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Developmental Psychology

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A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, emotional,and social change throughout the life span. Examines how people continually develop.

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Nature and Nurture

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Discusses how genetic inheritance (our nature) and experience (our nurture we receive) influence our development

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Continuity and stages

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Is development a gradual, continuous process, or does it proceed through an sequence of separate stages, like climbing rungs on a ladder

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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 about 9 weeks after conception to birth,.

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Teratogens

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Harmful agents, such as viruses and chemicals, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm

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Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)

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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. Rats whose mothers drank alcohol while pregnant showed a liking for the smell of alcohol.

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Habituation

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A decrease in response with repeated stimulation. In infants, for example, as they 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. Includes rapid development of the cerebellum

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Cognition

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All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

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Infantile Amnesia

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Earliest memories do not usually predate our third birthday.

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Schema

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A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information. Mental molds into which we pour our experience.

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Assimilation

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Interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas. Fitting info into our ideas. (Freshman not moving in hallways)

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Accommodation

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Adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information. Adjusting your point ot view to fit in the outside world. (Juniors/Seniors moving in the hallway)

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Sensorimotor Stage

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Stage in Piaget's theory, from birth to about 2 years of age, during which infants take in the world mostly through sensory impressions and motor activities, through their sense and actions- looking, hearing, touching, mouthing, and grasping. Infants live in the present. If they do not see it, it isn't there. Stranger anxiety and object permanence develop in this stage.

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Object permanence

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The awareness that objects continue to exist when not perceived. Generally begins at about 8 months.

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Preoperational Stage

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In Piaget's theory of cognitive development, the stage from about 2 to about six or seven, during which a child is too you to perform mental operations. The child learns to use language, bit does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic. Representing things with words or images; using intuitive, rather than logical reasoning. Contains egocentrism and pretend play.

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Conservation

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The principle that quantity such as mass, volume, and number remains the same, despite changes in shape. Piaget believed this was part of operational reasoning, so children between 2-6ish cannot understand this.

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Egocentric

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The preoperational child's difficulty in perceiving things from anothers point of view. They assume that we know what they know. Adults and teenagers also encounter this in texting, we think the sarcasm is as clear to them as it is to us.

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Theory of Mind

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Peoples ideas about their own and others mental states-- about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict. Children develop the ability to infer others mental states around age four or five. Children with autism have difficulty understanding theory of mind, including their own mental states. Theory of mind shows up gradually. For example, we can appreciate others feelings before we can appreciate their beliefs.

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Concrete Operational Stage

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In Piaget's theory of cognitive development the stage of cognitive development (from about 6 or 7 to 11) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events, like grasping concrete analogies and performing arithmmetical operations. Conservation and mathematical transformations occur.

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Formal Operational Stage

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In Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning at about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts. Abstract logic and the potential for more mature reasoning appears.

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Autism

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a disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by deficient communication, social interaction, repetitive behaviors, and understandings of other's states of mind.

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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. At this age, children have schemas for familiar faces; when they cannot assimilate the new face into thes remembered schemas, they become distressed.

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Attachment

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An emotional tie with another person; shown in young children seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation. As we mature, our secure base and safe haven shifts-- from parents to peers and partnters.

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Critical Period

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An optimal period shortly after birth, when an organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper 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. Children do not imprint, but they do become attached to traditions, people, ideas, and objects during what's called a sensitive period.

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Temperment

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A person's characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity.

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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. Is important it makes people mare able to trust and commit.

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Self Concept

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Our understanding and evaluation of who we are. Begins with self-recognition, which is thought to begin around 15 to 18 months. Gradually strengthens, and by school age, children begin describing themselves in terms of their gender, group membership, and psychological traits, and compare themselves with other children.

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Athoritarian Parenting

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Parents impose rules and expect obedience, and don't explain the reasons for the rules.

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Authoritative Parenting

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Parents are both demanding and responsive. They exert control by setting rules and enforcing them, but they also explain the reasons for the rules. Encourage open discussion when making the rules, and allow exception.

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Permissive Parenting

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Parents submit to their children's desires. They make few demands and use little punishment.

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Gender

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In psychology, the biologically and socially influenced characteristics by which people define male and female

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Agression

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Physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt someone. Men tend to behave more agressively.

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X-Chromosome

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The sex chromosome found in both men and women. Females have two X chromosomes; males have one. An X chromosome from each parent produces a female child. In general, females go through puberty earlier, have more fat and less muscle, are short, have a better sense of smell. Women express emotional more freely, offer help more, and more cooperative. But they are more likely to suffer from depression and eating disorders. Morally, women are more concerned with helping each other, and having consensus.

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Y-Chromosome

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The sex chromosome found only in males. When paired with and X chromosome from the mother, it produces a male child. Includes a single gene that throws a "master switch" triggering the testes to develop and prodice the principle male hormone, testosterone. Males are more likely to suffer from autism, color blindness, ADHD, antisocial personality disorder, alcohol dependency, and are more likely to actually commite suicide. In general, males are more socially and physically agressive.Morally, males tend to be concerned with their individual rights.

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Testosterone

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The most important of the male sex hormones. Both male and females have it, but additional testosterone in males stimulates the growth of the male sex organs in the fetus and the development of the male sex characteristics during puberty.

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Role

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A set of expectations (norms) about a social position, defining how those in the positions ought to behave.

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Gender Roles

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Set of expected behaviors for males or for females

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Gender Identity

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Our sense of being male or female

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Gender Typing

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The aquisition of a traditional masculine or feminine role

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Social Learning Theory

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The theory that we learn social behavior by observing and imitating and by being rewarded or punished. Assumes that children learn gender-linked behaviors through this way, but even when families discourage traditional gender typing, children generally organize themselve into gender roles.

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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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Preconventional Morality

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before age 9, most children's morality focuses on self-interest: they obey rules either to avoid punishment or to gain concrete rewards.

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Conventional Morality

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By early adolescence, morality focuses on caring for others and on upholding laws and social rules, simply because they are the laws and rules

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Postconventional Morality

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With the abstract reasoning of formal operational thought, people may reach a third moral level. Actions are judged "right" because they flow from people's rights or from self-defined, basic ethical principles.

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Identity

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Our sense of self; according to Erickson, the adolescents 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 Studies

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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 of time.

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Terminal Decline

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The near death drop of cognitive decline; usually begins in the last 3-4 years of life.

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Crystal Intelligence

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Our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age.

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Social Clock

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the culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement

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Lev Vygotsky

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Russion psychologist, said that children start using language as an internal compass to solve problems. If people talk about it, they think about it more and it helps one work through the problem.

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