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AP Psychology Development Psychology

Terms in this set (53)

Developmental Psychology
a branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span.
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.
Teratogens
agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm.
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.
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 experience in terms of our existing schemas.
Accommodation
Development - adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information.
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.
Object Permanence
the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived.
Preoperational Stage
in Piaget's theory, the stage (from 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.
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