Development Through the Lifespan

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering prenatal development, cognitive and social stages of childhood, adolescence, and aging, along with developmental research methodologies.

Development

A complex process resulting from individual factors (genetics and temperament), family environment, neighborhood, broader cultural context, and historical time.

Teratogens

Environmental agents that negatively impact human development during particular periods of pregnancy, such as alcohol, smoking, drugs, and certain medications.

Period of the Zygote

The first stage of prenatal development commencing once the egg is fertilized, characterized by rapid cell division and ending approximately $2$ weeks after conception.

Blastocyst

A hollow ball of cells formed as the zygote divides exponentially ($2$ cells to $4$, to $16$, to $256$, etc.) and hollows out in the center.

Ectopic pregnancy

A condition where the fertilized egg implants into the fallopian tube rather than the uterus.

Monozygotic twins

Identical twins resulting when the fertilized egg divides into two, sharing almost identical genetic information and always being the same sex.

Dizygotic twins

Fraternal twins occurring when two eggs are released during ovulation and fertilized by different sperm; they share no more genetic similarity than full siblings.

Period of the Embryo

The second stage of prenatal development starting around the $2^{nd}$ week and ending at the $8^{th}$ week, characterized by the development of all major organs and systems.

Cephalocaudal development

The principle that significant changes occur in the brain and the head before changes happen in the extremities.

Proximodistal development

The principle that significant development occurs first at centrally located features, such as the heart or lungs, before peripheral locations like hands or fingers.

Period of the Fetus

The final period of prenatal development from the $9^{th}$ week until birth, characterized by refinements, finishing touches, significant growth, and brain development.

Sulci and gyri

The bumps and grooves of the brain that develop during the last few weeks of gestation.

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD)

A range of conditions associated with being exposed to alcohol prenatally.

Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)

The most significant form of FASD, involving damage to internal organs, altered physical characteristics, and cognitive impairments.

Sleeper effects

Developmental deficits or issues that are not apparent at birth but are identified later in life, such as cognitive deficits associated with FASD appearing in preschool.

Thalidomide

A prescription medication used in the $1960s$ for morning sickness that caused infants to be born with shortened or malformed limbs.

Microcephaly

A condition characterized by significantly smaller infant head and brain size, associated with prenatal exposure to the Zika virus.

Constructivist

The theoretical perspective, held by Jean Piaget, that children are active contributors to their own learning and construct their own knowledge.

Dialectical

A nature of growth where cognitive structures change when individuals encounter conflicting information that alters their existing perspectives.

Assimilation

The process occurring when individuals encounter information similar to their existing cognitive structures and add it to those structures.

Accommodation

The process occurring when a child creates a new cognitive structure to account for information that does not fit into existing ones.

Equilibration

The state of agreement between what children see in the world and the reality that exists in their minds.

Disequilibration

The state when the outside world is not represented in created cognitive structures, requiring modification through assimilation or accommodation.

Sensorimotor period

Piaget's first stage of cognitive development (birth to age $2$) where infants learn about the world through their actions on it.

Primary circular reactions

Repeated actions focused on the infant's own body, occurring from $1$ to $4$ months of age.

Secondary circular reactions

Repeated actions on objects outside of the infant's own body, occurring from $4$ to $8$ months of age.

Object permanence

The realization that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, typically starting around $9$ months of age.

A-not-B task

A task where infants with object permanence search for a toy at a previously successful location (A) even after seeing it hidden in a new location (B).

Tertiary circular reactions

The 'little scientist' stage ($12$ to $18$ months) where children experiment with different actions to see the resulting sounds or effects.

Mental representation

The ability ($18$ to $24$ months) to remember and imitate observed behaviors later, providing a basis for pretend play.

Preoperational period

Piaget’s second stage ($2$ to $7$ years) characterized by advances in symbolic thinking and language, but limitations in logic.

Animism

A characteristic of preoperational thinking where children ascribe life-like properties to non-living things.

Egocentrism

The difficulty children have in taking the perspective of another individual, often studied using the three mountains problem.

Conservation

The understanding that physical qualities of an object remain unchanged despite changes in its appearance.

Identity (Conservation)

The principle that transformations do not alter the medium; no material was added or removed.

Compensation (Conservation)

The recognition that imposed changes cancel each other out, such as liquid reaching higher in a skinny glass vs. a wide one.

Inversion (Conservation)

The understanding that processes imposed in conservation tasks are easily reversible.

Concrete operational period

Piaget’s third stage ($7$ to $12$ years) where thinking is limited to the 'here and now' and concrete visible objects.

Formal operational period

The stage (adolescence and up) characterized by the ability to engage in complex, abstract, and hypothetical reasoning.

Sociocultural theory

Lev Vygotsky’s perspective that cognitive development is a continuous process intimately linked to the child's social environment.

Scaffolding

Providing cognitive support for children as they work through difficult tasks, which is removed as they gain competence.

Zone of proximal development

The distance between what a child can accomplish alone and what they can accomplish with assistance.

Psychological tools

External items (like calculators or computers) and systems (like language) that shape how individuals structure their thinking.

Private speech

Talking to oneself out loud (egocentric speech) or internally (inner speech) to regulate behavior and solve problems.

Still face paradigm

A procedure where a mother displays a neutral, unresponsive face to an infant to examine the infant's social response and distress.

Attachment

The manner in which individuals interact with primary caregivers as infants and romantic partners as adults.

Imprinting

The biological predisposition in young organisms, like goslings, to follow and prefer the first large moving object they see after birth.

Strange Situation paradigm

An observational assessment placing an infant, mother, and stranger in $8$ unique situations to classify attachment styles.

Secure attachment

A style where infants are comfortable with mothers present, distressed when they leave, and happy/easily comforted upon their return.

Insecure-resistant attachment

A style where infants are clingy, resist separation, and may be fearful of strangers or difficult to comfort upon the mother's return.

Insecure-avoidant attachment

A style where infants show little distress when the mother is absent and actively avoid or ignore her when she returns.

Disorganized attachment

A style characterized by extreme fear, dissociation, and odd, inconsistent behaviors toward the caregiver.

Pre-conventional morality

The first stage of moral reasoning where children focus on obtaining rewards and avoiding punishments.

Conventional morality

The second stage of moral reasoning based on conforming to societal pressures, social laws, and maintaining the status quo.

Post-conventional morality

The final stage of moral reasoning where decisions are based on internal ethical principles and higher-order concepts like justice.

Executive functions

Higher-order cognitive processes including planning, impulse control, working memory, and complex decision making.

Adolescent egocentrism

A self-focus in teenagers characterized by the belief that everyone is watching and thinking about their actions.

Imaginary audience

The belief held by adolescents that everyone else is as interested in them as they are in themselves.

Personal fable

The adolescent belief that they are unique and invulnerable to risky situations.

Foreclosed identity

An identity status where an individual prematurely confirms an identity based on others' expectations without exploration.

Identity diffusion

An identity status where an individual has not made any commitments or explored various options.

Psychosocial moratorium

An identity status involving the active exploration of various identity options without having made a commitment.

Identity achievement

An identity status where an individual has completed an identity crisis and committed to a specific identity.

Fluid intelligence

Cognitive abilities involving speed of processing and reasoning, which tends to decrease with age.

Crystallized intelligence

Concrete information learned over time, such as vocabulary, which remains stable with age.

Dementia

A general term for the deterioration of brain function that negatively impacts cognitive processes.

Alzheimer's disease

The most common form of dementia, characterized by gradual impairments in memory, language, and cognitive function.

Social clock

Cultural norms representing appropriate times for key life events like marriage, childbearing, and retirement.

Emerging adulthood

A developmental period from late teens to mid-$20s$ marked by identity exploration, instability, and self-focus.

Socioemotional selectivity theory (SST)

A theory predicting that younger adults value information-related goals while older adults emphasize emotion-related goals.

Longitudinal research

A research design that studies the same individuals over a period of time to observe developmental processes.

Cross-sectional research

A research design where individuals of various ages are tested in the same study to examine age-related changes.

High amplitude sucking paradigm

A method used to assess infant preference by measuring the rate of sucking on a pacifier in response to stimuli.

Habituation

A paradigm where infants lose interest in a stimulus after repeated exposure, used to study memory and discrimination.

Novelty preference

The tendency for infants to look longer at new information in the environment compared to old information.

Violation of expectation paradigm

A method where infants look longer at outcomes that are unexpected or outside of the ordinary, indicating surprise.

Theory of mind

The understanding that others have feelings, thoughts, and desires that differ from one’s own, emerges around age $4$.

Elicited imitation

A behavioral task used to assess recall memory in non-verbal infants by having them reproduce a sequence of actions.

Institutional Review Board (IRB)

A governing board that reviews research to ensure it conforming to ethical standards and protects participants from harm.

Assent

An individual’s own willingness to participate in research, usually sought from children aged $7$ or older, alongside parental consent.