Human Dev. Test 2 Definitions 1

Front 1

Adolescence?

Back 1

The transition between childhood and adulthood that begins with puberty. It involves accepting one's full grown body, acquiring adult ways of thinking, attaining greater independence from one's family, developing more mature ways of relating to peers of both sexes, and beginning to construct identity.

Front 2

Anorexia Nervosa?

Back 2

An eating disorder in which young people, mainly females, starve themselves because of a compulsive fear of getting fat or an extremely distorted body image.

Front 3

Body image?

Back 3

Conception of and attitude toward one's physical appearance.

Front 4

Bulimia Nervosa?

Back 4

An eating disorder in which individuals, mainly females, engage in strict dieting and excessive exercise accompanied by binge eating, often followed by deliberate vomiting and purging with laxatives.

Front 5

Formal Operational Stage?

Back 5

Piaget's highest stage, beginning around 11 years of age, in which adolescents develop the capacity for abstract, systematic, scientific thinking.

Front 6

Growth Spurt?

Back 6

Rapid gain in height and weight that is the first outward sign of puberty.

Front 7

Hypothetico-deductive reasoning?

Back 7

A formal operational problem-solving strategy in which adolescents begin with a hypothesis, or prediction about variables that might affect the outcome. From the hypothesis, they deduce logical, testable inferences. Then they systematically isolate and combine variables to see which of those inferences are confirmed in the real world.

Front 8

Imaginary Audience?

Back 8

Adolescent's belief that they are the focus of everyone else's attention and concern.

Front 9

Menarche?

Back 9

First menstruation.

Front 10

Personal Fable?

Back 10

Adolescent's belief that they are special and unique. Leads them to conclude that others cannot possibly understand their thoughts and feelings and may promote a sense of invulnerability from danger.

Front 11

Primary Sexual Characteristics?

Back 11

Physical features that involve the reproductive organs, (ovaries, uterus, and vagina in females; penis, scrotum, and testes in males) Distinguished from secondary sexual characteristics.

Front 12

Propositional Thought?

Back 12

A type of formal operational reasoning involving the ability to evaluate the logic of propositions (verbal statements) without referring to real-world circumstances.

Front 13

Puberty?

Back 13

Biological changes at adolescence that lead to an adult sized body and sexual maturity.

Front 14

Secondary sexual characteristics?

Back 14

Physical features visible on the outside of the body that serve as signs of sexual maturity but do not involve the reproductive organs (for example, breast development in females, appearance of underarm hair and pubic hair in both sexes) Distinguished from primary sexual characteristics.

Front 15

Secular trend?

Back 15

A change from one generation to the next in an aspect of development, such as a body size or

Front 16

Spermarche?

Back 16

First ejaculation of seminal fluid.

Front 17

Acculturative Stress?

Back 17

Psychological distress resulting from conflict between an individual's minority culture and host culture.

Front 18

Autonomy?

Back 18

At adolescence, a sense of oneself as a separate, self-governing individual. Involves relying more on oneself and less on parents for support and guidance and engaging in careful, well-reasoned decision making.

Front 19

Bicultural Identity?

Back 19

The identity constructed by individuals who explore and adopt values from both their family's subculture and dominant culture.

Front 20

Clique?

Back 20

A group of about five to seven members who are good friends, and therefore, usually resemble one another in family background, attitudes, values, and interests.

Front 21

Conventional Level?

Back 21

Kohlberg's second level of moral development, in which moral understanding is based on conforming to social rules to ensure positive human relationships and maintain societal order.

Front 22

Crowd?

Back 22

A large, loosely organized social group consisting of several cliques with similar values. Membership is based on reputation and stereotype.

Front 23

Ethnic Identity?

Back 23

A sense of ethnic group membership and attitudes and feelings associated with that membership, as an enduring aspect of the self.

Front 24

Gender Intensification?

Back 24

Increased gender stereotyping of attitudes and behavior and movement toward a more traditional gender identity, typical of early adolescence.

Front 25

Identity?

Back 25

A well-organized conception of the self, consisting values, beliefs, and goals, to which the individual is solidly committed.

Front 26

Identity Achievement?

Back 26

The identity status of individuals who, after a period of exploration, have committed themselves to a clearly formulated set of self chosen values and goals. Distinguished from identity moratorium, identity foreclosure, and identity diffusion.

Front 27

Identity Diffusion?

Back 27

The identity status of individuals who do not engage in exploration and are not committed to values and goals. Distinguished from identity achievement, identity moratorium, and identity foreclosure.

Front 28

Identity Foreclosure?

Back 28

The identity status of individual's who do not engage in exploration but, instead are committed to ready-made values and goals chosen from them by authority figures. Distinguished from identity achievement, identity moratorium, and identity diffusion.

Front 29

Identity moratorium?

Back 29

The identity status of individuals who are exploring but not yet committed to self-chosen values and goals. Distinguished from identity achievement, identity foreclosure. and identity diffusion.

Front 30

Identity versus role confusion?

Back 30

In Erikson's theory, the psychological conflict of adolescence, which is resolved positively when adolescents achieve an identity after a period of exploration and inner soul searching.

Front 31

Moral Self-Relevance?

Back 31

The degree of which morality is central to an individuals self-concept.

Front 32

Post-conventional level?

Back 32

Kohlberg's highest level of moral development, in which individuals define morality in terms of abstract principals and values apply to all situations and societies.

Front 33

Basal metabolic rate?

Back 33

BMR- The amount of energy the body uses at complete rest.

Front 34

Biological aging or Senescence?

Back 34

Genetically influenced, age- related declines in our species. Sometimes called primary aging.

Front 35

Cognitive-affective complexity?

Back 35

A form of thinking that increases from adolescence through middle adulthood, involving awareness of positive and negative feelings and coordination of them into a complex, organized structure that integrates cognition with emotion.

Front 36

Commitment with relativistic thinking?

Back 36

In Perry's theory the cognitive approach of the most mature adults, who, instead of choosing between opposing views, try to formulate a more satisfying perspective that synthetizes contradictions.

Front 37

Cross-linkage of aging?

Back 37

A theory of biological aging asserting that the formation of bonds, or links, between normally separate protein fibers causes the body's connective tissue to become less elastic over time, leading to many negative physical outcomes.

Front 38

Dualistic Thinking?

Back 38

In Perry's theory, the cognitive approach typical of younger college students, who divide information, values, and authority into right and wrong, good and bad, we and they. Distinguished from relativistic thinking.

Front 39

Epistemic Cognition?

Back 39

Reflections on how one arrived at facts, beliefs, and ideas.

Front 40

Expertise?

Back 40

Acquisition of extensive knowledge in a field or endeavor.

Front 41

Fantasy Period?

Back 41

Period of vocational development in which children gain insight into career options by fantasizing about them. Distinguished from tentative period and realistic period.

Front 42

Free radicals?

Back 42

Naturally occurring, highly reactive chemicals that form in the presence of oxygen and destroy nearby cellular material, including DNA, proteins, and fats essential for cell functioning. Believed to be involved in many disorders of aging.

Front 43

Post-formal Thought?

Back 43

Cognitive development beyond Piaget's formal operational stage.

Front 44

Pragmatic thought?

Back 44

In Labouvie-Vief's theory, a structural advance in thinking in adulthood, characterized by the use of logic as a tool for solving real world problems and by the acceptance of contradictions as a part of existence.

Front 45

Premenstrual Syndrome?

Back 45

An array of physical and psychological symptoms that usually appear 6 to 10 days prior to menstruation. The most common are abdominal cramps, fluid retention, diarrhea, tender breasts, backache, headache, fatigue, tension, irritability, and depression.

Front 46

Realistic Period?

Back 46

Period of vocational development in which older adolescents and young adults narrow their vocational options, engaging in further exploration before focusing on a general vocational category and, slightly later, settling on a single occupation. Distinguished from fantasy period, and tentative period.

Front 47

Relativistic Thinking?

Back 47

In Perry's theory the cognitive approach typical of older college students, who view all knowledge as embedded in a framework of thought and, therefore, give up the possibility of absolute truth in favor of multiple truths, each relative to its context. Distinguished from dualistic thinking.

Front 48

Telomeres?

Back 48

A special type of DNA located at the ends of chromosomes-- serving as a "cap" to protect the ends from destruction-that shortens with each cell duplication. Eventually so little remains that the cells no longer duplicate at all.

Front 49

Tentative Period?

Back 49

Period of vocational development in which adolescents think about careers in more complex ways, at first in terms of their interests and soon-- as they become more aware of personal and educational requirements for different vocations-- in terms of their abilities and values. Distinguished from fantasy period and realistic period.