Developmental Psychology Flashcards

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts in developmental psychology.

Developmental Psychology

The study of YOU from womb to tomb, focusing on physical, social, cognitive, and moral changes over a lifetime.

Nature vs. Nurture

The debate of whether we are shaped by our genetics or our environment.

Cross-Sectional Studies

Research method where participants of different ages are studied at the same time.

Longitudinal Studies

Research method where one group of people is studied over a period of time.

Physical Development

Focuses on the physical changes that occur over time.

Prenatal Development

The stage of development from conception to birth.

Zygote

The fertilized egg in the first stage of prenatal development, lasting about two weeks.

Embryo

The stage after the zygote, lasting about 6 weeks, during which the heart begins to beat and organs develop.

Fetus

The stage after the embryo, from nine weeks until birth, where organs continue to develop.

Teratogens

Chemical agents that can harm the prenatal environment.

Reflexes

Inborn automatic responses of newborns.

Maturation

Physical growth, regardless of the environment.

Visual Cliff Experiment

Experiment by Eleanor Gibson that showed if you are old enough to crawl, you are old enough to see depth perception.

Monocular Cues

Depth cues using one eye.

Binocular Cues

Depth cues using two eyes.

Stranger Anxiety

The fear of strangers that infants develop at about a year old.

Attachment

The most important social construct an infant must develop; a bond with a caregiver.

Lorenz

Discovered that some animals form attachment through imprinting.

Harry Harlow

Showed that monkeys needed touch to form attachment.

Critical Periods

The optimal period shortly after birth when an organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development.

Strange Situation

Mary Ainsworth's experiment to study attachment.

Type B Attachment

Secure attachment- upset when the mother leaves and comforted upon return.

Type A Attachment

Avoidant attachment- shows indifference when mother leaves and avoids contact upon return.

Type C Attachment

Anxious/ambivalent attachment- upset when the mother leaves, and has difficulty soothing the child when she returns.

Puberty

The period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing.

Primary Sexual Characteristics

Body structures that make reproduction possible.

Secondary Sexual Characteristics

Non-reproductive sexual characteristics.

Menarche

First monthly cycle for girls.

Spermarche

First ejaculation for boys.

Menopause

The decline and cessation of a woman’s menstrual cycle.

Gender Roles

How we are expected to act, speak, dress, groom, and conduct ourselves based upon our assigned sex.

Gender Identity

Children around two years old can correctly label their own or another person’s sex or gender.

Gender Fluidity

A person who is gender fluid may identify as male one day, female the next, both male and female, or neither.

Psychosexual Differentiation

Theory that testosterone & estrogen have a masculinization/feminization effect on the brain of the developing child, which explains behavioral differences and gender identity in children.

Schemas

Ways we interpret the world around us.

Assimilation

Incorporating new experiences into existing schemas.

Accommodation

Changing an existing schema to adapt to new information.

Sensorimotor Stage

Experience the world through our senses. Do NOT have object permanence.

Preoperational Stage

Have object permanence. Begin to use language to represent objects and ideas. Egocentric: cannot look at the world through anyone’s eyes but their own. Do NOT understand concepts of conservation.

Conservation

The idea that a quantity remains the same despite changes in appearance and is part of logical thinking.

Concrete Operational Stage

Can demonstrate concept of conservation. Learn to think logically.

Formal Operational Stage

Abstract reasoning, manipulate objects in our minds without seeing them, hypothesis testing, trial and error, deduction & induction, metacognition. Not every adult gets to this stage.

Information- Processing Model

Children do not learn in stages but rather a gradual continuous growth.

Social Cultural Theory

Cognitively development must take into account the child’s social environment or culture.

Vygotsky

A child develops through interaction with a “more knowledgeable other.”

Scaffolding

Assistance on tasks just out of reach.