Psych Chapter 10

Vocabulary flashcards covering prenatal, childhood, adolescent, and adult development, including cognitive, moral, physical, and personality theories.

Germinal stage

The first prenatal stage during which a zygote becomes a mass of cells that implants in the uterine wall and the placenta begins to form.

Embryonic stage

The second prenatal stage during which most vital organs and bodily systems begin to form, making it a period of great vulnerability.

Fetal stage

The third prenatal stage during which organs continue to grow and gradually begin to function.

Threshold of viability

The age at which a fetus can survive in the event of premature birth, reached around 23 to 25 weeks.

Maturation

Biological growth processes over time to which early progress in motor skills has traditionally been attributed.

Attachment

The close emotional bonds that develop between infants and caregivers; three types: secure (baby upset when caregiver leaves and is comforted when they return), anxious-ambivalent (baby gets extremely distressed and anxious when caregiver leaves and is not easily comforted when they return (often crying or pushing them away)), and avoidant (baby acts emotionally detached or indpendent, showing few signs of distress when caregiver leaves and often ignore them when they return); study conducted by ainsworth

Fast mapping

The process that facilitates rapid word acquisition and contributes to a vocabulary spurt that often begins around 18 months; a process where a child forms a quick mental link for a new word, concept, or object after only minimal or single exposure

Telegraphic speech

A style of speech characteristic of children near the end of their second year where they begin to combine words, omitting less critical words.

Overregularizations

Grammatical errors that occur when children apply regular grammatical rules to words that are irregular.

Psychosocial crisis

A specific developmental turning point or challenge that marks each of Erikson's eight stages over the life span.

Sensorimotor period

Piaget's stage from birth to age 2, during which the major achievement is the development of object permanence.

Object permanence

The recognition that objects continue to exist even when they are no longer visible, which develops during the sensorimotor period.

Preoperational period

Piaget's stage from ages 2 to 7, marked by centration, animism, irreversibility, and egocentrism.

Centration

The tendency to focus on just one feature of a problem while neglecting other important aspects, characteristic of preoperational thought.

Animism

The belief that all things are living, characteristic of thought during the preoperational period.

Concrete operational period

Piaget's stage spanning ages 7 to 11, during which children develop the ability to perform operations on mental representations.

Formal operational stage

Piaget's stage beginning at age 11 onward, during which thought becomes more systematic, abstract, and logical.

Sociocultural theory

Vygotsky's theory asserting that children's cognitive development is shaped by social interactions, language progress, and cultural factors.

Preconventional reasoning

The level of moral reasoning in Kohlberg's theory where moral thinking focuses primarily on acts' consequences.

Conventional reasoning

The level of moral reasoning in Kohlberg's theory that focuses on the need to maintain social order.

Postconventional reasoning

The level of moral reasoning in Kohlberg's theory that focuses on working out a personal code of ethics.

Adolescent growth spurt

A period of rapid physical growth brought on by hormonal changes, typically starting around age 9 to 10 in girls and age 10 to 12 in boys.

Puberty

The developmental stage during which primary sex characteristics develop fully.

Prefrontal cortex

The last area of the brain to fully mature, with maturation remaining incomplete until early adulthood.

Emerging adulthood

A new developmental stage in modern societies, proposed by Jeffrey Arnett, between adolescence and adult life.

Alzheimer's disease

A disease causing the vast majority of dementias, marked by profound brain tissue loss and the accumulation of neural abnormalities.

finding of harlow’s study

when a baby monkey was given a choice between a bare wire mother that provided food and a soft cloth mother with no food, the monkeys only went to the wire mother for neccessity, not comfort after being scared, instead running to the cloth mother

Bowlby

argued that attahment has a biological and evolutionary basis

Stage theories

assume that individuals progress through stages in a particular order, that process is strongly related to age, and that new stages bring major changes

Erikson’s four childhood stages

trust vs mistrust (birth-18 months) (is my world safe and reliable? infants depend completely on caregivers for food, comfort, and safety; loving care builds trust, whereas neglect leads to mistruct and anxiety), autonomy vs shame and doubt (18 months - 3 years)(can I do things by myself or do I always need to rely on others? toddlers start exploring and learning skills; encouragement builds autonomy (independence) whereas restriction and critisism builds shame and doubt), initiative vs guilt (3-5 years) (am i good or bad when I try to do things? children plan games, makeup stories, and test power over their environment through play. support fosters initivative whereas shutting them down leads to guilt), and industry vs inferiority (6-11 years) (can I succeed and keep up with my peers? kids enter school facing academic and social demands and compare their skills. sucess and praise builds industry (pride and comptence) while failure and critisism leads to feelings of inferiority)

Piaget’s four stages of child cognitive development

sensorimotor (birth - 2), preoperational (2-7), concrete operational (7-11), and formal operational (11+)

Kohlberg’s theory

individuals progress through three levels of moral reasoning: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional

What did Erikson propose as the main challenge of adolescence

the struggle for a sense of identity

Marcia

asserted that adolescents deal with their identity crisis in four ways: identity diffusion (low exploration, low commitment, the individual hasn’t explored options and hasn’t made commitments), identity foreclosure (low exploration high commitment, the individual makes a firm commitment without exploring alternatives), identity moratorium (high exploration low commitment, individual is engaging in active exploration but not yet commited), and identity achievement (high exploration high commitment, individual has explored various options and values and made a coherent commitment to their identity, career, or worldview)

Erikson’s three stages of devlopment in adult years

intimacy vs isolation (can I love and share my life with another person?), generativity vs self-absorption (how can I contribute to the world and leave a lasting mark?), integrity vs despair (did my life have meaning?)

Kubler Ross

concluded that people evolve through a series of five stages as they confront their death: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance