Psychology
284623589 | Zygote | the fertilized egg; it enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo | |
284623590 | Embryo | the developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month | |
284623591 | Fetus | the developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth | |
284623592 | Teratogens | agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm | |
284623593 | Fetal Alcohol Syndrome | physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman's heavy drinking. In severe cases, symptoms include noticeable facial misproportions | |
284623594 | Rooting Reflex | a baby's tendency, when touched on the cheek, to turn toward the touch, open the mouth, and search for the nipple. | |
284623595 | Maturation | biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience | |
284623596 | Schema | a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information. | |
284623597 | Assimilation | interpreting one's new experience in terms of one's existing schemas. | |
284623598 | Accommodation | adapting one's current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information | |
284623599 | Cognition | all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating | |
284623600 | 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 | |
284623601 | Object permanence | the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived. | |
284623602 | 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 | |
284623603 | 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 | |
284623604 | Egocentrism | in Piaget's theory, the preoperational child's difficulty taking another's point of view | |
284623605 | 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 | |
284623606 | Autism | a disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by deficient communication, social interaction, and understanding of others' states of mind | |
284623607 | 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 | |
284623608 | 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 | |
284623609 | Stranger Anxiety | the fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age | |
284623610 | Attachment | an emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation | |
284623611 | Critical Period | an optimal period shortly after birth when an organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development | |
284623612 | Imprinting | the process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life | |
284623613 | 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 | |
284623614 | Adolescence | the transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence | |
284623615 | Puberty | the period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing | |
284623616 | Primary Sex Characteristics | the body structures (ovaries, testes, and external genitalia) that make sexual reproduction possible | |
284623617 | Secondary Sex Characteristics | nonreproductive sexual characteristics, such as female breasts and hips, male voice quality, and body hair | |
284623618 | Menarche | the first menstrual period | |
284623619 | 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 | |
284623620 | Intimacy | in Erikson's theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in late adolescence and early adulthood | |
284623621 | Menopause | the time of natural cessation of menstruation; also refers to the biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines | |
284623622 | Alzheimer's Disease | a progressive and irreversible brain disorder characterized by gradual deterioration of memory, reasoning, language, and, finally, physical functioning | |
284623623 | Cross-sectional Study | a study in which people of different ages are compared with one another | |
284623624 | Longitudinal Study | research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period | |
284623625 | Crystallized Intelligence | one's accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age | |
284623626 | Fluid Intelligence | one's ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease during late adulthood | |
284623627 | Social Clock | The culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement. |