| Question | Answer |
| accommodation | Piaget's term for the modification of an establisehd schema to fit a new object or problem |
| acculturation | a transition from feeling part of the culture of one's original country to the culture of the coutnry that one enters |
| assimilation | Piaget's term for the application of one scema to new objects or problems |
| attachment | a long-term feeling of closeness between people, such as a child and a caregiver |
| authoritarian parents | those who exert firm controls on their children, generally without explaining the resons for the rules and without providing much warmth |
| authoritative parents | those who are demanding adn impose firm controls, but who are also warm and responsive to hte child's communications |
| biculturalism | the ablility to alternate between memership in one culture and membership in another |
| chromosome | a strand of hereditary material found in the nucleus of a cell |
| cohort | a group of people born at a particular time (as compared to people born at different times) |
| conservation | the concept that objects retain their weight, volume, and certain other properties in spite of changes in tehir shape or arrangement |
| cross-sectional study | a study of groups of individuals of different ages all at the same time |
| dishabituation | an increase in a apreviously habituated response as a result of a change in the stimulus |
| egocentric | the inability to take the perspective of another person; a tendency to view the world as centered around oneself |
| equilibration | the establishment of harmony or balance between assimiliation and accommodation |
| fetal alcohol syndrom | a condition marked by stunted growth of the head and body; malformations of the face, heart, and ears; and nercous system damage, including seizures, hyperactivity, learning disabilities,a ndmetnal retardation |
| fetus | an organism more developed than an embryo but not yet born (from about 8 weeks after conception until birth in humans) |
| fraternal twins | twins who develop from two eggs (dizygotic) fertilized by two different sperm; they are no more closely related than are any other children born to teh same parents |
| gene | a segment of a chromosome that controls chemical reactions taht ultimately direct the development of the organism |
| habituation | a decrease in a person's response to a stimulus after it has been presented repeatedly |
| heritability | an estimate of the variance within a apopulation that is due to heredity |
| identical twins | twins who develop fromthe same fertilized egg (monozygotic) and therefore have the same genes |
| identity achievement | the outcome of having explored various possible identities and then making one's own decision |
| identity crisis | concerns with dcision about the future and the quest for self-understanding |
| identity foreclosure | the state of having made firm identity decisions without having thought much about them |
| identity moratorium | the state of seriously considering one's identity without yet having made any decisions |
| indifferent or uninvolved parents | those who pay little attention to their children beyond doing what is necessary to feed and shelter them |
| longitudinal study | a study of a single group of individuals over time |
| midlife transition | a time of goal reassessment |
| moral dilemma | a problem that pits one moral value against another |
| object permanence | the concept that objects continue to exist even when one does not see, hear, or otherwise sense them |
| operation | according to Piaget a mental process that can be reversed |
| permissive parents | those who are warm and loving but undemanding |
| phenylketonuria (PKU) | an inherited disorder in which a person lacks the chemical reactions that convert a nutrient called phenylalanine into other chemicals; unless teh diet is carefully controlled, the affected person will become mentally retarded |
| preoperational stage | according to Piaget the second stage of intellectual development, in which children lack operations |
| schema (pl.: schemata) | an organized way of interacting with objects in the world |
| selective attrition | the tendency of some kinds of people to be more likely than others to drop out of a study |
| sensorimotor stage | according to Piaget the first stage of intellectual development; an infant's behavior is limited to making simple motor responses |
| sequential design | a procedure in which researchers start with groups of people of different ages, studied at the same time, and then study them again at one or more later times |
| sex chromosomes | the pair of chromosomes that determine whether an individual will develop as a female or as a male |
| sex-limited gene | a gene that affects one sex more strongly than the other, even though both sexes have the gene |
| sex-linked gene | a gene located on the X chromosome |
| stage of concrete operations | according to Piaget the ability to deal with the properties of concrete objects but not hypothetical or abstract questions |
| stage of formal operations | according to Piaget the stage when children develop teh ability to deal with abstract, hypothetical situations, which demand logical, deductive reasoning and systematic planning |
| Strange Situation | a procedure in which a psychologist observes an infant's behavior in an unfamiliar room at various times as a stranger enters, leaves, and returns and the mother enters, leaves, and returns |
| temperament | people's tendency to be either active or inactive, outgoing or reserved, and to respond vigorously or quietly to a new stimuli |
| terror-management theory | the proposal that we cope with out fear of death by avoiding thinking about death and by affirming a worldview that provides self-esteem, hope, and value in life |
| theory of mind | an understanding that other people have a mind too and that each person knows some things that other people don't know |
| X chromosome | a sex chromosome; females have two per cell and males have only one |
| Y chromosome | a sex chromosome; males have one per cell adn females have none |
| zone of priximal development | the distance between what a child cando on his or her own and what the child can do with the help of adults or older children |
| zygote | a fertilized egg cell |