Psychology Ch. 5

Front 1

development psychology

Back 1

a branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social changes throughout life

Front 2

zygote

Back 2

conception - 2 weeks

Front 3

embryo

Back 3

2 weeks - 8 weeks

Front 4

fetus

Back 4

9 weeks until birth

Front 5

teratogens

Back 5

chemicals and viruses that can harm the developing fetus or embryo

Front 6

fetal alcohol syndrome

Back 6

physical and cognitive abnormalities cause by a pregnant mother's excessive drinking

Front 7

habituation

Back 7

decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation

Front 8

novelty - preference procedure

Back 8

used to research how babies determined cats from dogs (face then body)

Front 9

maturation

Back 9

biological growth processes that enable social, cognitive, and behavioral changes

Front 10

cognition

Back 10

all mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

Front 11

schema

Back 11

a concept or framework that organizes or interprets information

Front 12

assimilation

Back 12

interpreting our new experience in terms of our existing schemas

Front 13

accommodation

Back 13

adapting our current understanding (schemas) to incorporate new information

Front 14

sensorimotor stage

Back 14

(Piaget) from birth to 2 years
Stage in which infants experience the world through senses or actions

Front 15

object permanence

Back 15

the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived

Front 16

Preoperational stage

Back 16

(Piaget) from 2 - 7 years
Representing things with words and images;using intuitive rather than logical reasoning
"too young to perform mental operations"

Front 17

conservation

Back 17

the principle that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite change in their forms

Front 18

egocentrism

Back 18

the preoperational child's difficulty taking another's point of view

Front 19

theory of mind

Back 19

peoples ideas about their own and others' mental states (feelings and thoughts) and how they might predict behavior

Front 20

concrete operational stage

Back 20

(Piaget) from 7-11 years
the stage in which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events

Front 21

formal operational stage

Back 21

(Piaget) from 12 - adulthood
the stage of cognitive development during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts

Front 22

autism

Back 22

a disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by deficient communication, social interaction, and understanding of others' states of mind

Front 23

stranger anxiety

Back 23

the fear of strangers that infants display, beginning at 8 months

Front 24

attachment

Back 24

an emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation

Front 25

critical period

Back 25

an optimal period shortly after birth when an organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development

Front 26

imprinting

Back 26

the process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life

Front 27

basic trust

Back 27

a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy
formed during infancy through appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers

Front 28

self-concept

Back 28

our understanding and evaluation of who we are

Front 29

adolescence

Back 29

the transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence

Front 30

puberty

Back 30

the period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing

Front 31

primary sex characteristics

Back 31

the body structures (ovaries, testes, and external genitalia) that make reproduction possible

Front 32

secondary sex characteristics

Back 32

non-reproductive sexual characteristics, such as female breasts and hips, male voice quality and body hair

Front 33

preconvential morality

Back 33

before age 9
children's morality focuses on self-interest

Front 34

convential morality

Back 34

early adolescence
focuses on caring for others and on upholding laws simply because they are rules

Front 35

postconventional morality

Back 35

actions are judged as right by peoples self defined ethical principles

Front 36

identity

Back 36

our sense of self
adolescents must solidify a sense of self by experimenting

Front 37

social identity

Back 37

the "we" aspect of our self-concept

Front 38

intimacy

Back 38

the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in late adolescence and early adulthood

Front 39

emerging adulthood

Back 39

a period from the late teens to the early twenties
bridges the gap from adolescent dependence to full independence

Front 40

menopause

Back 40

the time of natural cessation of menstruation

Front 41

cross-sectional study

Back 41

a study in which people of different ages are compared with one another

Front 42

longitudinal study

Back 42

research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period of time

Front 43

crystallized intelligence

Back 43

our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills that increases with age

Front 44

fluid intelligence

Back 44

our ability to reason speedily and abstractly that decreases with age

Front 45

social clock

Back 45

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