Key Terms*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 (FAS) - a medical condition in which body deformation or facial development or mental ability of a fetus is impaired because the mother drank alcohol while pregnant. *Rooting Reflex - a baby's tendency, when touched on the cheek, to turn toward the touch, open the mouth, and search for the nipple. Habituation - decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a visual stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner. Maturation - biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience. *Schema - a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information. *Assimilation - interpreting one's new experience in terms of one's existing schemas. *Accommodation - adapting one's current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information. *Cognition - all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating. *Sensorimotor Stage - 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 sensory impressions and motor activities. *Object Permanence - the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived. *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. *Egocentrism - in Piaget's theory, the preoperational child's difficulty taking another's point of view. Theory of Mind - people's ideas about their own and others' mental states -- about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts and the behavior these might predict.. Autism - a disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by deficient communication, social interaction, and understanding of others' states of mind. *Concrete Operational Stage - 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. *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. 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 the caregiver and showing distress on separation. *Critical Period - an optimal period shortly after birth when an organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development. Imprinting - the process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in 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 - a sense of one's identity and personal worth. 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 Characteristics - the body structures (ovaries, testes, and external genitalia) that make sexual reproduction possible. Secondary Sex Characteristics - non-reproductive sexual characteristics, such as female breasts and hips, male voice quality, and body hair. Menarche - the first menstrual period. Identity - one's sense of self; according to Erikson, the adolescent's task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles. Intimacy - in Erikson's theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in late adolescence and early adulthood. Menopause - the time of natural cessation of menstruation; also refers to the biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines. Alzheimer's Disease - an irreversible, progressive brain disorder, characterized by the deterioration of memory, language, and eventually, physical functioning. *Cross-Sectional Study - a study in which people of different ages are compared with one another. *Longitudinal Study - research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period. *Crystallized Intelligence - one's accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age. *Fluid Intelligence - one's ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease during late adulthood. Social Clock - the culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement. People to Know*Mary Ainsworth - researched the effects of maternal separation on child development - secure vs. insecure attachment
*Albert Bandura - Social learning theory/modeling behavior (Bobo) Diana Baumrind - named the parenting styles - authoritarian, permissive, authoritative *Erik Erikson - Stages of psycho-social development ie. generativity vs stagnation; identity crisis *Sigmund Freud - Stages of development - oral, anal, phallic, etc *Piaget - Stages of development - concrete operational, formal operational, etc. Carol Gilligan - Specialized and wrote books on girl's development *Harry Harlow - Wire vs. soft monkey-attachment *Kohlberg - Moral development-preconventional, conventional, post conventional Lorenz - Imprinting (humans don't) "fly away home" Vygotsky - Early psychologist who investigated the role of culture in child development Study Tips
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Videos to WatchPsych Sim 5 ActivitiesCharts for MemorizationJean Piaget's Stages for Cognitive Development
Lawrence Kohlberg's Stages to Moral Thinking
Erik Erikson's Stages for Psychosocial Development
adolescent_lifespan_web_quest.docxTricky Spots
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Developing Through the Life Span
Throughout our lives, the way we think and reason changes. Through these changes, chapter four aims to take you from day one through death in a human life. Why do children do what they do and act the way they act?