| Term | Definition |
|---|
| developmental psychology | a branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 139) |
| zygote | the fertilized egg; it enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 140) |
| embryo | the developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 141) |
| fetus | the developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 141) |
| teratogens agents | such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 141) |
| fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) | physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman's heavy drinking. In severe cases, symptoms include noticeable facial misproportions. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 142) |
| rooting reflex | a baby's tendency, when touched on the cheek, to turn toward the touch, open the mouth, and search for the nipple. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 142) |
| 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. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 143) |
| maturation | biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 145) |
| schema | a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 147) |
| assimilation | interpreting one's new experience in terms of one's existing schemas. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 148) |
| cognition | all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 148) |
| accommodation | adapting one's current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 148) |
| object permanence | the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 149) |
| 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. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 149) |
| 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. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 150) |
| egocentrism | in Piaget's theory, the preoperational child's difficulty in taking another's point of view. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 150) |
| preoperational stage | in Piaget'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 comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 150) |
| theory of mind | people's ideas about their own and others' mental states—about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts and the behavior these might predict. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 151) |
| autism | a disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by deficient communication, social interaction, and understanding of others' states of mind. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 152) |
| 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. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 153) |
| 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. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 154) |
| attachment | an emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 155) |
| stranger anxiety | the fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 155) |
| critical period | an optimal period shortly after birth when an organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 156) |
| imprinting | the process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 156) |
| basic trust | according to Erik Erikson, a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy; said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 158) |
| self-concept | (1) a sense of one's identity and personal worth. (2) all our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question, "Who am I?" (Myers Psychology 8e p. 161) |
| adolescence | the transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 164) |
| primary sex characteristics | the body structures (ovaries, testes, and external genitalia) that make sexual reproduction possible. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 165) |
| puberty | the period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 165) |
| secondary sex characteristics | nonreproductive sexual characteristics, such as female breasts and hips, male voice quality, and body hair. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 165) |
| menarche [meh-NAR-key] | the first menstrual period. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 166) |
| identity | 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. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 171) |
| intimacy | in Erikson's theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in late adolescence and early adulthood. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 172) |
| menopause | the time of natural cessation of menstruation; also refers to the biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 176) |
| Alzheimer's disease | a progressive and irreversible brain disorder characterized by gradual deterioration of memory, reasoning, language, and, finally, physical functioning. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 180) |
| cross-sectional study | a study in which people of different ages are compared with one another. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 183) |
| longitudinal study | research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 183) |
| crystallized intelligence | one's accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 184) |
| fluid intelligence | one's ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease during late adulthood. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 184) |
| social clock | the culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 186) |
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