Unit 6: Development

Question 1

Zygote

Answer 1

the fertilized egg; it enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo

Question 2

embryo

Answer 2

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

Question 3

fetus

Answer 3

the developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth

Question 4

Teratogens

Answer 4

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

Question 5

Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)

Answer 5

physical and cognitive abnormality in children caused by a pregnant woman’s heavy drinking. In severe cases, signs include a small, out-of-proportion head and abnormal facial features

Question 6

Habituation

Answer 6

decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a visual stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner.

Question 7

Nature vs. Nurture

Answer 7

how our genetic inheritance (our nature) interacts with our experiences (our nurture) to influence our development

Question 8

Continuity vs. Change

Answer 8

certain parts of development are gradual and continuous, while other parts change abruptly in separate stages

Question 9

Stability vs. Change

Answer 9

certain traits persist through life while others change as we age

Question 10

Authoritarian

Answer 10

parents impose rules and expect obedience

Question 11

Permissive indulgent

Answer 11

Parents submit to their children’s desires. They make few demands and use little punishment

Question 12

Permissive Neglectful

Answer 12

Parents don’t show compassion to their children. They make few demands and use little punishment

Question 13

Authoritative

Answer 13

parents are both demanding and responsive. They exert control by setting rules and enforcing them, but they also explain the reasons for the rules. And, especially with older children, they encourage open discussion when making the rules and allow exceptions.

Question 14

Stranger Anxiety

Answer 14

the fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age

Question 15

Attachment

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Self-concept

Answer 16

children 15-18 months begin to be able to recognize themselves in the mirror, 2-5 years they can describe their traits, and from 8-10 years they begin to have a better understanding of self-image

Question 17

Contact Comfort Theory (Harry Harlow)

Answer 17

disproved the belief that love is only based on physical needs, found that baby monkeys needed compassion and love from parental monkeys to promote healthy development

Question 18

Critical period

Answer 18

an optimal period early in the life of an organism when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces normal development

Question 19

Imprinting (Konrad Lorenz)

Answer 19

the process by which certain animals form strong attachments during an early-life critical period. Lorenz found in his experiments that the ducklings followed him - only valid for animals; not children)

Question 20

Strange Situation (Mary Ainsworth)

Answer 20

an experimental technique used to assess the quality of attachment in infants and young children (up to the age of 2). The procedure subjects the child to increasing amounts of stress induced by a strange setting (a lab), the entrance of an unfamiliar person, and two brief separations from the parent.

Question 21

Basic Tryst (Erik Erikson)

Answer 21

a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy; said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers. (Erik compared how girls and boys were raised from when they were babies and how this would influence their future lives)

Question 22

Schema

Answer 22

a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information

Question 23

Assimilation

Answer 23

interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas

Question 24

Accommodation

Answer 24

adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information

Question 25

Jean Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

Answer 25

Children actively construct and modify their understanding of the world through assimilation and accommodation

Question 26

Lev Vygotsky’s critique of Piaget

Answer 26

Vygotsky emphasized how the child’s mind grows through interaction with the social environment

Question 27

Scaffolding

Answer 27

The passive, natural process through which new concepts are formed, especially in early childhood (with the help of parents or guardians)

Question 28

Zone of proximal development

Answer 28

The zone between what a child can and can’t do (training wheels on a bike)

Question 29

Implications for Parenting Teaching

Answer 29

Young children are incapable of adult logic. Children are not passive receptacles waiting to be filled with knowledge. Accept children’s cognitive immaturity as adaptive, it’s nature’s way of keeping children safe

Question 30

x - chromosomes

Answer 30

the sex chromosome found in both men and women. Females have two X chromosomes; males have one. An x chromosome from each parent produces a female child.

Question 31

Y - chromosome

Answer 31

the sex chromosome found only in males. When paired with an X chromosome from the mother, it produces a male child

Question 32

Testosterone

Answer 32

the most important of the male sex hormones. Both males and females have it, but the additional testosterone in males stimulates the growth of the male sex organs in the fetus and the development of the male sex characteristics during puberty

Question 33

Puberty

Answer 33

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

Question 34

Primary sex characteristics

Answer 34

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

Question 35

Secondary sex characteristics

Answer 35

Nonreproductive sexual traits, such as female breasts and hips, male voice quality, and body hair

Question 36

Language

Answer 36

Our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning

Question 37

Phoneme

Answer 37

in a language, the smallest distinctive sound unit

Question 38

Morpheme

Answer 38

in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; maybe a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix)

Question 39

Grammar

Answer 39

in a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others. In a given language, semantics is the set of rules for deriving meaning from sounds

Question 40

syntax

Answer 40

the set of rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences

Question 41

Babbling stage

Answer 41

beginning at about 4 months, the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language

Question 42

One-word stage

Answer 42

the stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words

Question 43

Two-Word stage

Answer 43

beginning about age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly in two-word statements

Question 44

Telegraphic speech

Answer 44

early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram - “go car” - using mostly nouns and verbs

Question 45

Aphasia

Answer 45

impairment of language, usually caused by left-hemisphere damage either to Broca’s area (impairing speaking ) or to Wernicke’s area (impairing understanding)

Question 46

Broca’s area

Answer 46

controls language expression - an area of the frontal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscle movements involved in speech

Question 47

Wernicke’s area

Answer 47

controls language reception - a brain area involved in language comprehension and expression; usually in the left temporal lobe

Question 48

Linguistic determinism

Answer 48

Whorf’s hypothesis that language determines the way we think

Question 49

Overextension

Answer 49

the phenomenon that children extend known words to describe referents outside their vocabulary