Untitled Flashcards Set
Developmental psychology - a branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development throughout the lifespan
Cross-sectional study - research that compares people of different ages at the same time
Longitudinal study - research that follows and tests the same people over time
Teratogens - Chemicals and viruses that can harm an embryo
Fetal alcohol syndrome - physical and cognitive function deficits in children caused by their birth mother’s heavy drinking during pregnancy
Habituation - decreasing responsiveness with repetitive stimulation
Maturation - biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior
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
Puberty - the period of sexual maturation
Menopause - the time of natural cessation of menstruation, women only
Sex - he biologically influenced characteristics by which people define male, female, and intersex
Gender - the attitudes, feelings, and behaviors that a given culture associates with a person’s biological sex
Intersex - possessing male and female biological sexual characteristics at birth
Aggression - any physical or verbal behavior intended to harm someone physically or emotionally
Typically men
Relationship aggression - an act of aggression intended to harm a person’s relationship or social standing
Gossip - typically women
Carol Giligan - researched about how girls tend to care more about relationships and guys are more competitive
Testosterone - both male and female have but men have more
Estrogen - both male and female but female have more
Primary sex characteristics - reproductive characteristics
Ovaries, testis
Secondary characteristics - non reproductive characteristics
breasts and hips, male voice quality, and body hair
Spermarche - first ejaculation
Menarche - first menstrual period
Role - a set of expectations about a social position
Gender role - a set of expected behaviors, attitudes, and traits for men and for women
Sexual aggression - any physical or verbal behavior of a sexual nature that is unwanted or intended to harm someone
Gender identity - our personal sense of being male, female, neither, or some combination of male and female
Social learning theory - the theory that we learn social behavior by learning and observing
Gender typing - he acquisition of the traditional male or female
Androgyny - blending traditionally masculine and traditionally feminine psychological characteristics
Sexuality - our physical attraction to another
Asexual - having no sexual attraction toward others
Alfred Kinsey and Kisney scale - Our sexual feelings and behaviors reflect both physiological and psychological influence
Social script - a culturally modeled guide for how to act in various situations
Alice Eagly - found smaller behavioral differences between women and men
social learning theory offers a helpful explanation of gender difference
Sexual orientation - a person’s sexual and emotional attraction to another person and the behavior and/or social affiliation that may result from this attraction
Jean Piaget - cognitive development consists of 4 major stages
Sensorimotor stage - (birth-2) infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities
Preoperational stage - (2-6) child uses language but cannot fully comprehend logic
Concrete operational - (7-11) child can perform mental operations on concrete events
Formal operation - (12) people can think logically think about abstract concepts
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 experiences in terms of our existing schemas
Accommodation - changing schemas to incorporate new information
Object permanence - the awareness that things continue to exist even if not seen
Conservation - he principle that quantity remains the same despite changes in shape
Egocentrism - the preoperational child’s difficulty taking another’s point of view
Lev Vygotsky - emphasized how the child’s mind grows through interaction with the social-cultural environment
Scaffold - a framework that offers children temporary support as they develop higher levels of thinking
Theory of mind - people’s ideas about their own and others’ mental states
Language - our agreed-upon systems of spoken, written, or signed words, and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning
Noam Chomsky - language is an unlearned human trait
Phoneme - smallest distinctive sound units
Morphemes - smallest units of meaning
Grammar - a system of rules that enables us to communicate with
Universal grammar - Chomsky - humans’ innate predisposition to understand the principles and rules that govern grammar in all language
Stages of language development
Babbling stage - (4 months) an infant spontaneously utters various sounds that are not all related to the household language - (10 months) starts to resemble household speech
One-word speech - (12 months) a child speaks mostly in single words
Two- word speech - (24 months) a child speaks mostly in two-word sentences
Telegraphic stage - (36 months) a child can form better sentences
Aphasia - impairment of language
Broca’s area - controls speech movement
Wernicke’s area - controls comprehension
Linguistic determinism - Whorf’s hypothesis that language determines the way we think
Benjamin Lee Whorf - believed that people who did not use past tense did not think about the past
Linguistic relativism - the idea that language influences the way we think
Ecological systems theory - a theory of the social environment’s influence on human development 5 systems
Microsystem - immediate groups - home, school, community
Mesosystem - relationships - parents, peers
Exosystem - environments that indirectly affects a person - a parent’s workplace
Macrosystem - cultural influences - values, beliefs, politics
Chronosystem - life stage, related events - moving, economic recession
Stranger anxiety - (8 months) the fear of strangers
Attachment - an emotional tie with others
Harry and Margaret Harlow - breeded monkeys and found the attachment is based on comfort not resources
Imprinting - he process by which certain animals form strong attachments during early life
Konrad Lorenz - had ducklings imprint on him
Mary Ainsworth - designed the strange situation
Strange situation - a procedure for studying child-caregiver attachment - child is left
Secure attachment - demonstrated by infants who comfortably explore environments in the presence of their caregiver, show only temporary distress when the caregiver leaves, and find comfort in the caregiver’s return
Insecure attachment - 2 types
Anxious attachment - cannot stop crying, clingy
Avoidant attachment - does not care
Temperament - a person’s characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity
Erik Erikson - Studies psychosocial development
Infancy (1) - trust vs mistrust
Toddlerhood (1-3) - autonomy vs shame and doubt
Preschool (3-6) - initiation vs guilt
Elementary (6-puberty) - competence vs inferiority
Adolescence (puberty-20s) - identity vs role confusion
Young adulthood (20s-40s) - intimacy vs isolation
Middle adulthood (40s-60s) - generativity vs stagnation
Late adulthood (60s+) - integrity vs despair
Basic trust - (infancy) sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy
Self-concept - (12) all our thoughts and feelings about ourselves
Diana Baumrind - studies the 4 parenting styles
Authoritarian - coercive, expect obedience from child
Permissive - unrestraining, little punishment
Neglectful - uninvolved, not responsive
Authoritarian - confrontive, demanding and responsive
Identity - our sense of self
Social identity- the “we” aspect of our self-concept
Intimacy - the ability to form close, loving relationship
Emerging adulthood - a period from about age 18 to the mid-twenties, not yet achieved full independence
Social clock - the culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement