Developmental Psychology Vocabulary

These flashcards include important vocabulary terms and definitions related to developmental psychology, focused on stages of growth, parenting styles, and concepts of identity.

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES)

Abuse or traumas that influence long-term stress responses and negatively impact health/well-being.

Animism

A belief that inanimate objects are alive and have feelings or emotions.

Assimilation

Interpreting new experiences in terms of existing schemas.

Authoritarian Parenting

A strict parenting style marked by high demands and low emotional warmth.

Authoritative Parenting

A parenting style balancing high demands with warmth, open communication, and reasoning.

Babbling Stage

The stage in speech development in which an infant utters various sounds unrelated to household language.

Chronosystem

Encompasses significant life events and historical moments that affect changes throughout a person's lifespan.

Formal Operational Stage

stage of development which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts

Conservation

The principle that properties like mass and volume stay the same despite changes in the form of objects.

Ecological Systems Theory

A theory using nested systems ranging from direct to indirect influence on an individual.

Egocentrism

The preoperational child's difficulty in taking another person's point of view.

Emerging Adulthood

A period from ages 18 to mid-20s, where individuals are no longer adolescents but have not yet achieved full independence.

Exosystem

Environments not directly experienced by the individual but important for significant others.

Formal Operational Stage

Stage of development wherein individuals begin to think logically about abstract concepts.

Gender

Attitudes, feelings, and behaviors a given culture associates with a person's biological sex.

Gender Identity

Our personal sense of self as male, female, or a combination.

Identity

The understanding or definition of oneself, shaped by various influences.

Adolescence

The transitional phase from childhood to adulthood, marked by physical and psychological changes.

Accommodation

Adapting our current schemas to incorporate new information