Developmental Psychology

Developmental Psychology:  A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the lifespan.

Prenatal Development

Zygote: the fertilized egg; it enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo.

Embryo: the developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month.

Fetus: the developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth.

Teratogen: (literally, “monster maker”) agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm.

Feta Alcohol Syndrome (FAS): physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman’s heavy drinking. In severe cases, signs include a small, out-of-proportion head and abnormal facial features.

The Competent Newborn/ Brain Development

Habituation: decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a visual stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner.

Maturation: biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience.

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: adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information.

Object Permanence: the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived.

The 4 stages of Piaget

Sensorimotor stage: in Piaget’s theory, the stage (from birth to about 2 years of age) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities.

Preoperational Stage: in Piaget’s theory, the stage (from about 2 to about 6 or 7 years of

age) during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic.

Concrete Operational Stage: in Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 6 or 7 to 11 years of age) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to

think logically about concrete events.

Formal Operational Stage: in Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts.

Continuing Piaget’s Theories and studies

Conservation: the principle (which Piaget believed to be a part of concrete operational reasoning) that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects.

Egocentrism: in Piaget’s theory, the preoperational child’s difficulty taking another’s point of view.

Others

Theory of Mind: people’s ideas about their own and others’ mental states—about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ADS): a disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by significant deficiencies in communication and social interaction, and by rigidly fixated interests and repetitive behaviors.

Stranger Anxiety: the fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age.

Attachment: an emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation.

Critical Period: an optimal period early in the life of an organism when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces normal development.

Imprinting: the process by which certain animals form strong attachments during an early-life critical period.

Temperament: a person's characteristic emotional reactivity

and intensity.

Basic Trust: according to Erik Erikson, a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy; is said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers.

Self-concept: all our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question, “Who am I?”

Gender: the socially constructed roles and characteristics by which a culture defines male and female.

Aggression: any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy.

Gender

Gender role: a set of expected behaviors for males or for females.

Role: a set of expectations (norms) about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave.

Gender Identity: our sense of being male or female.

Social Learning Theory: the theory that we learn social behavior by observing and imitating and by being rewarded or punished.

Gender Typing: the acquisition of a traditional masculine or feminine role.

Transgender: an umbrella term describing people whose gender identity or expression differs from that associated with their birth sex.

Adolescence: the transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence.

Identity: our sense of self; according to Erikson, the adolescent’s task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles.

Social Identity: the “we” aspect of our self-concept; the part of our answer to “Who am I?” that comes from our group memberships.

Intimacy: in Erikson’s theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; is a primary developmental task in late adolescence and early adulthood.

Emerging Adulthood: for some people in modern cultures, a period from the late teens to mid-twenties, bridging the gap between adolescent dependence and full independence and responsible adulthood.

Biological terms 

X Chromosomes: the sex chromosome found in both men and women. Females have two X chromosomes; males have one. An X chromosome from each parent produces a female child.

Y Chromosomes: the sex chromosome found only in males. When paired with an X chromosome from the mother, it produces a male child.

Testosterone: the most important of the male sex hormones. Both males and females have it, but the additional testosterone in males stimulates the growth of the male sex organs in the fetus and the development of the male sex characteristics during puberty.

Puberty: the period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing.

Primary Sex Characteristics: the body structures (ovaries, testes, and external genitalia) that make sexual reproduction possible.

Secondary Sex Characteristics: nonreproductive sexual traits, such as female breasts and hips, male voice quality, and body hair.

Menarche: the first menstrual period.

AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome): a life-threatening, sexually transmitted infection caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). AIDS depletes the immune system, leaving the person vulnerable to infections.

Sexual Orientation: an enduring sexual attraction toward members of either one’s own sex (homosexual orientation), the other sex (heterosexual orientation), or both sexes (bisexual orientation).

Menopause: the time of natural cessation of menstruation; also refers to the biological changes a

woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines.

Cross-Sectional Study: a study in which people of different ages are compared with one another.

Longitudinal Study: research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period.

Social Clock: the culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and

retirement.

People:

Jean Piaget: A Swiss psychologist known for his theory of cognitive development, which describes how children progress through distinct stages of thinking.

Lev Vygotsky: A Russian psychologist who developed the sociocultural theory of cognitive development, emphasizing the role of social interaction and culture in learning.

Konrad Lorenz: An Austrian ethologist known for his work on imprinting, the process by which certain animals form strong attachments early in life.

Harry Harlow: An American psychologist famous for his maternal attachment experiments with monkeys, demonstrating the importance of comfort and love in early development.

Margaret Harlow: A researcher who worked with Harry Harlow on maternal deprivation studies, examining the effects of social isolation in infant monkeys.

Mary Ainsworth: A developmental psychologist known for her work on attachment theory, particularly through the Strange Situation Experiment, which identified different attachment styles in children.

Diana Baumrind: A psychologist known for her research on parenting styles, categorizing how different parenting approaches affect child development.

Carol Gilligan: A feminist psychologist who proposed the ethic of care theory, arguing that moral development differs between genders and emphasizing relationships and compassion.