Human Development, Motivation, Emotion, Stress, and Health

A comprehensive collection of vocabulary flashcards covering human development, motivation, emotion, and stress and health concepts from the lecture notes.

Enrichment

Stimulating experiences, activities and environments that support children's learning and brain development.

Pruning

The brain removes unused or weaker neural connections, making processing more efficient and strengthening frequently used connections.

Temperament

A person's biologically based tendencies in emotional reactions, activity and behavior.

Newborn Senses

Touch, taste, smell and hearing are relatively developed at birth; vision is least developed.

Erikson's Personality Stages (Adolescence through Older Adulthood)

Adolescence: identity vs. role confusion; midlife: generativity vs. stagnation; older adulthood: integrity vs. despair.

Brain Size at Birth

About $25\%$ of adult brain size.

Alzheimer's Disease

A progressive brain disease causing memory loss and declining cognition.

Dementia

The broader term for serious cognitive decline that interferes with daily life; Alzheimer's is its most common cause.

Prenatal Influences

Maternal nutrition and health; illness and infection; drugs, alcohol and tobacco; environmental toxins; stress; and prenatal care.

Preconventional Moral Reasoning

Moral reasoning focused on punishment, rewards and personal consequences.

Conventional Moral Reasoning

Moral reasoning focused on social approval, rules and laws.

Postconventional Moral Reasoning

Moral reasoning focused on ethical principles, justice and individual rights.

Adolescent Brain Development

The prefrontal cortex (planning, judgment and impulse control) and limbic/reward systems continue developing; connections between them mature over time.

Healthy Cognitive Aging

Maintained through regular exercise, mental stimulation and learning, social interaction, adequate sleep, a healthy diet, and management of cardiovascular risks.

Sensorimotor Stage

Piaget's stage from birth to $2$ years characterized by learning through senses/actions and developing object permanence.

Preoperational Stage

Piaget's stage from ages $2$ to $7$ characterized by language and symbolic thought, egocentrism, and difficulty with conservation.

Concrete Operational Stage

Piaget's stage from ages $7$ to $11$ characterized by logical thinking about concrete objects, conservation, and reversibility.

Formal Operational Stage

Piaget's stage from age $12+$ characterized by abstract, hypothetical and systematic reasoning.

Secure Attachment

Attachment style where an infant is upset at separation, comforted when the caregiver returns, then explores.

Avoidant Attachment

Attachment style where an infant shows little visible distress and avoids the caregiver on return.

Anxious/Ambivalent Attachment

Attachment style where an infant is very distressed, seeks contact, but resists soothing.

Disorganized Attachment

Attachment style where an infant displays confused, contradictory or fearful behavior toward the caregiver.

Needs

Biological or psychological requirements for survival and well-being.

Drives

Internal states of tension or urges that motivate behavior to satisfy needs.

Incentives

External rewards or punishments that attract or discourage behavior.

Emotional Regulation

Managing emotional experiences and expressions.

Display Rules

Cultural expectations about when, where and how emotions should be expressed.

Self-Conscious Emotions

Emotions involving self-awareness and self-evaluation, such as guilt, shame, pride and embarrassment.

Socioemotional Learning

Programs that teach emotional awareness, regulation, empathy, relationship skills and responsible decision-making.

Culture and Emotion

Basic emotional expressions are broadly universal; display rules and the context, intensity and interpretation of expression vary across cultures.

Instinct Model

A motivation model that attributes behavior to innate behavior.

Drive-Reduction Model

A motivation model that explains behavior as an effort to reduce internal tension and restore balance.

Optimal Arousal Model

A motivation model stating that organisms seek a preferred level of stimulation.

Incentive Model

A motivation model stating that external rewards or punishments motivate action.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

A motivation model structured in the following order: physiological → safety → love/belonging → esteem → self-actualization.

Six Basic Emotions

Happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust and surprise.

Emotional Response Sequence

Antecedent event (trigger) → appraisal (interpretation/evaluation) → response (feeling, bodily changes and behavior).

Primary Appraisal

Evaluating whether an event is threatening, harmful or challenging.

Secondary Appraisal

Evaluating available coping resources and ways to respond.

Allostatic Load

Cumulative physical wear and tear caused by repeated or prolonged stress.

Homeostasis

The body's maintenance of a stable internal environment.

Acute Stress

Short-term stress, typically lasting minutes or hours.

Chronic Stress

Long-lasting or repeatedly occurring stress, potentially lasting months or years.

Stimulus View of Stress

A perspective defining stress as the external event or situation.

Response View of Stress

A perspective defining stress as the body's and mind's reaction to demands.

Sympathetic Nervous System Response

Activates fight-or-flight, increasing heart rate, blood pressure, breathing and alertness.

Cortisol

A stress hormone released by the adrenal cortex in the adrenal glands above the kidneys that mobilizes energy and helps regulate metabolism, inflammation and immune activity; prolonged elevation can suppress immune function.

Direct Pathway of Stress and Health

Stress-system activation and hormones directly affect organs and body systems.

Indirect Pathway of Stress and Health

Stress changes health behaviors such as sleep, diet, exercise, smoking and alcohol use.

Hypothalamus

Helps maintain homeostasis and coordinates stress and emotional responses by activating autonomic and endocrine systems; also regulates hunger, thirst and body temperature.

SAM Pathway

The sympathetic-adrenal-medullary neuroendocrine stress pathway.

HPA Axis

The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal neuroendocrine stress pathway.

Alarm Stage (GAS)

The initial fight-or-flight response in Selye's General Adaptation Syndrome.

Resistance Stage (GAS)

The stage in Selye's General Adaptation Syndrome where the body adapts while stress continues.

Exhaustion Stage (GAS)

The stage in Selye's General Adaptation Syndrome where resources become depleted and vulnerability to illness increases.

Problem-Focused Coping

Attempts to change or solve the stressor.

Emotion-Focused Coping

Attempts to manage emotional reactions.

Avoidance/Escape-Avoidance Coping

Avoiding the stressor or thoughts about it.

Health-Related Behaviors

Healthy nutrition, physical activity, adequate sleep, hygiene, preventive checkups, avoiding tobacco and excessive alcohol, safe practices, social connection and stress management.