Human Development, Intelligence, and Personality Lecture Practice Flashcards

A comprehensive set of vocabulary flashcards covering the key concepts from the lecture series on human development, prenatal stages, research designs, cognitive and social milestones, intelligence theories, and psychodynamic personality structures of personality.

Human Development

The changes that occur across the lifespan, from conception to death, examining continuity and change.

Maturation

Biological and genetic processes that naturally occur, influencing growth, height, strength, and brain development.

Learning

Development shaped by the environment through experiences, social interactions, culture, parenting, and education.

Infantile Amnesia

The inability to remember events from the first few years of life, typically before age $3$, also known as childhood amnesia.

Longitudinal Research Design

A research method that studies the same individuals over a long period of time to track real developmental patterns and changes.

Cross-Sectional Research Design

A research method that compares different age groups at one point in time to study developmental differences.

Cohort Effects

A limitation of cross-sectional research where differences between age groups reflect unique life experiences or environmental exposure rather than development itself.

Continuous Development

The view that development is a gradual, quantitative change over time, such as a tree growing or a steady increase in height and weight.

Discontinuous Development

The view that development occurs in distinct qualitative stages, such as the butterfly lifecycle or cognitive development stages.

Nature versus Nurture

The debate over whether development is influenced by genetics/biology or environment/experience; the modern view acknowledges a result from both.

Active Development

The idea that people help shape their own development through their choices, interests, and behaviors.

Holistic Nature of Development

The concept that development occurs in many connected domains simultaneously, including emotional, social, physical, moral, spiritual, and intellectual.

Prenatal Development

The period of development before birth that begins at conception and ends at birth.

Germinal Stage

The first stage of prenatal development occurring from $0$ to $2$ weeks gestation, characterized by rapid cell division and implantation of the blastocyst.

Embryonic Stage

The second stage of prenatal development from $3$ to $8$ weeks gestation, where major organ systems and body structures begin to form.

Fetal Stage

The final stage of prenatal development from $9$ weeks to birth, characterized by significant growth, brain development, and the refinement of sensory abilities.

Zygote

The term for a developing organism immediately following conception until the end of the second gestational week.

Embryo

The term for a developing organism between gestational weeks $3$ and $8$.

Fetus

The term for a developing organism from gestational week $9$ until birth.

Gyri

Raised folds or ridges on the surface of the cerebral cortex.

Sulci

Grooves or indentations on the surface of the brain.

Neurogenesis

The process of creating new neurons in the brain.

Myelination

The formation of a fatty myelin sheath around an axon to speed up neural signal transmission.

Synaptogenesis

The formation of new synapses, or connection points, between neurons.

Synaptic Pruning

The removal of unused neural connections to make the brain more organized and efficient.

Teratogens

External chemical agents, such as alcohol, thalidomide, or the Zika virus, that can harm a zygote, embryo, or fetus during prenatal development.

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder ($FASD$)

A group of conditions, including physical abnormalities and cognitive problems, resulting from a mother consuming alcohol during pregnancy.

High Amplitude Sucking Paradigm

A research method used to measure infant preferences and discrimination between stimuli by tracking sucking frequency on a pacifier.

Habituation

A decrease in looking time or response that occurs when an infant becomes bored with a stimulus after repeated exposure.

Dishabituation

The renewal of interest or increased looking time when a new stimulus is introduced, indicating the infant can tell the difference.

Sensation

The detection of physical signals from the environment by sensory organs.

Perception

The brain's organization and interpretation of sensory information into a coherent understanding.

Preferential Looking

A research method where infants are shown two stimuli and their interest is measured by which one they look at longer.

Grating Visual Acuity Test

A test used to measure visual acuity in infants by observing their ability to distinguish striped patterns from solid grey.

Cephalocaudal Rule

The top-to-bottom pattern of motor development where skills emerge in sequence from the head to the feet.

Proximodistal Rule

The inside-to-outside pattern of motor development where skills emerge in sequence from the center of the body to the periphery.

Cognitive Development

The emergence of the ability to think about and understand the world.

Schema

A mental framework used for organizing and interpreting knowledge.

Assimilation

The process of adding new information into an existing schema that is consistent with current knowledge.

Accommodation

The process of modifying an existing schema to fit new information that is inconsistent with current knowledge.

Sensorimotor Stage

Piaget's first stage ($0$ to $2$ years) where infants learn through senses and motor actions and develop object permanence.

Object Permanence

The ability to form mental representations of objects that are no longer present.

Preoperational Stage

Piaget's second stage ($2$ to $6$ years) characterized by egocentrism, use of symbols, and an emerging Theory of Mind.

Egocentrism

The difficulty young children have in seeing the world from perspectives other than their own.

Theory of Mind

The understanding that people have different thoughts, beliefs, and perspectives, and that behavior is guided by mental representations.

Concrete Operational Stage

Piaget's third stage ($6$ to $12$ years) where children develop logical reasoning for concrete examples but struggle with abstraction.

Formal Operational Stage

Piaget's final stage ($12$+ years) characterized by mature reasoning, abstract thinking, and problem-solving.

Zone of Proximal Development

Vygotsky's concept of tasks a child can accomplish only with assistance from a more knowledgeable individual.

Attachment

An essential emotional bond formed between human children and their caregivers.

Strange Situation Procedure

A laboratory method developed by Mary Ainsworth to measure individual differences in infant attachment styles through separations and reunions.

Secure Attachment

An attachment style where the infant uses the caregiver as a secure base, is distressed by separation, and is easily comforted upon return.

Insecure-Avoidant Attachment

An attachment style where the infant shows little distress when the parent leaves and avoids or ignores them upon return.

Insecure-Resistant Attachment

An attachment style where the infant clings to the parent to prevent separation and appears distressed or angry upon reunion.

Disorganized Attachment

An attachment style where the infant shows confused or contradictory behavior, wanting to be close to but also away from the parent.

Identity Diffusion

An identity state where an individual has not yet explored options or made any commitment to a stable identity.

Identity Foreclosure

An identity state where an individual prematurely commits to an identity without adequate self-exploration.

Psychosocial Moratorium

An identity state involving active exploration of different options without having made a firm commitment.

Identity Achievement

An identity state characterized by high exploration and a stable commitment to a specific identity.

Dementia

A deterioration of brain function that interferes with daily life, including memory and reasoning; it is not a part of normal aging.

Episodic Memory

The ability to remember past personal events and experiences, which tends to decline more steeply with age.

Semantic Memory

The ability to remember general facts and information, which remains relatively stable or improves through middle age.

Socioemotional Selectivity Theory

The theory that as people age, they focus more on emotional satisfaction and close relationships due to a perceived shortened future.

Flynn Effect

The global observation that $IQ$ scores have risen by approximately $3$ points per decade due to environmental factors like nutrition and education.

$g$ factor

Spearman's concept of higher-order, general intelligence that influences performance across multiple academic and cognitive contexts.

$s$ factor

Spearman's concept of lower-order, specific intelligence that applies to limited or specialized content areas.

Fluid Intelligence ($G_f$)

The ability to solve novel problems and reason in new situations, which typically peaks in young adulthood.

Crystallized Intelligence ($G_c$)

Accumulated knowledge and skills acquired through experience and education, which remains stable or increases with age.

Emotional Intelligence ($EI$)

The ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions to facilitate thought.

Stereotype Threat

The fear of confirming negative stereotypes about one's group, which can lead to increased anxiety and lower test performance.

Valence

The dimension of emotion describing whether a feeling is perceived as positive or negative.

Psychological Arousal

The dimension of emotion describing the intensity or severity of the feeling, from low to high.

Amygdala

A primitive brain structure that quickly processes biologically relevant emotional information, particularly fear and threat.

Prefrontal Cortex

The advanced brain region responsible for planning, rational thinking, and slow regulation of primitive emotional responses.

Universality Hypothesis

Darwin's proposal that facial expressions are evolved and innate, making them somewhat universal across human populations.

James-Lange Theory

The theory of emotion stating that we perceive a stimulus, express a physiological response, and then acknowledge the emotion based on that response.

Cannon-Bard Theory

The theory of emotion stating that a physiological response and the acknowledgement of an emotion occur simultaneously.

Facial Feedback Hypothesis

The hypothesis that emotional facial expressions can cause or change an individual's actual emotional experience.

Hedonic Principle

The psychological motive suggesting human behavior is driven by the desire to seek pleasure and avoid pain.

Intrinsic Motivation

The drive to take actions that are inherently rewarding in themselves, such as listening to music.

Extrinsic Motivation

The drive to take actions that lead to separate rewards, such as working for a paycheck.

Personality

An enduring set of internally-based characteristics that produce uniqueness and consistency in thoughts and behaviors.

Idiographic Approach

A method of studying personality that focuses on individual differences and the unique characteristics of a person.

Nomothetic Approach

A method of studying personality that focuses on identifying common trends and patterns within a population.

Id

The unconscious part of the mind present at birth that operates on the pleasure principle and seeks immediate gratification of animal desires.

Ego

The part of the mind that allows us to deal with practical demands and operates on the reality principle to resolve conflicts.

Superego

The internalization of social and cultural rules that acts as a moral compass, regulated by the conscience.