Human Growth and Development Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, theories, and concepts in human growth and development from the lecture notes.

Psychometric

Refers to mental testing or measurement.

Psychodiagnostic

Pertains to the process where a counselor uses factors or tests to label a client in a diagnostic category, such as using the DSM.

Psychopharmacology

The study of the effects that medications or drugs have on psychological functions.

Psychodynamic Theories

Theories that focus on unconscious processes rather than cognitive factors when counseling clients.

Id

In Freudian theory, the seat of sex and aggression that operates on the pleasure principle. It is chaotic, void of time orientation, and not rational or logical.

Ego

In Freudian theory, the logical and rational portion of personality known as the reality principle, which uses power of reasoning and control to keep impulses in check.

Superego

The moralistic and idealistic portion of the personality in Freudian theory.

Ego Psychologists

Theorists, such as Erik Erikson, who accent the ego and believe in man's powers of reasoning to control behavior.

Radical Behaviorists

Behaviorists who do not believe in mental constructs such as 'the mind' or consciousness, holding that if a concept cannot be measured, it does not exist.

Erik Erikson

A psychoanalyst and disciple of Freud who created an eight-stage psychosocial developmental theory encompassing the entire life span from trust versus mistrust to integrity versus despair.

Milton H. Erickson

A practitioner generally associated with brief psychotherapy and innovative techniques in hypnosis.

Epigenesis

The notion in Jean Piaget's cognitive development theory that successfully completing a previous stage is necessary for the stages that transpire next.

Idiographic Approach

A theoretical approach, utilized by theorists like Freud and Piaget, that examines individuals in depth rather than studying large groups.

Nomothetic Approach

A theoretical or research approach, such as behaviorism or the DSM, where large numbers of people are studied to create general principles that apply to the population.

Piaget's Four Stages of Cognitive Development

The sequential order of cognitive development stages identified by Jean Piaget: sensorimotor, preoperations, concrete operations, and formal operations.

Alfred Binet

The creator of the first intelligence test in France, with whom Jean Piaget previously worked.

t test

A parametric statistical test (sometimes called Student's t) used in formal experiments to ascertain if the means of two normally distributed groups are significantly different.

Conservation

The principle in Piaget's theory that a substance's weight, mass, and volume remain the same even if it changes shape, which a child masters during the concrete operations stage at ages $7\text{--}11$ years.