Unit 6: Developmental Psychology

• 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 multicellular, human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month
• Fetus: the developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception (embryonic stage) to birth
• Conception: the moment at which a female becomes pregnant (the moment an egg becomes fertilized and begins cellular duplication)
• Teratogens: agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm
• Alzheimer's Disease: a progressive and irreversible brain disorder characterized by gradual deterioration of memory, reasoning, language, and, finally, physical functioning, ultimately resulting in dementia
• Dementia: a chronic or persistent disorder of the mental processes caused by brain disease or injury and marked by memory disorders, personality changes, and impaired reasoning
• Temperament: a person's characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity; basic emotional style that appears early in development and is largely genetic in origin
• Maturation: development that reflects the gradual unfolding of one's genetic blueprint; internally programmed growth of a child
• Assimilation: interpreting one's new experience in terms of one's existing schemas
• Accommodation: adapting one's current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information
• 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
• 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
• 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
• Imprinting: a primitive form of learning in which some young animals follow and form an attachment to the first moving object they see and hear
• 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
• Menopause: the time of natural cessation of menstruation; also refers to the biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines
• Ovulation: the process of releasing a mature ovum into the fallopian tube each month
• Crystallized Intelligence: one's accumulated knowledge and verbal skills, which tends to increase with age; the ability to retain and use knowledge that was acquired through experience
• Fluid Intelligence: one's ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease during late adulthood
• APGAR: appearance (skin color), pulse (heart rate), grimace (reflexes), activity (muscle tone), respiration (breathing rate and effort); a test used to assess newborns soon after birth in order to see if additional medical or emergency care is needed
• Ainsworth Strange Situation: a sequence of staged episodes that illustrates the strength of attachment between a child and (typically) his or her mother
• Secure Attachment: a relationship in which an infant obtains both comfort and confidence from the presence of his or her caregiver, but seeks physical comfort and consolation from him / her if frightened or threatened
• Anxious-Ambivalent Attachment: attachment style in which infants become extremely upset when their caregiver leaves but reject the caregiver when he or she returns
• Disorganized-Disoriented Attachment: a type of insecure attachment in which infants or young children have no consistent way of coping with the stress of the Strange Situation. Their behavior is often confused or even contradictory, and they often appear dazed or disoriented; often appears in abused children
• Authoritarian Parenting: a parenting style in which the parents are demanding, expect unquestioned obedience, are not responsive to their children's desires, and communicate poorly with their children.
• Permissive Parenting: style of parenting in which parent makes few, if any demands or discipline on a child's behavior
• Authoritative Parenting: parenting style characterized by emotional warmth, high standards for behavior, explanation and consistent enforcement of rules, and inclusion of children in decision making
• Uninvolved Parenting: a style of parenting in which the parents minimize both the time they spend with their children and their emotional involvement with them and provide for their children's basic needs, but little else.
• Pretend Play: make-believe play in which common objects are often used to symbolize other objects; pretend activities in which children create new symbolic relations, acting as if they were in a situation different from their actual one
• Piaget Theory: states that children actively construct their understanding of the world and go through four stages of cognitive development
• Preconventional Morality: first level of Kohlberg's Stage of Moral Development in which the child's behavior is governed by the consequences of the behavior; typically characterized by self-interest wherein the child (usually age 9 or less) obeys rules to avoid punishment or gain rewards
• Conventional Morality: second level of Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development in which the child's behavior is governed by conforming to the society's norms of behavior; usually occurs during early adolescence
• Postconventional Morality: third level of Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development in which the person's behavior is governed by moral principles that have been decided on by the individual and that may be in disagreement with accepted social norms
• Identity Achievement: Erikson's term for the attainment of identity, or the point at which a person understands who he or she is as a unique individual, in accordance with past experiences and future plans
• Identity Diffusion: the status of adolescents who consider various identity alternatives, but never commit to one or never even consider identity options in any conscious way; a person with no sense of identity or motivation / commitment to engage in identity exploration
• Moratorium: identity status characterizing individuals who are experiencing an identity crisis or actively exploring identity issues but who have not yet achieved an identity
• Erik Erickson: hypothesized that people face pass through eight social development stages from infancy to old age. Each challenge has an outcome that affects a persons social and personality development