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Developmental psychology
A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, & social-emotional development through the lifespan.
Cross-sectional study
Research that compares people of different ages at the same point in time.
Longitudinal study
Research that follows & retests the same people over time.
Teratogens
Agents, such as chemicals & viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development & cause harm.
Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)
Physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman's heavy drinking.
Habituation
Decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation; as infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a stimulus, their interest wanes & they look away sooner.
Maturation
Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience.
Critical period
An optimal period early in the life of an organism when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces normal development.
Adolescence
The transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence.
Puberty
The period of sexual maturation, during which a person usually becomes capable of reproducing.
Primary sex characteristics
The body structures (ovaries, testes, & external genitalia) that make sexual reproduction possible.
Secondary sex characteristics
Nonreproductive sexual traits, such as female breasts & hips, male voice quality, & body hair.
Spermarche
The first ejaculation.
Menarche
The first menstrual period.
Menopause
The time of natural cessation of menstruation; also refers to the biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines.
Sex
In psychology, the biologically influenced characteristics by which people define male, female, & intersex.
Gender
In psychology, the attitudes, feelings, & behaviors that a given culture associates with a person's biological sex.
Aggression
Any physical or verbal behavior intended to harm someone physically or emotionally.
Relational aggression
An act of aggression (physical or verbal) intended to harm a person's relationship or social standing.
Role
A set of expectations (norms) about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave.
Gender role
A set of expected behaviors, attitudes, & traits for men & for women.
Gender identity
Our personal sense of being male, female, neither, or some combination of male & female, regardless of whether this identity matches our sex assigned at birth, & the social affiliation that may result from this identity.
Social learning theory
The theory that we learn social behavior by observing & imitating & by being rewarded or punished.
Gender typing
The acquisition of a traditional masculine or feminine role.
Sexuality
Our thoughts, feelings, & actions related to our physical attraction to another.
Social script
A culturally modeled guide for how to act in various situations.
Sexual orientation
According to the APA (2015), 'a person's sexual & emotional attraction to another person & the behavior and/or social affiliation that may result from this attraction.'
Cognition
All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, & communicating.
Schema
A concept or framework that organizes & interprets information.
Assimilation
Interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas.
Accommodation
Adapting our current schemas (understandings) to incorporate new information.
Sensorimotor stage
In Piaget's theory, the stage (from birth to nearly 2 years of age) at which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions & motor activities.
Object permanence
The awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived.
Preoperational stage
In Piaget's theory, the stage (from about 2 to 6 or 7 years of age) at which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic.
Conservation
The principle (which Piaget believed to be a part of concrete operational reasoning) that properties such as mass, volume, & number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects.
Egocentrism
In Piaget's theory, the preoperational child's difficulty taking another's point of view.
Concrete operational stage
In Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 7 to 11 years of age) at which children can perform the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete (actual, physical) events.
Formal operational stage
In Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) at which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts.
Scaffold
In Vygotsky's theory, a framework that offers children temporary support as they develop higher levels of thinking.
Theory of mind
People's ideas about their own & others' mental states - about their feelings, perceptions, & thoughts, & the behaviors these might predict.
Language
Our agreed-upon systems of spoken, written, or signed words, & the ways we combine them to communicate meaning.
Phoneme
In a language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.
Morpheme
In a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix).
Grammar
In a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with & understand others; semantics is the language's set of rules for deriving meaning from sounds, & syntax is its set of rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences.
Universal grammar (UG)
Humans' innate predisposition to understand the principles & rules that govern grammar in all languages.
Overgeneralization
The application of a regular grammatical rule in an irregular situation; usually occurs during language acquisition; shows that the person, either a child or an older person learning a second language, is learning that there are specific rules to language.
Babbling stage
The stage in speech development, beginning around 4 months, during which an infant spontaneously utters various sounds that are not all related to the household language.
One-word stage
The stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words.
Two-word stage
The stage in speech development, beginning about age 2, during which a child speaks mostly in two-word sentences.
Telegraphic speech
The early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram - 'go car' - using mostly nouns & verbs.
Aphasia
Impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to Broca's area (impairing speaking) or to Wernicke's area (impairing understanding).
Broca's area
A frontal lobe brain area, usually in the left hemisphere, that helps control language expression by directing the muscle movements involved in speech.
Wernicke's area
A brain area, usually in the left temporal lobe, involved in language comprehension & expression.
Ecological systems theory
A theory of social environment's influence on human development, using five nested systems (microsystem; mesosystem; exosystem; macrosystem; chronosystem) ranging from direct to indirect influences.
Stranger anxiety
The fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age.
Attachment
An emotional tie with others; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to caregivers & showing distress on separation.
Imprinting
The process by which certain animals form strong attachments during early life.
Strange situation
A procedure for studying child-caregiver attachment; a child is placed in an unfamiliar environment while their caregiver leaves & then returns, & the child's reactions are observed.
Secure attachment
Demonstrated by infants who comfortably explore environments in the presence of their caregiver, show only temporary distress when the caregiver leaves, & find comfort in the caregiver's return.
Insecure attachment
Demonstrated by infants who display a clinging, anxious attachment; an avoidant attachment that resists closeness; or a disorganized attachment with no consistent behavior when separated from or reunited with caregivers.
Temperament
A person's characteristic emotional reactivity & intensity.
Basic trust
According to Erik Erikson, a sense that the world is predictable & trustworthy; said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers.
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)
Potentially traumatic events that occur in childhood, including experiencing violence, abuse, or neglect.
Self-concept
All our thoughts & feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question 'Who am I?'.
Identity
Our sense of self; according to Erikson, the adolescent's task is to solidify a sense of self by testing & integrating various roles.
Social identity
The 'we' aspect of our self-concept; the part of our answer to 'Who am I?' that comes from our group membership.
Intimacy
In Erikson's theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in young adulthood.
Emerging adulthood
A period from about age 18 to the mid-twenties, when many persons in prosperous Western cultures are no longer adolescents but have not yet achieved full independence as adults.
Social clock
The culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, & retirement.
zone of proximal development
Space between what a learner can do without assistance & what they cannot do at all; part of Vygotsky's social-cultural theory of childhood cognition
