AP Psychology Vocab - Developmental Psychology

A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span.

Developmental Psychology

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

Zygote

The developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month.

Embryo

The developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth.

Fetus

“Monster maker” agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm.

Teratogens

Decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner.

Habituation

Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience.

Maturation

All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

Cognition

A concept or framework that organized and interprets information.

Schema

Interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas.

Assimilation

Adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information.

Accommodation

In Piaget’s theory, the stage during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities.

Sensorimotor Stage

The awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived.

Object Permanence

In Piaget’s theory, the stage during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic.

Preoperational Stage

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

Conservation

In Piaget’s theory, the preoperational child’s difficulty taking another’s point of view.

Egocentrism

Peoples ideas about their own and other mental states—about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict.

Theory of Mind

In Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to thin logically about concrete events.

Concrete Operational Stage

In Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts.

Formal Operational Stage

A framework that offers children temporary support as they develop higher levels of thinking.

Scaffold

A disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by significant deficiencies in communication and social interaction, and by rigidly fixated interests and repetitive behaviors.

Autism Spectrum Disorder

The fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age.

Stranger Anxiety

An emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to their caregiver and showing distress on separation.

Attachment

AN optimal period early in life of an organism when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces normal development.

Critical Period

The process by which certain animals for strong attachments during early life.

Imprinting

A procedure for studying child-caregiver attachment; a child is placed in an unfamiliar environment while their caregiver leaves and then returns, and the child’s reactions are observed.

Strange Situation

Demonstrated by infants who comfortably explore environments in the presence of their caregiver, show only temporary distress when the caregiver leaves, and find comfort in the caregivers return.

Secure Attachment

Demonstrated by infants who display either a clinging, anxious attachment or an avoidant attachment that resist closeness.

Insecure Attachment

A persons characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity.

Temperament

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

Basic Trust

All our thoughts and feelings about ourselves in answer to the question, “Who am I?”

Self Concept

The psychology, the biologically influenced characteristic by which people define male and female.

Sex

In psychology, the socially influenced characteristic by which people define boy, girl, man, and woman.

Gender

Any physical or verbal behavior intended to harm someone physically or emotoinally.

Aggression

An act of aggression intended to harm a persons relationship or social standing.

Relational Aggression

A set of expectations about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave.

Role

A set of expected behaviors, attitudes, and traits for males of females.

Gender Role

Our sense of being male, female, or some combination of the two.

Gender Identity

The theory that we learn social behavior by observing and imitating and by being rewarded or punished.

Social Learning Theory

THe acquisition of a traditional masculine or feminine role.

Gender Typing

Displaying both traditional masculine and feminine psychological characteristics.

Androgyny

An umbrella term describing people whose gender identity or expression differs from that associated with their birth-designated sex.

Transgender

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

Adolescence

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

Puberty

Our sense of self; according to Erikson, the adolescent’s task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles.

Identity

The “we” aspect of our self-concept; the part of our answer to “Who am I?” that comes from our group memberships.

Social Identity

In Erikson’s theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in young adulthood.

Intimacy

A period from about age 18 to the mid-twenties, when many in Western cultures are no longer adolescents but have not yet achieved full independence as adults.

Emerging Adulthood

The sex chromosome found in both males and females.

X Chromosome

The sex chromosome typically found only in males. When paired with an X chromosome from the mother, it produces a male child.

Y Chromosome

The most important male sex hormone. Both males and females have it, but the additional amount in males stimulate the growth of the male sex organs during the fetal period, and the development of the male sex characteristics during puberty.

Testosterone

The body structures that make sexual reproduction possible.

Primary Sex Characteristics

Nonreproductive sexual traits, such as female breasts and hips, male voice quality, and body hair.

Secondary Sex Characteristics

The first ejaculation.

Spermarche

The first menstrual period.

Menarche

A condition preset at birth due to unusual combinations of male and female chromosomes, hormones, and anatomy; possessing biological sexual characteristics of both sexes.

Intersex

A life-threatening, sexually transmitted infection caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). This depletes the immune system, leaving the person vulnerable to infections.

AIDS

Our enduring sexual attraction, usually toward members of our own sex or the other sex; variations include attraction to both sexes.

Sexual Orientation

The time of natural cessation of menstruation; also refers to the biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines.

Menopause

Research that compares people of different ages at the same point in time.

Cross Sectional Study

Research that follows and retests the same people over time.

Longitudinal Study

Acquired disorders marked by cognitive deficits; often related to Alzheimer’s disease, brain injury or disease, or substance abuse. In older adults, these were formally called dementia.

Neurocognitive Disorders

A neurocognitive disorder marked by neural plaques, often with onset after age 80, and entailing a progressive decline in memory and other cognitive abilities.

Alzheimers Disease

The culturally preferred timing of social events, such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement.

Social Clock