Chapter 4

Question 1

developmental psychology

Answer 1

a branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span.

Question 2

zygote

Answer 2

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

Question 3

embryo

Answer 3

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

Question 4

fetus

Answer 4

the developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth.

Question 5

fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)

Answer 5

physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman’s heavy drinking. in severe cases, symptoms include noticeable facial misproportions.

Question 6

teratogens

Answer 6

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

Question 7

rooting reflex

Answer 7

seen in normal newborn babies, who automatically turn the face toward the stimulus and make sucking motions with the mouth when the creek/lip is touched.

Question 8

maturation

Answer 8

biological growth process that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience.

Question 9

schema

Answer 9

a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.

Question 10

assimilation

Answer 10

interpreting out new experience in terms of our existing schemas.

Question 11

accommodation

Answer 11

adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information.

Question 12

cognition

Answer 12

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

Question 13

sensorimotor stage

Answer 13

in Piaget’s theory, the stage (birth-2 years) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities.

Question 14

object permanence

Answer 14

the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived.

Question 15

conservation

Answer 15

the principal (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.

Question 16

egocentrism

Answer 16

in Piaget’s theory, the properational child’s difficulty taking another point of view.

Question 17

theory of mind

Answer 17

peoples ideas about their own and others mental states - about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict.

Question 18

concrete operational stage

Answer 18

in Piaget theory, the stage of cognitive development (6-7 to 11 years) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events.

Question 19

habituation

Answer 19

psychological learning process where in there is a decrease in response to a stimulus after being repeatedly exposed to it. this concepts states that an animal or a human may learn to ignore a stimulus because of repeated exposure to it.

Question 20

hospice

Answer 20

a program of care for terminally ill patients and their families. care includes medical and nursing, psycho social, spiritual if needed or desire, trained volunteers.

Question 21

social clock

Answer 21

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

Question 22

Alzheimer’s disease

Answer 22

a progressive disease that destroys memory and other important mental functions.

Question 23

menarche

Answer 23

the first menstrual period.

Question 24

secondary sex characteristics

Answer 24

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

Question 25

primary sex characteristics

Answer 25

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

Question 26

cross-sectional study

Answer 26

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

Question 27

puberty

Answer 27

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

Question 28

adolescence

Answer 28

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

Question 29

imprinting

Answer 29

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

Question 30

longitudinal study

Answer 30

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

Question 31

attachment

Answer 31

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

Question 32

menopause

Answer 32

the time of natural cessation of menstruation; also refers to the biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines.

Question 33

stranger anxiety

Answer 33

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

Question 34

basic trust

Answer 34

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.

Question 35

autism

Answer 35

a disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by deficient communications, social interaction, and understanding of others; states of mind.

Question 36

social identity

Answer 36

the "we" aspect of our self-concept; the part of our answer to "Who am I?" that comes from our group memberships.

Question 37

emerging adulthood

Answer 37

hypothetical phase of the life span between adolescence and full-fledged adulthood which encompasses late adolescences and early adulthood.

Question 38

self - concept

Answer 38

out understanding and evaluation of who we are.

Question 39

identity

Answer 39

our sense of self; according got Erikson, the adolescent's task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles.

Question 40

critical period

Answer 40

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

Question 41

formal operational stage

Answer 41

in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts.

Question 42

fluid intelligence

Answer 42

our ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease during late adulthood.

Question 43

crystallized intelligence

Answer 43

our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age.

Question 44

intimacy

Answer 44

in Erikson's theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in late adolescence and early childhood.