front 1 Developmental psychology | back 1 A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social chance throughout the life span. |
front 2 Zygote | back 2 The fertilized egg; it enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo |
front 3 Embryo | back 3 The developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month. |
front 4 Fetus | back 4 The developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth |
front 5 Teratogens | back 5 (literally, monster makers agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm. |
front 6 Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) | back 6 Physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant womanś heavy drinking. In severe cases, signs include a small, out of proportion head and abnormal facial features. |
front 7 Habituation | back 7 Decreasing responsiveness with repeated simulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner. |
front 8 Maturation | back 8 Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experiences. |
front 9 Cognition | back 9 All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating. |
front 10 Schema | back 10 A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information |
front 11 Assimilation | back 11 Interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas |
front 12 Accommodation | back 12 Adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information. |
front 13 Sensorimotor stage | back 13 In Piaget’s theory, the stage (from birth to nearly 2 years of age) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities. |
front 14 Object permanence | back 14 The awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived |
front 15 Preoperational stage | back 15 In Piaget’s theory, the stage(from about 2 to 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. |
front 16 Conservation | back 16 The principle (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. |
front 17 Egocentrism | back 17 In Piaget’s theory, the preoperational child’s difficulty taking another’s points of view. |
front 18 Theory of mind | back 18 People’s ideas about their own and others’ mental states-about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict. |
front 19 Concrete operational stage | back 19 In Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 7 to 11 years of age) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events. |
front 20 Formal operational stage | back 20 In Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts. |
front 21 Scaffold | back 21 A framework that offers children temporary support as they develop higher levels of thinking. |
front 22 Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) | back 22 A disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by significant deficiencies in communication and social interaction, and by rigidity fixated interests and repetitive behaviors |
front 23 Stranger anxiety | back 23 The fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age |
front 24 Attachment | back 24 An emotional tie with another person; shown in young children b their seeking closeness to their caregiver and showing distress on separation. |
front 25 Critical period | back 25 An optimal period early in the life of an organism when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces normal development. |
front 26 Imprinting | back 26 The process by which certain animals form strong attachments during early life |
front 27 Strange situation | back 27 A procedure for studying child-caregiver attachment; a child is placard in an unfamiliar environment while their caregiver leaves and then returns, and the child’s reactions are observed |
front 28 Secure attachment | back 28 Demonstrated by infants who comfortably explore environments in the presence of their caregiver, show only temporary distress when the caregiver leaves, and find comfort in the caregiver’s return. |
front 29 Insecure attachment | back 29 Demonstrated by infants who display either a clinging, anxious attachment or an avoidant attachment that resists closeness. |
front 30 Temperament | back 30 A person’s characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity. |
front 31 Basic trust | back 31 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. |
front 32 Self-concept | back 32 All our thoughts and feeling about ourselves in answer to the question, “Who am I?” |