PSYC 140: Module 1 Foundations of Lifespan Development

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the core concepts, major theoretical perspectives, developmental controversies, and key figures in PSYC 140 Module 1.

Lifespan Development

The scientific study of human growth and change from conception to death across physical, cognitive, and socioemotional dimensions.

Multidirectional Development

The developmental principle that change involves simultaneous gains and losses, meaning an individual can improve in certain areas while declining in others at the same period of life.

Multidimensional Development

The characteristic of human development that encompasses interconnected changes across biological, cognitive, emotional, social, and moral dimensions.

Multidisciplinary

A feature of developmental science indicating that it draws from and contributes to various professional fields, including psychology, health sciences, education, sociology, and anthropology.

Aging

The process of becoming old, which primarily applies to adults, begins as early as young adulthood, and involves developmental declines alongside maturation.

Growth

A specific developmental term that implies outward physical change, such as an increase in height or body size.

Maturation

The physical, emotional, or cognitive process of becoming more developed and advanced, such as structural brain changes or improved emotional regulation.

Nature vs. Nurture Controversy

The foundational developmental debate concerning whether human characteristics are determined primarily by genetics and biology (nature) or environmental influences such as family, peers, and education (nurture).

Continuity vs. Discontinuity Controversy

The developmental debate over whether change is a gradual, smooth, and seamless flow along a continuum (continuity) or progresses through distinct, qualitative, and separate stages (discontinuity).

Id

In Freud's psychodynamic theory, the inborn, unconscious component of personality containing biological drives (such as hunger and sexual impulses) that operates on the pleasure principle.

Pleasure Principle

The operating rule of Freud's id, which demands immediate fulfillment and gratification of any impulse or desire.

Ego

In Freud's theory, the conscious, rational self that develops during childhood and operates on the reality principle to balance id impulses, external realities, and superego moral standards.

Reality Principle

The guiding mechanism of Freud's ego, which recognizes external constraints and delays gratification until impulses can be satisfied safely and realistically.

Superego

The final personality component in Freud's theory, emerging by school age, that represents the internalization of societal rules, moral norms, and conscience.

Fixation

A condition in Freud's psychosexual theory where an individual becomes psychologically stuck in a developmental stage as a result of experiencing either excessive gratification or severe deprivation.

Oral Stage

Freud's first psychosexual stage (birth to 18 months), where pleasure centers on the mouth through feeding and sucking; unresolved conflict may lead to adult dependency, smoking, or nail-biting.

Anal Stage

Freud's second psychosexual stage (18 months to 3 years), focused on bowel control and toilet training; fixations can produce anal retentive (orderly/rigid) or anal expulsive (messy/scattered) personalities.

Phallic Stage

Freud's third psychosexual stage (ages 3 to 6 years), where pleasure centers on the genitalia and children navigate anatomical curiosity, Oedipal or Electra conflicts, and superego formation.

Oedipal Conflict

A phallic-stage conflict where a boy experiences sexual affection for his mother, fears castration from his competing father (castration anxiety), and resolves the anxiety by identifying with his father.

Electra Conflict

A phallic-stage dynamic where a girl experiences penis envy, holds resentment toward her mother, directs affection toward her father, and eventually resolves the tension by modeling her mother.

Latency Stage

Freud's fourth psychosexual stage (age 6 to puberty), characterized by dormant sexual conflicts while children focus on developing same-sex peer friendships and elementary school interests.

Genital Stage

Freud's fifth and final psychosexual stage (puberty through adulthood), centered on mature, mutual sexual relationships and productive work in society.

Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory

An eight-stage lifespan theory developed by Erik Erikson spanning infancy to late adulthood, in which each stage poses a social crisis requiring navigation between adaptive and maladaptive outcomes.

Appropriate Responsiveness

A caregiver's ability to consistently meet an infant's needs and flexibly adjust actions to the situation, which Erikson identified as critical for establishing trust rather than mistrust.

Behaviorism

A psychological school of thought that focuses exclusively on observable and measurable behaviors, proposing that development is a continuous process shaped by environmental learning.

Classical Conditioning

An associative learning process discovered by Ivan Pavlov where an organism learns to connect two repeatedly paired stimuli, causing an involuntary or reflexive response to a previously neutral cue.

Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)

In classical conditioning, a stimulus that naturally, reflexively, and automatically elicits a physiological response without prior learning (e.g., meat powder or chemotherapy drugs).

Unconditioned Response (UCR)

In classical conditioning, an unlearned, natural reflexive reaction elicited by an unconditioned stimulus (e.g., salivation to food or vomiting from chemotherapy).

Neutral Stimulus (NS)

In classical conditioning, a stimulus that initially produces no specific natural or reflexive response prior to conditioning (e.g., a tone or bell before food pairings).

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

In classical conditioning, a previously neutral stimulus that, after repeated pairing with an unconditioned stimulus, triggers a learned response (e.g., a bell tone or a doctor's clinic).

Conditioned Response (CR)

In classical conditioning, the learned behavior or reaction elicited specifically by the conditioned stimulus after associative pairing has occurred (e.g., salivating to a tone or nausea in an office).

Conditioned Reflex

A learned response in which an organism displays responsiveness to a stimulus that was previously neutral, occurring automatically without conscious awareness.

Systematic Desensitization

A classical conditioning therapy technique for treating phobias that helps an individual progressively associate a feared stimulus with deep physical relaxation.

Single-Trial Learning (Food Aversion)

A rapid form of classical conditioning in which a potent aversion to a specific food forms after only one experience of illness, even when a substantial time delay separates ingestion and nausea.

Operant Conditioning

A learning theory pioneered by B.F. Skinner in which an organism operates on its environment and behaviors are strengthened or weakened based on subsequent reinforcers or punishments.

Reinforcement

In operant conditioning, any environmental stimulus or consequence following a behavior that increases the probability of that behavior occurring again.

Punishment

In operant conditioning, any environmental consequence following an action that decreases the likelihood of that behavior being repeated.

Social Learning Theory

Albert Bandura's theory bridging behaviorism and cognitive psychology, asserting that learning occurs by observing, processing, and imitating others without requiring direct external reinforcement.

Modeling

The observational learning process identified by Albert Bandura whereby individuals watch and imitate the behaviors, attitudes, and emotional expressions demonstrated by key social figures.

Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental Theory

Jean Piaget's stage theory proposing that children actively construct knowledge like 'little scientists' across four qualitatively distinct stages of thinking through natural biological maturation.

Scheme (Schema)

In Piaget's cognitive theory, an organized pattern of behavior or mental structure (from simple reflexes to complex concepts) that enables internal mental representations and serves as a cognitive building block.

Assimilation

Piaget's cognitive process of interacting with the environment using existing mental schemes, integrating new knowledge without fundamentally altering underlying structures.

Accommodation

Piaget's cognitive process in which internal mental representations and schemes change and adapt in response to learning from new environmental experiences.

Sensorimotor Stage

Piaget's first cognitive stage (infancy), during which infants construct an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences (sight, sound, touch) with physical motor actions.

Information-Processing Theory

A cognitive theory that equates the human brain to a computer, viewing developmental change as continuous and focusing on how information is actively manipulated, encoded, stored, and retrieved.

Ethological Theory

A biologically oriented perspective focusing on animal behavior, evolutionary adaptations, and specific critical periods to explain human developmental traits such as attachment and bonding.

Imprinting

A rapid, reflexive attachment process studied by Konrad Lorenz in geese, in which newly hatched animals bond to the first moving object they observe during an early critical period.

Sociocultural Theory

Lev Vygotsky's developmental theory emphasizing that cognitive growth occurs through social interactions, cultural transmission, and collaborative problem-solving with authority figures or teachers.

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

Lev Vygotsky's concept defining the distance between what a learner can achieve independently and what they can accomplish with the guidance and collaboration of an expert teacher.

Ecological Systems Theory

Urie Bronfenbrenner's model emphasizing that human development is shaped by five nested, interactive environmental systems ranging from immediate personal surroundings to broad historical eras.

Microsystem

In Bronfenbrenner's ecological model, the immediate, face-to-face setting in which the developing individual directly interacts, such as the family, school, peer group, or neighborhood.

Mesosystem

In Bronfenbrenner's ecological model, the interrelations and interactions that occur between two or more of an individual's microsystems (e.g., communication between parents and teachers).

Exosystem

In Bronfenbrenner's ecological model, external environmental settings that do not directly involve the individual as an active participant but nonetheless exert an indirect influence on them (e.g., a parent's workplace).

Macrosystem

In Bronfenbrenner's ecological model, the overarching cultural values, laws, belief systems, economic policies, and customs of the broader society.

Chronosystem

In Bronfenbrenner's ecological model, the temporal dimension encompassing life transitions, environmental events, and the sociohistorical period in which an individual lives.

Head Start

A comprehensive United States early childhood education program co-founded by Urie Bronfenbrenner that applies ecological systems principles by enriching children's immediate social and educational environments.