Developmental Psychology: Early Childhood through Adolescence

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards generated from lecture notes covering key developmental concepts across early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence.

Initiative versus Guilt

Erik Erikson's third stage of psychosocial development in which children balance enthusiasm to attempt new activities with social approval, developing the virtue of purpose.

Purpose

The virtue emerging from the successful resolution of Erikson's initiative versus guilt stage, defined as the courage to envision and pursue goals without being unduly inhibited by guilt or fear of punishment.

Gender Identity

Awareness of one's own femaleness or maleness and all that it implies within one's culture of origin, typically developing between ages $2$ and $3$.

Gender Roles

The behaviors, interests, attitudes, skills, and personality traits that a culture considers appropriate for males or females.

Gender Stereotypes

Preconceived generalizations about expected male or female behavior.

Gender Constancy

Also called sex-category constancy; a child's realization that their gender will always remain the same, progressing through gender identity, gender stability, and gender consistency.

Gender Stability

The second stage of gender constancy where a child recognizes that gender does not change over time, though judgments remain based on superficial appearances like clothing or hairstyle.

Gender Consistency

The final stage of gender constancy (occurring between ages $3$ and $7$) where a child realizes that outward changes in appearance or activities do not alter a person's sex.

Gender-Schema Theory

A cognitive theory of gender development asserting that children actively extract cultural gender information from their environment and match their behavior to society's standards.

Heteronomous Morality

Piaget's first stage of moral development (ages $4$ to $7$), characterized by viewing justice and rules as unchangeable properties of the world beyond human control.

Autonomous Morality

Piaget's stage of moral reasoning (age $10$ and older), in which children recognize that rules are created by people and judge actions by considering both intentions and consequences.

Functional Play

Also called locomotor play; the simplest cognitive level of play beginning in infancy that consists of repeated practice in large muscular movements, such as rolling a ball.

Constructive Play

Also called object play; the second level of play involving the use of objects or materials to make something, such as building a block tower or drawing with crayons.

Dramatic Play

Also called pretend play, fantasy play, or imaginative play; play involving imaginary objects, actions, or roles that peaks during the preschool years.

Authoritarian Parenting

A parenting style described by Diana Baumrind that emphasizes strict control and unquestioning obedience, resulting in children who tend to be discontented, withdrawn, and distrustful.

Permissive Parenting

Also called indulgent parenting; a style emphasizing self-expression and self-regulation where parents make few demands and allow children to monitor their own activities without learning self-control.

Authoritative Parenting

A parenting style emphasizing a child's individuality alongside social boundaries; parents use firm standards and inductive discipline, producing self-reliant and content children.

Neglectful Parenting

Also called uninvolved parenting; a style added by Maccoby and Martin where parents focus on their own needs rather than the child's, often linked to childhood behavioral disorders.

Instrumental Aggression

Aggressive behavior used as a tool to achieve a desired objective or goal, which is the most common form of aggression during early childhood.

Overt Aggression

Direct physical or verbal aggression openly directed at a target, which is more commonly displayed by boys.

Relational Aggression

Indirect social aggression aimed at damaging relationships, reputation, or psychological well-being through teasing, manipulation, rumor-spreading, or exclusion.

Child Neglect

The failure to provide for a child's basic physical, educational, or emotional needs; it represents the most common form of child maltreatment.

Concrete Operational Stage

Piaget's third stage of cognitive development (ages $7$ to $11$) during which children can use mental operations and logical reasoning to solve actual, concrete problems.

Seriation

The cognitive ability to arrange objects in an ordered series according to one or more quantitative dimensions, such as length or weight.

Transitive Inference

The cognitive ability to infer a logical relationship between two objects from the relationship between each of them and a third object (e.g., if $a < b$ and $b < c$, then $a < c$).

Class Inclusion

The ability to understand the hierarchical relationship between a whole class and its underlying subclasses.

Inductive Reasoning

A logical reasoning process that moves from specific observations about particular members of a class to general conclusions about the entire class.

Deductive Reasoning

A logical reasoning process that begins with a general statement or premise about a class and applies it to specific members of that class.

Advances in Middle Childhood Cognitive Abilities

Key cognitive improvements during middle childhood, including spatial thinking, cause and effect, categorization, seriation, transitive inference, inductive and deductive reasoning, conservation, and mathematics.

Rehearsal Mnemonic

A memory strategy that involves keeping information active in working memory through conscious repetition.

Elaboration Mnemonic

A memory strategy that involves constructing mental associations or visual images to connect items that need to be remembered.

Gardner's Eight Intelligences

Howard Gardner's framework identifying eight distinct intelligence domains: Linguistic, Logical-mathematical, Spatial, Musical, Bodily-kinesthetic, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, and Naturalist.

Componential Element

The analytic aspect of intelligence in Sternberg's Triarchic Theory that governs how efficiently individuals process information, monitor solutions, and evaluate results.

Experiential Element

The insightful or creative component in Sternberg's Triarchic Theory that determines how individuals approach novel tasks and integrate familiar information in original ways.

Contextual Element

The practical component in Sternberg's Triarchic Theory that involves assessing an environment and deciding whether to adapt to it, alter it, or select a new context.

Tacit Knowledge

Robert Sternberg's term for practical information and know-how that is not formally taught or explicitly stated but is essential for practical success.

Representational Systems

Broad, inclusive self-concepts formed around age $7$ or $8$ that integrate various attributes and dimensions of the self into a balanced evaluation.

Industry versus Inferiority

Erik Erikson's fourth psychosocial stage (middle childhood) focusing on developing a sense of competence in productive work versus feelings of inadequacy or low self-worth.

Internalizing Behaviors

Emotional and behavioral problems where distress is directed inward, resulting in symptoms such as anxiety, fearfulness, and depression.

Externalizing Behaviors

Behavioral problems where distress is directed outward against others, manifested through aggression, disobedience, fighting, and hostility.

Coregulation

A transitional phase in middle childhood where parents maintain general oversight over rules and values while granting children moment-to-moment self-regulation.

Self-Esteem

Global evaluations of self-worth, overall self-image, or comprehensive emotional appreciation of oneself.

Self-Concept

Domain-specific evaluations of the self across specific areas such as academic performance, athletic skill, or physical appearance.

Selman's Stages of Friendship

Robert Selman's model detailing five developmental stages of friendship concepts: Stage 0 (Momentary playmateship), Stage 1 (One-way assistance), Stage 2 (Two-way fair-weather cooperation), Stage 3 (Intimate, mutually shared relationships), and Stage 4 (Autonomous interdependence).

Hostile Aggression

Aggressive behavior specifically intended to hurt or harm another person, which increases in proportion as instrumental aggression declines in middle childhood.

Preconventional Reasoning

The lowest level of moral reasoning in Kohlberg's theory, where moral decisions are based entirely on external consequences such as rewards and punishments.

Conventional Reasoning

The intermediate level of Kohlberg's moral reasoning, where individuals internalize and conform to the standards and laws of authority figures or society.

Postconventional Reasoning

The highest level in Kohlberg's theory of moral development, where morality is driven by self-chosen, universal ethical principles and deliberate checks on reasoning.

Rejected Children

A peer status classification for children who are rarely nominated as a best friend and are actively disliked by their peers.

Controversial Children

A peer status classification for children who receive a high number of both positive and negative nominations, being frequently nominated as a best friend and as disliked.

Puberty

The physical process during early adolescence that leads to sexual maturity and reproductive capacity through hormonal and biological changes.

Primary Sex Characteristics

Reproductive biological organs directly required for reproduction, such as the ovaries, uterus, and vagina in females, and testes and penis in males.

Secondary Sex Characteristics

Physiological indicators of sexual maturity that do not directly involve the reproductive organs, including breast development, voice changes, and pubic hair growth.

Spermarche

The principal sign of sexual maturity in males, defined as the first onset of sperm production and ejaculation, occurring at an average age of $13$.

Menarche

The principal sign of sexual maturity in females, defined as the first occurrence of menstruation, typically occurring between ages $10$ and $16.5$.

Anorexia Nervosa

A severe eating disorder characterized by persistent self-starvation, distorted body image, obsessive weight control, and severe underweight status.

Bulimia Nervosa

An eating disorder characterized by recurrent episodes of binge eating followed by compensatory purging methods such as self-induced vomiting or excessive exercise.

Stage of Formal Operations

Piaget's final stage of cognitive development (beginning around age $11$) characterized by abstract thought, systematic hypothesis testing, and flexible information processing.

Hypothetical-Deductive Reasoning

A formal operational problem-solving process that involves developing a hypothesis, deducing testable conclusions, and systematically executing experiments to find solutions.

Declarative Knowledge

Factual information stored in long-term memory, categorized as 'knowing that' (e.g., knowing mathematical facts or historical events).

Procedural Knowledge

Acquired motor or cognitive skills stored in long-term memory, summarized as 'knowing how' (e.g., knowing how to drive or multiply numbers).

Conceptual Knowledge

An understanding of systemic relationships and principles stored in long-term memory, summarized as 'knowing why'.

Imaginary Audience

A dimension of David Elkind's adolescent egocentrism involving the belief that others are as obsessed with the adolescent's appearance and behavior as they are, leading to feeling 'on stage'.

Personal Fable

A dimension of David Elkind's adolescent egocentrism characterized by a conviction of personal uniqueness and invincibility to real-world dangers.

Top-Dog Phenomenon

The social transition experienced when moving from the highest, oldest, and most powerful status in elementary school to the lowest, youngest status in middle or junior high school.

Service Learning

An educational model integrating community service with academic learning to foster social responsibility, community engagement, and reduced self-centeredness in adolescents.