developmental psych terms 

| TERM | DEFINITION | TOPIC |
|----|----|----|
| Developmental Psychology | A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, social change throughout a lifespan. | Prenatal |
| Zygote | The fertilized egg; enters rapid cell development for two weeks and develops into an embryo. | Prenatal |
| Embryo | The developing human organism from about two weeks after fertilization up to two months. | Prenatal |
| Fetus | The developing human organism from nine weeks up to birth. | Prenatal |
| Teratogens | Agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm. | Prenatal |
| Fetal Alcohol Syndrome | Physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman’s heavy drinking. In serious cases, symptoms include noticeable facial misproportions. | Prenatal |
| Habituation | Decreasing responsiveness after repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a visual stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner | Prenatal |
| Maturation | Biological growth process that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience. | Prenatal |

| TERM | DEFINITION | TOPIC |
|----|----|----|
| Cognition | The mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating. | Cognitive Development |
| Schema | A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information. | Cognitive Development |
| Assimilation | Interpreting our experiences in terms of existing schemas. | Cognitive Development |
| Accommodation | (1)The process by which the eye’s lens changes shape to focus on near or far objects on the retina. (2)Adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information. | Cognitive Development |

| TERM | DEFINITION | TOPIC |
|----|----|----|
| Preconventional Morality | | Moral Development |
| Conventional Morality | | Moral Development |
| Postconventional Morality | | Moral development |

| TERM | DEFINITION | TOPIC |
|----|----|----|
| Sensorimotor Stage | In Piaget’s theory, the stage (from birth to about 2 years of age) age at which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities. | Cognitive Development |
| Object Permanence | The awareness that thing continue to exist even when not perceived. | Cognitive Development |
| Egocentrism | In Piaget’s theory, the preoperational child’s difficulty in taking another person’s point of view. | Cognitive Development |
| Pre-operational Stage | In Piaget’s theory, (the stage between age 2 to about 6 or 7) during which a child uses language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic. | Cognitive Development |
| Conservation | The principle (which Piaget believed to be part of concrete operational reasoning) that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects. | Cognitive Development |
| Theory of Mind | People’s ideas about their own and other’s mental states-about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and behaviors they might predict. | Cognitive Development |
| Concrete Operational Stage | In Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about age 6 or 7 up to age 11) during which children gain the mental operations that allow them to think logically about concrete events | Cognitive Development |
| Formal Operational Stage | In Piaget’s theory the stage of cognitive development (normally starts at age 12) where people begin to think logically about abstract concepts. | Cognitive Development |

| TERM | DEFINITION | TOPIC |
|----|----|----|
| Attachment | An emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by seeking closeness to their caregiver and showing distress when separated. | |
| Critical Period | An optimal period just after birth, when an organisms exposure to certain stimuli or experiences will ensure proper development. | |
| Imprinting | A process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period in very early life. | |
| Self-concept | All our thoughts and feelings of ourselves, in answer to the question, “Who am I?” | |

| TERM | DEFINITION | TOPIC |
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