UNIT 8: Developmental

Question 2

What is Developmental Psychology?

Answer 2

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

Question 3

What is a Zygote?

Answer 3

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

Question 4

What is an Embryo?

Answer 4

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

Question 5

What is a Fetus?

Answer 5

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

Question 6

What are Teratogens?

Answer 6

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

Question 7

What is Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)?

Answer 7

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

Question 8

What is Habituation?

Answer 8

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 9

What is Maturation?

Answer 9

Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience.

Question 10

What is Cognition?

Answer 10

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

Question 11

What is a Schema?

Answer 11

A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.

Question 12

What is Assimilation?

Answer 12

Interpreting our new experience in terms of our existing schemas.

Question 13

What is Accommodation?

Answer 13

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

Question 14

What is the Sensorimotor Stage?

Answer 14

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.

Question 15

What is Object Permanence?

Answer 15

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

Question 16

What is the Preoperational Stage?

Answer 16

In Piaget’s theory, the stage (from 2 to about 6 or 7 years of age) during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic.

Question 17

What is Conservation?

Answer 17

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

Question 18

What is Egocentrism?

Answer 18

In Piaget’s theory, the preoperational child’s difficulty taking another’s point of view.

Question 19

What is Theory of Mind?

Answer 19

People’s ideas about their own and others’ mental states—about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict.

Question 20

What is the Concrete Operational Stage?

Answer 20

In Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 6 or 7 to 11 years of age) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events.

Question 21

What is the Formal Operational Stage?

Answer 21

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 22

What is Stranger Anxiety?

Answer 22

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

Question 23

What is Attachment?

Answer 23

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

Question 24

What is a Critical Period?

Answer 24

An optimal period shortly after birth when an organism’s exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development.

Question 25

What is Imprinting?

Answer 25

The process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life.

Question 26

What is Temperament?

Answer 26

A person's characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity.

Question 27

What is Basic Trust?

Answer 27

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 28

What is Self-Concept?

Answer 28

All our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question, 'Who am I?'

Question 29

What is Gender?

Answer 29

In psychology, the biologically and socially influenced characteristics by which people define male and female.

Question 30

What is the X Chromosome?

Answer 30

The sex chromosome found in both men and women. Females have two of these; males have one. One chromosome from each parent produces a female child.

Question 31

What is the 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

What is Testosterone?

Answer 32

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

Question 33

What is a Role?

Answer 33

A set of expectations (norms) about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave.

Question 34

What is a Gender Role?

Answer 34

A set of expected behaviors for males or for females.

Question 35

What is Gender Identity?

Answer 35

Our sense of being male or female.

Question 36

What is Gender Typing?

Answer 36

The acquisition of a traditional masculine or feminine role.

Question 37

What is Social Learning Theory?

Answer 37

The theory that we learn social behavior by observing and imitating and by being rewarded or punished.

Question 38

What is Adolescence?

Answer 38

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

Question 39

What is Puberty?

Answer 39

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

Question 40

What are Primary Sex Characteristics?

Answer 40

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

Question 41

What are Secondary Sex Characteristics?

Answer 41

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

Question 42

What is Menarche?

Answer 42

The first menstrual period.

Question 43

What is Identity?

Answer 43

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

Question 44

What is Social Identity?

Answer 44

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

Question 45

What is Intimacy?

Answer 45

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

Question 46

What is Menopause?

Answer 46

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

Question 47

What is a Cross-Sectional Study?

Answer 47

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

Question 48

What is a Longitudinal Study?

Answer 48

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

Question 49

What is Crystallized Intelligence?

Answer 49

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

Question 50

What is Fluid Intelligence?

Answer 50

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

Question 51

What is a Social Clock?

Answer 51

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