AP Psychology - Chapter 4 Flashcards

5535378488	Development Psychology	a branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span	0
5535378489	Zygote	the fertilized egg; it enters a 2 week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo	1
5535378490	Embryo	the developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month	2
5535378491	Fetus	the developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth	3
5535378492	Teratogens	agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can cause harm to the embryo or fetus during prenatal development	4
5535378493	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	5
5535378494	Rooting Reflex	a baby's tendency, when touched on the cheek, to turn toward the touch, open the mouth, and search for the nipple	6
5535378495	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	7
5535378496	Maturation	biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience	8
5535378497	Schema	a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information	9
5535378498	Assimilation	interpreting one's new experience in terms of one's existing schemas	10
5535378499	Accomodation	adapting one's current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information	11
5535378500	Cognition	all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating	12
5535378501	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	13
5535378502	Object Permanence	the awareness that things continue to exist even when not percieved	14
5535378503	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	15
5535378504	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	16
5535378505	Egocentrism	in Piaget's theory, the preoperational child's difficulty taking other's points of view	17
5535378506	Theory of Mind	people's ideas about their own and others' mental states -- their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts -- and the behavior these might predict	18
5535378507	Autism	a disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by deficient communication, social interaction, and understanding of others' states of minds	19
5535378508	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	20
5535378509	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	21
5535378510	Stranger Anxiety	the fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age	22
5535378511	Attachment	an emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation	23
5535378512	Critical Period	an optimal period shortly after birth when an organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development	24
5535378513	Imprinting	the process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life	25
5535378514	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	26
5535378515	Self-Concept	a sense of one's identity and personal worth	27
5535378516	Adolescence	the transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence	28
5535378517	Puberty	the period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing	29
5535378518	Primary Sex Characteristics	the body structures (ovaries, testes, and external genitalia) that make sexual reproduction possible	30
5535378519	Secondary Sex Characteristics	non-reproductive sexual characteristics, such as female breasts and hips, male voice quality, and body hair	31
5535378520	Menarche	the first menstrual period	32
5535378521	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	33
5535378522	Intimacy	in Erikson's theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary development task in late adolescence and early adulthood	34
5535378523	Menopause	the time of natural cessation of menstruation; also refers to the biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines	35
5535378524	Alzheimer's Disease	a progressive and irreversible brain disorder characterized by gradual deterioration of memory, reasoning, language, and finally physical functioning	36
5535378525	Cross-Sectional Study	a study in which people of different ages are compared with one another	37
5535378526	Longitudinal Study	Research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period of time	38
5535378527	Crystallized Intelligence	one's accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age	39
5535378528	Fluid Intelligence	one's ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease during late adulthood	40
5535378529	Social Clock	the culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement	41