Lifespan Development Psychology Terms

Third variable problem

In correlation studies, the problem posed by the fact that the association between the two variables of interest may be caused by some third variable

Cohort effects

In cross-sectional research, the effects on findings that the different age groups (cohorts) being compared were born at different times and had different formative experiences

Proximodistal Principle

In development, the principle that growth proceeds from the center of the body (or the proximal region) to the extremities (or the distal regions)

Age effects

In developmental research, the effects of getting older or of developing

Word Segmentation

In language development, the ability to break the stream of speech sounds into distinct words.

Private speech

Nonsocial speech, or speech for the self, commonly used by preschoolers to guide their activities and believed by Vygotsky to be the forerunner of inner speech, or silent thinking in words

Phoneme

One of the basic units of sound used in a particular spoken language

Primary emotion

One of the distinct basic emotions that emerges within the first 6 months of life universally (joy, surprise, sadness, disgust, anger, fear).

Gender schema (schemata)

Organized sets of beliefs and expectations about males and females that guide information processing.

Intuitive theories

Organized systems of knowledge, believed to be innate, that allow children to make sense of the world in areas such as physics and psychology

Gene-environment correlations

A systematic interrelationship between one's genes and one's environment - Ways in which genes influence the kind of home environment provided by parents

Overextension

The young child's tendency to use a word to refer to a wider set of objects, actions, or events than adults do (e.g., using the word car to refer to all motor vehicles).

Underextension

The young child's tendency to use general words to refer to a smaller set of objects, actions, or events than adults do (e.g., using candy to refer only to mints).

Breech presentation

A delivery in which the fetus emerges feet first or buttocks first rather than head first

Ethology

A discipline and theoretical perspective that focuses on the evolved behavior of different species in their natural environments

Nuclear family

A family unit consisting of husband-father, wife-mother, and at least one child.

Sample

A group of individuals chosen to be the subjects of a study

Communality

An orientation that emphasizes the well-being of others and includes traits of emotionally and sensitivity to others - Considered female

Fraternal twins

Twins who are not identical and who result when a mother releases two ova at roughly the same time and each is fertilized by a different sperm

Naturalistic observation

A research method in which the scientist observes people as they engage in common everyday activities in their natural habitats

Time-of-measurement effects

In developmental research, the effects on findings of historical events occurring when the data for a study are being collected

Carriers

In genetics, individuals who possess a recessive gene associated with a disease and who, although they do not have the disease, can transmit the gene for it to offspring

Contact comfort

The pleasurable tactile sensations provided by a parent or a soft, terry cloth mother substitute; believed to foster attachments in infant monkeys and possibly humans.

Y chromosome

The shorter of the two sex chromosomes - Normal males have one Y chromosome - Normal females have none

Lateralization

The specialization of the two hemispheres of the cerebral cortex of the brain

Object permanence

The understanding that objects continue to exist when they are no longer visible or otherwise detectable to the senses - Fully mastered by the end of infancy

Phonological Awareness

The understanding that spoken words can be decomposed into some number of basic sound units, or phonemes; an important skill in learning to read.

Grief work perspective

The view commonly held, but now challenged, that to cope adaptively with death bereaved people must confront their loss, experience painful emotions, work through these emotions, and move toward a detachment from the deceased.

Life-Course Perspective

The view that events such as retirement need to be considered within the context of all the other life events experienced by a person; examples are health trajectory, financial stability, work expectations, friend networks, family situation, and so on.

Diathesis- stress model

The view that psychopathology results from the interaction of a person's predisposition to psychological problems and the experiences of stressful events

Phoneme

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Multitasking

Attending to and performing two or more tasks at the same time

Mourning

Culturally prescribed ways of displaying reactions to a loss.

Biological Aging

The deterioration of organisms that leads inevitably to their death

Growth

The physical changes that occur from conception to maturity.

Secure base

Point of safety, represented by an infant's attachment figure, that permits exploration of the environment.

Scheme (or schema)

A cognitive structure or organized pattern of action or thought used to deal with experiences

Gender

A combination of all those features that a society associated with or considers appropriate for being a man and a woman

Sememarche

A boy's first ejaculation

Menarche

A female's first menstrual period

Ethnicity

A person's classification in or affiliation with a group based on common heritage or traditions

Body Mass Index (BMI)

An indicator of body fat calculated from a person's height and weight

Sociometric popularity

Being liked by many peers and disliked by few.

Selective attention

Deliberately concentrating on one thing and ignoring something else

Personal fable

A form of adolescent egocentrism that involves thinking that oneself and one's thoughts and feelings are unique or special

Microsystem

In Bronfenbrenner's bioecological approach, the immediate settings in which a person functions

Form perception

In visual perception, recognition of the patterns that constitute an object

Action

Motor activity prompted by sensory and/or perceptual information

Semantics

The aspect of language centering on meanings.

Perception

The interpretation of sensory input

Erectile Dysfunction

A man's inability to achieve or sustain an erection for intercourse, despite having sufficient levels of testosterone

Neglectful parenting

A parenting style low in demandingness-control and low in acceptance-responsiveness; uninvolved parenting.

Babbling

An early form of vocalization that appears between 4 and 6 months of age and involves repeating consonant- vowel combinations such as "baba" or "dadada."

Synchronized routine

Harmonious, dancelike interaction between infant and caregiver in which each adjusts behavior in response to that of the other.

Emotional competence

Mastery of emotions in terms of appropriate expression of emotions, understanding of emotions and what triggers them, and ability to regulate emotions.

Polygenic inheritance

Mechanism of inheritance in which multiple gene pairs interact with environmental factors to influence a trait

Posttraumatic growth

Positive psychological change resulting from highly challenging experiences such as being diagnosed with a life-threatening illness or losing a loved one.

Lamaze method

Prepared childbirth in which parents attend classes and learn mental exercises and relaxation techniques to ease delivery - AKA prepared childbirth

Grief

The emotional response to loss.

Menopause

The ending of a woman's menstrual periods and reproductive capacity around age 51

Perinatal environment

The environment surrounding birth

Hayflick limit

The estimate that human cells can double only 50 times, plus or minus 10, and then will die.

Synaptogenesis

The growth of synapses, or connections between neurons

Experimental control

The holding of all other factors besides the independent variable in an experiment constant so that any changes in the dependent variable can be said to be caused by the manipulation of the independent variable

Gender similarities hypothesis

The hypothesis that males and females are similar on msot, but not all, psychological variables

Empty nest

The term used to describe the family after the last child departs the household.

Self-conscious emotion

A "secondary emotion" such as embarrassment or pride that requires an awareness of self; unlikely to emerge until about 18 months of age.

Concussion

A brain injury involving a brief loss of brain function in response to a hit or blow to the head - Immediate symptoms include headache, sensitivity to light and sound, feeling dizzy or foggy, and slowed reaction time

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

A brain-imaging technique that uses magnetic forces to measure the increase in blood flow to an area of the brain that occurs when that brain area is active. By having children and adults perform cognitive tasks while lying very still in a scanner, researchers can determine which parts of the brain are involved in particular cognitive activities

Child maltreatment

A broad term for inadequate care or harmful treatment of a child; encompasses both child abuse and child neglect.

Maximum life span

A ceiling on the number of years that any member of a species lives; 120 years for humans.

Mutation

A change in the structure or arrangement of one or more genes that produced a new phenotype

Adolescent egocentrism

A characteristic of adolescent thought that involves difficulty differentiating between the person's own thoughts and feelings and those of other people - Evident in the personal fable and imaginary audience phenomena

Down syndrome

A chromosomal abnormality in which the child has inherited an extra 21st chromosome and is, as a result, intellectually disabled - Also called trisomy 21

Sex chromosome abnormalities

A chromosome abnormality in which a child recieves too many or too few sex chromosomes - X or Y

Grit

A combination of passion and perseverance to achieve a goal even when faced with obstacles; often found among those who hold a growth mindset.

Metabolic Syndrome (MeTS)

A combination of risk factors that can lead to heart disease - Notably obesity, high blood pressure, unhealthy cholesterol levels, and insulin resistance (which can lead to diabetes)

Syphilis

A common sexually transmitted infection that may cross the placental barrier in the middle and later stages of pregnancy, causing miscarriage or serious birth defects

Endometriosis

A condition arising when bits of tissue lining the uterus grow outside the uterus - A cause of infertility

Expansion

A conversational tactic used by adults in speaking to young children in which they respond to a child's utterance with a more grammatically complete expression of the same thought.

Infertility

A couple's inability to get pregnant after a year of trying to do so

Denial

A defense mechanism in which anxiety-provoking thoughts are kept out of, or isolated from, conscious awareness.

Hemophilia

A deficiency in the blood''s ability to clot - It is more common among males than females because it is associated with a sexlinked gene on the X chromosome

Critical period

A defined period in the development of an organism when it is particularly sensitive to certain environmental influences - Outside this period, the same influences will have far less effect

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE)

A degenerative brain disease with symptoms of memory loss, poor impulse control, depression, and eventually dementia - A risk for football players and participants in other contact sports

Cross-sectional design

A developmental research design in which different age groups are studied at the same point in time and compared

Longitudinal design

A developmental research design in which one group of subjects is studied repeatedly over months or years

Sequential designs

A developmental research design that combines the cross-sectional approach and the longitudinal approach in a single study to compensate for the weaknesses of each

Health Disparity

A difference in health status or health outcome that is associated with social, economic, and/or environmental disadvantage

Acceptance-responsiveness

A dimension of parenting captures the extent to which parents are supportive, sensitive to their children's needs, and willing to provide affection and praise when their children meet their expectations.

Demandingness-control

A dimension of parenting reflecting the extent to which parents as opposed to children exert control over decisions and set and enforce rules; also called permissiveness-restrictiveness.

Osteoporosis

A disease affecting older adults in which bone tissue is lost, leaving bones fragile and easily fractured

Rubella

A disease that has little effect on a pregnant woman but may cause several serious birth defects, such as blindness, deafness, and mental retardation, in unborn children exposed in the first 3-4 months of gestation - AKA German measles

Living will

A document, also called an advance directive, in which people state in advance that they do not wish to have extraordinary medical procedures applied if they are hopelessly ill.

Extended family household

A family unit composed of parents and children living with other kin such as grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, or a combination of these.

Myeline

A fatty sheath that insulates neural axons and thereby speeds the transmission of neural impulses

Cohort

A group of people born at the same time - A particular generation of people

Authoritative parenting

A flexible style of parenting combining high demandingness-control and high acceptance-responsiveness in which adults lay down clear rules but also take their children's views into account and explain the rationale for their restrictions.

Imaginary audience

A form of adolescent egocentrism that involves confusing one's own thoughts with the thoughts of a hypothesized audience for behavior and concluding that others share these preoccupations

Alloparenting

A form of parenting that distributes infant care among multiple caregivers such as aunts and uncles, grandparents, siblings, cousins, and neighbors.

Social pretend play

A form of play that involves both cooperation with playmates and pretend or symbolic activity.

Relativistic thinking

A form of postformal operational thought in which it is understood that there are multiple ways of viewing a problem and that the solutions people arrive at will depend on their starting assumptions and perspectives

Hypothetical-deductive reasoning

A form of problem solving in which a person starts with general or abstract ideas and deduces or traces their specific implication - If-then thinking

Androgyny

A gender-role orientation in which the person blends both positive masculine-stereotyped and positive feminine-stereotyped personality traits.

Sickle-cell disease

A genetic blood disease in which red blood cells assume an unusual sickle shape and become inefficient at distributing oxygen throughout the body

Huntington's disease

A genetic disease caused by a single, dominant gene that strikes in middle age to produce a deterioration of physical and mental abilities and premature death

Androgenized female

A genetic female who was exposed to male sex hormones during the prenatal period and therefore developed malelike external genitals and some masculine behaviors.

Temperament

A genetically based pattern of tendencies to respond in predictable ways - The building blocks of personality

Performance Goal

A goal adopted by learners in which they attempt to prove their ability rather than to improve it.

Pincer grasp

A grasp in which the thumb is used in opposition to the fingers, enabling an infant to become more dexterous at lightning and manipulating objects

Biopsychosociocultural Model

A health model that incorporates biological and psychological factors with social and cultural factors

Blastocyst

A hollow sphere of about 100-150 cells that the zygote forms by rapid cell division as it moves through the fallopian tube

Osteoarthritis

A join problem among older adults resulting from a gradual deterioration of the cartilage that cushions the bones and keeps them from rubbing together

Anoxia

A lack of sufficient oxygen to the brain that may result in neurological damage or death

Aphasia

A language disorder.

Permissive parenting

A lax style of parenting combining low demandingness-control and high acceptance-responsiveness in which adults love their children but make few demands on them and rarely attempt to control their behavior.

Recessive gene

A less powerful gene that is not expressed phenotypically when paired with a dominant gene

Seriation

A logical operation that allows a person to mentally order a set of stimuli along a quantifiable dimension such as height or weight

Gender intensification

A magnification of differences between males and females during adolescence associated with increased pressure to conform to traditional gender roles.

Vocabulary Spurt

A phenomenon occurring around 18 months of age when the pace of word learning quickens dramatically.

Perinatologist

A maternal-fetal specialist who focuses on high-risk pregnancies

Epigenetic aging clock

A measure of patterns of DNA methylation that are closely associated with aging.

Correlation coefficient

A measure, ranging from +1.00 to -1.00, of the extent to which two variables or attributes are systematically related to each other in either a positive or a negative way

Chorion

A membrane that surrounds the amnion and becomes attached to the uterine lining to gather nourishment for the embryo

Diabetes

A metabolic disorder characterized by high levels of glucose or sugar in the blood leading to symptoms of thirst, excessive urination, fatigue, and problems involving the eyes, kidneys, and other organs

Artificial insemination

A method of conception that involved injecting sperm from a woman's partner or from a donor into the uterus

Amniocentesis

A method of extracting amniotic fluid from a pregnant woman so that fetal body cells within the fluid can be tested for chromosomal abnormalities and other genetic defects

Thalidomide

A mild tranquilizer that, taken early in pregnancy, can produce a variety of malformations of the limbs, eyes, ears, and heart

Child effects model

A model of family influence in which children are believed to influence their parents rather than vice versa.

Interactional model

A model of family influence in which it is the combination of a particular kind of child with a particular kind of parent that determines developmental outcomes.

Transactional model

A model of family influence in which parent and child are believed to influence each other reciprocally over time, and development is influenced by how their relationship evolves.

Parent effects model

A model of family influence in which parents are believed to influence their children rather than vice versa.

Authoritarian parenting

A restrictive style of parenting combining high demandingness-control and low acceptance-responsiveness in which adults impose many rules, expect strict obedience, and often rely on power tactics rather than explanations to elicit compliance.

Crowd

A network of heterosexual cliques that forms during adolescence and facilitates mixed-sex social activities

Cerebral palsy

A neurological disability caused by anoxia that is associated with difficulty controlling muscle movements

Reconstituted families

A new family that forms after the remarriage of a single parent, sometimes involving the blending of two families into a new one.

Maternal blood sampling

A noninvasive method of prenatal diagnosis involving testing for substances in maternal blood - More recently, analysis of fetal cells that have slipped through the placenta into the mother's blood

Rite of passage

A ritual that marks a person's "passage" from one status to another, usually in reference to rituals marking the transition from childhood to adulthood

Cataract

A pathologic condition of the eye involving opacification (clouding) of the lens that can impair vision or cause blindness

Gender role

A pattern of behaviors and traits that defines how to act the part of a female or a male in a particular society

Adrenarche

A period of increased production of adrenal hormones, starting around 6-8 years of age, that normally precedes increased production of gonadal hormones associated with puberty

Sexual orientation

A person's preference for sexual partners of the same or other sex, often characterized as primarily heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual.

Social clock

A personal sense of when things should be done in life and when an individual is ahead of or behind the schedule dictated by age norms

Dynamic systems theory

A perspective on development that, when applied to motor development, proposes that more sophisticated patterns of motor behavior emerge over time through a "self-organizing" process in which children modify their motor behavior in adaptive ways on the basis of the sensory feedback they receive when they try different movements

Life-span perspective

A perspective that views development as a lifelong, multidirectional process that involves gain and loss, is characterized by considerable plasticity, is shaped by its historical-cultural context, has many causes, and is best viewed from a multidisciplinary perspective

Catch-Up Growth

A phenomenon in which children who have experienced growth deficits will grow rapidly and catch up to the growth trajectory they are genetically programmed to follow

Imaginary companion

A play companion invented by a child in the preoperational stage who has developed the capacity for symbolic thought

Age of viability

A point (Around the 24th prenatal week) when a fetus may survive outside the uterus if the brain and respiratory system are well enough developed and if excellent medical care is available

Guided participation

A process in which children learn by actively participating in culturally relevant activities with the aid and support of their parents and other knowledgeable individuals

Crossing over

A process in which genetic material is exchanged between pairs of chromosomes during meiosis

Hospice

A program that supports dying persons and their families through a philosophy of caring rather than curing, either in a facility or at home.

Constructivist

A proponent of constructivism, the position taken by Piaget and others that humans actively create their own understanding of the world from their experiences, as opposed to being born with innate ideas or being programmed by the environment

Random sample

A sample formed by identifying all members of the larger population of interest and then selecting a portion of them in an unbiased or random way to participate in the study - A technique to ensure that the sample studied is representative or typical of the larger population of interest

Posttraumatic stress disorder

A psychological disorder involving flashbacks to traumatizing events, nightmares, and feelings of helplessness and anxiety in the face of danger experienced by victims of extreme trauma such as soldiers in combat and children who are sexually abused.

Learning

A relatively permanent change in behavior (or behavioral potential) that results from a person's experiences or practice

Dominant gene

A relatively powerful gene that is expressed phenotypically and masks the effect of a less-powerful recessive gene

Structured observation

A research method in which scientists created special conditions designed to elicit the behavior of interest to achieve greater control over the conditions under which they gather behavioral data

Meta-analysis

A research method in which the results of multiple studies addressing the same question are synthesized to produce overall conclusions

Experiment

A research strategy in which the investigator manipulates or alters some aspect of a person's environment to measure its effect on the individual's behavior or development

Correlational method

A research technique that involves determining whether two or more variables are related. It cannot indicate that one thing caused another, but it can suggest that a causal relationship exists or allow us to predict one characteristic from our knowledge of another

Strange situation

A series of mildly stressful experiences involving the departure of the parent and exposure to a stranger to which infants are exposed to determine the quality of their attachments; developed by Ainsworth.

Schizophrenia

A serious form of mental illness characterized by disturbances in logical thinking, emotional expression, and interpersonal behavior

Theory

A set of concepts and propositions designed to organize, describe, and explain a set of observations

Hookup

A sexual encounter between two people who have often just met and have little expectation of forming a romantic relationship.

Habituation

A simple form of learning that involves learning not to respond to a repeated stimulus - Learning to be bored by the familiar

Zygote

A single cell formed at conception from the union of a sperm and an ovum

Holophrase

A single-word utterance used by an infant that represents an entire sentence's worth of meaning.

Clique

A small friendship group that interacts frequently.

Peer

A social equal; a person who functions at a level of behavioral complexity similar to that of the self, often someone of similar age.

Gender constancy

A solid understanding of oneself as male-female, man-woman, over time and across situations.

Sibling rivalry

A spirit of competition, jealousy, or resentment that may arise between two or more brothers or sisters.

Confidant

A spouse, relative, or friend to whom a person feels emotionally close and with whom that person can share thoughts and feelings.

REM Sleep

A state of active, irregular sleep associated with dreaming - Named for the rapid eye movements associated with it

Bereavement

A state of loss that provides the occasion for grief and mourning

Telomeres

A stretch of DNA that forms the tip of a chromosome and that shortens after each cell division, serving as an aging clock and timing the death of cells.

Attachment

A strong affectionate tie that binds a person to an intimate companion and is characterized by affection and a desire to maintain proximity.

Genetically informed studies

A study designed to determine whether there are genetic explanations for apparent environmental effects and establish more firmly whether environment matters

Surfactant

A substance that aids breathing by preventing the air sacs of the lungs from sticking together

Hot Flash

A sudden experience of warmth and sweating, often followed by a cold shiver, that occurs during menopause in women

Cesarean birth

A surgical procedure in which an incision is made in the mother's abdomen and uterus so that the baby can be removed through the abdomen

Cochlear implant

A surgically implanted amplification device that stimulates the auditory nerve to provide the sensation of hearing to a deaf individual

Language

A symbolic system in which a limited number of signals can be combined according to rules to produce an infinite number of messages

Universal Grammar

A system of common rules and properties of language that may allow infants to grow up learning any of the world's languages.

Culture

A system of meaning shared by a population of people and transmitted from one generation to the next

Caloric restriction

A technique demonstrated to extend the lifespan of laboratory animals involving a highly nutritious but severely calorie-restricted diet.

Random assignment

A technique in which research participants are placed in experimental conditions in an unbiased or random way so that the resulting groups are not systematically different

Apgar test

A test routinely used to assess a newborn's heart rate, respiration, color, muscle tone, and reflexes immediately after birth and 5 minutes later - Used to identify high-risk babies

Dual-process model of bereavement

A theory of coping with bereavement in which the bereaved oscillate between loss-oriented coping in which they deal with their emotions, restoration-oriented coping in which they try to manage practical tasks and reorganize their lives, and periods of respite from coping.

Stage theory

A theory of development laid out in a sequence of distinct phases, each characterized by a particular set of abilities, motives, emotions, or behaviors that form a coherent pattern

Hypotheses

A theory-based prediction about what will hold true if we observe a phenomenon

Chromosomes

A threadlike structure make up of genes - In humans, there are 46 chromosomes in the nucleus of each cell

Secular Trend

A trend in industrialized societies toward earlier maturation and greater body size

Endocrine Gland

A type of gland that secretes chemicals called hormones directly into the bloodstream. Endocrine glands play critical roles in stimulating growth and regulating bodily functions

Separation anxiety

A wary or fretful reaction that infants display when separated from their attachment objects.

Stranger anxiety

A wary or fretful reaction that infants often display when approached by an unfamiliar person.

Amnion

A watertight membrane that surrounds the developing embryo, regulating its temperature and cushioning it against injuries

Population

A well-defined group that a researcher studies a sample of individuals and is interested in drawing conclusions about

DNA methylation

A well-studied way in which experiences have epigenetic effects on gene expression through chemical codings on top of DNA molecules

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome

AIDS - The life-threatening disease in which the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) destroys the immune system, and makes victims susceptible to rare, so-called opportunistic, infections that eventually kill them - AIDS is transmitted through sexual activity, needle sharing in drug use, and from mother to child before or during birth

Chumship

According to neo-Freudian Harry Stack Sullivan, a close friendship in childhood provides emotional support and teaches children how to participate in intimate relationships.

Helicopter parenting

Also called overparenting, parenting characterized by developmentally inappropriate levels of control of and assistance to late-adolescent and emerging-adult children.

WEIRD people

An acronym referring to people living in societies that are Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic - The field of psychology has been characterized as the study of WEIRD people

Dialectical thinking

An advanced form of thought that involves detecting paradoxes and inconsistencies among ideas and trying to reconcile them

Functional Grammar

An analysis of the semantic relations (meanings such as naming and locating) that children express in their earliest sentences.

Orienting system

An attentional system that reacts to events in the environment

Scientific method

An attitude or value about the pursuit of knowledge that dictates that investigators must be objective and must allow their data to decide the merits of their theorizing

Cooing

An early form of vocalization that involves repeating vowel-like sounds.

Visual cliff

An elevated glass platform that creates an illusion of depth and is used to test the depth perception of infants

Complicated grief

An emotional response to a death that is unusually prolonged or intense and that impairs functioning; pathological grief.

Postpartum depression

An episode of severe, clinical depression lasting for months in a woman who has just given birth - To be contrasted with milder cases of the "baby blues", in which a new mother is tearful and moody in the first days after birth

Fast life history strategy

An evolved approach in harsh and unpredictable environments in which parents are not very supportive of children, sex and child bearing begin early, romantic partnerships often do not last, and children focus on surviving in the present rather than on preparing for the future

Slow life history strategy

An evolved approach in safe and predictable environments in which parents are supportive of children, sex and child bearing are postponed during adolescence until resources are in place to raise a family, couples from long-term relationships, parents invest energy in raising a small family, and children have a good chance of surviving

Case Study

An in-depth examination of an individual (or a small number of individuals) typically carried out by compiling and analyzing information from a variety of sources such as observing, testing, and interviewing the person or people who know the individual

Centenarian

An individual who lives to be 100 years of age

Nativist

An individual whose approach to human development emphasizes the contribution of genetic factors - Specifically, a person who believes that infants enter the world equipped with knowledge that allows them to perceive a meaningful world from the start

Kinkeeper

An individual, typically a woman, who keeps family members in touch with each other and handles family problems when they arise.

Secure attachment

An infant-caregiver bond or intimate relationship in which the individual welcomes close contact, uses the attachment object as a source of comfort, and dislikes but can manage separations.

Celiac disease

An inherited digestive problem in which gluten (the proteins found in all wheat products) triggers an immune response that damages a person's small intestine

Imprinting

An innate form of learning in which the young of certain species will follow and become attached to moving objects (usually their mothers) during a critical period early in life.

Avoidant attachment

An insecure infant-caregiver bond or other intimate relationship characterized by little separation anxiety and a tendency to avoid or ignore the attachment object upon reunion.

Resistant attachment

An insecure infant-caregiver bond or other intimate relationship characterized by strong separation anxiety and a tendency to show ambivalent reactions to the attachment object upon reunion, seeking and yet resisting contact and not being comforted.

Disorganized-disoriented attachment

An insecure infant-caregiver bond, common among abused children, that combines features of the resistant and avoidant attachment styles and is characterized by the infant's dazed response to reunion and confusion about whether to approach or avoid the caregiver.

Mastery Motivation

An intrinsic motive to master and control the environment that is evident early in infancy.

Total brain death

An irreversible loss of functioning in the entire brain, both the higher centers of the cerebral cortex that are involved in thought and the lower centers of the brain that control basic life processes such as breathing.

Plasticity

An openness of brain cells or of the organism as a whole to positive and negative environmental influence - A capacity to change in response to experience

Placenta

An organ, formed from the chorion and the lining of the uterus, that provides for the nourishment of the unborn child and the elimination of its metabolic wastes

Agency

An orientation toward individual action and achievement that emphasizes traits of dominance, independence, assertiveness, and competitiveness - Considered masculine

Reflex

An unlearned and automatic response to a stimulus

Clinical method

An unstandardized interviewing procedure used by Piaget in which a child's response to each successive question (or problem) determines what the investigator will ask next

Teratogen

Any disease, drug, or other environmental agent that can harm a developing fetus

Neuroconstructivism theory

Approach that explains the construction of new knowledge by a child in terms of changes in neural structures in response to experience - Neural structures of the brain change in response to experiences

Sensitive period

As compared to a critical period, a period of life during which the developing individual is especially susceptible to the effects of experience or has an especially high level of plasticity

Bonding

As distinguished from attachment, a more biologically-based process in which parent and infant form a connection through contact in the first hours after birth when both are highly alert.

Focusing system

Attentional system that deliberately seeks out and maintains attention to events

Somaesthetic senses

Body senses, including the senses of touch, temperature, and pain, as well as the kinesthetic sense of where one's body parts are in relation to other body parts and to the environment

Social Learning theory

Bandura's social learning theory, which holds that children and adults can learn novel responses merely by observing the behavior of a model, making mental notes on what they have seen, and then using these mental representations to reproduce the models behavior - More broadly, a theory emphasizing the importance of cognitive processing of social experiences

Homogamy

Basis for mate selection centered on similarity between partners in demographic and personal characteristics.

Complementarity

Basis for mate selection in which people choose partners who are different from them but have strengths that compensate for their weaknesses or otherwise complement their own characteristics.

Copy number variations

CNVs - Instances in which a person receives too many or too few copies of a stretch of DNA - Like in gene mutations, they can either be inherited from a parent or arise spontaneously and can contribute to diseases and disorders

Chorionic villus sampling

CVS - An alternative to amniocentesis in which a catheter is inserted through the cervix to withdraw fetal cells from the chorion for prenatal testing to detect genetic defects

Palliative care

Care aimed not at curing but at meeting the physical, psychological, and spiritual needs of dying patients.

Culturally Competent Care

Care that is attuned to a patient's diversity and the cultural factors that might affect their health and provision of healthcare

Baby biographies

Carefully recorded observations of the growth and development of children by their parents over a period - The first scientific investigations of development

Socioemotional selectivity theory

Carstensen's notion that our needs change as we grow older and that we actively choose to narrow our range of social partners to those who can best meet our emotional needs.

Cultural evolution

Change in a species achieved not through biological evolution but through learning and passing on from one generation to the next new ways of adapting to the environment

Free radicals

Chemically unstable byproducts of metabolism that have an unpaired electron and react with other molecules to produce toxic substances that damage cells and contribute to aging.

At risk

Children who have a higher than normal chance of either short-term or long term problems because of genetic defects, prenatal hazards, or perinatal damage

Tinnitus

Condition causes by exposure to high noise levels that involves ringing sounds in one or both ears and that can last for days, weeks, or indefinitely

Spina bifida

Condition in which the bottom of the neural tube fails to fully close during prenatal development and part of the spinal cord is not fully encased in the protective covering of the spinal column

Anencephaly

Condition in which the top of the neural tube fails to close and the main portion of the brain above the brain stem fails to develop properly

Obesity

Condition of being overweight - Specifically, being 20% or more above the "ideal" weight for one's height, age, and sex

Chromosome abnormalities

Conditions in which a child has too few, too many, or incomplete chromosomes because of errors in the formation of sperm or ova

Emotional display rules

Cultural rules specifying what emotions should and should not be expressed under what circumstances (e.g., "look pleased when you receive a lousy gift").

Age-related macular degeneration

Damage to cells in the retina responsible for central vision

Congenital Malformations

Defects that are present at birth and are caused by genetic factors, prenatal events, or both

DNA

Deoxyribonucleic acid, the double helix molecule whose chemical code makes up chromosomes and serves as our genetic endowment - It is made up of sequences of the chemicals ~ A - Adenine, C - Cytosine, G - Guanine, T - Thymine

Maturation

Developmental changes that are biologically programmed by genes rather than caused primarily by learning, injury, illness, or some other life experience

Coordination of secondary schemes

During Piaget's sensorimotor period, the infant's combining of actions to solve problems, using one scheme as a means to an end - As in batting aside a barrier in order to grasp a toy

Tertiary circular reaction

During Piaget's sensorimotor period, the infant's experimenting with actions to find new ways to solve problems or produce interesting effects

Primary circular reaction

During Piaget's sensorimotor period, the infant's repetition of interacting acts centered on his or her own body

Secondary circular reaction

During Piaget's sensorimotor period, the infant's repetition of interesting actions on objects

Social-role theory

Eagly's view that gender role stereotypes are created and maintained by differences in the roles that men and women play in society rather than being inherent in males and females

Telegraphic Speech

Early sentences that consist primarily of content words and omit the less meaningful parts of speech such as articles, prepositions, pronouns, and auxiliary verbs.

Evoked potentials

Electrical activity in the brain, as measured through electrodes attached to the surface of the skull, in response to various stimuli - Used to study infant perception

Environment

Events or conditions outside the person that are presumed to influence and be influenced by the individual

Age norms

Expectations about what people should be doing or how they should behave at different points in the life span

Shared environmental influences

Experiences that individuals living in the same home environment share and that work to make them similar

Nonshared environmental influences

Experiences unique to the individual that are not shared by other members of the family and that tend to make members of the same family different

Fetal alcohol syndrome

FAS - A group of symptoms commonly observed in the offspring of mothers who use alcohol heavily during pregnancy, including a small head, widely spaced eyes, and intellectual disability

Oxytocin

Hormone that plays important roles in facilitating parent-infant attachment as well as reducing anxiety and encouraging affiliation in other social relationships

Stillbirths

Fetal death that occurs late in pregnancy when survival outside the womb would normally have been possible

Germinal period

First phase of prenatal development, lasting about 2 weeks from conception until the developing organism becomes attached to the wall of the uterus

Attention

Focusing perception and cognition on something in particular

Storm and stress

G. Stanley Hall's term for the emotional ups and downs and rapid changes that he believed characterize adolescence

Differentiation

In brain development, the progressive diversification of cells that results in their taking on different characteristics and functions

Disenfranchised grief

Grief that is not fully recognized or appreciated by other people and therefore may not receive much sympathy and support, as in the loss of a gay partner.

Anticipatory grief

Grieving before death for what is happening and for what lies ahead.

Kangaroo care

Holding a young infant skin to skin on a parent's chest - Often used with premature babies to help maintain body temperature, heart rate, and oxygen levels in the blood

Ulnar grasp

Holding objects by clamping them between the palm of the hand and the fingers

Progesterone

Hormone involved in regulating a woman's menstrual cycle and preparing the uterus for a pregnancy - Sometimes called "the pregnancy hormone" for its role in sustaining a pregnancy

Growth Hormone

Hormone produced by the pituitary gland that stimulates childhood physical growth and the adolescent growth spurt

In vitro fertilization

IVF - Procedure in which several eggs are removed from a woman's ovary, fertilized by sperm in a petri dish in the laboratory, then transferred to the woman's uterus in hopes that one will implant on the wall of the uterus

Goal-corrected partnership

In Bowlby's attachment theory, the most mature phase of attachment in which parent and child accommodate to each other's needs and the child becomes more independent.

Mesosystem

In Bronfenbrenner's bioecological approach, interrelationships between microsystems or immediate environments

Exosystem

In Bronfenbrenner's bioecological approach, settings not experienced directly by individuals that still influence their development

Macrosystem

In Bronfenbrenner's bioecological approach, the larger cultural or subcultural context of development

Chronosystem

In Bronfenbrenner's bioecological approach, the system that captures the way changes in environmental systems, such as social trends and life events, are patterned over a person's lifetime

Affordances

In Elanor and James Gibson's ecological theory of perception, characteristics of an object that reveal what it has to offer humans and how it might be used by them

Skill

In Fischer's dynamic skill framework, a person's ability to perform a particular task in a specific context

Developmental range

In Fischer's dynamic skill framework, the concept that people's abilities vary depending on the context, from optimal levels in highly supportive contexts to lower levels in unsupportive situations

Dynamic

In Fischer's dynamic skill framework, the idea that human performance changes in response to changes in context

Adaptation

In Piaget's cognitive developmental theory, a person's inborn tendency to adjust to the demands of the environment, consisting of the complementary processes of assimilation and accommodation

Organization

In Piaget's cognitive developmental theory, a person's inborn tendency to combine and integrate available schemes into more coherent and complex systems or bodies of knowledge - As a memory strategy, a technique that involves grouping or classifying stimuli into meaningful clusters

Accommodation

In Piaget's cognitive developmental theory, the process of modifying existing schemes to incorporate or adapt to new experiences

Transformational thought

In Piaget's theory, the ability to conceptualize transformations, or processes of change from one state to another, which appears in the stage of concrete operations

Reversibility

In Piaget's theory, the ability to reverse or negate an action by mentally performing the opposite action

Equilibration

In Piaget's theory, the process of seeking a state of mental stability in which our thoughts (schemes) are consistent with the information we receive from the external world

Centration

In Piaget's theory, the tendency to focus on only one aspect of a problem when two or more aspects are relevant

Static thought

In Piaget's theory, the thought characteristic of the preoperational period that is fixed on end states rather than on the changes that transform one state into another

Internal working model

In attachment theory, cognitive representation of self and other that children construct from their interactions with caregivers and that shape their expectations about relationships.

Companionate love

In Sternberg's triangular theory of love, affectionate love is characterized by high intimacy and commitment but low passion.

Consummate love

In Sternberg's triangular theory of love, love has high levels of all three components of love: passion, intimacy, and decision/commitment.

Mastery (Learning) Goal

In achievement situations, aiming to learn new things in order to learn or improve ability.

Loss-oriented coping

In the dual-process model of bereavement, coping focused on dealing with one's emotions and reconciling oneself to the loss.

Restoration-oriented coping

In the dual-process model of bereavement, coping focused on managing daily living, rethinking one's life, and mastering new roles and challenges.

Orchids

Individuals who are highly susceptible to both good and bad environmental influences, who thrive in optimal conditions but wilt in poor conditions

Dandelions

Individuals who can grow in a variety of environments and are less susceptible to environmental influences

Nonbinary

Individuals whose gender identity does not neatly fit into one of the two categories of gender (male, female) that most societies have prescribed

Cisgender

Individuals whose internal sense of gender matches the sex they were assigned at birth as male or female

Gender identity

Individuals' basic awareness that they are either a male or a female

Social referencing

Infants' monitoring of companions' emotional reactions in ambiguous situations and use of this information to decide how they should feel and behave.

Elder abuse

Instances in which older adults are physically or psychologically mistreated, neglected or deprived of needed care, financially exploited, and even sexually abused.

Gene therapy

Interventions that involve substituting normal genes for the genes associated with a disease or disorder - Otherwise altering a person's genetic makeup

Peer selection versus peer socialization issue

Issue in the study of peer influence asking whether adolescents resemble their peers because they select similar others as friends or because their friends socialize them in certain directions.

Scaffolding

Jerome Bruner's term for providing structure to a less-skilled learner to encourage advancement

Directionality problem

The problem in correlational studies of determining whether a presumed causal variable is the cause or the effect

Bilingual

Knowing two or more languages.

Metalinguistic Awareness

Knowledge of language as a system.

Language Acquisition Device

LAD - A set of linguistic processing skills that nativists believe to be innate; presumably the LAD enables a child to infer the rules governing others' speech and then use these rules to produce language.

Low birth weight

LBW - A weight at birth of less than 2500 grams or 5.5 lbs, associated with increased risk of developmental problems

Childhood gender nonconformity (CGN)

Lack of adherence as a child to the typical gender-role norms for members of one's assigned gender group.

Euthanasia

Literally, "good death"; specifically, hastening, either actively or passively, the death of someone suffering from an incurable illness or injury.

Biosocial theory

Money and Ehrhardt's theory of gender-role development that focuses on how biological events influence the development of boys and girls and how early biological developments influence how society reacts to children

Identical twins

Monozygotic twins who develop from a single zygote that later divides to form two genetically identical individuals

Miscarriage

Loss of pregnancy before survival of the baby outside the womb is possible

Continuing bond

Maintenance of attachment to a loved one after the person's death through reminiscence, use of the person's possessions, consultation with the deceased, and the like.

Assisted suicide

Making available to individuals who wish to commit suicide the means by which they may do so, such as when a physician provides a terminally ill patient who wants to die with enough medication to overdose.

Androgens

Male hormones that help trigger the adolescent growth spurt and the development of the male sex organs, secondary sex characteristics, and sexual motivation

Emerging adulthood

Newly identified period of the life span extending from about age 18 to age 25 or even later, when young people are neither adolescents nor adults and are exploring their identities, careers, and relationships

Gender typing

The process by which children become aware of their gender and acquire the motives, values, and behaviors considered appropriate for members of their biological sex

Sex-linked inheritance

Mechanism of inheritance in which a characteristic is influenced by single genes located on the sex chromosome - Usually the X chromosome

Ultrasound

Method of examining physical organs by scanning them with sound waves

Twin study

Method of studying genetic and environmental influence in which the similarity of identical twins is compared to that of (less genetically similar) fraternal twins, often in studies involving both twins reared together and twins reared apart

Family studies

Method of studying genetic and environmental influence that examines similarities in traits between pairs of siblings who have different degrees of genetic similarity

Adoption study

Method of studying genetic and environmental influence that involves determining whether adopted children are more similar to their biological parents (whose genes they share) or adoptive parents (who shaped their environment)

Sociometric techniques

Methods for determining who is well liked and popular and who is disliked or neglected in a group.

Child abuse

Mistreating or harming a child physically, emotionally, or sexually, as distinguished from another form of child maltreatment, neglect of the child's basic needs.

Parkes/Bowlby attachment model of bereavement

Model of grieving describing four predominant reactions to loss of an attachment figure: numbness, yearning, disorganization and despair, and reorganization.

Family stress model

Model of the effects of economic hardship in families that centers on the negative effects of financial stresses on parent mental health, parenting, and, in turn, child development.

Sensation

The process by which information is detected by the sensory receptors and transmitted to the brain - The starting point in perception

Neonatal abstinence syndrome

NAS - A collection of symptoms including tremors, weight loss, feeding difficulties, irritability, and seizures, affecting newborns exposed prenatally to opioid drugs

Confirmation bias

Our tendency to seek and interpret new information that confirms our existing beliefs about something

Gender stereotypes

Overgeneralized and largely inaccurate beliefs about what males and females are like

Phenylketonuria

PKU - A genetic disease in which a child is unable to metabolize phenylalanine - If left untreated, it soon causes hyperactivity and intellectual disability

Poverty of the Stimulus

POTS - Term for the notion that the language input to young children is so impoverished or limited that they could not possibly acquire language (without a powerful, innate language acquisition device).

Prostate Gland

Part of the male reproductive system, which secretes prostate fluid that mixes with sperm to produce semen

Mitosis

The process in which a cell duplicates its chromosomes and then divides into two genetically identical daughter cells

Perceived popularity

Perceived status, power, and visibility in the peer group, as distinct from likeability.

Neonatal

Pertaining to events or developments in the first month after birth

Transgender

Pertaining to individuals who identify with a gender other than their biological one

Evocative gene-environment correlations

Phenomenon in which children's genotypes evoke certain kinds of reactions for other people so that their genetic makeup and experiences are correlated

Active gene-environment correlations

Phenomenon in which children's genotypes influence the kinds of environments they seek out and therefore experience

Role reversal

Phenomenon in which the aging parent becomes the child and the child becomes the caregiver, not typical of most aging parent-child relationships.

Perceptual salience

Phenomenon in which the most obvious features of an object or situation have disproportionate influence on the perceptions and thoughts of young children

Passive gene-environment correlation

Phenomenon in which, because parents provide children with both their genes and a home environment compatible with those genes, the home environments to which children are exposed are correlated with (and typically reinforce) their genotypes

Assimilation

Piaget's term for the process by which children interpret new experiences in terms of their existing schemata

Cognitive-Developmental theory

Piaget's theory detailing how children advance through four stages of thinking- Sensorimotor stage- Preoperational stage- Concrete operational stage- Formal operational stage

Safe haven

Point of safety, represented by an infant's attachment figure, to which the infant can return for comfort if frightened.

Preimplantation genetic diagnosis

Prenatal diagnostic procedure in which a mother's eggs are fertilized in a laboratory using in vitro fertilization techniques, DNA tests are conducted on the first cells that result from mitosis of each fertilized egg, and only eggs that do not have chromosome abnormalities or genes associated with disorders are implanted into the uterus

Presbycusis

Problems of the aging ear, which commonly involve loss of sensitivity to high frequency or high-pitched sounds

Presbyopia

Problems of the aging eye, especially loss of near vision related to a decreased ability of the lens to accommodate to objects close to the eye

Migration

Process in early brain development in which neurons move from their place of origin in the center of the brain to particular locations throughout the brain where they will become part of specialized functioning units

Proliferation

Process in early brain development in which neurons multiply at a staggering rate throughout the prenatal period

Fetal programming

Processes through which the prenatal environment affects the genetic unfolding of the embryo/fetus and its physiological functions in ways that can influence physical and mental health much later in life

Contour

The amount of light-dark transition or boundary area in a visual stimulus

Postformal thought

Proposed stages of cognitive development that lie beyond formal operations

Triangular theory of love

Robert Sternberg's model describes types of love in terms of three components: passion, intimacy, and commitment.

Transformational Grammar

Rules of syntax that allow a person to transform statements into questions, negatives, imperatives, and other kinds of sentences.

Pragmatics

Rules specifying how language is to be used appropriately in different social contexts to achieve goals.

Syntax

Rules specifying how words can be combined to form meaningful sentences in a language.

Sudden infant death syndrome

SIDS - The death of a sleeping baby because of a failure of the respiratory system - Linked to maternal smoking

Size constancy

The tendency to perceive an object as the same size despite changes in its distance from the eyes

Embryologists

Scientists who studies early growth and development during the prenatal period

Embryonic period

Second phase of prenatal development, lasting from the third through the eighth prenatal week, during which the major organs and anatomical structures begin to develop

Dyslexia

Serious difficulties learning to read in children who have normal intellectual ability and no sensory impairments or emotional difficulties that could account for their learning problems.

Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS)

Several symptoms experienced shortly before each menstrual period that include having tender breasts, feeling bloated, and being irritable and moody

Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PDD)

Severe form of premenstrual syndrome that includes affective symptoms in addition to physical symptoms associated with the menstrual cycle and that can be disabling or disruptive to work and relationships

Oral sex

Sexual activity involving contact between the mouth and genitals.

Heritability

The amount of variability in a population on some trait dimension that is attributable to genetic differences among those individuals

Molecular genetics

The analysis of particular genes and their effects, including the identification of specific genes that influence particular traits and the comparison of animals or humans who have these specific genes and those who do not

Parental alienation

Situation in which a child becomes reluctant or refuses to have a relationship with one parent because of the alienating efforts of the other parent.

Gross motor skills

Skills that involve large muscles and whole-body or limb movements - Kicking the legs

Fine motor skills

Skills that involve precise movements of the hands and fingers or feet and toes

Age grade

Socially defined age groups or strata, each with different statuses, roles, privileges, and responsibilities in society

Child-Directed Speech

Speech used by adults speaking with young children; it involves short, simple sentences spoken slowly and in a high pitched voice, often with much repetition and with exaggerated emphasis on keywords.

Intimate partner violence

Spousal abuse as well as violence in dating, cohabiting, and other romantic relationships that can involve physical or psychological abuse as well as sexual coercion and rape.

Research ethics

Standards of conduct that investigators are ethically bound to honor to protect their research participants from physical or psychological harm

Hippocampus

Structure in the medial temporal lobe of the brain centrally involved in the formation of memories

Relational aggression

Subtle and indirect aggression that involves gossiping about and ignoring or excluding others.

Pretend play

Symbolic play in which one actor, object, or action symbolizes or stands for another

Development

Systematic changes in the individual occurring between conception and death; such changes can be positive, negative, or neutral.

Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT)

Taking estrogen and progestin to compensate for hormone loss because of menopause in women

A-not-B error

Tendency of 8-12 month old infants to search for a hidden object in the place they last found it (A) rather than in its new hiding place (B)

Pituitary Gland

The "master gland" located at the base of the brain that regulates the other endocrine glands and produces growth hormones

Visual accommodation

The ability of the lens of the eye to change shape to bring objects at different distances into focus

Decentration

The ability to focus on two or more dimensions of a problem at one time

Visual acuity

The ability to perceive detail in a visual stimulus

Transitivity

The ability to recognize the necessary or logical relations among elements in a serial order

Cross-modal perception

The ability to use one sensory modality to identify a stimulus or a pattern of stimuli already familiar through another modality

Joint Attention

The act of looking at the same object at the same time with someone else; a way in which infants share perceptual experiences with their caregivers.

Gene expression

The activation of particular genes in particular cells of the body at particular times in life

Cognition

The activity of knowing and the processes through which knowledge is acquired

Egocentrism

The tendency to view the world from the person's own perspective and fail to recognize that others may have different viewpoints

Epidural block

The most common pain relief given to mothers in the birth process, administered through an injection or tube in the lower back - Considered relatively safe for the baby but tends to lengthen labor

Testosterone

The most important of the male hormones, or androgens - Essential for normal sexual development during the prenatal period and at puberty

Cephalocaudal Principle

The principle that growth proceeds from the head (cephalic region) to the tail (caudal region)

Evolutionary psychology

The application of an evolutionary perspective to understanding why humans develop, think, and behave as they do

Evolutionary psychology

The application of evolutionary theory and its concept of natural selection to understanding why humans think and behave as they do

Dependent variable

The aspect of behavior measured in an experiment and assumed to be under the control of, or dependent on, the independent variable

Independent variable

The aspect of the environment that a researcher deliberately changes or manipulates in an experiment to see its effect on behavior

Life expectancy

The average number of years a newborn baby can be expected to live - Now about 78 years in the United States

Neuron

The basic unit of the nervous system- A nerve cell

Morphemes

The basic units of meaning that exist in a word.

Fixed Mindset

The belief that intelligence and other traits are fixed or static; associated with the tendency to want to prove rather than improve one's ability.

Growth Mindset

The belief that intelligence is not fixed but malleable and can therefore be improved through hard work and effort.

Ethnocentrism

The belief that one's own cultural or ethnic group is superior to others

Neuroplasticity

The brains remarkable ability to change in response to experience throughout the lifespan, as when it recovers from injury or benefits from stimulating learning experiences

Fast Mapping

The capacity of young language learners to readily determine the object or other referent of a word and then remember this for future encounters with the word.

Autonomy

The capacity to make decisions independently, serve as one's own source of emotional strength, and otherwise manage life tasks without being overdependent on other people; an important developmental task of adolescence.

Symbolic capacity

The capacity to use symbols such as words, images, or actions to represent or stand for objects and experiences - Representational thought

Genotype

The genetic endowment that an individual inherits

Species Heredity

The genetic endowment that members of a particular species have in common - A contributor to universal species traits and patterns of maturation

Differential susceptibility hypothesis

The concept that some people's genetic makeup makes them more reactive than other people to both good and bad environmental influences

Linked lives

The concept that the development of the individual is intertwined with the development of other family members.

Family systems theory

The conceptualization of the family as a whole consists of interrelated parts, each of which affects and is affected by every other part, and each of which contributes to the functioning of the whole.

Single gene-pair inheritance

The genetic mechanism through which a characteristic is influenced by only one pair of genes, one gene from the mother and its partner from the father

Continuity-Discontinuity issue

The debate among theorists about whether human development is best characterized as gradual and continuous or abrupt and stagelike

Universality-Context issue

The debate over the extent to which developmental changes are common to everyone (universal, as in most stage theories) or different from person to person (particularistic)

Nature-Nurture issue

The debate over the relative roles of biological predispositions (nature) and environmental influences (nurture) as determinants of human development

Sleeper effect

The delayed effect of an earlier experience, for example, the effect of early deprivation of visual stimulation

Myelination

The depositing of a fatty sheath around neural axons that insulates them and thereby speeds the transmission of neural impulses

Emergent Literacy

The developmental precursors of reading skills in young children, including knowledge, skills, and attributes that will facilitate the acquisition of reading competence.

Natural selection

The evolutionary principle that individuals who have characteristics advantageous for survival in a particular environment are more likely to survive and reproduce. Over many generations, this process of "survival of the fittest" will lead to changes in a species and the development of new species

Coparenting

The extent and manner in which the two parents coordinate their parenting and function as a team in relation to their children.

Estrogen

The female hormone responsible for the development of the breasts, the female sex organs, and secondary sex characteristics and for the beginning of the menstrual cycle

Gender segregation

The formation of separate boys' and girls' peer groups during childhood

Alphabetic Principle

The idea that the letters in printed words represent the sounds in spoken words

Indirect effects

The instance in which the relationship between two individuals in a family is modified by the behavior or attitudes of a third family member.

Reaction time

The interval between the presentation of a stimulus and the response to it

Cohabitation

The living together of two single adults as an unmarried couple.

Class inclusion

The logical understanding that parts or subclasses are included in the whole class and that the whole is therefore greater than any of its parts

X chromosome

The longer of the two sex chromosomes - Normal females have two X chromosomes - Normal males have one X chromosome

Person-Environment Fit

The match between an individual's personality and environment (e.g., work environment); similar to goodness of fit between temperament and environment.

Prosody

The melody or sound pattern of speech, including intonation, stress, and timing with which something is said.

Conception

The moment of fertilization, hen a sperm penetrates an ovum, forming a zygote

Parental imperative

The notion that the demands of parenthood cause men and women to adopt distinct roles and psychological traits.

Overregularization

The overgeneralization of observed grammatical rules to irregular cases to which the rules do not apply (e.g., saying mouses rather than mice).

Intergenerational transmission of parenting

The passing down from generation to generation of parenting styles, abusive or otherwise

Concordance rates

The percentage of cases in which a particular attribute is present for both members of a pair of people if it is present for one member

Middle-generation squeeze

The phenomenon in which middle-aged adults sometimes experience heavy responsibilities for both the younger and the older generations in the family.

Gene-environment interaction

The phenomenon in which the effects of people's genes depend on the kind of environment they experience and in which the effects of the environment depend of their genetic endowment

Biological sex

The physical characteristics that define male and female

Sensory threshold

The point at which low levels of stimulation can be detected

Synapse

The point at which the axon or dendrite of one neuron makes a connection with another neuron

Socioeconomic status

The position people hold in society based on such factors as income, education, occupational status, and the prestige of their neighborhoods

Meiosis

The process in which a germ cell divides, producing sperm or ova, each containing half of the parent cell's original complement of chromosomes - In humans, the products of meiosis normally contain 23 chromosomes

Neurogenesis

The process of generating new neurons across the lifespan

Organogenesis

The process, occurring during the period of the embryo, in which major organs take shape

Emotion regulation

The processes involved in initiating, maintaining, and altering emotional responses.

Puberty

The processes of biological change that result in an individual's attaining sexual maturity and becoming capable of producing a child

Caregiver burden

The psychological distress associated with providing care for someone with physical, cognitive, or both types of impairment.

Adolescent Growth Spurt

The rapid increase in physical growth that occurs during adolescence

Conservation

The recognition that certain properties of an object or substance do not change when its appearance is altered in some superficial way

Synaptic Pruning

The removal of unnecessary synapses between neurons in response to experience

Behavioral genetics

The scientific study of the extent to which genetic and environmental differences among individuals are responsible for differences among them in traits such as intelligence and personality

Olfaction

The sense of smell, made possible by sensory receptors in the nasal passage that react to chemical molecules in the air

Family life cycle

The sequence of changes in family composition, roles, and relationships that occurs from the time people marry until they die.

Andropause

The slower and less-dramatic male counterpart of menopause, characterized by decreasing levels of testosterone and symptoms that include low libido, fatigue and lack of energy, erection problems, memory problems, and loss of pubic hair

Fontanelles

The spaces between the bones of an infant's skull, consisting of soft cartilage-like tissue, which will gradually harden into bony material as calcium and other minerals are deposited into them

Gender consistency

The stage of gender typing in which children realize that their sex is stable across situations or despite changes in activities or appearance.

Gender stability

The stage of gender typing in which children realize that their sex remains the same over time.

Gerontology

The study of aging and old age

Positivity effect

The tendency of older adults to pay more attention to, better remember, and put more priority on positive information than on negative information

Psychoanalytic theory

The theoretical perspective associated with Freud and his followers that emphasizes unconscious motivations for behavior, conflicts within the personality, and stages of psychosexual development

Fetal period

The third phase of prenatal development, lasting form the ninth prenatal week until birth - During this period, the major organ systems begin to function effectively and the fetus grows rapidly

Double standard

The view that sexual behavior appropriate for members of one gender is inappropriate for members of the other.

Phenotype

The way in which a person's genotype is expressed in observable or measurable characteristics

Programmed theories of aging

Theories of biological aging that emphasize the systematic genetic control of aging processes.

Systems theories

Theories of development holding that changes over the life span arise from the ongoing interrelationships between a changing organism and a changing environment, both of which are part of a larger, dynamic system

Damage theories of aging

Theories of the biology of aging that emphasize random, haphazard errors and damage associated with such processes as the production of free radicals as explanations of why we all age and die.

Attachment theory

Theory of close relationships developed by Bowlby and Ainsworth and grounded in ethological theory (with psychoanalytic theory and cognitive theory); it says that close emotional bonds such as parent-child attachments are biologically based and contribute to species survival.

Aging

To most developmentalists, positive, negative, and neutral changes in the mature organism; different from biological aging.

Adolescence

Transitional period between childhood and adulthood that begins with puberty and ends when the individual has acquired adult competencies and responsibilities - Roughly ages 10 to 18 or later

Sexual assault

Unwanted and nonconsensual sexual contact or behavior ranging from unwanted touching to rape.

Syntactic Bootstrapping

Using the syntax of a sentence—that is, where a word is placed in a sentence—to determine the meaning of the word.

Antioxidants

Vitamins C, E, and similar substances that may increase longevity, although not for long, by inhibiting the free radical activity associated with oxidation and in turn preventing age-related diseases.

Zone of proximal development

Vygotsky's term for the difference between what a learner can accomplish independently and what a learner can accomplish with the guidance and encouragement of a more skilled partner

Epigenetic effects

Ways in which environmental influences alter the expression of genes (whether genes are turned on or off) and therefore the influence of genes on traits

Orthogenetic Principle

Werner's principle that development proceeds from global and undifferentiated states toward more differentiated and integrated patterns of response

Loneliness

​​The unpleasant feeling of being socially isolated.