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| A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span. |
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| The fertilized egg; it enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo. |
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| The developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month. |
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| The developing human organism from 9 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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| Decreasing responiveness with repeated stimulation, As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure 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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| All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating. |
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| A concept of framework that organizes and interprets information. |
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| Interpreting our new experience in terms of our existing schemas. |
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| Adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information. |
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| 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. |
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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 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. |
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| 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. |
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| In Piaget's theory, the preoperational child's 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 behaviors these might predict. |
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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 concrete 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 seperation. |
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| An optimal period shortly after bith when an organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development. |
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| The process in 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 responsive caregivers. |
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| Our understanding and evaluation of who we are. |
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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 structures (ovaries, testes, and external genitalia) that make sexual reproduction possible. |
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| Secondary Sex Characteristics |
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| Nonreproductive sexual characteristics, such as female breasts and hips, male voice quality, and body hair. |
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| {meh-NAR-key} The first menstrual period. |
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| Our 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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| The "we" aspect of our self-concept; the part of our answer to "Who am I?" that comes from our group memberships, |
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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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| For some people in modern cultures, a period from the late teens to early twenties, bridging the gap between adolescence dependence and full independence and responsible adulthood. |
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| The time of nature seeation of menstruationl; also refers to the biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines. |
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| A study in which people of different ages are compared with 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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| Our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increasewith age. |
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| Our ability to reason speedily abd abstactly; tends to decrease during late adulthood, |
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| The culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement. |
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| Learning that certain events occur together. The events may be two stimuli (as in classical conditioning) or a responsive and its consquences (as in operant conditioning). |
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| A type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events. |
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| A relatively permanent change in an organism's behavior due to experience. |
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| The view that psychology (1) should be an objective science that (2) studies behavior without reference to mental processes. Most research psychologists today agree with (1) but not with (2). |
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| Unconditioned Response (UR) |
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| In classical conditioning, the unlearned, naturally occuring response to the unconditioned stimulus (US), such as salivation when food is in the mouth. |
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| Unconditioned Stimulus (US) |
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| In classical conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally-naturally and automatically-triggers a response. |
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| Conditioned Response (CR) |
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| In classical conditioning, the learned response to a previuously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus (CS). |
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| Conditioned Stimulus (CS) |
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| In classical conditioning, an originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with an unconditoned stimulus (US), comes to trigger a conditioned response. |
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| In classical conditioning, the initial stage, when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus begins triggering the conditioned response. In operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response. |
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| Higher-Order Conditioning |
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| A procedure in which the conditioned stimulus inone conditioning experience is paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second (often weaker) conditioned stimulus. For example, an animal that has learned that a tone predicts food might then learn that a light predicts the tone and begin responding to the light alone. (Also called second-order conditoning.) |
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| The diminishing of a conditioned response; occurs in classical conditoning when an unconditioned stimulus (US) does not follow a conditioned stimulus (CS); occurs in operant conditioning when a response is no longer reinforced. |
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| The reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response. |
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| The tendency, once a response has been condtioned, for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses. |
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| In classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus. |
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