Human Development Across the Life-Span

Vocabulary flashcards covering the key terms, developmental theories, stages, and concepts across the human life-span from Chapter 3.

Development

The pattern of progressive, orderly, and predictable changes that begin at conception and continue throughout life, involving both growth and decline.

Life-Span Perspective (LSP)

A developmental perspective holding that development is lifelong, multidirectional, highly plastic, historically conditioned, multidisciplinary, and characterized by continuous interaction between the individual and changing contexts.

Growth

An increase in the size of body parts or of the organism as a whole that can be quantified or measured, such as increases in height or weight.

Maturation

Changes that follow an orderly sequence largely dictated by an inner genetic blueprint characteristic of the species.

Evolution

Species-specific changes proceeding at a very slow pace, shaped by natural selection which favors individuals or species best adapted to survive and reproduce.

Genotype

The actual genetic material or genetic heritage inherited by an individual from their parents.

Phenotype

The observable and measurable physical and psychological characteristics of an individual resulting from the interaction of inherited traits and the environment.

Prenatal Stage

The developmental period extending from conception to birth, typically lasting for about $40$ weeks.

Teratogens

Environmental agents such as drugs, infections, radiation, and pollution that cause deviations in normal prenatal development and can lead to serious abnormalities or death.

Rooting Reflex

A newborn reflex where the infant turns the head and opens the mouth when touched on the cheek; it disappears between $3$ and $6$ months.

Moro Reflex

A newborn response to a loud noise in which the baby throws arms outward while arching the back, and then brings the arms together as if grasping; it disappears in $6$ to $7$ months.

Grasp Reflex

A reflex where the baby's fingers close around an object pressed against the palm; it disappears in $3$ to $4$ months and is replaced by voluntary grasping.

Babinski Reflex

A reflex where the infant's toes fan out and then curl when the bottom of the foot is stroked; it disappears in $8$ to $12$ months.

Object Permanence

The cognitive awareness that objects continue to exist even when they are not perceived through immediate senses.

Attachment

The close emotional bond of affection that develops between infants and their parents or primary caregivers.

Contact Comfort

The tactile bodily comfort identified by Harlow and Harlow (1962) as the crucial factor in forming attachments, demonstrated when infant monkeys preferred cloth surrogate mothers over wire mothers that provided food.

Cephalocaudal Trend

The developmental principle stating that physical growth and motor control proceed from the cephalic or head region down to the caudal or tail region.

Proximodistal Trend

The developmental principle stating that growth and motor control move from the center of the body outward toward the distal extremities.

Sensorimotor Stage

Piaget's first cognitive stage ($0$ to $2$ years), in which infants explore the world by coordinating sensory experiences with physical actions and gradually establish object permanence.

Preoperational Stage

Piaget's second cognitive stage ($2$ to $7$ years), marked by the development of symbolic thought and mental representation of objects, but constrained by egocentrism and lack of reversible mental operations.

Egocentrism

A characteristic of preoperational thinking where children view the world solely from their personal perspective and cannot grasp another individual's point of view.

Animism

A preoperational tendency rooted in egocentrism wherein children attribute lifelike qualities and intentions to inanimate objects.

Centration

The cognitive tendency of preoperational children to focus on only a single characteristic or feature of an object or event while ignoring others.

Operations

Mental actions that allow a child to perform mentally what was previously performed physically, possessing the key characteristic of reversibility.

Concrete Operational Stage

Piaget's third cognitive stage ($7$ to $11$ years), where children replace intuitive thought with logical thought about concrete events and perform reversible mental operations.

Gender Identity

The sense of being male or female, which most children begin to acquire by approximately $3$ years of age, enabling them to label themselves accurately.

Gender Roles

Socially prescribed sets of expectations that specify how females and males should think, act, and feel in a given culture.

Gender Typing

The process occurring when individuals are ready to encode and organize information according to what is considered typical or appropriate for males and females in a society.

Adolescence

The transitional developmental period between childhood and adulthood, derived from the Latin word adolescere meaning 'to grow into maturity,' beginning at the onset of puberty.

Menarche

The onset of menstruation in females, which typically begins about two years after the pubertal growth spurt in height begins.

Primary Sex Characteristics

Internal and external physiological structures directly involved in reproduction that develop during puberty.

Secondary Sex Characteristics

Bodily signs and outward features of achieving sexual maturity, such as facial hair and voice changes in boys or breast development in girls, that are not directly involved in reproduction.

Hypothetical Deductive Reasoning

Piaget's formal operational reasoning process where adolescents systematically think of possible courses of action, generate hypotheses, and seek solutions rather than relying on trial and error.

Imaginary Audience

An aspect of adolescent egocentrism identified by David Elkind involving the belief that others are as intensely preoccupied with them as they are with themselves, fostering extreme self-consciousness.

Personal Fable

A component of adolescent egocentrism identified by David Elkind involving a sense of personal uniqueness that leads adolescents to believe that no one else can truly understand their feelings.

Identity Confusion

According to Erik Erikson, a condition resulting from an inability to resolve the adolescent identity crisis, which may lead individuals to isolate themselves or lose their identity in the crowd.

Delinquency

A variety of adolescent behaviors ranging from socially unacceptable actions and truancy to legal offenses and criminal acts.

Gond Belief of Death

The cultural perspective found in the Gond culture of India holding that death is caused by magic and demons.

Tanala Belief of Death

The cultural perspective found in the Tanala culture of Madagascar holding that natural forces are responsible for causing death.