Developmental Psychology Exam 1

Formal Operational Stage

(11 to adulthood)The adolescent reasons in more abstract, idealistic, and logical ways.

Preoperational Stage

(2 to 7)The child begins to represent the world with words and images. These words and images reflect increased symbolic thinking and go beyond the connection of sensory information and physical action.

Concrete Operational Stage

(7 to 11)The child can now reason logically about concrete events and classify objects into different sets.

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

(A condition that occurs when an infant stops breathing, usual during the night, and suddenly dies without an apparent cause

Sensorimotor Stage

(Birth to 2)The infant constructs an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences with physical actions. An infant progresses from reflexive, instinctual action at birth to the beginning of symbolic though toward the end of the stage.

Cross-Cultural Studies

Comparisons of one culture with one or more other cultures. These provide information about the degree to which children's development is similar, or universal, across cultures, and the degree to which it is culture-specific

Prepared Childbirth

Developed by French obstetrician Ferdinand Lamaze, this childbirth strategy is similar to natural childbirth but includes a special breathing technique to control pushing in the final stages of labor and more detailed anatomy and physiology instruction

Neuroconstructivist View

Developmental perspective in which biological processes and environmental conditions influence the brain's development; the brain has plasticity and is context dependent; and cognitive development is closely linked with brain development

Cohort Effects

Effects that are due to a subjects time of birth or generation but not age

Oral Stage

Infant's pleasure centers on the mouth (Birth to 1.5)

APA Ethical Guidelines

Informed Consent, Confidentiality, Debriefing, and Deception are all part of the _____ ______ _______

Macrosystem

Involves the culture in which individuals live. Culture refers to behavior patters, beliefs, and all other products of a group of people that are passed on from generation to generation.

Socioeconomic Status (SES)

Refers to the conceptual grouping of people with similar occupational, educational, and economic characteristics

Culture

The behavior patterns, beliefs, and all other products of a group that are passed on from generation to generation

Stability-Change Issue

The debate about the degree to which early traits and characteristics persist through life or change

Continuity-Discontinuity Issue

The debate about the event to which development involves gradual, cumulative change (continuity) or distinct stages (discontinuity)

Nature-Nurture Issue

The debate about the extent to which development is influenced by nature and by nurture. Nature refers to an organism's biological inheritance, nurture to its environmental experiences

Behavior Genetics

The field that seeks to discover the influence of heredity and environment on individual differences in human traits and development

Gene X Environment Interaction

The interaction of a specified measured variation in DNA and a specific measured aspect of the environment

Perception

The interpretation of what is sensed

Development

The pattern of movement or change that starts at conception and continues through the human life span

Postpartum Period

The period after childbirth when the mother adjusts, both physically and psychologically, to the process of childbearing. This period lasts for about six weeks or until her body has completed its adjustment and returned to a nearly prepregnant state.

Embryonic Period

The period of prenatal development that occurs two to eight weeks after conception. During the embryonic period, the rate of cell differentiation intensifies, support systems for the cells form, and organs appear.

Germinal Period

The period of prenatal development that takes place in the first two weeks after conception. It includes the creation of the zygote, continued cell division, and the attachment of the zygote to the uterine wall

Dynamic Systems Theory

The perspective on motor development that seeks to explain how motor behaviors are assembled for perceiving and acting

Life-Span Perspective

The perspective that development is lifelong, multidimensional, multidirectional, plastic, multidisciplinary, and contextual; that it involves growth, maintenance, and regulation, and that it is constructed through biological, sociocultural, and individual factors working together

Fetal Period

The prenatal period of development that begins two months after conception and lasts for seven months, on average

Sensation

The product of the interaction between information and the sensory receptors -- The eyes, ears, tongue, nostrils, and skin

Gender

The psychological and sociocultural dimensions of being female or male

Proximodistal Pattern

The sequence in which growth starts at the center of the body and moves toward the extremities

Cephalocaudal Pattern

The sequence in which the earliest growth always occurs at the top- the head- with physical growth in size, weight, and feature differentiation gradually working from top to bottom.

Context

The setting in which development occurs, which is influenced by historical, economic, social, and cultural factors

Microsystem

The setting in which the individual lives. These contexts include a person's family, peers, school, and neighborhood. Most direct interactions with social agents take place in this system.

Social Cognitive Theory

The theory that behavior, environment, and person/cognition factors are important in understanding development.

Paget's Theory

The theory that children construct their understanding of the world and go through four stages of cognitive development

Phenotype

The way an individual's genotype is expressed in observed and measurable characteristics

Behavioral and Social Cognitive Theories

Theories holding that development can be described in terms of the behaviors learned through interactions with the environment.

Psychoanalytic Theories

Theories holding that development depends primarily on the unconscious mind and is heavily couched in emotion, that behavior is merely a surface characteristic, that is important to analyze the symbolic meanings of behavior, and that early experiences are important in development

Exosystem

This system consists of links between a social setting in which the individual does not have an active role and the individual's immediate context. Husband's or child's experience at home being affected by the mother's experience at work.

Chronosystem

This system consists of the patterning of environmental events and transitions over the life course, as well as sociohistorical circumstances. Examples include divorce is one transition.

Mesosystem

This system involves relations between microsystems or connections between contexts. Examples include relations between family experiences and school experiences and peer experiences etc.

Chromosomes

Threadlike structures made up of DNA

Descriptive Research

Type of research that aims to observe and record behavior

Genes

Units of hereditary information composed of DNA. Genes direct cells to reproduce themselves and manufacture the proteins that maintain life.

Nonnormative Life Events

Unusual occurrences that have a major impact on a person's life. The occurrences, pattern, and sequence of these events are not applicable to many individuals

Genotype

A person's genetics heritage; the actual genetic material

Erikson's Theory

A psychoanalytic theory in which eight stages of psychosocial development unfold through the human life span. Each stage consists of a unique developmental task that confronts individuals with a crisis that must be faced

Ethnicity

A range of characteristics rooted in cultural heritage, including nationality, race, religion, and language

Cross-Sectional Approach

A research strategy in which individuals of different ages are compared at one time.

Longitudinal Approach

A research strategy in which the same individuals are studied are over a period of time, usually several years or more.

Vygotsky's Theory

A sociocultural cognitive theory that emphasizes how culture and social interaction guide cognitive development.

Meiosis

A specialized form of cell division that occurs to form eggs and sperm (or gametes)

Information-Processing Theory

A theory that emphasizes that individuals manipulate information, monitor it, and strategize about it. The processes of memory and thinking are central.

Genital Stage

A time of sexual reawakening; source of of sexual pleasure becomes someone outside the family (Puberty Onward)

Correlational Research

A type of research that focuses on describing the strength of the relation between two or more events or characteristics

APGAR Scale

A widely used assessment of the newborn's health at 1 and 5 minutes after birth. (Appearance, Pulse, Grimace, Activity, and Respiration)

Eclectic Theoretical Orientation

An approach that selects and uses whatever is considered the best in many theories.

Ethology

An approach that stresses that behavior is strongly influenced by biology, tied to evolution, and characterized by critical or sensitive periods.

Case Study

An in-depth examination of an individual

Teratogen

Any agent that can potentially cause a birth defect or negatively alter cognitive and behavioral outcomes

Hypotheses

Assertions or predictions, often derived from theories, that can be tested

Normative History-Graded Influences

Biological and environmental influences that are associated with history. These influences are common to people of a particular generation

Normative Age-Graded Influences

Biological and environmental influences that are similar for individuals in a particular age group

Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Theory

Bronfenbrenner's environmental systems theory, which focuses on five environmental systems: microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem.

Mitosis

Cellular reproduction in which cell's nucleus duplicates itself with two new cells being formed, each containing the same DNA as the parent cell, arranged in the same 23 pairs of chromosomes

Socioemotional Processes

Changes in an individual's relationships with other people, emotions, and personality

Cognitive Process

Changes in an individual's thought, intelligence, and language

Biological Processes

Changes in an individuals physical nature

Latency Stage

Child represses sexual interest and develops social and intellectual skills (6 Years to Puberty)

Anal Stage

Child's pleasure focuses on the anus (1.5 to 3 Years)

Phallic Stage

Child's pleasure focuses on the genitals (3 to 6 Years)

Adoption Study

A study in which investigators seek to discover whether, in behavior and psychological characteristics, adoptive parents, who provided a home environment, or more like their biological parents, who contributed their heredity. Another form of the adoption study compares adoptive and biological siblings.

Twin Study

A study in which the behavioral similarity of identical twins is compared with the behavioral similarity of fraternal twins

Standardized Test

A test that is given with uniform procedures for administration and scoring

Experiment

A carefully regulated procedure in which one or more of the factors believed to influence the behavior being studied is manipulated and all other factors are held constant. Experimental research permits the determination of cause.

Natural Childbirth

A childbirth method in which no drugs are given to relieve pain or assist in the birth process. The mother and her partner are taught to use breathing methods and relaxation techniques during delivery

Down Syndrome

A chromosomally transmitted form of intellectual disability, caused by the presence of an extra copy of chromosome 21

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders

A cluster of abnormalities that appears in the offspring of mothers who drink alcohol heavily during pregnancy

Theory

A coherent set of ideas that helps to explain data and to make predictions

DNA

A complex molecule with a double helix shape that contains genetic information

Dependent Variable

A factor that can change in the experiment, in response to changes in the independent variable.

Independent Variable

A manipulated, influential experimental factor.

Social Policy

A national government's course of action designed to promote the welfare of its citizens

Correlation Coefficient

A number based on statistical analysis that is used to describe the degree of association between two variables

Epigenetic View

Emphasizes that development is the result of an ongoing, bidirectional interchange between heredity and environment

Evolutionary Psychology

Emphasizes the importance of adaptation, reproduction, and "survival of the fittest" in shaping behavior.

Integrity v Despair

Erikson's eighth and final stage of development, which individuals experience in late adulthood (60 on). During this stage, a person reflects on the past. If the person's life review reveals a life well spent, ____ will be achieved; if not doubt and gloom and ultimately _______ will reign

Identity v Identity Confusion

Erikson's fifth stage where adolescents (10 to 20 years) explore their role, hopefully in a healthy manner and arrive at a positive path to follow in life; a positive ______

Trust v Mistrust

Erikson's first psychosocial stage, which is experience in the first year of life. ______ in infancy sets the stage for a life long expectation that the world will be a good and pleasant place to live.

Industry v Inferiority

Erikson's fourth stage that occurring approximately in the elementary school years (6 to puberty) when children need to direct their energy toward mastering knowledge and intellectual skills. The negative outcome is that the child may develop a sense of _____ feeling incompetent and unproductive

Autonomy v Shame and Doubt

Erikson's second stage that occurs in late infancy and toddlerhood (1-3 years). After gaining trust in their caregivers, infants begin to discover that their behavior is their own.

Generativity v Stagnation

Erikson's seventh developmental stage, which individuals experience during middle adulthood (40s, 50s). ______ is primarily a concern for helping the younger generation to develop and lead useful lives.

Intimacy v Isolation

Erikson's sixth stage which individuals experience during the early adulthood years (20s, 30s). At this time, individuals face the developmental task of forming intimate relationships with another individual. If not they may feel ________.

Initiative v Guilt

Erikson's third stage of development that occurs during the preschool years (3 to 5 years) as children encounter a widening social world, they face new challenges that require active, purposeful, responsible behavior. ____ may arise, though, if the child is irresponsible and is made too feel anxious.

Fine Motor Skills

Motor skills that involve more finely tuned movements, such as finger dexterity

Gross Motor Skills

Motor skills that involved large-muscle activities, such as walking

Neurons

Nerve Cells that handle information processing at the cellular level in the brain

Naturalistic Observation

Observation that occurs in a real-world setting without any attempt to manipulate the situation

Freudian Stages

Oral Stage, Anal Stage, Phallic Stage, Latency Stage, Genital Stage

Organogenesis

Organ formation that takes place during the first two months of prenatal development