Exploring Psychology - Chapter 4: Developing Through the Life Span

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and concepts across Modules 11-14 from Exploring Psychology, 13th Edition.

Zygote

The fertilized egg that enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo.

Embryo

The developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through 2 months, formed from the inner cells of the zygote.

Fetus

The developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception until birth, during which body organs begin to form and function.

Teratogen

An agent, such as a chemical or virus, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm (e.g., alcohol, nicotine, marijuana).

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FAS)

Physical and cognitive function deficits in children caused by their mother's heavy drinking during pregnancy; in severe cases, symptoms include a small, out-of-proportion head and distinct facial features.

Habituation

Decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation, used by developmental psychologists to study what infants can learn and remember.

Newborn Face Preference

The biological preference in newborns to look longer at face-like images and objects.

Maturation

The orderly sequence of biological growth processes that influences shared physical and behavioral commonalities.

Enriched Environment Effect

Environmental stimulation that leads to heavier, thicker cerebral cortexes and more synaptic connections in brain cells compared to impoverished environments.

Infantile Amnesia

The inability to consciously recall memories from early childhood before about age 3 or 4, which wanes as the brain matures.

Schema

A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.

Assimilation

Interpreting new experiences in terms of existing schemas.

Accommodation

Adapting current understandings or schemas to incorporate new information.

Sensorimotor Stage

In Piaget's theory, the stage from birth to nearly 2 years during which infants know the world mostly through their sensory impressions and motor activities.

Object Permanence

The awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived, typically unfolding by 8 months of age.

Preoperational Stage

In Piaget's theory, the stage from about 2 to 6 or 7 years during which a child learns to represent things with words and images but is too young to perform mental operations.

Egocentrism

In Piaget's theory, the preoperational child's difficulty perceiving things from another's perspective.

Conservation

The principle that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects.

Concrete Operational Stage

In Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development around 7 to 11 years during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events.

Formal Operational Stage

In Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development starting around age 12 through adulthood in which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts and hypothetical propositions.

Theory of Mind

The ability to read and infer the mental states of others, including their feelings, perceptions, thoughts, and potential false beliefs.

Attachment

An emotional tie with another person, demonstrated in young children by seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress upon separation.

Stranger Anxiety

The fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning at about 8 months of age soon after object permanence develops.

Critical Period

An optimal period early in life when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces typical development.

Imprinting

The process by which certain animals form strong attachments during an early-life critical period.

Temperament

A person's characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity, which is genetically influenced and typically persists throughout life.

Basic Trust

According to Erik Erikson, a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy, formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers.

Resilience

The ability to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions, trauma, abuse, or adversity.

Authoritarian Parenting

A coercive parenting style where parents impose rules and expect obedience, leading to children with less social skill and self-esteem.

Permissive Parenting

An unrestraining parenting style where parents make few demands, set few limits, and use little punishment, associated with children who are more aggressive and immature.

Neglectful Parenting

An uninvolved parenting style where parents are neither demanding nor responsive, associated with children having poor academic and social outcomes.

Authoritative Parenting

A confrontive parenting style where parents are both demanding and responsive, setting rules while encouraging open discussion, associated with children having the highest self-esteem, self-reliance, and self-regulation.

Adolescence

The transition period from childhood to young adulthood, extending from puberty to social independence.

Puberty

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

Adolescent Brain Development

The developmental phase where the emotional limbic system matures earlier than the executive frontal lobe, causing impulse control to lag behind reward seeking.

Preconventional Morality

In Kohlberg's theory, moral reasoning before age 9 that focuses on self-interest, obeying rules to avoid punishment, or gaining concrete rewards.

Conventional Morality

In Kohlberg's theory, moral reasoning in early adolescence that focuses on upholding laws and social rules to gain approval or maintain social order.

Postconventional Morality

In Kohlberg's theory, moral reasoning in adolescence and beyond where actions reflect beliefs in basic rights and self-defined ethical principles.

Moral Intuition

Quick, automatic gut feelings or reactions that guide moral decisions prior to conscious moral reasoning.

Emerging Adulthood

A period from age 18 to the mid-twenties bridging adolescent dependence and full adult independence, characterized by feeling 'in-between'.

Menopause

The time of natural cessation of menstruation in females, accompanied by a gradual decline in fertility.

Neurogenesis

The formation of new neurons in the brain, which can be stimulated by physical exercise in aging adults.

Prospective Memory

The ability to remember to perform planned actions or tasks at a future time.

Terminal Decline

A sharp drop in cognitive abilities and memory performance as proximity to natural death approaches.