5 Steps to a 5 : Chapter 10

Nature versus Nurture Controversy

A controversy dealing with the extent to which heredity and the environment each influences behavior.

Continuity versus Discontinuity

Deals with the question of whether development is gradual, cumulative change from conception to death (continuity) or a sequence of distinct changes (discontinuity).

Stability versus Change

Deals with the issue of whether or not personality traits present during infancy endure throughout the life span.

Longitudinal Study

A longitudinal study follows the same group of people over a period from months to many years in order to evaluate changes in those individuals.

Cross-Sectional Study

A cross-sectional study researchers assess developmental changes with respect to a particular factor by evaluating different age groups of people at he same time.

Cohort Effect

Different experiences in each of the age groups as a result of growing up in different historical times.

Cohort-Sequential

In cohort-sequential studies, cross-sectional groups are assessed at least two times over a span of months or years, rather than just once.

Prenatal Development

Prenatal development begins with fertilization, or conception.

Zygote

The zygote is a fertilized ovum with the genetic instructions for a new individual normally contained 46 chromosomes.

Embryo

The forming individual is now considered an embryo.

Fetus

The developing individual begins to resemble a human; it is a fetus, the developing human organism from about 9 weeks after conception to birth.

Teratogens

Chemicals such as alcohol, drugs, tobacco ingredients, mercury, lead, cadmium, and other poisons or infectious agents, such as viruses, that cause birth defects are called teratogens.

NOTE :

Most birth defects develop during the embryonic period.

NOTE:

The first 3 months (first trimester) of pregnancy,while the critical period of damage to the reproductive system extends across the first and second trimesters of pregnancy. The critical period for the nervous system is all three trimesters.

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is a cluster of abnormalities that occurs in babies of mothers who drink alcoholic beverages during pregnancy.

Neonate(s)

Newborn baby.

Basic Reflexes

Rooting, sucking, swallowing, grasping, Moro, and the startle reflex.

Habituation

Habituation is decreasing responsiveness with repeated presentation of the same stimulus.

NOTE:

Brain development proceeds rapidly from the prenatal period, during which about 20 billion brain cells are produced, through the baby’s first 2 years, during which the dendrites proliferate in neutral networks, especially in the cerebellum, then in occipital and temporal lobes as cognitive abilities grow.

NOTE:

During childhood, proliferation of dendrites proceeds at a rapid rate, especially in the frontal cortex.

Puberty

The defining feature of puberty is sexual maturation, marked by the onset of the ability to produce.

Primary Sex Characteristics

Primary sex characteristics, reproductive organs (ovaries and testes) start producing mature sex cells, and external genitals (vulva and penis) grow.

Secondary Sex Characteristics

Non-reproductive features associated with sexual maturity such as widening of the hips and breast development in females; growth of facial hair, muscular, development of the “Adam’s apple” and deepening of the voice in males; and growth of pubic hair and underarm hair in both.

Menarche

The first menstruation cycle in females.

NOTE:

During adolescents, changes in the brain include selective pruning of unused dendrites with further development of the emotional limbic system.

Menopause

Cessation of the ability to reproduce.

NOTE:

Neural processes slow and parts of the brain begin to atrophy.

NOTE:

Heart disease, stroke, cancer, Alzheimer’s and other degenerative diseases are often terminal diseases of old age.

NOTE:

On average, men die about 4 years earlier than women.

Jean Piaget

Jean Piaget