Untitled Flashcards Set

Cross-Sectional Research: Research comparing different groups of people at the same time.

Longitudinal Research: Research that follows the same group of people over a long period.

Teratogens: Harmful substances that can cause birth defects during pregnancy.

Milestones: Key moments or achievements in development, like a baby’s first steps.

Prenatal Development: The development of a baby before birth.

Fine Motor Coordination: The ability to make small, precise movements with hands and fingers.

Gross Motor Coordination: The ability to make large movements, like walking or jumping.

Maturation: The natural process of growing and developing.

Reflexes: Automatic responses to certain stimuli, like babies sucking when something touches their mouth.

Genetic Mutations: Changes in DNA that can affect traits or health.

Rooting: A baby’s reflex to turn toward something that touches their cheek.

Visual Cliff: A test to see if babies can perceive depth, using a "cliff" to see if they will crawl across.

Critical Periods: Specific times when certain skills or abilities must develop.

Imprinting: When animals form strong attachments to the first thing they see after birth.

Growth Spurt: A period of rapid physical growth, often during puberty.

Adolescence: The period between childhood and adulthood, marked by changes like puberty.

Puberty: The time when the body changes to become capable of reproduction.

Primary Sex Characteristics: The body parts directly related to reproduction, like genitalia.

Secondary Sex Characteristics: Traits that develop during puberty but aren’t directly involved in reproduction, like body hair.

Menarche: A girl’s first period.

Spermarche: A boy’s first ejaculation.

Menopause: When a woman stops having periods, usually around age 50.

Biological Sex: The physical characteristics (like chromosomes) that determine if someone is male or female.

Socialization: The process of learning how to behave in society.

Gender: The roles and behaviors that society expects from people based on their sex.

Jean Piaget: A psychologist who studied how children develop thinking and reasoning skills.

Object Permanence: The understanding that objects continue to exist even when they can’t be seen.

Preoperational Stage: Piaget’s stage where children start using language but don’t think logically yet (ages 2-7).

Conservation: Understanding that quantity remains the same despite changes in shape or appearance.

Reversibility: The ability to understand that things can be changed back to their original state.

Egocentrism: When children can’t understand that others may have different perspectives.

Theory of Mind: The ability to understand that others have different thoughts and feelings.

Concrete Operational Stage: Piaget’s stage where children start thinking logically about concrete objects (ages 7-11).

Lev Vygotsky: A psychologist who emphasized the role of social interactions in learning.

Scaffold: Support given to help someone learn, which is reduced as they become more capable.

Zone of Proximal Development: The difference between what a child can do alone and what they can do with help.

Crystallized Intelligence: Knowledge and skills that stay stable or improve with age.

Dementia: A decline in memory, thinking, and reasoning abilities, often due to aging.

Phonemes: The smallest sounds in a language, like "b" or "t."

Morphemes: The smallest units of meaning in a language, like "dog" or "un-."

Semantics: The meaning of words and sentences.

Grammar: The rules that govern how words are put together in a language.

Syntax: The order in which words are arranged in a sentence.

Nonverbal Gestures: Communication through body language and facial expressions.

Cooing: The early vowel sounds babies make, like "oo" or "ah."

Babbling: Repetitive consonant-vowel sounds babies make, like "ba-ba" or "da-da."

Telegraphic Speech: Early speech in children where they use short sentences, like “want cookie.”

Microsystem: The immediate environment a person interacts with, like family and school.

Mesosystem: The connections between different parts of a person’s life, like between home and school.

Exosystem: Social settings that indirectly affect a person, like a parent’s workplace.

Macrosystem: Larger societal influences on development, like culture or laws.

Chronosystem: The effect of time and changes over time on a person’s development.

Authoritarian Parenting: Parenting that is strict and controlling with little warmth.

Authoritative Parenting: Parenting that is warm but also sets clear rules and expectations.

Permissive Parenting: Parenting that is warm but with few rules or expectations.

Attachment Styles: The way children bond with their caregivers, such as secure or insecure attachment.

Secure Attachment: When a child feels safe and trusts their caregiver.

Insecure Attachment: When a child feels anxious or avoids their caregiver.

Avoidant Attachment: When a child avoids their caregiver and doesn’t seek comfort.

Anxious Attachment: When a child is overly clingy and anxious around their caregiver.

Disorganized Attachment: When a child shows confusing behavior toward their caregiver.

Temperament: The way a person reacts to the world, such as being easygoing or easily upset.

Separation Anxiety: The distress children feel when separated from their caregivers.

Contact Comfort: The comfort from physical touch, often seen in attachment studies.

Parallel Play: When children play next to each other but don’t interact.

Pretend Play: Imaginative play where children use objects or actions to represent other things.

Social Clock: Society’s expectations about when certain life events should happen, like marriage or having children.

Emerging Adulthood: The period between adolescence and adulthood, usually from ages 18 to 25.

Autonomy: The ability to make decisions and control one’s life.

Shame: A feeling of being flawed or unworthy.

Initiative: A desire to take action and start new things.

Guilt: A feeling of responsibility for something that went wrong.

Intimacy: The ability to form close, meaningful relationships.

Generativity: The desire to contribute to future generations, often through parenting or work.

Adverse Childhood Experiences: Negative experiences during childhood that can affect health and development later in life.

Diffusion: Not having an identity or direction.

Foreclosure: Committing to an identity without exploring other options.

Moratorium: Actively exploring different identities before making a decision.

Racial Identity: A person’s sense of belonging to a racial group.

Sexual Orientation: Who a person is romantically or sexually attracted to.

Religious Identity: A person’s sense of belonging to a particular religion.

Occupational Identity: A person’s sense of self related to their job or career.

Familial Identity: A person’s sense of self in relation to their family.

Possible Selves: The different versions of who a person could become in the future.

Classical Conditioning: Learning by associating one stimulus with another.

Associative Learning: Learning by connecting two things, like behaviors and their consequences.

Unconditioned Stimulus: A stimulus that naturally triggers a response, like food causing salivation.

Higher Order Conditioning: When a new neutral stimulus becomes associated with a conditioned stimulus.

The Law of Effect: Behaviors followed by good outcomes are likely to be repeated, while bad outcomes make behaviors less likely.

Positive Reinforcement: Adding something good to increase a behavior.

Negative Reinforcement: Taking away something bad to increase a behavior.

Positive Punishment: Adding something bad to decrease a behavior.

Negative Punishment: Taking away something good to decrease a behavior.

Primary Reinforcers: Things that satisfy basic needs, like food or water.

Fixed-Interval Schedule: Reinforcement given after a set amount of time.

Variable-Interval Schedule: Reinforcement given after an unpredictable amount of time.

Social Learning Theory: Learning by watching others and imitating them.

• Observational Learning: A key component of social learning theory, where individuals learn behaviors by observing the actions and consequences experienced by others.