AP PSYCH VOCAB 6

Teratogens

chemical and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenetal development and cause harm

Habituation

decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner.

Schema

a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information

Assimilation

interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas

Accommodation

adapting our current understandings to incorporate new information

Sensorimotor stage

In Piaget’s theory, the stage (from birth to nearly 2 years of age) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activites

Object permanence

the awareness that things continue to exist when not perceived

Preoperational stage

In Piaget’s theory, the stage (from about 2 to 6 or 7 years of age during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic

Conservation

the principle (which Piaget believed to be a part of concrete operational reasoning) that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects.

Egocentrism

In Piaget’s theory, the preoperational child’s difficulty taking another’s point of view

Theory of mind

people’s ideas about their own and others’ mental states about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict

Concrete operational stage

In Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 7 to 11 years of age during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events

Formal operations stage

In Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts.

Critical period

an optimal period early in the life of an organism when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces normal development

Imprinting

the process by which certain animal form strong attachment during early life

Self-concept

all our thoughts and feelings about ourselves in answer to the question

Gender identity

our sense of being male, female, or some combination of two

Social learning theory

the theory that we learn social behavior by observing and imitating and by being rewarded or punished

Secondary sex characteristics

nonreproductive sexual traits, such as female breasts and hips, male voice quality, and body air

Cross-sectional study

research that compares people of different ages at the same point in time

Longitudinal study

research that follows and retests the same people over time