Psychology Chapter 5

Imprint

a bonding process that occurs between certain birds and their perceived caretakers

Palliative Care

a multidisciplinary support approach to caring for people with serious illnesses, with the goal of improving quality of life for patient and family

Egocentrism

a young child's difficulty perceiving things from another individual's point of view, resulting in the assumption that everyone else sees, hears, and feels exactly as they do

Cognition

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

Stranger situation

an experiment conducted by Mary Ainsworth to systematically study attachment patters in infants

Identity

an individual's consistent sense of who they are

Critical Period

an optimal time period within which certain events need to take place to foster healthy development

Dementia

an umbrella term for symptoms of a degenerating brain such as impaired thought, impaired speech, flat affect, and confusion

Emerging adulthood

an unsettles phase of life occurring between ages eighteen to mid twenties

Stranger Anxiety

anxiety born of an infant's inability to assimilate people into the caregiver schema, beginning at about eight months of age

Parenting Style

How caregivers impart beliefs and standards of behavior to their children

Sensorimotor stage

Piaget's first stage of cognitive development occurring from birth to two years in which babies learn about the world through their senses and actions

Formal Operational Stage

Piaget's fourth and final stage of cognitive development, occurring at approximately twelve, in which children should begin to demonstrate the ability to perform mental operations abstractly without the aid of actual experience

Preoperational stage

Piaget's second stage of cognitive development occurring between ages two and six in which children can mentally represent, but not mentally operate, objects

Concrete Operational Stage

Piaget's third stage of cognitive development occurring between ages six and twelve in which children can perform mental operations as long as they have tangible (concrete) materials to work with

Teratogens

environmental factors, such as maternal stress, viruses, or drugs, that can negatively impact fetal development

Primary Sex Characteristics

external genitalia and reproductive organs. primarily internal

Secondary Sex Characteristics

external indicators of sex, such as breasts and hips in girls and facial hair and deeper voices in boys; primarily external

Moral intuitions

gut feelings that can drive decisions

Temperment

personality characteristics that are made evident shortly after birth relating to emotional reactivity and intensity

Demandingness

refers to the extent to which parents expect obedience and responsible behavior, regardless of how their children may feel about it

Responsiveness

refers to warmth or to what extent parents respond to their childrens' needs and wants

Intimacy

the ability to form emotionally close relationships, particularly of a romantic nature

Resiliency

the ability to overcome stress and trauma

Social Clock

the appropriate time, depending upon one's culture, to leave home, get a job, marry, have children, and retire

Attachment

the association an infant makes between their caregiver, nourishment, and comfort; this process is integral to cognitive and social development

Object permanence

the awareness that objects continue to exist when not seen

Adolescent egocentrism

the belief that an adolescent's private experiences are unique and that others, especially their peers, are always directing attention toward them

Moral development

the development of the capacity to distinguish right and wrong

Bereavement

the emotional and role changes that occur following the death of a loved one

Menopause

the end of the menstrual cycle, resulting in the loss of the ability to bear children

Menarche

the first menstrual period, occurring, on average, around age twelve

Spermarche

the first time sperm is part of ejacualtion

Self Concept

the image individuals have of themselves consisting of the abilities we believe we have and how we perceive them

Schemas

the mental maps in which we store our experiences

maturation

the orderly sequence of biological growth

puberty

the period of sexual maturation within which we become capable of sexual reproduction

Conservation

the principle that quantity remains the same despite changes in shape

Accomodation

the process of adjusting a preexisting schema to comport with new information

Assimilation

the process of interpreting new information in terms of what we already know

Adolescence

the years spent moving from childhood to adulthood

Insecure Attachment

when infants demonstrate behavior marked by anxiety, avoidance, or a combination of both in regard to relationships

Secure attachment

when infants play happily and readily explore new environments in the presence of their mother