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| A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span. |
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| The fetilized egg; it enters a two-week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo. |
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| The developing human organism from about two weeks after fertilization through the second month. |
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| The developing human organism from a nine weeks after conception to birth. |
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| Agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm. |
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| fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) |
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| Physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman's heavy drinking. In severe cases, symptoms include noticeable facial misproportions. |
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| A baby's tendency, when touched on the cheek, to turn toward the touch, open the mouth, and search for the nipple. |
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| Decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposures to a visual stimulus, their interest wanes, and they look away sooner. |
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| Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience. |
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| A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information. |
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| Interpreting one's new experience in terms of one's existing schemas. |
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| Adapting one's current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information. |
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| All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating. |
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| In Piaget's theory, the stage (from birth to about two years of age) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities. |
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| The awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived. |
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| In Piaget's theory, the stage (from about 2-6 or 7 years of age) during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic. |
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| The principle (which Piaget believed to be a part of concrete operational reasoning) that properties such as mass, volume, and numbers remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects. |
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| In Piaget's theory, the preoperational difficulty taking another's point of view. |
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| People's ideas about their own and others' mental states - about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts and the behavior these might predict. |
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| A disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by deficient communication, social interaction, and understanding of others' states of mind. |
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| concrete operational stage |
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| 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 conrete events. |
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| In Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts. |
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| The fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age. |
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| An emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation. |
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| An optimal period shortly after birth when an organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development. |
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| The process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life. |
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| According to Erik Erikson, a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy; said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responseive caregivers. |
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| A sense of one's identity and personal worth. |
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| The transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence. |
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| The period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing. |
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| primary sex characteristics |
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| The body stuctures (ovaries, testes, and external genitals) that make sexual reproduction possible. |
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| secondary sex characteristics |
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| Nonreproductive sexual characteristics, such as female breats and hips, male voice quality, and body hair. |
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| The first menstrual period. |
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| 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. |
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| In Erikson's theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in late adolescence and early adulthood. |
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| The time of natural cessation of menstruation; also refers to the biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines. |
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| A progressive and irreversible brain disorder that's characterized by gradual deterioration of memory, reasoning, language, and, finally, physical functioning. |
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| A study in which people of different ages are compared with one another. |
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| Research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period. |
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| crystallized intelligence |
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| One's accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age. |
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| One's ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease during late adulthood. |
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| The culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirements. |
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