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Developmental Psychology
A branch of psychology that focuses on how people grow and change throughout their lives.
Chronological Order
Focuses on how humans develop in a sequential order.
Stability vs Change
Certain characteristics of an individual will remain constant over time while others evolve.
Longitudinal Studies
Studies used to gain insight into changes and patterns over an extended period.
Nature vs Nurture
Debate about the relative influence of heredity (nature) and environment (nurture) on human development.
Continuous Development
The concept that human development is gradual and smooth.
Discontinuous Development
The idea that human development occurs in stages.
Cohort Study
Research studying different groups of people and different ages at the same time.
Cohort Effect
Differences among people caused by circumstances unique to a generation rather than their age.
Prenatal Development
Stages of development before birth including germinal, embryonic, and fetal stages.
Teratogens
Substances that can cause birth defects or developmental problems in a developing fetus.
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
Condition that results from consuming alcohol during pregnancy, causing physical, cognitive, and behavioral problems.
Imprinting
Forming an attachment to the first moving object that the newborn sees, typically the mother.
Puberty
The stage when an individual reaches sexual maturity and can reproduce.
Gender Schema Theory
The ability for children to create mental categories for masculinity and femininity.
Cognitive Map
A mental representation of the layout of one's environment.
Operant Conditioning
Learning by associating behaviors with consequences, either through reinforcement or punishment.
Positive Reinforcement
Adding something desirable to increase the likelihood of a behavior occurring.
Negative Reinforcement
Removing something unpleasant to increase the likelihood of a behavior occurring.
Intrinsic Motivation
The individual has a desire to perform a behavior for its own sake, rather than for a reward.
Reinforcement Schedules
Different ways in which reinforcement can be delivered to shape behavior.
Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)
Process strengthening synaptic connections through repeated activation.
Flashbulb Memory
Very clear memories often formed around highly emotional or traumatic events.
Sunk-Cost Fallacy
The tendency to continue pursuing an action due to previously invested resources.
Forgetting Curve
Model illustrating how people lose information over time without effort to retain it.
Metacognition
Awareness of one's own cognitive processes.
Context-Dependent Memory
Retrieval that is improved when in the same environment as when the information was learned.
Episodic Memory
Relates to personal experiences or events.
Implicit Memory
Information or skills learned without conscious awareness.
Prospective Memory
Remembering to perform future actions.
Semantic Memory
Involves knowledge, facts, and general information.
Psychosocial Development
Progression of emotional and social growth influenced by interactions with others.
Behavioral Perspective
Focuses on how individuals learn from their environment.
Modeling
The process of observing and imitating a specific behavior.
Misinformation Effect
Alteration of memory due to misleading or false information.
Cognitive Biases
Systematic patterns of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment.
Selective Attention
Focusing on a particular stimulus while ignoring others.
