| A | B |
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| Alzheimer's Disease | Fatal degenerative disease in which brain neurons progressively die, causing loss of memory, reasoning, emotion, control of bodily functions, then death. Characterized by amyloid plaques in brain. |
| Attachment | Starts with bonding--the creation of a close emotional relationship between mother, or parents, and neonate. Warm nurturing environment needed. |
| Cohort Effect | Observed group differences based on the era when people were born and grew up, exposing them to particular experiences that may affect result of cross-sectional studies. Use of cohort sequential studies corrects for cohort effect. |
| Concrete Operational Stage of Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development | Third stage (7-12) during which the child develops simple logic and masters conservation concepts. Conservation concepts--changes in the form of an object do not alter physical properties of mass, volume, and number. |
| Continuity-Discontinuity Controversy | Deals with the issue of whether development is a gradual, continuous process or a sequence of separate stages. |
| Conventional Level of Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development | When at concrete or formal operational stage of cognitive development. Stage 3--Do the right thing to conform, live up to expectations of others. Stage 4--Do the right thing to maintain law and order, do your duty. |
| Critical Period | Time interval during which specific stimuli have a major effect on development that the stimuli do not produce at other times |
| Culture | Behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions transmitted from one generation to the next within a group of people who share the same language and environment |
| Developmental Psychology | Study of physical, intellectual, social, and moral changes across the life span from conception to death. Developmental psychologists attempt to describe, explain, and predict age-related behaviors of infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. |
| Erikson's Early Stages | Stage 1--from birth to 1; trust versus mistrust, positive resolution develops security. Stage 2--from 1 to 2: autonomy versus shame and doubt; positive resolution develops independence. Stage 3--from 3 to 5; initiative versus guilt; balances spontaneity and restraint. |
| Erikson's Late Stages of Psychosocial Development | Stage 7--middle adulthood; generativity versus stagnation; positive resolution results in promoting well-being of others. Stage 8--late adulthood; integrity versus despair; positive resolution leads to sense of satisfaction with life well lived. |
| Erikson's Middle Stages | Stage 4--from 6 to puberty; industry versus inferiority; positive resolution develops sense of self-confidence. Stage 5--adolescence; identity versus role confusion; develops unified sense of self. Stage 6--young adulthood; intimacy versus isolation; form close social relationships. |
| Erikson's Stage Theory of Psychosocial Development | Examined development across the life span in a social context, recognizing that our growth is influenced by others. Identified 8 stages during which we face an important issue or crisis; resolution shapes personality and affects relations. |
| Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) | A cluster of abnormalities that occurs in babies of mothers who drink alcoholic beverages during pregnancy. Includes small head with flat face, misshapen eyes, flat nose, thin upper lip, and some degree of intellectual impairment. |
| Formal Operational Stage of Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development | Fourth stage (12+ years) during which the child begins to think logically about abstract concepts and engage in hypothetical thinking |
| Gender Development | Gender is the sociocultural dimension of being biologically male or female. Gender roles--sets of expectations that prescribe how males and females should act, think, and feel. Gender identity--person's sense of being male or female. |
| Gender Schema | Gender schema--mental set of what is appropriate behavior for each of the sexes. Gender role stereotypes--broad categories that reflect our impressions and beliefs about males and females. Androgyny--presence of both desirable feminine and masculine characteristics |
| Gender Stability | Gender stability involves the child's understanding that sex identity is stable over time. Gender consistency--child's understanding that his or her sex won't change even if he or she acts like the opposite sex. |
| Habituation | Decreasing responsiveness with repeated presentation of the same stimulus. Developmental psychologists depend on gazes, sucking, and head turning to reveal abilities of infants during habituation studies. |
| Menopause | Cessation of the ability to reproduce accompanied by a decrease in production of sex hormones; occurs at about age 50 in women. Males have a decrease in production of sex hormones as they age. |
| Moral Development | Growth in the ability to tell right from wrong, control impulses, and act ethically. Kohlberg's theory of moral development-moral thinking develops in stages as cognitive abilities develop; has 3 levels divided into 6 sequential stages; not all people reach highest level. |
| Neonatal Reflexes | Rooting reflex--tendency to move its head when stroked on the cheek, turn toward the stimulus, and open its mouth. Moro or startle--when exposed to a loud noise or sudden drop, neonate arches back, flings limbs out, and retracts them. ● Also swallowing, grasping, plantar, etc. |
| Neonate | ● Newborn baby from birth to 1 month old. ● Shows reflexive behavior that disappears as voluntary control over behaviors develops during infancy. |
| Parenting Styles | Baumrind studied effect of parenting styles on emotional growth of children. ● Authoritarian--strict rules enforced. ● Authoritative--limits explained, flexible; often leads to social competence. ● Permissive--lacks guidelines, responsive. ● Uninvolved--detached. |
| Physical Development | ● Proceeds from head to tail, from the center of body outward, enabling a baby to lift head, roll over, sit, creep, stand, and walk. ● Proliferation of dendrites grow in brain. ● Quickest during prenatal development. ● Second quickest during infancy. ● Third quickest during adolescence |
| Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development | ● Deals with how children think. ● 4 discontinuous stages. ● Assimilation--process by which we incorporate new information into our existing cognitive structures or schemas. ● Accommodation--process by which we modify schemas to fit new information. |
| Postconventional Level of Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development | ● Stage 5--do the right thing to promote the society's welfare, as a social contract. ● Stage 6--do the right thing to promote justice; females rarely reach this stage. ● Gilligan criticized focus on males; said women follow ethic of care. |
| Preconventional Level of Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development | ● Typically coincides with preoperational stage of cognitive development. ● Stage 1--child does the right thing to avoid punishment, obey authority. ● Stage 2--child does the right thing to gain reward, further self-interests. |
| Prenatal Development | ● Begins with fertilization, ends with birth. ● Zygote is a fertilized egg with genetic instructions for new individual. ● Embryo--prenatal stage from 2 weeks to 2 months; organ development begins. ● Fetus--developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth. |
| Preoperational Stage of Piaget's Theory | ● Second stage (2-7 years) during which child represents and manipulates objects with symbols (language), is egocentric. ● Egocentrism--seeing the world from one's own perspective; inability to see reality from perspective of another person. ● Animism--belief that all things are living. |
| Puberty | ● Early adolescent period marked by accelerated growth and the onset of the ability to reproduce. ● Menarche--first menstrual period at about 12.5 years marks female fertility. ● Ejaculation of semen with viable sperm at about 14 years marks male fertility. |
| Research Methods to Assess Change Over Time | ● Cross-sectional--different age groups are tested at the same time. ● Longitudinal--same participants tested multiple times with same or similar tests over time. ● Cohort sequential--combines both of the previous. |
| Self-Awareness | ● Consciousness of oneself as a person. ● Rouge test--spot of rouge is secretly put on baby's nose, and then baby is placed in front of a mirror to see if baby realizes his or her own nose has red spot; reveals development of self-awareness. ● Generally develops at age 1.5 years. |
| Sensorimotor Stage of Piaget's Theory | ● First stage (0-2 years) during which infant experiences the world through senses and action patterns. ● Progresses from reflexes to object permanence and symbolic thinking. ● Object permanence--awareness that objects still exist when out of sight. |
| Social Development | ● Looks at the influence of others on the development of a person. ● Others include family, peers, teachers, friends, and even culture. |
| Social Referencing | ● Observing the behavior of others in social situations to obtain information or guidance. ● Generally develops at age 1.5 years. |
| Sociocultural Theory of Cognitive Development of Lev Vygotsky | ● Emphasizes the role of the environment (nurture) and gradual growth (continuity) in intellectual functioning. ● Internalization--the process of absorbing information from a specified social environmental context (outside in). |
| Stability-Change Controversy | ● Deals with the issue of whether or not personality traits present during infancy endure throughout the life span. |
| Temperament | ● Infant's natural disposition. ● Easy babies--cheerful, relaxed; follow predictable patterns of eating, sleeping. ● Difficult babies--irritable, intense, unpredictable. ● Typically, easy babies tend to become sociable children, difficult babies less so. |
| Teratogen | ● Harmful substances during the prenatal period that can cause birth defects. ● Chemicals such as alcohol, drugs, tobacco ingredients, mercury, lead, cadmium, and other poisons; or infectious agents, such as some viruses, are teratogenic. |
| Types of Attachment | Ainworth's strange situation researched a baby's reaction after the mother is briefly gone: ● Secure attachment--baby happy to see mother, receptive to her contact. ● Insecure attachment--baby angry and rejecting, avoids or rejects mother. ● Securely attached babies become competent. |
| Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) | ● The range between the level at which a child can solve a problem working alone with difficulty, and the level at which a child can solve a problem with the help of adults or more-skilled children. ● Vygotsky emphasized role of instructor working closely with child at upper limit. |
