Help
Options
Didn't know it?
click below
click below
Knew it?
click below
click below
Don't Know
Remaining cards (0)
Know
retry
shuffle
restart
0:00
Embed Code - If you would like this activity on your web page, copy the script below and paste it into your web page.
Normal Size Small Size show me how
Normal Size Small Size show me how
Developmental Psychy
First TEST ch 1-7
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Scientific Study of Human Development | The science that seeks to understand the ways in which people change and remain the same as they grow older. |
| Life-Span Perspective | A view of human development that takes into account all phases of life, not just childhood or adulthood. |
| Multidirectional | A characteristic of development, referring to it's nonlinear progression-gains and losses, compensations and deficits, predictable and unexpected changes. |
| Multicontextual | A characteristics of development, referring to the fact that each human life takes place within a number of contexts - historical, cultural, and socioeconomic. |
| Multicultural | A characteristic of development, which takes place within many cultural settings worldwide and thus reflects a multitude of values, traditions, and tools for living. |
| Multidisciplinary | A characteristic of development encompassing the idea that dozens of academic disciplines contribute data and insight to the science of development. |
| Plasticity | A characteristic of development that indicates that individuals - including their personalities as well as their bodies and minds - change throughout the life span. |
| Dynamic Systems | A process of continual change within a person or group, in which each change is connected systematically to every other development in each individual and every society. |
| Butterfly Effect | The idea that a small action or event, (such as a breeze created by the flap of a butterfly's wings) may set off a series of changes that culminate in a major event (such a as a hurricane) |
| Cohort | A group of people whose shared birth year, or decade, means that they travel through life together, experiencing the same major historical changes. |
| Social Construction | An idea that is built more on shared perceptions of social order than on objective reality. |
| Socioeconomic Status (SES) | An indicator of a person's social and economic standing, measured through a combination of family income, educational level, place of residence, occupation, and other variables. |
| Culture | The specific manifestations of a social group's design for living, developed over the years to provide a social structure for the group members' life together |
| Ethnic Group | A collection of people who share certain attributes, almost always including ancestral heritage and often including national origin, religion, customs and language |
| Race | A social construction by which biological traits (such as hair or skin color, facial features, and body type) are used to differentiate people whose ancestors came from various regions of the world. |
| Scientific Method | An approach to the systematic pursuit of knowledge that, when applied to the study of development, involves 5 basic steps. 1. Formulate a research question 2. Develop a hypothesis 3. Test the hypothesis 4. Draw conclusions 5. Make the findings availa |
| Hypothesis | A specific prediction that is stated in such a way that is can be tested and either confirmed or refuted. |
| Replication | The repetition of a scientific study using the same procedures on another group of participants, to verify or refute the original study's conclusions. |
| Scientific Observation | A method of testing hypotheses by unobtrusively watching and recording participants' behavior either in a laboratory or in a natural setting. |
| Correlation | A # indicating the degree of relationship between 2 variables, expressed in terms of the likelihood that 1 variable (or does not) occur when the other variable does (or does not). A correlation is NOT an indication that one variable causes the other. |
| Experiment | A research method in which the researcher tries to determine the cause-and-effect relationship between 2 variables by manipulating one variable (independent) and then observing and recording the resulting changes in the other variable (dependent) |
| Independent Variable | In an experiment, the variable that is introduced or changes to see what effect it has on the dependent variable. |
| Dependent Variable | In an experiment, the variable that may change as a result of the introduction of or changes made in the independent variable. |
| Experimental Group | In an experiment, the participants who are given a particular treatment. |
| Comparison Group | In an experiment, the participants who are not given special treatment but who are similar to the experiment group in other relevant ways. |
| Survey | A research method in which information is collected from a large number of people by personal interview, written questionnaire, or some other means. |
| Case Study | A research method in which one individual is studied intensively |
| Cross-Sectional Research | A research method in which groups of people who differ in age but share other important characteristics are compared. |
| Longitudinal Research | A research method in which the same individuals are studied over a long period of time. |
| Cross-Sequential Research | A hybrid research method in which researchers first study several groups of people of different ages (a cross-sectional approach) and then follow those groups over the years (a longitudinal approach) |
| Ecological-Systems Approach | Research that takes into consideration the relationship between the individual and the environment. |
| Code of Ethics | A set of moral principles. |
| Developmental Theory | A systematic statement of principles and generalizations that provides a coherent framework for studying and explaining development. |
| Grand Theories | Comprehensive theories that have traditionally inspired and directed thinking about development. Psychoanalytic theory, behaviorism, and cognitive theory are all grand theories |
| Minitheories | Theories that focus on some specific area of development and thus are less general and comprehensive than the grand theories |
| Emergent Theories | Theories that bring together information from many disciplines but that have not yet cohered into theories that are comprehensive and systematic. |
| Psychoanalytic Theory | A grand theory of human development that holds that irrational, unconscious drives and motives, many of which originate in childhood, underlie human behavior. |
| Behaviorism | A grand theory of human development that focuses on the sequences and processes by which behavior is learned (learning theory) |
| Conditioning | According to behaviorism, any process in which a behavior is learned. |
| Classical Conditioning | The process by which a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a meaningful stimulus, so that the organism responds to the former stimulus as if it were the latter (respondent conditioning) |
| Operant Conditioning | The process by which a response is gradually learned via reinforcement or punishment. (instrumental conditioning) |
| Reinforcement | The process in which a behavior is followed by results that make it more likely that the behavior will be repeated. This occurs in operant conditioning. |
| Social Learning Theory | An application of behaviorism that emphasizes that many human behaviors and learned through observation and imitation of other people. |
| Modeling | In social learning theory, the process in which people observe and then copy the behavior of others. |
| Self-Efficacy | In social learning theory, the belief that one is effective; self-efficacy motivates people to change themselves and their contexts. |
| Cognitive Equilibrium | In cognitive theory, a state of mental balance in which a person is able to reconcile new experiences with existing understanding. |
| Cognitive Theory | A grand theory of human development that focuses on the structure and development of thinking, which shapes people's attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. |
| Sociocultural Theory | An emergent theory that holds that human development results from the dynamic interaction between each person and the surrounding social and cultural forces. |
| Apprenticeship in Thinking | In sociocultural theory, the process by which novices develop cognitive competencies through interaction with more skilled members of the society, often parents or teachers, who act as tutors or mentors. |
| Guided Participation | In sociocultural theory, the process by which a skilled person helps a novice learn by providing not only instruction but also a direct, shared involvement in the learning process. |
| Zone of Proximal Development | In sociocultural theory, the range of skills that a learner can exercise and master with assistance but cannot yet perform independently. According to Vygotsky, learning can occur within this zone. |
| Epigenetic Theory | An emergent theory of devel. that emphasizes the interaction of genes & the environ. - that is, both the genetic origins of behavior (w/in each person & w/in each species) & the direct, systematic influence that environ. forces have, over time, on genes |
| Preformism | The belief that every aspect of development is set in advance by genes and then is gradually manifested in the course of maturation |
| Selective Adaptation | The idea that humans & other animals gradually adjust to their environ; the process by which the freq. of partic. genetic traits in a pop. increases or decreases over generations, depending on whether the traits contribute to the survival of the species. |
| Ethology | The study of patterns of animal behavior, particularly as that behavior relates to evolutionary origins and species survival. |
| Eclectic Perspective | The approach taken by most developmentalists, in which they apply aspects of each of the various theories of development rather than adhering exclusively to one theory. |
| Nature | A genetic term for the traits, capacities, and limitations that each individual inherits genetically from his or her parents at the moment of conception. |
| Nurture | A general term for all the environmental influences that affect development after an individual is conceived. |
| DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) | The molecular basis of heredity, constructed of a double helix whose parallel strands consist of both pairs held together by hydrogen bonds. |
| Chromosome | A carrier of genes; one of the 46 molecules of DNA (in 23 pairs) that each cell of the body contains and that, together, contain all human genes. |
| Genome | The full set of chromosomes, with all the genes they contain, that make up the genetic materials of an organism. |
| Gene | The basic unit for the transmission of heredity instructions. |
| Gamete | A reproductive cell; that is, a cell that can reproduce a new individual if it combines with a gamete from the other sex. |
| Zygote | The single cell formed from the fusing of a sperm and an ovum. |
| Genotype | An organism's entire genetic inheritance or genetic potential. |
| Allele | A slight, normal variation of a particular gene. |
| 23rd Pair | The chromosome pair that, in humans, determines that zygote's (and hence the person's) sex, among other things. |
| XX | A 23rd pair that consists of two x-shaped chromosomes, one from the mother and one from the father. |
| XY | A 23rd pair that consists of one x-shaped chromosome from the mother and one y-shaped chromosome from the father. |
| Spontaneous Abortion | The naturally occurring termination of a pregnancy before the fetus is fully developed (miscarriage) |
| Monozygotic Twins | Twins who have identical genes because they were formed from one zygote that split into two identical organisms very early in development. |
| Dizygotic Twins | Twins who were formed when two separate ova were fertilized by two separate sperm at roughly the same time. Such twins share about half their genes, like any other siblings. |
| On-Off Switching Mechanisms | Processes in which certain genes code for proteins that switch other genes on and off, making sure that the other genes produce proteins at the appropriate times. |
| Phenotype | A person's actual appearance and behavior, which are the result of both genetic and environmental influences. |
| Multifactorial | Referring to inherited traits that are influenced by many factors, including factors in the environment, rather than by genetic influences alone. |
| Polygenic | Referring to the inherited traits that are influenced by many genes, rather than by a single gene. |
| Additive Gene | A gene that, through interaction with other genes, affects a specific trait (such as skin color or height) |
| Dominant - Recessive Patterns | The interaction of a pair of alleles in such a way that the phenotype reveals that influence of one allele (the dominant gene) more than that of the other (the recessive gene) |
| Dominant Gene | The member of an interacting pair of alleles whose influence is more evident in the phenotype. |
| Recessive Gene | The member of an interacting pair of alleles whose influence is less evident in the phenotype. |
| X-Linked | Referring to a gene that is located on the X chromosome. |
| Human Genetic Project | An international effort to map the complete human genetic code. |
| Carrier | A person whose genotype includes a gene that is not expressed in his or her phenotype but can be passed on to his or her children. |
| Behavior Genetics | The study of the genetic origins of psychological characteristics, such as personality patterns, psychological disorders, and intellectual abilities. |
| Mosaic | Referring to a condition in which a person has a mixture of cells, some normal and some with the incorrect number of chromosomes. |
| Fragile X Syndrome | A genetic disorder in which part of the x chromosomes is attached to the rest of it by a very thin string of molecules, often produces mental deficiency in males who inherit it. |
| Genetic Counseling | A process of consultation and testing that enables individuals to learn about their genetic heritage, including conditions that might harm any children they may have. |
| Germinal Period | The first two weeks of development after conception, characterized by rapid cell division and the beginning of cell differentiation. |
| Embryonic Period | Approximately the third through the eighth week after conception, the period during which the basic forms of body structures develop. |
| Fetal Period | The ninth week after conception until birth, the period during which the organs of the developing person grow in size and mature in functioning. |
| Implantation | Beginning about a week after conception, the burrowing of the organism into the lining of the uterus, where it can be nourished and protected during growth. |
| Embryo | The name for the developing organism from about three through eight weeks. |
| Fetus | The name for the developing organism from eight weeks after conception until birth when it is born even preterm at 22 weeks or post-term at 1 weeks --> it is called a baby. |
| Age of Viability | The age (about 22 weeks after conception)at which a fetus can survive outside the mother's uterus if specialized medical care is available. |
| Teratogens | Agents and conditions, including viruses, drugs, chemicals, stressors, and malnutrition, that can impair prenatal development and lead to birth defects or even death. |
| Behavioral Teratogens | Teratogens that can harm the prenatal brain, affecting the future child's intellectual and emotional functioning. |
| Risk Analysis | The process of weighing the potential outcomes of a particular event, substance or experience to determine the likelihood of harm. |
| Critical Period | In prenatal development, the time when a particular organ or other body part is most susceptible to teratogenic damage. |
| Threshold Effect | The condition whereby a teratogen is relatively harmless in small doses but becomes harmful once exposure reaches a certain level (in threshold). |
| Interaction Effect | The condition whereby the risk of a teratogen causing harm increases when it occurs at the same time as another teratogen or risk. |
| Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) | A virus that gradually overwhelms the body's immune responses, causing AIDS, which makes the individual vulnerable to opportunistic infections. |
| Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) | A cluster of birth defects, including abnormal facial characteristics, slow physical growth, and retarded mental development, caused by the mother's drinking alcohol when pregnant. |
| Low Birthweight (LBW) | A birthweight of less than 5 1/2 lbs. |
| Preterm Birth | Birth that occurs 3 weeks or more before the full term of pregnancy has elapsed - that is, at 35 or fewer weeks after conception. |
| Small for Gestational Age (SGA) | A birthweight that is significantly lower than expected, given the time since conception. ie., a 5 lb newborn is SGA if born on time but not SGA if born 2 months early (also, called small-for-dates) |
| Apgar Scale | A means of quickly assessing a newborn's body functioning. The baby's color, HR, reflexes, muscle tone, and repiratory effort are scored (from 0 - 2) at 1 min. and 5 min. after birth, and compared with an ideal for healthy babies ( a perfect 10) |
| Cesarean Section | A surgical childbirth in which incisions through the mother's abdomen and uterus allow the fetus to be removed quickly, instead of being delivered through the vagina. |
| Cerebral Palsy | A disorder that results from damage to the brain's motor centers. People with cerebral palsy have difficultly with muscle control, which can affect speech or other body movements. |
| Anoxia | A lack of oxygen that, if prolonged, can cause brain damage or death. |
| Kangaroo Care | Care that occurs when the mother of a low-birthweight infant spends at least an hour a day holding the infant between her breasts, like a kangaroo who carries her immature newborn in her pouch. If the infant is capable, he or she can easily breast-feed. |
| Parental Alliance | Cooperation between mother and father because of their mutual commitment to their children. In a parental alliance, both parents agree to support each other in their shared parental roles. |
| Postpartum Depression | A mother's feelings of sadness, inadequacy & hopelessness in the days & weeks after giving birth. These feelings are physiological (especially hormonal) & party cultural, spec. if the woman does not receive adequate assistance & encouragement from others |
| Parent-Infant Bond | A strong, loving connection that forms as a parents hold, examine, and feed their newborn. |
| Head-Sparing | The biological protections of the brain when malnutrition temporarily affects body growth. |
| Norm | A standard, or average, measurement, calculated from many individuals within a specific group or population. |
| Percentile | Any point on a ranking scale of 1 - 99. For example, the 50th percentile is at the mid-point, with half the subjects ranking higher and half ranking lower. |
| REM Sleep | Rapid eye movement sleep, a stage of sleep characterized by flickering eyes behind closed lids, dreaming and rapid brain waves. |
| Neuron | A nerve cell of the central nervous system. Most neurons are in the brain. |
| Cortex | The outer layer of the brain in humans and other mammals; it is the location of most thinking, feeling and sensing. |
| Axon | A nerve fiber that extends from a neuron and transmits electrical impulses from that neuron to the dendrites to other neurons. |
| Dendrite | A nerve fiber that extends from a neuron and receives electrical impulses transmitted from other neurons via their axons. |
| Synapse | The intersection between the axon of one neuron and the dendrites of other neurons. |
| Transient Exuberance | The great increase in the number of dendrites that occurs in an infant's brain over the first two years of life. |
| Experience-Expectant | Refers to brain functions that require basic common experiences (which the infant can be expected to have) in order to develop normally. |
| Experience-Dependent | Refers to brain functions that depend on particular, and variable, experiences and that therefore may or may not develop in a particular infant. |
| Sensation | The response of a sensory system (eyes, ears, skin, tongue, nose) when it detects a stimulus. |
| Perception | The metal processing of sensory information, when the brain interprets a sensation. |
| Binocular Vision | The ability to focus the two eyes in a coordinated manner in order to see one image. |
| Reflex | A responsive movement that seems automatic, because it almost always occurs in reaction to a particular stimulus. |
| Gross Motor Skills | Physical abilities involving large body movements, such as walking and jumping. |
| Fine Motor Skills | Physical abilities involving small body movements, especially of the hands and fingers, such as drawing or picking up a coin. |
| Immunization | A process that stimulates the body's immune system to defend against attack by a particular contagious disease. |
| Sudden Infant Death Syndrome | A situation in which a seemingly healthy infant, at least 2 months of age, dies unexpectedly in his or her sleep. |
| Protein-Calorie Malnutrition | A condition in which a person does not consume sufficient food of any kind. |
| Marasmus | A disease of severe protein-calorie malnutrition during early infancy, in which growth stops, body tissues waste away and the infant eventually dies. |
| Kwashiorkor | A disease of chronic malnutrition during childhood, in which a deficiency of protein causes the child's face, legs, and abdomen to bloat, or swell with water, and makes the child more vulnerable to other diseases, such as measles, diarrhea, and influenza. |
| Adaptation | The cognitive processes by which new information in taken in and responded to. Both assimilation and accommodation are kinds of adaptation. |
| Sensorimotor Intelligence | Piaget's term for the intelligence of infants during the first period of cognitive development, when babies think by using their senses and motor skills. |
| Primary Circular Reactions | The first of three types of feedback loops, this one involving the infant's own body. The infant senses motion, sucking, noise and so on, and tried to understand them. |
| Secondary Circular Reactions | The second of three types of feedback loops, this one involving people and objects. The infant is responsive to other people and to toys and other objects that can be manipulated. |
| Object Permanence | The realization that objects (including people) still exist even when they cannot be seen, touched, or heard. |
| Tertiary Circular Reactions | The third of three types of feedback loops, this one involving active exploration and experimentation. The infant explores a range of new activities, varying responses as a way of learning about the world. |
| Little Scientist | Piaget's term for the stage-five toddler (age 1 to 18 months), who actively experiments without anticipating the results. |
| Deferred Imitation | A sequence in which an infant first perceives something that someone else does and then performs the same action a few hours or even days later. |
| Habituation | The process of getting used to an object or event through repeated exposure to it. |
| fMRI | Functional Magnetic Resonance imaging, a measuring technique in which the brain's magnetic properties indicate activation anywhere in the brain; fMRI helps locate neurological responses. |
| Information-Processing Theory | A perspective that compares human thinking processes, by analogy, to computer analysis of data, including sensory input, connections, stored memories, and output. |
| Affordance | An opportunity for perception and interaction that is offered by people, places, and objects in the environment. |
| Visual Cliff | An experimental apparatus designed to provide the illusion of a sudden dropoff between one horizontal surface and another. |
| Dynamic Perception | Perception that is primed to focus on movement and change. |
| Reminder Session | A perceptual experience that helps a person recollect an idea or experience, without testing whether the person remembers it at the moment. |
| Baby Talk | The high-pitched, simplified, and repetitive way adults speak to infants; also called child-directed speech. |
| Naming Explosion | A sudden increase in an infant's vocabulary, especially in the number of nouns, that begins at about 18 months of age. |
| Holophrase | A single word that is used to express a complete, meaningful thought. |
| Grammar | All the methods-word order, verb forms, and so on-that languages use to communicate meaning, apart from the words themselves. |
| Language Acquisition Device (LAD) | Chomsky's term for a hypothesized brain structure that enables humans to learn language, including the basic aspects of grammar, vocabulary, and intonation. |
| Trust versus mistrust | Erikson's term for the first crisis of psychosocial development, in which the infant learns whether the world is essentially a secure place where basic needs are always met or an unpredictable arena where needs (for food, comfort, etc) are sometimes unmet |
| Autonomy versus shame and doubt | Erikson's term for the second crisis of psychosocial development, in which toddlers either succeed or fail in gaining a sense of self-rule over their own actions and bodies. |
| Working model | In cognitive theory, a set of assumptions that are used to organize perceptions and experiences |
| Temperament | According to Rothbart and Bates, "constitutionally based individual differences in emotion, motor, and attentional reactivity and self-regulation" |
| In the first days and months of life, babies differ in nine characteristics: | Activity level, Rhythmicity, Approach-withdrawal, Adaptability, Intensity of reaction, Threshold of responsiveness, Quality of mood, Distractibility, Attention Span. |
| Goodness of Fit | A pattern of smooth interaction between the individual and the social milieu, including family, school, and community. |
| Stranger wariness | fear of unfamiliar people, exhibited fleetingly at 6 months and at full force by 10 to 14 months. |
| Separation Anxiety | Fear of abandonment, exhibited at the departure of a beloved caregiver; usually strongest at 9 to 14 months. |
| Self-awareness | A person's realization tat he or she is a distinct individual whose body, mind, and actions are separate from those of other people. |
| Synchrony | A coordinated interaction between caregiver and infant, who respond to each other's faces, sounds, and movements very rapidly and smoothly. |
| Attachment | According to Ainsworth, "an affectional tie that one person or animal forms between himself and another specific one - a tie that binds them together in space and endures over time." |
| Secure Attachment | A relationship of trust, and confidence; during infancy, a relationship that provides enough comfort and reassurance to enable independent exploration of the environment. |
| Base for Exploration | The caregiver's role in a relationship of secure attachment, in which the child freely ventures forth and returns. |
| Insecure Attachment | A relationship that is unstable or unpredictable; in infancy such relationships are characterized by the child's fear, anxiety, anger, clinging, or seeming indifference toward the caregiver. |
| Insecure-avoidant | Referring to a pattern of attachment in which one person tries to avoid any connection with another, as an infant who is uninterested in the caregiver's presence or departure and ignores the caregiver on reunion. |
| Insecure-resistant/ambivalent | Referring to a pattern of attachment in which anxiety and uncertainty keep one person clinging to another, as an infant who resists active exploration, is very upset at separation, and both resists, and seeks contact on reunion. |
| Strange Situation | A laboratory procedure developed by Mary Ainsworth to measure attachment by evoking an infant's reactions to stress, specifically episodes of a caregiver's or stranger's arrival at and departure from a playroom where the infants can play with many toys. |
| The key observational aspects of the Strange Situation are the following: | Exploration of the toys. Reaction to the caregiver's departure. Reaction to the caregiver's return. |
| Disorganized | A category of attachment that is neither secure nor insecure but is marked by the child's and caregiver's inconsistent behavior toward each other. |
| Social Referencing | Seeking information about an unfamiliar or ambiguous object or event by observing someone else's expressions and reactions. That other person becomes a reference, consulted when the infant wants to know how to react. |
| Infant Day Care | Regular care provided for babies by trained and paid nonrelatives |
Created by:
itsp0rter
Popular Psychology sets