Developmental Psychology

• temperament


  A person's characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity
• gender


  Biologically and socially influenced characteristics by which people define male and female

  
• X chromosome


  Sex chromosome found in both men and women
• Y chromosome


  Sex chromosome found only in males
• testosterone


  Most important of the male sex hormones

  
• Gender role


  Set of expected behaviors for males and for females

  
• Gender identity


  One's sense of being male or female

  
• Gender typing


  Acquisition of a traditional masculine or feminine role

  
• zygotes


  The fertilized egg

  Enters a 2 week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo

  
• embryo


  The developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the 2nd month

  
• fetus


  Developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth

  
• teratogens


  Agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm

  
• Fetal alcohol syndrome


  Physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman's heavy drinking

  
• Rooting reflex


  Baby's tendency, when touched on the cheek, to turn toward the touch, open the mouth, and search for the nipple

  
• maturation


  Biological growth process that enable orderly changes in behavior

  
• schemas


  A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information

  
• assimilate


  Interpreting one's new experience in terms of one's existing schemas

  
• accommodate


  Adapting one's current understandings to incorporate new information

  
• cognition


  All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

  
• Sensorimotor stage


  The stage during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities in Piaget's theory from birth to about 2 years

  
• Preoperational stage


  The stage during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic in Piaget's theory from about 2 to 6 or 7 years old

  
• conservation


  The principle that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of object

  
• Theory of mind


  People's ideas about their own and others' mental states
• Concrete operational stage


  The stage of cognitive development during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events in Piaget's theory from 6 to 11

  
• Formal operational stage


  The stage of cognitive development during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts in Piaget's theory beginning at the age of 12

  
• Stranger anxiety


  Fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months

  
• attachment


  Emotional tie with another person, shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation
• imprinting


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

  
• Basic trust


  According to Erik Erikson, a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy, said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers

  
• self-concept


  A sense of one's identity and personal worth

  
• adolescence


  Transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence

  
• puberty


  Period of sexual maturation where a person becomes capable of reproducing
• Primary sex characteristics


  Body structures that make sexual reproduction possible
• Secondary sex characteristics


  Nonreproductive sexual characteristics
• Trust vs. mistrust


  Erikerison's stage:

  Infancy (to 1)

  If needs are dependably met, infants develop a sense of basic trust
• Autonomy vs. shame/doubt


  Erikerison's stage:

  Toddlerhood (1-2)

  Toddlers learn to exercise will and do things for themselves, or they doubt their abilities
• Initiative vs. guilt


  Erikerison's stage:

  Preschooler (3-5)

  Preschoolers learn to initiate tasks and carry out plans, or they feel guilty about efforts to be independent
• industry vs. inferiority


  Erikerison's stage:

  Elementary (6-puberty)

  Children learn the pleasure of applying themselves to tasks, or they feel inferior
• Identity vs. role confusion


  Erikerison's stage:

  Adolescence (teens-20s)

  Teenagers work at refining a sense of self by testing roles and then integrating them to form a single identity, or they become confused about who they are
• Intimacy vs. isolation


  Erikerison's stage:

  Young adult (20s-40s)

  Young adults struggle to form close relationships and to gain the capacity for intimate love, or they feel socially isolated