My Notes
Pp 177-227, 140, 153-154, 400-405, 165(prenatal), 169
◦ 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-weeks after
fertilization through the second month
◦ 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 - (literally, “monster maker”) agents, such as
chemical 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 sever cases, signs include a
small, out-of-proportion head and abnormal facial
features
◦ Habituation - decreasing responsiveness with repeated
stimulation. As infants fain familiarity with repeated
exposure to a 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
◦ Assimilatio - Interpreting our new experiences in terms of
our existing schemas
◦ Accommodation - Adapting our current understandings
, (schemas) to incorporate new information
◦ Sensorimotor stage - In Paiget’s theory the stage (from
birth to nearly 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
about 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 - The principle (which Piaget believed to be
part of concrete operation reasoning) that properties
such as mass, volume, and number remain the same
despite changes in the forms of objects
◦ Egocentrism - In Piaget’s theory, the peoperational child’s
difficulty taking another’s point of view
◦ Theory of mind - People’s ideas about their own and others’
mental states - about their feelings, perceptions,
thoughts, and behaviors these might predict
◦ Concrete operational stage - In Piaget’s theory, the stage of
cognitive development (from about 7 to 11 years of
age) during which children gain the mental operations
that enable them to think logically about concrete
events
◦ Formal operation 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
◦ Autism spectrum disorder(ASD) - A disorder that appears in
childhood and is marked by significant deficiencies in
communication and social interpretation and by rigidly
fixated interests and repetitive behaviors
Pp 177-227, 140, 153-154, 400-405, 165(prenatal), 169
◦ 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-weeks after
fertilization through the second month
◦ 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 - (literally, “monster maker”) agents, such as
chemical 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 sever cases, signs include a
small, out-of-proportion head and abnormal facial
features
◦ Habituation - decreasing responsiveness with repeated
stimulation. As infants fain familiarity with repeated
exposure to a 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
◦ Assimilatio - Interpreting our new experiences in terms of
our existing schemas
◦ Accommodation - Adapting our current understandings
, (schemas) to incorporate new information
◦ Sensorimotor stage - In Paiget’s theory the stage (from
birth to nearly 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
about 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 - The principle (which Piaget believed to be
part of concrete operation reasoning) that properties
such as mass, volume, and number remain the same
despite changes in the forms of objects
◦ Egocentrism - In Piaget’s theory, the peoperational child’s
difficulty taking another’s point of view
◦ Theory of mind - People’s ideas about their own and others’
mental states - about their feelings, perceptions,
thoughts, and behaviors these might predict
◦ Concrete operational stage - In Piaget’s theory, the stage of
cognitive development (from about 7 to 11 years of
age) during which children gain the mental operations
that enable them to think logically about concrete
events
◦ Formal operation 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
◦ Autism spectrum disorder(ASD) - A disorder that appears in
childhood and is marked by significant deficiencies in
communication and social interpretation and by rigidly
fixated interests and repetitive behaviors
