| A | B |
|---|
| adoptive family | Family unit with adoptive children who are chosen and taken into the family by legal process and raised as the family's own |
| ageism | Process of systemic stereotyping of and discrimination against people because of their advanced age |
| autocratic family pattern | Family unit with unequal relationships; parents attempt to control with strict, rigid rules and expectations |
| blended (reconstituted) family | Family unit formed by parents who bring unrelated children from prior marriages into a new, joint living situation. Also known aas a stepfamily |
| cephalocaudal | Growth and development that proceeds from the head toward the feet. The infant's head is large compared with the rest of the body |
| chromosomes | Threadlike structures in the nucleus of a cell that function in the transmission of genetic information. |
| cohabitation | also referred as social contract family |
| conception (fertilization) | beginning of pregnancy |
| concrete operational phase | Phase of Piaget's theory in which thoughts become increasingly logical and coherent so that the child is able to classify, sort, and organize facts while still being incapable of generalizing or dealing with abstractions; occurs between 7 and 10 years of age |
| democratic family pattern | Family style in which the adult members are considered equal and children are treated with respect and recognized as individuals |
| depression | An emotional disorder brought on by an imbalance of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain, which brings about exaggerated feelings of sadness, melancholy, emptiness, worthlessness, and frustration. Fatigue, inability to concentrate, short-term memory loss, and sleep pattern disturbance, as well as slowed body functions, can be seen with this disorder |
| development | Gradual process or change and differentiation from a simple to a more advanced level of complexity |
| disengagement stage | Period of family life when the grown children depart from the home. In some family units this stage is brief because the adult children return to live in the family home. |
| engagement or commitment stage | Period when the couple prepares for marriage and becomes free of parental domination |
| establishment stage | Period in a couple's life between their wedding and the birth of their first child. |
| expectant stage | The period of family life that begins when conception occurs and continues through the pregnancy |
| extended family | A family group consisting of the biologic parents, their children, the grandparents, and other family members |
| formal operational thought stage | Piaget's phase that begins during adolescence, permitting abstract reasoning and systematic scientific problem solving |
| foster family | Family unit that cares for, supervises, and nnurtures children whose parents are unable to care for them |
| growth | Increase in the size of an organism or any of its parts |
| homosexual family | Family group made up of same-sex adults who share bonds of emotional commitment and roles of childbearing |
| life expectancy | Average number of years an individual will probably live |
| matriarchal family pattern | A style in which the female assumes primary dominance in areas of child care and homemaking; also called matrilocal. |
| nuclear family | A family unit consisting of the biologic parents and their offspring |
| parenthood stage | Begins at the birth or adoption of the first child. |
| patriarchal family pattern | A family style in which the male assumes the dominant role |
| preoperational thought stage | Piaget's phase of child development during the period of 2 to 7 years of age, when the child focuses on the use of language as a tool. The child has the emerging ability to reason. |
| presbycusis | A normal loss of hearing acuity, speech inteligibility, auditory threshold, and pitch associated with aging |
| presbyopia | Defect in vision in advancing age involving loss of accommodation or recession of near vision; due to loss of elasticity of crystalline lens |
| proximodistal | Growth and development that moves from the center toward the outside. The infant gains control of the shoulders before developing control of the hands and fingers |
| schema | Innate knowledge structure that allows a child to organize his or her mind |
| school violence | Anything that physically or psychologically injures schoolchildren or damages school property |
| senescence stage | The last stage of the life cycle that requires the older adult to cope with a long range of changes |
| sensorimotor stage | The development phase of childhood encompassing the period from birth to 2 years of age, according to Piaget's psychology. In this stage, an infant's knowledge of the work comes about primarily through sensory impressions and motor activities |
| single-parent family | Family group that occurs when one parent leaves the nuclear family because of divorce, separation, desertion, or death. May also be the result of unwed parents living alone or the decision of a single person to adopt a child |
| social contract family | Unmarried couple living together and sharing roles and responsibilities similar to those of the nuclear family structure |
| teratogen | Any substance, agent, or process that interferes with normal prenatal development, causing the formation of one or more developmental abnormalities in the fetus. |
| zygote | Cell formed by the union of two reproductive cells; the fertilized ovum resulting from the union of a sperm and ovum from the time it is fertilized until, as a blastocyst, it is implanted in the uterus |
