Chapter 12: Development over the Life Span

Accommodation

Is the process by which new experiences cause existing schemas to change.

Assimilation

Is the process by which new experiences are incorporated into existing schemas.

Teratogens

Are external agents that cause abnormal prenatal development.

Sensorimotor Stage

Understand their world primarily through sensory experiences and physical (motor) interactions with objects.

Zone of Proximal Development

The difference between what a child can do independently and what the child can do with assistance from adults or moreadvanced peers.

Adolescent Egocentrism

A self- absorbed and distorted view of ones uniqueness and importance.

Schemas

Which are organized patterns of thought and action.

Preoperational Stage

In which they represent the world symbolically through words and mental images but do not yet understand basic mental operations or rules.

Reflexes

Automatic, inborn behaviors that occur in response to specific stimuli.

Embryo

Develops from the end of week 2 through week 8 after conception.

Fetus

Develops from week 9 after conception until birth.

Sex typing

Involves treating others differently based on whether they are female or male.

Strange Situation

A standardized procedure for examining infant attachment.

Conservation

The principle that basic properties of objects, such as their volume, mass, or quantity, stay the same even though their outward appearance may change.

Puberty

A period of rapid maturation in which the person becomes capable of sexual reproduction.

Cephalocaudal principle

Reflects the tendency for development to proceed in a head- to- foot direction.

Senile Dementia

Refers to dementia that begins after age 65.

Sensitive Period

Is an optimal age range for certain experiences, but if those experiences occur at another time, normal development is still possible.

Preconventional Moral Reasoning

Is based on anticipated punishments or rewards.

Proximodistal principle

Continues toward the outermost parts.

Neglectful Parents

Provide neither warmth nor rules nor guidance.

Gender Constancy

Which is the understanding that being male or female is a permanent part of a person.

Adolescence

The period of development and gradual transition between childhood and adulthood.

Critical Period

Is an age range during which certain experiences must occur for development to proceed normally or along a certain path.

Sequential Design

Which combines the crosssectional and longitudinal approaches.

Seperation Anxiety

Distress over being separated from a primary caregiver.

Emotion regulation

The processes by which we evaluate and modify our emotional reactions.

Theory of Mind

Refers to a persons beliefs about the "mind "and the ability to understand other peoples mental states.

Stranger Anxiety

Distress over contact with unfamiliar people.

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD)

Involve a range of mild to severe cognitive, behavioral, and /or physical deficits caused by prenatal exposure to alcohol.

Authoritarian Parents

Also exert control but do so within a cold, unresponsive, or rejecting relationship

Postconventional Moral Reasoning

Is based on well- thought- out, general moral principles.

Formal Operational Stage

In which individuals can think logically about concrete and abstract problems, form hypotheses, and systematically test them.

Indulgent Parents

Have warm, caring relationships with their children but do not provide the guidance and discipline that help children learn responsibility and concern for others.