PSY 205: Units 3 & 4 Developmental Psychology Study Guide

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering biosocial, cognitive, and psychosocial development across early and middle childhood (Units 3 and 4).

Myelin

A fatty insulating covering around many axons that helps nerve signals travel faster and more efficiently.

Lateralization

The specialization of the brain's two hemispheres for different functions.

Corpus callosum

A bundle of nerve fibers connecting the left and right hemispheres of the brain.

Prefrontal cortex

The front region of the frontal lobes involved in planning, judgment, attention, working memory, and impulse control.

Perseveration

Continuing a behavior or repeating a response even when it is no longer appropriate or effective.

Primary prevention

Actions aimed at stopping a problem or injury before it occurs, such as storing medicines and cleaners securely.

Secondary prevention

Actions that identify and respond to a problem quickly, such as recognizing a possible poisoning and contacting emergency services immediately.

Tertiary prevention

Actions that reduce harm after an event occurs, such as medical treatment and follow-up care to prevent lasting complications.

Child maltreatment

An act or failure to act by a caregiver that harms, threatens, or endangers a child.

Child abuse

Harmful acts committed against a child by a caregiver, such as physical, sexual, or emotional abuse.

Child neglect

Failing to provide necessary care or supervision for a child, such as food, shelter, medical care, education, or emotional support.

Executive function

Mental processes used to direct behavior toward a goal, consisting of inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility.

Theory-theory

The concept that children actively build and revise informal explanations about how the world and people work.

Theory of mind

The understanding that other people have thoughts, feelings, beliefs, knowledge, and intentions that may differ from one's own.

Preoperational stage

Piaget's stage, roughly ages 2 to 7, when children use symbols and language but do not yet consistently use logical mental operations.

Egocentrism

A characteristic of preoperational thought where a child has difficulty seeing a situation from another person's perspective.

Centration

A cognitive limitation in early childhood characterized by focusing on one feature of a situation while ignoring others.

Irreversibility

A preoperational limitation involving difficulty mentally reversing a sequence or action.

Conservation

The understanding that a basic quantity remains the same despite changes in its appearance.

Animism

Attributing life-like qualities, feelings, or intentions to inanimate objects.

Scaffolding

Temporary support provided by a more skilled person that helps a child complete a task, gradually reduced as skill increases.

Overimitation

The tendency of young children to copy all steps of a demonstrated action, including unnecessary steps.

Private speech

Children talking aloud to themselves to guide their own thinking and behavior.

Social mediation

Learning and thinking shaped by interactions with others and culturally provided tools, language, and practices.

Fast-mapping

Quickly forming an initial understanding of a new word after limited exposure.

Overregularization

Applying a grammatical rule to an irregular exception, such as saying 'goed' instead of 'went.'

Pragmatics

The social rules of language use, including turn-taking, adjusting speech to the listener, and staying on topic.

Effortful control

The deliberate ability to focus attention, inhibit an impulse, and choose a less immediately appealing response when needed.

Initiative versus guilt

Erikson's psychosocial crisis of early childhood in which children begin activities, make plans, and explore new roles, balanced by parental responses.

Protective optimism

A young child's tendency to expect that their attempts will turn out well, helping them try, explore, and recover from setbacks.

Intrinsic motivation

Engaging in an activity because it is interesting or satisfying in itself.

Extrinsic motivation

Engaging in an activity to obtain an external reward or avoid a punishment.

Process praise

Praise that focuses on effort, strategies, persistence, or choices rather than innate traits.

Person praise

Praise that labels a child's fixed trait or ability, such as calling them smart.

Rough-and-tumble play

Energetic play involving chasing, tumbling, or playful wrestling, distinguished by non-aggressive cues.

Sociodramatic play

Pretend play in which children adopt roles and collaborate to create shared imaginary situations.

Authoritarian parenting

A parenting style characterized by high demands and control, low warmth, and an expectation of strict obedience with little discussion.

Permissive parenting

A parenting style characterized by high warmth and acceptance but few limits, demands, or rules.

Authoritative parenting

A parenting style characterized by warmth and responsiveness combined with clear, consistent expectations and explanations.

Neglectful/uninvolved parenting

A parenting style characterized by low responsiveness, low demands, and limited involvement in the child's life.

Gender schema

A mental framework children use to organize information, roles, and expectations about gender.

Childhood obesity

A level of body fat that poses increased health risks, commonly classified in children using age- and sex-specific BMI percentiles.

Asthma

A chronic condition in which the airways become inflamed and narrowed, causing wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath.

Selective attention

The cognitive ability to focus on relevant information while deliberately ignoring distractions.

Aptitude

A person's potential or readiness to learn or perform in a particular area.

General intelligence (g)

The concept that a broad, overarching mental ability contributes to performance across diverse cognitive tasks.

Multiple intelligences

Gardner's theory proposing that human intelligence includes several distinct abilities rather than one single general factor.

Neurodiversity

The natural variation in how human brains develop, process information, and behave, without assuming every difference is a defect.

Specific Learning Disorder

A neurodevelopmental condition involving persistent difficulty learning or using academic skills, such as dyslexia or dyscalculia.

Autism Spectrum Disorder

A neurodevelopmental condition characterized by difficulties in social communication and interaction, alongside restricted or repetitive behaviors, interests, or sensory patterns.

Concrete operational thought

Piaget's stage (roughly ages 7 to 11) where children apply logical operations to concrete, familiar situations but struggle with abstract reasoning.

Classification

The cognitive operation of grouping items by shared features, categories, or properties.

Seriation

Arranging items in a logical order or sequence, such as shortest to tallest.

Automation

Performing a practiced mental process quickly and with little conscious effort.

Knowledge base

The store of information and skills a person already has organized in memory.

Control processes

Information-processing strategies used to manage thinking, such as selective attention, planning, monitoring, and memory strategies.

Hubs

Highly connected points in a brain network that coordinate and facilitate communication across different neural systems.

Linguistic codes

Styles or forms of language used in different social settings, including differences in vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and formality.

Hidden curriculum

The unwritten set of expectations, values, and behaviors students learn at school beyond the official curriculum.

Industry versus inferiority

Erikson's psychosocial crisis of middle childhood where children strive to master skills and feel competent, risking feelings of inadequacy from repeated failure.

Resilience

The process or capacity of adapting successfully and functioning positively when facing significant adversity.

Standard North American Family (SNAF)

A traditional family structure model consisting of two married parents and their biological or adopted children.

Aggressive-rejected

A sociometric category of children who are disliked by peers partly because they act aggressively or disruptively.

Withdrawn-rejected

A sociometric category of children who are disliked or excluded by peers while being socially anxious, withdrawn, or awkward.

Bully-victim

A child who engages in bullying others while also being targeted and victimized by peers.

Convivencia

A school climate characterized by peaceful coexistence, mutual respect, inclusion, and shared community responsibility.

Preconventional moral reasoning

Kohlberg's first moral level, in which decisions are based primarily on direct consequences to oneself, such as avoiding punishment or gaining rewards.

Conventional moral reasoning

Kohlberg's second moral level, in which decisions emphasize following rules, meeting social expectations, and maintaining laws or social order.

Postconventional moral reasoning

Kohlberg's highest moral level, in which reasoning is guided by broad ethical principles, human rights, and universal justice that may supersede specific laws.