AP Psychology - Development Psychology

Developmental Psychology

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

Zygote

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

Embryo

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

Fetus

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

Teratogens

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

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)

physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman's heavy drinking. In severe cases, symptoms include noticeable facial misproportions.

Maturation

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

Cognition

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

Schema

a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.

Assimilation

interpreting our new experience in terms of our existing schemas.

Accommodation

Development - adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information.

Sensorimotor Stage

in Piaget's theory, the stage (from birth to about 2 years of age) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities.

Object Permanence

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

Preoperational Stage

in Piaget's theory, the stage (from 2 to about 6 or 7 years of age) during 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, and 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 6 or 7 to 11 years of age) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events.

Formal Operational Stage

in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts.

Stranger Anxiety

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

Attachment

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

Critical Period

an optimal period shortly after birth when an organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development.

Imprinting

the process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life.

Temperament

a person's characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity.

Self-Concept

all our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question, "Who am I?"

Adolescence

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

Puberty

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

Identity

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

Intimacy

in Erikson's theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in late adolescence and early adulthood.

Emerging Adulthood

for some people in modern cultures, a period from the late teens to mid-twenties, bridging the gap between adolescent dependence and full independence and responsible adulthood.

Cross-Sectional Study

a study in which people of different ages are compared with one another.

Longitudinal Study

research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period.

Crystallized Intelligence

our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age.

Fluid Intelligence

our ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease during late adulthood.

Mary Ainsworth

studied how different attachment styles affected kids

Konrad Lorenz

researcher who focused on critical attachment periods in baby birds, a concept he called imprinting

Diana Baumrind

her theory of parenting styles had three main types (permissive, authoritative, & and authoritarian)

Harry Harlow

Studied attachment in monkeys with artificial mothers

Jean Piaget

Known for his theory of cognitive development in children

Erik Erikson

neo-Freudian, humanistic; 8 psychosocial stages of development: theory shows how people evolve through the life span. Each stage is marked by a psychological crisis that involves confronting "Who am I?"