ch.4 vocab

Ch.4 Vocabulary

Development 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 human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month.
Fetus: the 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. In severe cases, symptoms include noticeable facial misappropriations
Rooting reflex: a baby’s tendency, when touched on the cheek, to turn toward the touch, open the mouth, and search for the nipple
Habituation: decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a visual stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner.
Maturation: biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience.
Schema: a concept or framework tat organizes and interprets information.
Assimilation: interpreting one’s new experience in terms of one’s existing schemes.
Accommodation: adapting one’s current understandings (schemes) to incorporate new information
Cognition: all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.
Object permanence: the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived.
Formal operational stage: in Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (begins at age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts.
Stranger anxiety: the fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age.
Attachment: an emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation.
Critical period: an optimal period shortly after birth when an organism’s exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development.
Imprinting: the 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: The transition period from childhood to adulthood, from puberty to independence
Puberty: the period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing
Primary sex characteristics: the body structures that makes sexual reproduction possible
secondary sex characteristics: breasts, hips, voice, body hair
identity: one's sense of self, who am I today?
intimacy: ability to form close, loving relationships
cross-sectional study: a study in which people of different ages are compared with one another
longitudinal study: research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period of time