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42 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
What is developmental psychology?
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A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span.
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What is a zygote?
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The fertilized egg; it enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo.
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What is a embryo?
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The developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month.
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What is a fetus?
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The developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth.
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What are teratogens?
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Agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm.
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What is fetal alcohol syndrome?
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Physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman's heavy drinking. In severe cases, symptoms include noticeable facial misproportions.
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What is rooting reflex?
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A baby's tendency, when touched on the cheek, to turn toward the touch, open the mouth, and search for the nipple of the mother.
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What is habituation?
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Decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to actual stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner.
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What is maturation?
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Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience.
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What is schema?
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A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.
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What is assimilation?
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Interpreting one's new experience in terms of one's existing schemas.
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What is accomodation?
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Adapting one's current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information.
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What is cognition?
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All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.
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What is sensorimotor state?
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In Plaget'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.
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What is object permanence?
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The awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived.
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What is preoperational stage?
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In Plaget's theory the stage (from about 2 to 6 or 7 years of age) during which a child learns to use language but does not yet compregend the mental operations of concrete logic.
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What is conservation?
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The principle (which Plaget 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,
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What is egocentrism?
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In Plaget's theory, the preoperational child's difficulty taking another's point of view.
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What is theory of mind?
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People's ideas about their own and others' mental states-about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts and the behavior these might predict.
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What is autism?
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A disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by deficient communication, social interaction, and understanding of others' states of mind.
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What is concrete operational stage?
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In Plaget'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.
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What is formal operational stage?
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In Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts.
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What is stranger anxiety?
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The fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age.
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What is attachment?
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Emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation.
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What is critical period?
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An optimal period shortly after birth when an organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development.
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What is imprinting?
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The process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life.
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What is basic trust?
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According to Erik Erikson, a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy; said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsible caregivers.
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What is self-concept?
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A sense of one's identity and personal worth.
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What is adolescence?
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The transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence.
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What is puberty?
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The period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing.
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What are primary sex characteristics?
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The body structures (ovaries, testes, and external genitalia) that make sexual reproduction possible.
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What are secondary sex characteristics?
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Non-reproductive sexual characteristics, such as female breasts and hips, male voice quality, and body hair.
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What is menarche?
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The first menstrual period.
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What is identity?
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One's sense of self; according to Erikson, the adolescent's task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles.
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What is intimacy?
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In Erikson's theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in late adolescence and early adulthood.
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What is menopause?
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The time of natural cessation of menstruation; also refers to the biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines.
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What is Alzheimer's Disease?
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A progressive and irreversible brain disorder characterized by gradual deterioration of memory, reasoning, language, and finally, physical functioning.
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What is a cross-sectional study?
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A study in which people of different ages are compared with one another.
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What is longitudinal study?
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Research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period of time.
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What is crystallized intelligence?
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One's accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age.
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What is fluid intelligence?
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One's ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease during late adulthood.
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What is a social clock?
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The culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement.
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