| A | B |
|---|
| puberty | The time between the first onrush of hormones and full adult physical development. |
| menarche | A girl's first menstrual period, signaling that she has begun ovulation. |
| spermarche | A boy's first ejaculation of sperm. |
| hormone | An organic chemical substance that is produced by one body tissue and conveyed via the bloodstream to another to affect some physiological function. |
| pituitary gland | A gland in the brain that responds to a signal from the hypothalamus by producing many hormones, including those that regulate growth and control other glands, among the adrenal and sex glands. |
| adrenal glands | Two glands, located above the kidneys, that produce hormones. |
| HPA (hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal) axis | The sequence of a chain reaction of hormone production, originating in the hypothalamus and moving to the pituitary and then to the adrenal glands. |
| gonads | The paired sex glands (ovaries in females, testicles in males). |
| estradiol | A sex hormone, considered the chief estrogen. |
| testosterone | A sex hormone, the best known of the androgens (male hormones); secreted in far greater amounts by males than in females. |
| leptin | A hormone that affects appetite and is believed to be involved in the onset of puberty. |
| body image | A person's idea of how his or her body looks. |
| anorexia nervosa | An eating disorder characterized by self-starvation. |
| Bulimia nervosa | An eating disorder characterized by binge eating and subsequent purging, usually by induced vomiting and/or laxatives. |
| growth spurt | The relatively sudden and rapid physical growth that occurs during puberty. |
| primary sex characteristics | The parts of the body that are directly involved in reproduction, including the vagina, uterus, ovaries, testicles, and penis. |
| secondary sex characteristics | Physical traits that are not directly involved in reproduction but that indicate sexual maturity, such as a man's beard and a woman's breasts. |
| sexually transmitted infection (STI) | A disease spread by sexual contact, including syphilis, gonorrhea, genital herpes, chlamydia, and HIV. |
| child sexual abuse | Any erotic activity that arouses an adult and excites, shames, or confuses a child, whether or not the victim protests and whether or not genital contact is involved. |
| adolescent egocentrism | A characteristic of adolescent thinking that leads young people (ages 10 to 14) to focus on themselves to the exclusion of others. |
| personal fable | An aspect of adolescent egocentrism characterized by an adolescent's belief that his or her thoughts, feelings, or experiences are unique, more wonderful or awful than anyone else's |
| invicibility fable | An adolescent's egocentric conviction that he or she cannot be overcome or even harmed by anything that might defeat a normal mortal, such as unprotected sex, drug abuse, or high-speed driving. |
| imaginary audience | The other people who, in an adolescent's egocentric belief, are watching and taking notes of his or her appearance, ideas, and behavior. |
| formal operational thought | In Piaget's theory, the fourth and final stage of cognitive development, characterized by more systematic logic and the ability to think about abstract ideas. |
| hypothetical thought | Reasoning that includes propositions and possibilities that may not reflect reality. |
| deductive reasoning | Reasoning from a general statement, premise, or principle, through logical steps, to figure out (deduce) specifics. |
| inductive reasoning | Reasoning from one or more specific experiences or facts to a general conslusion; may be less cognitively advanced than deduction. |
| dual-process model | The notion that two networks exist within the human brain, one for emotional and one for analytical processing of stimuli. |
| intuitive thought | Thought that arises from an emotion or a hunch, beyond rational explanation, and is influenced by past experiences and cultural assumptions. |
| analytic thought | Thought that results from analysis, such as a systematic ranking of pros and cons, risks and consequences, possibilities and facts. |
| secondary education | The period after primary education (elementary or grade school) and before tertiary education (college). |
| middle school | A school for children in the grades between elementary and high school. |
| digital divide | The gap between students who have access to computers and those who do not, often a gap between rich and poor. |
| cyberbullying | Bullying that occurs via Internet insults and rumers, texting, anonymous phone calls, and video embarrassment. |
| high-stakes test | An evaluation that is critical in determining success or failure. A single test that determines whether a student will graduate or be promoted is a high-stakes test. |
