Human Development: A Life-Span View (Chapters 1–9)

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering key developmental theories, biological foundations, cognitive milestones, socioemotional transitions, and adolescent outcomes across Chapters 1 through 9 of Human Development: A Life-Span View (10th Edition).

Biopsychosocial Framework

A foundational approach to human development that organizes human development forces into biological, psychological, sociocultural, and life-cycle forces.

Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory

An ecological theory proposing that the developing person is embedded in a series of complex, interacting environmental systems: the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem.

Selective Optimization with Compensation (SOC) Model

A developmental model stating that choices determine and regulate development through selection (elective and loss-based), optimization (maximizing gains and minimizing losses), and compensation (identifying alternate ways to achieve goals).

Sequential Study

A developmental research design in which multiple groups of people are tested over time, combining features of both cross-sectional and longitudinal approaches to control for cohort effects.

Autosomes

The first $22$ pairs of human chromosomes that are not sex chromosomes.

Incomplete Dominance

A genetic condition in which one allele does not dominate the other completely, resulting in a phenotype that falls intermediate between the phenotypes of the dominant and recessive alleles (such as the sickle-cell trait).

Cephalocaudal Principle

The developmental principle stating that growth and physical motor control proceed from the head downward to the rest of the body.

Proximodistal Principle

The developmental principle stating that parts of the body near the center axis develop before those that are more distant.

Teratogens

External agents, including drugs, maternal diseases, or environmental hazards, that cause abnormal prenatal development.

Stages of Labor

The three successive phases of childbirth: Stage 1 (cervix enlarges to approximately $10\,\text{cm}$), Stage 2 (the baby passes through the cervix to the vagina and crowns, resulting in birth), and Stage 3 (expulsion of the detached placenta).

Apgar Score

A quick assessment tool evaluating a newborn's physical status based on five vital signs: breathing, heartbeat, muscle tone, reflexes, and skin tone, each scored from $0$ to $2$ to yield a maximum score of $10$.

Temperament

Consistent, biologically based styles or patterns of infant behavior; defined by Rothbart into three dimensions: surgency/extroversion, negative affect, and effortful control.

Neuron

The basic cellular unit of the brain and nervous system that specializes in receiving and transmitting information; consists of a cell body, dendrites, an axon, and terminal buttons.

Synaptic Pruning

The gradual reduction in the number of unnecessary synapses in the brain, beginning in infancy and continuing through early adolescence.

Experience-Expectant Growth

The process by which the brain's neural wiring is organized and fine-tuned by environmental stimulation that has been universally present throughout human evolution (e.g., visual patterns, human speech).

Dynamic Systems Theory

A motor development theory proposing that motor development involves many distinct, component skills that are organized and reorganized over time to meet the demands of specific tasks.

Visual Cliff

A glass-covered platform with an apparent shallow side and deep side, designed by Gibson and Walk to test depth perception in crawling infants.

Affordance

The functional fit between a person's physical actions and the structural, physical properties of an object.

Theory of Mind

A child's intuitive, naïve understanding of the links between thoughts, beliefs, intentions, and behavior; develops in five phases across the preschool years.

Schemes

According to Piaget, psychological structures and mental categories of related events, objects, and knowledge that organize experience.

Assimilation

According to Piaget, the process of taking in new experiences and information that are compatible with existing cognitive schemes.

Accommodation

According to Piaget, the process of modifying existing cognitive schemes based on new knowledge and experiences.

Equilibration

According to Piaget, the process by which children reorganize their outmoded schemes to return to a state of cognitive equilibrium when disequilibrium occurs.

Object Permanence

The understanding, developed during infancy, that objects exist independently of one's own actions and perception of them.

Egocentrism

A defining characteristic of preoperational thinking in which children have difficulty perceiving the physical or psychological world from another person's point of view.

Animism

The preoperational tendency to credit inanimate objects with lifelike properties, including intentions, thoughts, and feelings.

Centration

Piaget's term for the narrowly focused thought of preoperational children, characterized by concentrating on one aspect of a problem while ignoring other equally relevant aspects.

Essentialism

Children's naïve biological belief that all living things possess an underlying, unseen essence that cannot be changed and gives the living thing its fundamental identity.

Autobiographical Memory

Memory for the significant events and personal experiences of one's own life, emerging in the preschool years as language and a sense of self develop.

Cardinality Principle

A counting principle stating that the last number name spoken in a sequence differs from the preceding ones by denoting the total number of objects in the set.

Zone of Proximal Development

In Vygotsky's theory, the distance between what a child can accomplish independently and the higher level of performance possible when guided by a more skilled adult or peer.

Scaffolding

A teaching style in which instructors gauge and adjust the amount of assistance offered to match a learner's changing needs, providing structure without giving more help than is needed.

Private Speech

Audible comments made by children that are not intended for others to hear, serving as an intermediate step to guide and self-regulate their own behavior.

Infant-Directed Speech

A style of speech used by adults when talking to infants that features a slower tempo, exaggerated variations in pitch and loudness, and clear vowel enunciations.

Fast Mapping

The rapid cognitive process by which young children connect words to their referents so quickly that they do not consider all possible meanings of the word.

Telegraphic Speech

Early two-word speech used by toddlers that consists only of words directly essential to conveying meaning, omitting nonessential grammatical morphemes.

Overregularization

A language error that occurs when children apply general rules of grammar to irregular words that are exceptions to the rule (e.g., saying 'goed' instead of 'went').

Secure Attachment

An attachment relationship observed in the Strange Situation in which an infant comes to trust the parent, may or may not cry upon separation, and seeks proximity and is readily consoled upon reunion.

Internal Working Model

An infant's cognitive set of expectations concerning their primary caregivers' availability and responsiveness, which serves as a blueprint for close relationships across the lifespan.

Social Referencing

The behavior in which infants in unfamiliar or ambiguous environments look to a trusted adult for emotional and facial cues to help interpret the situation.

Parallel Play

A form of play beginning shortly after the first birthday where children play alone but remain keenly aware of and interested in what another child is doing.

Cooperative Play

A form of play emerging around age $2$ that is organized around a distinct theme, with each participating child adopting a specific, complementary role.

Prosocial Behavior

Any voluntary behavior intended to benefit another person, including helping, sharing, and comforting.

Instrumental Traits

Psychological characteristics describing an active individual who acts on and influences the world; historically categorized as masculine traits.

Expressive Traits

Psychological characteristics describing an individual who is focused on emotions, warmth, and interpersonal relationships; historically categorized as feminine traits.

Gender-Schema Theory

A cognitive developmental theory proposing that children first decide whether an activity, toy, or behavior is masculine or feminine, and subsequently focus attention on learning about activities relevant to their own gender identity.

Mental Rotation

A spatial ability task requiring an individual to mentally manipulate and rotate two- or three-dimensional geometric figures to determine whether they match a target image.

Mental Operations

In Piaget's theory, cognitive actions that can be performed on objects or ideas and that consistently yield a result, characterizing concrete-operational thought.

Deductive Reasoning

The ability to draw logically necessary conclusions from given facts and premises, regardless of whether the premises contradict real-world experience; characteristic of formal-operational thought.

Metamemory

A child's informal, intuitive understanding of how memory functions, including conscious knowledge of memory strategies and the monitoring of cognitive recall.

General Intelligence ($g$)

A broad, overarching cognitive factor in hierarchical theories of intelligence that pervades all specific intellectual abilities.

Theory of Multiple Intelligences

Howard Gardner's model identifying nine distinct, independent intelligences: linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic, and existential.

Theory of Successful Intelligence

Robert Sternberg's model proposing that intelligence is defined as using one's analytic, creative, and practical abilities skillfully to achieve personal goals within a cultural context.

Stereotype Threat

A self-evaluative anxiety experienced by members of a group when performing in a domain where their group is negatively stereotyped, often impairing test performance.

Divergent Thinking

A form of cognitive processing associated with creativity, where the aim is not to reach a single correct answer, but rather to pursue novel and unusual lines of thought.

Intellectual Disability

A condition characterized by substantial limitations in intellectual ability (typically an IQ score of $70$ or lower) accompanied by problems in adaptive behavior that emerge before age $18$.

Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

A neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by chronic, pervasive patterns of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity that interfere with academic and social functioning.

Phonological Awareness

The fundamental ability to detect, differentiate, and manipulate the distinctive sounds of letters and syllables in spoken words.

Knowledge-Telling Strategy

A writing strategy common in young students where information is retrieved from memory and written down in sequence without extensive planning or rhetorical organization.

Knowledge-Transforming Strategy

A mature writing strategy in which an author carefully decides what information to include, how best to structure it, and iteratively revises the text to convey a point to readers.

Family as a System

A contextual approach positing that a family consists of bidirectional, mutually influencing relationships among parents and children, embedded within broader environmental layers including neighborhoods, schools, and cultural institutions.

Authoritative Parenting

A parenting style characterized by moderate-to-high behavioral control paired with high warmth and responsiveness, where parents explain rules and encourage open discussion.

Authoritarian Parenting

A parenting style that combines strict, high parental control with low warmth and responsiveness, demanding unquestioned obedience without explanation.

Negative Reinforcement Trap

A recurring coercive cycle wherein a parent unwittingly reinforces a child's misbehavior (such as whining or arguing) by withdrawing an initial demand to stop the intolerable behavior.

Blended Family

A family unit consisting of a biological parent, a stepparent, and children, and sometimes including the stepparent's biological children.

Co-Rumination

Extensive, repetitive conversations between close friends focused obsessively on personal problems, common among adolescent girls, which enhances closeness while increasing vulnerability to anxiety and depression.

Dominance Hierarchy

An organized social structure within a peer group headed by a leader to whom other members defer, serving to minimize conflict within the group.

Recursive Thinking

Cognitive reasoning that focuses on what another person is thinking about a third person's perspective (second-order beliefs), emerging around age $5$ to $6$.

Puberty

The biological transition from childhood to young adulthood characterized by the adolescent growth spurt and the development of reproductive and sexual maturity.

Primary Sex Characteristics

Physical signs of maturation that are directly involved in human reproduction, including ovaries, uterus, and vagina in females, and testes, scrotum, and penis in males.

Secondary Sex Characteristics

Physical signs of maturity that are not directly involved in reproduction, such as breast development, facial and body hair growth, voice changes, and widening of hips or shoulders.

Menarche

The onset of menstruation in adolescent girls, typically occurring at approximately $13$ years of age.

Spermarche

The first spontaneous ejaculation of sperm-laden fluid in adolescent boys, typically occurring around age $13$.

Body Mass Index (BMI)

An adjusted ratio of weight to height used to determine clinical categories of body weight, with obesity defined as being in the upper $5\%$ for one's age and height.

Anorexia Nervosa

A severe eating disorder marked by a persistent refusal to eat, a distorted body image, and an irrational fear of being overweight.

Bulimia Nervosa

An eating disorder characterized by alternating cycles of uncontrolled binge eating and subsequent purging through self-induced vomiting, laxatives, fasting, or extreme exercise.

Dual-Process Theory

A cognitive theory positing two systems of problem-solving: System 1 (fast, effortless, intuitive) and System 2 (slow, effortful, analytical).

Imaginary Audience

An adolescent egocentric belief that one's appearance and actions are the central focus of constant scrutiny and attention by peers.

Personal Fable

The adolescent tendency to believe that one's personal experiences, thoughts, and emotions are completely unique and have never been felt by anyone else.

Illusion of Invulnerability

An adolescent belief that misfortune, tragedy, or adverse outcomes only happen to other people, often promoting high-risk behaviors.

Identity Achievement

James Marcia's identity status describing an individual who has actively explored alternative roles and beliefs and has deliberately committed to a coherent, self-chosen identity.

Ethnic-Racial Identity

An individual's sense of belonging to a specific ethnic or racial group, accompanied by learning and embracing the customs, history, and cultural heritage of that group.

Crystallization

The first phase of Donald Super's theory of career development (occurring at age $13$ to $14$), in which adolescents use their emerging identity and interests to form provisional ideas about careers.

Personality-Type Theory

John Holland's vocational theory stating that individuals find work fulfilling when their occupational tasks match their personality prototype among six types: realistic, investigative, social, conventional, enterprising, or artistic.

Life-Course Persistent Antisocial Behavior

A severe, chronic pattern of antisocial and criminal behavior that emerges in early childhood (e.g., around age $3$) and persists throughout adolescence and adulthood.