| normative age-graded influences | These are influences that are similar for individuals in a particular age group.
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| normative history-graded influences | Influences that are common to people of a particular generation because of historical circumstances.
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| nonnormative life events | Unusual occurrences that have a major impact on an individual's life.
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| culture | The behavior patterns, beliefs, and all other products of a group that are passed on from generation to generation.
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| cross-cultural studies | Comparison of one culture with one or more other cultures. These provide information about the degree to which development is similar, or universal, across cultures, and the degree to which it is culture-specific.
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| ethnicity | A characteristic based on cultural heritage, nationality characteristics, race, religion, and language.
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| socioeconomic status (SES) | Refers to the grouping of people with similar occupational, educational, and economic characteristics.
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| gender | The characteristics of people as males or females.
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| social policy | A national government's course of action designed to promote the welfare of its citizens.
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| biological processes | Changes in an individual's physical nature.
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| cognitive processes | Changes in an individual's thought, intelligence, and language.
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| socioemotional processes | Changes in an individual's relationships with other people, emotions, and personality.
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| nature-nurture issue | Refers to the debate about whether development is primarily influenced by nature or nurture. Nature refers to an organism's biological inheritance, nurture to its environmental experiences. The "nature proponents" claim biological inheritance is the most important influence on development; the "nurture proponents" claim that environmental experiences are the most important.
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| stability-change issue | Involves the degree to which we become older renditions of our early experience (stability) or whether we develop into someone different from who we were at an earlier point in development (change).
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| scientific method | An approach that can be used to obtain accurate information. It includes these steps: (1) conceptualize the problem, (2) collect data, (3) draw conclusions, and (4) revise research conclusions and theory.
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| theory | An interrelated, coherent set of ideas that helps to explain and make predictions.
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| hypotheses | Specific assumptions and predictions that can be tested to determine their accuracy.
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| psychoanalytic theories | Describe development as primarily unconscious and heavily colored by emotion. Behavior is merely a surface characteristic, and the symbolic workings of the mind have to be analyzed to understand behavior. Early experiences with parents are emphasized.
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| Erikson's theory | Includes eight stages of human development. Each stage consists of a unique developmental task that confronts individuals with a crisis that must be resolved.
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| Piaget's theory | States that children actively construct their understanding of the world and go through four stages of cognitive development.
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| Vygotsky's theory | A sociocultural cognitive theory that emphasizes how culture and social interaction guide cognitive development.
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| information-processing theory | Emphasizes that individuals manipulate information, monitor it, and strategize about it. Central to this theory are the processes of memory and thinking.
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| social cognitive theory | The view of psychologists who emphasize behavior, environment, and cognition as the key factors in development.
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| ethology | Stresses that behavior is strongly influenced by biology, is tied to evolution, and is characterized by critical or sensitive periods.
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| Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory | Bronfenbrenner's environmental systems theory that focuses on five environmental systems: microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem.
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| naturalistic observation | Observing behavior in real-world settings.
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| standardized test | A test with uniform procedures for administration and scoring. Many standardized tests allow a person's performance to be compared with the performance of other individuals.
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| case study | An in-depth look at a single individual.
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| descriptive research | Has the purpose of observing and recording behavior.
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| correlational research | The goal is to describe the strength of the relationship between two or more events or characteristics.
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| correlation coefficient | A number based on statistical analysis that is used to describe the degree of association between two variables.
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| experiment | A carefully regulated procedure in which one or more of the factors believed to influence the behavior being studied are manipulated while all other factors are held constant.
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| cross-sectional approach | A research strategy in which individuals of different ages are compared at one time.
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| longitudinal approach | A research strategy in which the same individuals are studied over a period of time, usually several years or more.
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| cohort effects | Effects due to a person's time of birth, era, or generation but not to actual age.
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| ethnic gloss | Using an ethnic label such as African American or Latino in a superficial way that portrays an ethnic group as being more homogeneous than it really is.
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| development | The pattern of change that begins at conception and continues through the life span. Most development involves growth, although it also includes decline brought on by aging and dying.
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| life-span perspective | The perspective that development is lifelong, multidimensional, multidirectional, plastic, multidisciplinary, and contextual; involves growth, maintenance, and regulation; and is constructed through biological, sociocultural, and individual factors working together.
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| chromosomes | Threadlike structures that come in 23 pairs, one member of each pair coming from each parent. Chromosomes contain the genetic substance DNA.
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| DNA | A complex molecule that contains genetic information.
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| genes | Units of hereditary information composed of DNA. Genes direct cells to reproduce themselves and manufacture the proteins that maintain life.
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| mitosis | Cellular reproduction in which the cell's nucleus duplicates itself with two new cells being formed, each containing the same DNA as the parent cell, arranged in the same 23 pairs of chromosomes.
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| meiosis | A specialized form of cell division that occurs to form eggs and sperm (or gametes).
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| fertilization | A stage in reproduction whereby an egg and a sperm fuse to create a single cell, called a zygote.
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| zygote | A single cell formed through fertilization.
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| genotype | A person's genetic heritage; the actual genetic material.
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| phenotype | The way an individual's genotype is expressed in observed and measurable characteristics.
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| Down syndrome | A chromosomally transmitted form of mental retardation, caused by the presence of an extra copy of chromosome 21.
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| Klinefelter syndrome | A chromosomal disorder in which males have an extra X chromosome, making them XXY instead of XY.
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| fragile X syndrome | A genetic disorder involving an abnormality in the X chromosome, which becomes constricted and often breaks.
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| Turner syndrome | A chromosome disorder in females in which either an X chromosome is missing, making the person XO instead of XX, or the second X chromosome is partially deleted.
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| XYY syndrome | A chromosomal disorder in which males have an extra Y chromosome.
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| phenylketonuria (PKU) | A genetic disorder in which an individual cannot properly metabolize an amino acid. PKU is now easily detected but, if left untreated, results in mental retardation and hyperactivity.
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| sickle-cell anemia | A genetic disorder that affects the red blood cells and occurs most often in people of African descent.
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| behavior genetics | The field that seeks to discover the influence of heredity and environment on individuals differences in human traits and development.
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| twin study | A study in which the behavioral similarity of identical twins is compared with the behavioral similarity of fraternal twins.
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| adoption study | A study in which investigators seek to discover whether, in behavior and psychological characteristics, adopted children are more like their adoptive parents, who provided a home environment, or more like their biological parents, who contributed their heredity. Another form of the adoption study is to compare adoptive and biological siblings.
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| passive genotype-environment correlations | Correlations that exist when the natural parents, who are genetically related to the child, provide a rearing environment for the child.
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| evocative genotype-environment correlations | Correlations that exist when the child's genotype elicits certain types of physical and social environments.
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| active (niche-picking) genotype-environment correlations | Correlations that exist when children seek out environments they find compatible and stimulating.
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| shared environmental experiences | Siblings' common environmental experiences, such as their parents' personalities and intellectual orientation, the family's socioeconomic status, and the neighborhood in which they live.
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| nonshared environmental experiences | The child's own unique experiences, both within the family and outside the family, that are not shared by another sibling. Thus, experiences occurring within the family can be part of the "nonshared environment."
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| epigenetic view | Emphasizes that development is the result of an ongoing, bidirectional interchange between heredity and environment.
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| gene × environment (G × E) interaction | The interaction of a specific measured variation in the DNA and a specific measured aspect of the environment.
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| evolutionary psychology | Emphasizes the importance of adaptation, reproduction, and "survival of the fittest" in shaping behavior.
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| amnion | The life-support system that is a bag or envelope that contains a clear fluid in which the developing embryo floats.
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| umbilical cord | A life-support system containing two arteries and one vein that connects the baby to the placenta.
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| placenta | A life-support system that consists of a disk-shaped group of tissues in which small blood vessels from the mother and off spring intertwine.
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| organogenesis | Organ formation that takes place during the first two months of prenatal development.
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| fetal period | Lasting about seven months, the prenatal period between two months after conception and birth in typical pregnancies.
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| neurons | Nerve cells, which handle information processing at the cellular level in the brain.
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| teratogen | From the Greek word tera, meaning "monster." Any agent that causes a birth defect. The field of study that investigates the causes of birth defects is called teratology.
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| fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) | A cluster of abnormalities that appears in the off spring of mothers who drink alcohol heavily during pregnancy.
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| afterbirth | The third stage of birth, when the placenta, umbilical cord, and other membranes are detached and expelled.
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| doula | A caregiver who provides continuous physical, emotional, and educational support for the mother before, during, and after childbirth.
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| natural childbirth | This method attempts to reduce the mother's pain by decreasing her fear through education about childbirth and relaxation techniques during delivery.
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| prepared childbirth | Developed by French obstetrician Ferdinand Lamaze, this childbirth strategy is similar to natural childbirth but includes a special breathing technique to control pushing in the final stages of labor and a more detailed anatomy and physiology course.
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| breech position | The baby's position in the uterus that causes the buttocks to be the first part to emerge from the vagina.
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| cesarean delivery | The baby is removed from the mother's uterus through an incision made in her abdomen.
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| Apgar Scale | A widely used method to assess the health of newborns at one and five minutes after birth. The Apgar Scale evaluates an infant's heart rate, respiratory effort, muscle tone, body color, and reflex irritability.
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| Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) | A measure that is used in the first month of life to assess the newborn's neurological development, reflexes, and reactions to people and objects.
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| Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Neurobehavioral Scale (NNNS) | An "off spring" of the NBAS, the NNNS provides an assessment of the newborn's behavior, neurological and stress responses, and regulatory capacities.
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| low birth weight infants | An infant that weighs less than 5½ pounds at birth.
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| preterm infants | Those born before the completion of 37 weeks of gestation (the time between fertilization and birth).
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| small for date infants | Also called small for gestational age infants, these infants' birth weights are below normal when the length of pregnancy is considered. Small for date infants may be preterm or full term.
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| kangaroo care | Treatment for preterm infants that involves skin-to-skin contact.
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| postpartum period | The period after childbirth when the mother adjusts, both physically and psychologically, to the process of childbirth. This period lasts for about six weeks or until her body has completed its adjustment and returned to a near prepregnant state.
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| postpartum depression | Characteristic of women who have such strong feelings of sadness, anxiety, or despair that they have trouble coping with daily tasks in the postpartum period.
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| germinal period | The period of prenatal development that takes place in the first two weeks after conception. It includes the creation of the zygote, continued cell division, and the attachment of the zygote to the uterine wall.
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| blastocyst | The inner layer of cells that develops during the germinal period. These cells later develop into the embryo.
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| trophoblast | The outer layer of cells that develops in the germinal period. These cells provide nutrition and support for the embryo.
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| embryonic period | The period of prenatal development that occurs two to eight weeks after conception. During the embryonic period, the rate of cell differentiation intensifies, support systems for the cells form, and organs appear.
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| lateralization | Specialization of function in one hemisphere of the cerebral cortex or the other.
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| sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) | A condition that occurs when an infant stops breathing, usually during the night, and suddenly dies without an apparent cause.
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| marasmus | A wasting away of body tissues in the infant's first year, caused by severe protein-calorie deficiency.
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| kwashiorkor | A condition caused by severe protein deficiency in which the child's abdomen and feet become swollen with water; usually appears between 1 to 3 years of age.
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| dynamic systems theory | The perspective on motor development that seeks to explain how motor behaviors are assembled for perceiving and acting.
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| reflexes | Built-in reactions to stimuli that govern the newborn's movements, which are automatic and beyond the newborn's control.
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| rooting reflex | A newborn's built-in reaction that occurs when the infant's cheek is stroked or the side of the mouth is touched. In response, the infant turns his or her head toward the side that was touched, in an apparent effort to find something to suck.
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| sucking reflex | A newborn's built-in reaction to automatically suck an object placed in its mouth. The sucking reflex enables the infant to get nourishment before he or she has associated a nipple with food and also serves as a self-soothing or self-regulating mechanism.
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| Moro reflex | A neonatal startle response that occurs in reaction to a sudden, intense noise or movement. When startled, the newborn arches its back, throws its head back, and flings out its arms and legs. Then the newborn rapidly closes its arms and legs to the center of the body.
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| grasping reflex | A neonatal reflex that occurs when something touches the infant's palms. The infant responds by grasping tightly.
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| gross motor skills | Motor skills that involve large muscle activities, such as walking.
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| fine motor skills | Motor skills that involve more finely tuned movements, such as finger dexterity.
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| sensation | The product of the interaction between information and the sensory receptors—the eyes, ears, tongue, nostrils, and skin.
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| perception | The interpretation of what is sensed.
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| ecological view | The view that perception functions to bring organisms in contact with the environment and to increase adaptation.
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| affordances | Opportunities for interaction offered by objects that fit within our capabilities to perform functional activities.
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| visual preference method | A method used to determine whether infants can distinguish one stimulus from another by measuring the length of time they attend to different stimuli.
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| habituation | Decreased responsiveness to a stimulus after repeated presentations of the stimulus.
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| dishabituation | Recovery of a habituated response after a change in stimulation.
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| size constancy | The recognition that an object remains the same even though the retinal image of the object changes as you move toward or away from the object.
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| shape constancy | The recognition that an object's shape remains the same even though its orientation to us changes.
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| intermodal perception | The ability to relate and integrate information from two or more sensory modalities, such as vision and hearing.
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| cephalocaudal pattern | The sequence in which the earliest growth always occurs at the top—the head—with physical growth in size, weight, and feature differentiation gradually working from top to bottom.
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| proximodistal pattern | The sequence in which growth starts at the center of the body and moves toward the extremities.
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| equilibration | A mechanism that Piaget proposed to explain how children shift from one stage of thought to the next.
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| sensorimotor stage | The first of Piaget's stages, which lasts from birth to about 2 years of age; infants construct an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences with motoric actions.
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| simple reflexes | Piaget's first sensorimotor substage, which corresponds to the first month after birth. In this substage, sensation and action are coordinated primarily through reflexive behaviors.
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| first habits and primary circular reactions | Piaget's second sensorimotor substage, which develops between 1 and 4 months of age. In this substage, the infant coordinates sensation and two types of schemes: habits and primary circular reactions.
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| primary circular reaction | A scheme based on the attempt to reproduce an event that initially occurred by chance.
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| secondary circular reactions | Piaget's third sensorimotor substage, which develops between 4 and 8 months of age. In this substage, the infant becomes more object-oriented, moving beyond preoccupation with the self.
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| coordination of secondary circular reactions | Piaget's fourth sensorimotor substage, which develops between 8 and 12 months of age. Actions become more outwardly directed, and infants coordinate schemes and act with intentionality.
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| tertiary circular reactions, novelty, and curiosity | Piaget's fifth sensorimotor substage, which develops between 12 and 18 months of age. In this substage, infants become intrigued by the many properties of objects and by the many things that they can make happen to objects.
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| internalization of schemes | Piaget's sixth and final sensorimotor substage, which develops between 18 and 24 months of age. In this substage, the infant develops the ability to use primitive symbols.
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| object permanence | The Piagetian term for understanding that objects and events continue to exist, even when they cannot directly be seen, heard, or touched.
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| A-not-B error | Error that occurs when infants make the mistake of selecting the familiar hiding place (A) rather than the new hiding place (B) as they progress into substage 4 in Piaget's sensorimotor stage; also called AB error.
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| core knowledge approach | States that infants are born with domain-specific innate knowledge systems.
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| attention | The focusing of mental resources on select information.
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| joint attention | Process that occurs when individuals focus on the same object and an ability to track another's behavior is present, one individual directs another's attention, and reciprocal interaction is present.
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| memory | A central feature of cognitive development, pertaining to all situations in which an individual retains information over time.
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| implicit memory | Memory without conscious recollection; involves skills and routine procedures that are automatically performed.
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| explicit memory | Memory of facts and experiences that individuals consciously know and can state.
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| deferred imitation | Imitation that occurs after a delay of hours or days.
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| developmental quotient (DQ) | An overall score that combines subscores in motor, language, adaptive, and personal-social domains in the Gesell assessment of infants.
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| Bayley Scales of Infant Development | Scales developed by Nancy Bayley that are widely used in the assessment of infant development. The current version has three components: a mental scale, a motor scale, and an infant behavior profile.
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| language | A form of communication, whether spoken, written, or signed, that is based on a system of symbols. Language consists of the words used by a community and the rules for varying and combining them.
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| infinite generativity | The ability to produce an endless number of meaningful sentences using a finite set of words and rules.
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| phonology | The sound system of the language, including the sounds that are used and how they may be combined.
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| morphology | Units of meaning involved in word formation.
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| syntax | The ways words are combined to form acceptable phrases and sentences.
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| semantics | The meaning of words and sentences.
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| pragmatics | The appropriate use of language in different contexts.
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| telegraphic speech | The use of short and precise words without grammatical markers such as articles, auxiliary verbs, and other connectives.
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| Broca's area | An area in the brain's left frontal lobe that is involved in speech production.
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| Wernicke's area | An area in the brain's left hemisphere that is involved in language comprehension.
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| aphasia | A loss or impairment of language ability caused by brain damage.
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| language acquisition device (LAD) | Chomsky's term that describes a biological endowment enabling the child to detect the features and rules of language, including phonology, syntax, and semantics
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| child-directed speech | Language spoken in a higher pitch than normal with simple words and sentences.
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| schemes | In Piaget's theory, actions or mental representations that organize knowledge.
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| assimilation | Piagetian concept of using existing schemes to deal with new information or experiences.
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| accommodation | Piagetian concept of adjusting schemes to fit new information and experiences.
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| organization | Piaget's concept of grouping isolated behaviors and thoughts into a higher-order, more smoothly functioning cognitive system.
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| emotion | Feeling, or affect, that occurs when a person is in a state or interaction that is important to him or her. Emotion is characterized by behavior that reflects (expresses) the pleasantness or unpleasantness of the state a person is in or the transactions being experienced.
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| primary emotions | Emotions that are present in humans and other animals and emerge early in life; examples are joy, anger, sadness, fear, and disgust.
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| self-conscious emotions | Emotions that require self-awareness, especially consciousness and a sense of "me"; examples include jealousy, empathy, and embarrassment.
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| basic cry | A rhythmic pattern usually consisting of a cry, a briefer silence, a shorter inspiratory whistle that is higher pitched than the main cry, and then a brief rest before the next cry.
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| anger cry | A variation of the basic cry, with more excess air forced through the vocal cords.
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| pain cry | A sudden appearance of a long, initial loud cry without preliminary moaning, followed by breath holding.
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| reflexive smile | A smile that does not occur in response to external stimuli. It happens during the month after birth, usually during sleep.
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| social smile | A smile in response to an external stimulus, which early in development is typically a face.
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| stranger anxiety | An infant's fear and wariness of strangers; it tends to appear in the second half of the first year of life.
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| separation protest | An infant's distressed crying when the caregiver leaves.
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| temperament | Involves individual differences in behavioral styles, emotions, and characteristic ways of responding.
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| easy child | A child who is generally in a positive mood, quickly establishes regular routines in infancy, and adapts easily to new experiences.
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| difficult child | A child who tends to react negatively and cry frequently, engages in irregular daily routines, and is slow to accept change.
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| slow-to-warm-up child | A child who has a low activity level, is somewhat negative, and displays a low intensity of mood.
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| goodness of fit | Refers to the match between a child's temperament and the environmental demands with which the child must cope.
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| social referencing | "Reading" emotional cues in others to help determine how to act in a particular situation.
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| attachment | A close emotional bond between two people.
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| Strange Situation | An observational measure of infant attachment that requires the infant to move through a series of introductions, separations, and reunions with the caregiver and an adult stranger in a prescribed order.
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| securely attached babies | Babies that use the caregiver as a secure base from which to explore the environment.
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| insecure avoidant babies | Babies that show insecurity by avoiding the caregiver.
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| insecure resistant babies | Babies that often cling to the caregiver, then resist the caregiver by fighting against the closeness, perhaps by kicking or pushing away.
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| insecure disorganized babies | Babies that show insecurity by being disorganized and disoriented.
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| reciprocal socialization | Socialization that is bidirectional; children socialize parents, just as parents socialize children.
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| scaffolding | Parents time interactions so that infants experience turn-taking with the parents.
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| preoperational stage | Piaget's second stage, lasting from about 2 to 7 years of age, during which children begin to represent the world with words, images, and drawings, and symbolic thought goes beyond simple connections of sensory information and physical action; stable concepts are formed, mental reasoning emerges, egocentrism is present, and magical beliefs are constructed.
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| operations | In Piaget's theory, these are reversible mental actions that allow children to do mentally what they formerly did physically.
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| symbolic function substage | Piaget's first substage of preoperational thought, in which the child gains the ability to mentally represent an object that is not present (between about 2 and 4 years of age).
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| egocentrism | The inability to distinguish between one's own perspective and someone else's (salient feature of the first substage of preoperational thought).
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| animism | The belief that inanimate objects have lifelike qualities and are capable of action.
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| intuitive thought substage | Piaget's second substage of preoperational thought, in which children begin to use primitive reasoning and want to know the answers to all sorts of questions (between 4 and 7 years of age).
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| centration | The focusing of attention on one characteristic to the exclusion of all others.
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| conservation | In Piaget's theory, awareness that altering an object's or a substance's appearance does not change its basic properties.
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| zone of proximal development (ZPD) | Vygotsky's term for tasks too difficult for children to master alone but that can be mastered with the assistance of adults or more-skilled children.
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| social constructivist approach | An approach that emphasizes the social contexts of learning and that knowledge is mutually built and constructed. Vygotsky's theory reflects this approach.
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| executive attention | Involves action planning, allocating attention to goals, error detection and compensation, monitoring progress on tasks, and dealing with novel or difficult circumstances.
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| sustained attention | Focused and extended engagement with an object, task, event, or other aspect of the environment.
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| short-term memory | The memory component in which individuals retain information for up to 30 seconds, assuming there is no rehearsal of the information.
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| strategies | Deliberate mental activities to improve the processing of information.
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| theory of mind | The awareness of one's own mental processes and the mental processes of others.
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| child-centered kindergarten | Education that involves the whole child by considering both the child's physical, cognitive, and socioemotional development and the child's needs, interests, and learning styles.
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| Montessori approach | An educational philosophy in which children are given considerable freedom and spontaneity in choosing activities and are allowed to move from one activity to another as they desire.
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| developmentally appropriate practice | Education that focuses on the typical developmental patterns of children (age-appropriateness) and the uniqueness of each child (individual-appropriateness).
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| Project Head Start | A government-funded program that is designed to provide children from low-income families with the opportunity to acquire the skills and experiences important for school success.
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| myelination | The process by which the nerve cells are covered and insulated with a layer of fat cells, which increases the speed at which information travels through the nervous system.
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| moral development | Development that involves thoughts, feelings, and behaviors regarding rules and conventions about what people should do in their interactions with other people.
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| heteronomous morality | The first stage of moral development in Piaget's theory, occurring from approximately 4 to 7 years of age. Justice and rules are conceived of as unchangeable properties of the world, removed from the control of people.
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| autonomous morality | In Piaget's theory, displayed by older children (about 10 years of age and older). The child becomes aware that rules and laws are created by people and that in judging an action one should consider the actor's intentions as well as the consequences.
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| immanent justice | The concept that if a rule is broken punishment will be meted out immediately.
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| conscience | An internal regulation of standards of right and wrong that involves an integration of moral thought, feeling, and behavior.
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| gender identity | The sense of being male or female, which most children acquire by the time they are 3 years old.
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| gender role | A set of expectations that prescribes how females or males should think, act, and feel.
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| gender typing | Acquisition of a traditional masculine or feminine role.
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| social role theory | A theory that gender differences result from the contrasting roles of men and women.
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| psychoanalytic theory of gender | A theory deriving from Freud's view that the preschool child develops a sexual attraction to the opposite-sex parent, by approximately 5 or 6 years of age renounces this attraction because of anxious feelings, and subsequently identifies with the samesex parent, unconsciously adopting the same-sex parent's characteristics.
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| social cognitive theory of gender | A theory that emphasizes that children's gender development occurs through the observation and imitation of gender behavior and through the rewards and punishments children experience for gender appropriate and gender-inappropriate behavior.
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| gender schema theory | The theory that gender typing emerges as children develop gender schemas of their culture's gender-appropriate and gender-inappropriate behavior.
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| authoritarian parenting | A restrictive, punitive style in which parents exhort the child to follow their directions and to respect their work and effort. The authoritarian parent places firm limits and controls on the child and allows little verbal exchange. Authoritarian parenting is associated with children's social incompetence.
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| authoritative parenting | A parenting style in which parents encourage their children to be independent but still place limits and controls on their actions. Extensive verbal give-and-take is allowed, and parents are warm and nurturant toward the child. Authoritative parenting is associated with children's social competence.
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| neglectful parenting | A style of parenting in which the parent is very uninvolved in the child's life; it is associated with children's social incompetence, especially a lack of self-control.
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| indulgent parenting | A style of parenting in which parents are highly involved with their children but place few demands or controls on them. Indulgent parenting is associated with children's social incompetence, especially a lack of self-control.
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| sensorimotor play | Behavior engaged in by infants to derive pleasure from exercising their existing sensorimotor schemas.
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| practice play | Play that involves repetition of behavior when new skills are being learned or when physical or mental mastery and coordination of skills are required for games or sports.
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| pretense/symbolic play | Play in which the child transforms the physical environment into a symbol.
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| social play | Play that involves social interactions with peers.
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| constructive play | Play that combines sensorimotor and repetitive activity with symbolic representation of ideas. Constructive play occurs when children engage in self-regulated creation or construction of a product or a solution.
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| games | Activities engaged in for pleasure that include rules and often competition with one or more individuals.
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| self-understanding | The child's cognitive representation of self, the substance and content of the child's self-conceptions.
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| attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) | A disability in which children consistently show one or more of the following characteristics: (1) inattention, (2) hyperactivity, and (3) impulsivity.
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| emotional and behavioral disorders | Serious, persistent problems that involve relationships, aggression, depression, fears associated with personal or school matters, as well as other inappropriate socioemotional characteristics.
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| autism spectrum disorders (ASD) | Also called pervasive developmental disorders, they range from the severe disorder labeled autistic disorder to the milder disorder called Asperger syndrome. Children with these disorders are characterized by problems in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication, and repetitive behaviors.
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| autistic disorder | A severe autism spectrum disorder that has its onset in the first three years of life and includes deficiencies in social relationships, abnormalities in communication, and restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped patterns of behavior.
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| Asperger syndrome | A relatively mild autism spectrum disorder in which the child has relatively good verbal language, milder nonverbal language problems, and a restricted range of interests and relationships.
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| individualized education plan (IEP) | A written statement that spells out a program specifically tailored to a child with a disability.
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| least restrictive environment (LRE) | A setting that is as similar as possible to the one in which children who do not have a disability are educated.
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| inclusion | Educating a child with special education needs full-time in the regular classroom.
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| seriation | The concrete operation that involves ordering stimuli along a quantitative dimension (such as length).
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| transitivity | The ability to logically combine relations to understand certain conclusions.
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| neo-Piagetians | Developmentalists who argue that Piaget got some things right but that his theory needs considerable revision. They have elaborated on Piaget's theory, giving more emphasis to information processing, strategies, and precise cognitive steps.
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| long-term memory | A relatively permanent type of memory that holds huge amounts of information for a long period of time.
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| fuzzy trace theory | States that memory is best understood by considering two types of memory representations: (1) verbatim memory trace, and (2) gist. In this theory, older children's better memory is attributed to the fuzzy traces created by extracting the gist of information.
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| critical thinking | Thinking reflectively and productively, as well as evaluating the evidence.
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| mindfulness | Being alert, mentally present, and cognitively flexible while going through life's everyday activities and tasks.
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| creative thinking | The ability to think in novel and unusual ways and to come up with unique solutions to problems.
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| convergent thinking | Thinking that produces one correct answer and is characteristic of the kind of thinking tested by standardized intelligence tests.
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| divergent thinking | Thinking that produces many answers to the same question and is characteristic of creativity.
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| metacognition | Cognition about cognition, or knowing about knowing.
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| brainstorming | A technique in which individuals are encouraged to come up with creative ideas in a group, play off each other's ideas, and say practically whatever comes to mind.
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| intelligence | Problem-solving skills and the ability to learn from and adapt to the experiences of everyday life.
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| individual differences | The stable, consistent ways in which people are different from each other.
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| mental age (MA) | Binet's measure of an individual's level of mental development, compared with that of others.
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| intelligence quotient (IQ) | A person's mental age divided by chronological age, multiplied by 100.
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| normal distribution | A symmetrical distribution with most scores falling in the middle of the possible range of scores and a few scores appearing toward the extremes of the range.
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| triarchic theory of intelligence | Sternberg's theory that intelligence consists of analytical intelligence, creative intelligence, and practical intelligence.
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| culture-fair tests | Tests of intelligence that are designed to be free of cultural bias.
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| mental retardation | A condition of limited mental ability in which an individual has a low IQ, usually below 70 on a traditional test of intelligence, and has difficulty adapting to everyday life.
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| organic retardation | Mental retardation that is caused by a genetic disorder or brain damage.
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| cultural-familial retardation | Retardation that is characterized by no evidence of organic brain damage, but the individual's IQ is generally between 50 and 70.
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| gifted | Having above-average intelligence (an IQ of 130 or higher) and/or superior talent for something.
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| metalinguistic awareness | Refers to knowledge about language, such as knowing what a preposition is or the ability to discuss the sounds of a language.
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| whole-language approach | An approach to reading instruction based on the idea that instruction should parallel children's natural language learning. Reading materials should be whole and meaningful.
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| phonics approach | The idea that reading instruction should teach the basic rules for translating written symbols into sounds.
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| learning disability | Describes a child who has difficulty in learning that involves understanding or using spoken or written language, and the difficulty can appear in listening, thinking, reading, writing, and spelling. A learning disability also may involve difficulty in doing mathematics. To be classified as a learning disability, the learning problem is not primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities; mental retardation; emotional disorders; or due to environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.
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| dyslexia | A category of learning disabilities involving a severe impairment in the ability to read and spell.
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| dysgraphia | A learning disability that involves difficulty in handwriting.
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| dyscalculia | Also known as developmental arithmetic disorder; a learning disability that involves difficulty in math computation.
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| self-esteem | The global evaluative dimension of the self. Self-esteem is also referred to as self-worth or self-image.
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| self-concept | Domain-specific evaluations of the self.
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| self-efficacy | The belief that one can master a situation and produce favorable outcomes.
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| preconventional reasoning | The lowest level in Kohlberg's theory of moral development. The individual's moral reasoning is controlled primarily by external rewards and punishment.
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| heteronomous morality | Kohlberg's first stage of preconventional reasoning in which moral thinking is tied to punishment.
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| individualism, instrumental purpose, and exchange | Kohlberg's second stage of preconventional reasoning. At this stage, individuals pursue their own interests but also let others do the same.
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| conventional reasoning | The second, or intermediate, level in Kohlberg's theory of moral development. At this level, individuals abide by certain standards but they are the standards of others such as parents or the laws of society.
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| mutual interpersonal expectations, relationships, and interpersonal conformity | Kohlberg's third stage of moral development. At this stage, individuals value trust, caring, and loyalty to others as a basis of moral judgments.
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| social systems morality | The fourth stage in Kohlberg's theory of moral development. Moral judgments are based on understanding the social order, law, justice, and duty.
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| postconventional reasoning | The highest level in Kohlberg's theory of moral development. At this level, the individual recognizes alternative moral courses, explores the options, and then decides on a personal moral code.
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| social contract or utility and individual rights | The fifth Kohlberg stage. At this stage, individuals reason that values, rights, and principles undergird or transcend the law.
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| universal ethical principles | The sixth and highest stage in Kohlberg's theory of moral development. Individuals develop a moral standard based on universal human rights.
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| justice perspective | A moral perspective that focuses on the rights of the individual; individuals independently make moral decisions.
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| care perspective | The moral perspective of Carol Gilligan, which views people in terms of their connectedness with others and emphasizes interpersonal communication, relationships with others, and concern for others.
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| social conventional reasoning | Thoughts about social consensus and convention, in contrast to moral reasoning, which stresses ethical issues.
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| gender stereotypes | Broad categories that reflect our impressions and beliefs about females and males.
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| androgyny | The presence of positive masculine and feminine characteristics in the same individual.
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| popular children | Children who are frequently nominated as a best friend and are rarely disliked by their peers.
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| average children | Children who receive an average number of both positive and negative nominations from peers.
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| neglected children | Children who are infrequently nominated as a best friend but are not disliked by their peers.
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| rejected children | Children who are infrequently nominated as a best friend and are actively disliked by their peers.
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| controversial children | Children who are frequently nominated both as a best friend and as being disliked.
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| constructivist approach | A learner-centered approach that emphasizes the importance of individuals actively constructing their knowledge and understanding with guidance from the teacher.
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| direct instruction approach | A structured, teacher centered approach that is characterized by teacher direction and control, mastery of academic skills, high expectations for students' progress, maximum time spent on learning tasks, and efforts to keep negative effect to a minimum.
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| mindset | The cognitive view, either fixed or growth, that individuals develop for themselves.
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| perspective taking | The ability to assume other people's perspectives and understand their thoughts and feelings.
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| menarche | A girl's first menstruation.
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| hormones | Powerful chemical substances secreted by the endocrine glands and carried through the body by the bloodstream.
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| precocious puberty | The very early onset and rapid progression of puberty.
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| corpus callosum | The location where fibers connect the brain's left and right hemispheres.
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| amygdala | The region of the brain that is the seat of emotions.
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| sexually transmitted infections (STIs) | Infections that are contracted primarily through sexual contact, including oral-genital and anal-genital contact.
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| anorexia nervosa | An eating disorder that involves the relentless pursuit of thinness through starvation.
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| bulimia nervosa | An eating disorder in which the individual consistently follows a binge-and-purge pattern.
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| hypothetical-deductive reasoning | Piaget's formal operational concept that adolescents have the cognitive ability to develop hypotheses, or best guesses, about ways to solve problems, such as an algebraic equation.
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| adolescent egocentrism | The heightened selfconsciousness of adolescents.
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| imaginary audience | Involves adolescents' belief that others are as interested in them as they themselves are, as well as attention-getting behavior motivated by a desire to be noticed, visible, and "on stage."
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| personal fable | The part of adolescent egocentrism that involves an adolescent's sense of uniqueness and invincibility (or invulnerability).
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| dual-process model | States that decision making is influenced by two systems—one analytical and one experiential, which compete with each other; in this model, it is the experiential system—monitoring and managing actual experiences—that benefits adolescent decision making.
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| top-dog phenomenon | The circumstance of moving from the top position in elementary school to the lowest position in middle or junior high school.
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| service learning | A form of education that promotes social responsibility and service to the community.
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| puberty | A period of rapid physical maturation, occurring primarily in early adolescence, that involves hormonal and bodily changes.
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| crisis | Marcia's term for a period of identity development during which the adolescent is exploring alternatives.
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| commitment | Marcia's term for the part of identity development in which adolescents show a personal investment in identity.
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| identity diffusion | Marcia's term for the status of individuals who have not yet experienced a crisis (explored meaningful alternatives) or made any commitments. individuals who have made a commitment but have not experienced a crisis.
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| identity foreclosure | Marcia's term for the status of individuals who have made a commitment but have not experienced a crisis.
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| identity moratorium | Marcia's term for the status of individuals who are in the midst of a crisis, but their commitments are either absent or vaguely defined.
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| identity achievement | Marcia's term for the status of individuals who have undergone a crisis and have made a commitment.
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| ethnic identity | An enduring, basic aspect of the self that includes a sense of membership in an ethnic group and the attitudes and feelings related to that membership.
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| clique | A small group that ranges from 2 to about 12 individuals, averaging about 5 to 6 individuals, and can form because adolescents engage in similar activities.
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| crowd | A crowd is a larger group structure than a clique and is usually formed based on reputation; members may or may not spend much time together.
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| rite of passage | A ceremony or ritual that marks an individual's transition from one status to another. Most rites of passage focus on the transition to adult status.
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| juvenile delinquent | An adolescent who breaks the law or engages in behavior that is considered illegal.
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| narcissism | A self-centered and self-concerned approach toward others.
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| aerobic exercise | Sustained exercise (such as jogging, swimming, or cycling) that stimulates heart and lung activity.
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| addiction | A pattern of behavior characterized by an overwhelming involvement with using a drug and securing its supply.
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| sexually transmitted infections (STIs) | Diseases that are contracted primarily through sex.
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| rape | Forcible sexual intercourse with a person who does not consent to it.
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| date or acquaintance rape | Coercive sexual activity directed at someone with whom the perpetrator is at least casually acquainted.
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| postformal thought | A form of thought that is qualitatively different from Piaget's formal operational thought. It involves understanding that the correct answer to a problem can require reflective thinking, that the correct answer can vary from one situation to another, and that the search for truth is often an ongoing, never-ending process. It also involves the belief that solutions to problems need to be realistic and that emotion and subjective factors can influence thinking.
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| emerging adulthood | The transition from adolescence to adulthood (approximately 18 to 25 years of age) that involves experimentation and exploration.
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| consensual validation | An explanation of why individuals are attracted to people who are similar to them. Our own attitudes and behavior are supported and validated when someone else's attitudes and behavior are similar to our own.
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| matching hypothesis | States that although we prefer a more attractive person in the abstract, in the real world we end up choosing someone who is close to our own level.
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| romantic love | Also called passionate love, or eros, romantic love has strong sexual and infatuation components and often predominates in the early period of a love relationship.
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| affectionate love | In this type of love, also called companionate love, an individual desires to have the other person near and has a deep, caring affection for the other person.
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| secure attachment style | An attachment style that describes adults who have positive views of relationships, find it easy to get close to others, and are not overly concerned or stressed out about their romantic relationships.
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| avoidant attachment style | An attachment style that describes adults who are hesitant about getting involved in romantic relationships and once in a relationship tend to distance themselves from their partner.
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| anxious attachment style | An attachment style that describes adults who demand closeness, are less trusting, and are more emotional, jealous, and possessive.
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| chronic disorders | Disorders that are characterized by slow onset and long duration. They are rare in early adulthood, they increase during middle adulthood, and they become common in late adulthood.
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| climacteric | The midlife transition in which fertility declines.
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| menopause | Cessation of a woman's menstrual periods, usually in the late forties or fifties.
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| erectile dysfunction | The inability to adequately achieve and maintain an erection that results in satisfactory sexual performance.
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| crystallized intelligence | Accumulated information and verbal skills, which increase in middle adulthood, according to Horn.
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| fluid intelligence | The ability to reason abstractly, which begins to decline from middle adulthood on, according to Horn.
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| working memory | The mental "workbench," where individuals manipulate and assemble information when decision making, problem solving, and comprehending language.
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| leisure | The pleasant times after work when individuals are free to pursue activities and interests of their own choosing.
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| meaning-making coping | Involves drawing on beliefs, values, and goals to change the meaning of a stressful situation, especially in times of chronic stress as when a loved one dies.
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| middle adulthood | The developmental period that begins at approximately 40 to 45 years of age and extends to about 60 to 65 years of age.
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| social clock | The timetable according to which individuals are expected to accomplish life's tasks, such as getting married, having children, or establishing themselves in a career.
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| empty nest syndrome | A decrease in marital satisfaction after children leave home, because parents derive considerable satisfaction from their children.
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| contemporary life-events approach | Approach emphasizing that how a life event influences the individual's development depends not only on the life event, but also on mediating factors, the individual's adaptation to the life event, the lifestage context, and the sociohistorical context.
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| evolutionary theory of aging | This theory states that natural selection has not eliminated many harmful conditions and nonadaptive characteristics in older adults; thus, the benefits conferred by evolutionary theory decline with age because natural selection is linked to reproductive fitness.
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| cellular clock theory | Leonard Hayflick's theory that the maximum number of times that human cells can divide is about 75 to 80. As we age, our cells have less capability to divide.
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| free-radical theory | A microbiological theory of aging that states that people age because inside their cells normal metabolism produces unstable oxygen molecules known as free radicals. These molecules ricochet around inside cells, damaging DNA and other cellular structures.
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| mitochondrial theory | The theory that aging is caused by the decay of mitochondria, tiny cellular bodies that supply energy for function, growth, and repair.
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| hormonal stress theory | The theory that aging in the body's hormonal system can lower resistance to stress and increase the likelihood of disease.
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| cataracts | A thickening of the lens of the eye that causes vision to become cloudy, opaque, and distorted.
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| glaucoma | Damage to the optic nerve because of the pressure created by a buildup of fluid in the eye.
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| macular degeneration | A disease that involves deterioration of the macula of the retina, which corresponds to the focal center of the visual field.
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| arthritis | Inflammation of the joints that is accompanied by pain, stiff ness, and movement problems; especially common in older adults.
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| osteoporosis | A chronic condition that involves an extensive loss of bone tissue and is the main reason many older adults walk with a marked stoop. Women are especially vulnerable to osteoporosis.
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| life span | The upper boundary of life, the maximum number of years an individual can live. The maximum life span of human beings is about 120 to 125 years of age.
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| life expectancy | The number of years that will probably be lived by the average person born in a particular year.
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| selective attention | Focusing on a specific aspect of experience that is relevant while ignoring others that are irrelevant.
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| divided attention | Concentrating on more than one activity at the same time.
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| sustained attention | Focused and extended engagement with an object, task, event, or other aspect of the environment.
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| episodic memory | The retention of information about the where and when of life's happenings.
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| semantic memory | A person's knowledge about the world—including a person's fields of expertise, general academic knowledge of the sort learned in school, and "everyday knowledge."
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| explicit memory | Memory of facts and experiences that individuals consciously know and can state.
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| implicit memory | Memory without conscious recollection; involves skills and routine procedures that are automatically performed.
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| source memory | The ability to remember where one learned something.
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| prospective memory | Remembering to do something in the future.
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| wisdom | Expert knowledge about the practical aspects of life that permits excellent judgment about important matters.
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| major depression | A mood disorder in which the individual is deeply unhappy, demoralized, selfderogatory, and bored. The person does not feel well, loses stamina easily, has poor appetite, and is listless and unmotivated. Major depression is so widespread that it has been called the "common cold" of mental disorders.
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| dementia | A global term for any neurological disorder in which the primary symptoms involve a deterioration of mental functioning.
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| Alzheimer disease | A progressive, irreversible brain disorder characterized by a gradual deterioration of memory, reasoning, language, and eventually physical function.
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| multi-infarct dementia | Sporadic and progressive loss of intellectual functioning caused by repeated temporary obstruction of blood flow in cerebral arteries.
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| Parkinson disease | A chronic, progressive disease characterized by muscle tremors, slowing of movement, and partial facial paralysis.
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| cognitive mechanics | The "hardware" of the mind, reflecting the neurophysiological architecture of the brain. Cognitive mechanics involve the speed and accuracy of the processes involving sensory input, visual and motor memory, discrimination, comparison, and categorization.
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| cognitive pragmatics | The culture-based "software programs" of the mind. Cognitive pragmatics include reading and writing skills, language comprehension, educational qualifications, professional skills, and also the type of knowledge about the self and life skills that help us to master or cope with life.
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| activity theory | The theory that the more active and involved older adults are, the more likely they are to be satisfied with their lives.
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| socioemotional selectivity theory | The theory that older adults become more selective about their social networks. Because they place a high value on emotional satisfaction, older adults often spend more time with familiar individuals with whom they have had rewarding relationships.
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| selective optimization with compensation theory | The theory that successful aging is related to three main factors: selection, optimization, and compensation.
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| possible selves | What individuals might become, what they would like to become, and what they are afraid of becoming.
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| ageism | Prejudice against others because of their age, especially prejudice against older adults.
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| eldercare | Physical and emotional caretaking for older members of the family, whether by giving day-to-day physical assistance or by being responsible for overseeing such care.
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| generational inequity | The view that our aging society is being unfair to its younger members because older adults pile up advantages by receiving inequitably large allocations of resources.
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| convoy model of social relations | Model in which individuals go through life embedded in a personal network of individuals to whom they give and from whom they receive support.
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| integrity versus despair | Erikson's eighth and final stage of development, which individuals experience in late adulthood. This involves reflecting on the past and either piecing together a positive review or concluding that one's life has not been well spent.
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| euthanasia | The act of painlessly ending the lives of persons who are suffering from incurable diseases or severe disabilities; sometimes called "mercy killing."
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| passive euthanasia | The withholding of available treatments, such as life-sustaining devices, allowing the person to die.
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| active euthanasia | Death induced deliberately, as by injecting a lethal dose of a drug.
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| hospice | A program committed to making the end of life as free from pain, anxiety, and depression as possible. The goals of hospice contrast with those of a hospital, which are to cure disease and prolong life.
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| palliative care | Care emphasized in a hospice, which involves reducing pain and suffering and helping individuals die with dignity.
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| denial and isolation | Kübler-Ross' first stage of dying, in which the dying person denies that she or he is really going to die.
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| anger | Kübler-Ross' second stage of dying, in which the dying person's denial gives way to anger, resentment, rage, and envy.
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| bargaining | Kübler-Ross' third stage of dying, in which the dying person develops the hope that death can somehow be postponed.
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| depression | Kübler-Ross' fourth stage of dying, in which the dying person comes to accept the certainty of her or his death. A period of depression or preparatory grief may appear.
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| acceptance | Kübler-Ross' fifth stage of dying, in which the dying person develops a sense of peace, an acceptance of her or his fate, and, in many cases, a desire to be left alone.
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| grief | The emotional numbness, disbelief, separation anxiety, despair, sadness, and loneliness that accompany the loss of someone we love.
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| prolonged grief | Grief that involves enduring despair and is still unresolved over an extended period of time.
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| dual-process model | A model of coping with bereavement that emphasizes oscillation between two dimensions: (1) loss-oriented stressors, and (2) restoration-oriented stressors.
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| brain death | A neurological definition of death. A person is brain dead when all electrical activity of the brain has ceased for a specified period of time. A flat EEG recording is one criterion of brain death.
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