Psych: Ch. 9-11

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Developmental Psychology

Back 1

Study of age-related changes in behavior and mental processes from conception to death

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Maturation

Back 2

Development governed by automatic, genetically predetermined signals

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Critical Period

Back 3

A period of special sensitivity to specific types of learning that shapes the capacity for future development

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Cross-Sectional Method

Back 4

Measures individuals of various ages at one point in time and gives information about age differences

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Longitudinal Method

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Measures a single individual or group of individuals over an extended period and gives information about age changes

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Germinal Period

Back 6

First stage of prenatal development, which begins with conception and ends with implantation in the uterus (the first two weeks)

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Embryonic Period

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Second stage of prenatal development, which begins after uterine implantation and lasts through the eighth week

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Fetal Period

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The third, and final, stage of prenatal development (eight weeks to birth) characterized by rapid weight gain in the fetus and the fine detailing of body organs and systems

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Teratogen

Back 9

Environmental agent that causes damage during prenatal development; the term comes from the Greek word teras, meaning "malformation"

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Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)

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A combination of birth defects, including organ deformities and mental, motor, and/or growth retardation, that results from maternal alcohol abuse

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Puberty

Back 11

Biological changes during adolescence that lead to an adult-sized body and sexual maturity

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Ageism

Back 12

Prejudice or discrimination based on physical age

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Schema

Back 13

Cognitive structures or patterns consisting of a number of organized ideas that grow and differentiate with experience

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Assimilation

Back 14

In Piaget's theory, absorbing new information into existing schema

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Accomodation

Back 15

In Piaget's theory, adjusting old schemas or developing new ones to better fit with new information

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Sensorimotor Stage

Back 16

Piaget's first stage (birth to approximately age 2 years), in which schemas are developed through sensory and motor activities

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Object Permanence

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Piagetian term for an infant's understanding that objects (or people) continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, heard, or touched directly

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Preoperational Stage

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Piaget's second stage (roughly age 2 to 7), characterized by the ability to employ significant language and to think symbolically, but the child lacks operations (reversible mental processes), and thinking is egocentric and animistic

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Egocentrism

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The inability to consider another's point of view, which Piaget considered a hallmark of the preoperational stage

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Concrete Operational Stage

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Piaget's third stage (roughly age 7 to 11); the child can perform mental operations on concrete objects and understand reversibility and conservation, but abstract thinking is not yet present

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Conservation

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Understanding that certain physcial characteristics (such as volume) remain unchanged, even when their outward appearance changes

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Formal Operational Stage

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Piaget's fourth stage (around age 11 and beyond), characterized by abstract and hypothetical thinking

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Attachment

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A strong affectional bond with special others that endures over time

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Imprinting

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An innate from of learning within a critical period that involves attachment to the first large moving object seen

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Preconventional Level

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Kohlberg's first level of moral development, in which morality is based on rewards, punishment, and exchange of favors

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Conventional Level

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Kohlberg's second level of moral development, where moral judgments are based on compliance with the rules and values of society

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Postconventional Level

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Kohlberg's highest level of moral development, in which individuals develop personal standards for right and wrong, and define morality in terms of abstract principles and values that apply to all situations adn societies

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Temperment

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An individual's innate behavioral style adn characteristic emotional responses

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Psychosocial Stages

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Erikson's theory that individuals pass through eight developmental stages, each involving a crisis that must be successfully resolved

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Identity Crisis

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Erikson's term for an adolexcent's search for self, which requires intense self-reflection and questioning

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Resiliency

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The ability to adapt effectively in the face of threats

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Activity Theory

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Successful aging is fostered by a full and active commitment to life

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Disengagement Theory

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Successful aging is characterized by mutual withdrawal between the elderly and society

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Socioemotional Selectivity Theory

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A natural decline in social contact occurs as older adults become more selective with their time

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Thanatology

Back 35

The study of death and dying; the term comes from thanatos, the Greek name for a mythical personification of death, and was borrowed by Freud to represent the death instinct