AP PSYCHOLOGY UNIT 9 DEVELOPMENT PSYCHOLOGY
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Developmental Psychology - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅a branch of psychology that studies physical,
cognitive, and social change throughout the life span.
Zygote - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅the fertilized egg; it enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and
develops into an embryo.
Embryo - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅the developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization
through the second month.
Fetus - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅the developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth.
Teratogens - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or
fetus during prenatal development and cause harm.
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅physical and cognitive abnormalities in children
caused by a pregnant woman's heavy drinking. In severe cases, symptoms include noticeable facial
misproportions.
Habituation - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅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 - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in
behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience.
Cognition - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing,
remembering, and communicating.
Schema - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.
, Assimilation - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅interpreting our new experience in terms of our existing schemas.
Accommodation - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Development - adapting our current understandings
(schemas) to incorporate new information.
Sensorimotor Stage - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅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 - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅the awareness that things continue to exist even when not
perceived.
Preoperational Stage - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅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.
Conservation - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅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.
Egocentrism - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅in Piaget's theory, the preoperational child's difficulty taking
another's point of view.
Theory of Mind - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅people's ideas about their own and others' mental states—
about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict.
Concrete Operational Stage - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅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.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Developmental Psychology - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅a branch of psychology that studies physical,
cognitive, and social change throughout the life span.
Zygote - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅the fertilized egg; it enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and
develops into an embryo.
Embryo - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅the developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization
through the second month.
Fetus - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅the developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth.
Teratogens - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or
fetus during prenatal development and cause harm.
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅physical and cognitive abnormalities in children
caused by a pregnant woman's heavy drinking. In severe cases, symptoms include noticeable facial
misproportions.
Habituation - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅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 - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in
behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience.
Cognition - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing,
remembering, and communicating.
Schema - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.
, Assimilation - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅interpreting our new experience in terms of our existing schemas.
Accommodation - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Development - adapting our current understandings
(schemas) to incorporate new information.
Sensorimotor Stage - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅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 - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅the awareness that things continue to exist even when not
perceived.
Preoperational Stage - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅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.
Conservation - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅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.
Egocentrism - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅in Piaget's theory, the preoperational child's difficulty taking
another's point of view.
Theory of Mind - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅people's ideas about their own and others' mental states—
about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict.
Concrete Operational Stage - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅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.
