Psychology Chapter 10 2
Terms
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- developmental psychology
- Study of the changes that occur in people from birth through old age.
- cross-sectional study
- Method of studying development changes by comparing people of different ages at about the same time.
- Cohort
- Group of people born during the same period in historical time.
- Longitudinal Study
- Methods of studying developmental changes by evaluating the same people at different points in their lives.
- Biographical (or retrospective) Study
- Method of studying developmental changes by reconstructing people's past through interviews and interferring the effects of past events on current behavior.
- prenatal development
- Development from conception to birth.
- embryo
- developing human through 2 weeks and 3 months after conception.
- fetus
- developing human between 3 months after conception and birth.
- placenta
- organ by which an embryo or fetus is attracted to its mother's uterus and that nourishes it during prenatal development.
- teratogens
- toxic substances such as alcohol or nicotine that cross the placenta and may result in birth defects.
- critical period
- time when certain internal and external influences have a major effect on development at other periods the same influences will have little or no effect.
- fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)
- Disorder that occurs in children of women who drink alcohol during pregnancy that is characterized by facial deformities, heart defects, stunted growth, and cognitive impairments.
- neonates
- newborn babies.
- rooting reflex
- relfex that causes a newborn baby to turn its head toward something that touches its cheek and to grope around with its mouth.
- sucking reflex
- newborn baby's tendency to suck on objects placed in the mouth.
- swallowing reflex
- reflex that enables the newborn to swallow liquids without choking.
- grasping relfex
- relfex that causes newborn babies to close their fists around anything that is put in their hands.
- stepping reflex
- reflex that causes newborn babies to make little stepping motions if they are held together with their feet just touching a surface.
- temperament
- characteristic patterns of emotional reactions and emotional self-regulation.
- developmental norms
- ages by which an average child achieves various developmental milestones.
- maturation
- automatic biological unfolding of development in an organism as a function of the passage of time.
- sensory-motor stage
- piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development between birth and 2 years of age in which the individual develops object permanence and acquires the ability to form mental representations.
- object permanence
- concept that things continue to exist even when they are out of sight.
- mental representation
- mental images or symbols (such as words) used to think about or remember an object, a person, or an event.
- preoperational stage
- in piagets theory, stage of cognitive development between 2 and 7 years in age in which the individual becomes able to use mental representation and language to describe, remember, and reason about the world, though only in an egoncentric fashion.
- egocentric
- describes the inability to see things from another's point of view.
- concrete-operational stage
- piaget's theory, stage of congitive development between 7 and 11 years old in which the individual can attend to more than 1 thing at a time and understand someone else's point of view, though thinking is limited to concrete matters.
- principle of conservation
- concept that the quantity of a substance is not altered by reversible changes in its appearance.
- formal-operational stage
- piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development between 11 and 15 years of age in which the individual becomes capable of abstract thought.
- bubbling
- baby's vocalization, consisting of repitition of consonant-vowel combinations.
- holophrases
- one-word sentences comonly used by children under 2 years of age.
- language acquisition device
- hypothetical neural mechanism for acquiring language that is presumed to be wired into all humans.
- imprinting
- tendency in certain species to follow the first moving thing (usually its mother) it sees after it is born or hatched.
- attachment
- emotionally bond that develops in the first year of life that makes human babies cling to their caregivers for safety and comfort.
- autonomy
- sense of independence; a desire not to be controlled by others.
- socialization
- process in which children learn the behaviors and attitudes appropriate to their family and culture.
- solitary play
- child engaged in a recreational activity alone; the earliest form of play.
- parellel play
- two children playing side by side at similar activities but paying little attention or no attention to each other, the earliest kind of social interaction between toddlers.
- cooperative play
- two or more children engaged in play that requires interaction.
- peer group
- network of same-aged friends and acquaintances who give one another emotional and social support.
- nonshared environment
- unique aspects of the environment of the environment that are experienced differently by siblings even though they are reared in the same family.
- gender identity
- little girl's knowledge that she is a girl, and little boy's knowledge that he is a boy.
- gender constancy
- realization that gender does not change the age.
- gender-role awareness
- knowledge of what behavior is appropriate for each gender.
- gender stereotypes
- general beliefs about characteristics that men and women are presumed to have.
- sex-typed behavior
- socially prescribed ways of behaving that differ for boys and girls.
- growth spurt
- rapid increase in height and weight that occurs during adolscense.
- puberty
- onset of sexual maturation; with accompanying physical development
- menarche
- first menstrual period
- imaginary audience
- elkind's term for adolscent's delusion that they are constantly being observed by others.
- personal fable
- elkind's term for adolscent's delusions they are unique, very important and invulnerable.
- identity formation
- erikson's term for the development of a stable sense of self necessary to make the transition from dependence on others to dependence on oneself.
- indentity crisis
- period of intense self examination and decision making; part of the process of identity formation.
- cliques
- groups of adolescents with similar interests and strong mutual attachment.
- midlife crisis
- time when adults discover they no longer feel fulfilled in their jobs or personal lives and attempt to make a decisive shift in career or lifestyle.
- midlife transition
- according to levinson, a process whereby adults assess the past and formulate new goals for the future.
- menopause
- time in a woman's life when menstruation ceases.
- alzheimer's disease
- neurological disorder, most commonly found in late adulthood, characaterized by progressive losses in memory and cognition and changes in personality.