Megs Developmental Psychology

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Accommodation

Back 1

Creating a new scheme for knowledge that doesn’t fit into any of our existing schemes

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Active Correlation

Back 2

(As it relates to Scarr’s Niche Picking) An environment that is shaped by the decisions of the individual.

Front 3

Affective behaviour controls

Back 3

Actions that are a result of emotions.

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Alleles

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Different forms of a gene that can appear at a particular site on a chromosome.

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Amnion

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A watertight sac that fills with fluid from the mother’s tissues to cushion the fetus against blows, regulate temperature, and provide a weightless environment that will make it easier for the embryo to move.

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Analytical Componential

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An individual’s ability to understand a problem and propose a solution. (Sternberg’s Theory)

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Avoidant attachment

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An attachment style characterized by a child that prefers separation from the caregiver.

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Anoxia

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A condition where the baby cannot get enough oxygen.

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Assimilation

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Expanding a scheme by adding to our existing knowledge about a concept

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Attachment

Back 10

An emotional relationship between a child and a caregiver.

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Case Study

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Gathering extensive information about the life of an individual and then testing developmental hypotheses by analyzing the events of the person’s life history.

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Blastocyst

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A zygote, of 60 to 80 cells resembling a ball-shaped structure.

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Cephilocaudal

Back 13

Refers to development occurring from the head downward.

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Chromosomes

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Threadlike bundles that carry genetic material.

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Cognitive behaviour controls

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Actions that are a result of thinking.

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Cohort Effect

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Observable differences based on different life experiences among groups of people.

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Chorion

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A membrane that surrounds the amnion and eventually becomes the lining of the placenta. Its purpose is to gather nutrients for the embryo.

Front 18

Correlation

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A relationship between two or more variables.

Front 19

Creative Experiential

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An individual’s ability to be adaptable to new situations. (Sternberg’s Theory)

Front 20

Creole

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A mother tongue formed from the contact of two languages through an earlier pidgin stage.

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Cross-generational Problem

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The difficulty associated with applying the findings from one longitudinal study to different generational groups.

Front 22

Crystallized Intelligence

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One’s repository of knowledge.

Front 23

Cultural bias

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A well-known problem with intelligence tests, wherein a test developed within one culture may not be relevant to another culture.

Front 24

DNA

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Deoxyribonucleic acid, which is what genes are composed of; genetic material.

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Disequilibrium

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A state in which external information won’t fit within our existing schema.

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Disorganized attachment

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An attachment style characterized by a child that seems hesitant with regard to a preference to stay near or separate from a caregiver.

Front 27

Dizygotic Twins

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Fraternal twins, who are no more or less similar than non-twin siblings.

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Dominant trait

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The trait that is exhibited when an individual possesses heterozygous alleles.

Front 29

Early speech

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Single-word utterances

Front 30

Egoists

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An ethical theory that treats self-interest as the foundation of morality.

Front 31

Equilibrium

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A state in which external information fits within our existing schema.

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Ethnography

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Understanding the unique values, traditions, and social processes of a culture or subculture by living with its members and making extensive observations and notes.

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Evocative correlation

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As it relates to Scarr’s Niche Picking) An environment that is responsive to the genetic makeup of an individual because of inherent genetic qualities of the individual.

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Fluid Intelligence

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The ability to distinguish patterns

Front 35

Gametes

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Reproductive cells (egg and sperm) that form during reproduction and form a new cell, called a zygote, or fertilized egg.

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Gender

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The state of being male or female within social and cultural contexts.

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Genes

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They are the basic unit of heredity; the genetic blueprint for all aspects of development.

Front 38

Germinal Period

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A 14-day time period from conception to the second week post-conception

Front 39

Hostile aggression

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Aggressive acts for which the perpetrator’s major goal is to harm or injure a victim.

Front 40

Hypothetico–Deductive Reasoning

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A formal operational ability to think hypothetically.

Front 41

Instrumental aggression

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Aggressive acts for which the perpetrator’s major goal is to gain access to objects, space, or privileges.

Front 42

Internal working model

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A view of the world based on the accumulated feelings and experiences of the individual—internal working models can be positive or negative.

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Menarche

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First occurrence of menstruation.

Front 44

Microgenetic Method

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Research involving presenting children with a new task and measuring their mastery over a series of closely spaced sessions.

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Monozygotic Twins

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Identical twins have the same genotype because they both originate from the same zygote.

Front 46

Morpheme

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The smallest unit of meaning in language.

Front 47

Naturalistic Observation

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Observing people in their natural environment.

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Ontogeny

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The origin and development of an individual organism from embryo to adult.

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Passive correlation

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(As it relates to Scarr’s Niche Picking) An environment that matches the genetic makeup of an individual because parents have similar genes.

Front 50

Phoneme

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The smallest units of sound in language.

Front 51

Phylogeny

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The sequence of events involved in the evolution of species.

Front 52

Pidgin

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A grammatically simplified form of a language, used for communication between people not sharing a common language.

Front 53

Placenta

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An organ, formed from the lining of the uterus and the chorion, that provides for respiration and nourishment and the elimination of metabolic wastes in the embryo and fetus.

Front 54

Practical Contextual

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An individual’s useful knowledge for a given situation. (Sternberg’s Theory)

Front 55

Practice Effects

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With practice, people learn how they should respond, which can affect the validity of the results of some studies.

Front 56

Pragmatics

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Context dependent changes in language usage.

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Pre-speech

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Baby babble, including an individual’s own made-up words

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Primary emotions

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Feelings based on the individual and its relationship to its environment.

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Productive Language

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An individual’s ability to generate communication using language.

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Proximodistal

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Refers to a fetus’s growth in the uterus, which develops from the central body outward.

Front 61

Receptive Language

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An individual’s understanding of the language they are hearing.

Front 62

Recessive trait

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A trait that occurs only when it is expressed by homozygous alleles.

Front 63

Regulation

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Our ability to control our external displays of emotion.

Front 64

Reliability

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The extent to which a measuring instrument yields consistent results, both over time and across observers.

Front 65

Resistant attachment

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An attachment style characterized by a child that prefers not to leave a caregiver.

Front 66

Schemas (Schema)

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Mental representations of concepts.

Front 67

Secondary emotions

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Feelings are dependent on social awareness and social expectations.

Front 68

Secure attachment

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An attachment style characterized by a child that is confident exploring a new environment.

Front 69

Selective Attrition

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A problem created when certain types of study participants choose to discontinue their participation.

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choose to discontinue their participation. Self-concept

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An individual’s sense of self.

Front 71

Self-esteem

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An evaluative component to an individual’s sense of self.

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Semantics

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The meaning of words and sentences.

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Sex

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The state of being male or female as determined by biology and anatomy.

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Structured Observation

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Observing behaviour in a laboratory where conditions are the same for all participants.

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Syntax

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The rule system for how words are combined into sentences.

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Telegraphic speech

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Combinations of two or three words.

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Temperament

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The in-born tendency towards inter-personal relationships.

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Teratogens

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External agents such as viruses, drugs, chemicals, and radiation that can harm a developing embryo or fetus.

Front 79

Umbilical cord

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A soft tube containing blood vessels that connect the embryo to the mother.

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Validity

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The extent to which a measuring instrument accurately reflects what the researchers intended to measure.

Front 81

Vocables

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Non-words symbolically associated with an object or action.

Front 82

Zygote

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A single cell resulting from the union of the egg and the sperm cells.