PSYCH 111 Chapter 5 – Flashcards
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Developmental Psychology
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A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span.
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Zygote
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The fertilized egg; it enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo.
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Embryo
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The developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month.
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Fetus
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The developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth.
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Teratogens
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(literally,"monstermaker") agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm.
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Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
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Physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman's heavy drinking. In severe cases, symptoms include noticeable facial misproportions.
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Habituation
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Decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a visual stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner.
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Maturation
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Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience.
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Cognition
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All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.
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Schema
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A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.
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Assimilation
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Interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas.
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Accommodation
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Adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information.
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Sensorimotor Stage
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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 sen- sory impressions and motor activities.
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Object Permanence
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The awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived.
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Egocentrism
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In Piaget's theory, the preoperational child's difficulty taking another's point of view.
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Pre operational Stage
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In Piaget's theory, the stage (from about 2 to about 6 or 7 years of age) during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental opera- tions of concrete logic.
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Conservation
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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.
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Theory of Mind
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People's ideas about their own and others' mental states— about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict.
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Concrete Operational Stage
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In Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (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.
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Formal Operational Stage
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In Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive develop- ment (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts.
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Stranger Anxiety
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The fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age.
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Attachment
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An emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation.
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Critical Period
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An optimal period early in the life of an organism when exposure to certain stimuli or experi- ences produces normal development.
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Imprinting
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The process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life.
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Basic Trust
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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.
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Self-concept
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Our understanding and evaluation of who we are.
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Adolescence
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The transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence.
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Puberty
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The period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing.
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Primary Sex Characteristics
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The body structures (ovaries, testes, and external genitalia) that make sexual reproduction possible.
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Secondary Sex Characteristics
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Non- reproductive sexual characteristics, such as female breasts and hips, male voice quality, and body hair.
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Menarche
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The first menstrual period.
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Identity
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Our sense of self; according to Erikson, the adolescent's task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles.
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Social Identity
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The "we" aspect of our self-concept; the part of our answer to "Who am I?" that comes from our group memberships.
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Intimacy
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In Erikson's theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in late adolescence and early adulthood.
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Emerging Adulthood
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For some people in modern cultures, a period from the late teens to mid-twenties, bridging the gap between adolescent dependence and full independence and responsible adulthood.
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Cross-sectional Study
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A study in which people of different ages are compared with one another.
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Longitudinal Study
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Research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period.
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During the course of successful prenatal development, a human organism begins as a(n)...
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Zygote and finally develops into a fetus.
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Darlene smoked heavily during the entire 9 months of her pregnancy. Her newborn baby will most likely be...
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Underweight
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Infant motor development is typically characterized by individual differences in ________ of the major developmental milestones.
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The age-related timing but not the sequence.
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The first time that 4-year-old Sarah saw her older brother play a flute, she thought it was simply a large whistle. Sarah's initial understanding of the flute best illustrates the process of...
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Assimilation
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At age 12, Sean is happy, self-reliant, and has a positive self-image. It is most likely that Sean's parents are...
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Authoritative
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Which of the following is an example of a secondary sex characteristic?
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Male Facial Hair
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Ten-year-old Heidi is maturing early and already towers over all the girls and most of the boys in her fifth-grade class. Heidi is likely to be...
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The object of some teasing
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Regis thinks it's wrong to drive over the speed limit simply because he might get punished for doing so. He is demonstrating Kohlberg's ________ stage of morality.
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Pre conventional
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Sixteen-year-old Brenda questions her parents' values but does not fully accept her friends' standards either. Her confusion about what she really wants and values in life suggests that Brenda is struggling with the problem of...
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Identity
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Adolescents are most likely to be influenced by their parents with respect to ________, and they are most likely to be influenced by their peers with respect to ________.
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career aspirations; clothing preferences
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Lewis is a 70-year-old retired college professor. In contrast to when he was 30, he now probably...
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Does not hear as well
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When adults of varying ages were tested for their memory of a recently learned list of 24 words, the older adults demonstrated...
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A decline in recall but not recognition
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Compared with their counterparts of 40 years ago, American men today are marrying:
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At an older age and American women are marrying at an older age.
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After living together for a year, Sylvia and Yefim have decided to marry. Research on premarital cohabitation most strongly suggests:
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Their marriage will have a higher-than average probability of ending in divorce.
