not yet achieved full independence as adults. |
| menopause | : the time of natural cessation of menstruation; also refers to the biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines. |
| cross-sectional study | research that compares people of different ages at the same point in time. |
| longitudinal study | research that follows and retests the same people over time. |
| social clock | the culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement. |
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