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

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

Preconventional Morality

Moral Development

Conventional Morality

Moral Development

Postconventional Morality

Moral development

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

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?”