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| Study of age-related changes in behavior and mental processes from conception to death |
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| Development governed by automatic, genetically predetermined signals |
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| A period of special sensitivity to specific types of learning that shapes the capacity for future development |
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| Measures individuals of various ages at one point in time and gives information about age differences |
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| Measures a single individual or group of individuals over an extended period and gives information about age changes |
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| Environmental agent that causes damage during prenatal development; the term comes from the Greek word teras, meaning "malformation" |
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| First stage of prenatal dvelopment, which begins with conception and ends with implantation in the uterus (the first two weeks) |
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| Second stage of prenatal development, which begins after uterine implantation and lasts through the eighth week |
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| Third, and final, stage of prenatal development (eight weeks to birth), which is characterized by rapid weight gain in the fetus and the fine detailing of bodily organs and systems |
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| Combination of birth defects, including organ deformities and mental, motor, and/or growth retardation, that results from maternal alcohol abuse |
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| Biological changes during adolescence that lead to an adult-sized body and sexual maturity |
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| Prejudice or discrimination based on physical age |
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| Cognitive structures or patterns consisting of a number of organized ideas that grow and differentiate with experience |
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| In Piaget's theory, absorbing new information into existing schemas |
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| In Piaget's theory, adjusting old schemas or developing new ones to better fit with new information |
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| Piaget's first stage (birth to approximately age 2 years), in which schemas are developed through sensory and motor activities |
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| Piagetian term for an infant's understanding that objects (or people) continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, heard, or touched diretly |
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| Piaget's second stage (roughly age 2 to 7), characterized by the ability to employ significant language and to think symbolically, but the child lacks operations (reversible mental processes), and thinking is egocentric and animistic |
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| The inability to consider another's point of view, which Piaget considered a hallmark of the preoperational stage |
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| Concrete Operational Stage |
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| Piaget's third stage (roughly age 7 to 11); the child can perform mental operations on concrete objects and understand reversibility and conservation, but abstract thinking is not yet present |
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| Understanding that certain physical characteristics (such as volume) remain unchanged, even when their outward appearance changes |
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| Piaget's fourth stage (around age 11 and beyond), characterized by abstract and hypothetical thinking |
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| Strong affectional bond with special others that endures over time |
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| Innate form of learning within a critical period that involves attachment to the first large moving object seen |
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| Kohlberg's first level of moral development, in which morality is based on rewards, punishments, and exchange of favors |
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| Kohlberg's second level of moral development, in which moral judgements are based on compliance with the rules and values of society |
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| Kohlberg's highest level of moral development, in which individuals develop personal standards for right and wrong and define morality on terms of abstract principles and values that apply to all situations and societies |
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| An individual's innate behavioral style and characteristic emotional response |
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| Erikson's theory that individuals pass through eight developmental stages, each involving a crisis that must be successfully resolved |
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| Neds and goals of the individual are emphasized over the needs and goals of the group |
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| Needs and goals of the group are emphasized over the needs and goals of the individual |
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| Succesful aging is fostered by a full and active commitment to life |
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| Disengagement Theory of Aging |
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| Successful aging is characterized by mutual withdrawl between the elderly and society |
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| Socioemotional Selectivity Theory of Aging |
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| A natural decline in social contact occurs as older adults become more selective with their time |
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| The study of death and dying; the term comes from thanatus, the Greek name for a mythical personification of death, and was borrowed by Freud to represent the death instinct |
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