Psychology Chp 4
Chp 4 Vocab
Terms
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- menopause
- the time of nature cessation of menstruation; also refers to bilogial changes women expreince as her ability to reproduce declines
- 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
- object permanence
- the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived
- fluid intelligence
- one's ability to reason speedily and abstractly,; tends to decrease during late adulthood
- stranger anxiety
- the fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning around 8 months of age
- concrete operational stage
- in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (7 to 11) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events
- intimacy
- the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in late adolescence and early adulthood.
- maturation
- biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience
- formal operational stage
- in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts
- social clock
- the culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement
- puberty
- the period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing
- menarche
- the first menstrual period
- embryo
- the developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second week
- attachment
- an emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation
- accommadation
- adapting one's current understanding (schemas) to incorporate new information
- sensorimotor stage
- in Piaget's theory, the stage (from the birth to about two years of age) during which infant know the world mostly in terms of their snesory impressions and motor activities
- theory of mind
- people's ideas about their own and other's mental states - about their feeling, perceptions, and thoughts and behavior these might predict
- cognition
- all the mental activities associatied with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating
- fetal alcohol syndrome
- (FAS); physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant women's heavy drinking. sometimes cause noticeable facial misproportions.
- developmental psychology
- a branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span
- secondary sex characteristics
- nonreproductice sexual characteristics such as breasts and hips, male voice and body hair
- imprinting
- process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period early in life
- adolescence
- the transition period from childhood to adulthood; extending from puberty to independence
- autism
- a disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by deficient communication, social interaction, and understanding of others' states of mind
- identity
- one's sense of self; the adoloescent's task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles.
- zygote
- the fertilized; it enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo
- basic trust
- a sense that the world predictable and trustworthy; said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experience with responsive caregivers
- crystallized intelligence
- one's accumulates knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age
- primary sex characteristics
- the body structures that make sexual reproduction
- preoperational stage
- in Piaget's theory, the stage (from about 2 to 6 or 7) during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic
- schema
- a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information
- conservation
- the principle that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects
- critical period
- an optimal period shortly after birth when an organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development
- assimilation
- interpreting one's new experiences in terms of one's existing schemas