Child Development and Parenting – Vocabulary Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering evolutionary caregiving patterns, historical parenting beliefs, key psychoanalytic and cognitive-developmental stages, learning theory concepts, and foundational research terms.

No Postnatal Care

Reproductive pattern where parents offer zero assistance once offspring emerge, emphasizing ‘quantity over quality’ and common in many egg-laying species.

Quantity-over-Quality Strategy

Evolutionary approach of producing many offspring with little investment in each, relying on a few survivors to pass on genes.

Limited Parental Care

Moderate caregiving style where fewer offspring are produced and parents supply some protection, feeding, or teaching until young can function independently.

Extensive Parental Care

Lengthy, intensive caregiving characteristic of primates and humans, often lasting years and including social, emotional, and cognitive support.

Lactation

Milk production by mammals, providing essential nutrition and immune protection and serving as a universal feature of mammalian caregiving.

Autocratic Parenting

Strict, authoritarian child-rearing style historically endorsed by Calvinist thought, emphasizing obedience and adult control.

Calvinist Adult Ideals

19th-century belief that adults should display low warmth, strong self-control, and duty, shaping recommendations for stern parenting.

Superego

Freud’s moral component of personality, formed through early parental interactions, guiding conscience and guilt.

Oral Stage

Freud’s first psychosexual phase (0-1 yr) where mouth-related gratification dominates; mishandling can produce dependency or oral fixation.

Anal Stage

Freud’s second psychosexual phase (1-3 yrs) focused on toilet training; leniency may yield messiness, harshness may create rigidity or aggression.

Phallic Stage

Freud’s third psychosexual phase (3-6 yrs) centered on emerging sexuality; extremes in parental response can spawn rule-breaking or over-controlled personalities.

Sensorimotor Stage

Piaget’s period (birth-2 yrs) when infants learn via senses and actions, developing object permanence and basic cause-effect understanding.

Preoperational Stage

Piaget’s stage (2-6 yrs) marked by symbolic thought, egocentrism, and rapid language growth, yet limited logical reasoning.

Concrete Operational Stage

Piaget’s phase (7-11 yrs) in which logical operations apply to concrete objects, enabling conservation, classification, and seriation skills.

Formal Operational Stage

Piaget’s final stage (12 yrs+) where individuals think abstractly, hypothesize, and systematically solve problems.

Trust vs. Mistrust

Erikson’s first psychosocial conflict; consistent, warm care breeds trust, while harsh or inconsistent care fosters mistrust.

Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt

Erikson’s second psychosocial conflict; supportive guidance during self-control tasks (e.g., toilet training) promotes autonomy, whereas ridicule creates shame and doubt.

Marasmus

Severe energy-deficiency malnutrition identified by Spitz, leading to weight loss, muscle wasting, and heightened infant mortality.

Anaclitic Depression

Spitz’s term for infants’ transient but serious depressive reaction following separation from a primary caregiver.

Positive Reinforcement

Skinnerian technique of presenting a pleasant stimulus (praise, reward) after desired behavior to increase its frequency.

Negative Reinforcement

Skinnerian method of removing an unpleasant stimulus when desired behavior occurs, thereby strengthening that behavior.

Corporal Punishment

Physical discipline historically promoted as the primary means to correct child misbehavior.

Contact Comfort

Harlow’s concept that close physical touch with a soft caregiver provides emotional security vital for healthy development.

True Experiment

Research design in which the investigator actively manipulates the independent variable, allowing clearer cause-and-effect conclusions.

Natural Experiment

Study observing pre-existing conditions or groups without manipulating variables, offering ecological validity but less causal control.