Lifespan Development, Sleep, Consciousness, and Stress

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering lifespan developmental domains, developmental theories, sleep stages, dream theories, sleep disorders, and the biology and appraisal of stress.

Physical Domain

The major developmental domain involving growth and changes in the body and brain, sensory capacities, motor skills, and overall health and wellness.

Cognitive Domain

The developmental domain encompassing mental processes such as learning, memory, attention, language, thinking, and reasoning.

Psychosocial Domain

The developmental domain involving emotions, personality characteristics, and social relationships.

Teratogens

Environmental agents or substances that can interfere with normal prenatal development and lead to birth defects or abnormalities.

Synaptic Pruning

The developmental process following rapid neural growth where unused neural connections are eliminated according to a 'use it or lose it' principle.

Crystallized Intelligence

An individual's accumulated knowledge and vocabulary, which typically remains stable in late adulthood.

Fluid Intelligence

The ability to process novel information, reason logically, and think flexibly, which gradually declines in late adulthood.

Continuous Development

The perspective that human development is a smooth, cumulative, and gradual process of change.

Discontinuous Development

The perspective that development takes place in unique, discrete stages, with sudden, all-or-none transitions.

Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Model

A developmental framework demonstrating that an individual is influenced by nested, interacting environmental layers: the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem.

Epigenetics

The study of how environmental factors and experiences influence gene expression and transcriptional regulation without altering the underlying DNA sequence.

Normative Approach

A method of studying development by establishing average developmental trajectories and age-related milestones to serve as guidelines rather than strict rules.

Sensorimotor Stage

Piaget's first cognitive stage ($0-2$ years) in which infants experience the world primarily through their senses and motor actions; marked by stranger anxiety and the acquisition of object permanence.

Object Permanence

The understanding that physical objects continue to exist even when they cannot be perceived directly by the senses; typically absent in young infants.

Preoperational Stage

Piaget's second stage ($2-6$ years) where children learn to use words and images to represent objects, engage in pretend play, and display egocentrism, but lack logical reasoning.

Egocentrism

The cognitive inability of a child in the preoperational stage to take or comprehend the physical or mental perspective of another person.

Concrete Operational Stage

Piaget's third stage ($7-11$ years) where children can think logically about concrete events, perform arithmetic operations, and understand conservation.

Conservation

The developmental milestone wherein a child recognizes that altering the shape or outward appearance of an object or substance does not change its volume, mass, or quantity.

Formal Operational Stage

Piaget's fourth cognitive stage (beginning around age $12$) characterized by the ability to utilize abstract logic, hypothetical reasoning, and moral considerations.

Longitudinal Research

A research design in developmental psychology that tests and observes the exact same group of individuals repeatedly over extended spans of time.

Cross-Sectional Research

A research design that compares multiple cohorts of individuals of different ages simultaneously at a single point in time.

Consciousness

An organism's dynamic awareness of internal stimuli (such as pain, hunger, thoughts, and emotions) and external stimuli (such as sounds, sights, and touch).

Circadian Rhythm

A biological rhythm that cycles over roughly $24$ hours, regulating patterns of sleep-wake cycles, body temperature, and hunger.

Melatonin

A hormone produced by the pineal gland in coordination with the hypothalamus that facilitates sleepiness and regulates the sleep-wake schedule.

Sleep Debt

The cumulative physiological deficit that results from chronic insufficient sleep below the body's required baseline.

Sleep Deprivation Effects

Adverse physical and psychological consequences of insufficient sleep, including cognitive impairment, memory lapses, impaired immune response, increased reaction time, and heightened disease risks.

Sleep Spindles and K-Complexes

Distinctive EEG waveforms characteristic of Stage 2 NREM sleep; sleep spindles consist of rapid bursts of rhythmic brain activity, while K-complexes are single high-amplitude spikes.

Stage 3 NREM Sleep

Deep sleep (slow-wave sleep) characterized by high-amplitude, low-frequency delta waves, lowered heart rate, and physiological restoration.

REM Sleep

Rapid eye movement sleep marked by low-amplitude brain waves resembling wakefulness, vivid dreaming, and temporary muscle paralysis (REM paralysis).

REM Rebound

The homeostatic phenomenon in which individuals deprived of REM sleep spend a significantly greater proportion of subsequent sleep cycles in REM sleep.

The Sleep Cycle

The recurring architectural progression through distinct stages of non-REM sleep (N1, N2, N3) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep across a typical sleep period.

Manifest Content

In Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic dream theory, the literal, storyline events and visible imagery recalled by the dreamer.

Latent Content

In Sigmund Freud's dream theory, the hidden, disguised, and unconscious psychological meaning symbolized by the dream.

Collective Unconscious

Carl Jung's concept of a shared ancestral layer of the unconscious mind containing universal symbols, motifs, and archetypes common to all human beings.

Continuity Hypothesis

An empirically supported theory of dreaming proposing that dream content reflects an individual's waking life experiences and emotionally significant recent events.

Activation-Synthesis Theory

The neurobiological theory proposing that dreams are the cerebral cortex's attempt to synthesize and impose meaning onto random neural discharges originating during REM sleep.

Parasomnias

A class of sleep disorders characterized by unwanted, disruptive motor behaviors, movements, or sensory experiences occurring during sleep.

Somnambulism

A parasomnia, commonly known as sleepwalking, in which the sleeping individual performs complex motor activities while remaining asleep.

Sleep Apnea

A sleep disorder characterized by repeated cessation of breathing during sleep, frequently managed using a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device.

Insomnia

A sleep disorder characterized by persistent difficulty falling or staying asleep, resulting in daytime distress and impairment; highly responsive to cognitive behavioral therapy.

Stress

The psychological and physiological process of perceiving and responding to situations that are appraised as overwhelming, taxing, or threatening.

Primary Appraisal

The initial cognitive evaluation of a potential stressor to judge the degree of potential harm, categorizing it as either a threat or a challenge.

Secondary Appraisal

The judgment of the available coping options, resources, and strategies to effectively manage and address an identified stressor.

HPA Axis

A major physiological stress response system comprising the hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and adrenal glands that coordinates the release of cortisol for a sustained response.

Cortisol

A sustained stress hormone released by the adrenal glands via the HPA axis that provides an energy boost but suppresses immune function when chronically elevated.

Psychophysiological Disorder

A physical disease or medical condition whose physical symptoms are initiated, exacerbated, or maintained by emotional stress or psychological factors.

Eustress

A positive, beneficial form of stress that can motivate, energize, and improve physical or cognitive performance.

Problem-Focused Coping

A coping style directed at managing or altering the stressor itself, featuring proactive strategies such as problem-solving, information seeking, and goal setting.

Emotion-Focused Coping

A coping style directed at regulating the emotional distress associated with a stressor, including strategies such as meditation, reappraisal, or seeking emotional balance.