Unit3.1!!H!!Life-Span Development in Psychology

Developmental Psychology

Studies the pattern of growth and change in behavior and abilities across a person's life, emphasizing that development continues beyond childhood.

Life-Span Psychologist

Examines changes in individuals from birth through old age, considering the full arc of human development.

Child Psychologist

Primarily studies early life stages, often focusing on infancy through adolescence.

Maturationists

Emphasize the influence of biological growth and genetic programming, especially in the nervous system.

Maturation

Describes a level of biological development that allows certain behaviors or functions to emerge naturally.

Environmentalists

Focus on how surroundings, learning, and context shape behavior and mental processes over time.

Continuous Development

Describes a gradual and cumulative process of change.

Discontinuous Development

Involves distinct and separate stages, each qualitatively different from the last.

Critical Period

A limited timeframe during which a particular ability must be developed, or it may never be acquired.

Feral Child

An example of extreme deprivation where lack of social and linguistic input early in life leads to irreversible developmental deficits.

Collective Culture

Places importance on group goals and social harmony over personal desires.

Individual Culture

Values independence, personal goals, and self-expression over communal needs.

Normative Development

Represents typical age-related changes shared by most people in a population.

Cross-Sectional Method

Involves comparing individuals of different ages at one point in time to examine age-related differences.

Longitudinal Method

Follows the same individuals over a period of time to assess developmental changes.

Physical Development

Involves bodily changes such as brain growth, motor skill acquisition, and physical maturation.

Teratogens

Agents from the environment—like drugs, chemicals, or viruses—that can disrupt prenatal development.

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD)

Characterized by cognitive impairments and distinctive physical abnormalities due to prenatal alcohol exposure.

Reflexes

Involuntary responses to specific stimuli, especially present in newborns.

Palmar Reflex

An infant's instinct to grasp an object placed in their hand.

Babinski Reflex

Occurs when the sole of the foot is stroked and the toes spread outward.

Orienting Reflex

Shifts attention automatically toward a novel or sudden stimulus.

Moro Reflex

A startle response where the baby flings out arms and legs when startled.

Rooting Reflex

A newborn's tendency to turn toward a touch on the cheek, often linked to feeding behavior.

Rudimentary Movements

The earliest intentional physical actions that infants perform, like crawling or reaching.

Gross Motor Movements

Involve large muscle activities, such as jumping or running.

Fine Motor Movements

Involve precise, small movements, like using utensils or writing.

Fundamental Movement Stage

Occurs roughly between ages 2 and 7, during which basic movement skills are practiced and refined.

Specialized Movement Stage

Involves adapting learned motor skills for specific contexts or activities.

Transitional Substage

Refers to combining simple movements like grasping or jumping into more complex sequences.

Applicational Substage

Involves intentional use of refined motor skills in structured or chosen activities.

Synaptic pruning

The brain rids itself of connections that aren’t needed to make room for new information.

Environmental interaction

Encompasses the multifaceted relationships between living organisms and their surroundings

Plasticity

Changeability of the brain.