Glossary

acceptance	Kübler-Ross's 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.



accommodation	In Piaget's theory, an individual's adjustment to new information.



active (niche-picking) genotype environment correlations	Correlations that exist when children seek out environments they find compatible and stimulating.



active euthanasia	Death induced deliberately, as by injecting a lethal dose of a drug.



activity theory	The theory that the more active and involved older adults are, the more likely they are to be satisfied with their lives.



addiction	A pattern of behavior characterized by an overwhelming involvement with using a drug and securing its supply.



adolescent egocentrism	The heightened self-consciousness of adolescents.



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.



aerobic exercise	Sustained exercise (such as jogging, swimming, or cycling) that stimulates heart and lung activity.



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.



affordances	Opportunities for interaction offered by objects that are necessary to perform functional activities.



ageism	Prejudice against other people because of their age, especially prejudice against older adults.



AIDS	Acquired immune deficiency syndrome, a primarily sexually transmitted disease caused by the HIV virus, which destroys the body's immune system.



altruism	Unselfish interest in helping another person.



Alzheimer's disease	A progressive, irreversible brain disorder characterized by a gradual deterioration of memory, reasoning, language, and, eventually, physical function.



amnion	The life-support system that is a bag or envelope that contains a clear fluid in which the developing embryo floats.



androgyny	The presence of masculine and feminine characteristics in the same individual.



anger	Kübler-Ross's second stage of dying, in which the dying person's denial gives way to anger, resentment, rage, and envy.



anger cry	A cry similar to the basic cry, with more excess air forced through the vocal chords (associated with exasperation or rage).



animism	The belief that inanimate objects have "lifelike'' qualities and are capable of action.



anorexia nervosa	An eating disorder that involves the relentless pursuit of thinness through starvation.



Apgar Scale	A widely used method to assess the health of newborns at 1 and 5 minutes after birth. The Apgar Scale evaluates infants' heart rate, respiratory effort, muscle tone, body color, and reflex irritability.



arthritis	Inflammation of the joints that is accompanied by pain, stiffness, and movement problems; especially common in older adults.



assimilation	The absorption of ethnic minority groups into the dominant group, which often involves the loss of some or virtually all of the behavior and values of the ethnic minority group.



assimilation	In Piaget's theory, an individual's incorporation of new information into her or his existing knowledge.



associative play	Play that involves social interaction with little or no organization.



attachment	A close emotional bond between an infant and a caregiver.



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.



authoritarian parenting	A restrictive punitive style in which parents exhort the child to follow their directions and to respect 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.



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.



autonomous morality	The second stage of moral development 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.



bargaining	Kübler-Ross's third stage of dying, in which the dying person develops the hope that death can somehow be postponed.



basal metabolism rate (BMR)	The minimal amount of energy a person uses in a resting state.



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.



basic-skills-and-phonetics approach	An approach to reading instruction that stresses phonetics and basic rules for translating symbols into sounds. Early reading instruction should involve simplified materials.



Bayley Scales of Infant Development	Scales developed by Nancy Bayley, which 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.



becoming parents and a family with children	The third stage in the family life cycle. Adults who enter this stage move up a generation and become caregivers to the younger generation.



behavior genetics	The study of the degree and nature of behavior's basis in heredity.



big five factors of personality	Emotional stability (neuroticism), extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.



bilingual education	An educational approach whose aim is to teach academic subjects to immigrant children in their native languages (most often Spanish) while gradually adding English instruction.



biological age	A person's age in terms of biological health.



biological processes	Changes in an individual's physical nature.



blastocyst	The inner layer of cells that develops during the germinal period. These cells later develop into the embryo.



body transcendence versus body preoccupation	A developmental task of aging described by Peck, in which older adults must cope with declining physical well-being.



bonding	Close contact, especially psysical, between parents and their newborn in the period shortly after birth.



boundary ambiguity	The uncertainty in stepfamilies about who is in or out of the family and who is performing or responsible for certain tasks in the family system.



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.



brainstorming	A technique in which individuals are encouraged to come up with ideas in a group, play off each other's ideas, and say practically whatever comes to mind.



Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale	A test given several days after birth to assess newborns' neurological development, reflexes, and reactions to people.



breech position	The baby's position in the uterus that causes the buttocks to be the first part to emerge from the vagina.



bulimia nervosa	An eating disorder in which the individual consistently follows a binge-and-purge pattern.



canalization	The process by which characteristics take a narrow path or developmental course. Apparently, preservative forces help to protect a person from environmental extremes.



care perspective	The moral perspective of Carol Gilligan, that views people in terms of their connectedness with others and emphasizes interpersonal communication, relationships with others, and concern for others.



case study	An in-depth look at an individual.



cellular clock theory	Leonard Hayflick's theory that the maximum number of times that human cells can divide is about 70 to 80. As we age, our cells have less capability to divide.



centration	The focusing of attention on one characteristic to the exclusion of all others.



cephalocaudal pattern	The sequence in which the greatest growth occurs at the top-the head-with physical growth in size, weight, and feature differentiation gradually working from top to bottom.



character education	A direct approach to moral education that involves teaching students a basic moral literacy to prevent them from engaging in immoral behavior and doing harm to themselves and others.



child-centered kindergarten	Education that involves the whole child by considering both the child's physical, cognitive, and social development and the child's needs, interests, and learning styles.



chlamydia	The most common STD. Named for Chlamydia trachomitis, an organism that spreads by sexual contact and infects the genitals of both sexes.



chromosomes	Threadlike structures that come in 23 pairs, one member of each pair coming from each parent. Chromosomes contain the genetic substance DNA.



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.



chronological age	The number of years that have elapsed since a person's birth; what is usually meant by "age."



climacteric	The midlife transition in which fertility declines.



cognitive developmental theory of gender	The theory that children's gender typing occurs after they have developed a concept of gender. Once they consistently conceive of themselves as male or female, children often organize their world on the basis of gender.



cognitive mechanics	The "hardware" of the mind, reflecting the neurophysiological architecture of the brain as developed through evolution. Cognitive mechanics involve speed and accuracy of the processes involving sensory input, visual and motor memory, discrimination, comparison, and categorization.



cognitive moral education	An approach to moral education based on the belief that students should develop such values as democracy and justice as their moral reasoning develops; Kohlberg's theory has been the basis of a number of cognitive moral education programs.



cognitive pragmatics	The culture-based "software" 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.



cognitive processes	Changes in an individual's thought, intelligence, and language.



cohort effects	Effects that are due to a person's time of birth or generation but not to age.



commitment	Marcia's term for the part of identity development in which adolescents show a personal investment in what they are going to do.



connectedness	According to Cooper and her colleagues, connectedness consists of two dimensions: mutuality (sensitivity to and respect for others' views) and permeability (openness to others' views).



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.



conservation	In Piaget's theory, awareness that altering an object's or a substance's appearance does not change its basic properties.



constructive play	Play that combines sensorimotor/practice repetitive activity with symbolic representation of ideas. Constructive play occurs when children engage in self-regulated creation or construction of a product or a problem solution.



contemporary life-events approach	Emphasizes 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 life-stage context, and the sociohistorical context.



context	The settings, influenced by historical, economic, social, and cultural factors, in which development occurs.



continuity-discontinuity issue	The issue regarding whether development involves gradual, cumulative change (continuity) or distinct stages (discontinuity).



control group	A comparison group in an experiment that is treated in every way like the experimental group except for the manipulated factor.



control processes	Cognitive processes that do not occur automatically but require work and effort. These processes are under the learner's conscious control and can be used to improve memory. They are also appropriately called strategies.



control pushing in the final stages of labor	and a more detailed anatomy and physiology course.



controversial children	Children who are frequently nominated both as someone's best friend and as being disliked.



conventional reasoning	The second, or intermediate, level in Kohlberg's theory of moral development. Internalization is intermediate. Individuals abide by certain standards (internal), but they are the standards of others (external), such as parents or the laws of society.



convergent thinking	Thinking that produces one correct answer and is characteristic of the kind of thinking tested by standardized intelligence tests.



cooperative play	Play that involves social interaction in a group with a sense of group identity and organized activity.



coordination of secondary circular reactions	Piaget's fourth sensorimotor substage, which develops between 8 and 12 months of age. In this substage, several significant changes take place involving the coordination of schemes and intentionality.



correlational research	Research whose goal is to describe the strength of the relation between two or more events or characteristics.



creativity	The ability to think in novel and unusual ways and to come up with unique solutions to problems.



crisis	Marcia's term for a period of identity development during which the adolescent is choosing from among meaningful alternatives.



critical thinking	Thinking that involves grasping the deeper meaning of ideas, keeping an open mind about different approaches and perspectives, and deciding for oneself what to believe or do.



cross-cultural studies	The comparison of a culture with one or more other cultures, which provides information about the degree to which development is similar (universal) across cultures or the degree to which it is culture-specific.



cross-cultural studies	Comparisons of one culture with one or more other cultures. These provide information about the degree to which children's development is similar, or universal, across cultures, and to the degree to which it is culture-specific.



crystallized intelligence	Accumulated information and verbal skills, which increase with age, according to Horn.



cultural-familial retardation	Retardation that is characterized by no evidence of organic brain damage, but the individual's IQ is between 50 and 70.



culture	The behavior patterns, beliefs, and all other products of a group that are passed on from generation to generation.



culture-fair tests	Tests that are designed to be free of cultural bias.



date or acquaintance rape	Coercive sexual activity directed at someone with whom the perpetrator is at least casually acquainted.



dating scripts	The cognitive models that adolescents and adults use to guide and evaluate dating interactions.



deferred imitation	Imitation that occurs after a time delay of hours or days.



dementia	A global term for any neurological disorder in which the primary symptoms involve a deterioration of mental functioning.



denial and isolation	Kübler-Ross's first stage of dying, in which the dying person denies that she or he is really going to die.



dependent variable	The factor that is measured as the result of an experiment.



depression	Kübler-Ross's 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.



development	The pattern of change that begins at conception and continues through the life cycle.



developmental biodynamics	The new perspective on motor development in infancy that seeks to explain how motor behaviors are assembled for perceiving and acting.



developmentally appropriate practice	Education that focuses on the typical developmental patterns of children (age appropriateness) and the uniqueness of each child (individual appropriateness).



developmental quotient (DQ)	An overall developmental score that combines subscores in motor, language, adaptive, and personal-social domains in the Gesell assessment of infants.



differentiation versus role preoccupation	One of the three developmental tasks of aging described by Peck, in which older adults must redefine their worth in terms of something other than work roles.



difficult child	A child who tends to react negatively and cry frequently, who engages in irregular daily routines, and who is slow to accept new experiences.



disease model of addiction	The view that addictions are biologically based, lifelong diseases that involve a loss of control over behavior and require medical and/or spiritual treatment for recovery.



disengagement theory	The theory that to cope effectively, older adults should gradually withdraw from society.



dishabituation	An infant's renewed interest in a stimulus.



disorganized babies	Babies that show insecurity by being disorganized and disoriented.



divergent thinking	Thinking that produces many answers to the same question and is characteristic of creativity.



DNA	A complex molecule that contains genetic information.



doula	A caregiver who provides continuous physical, emotional, and educational support to the mother before, during, and just after childbirth.



Down syndrome	A chromosomally transmitted form of mental retardation, caused by the presence of an extra (47th) chromosome.



dyslexia	A category of learning disabilities involving a severe impairment in the ability to read and spell.



easy child	A child who is generally in a positive mood, who quickly establishes regular routines in infancy, and who adapts easily to new experiences.



eclectic theoretical orientation	An approach that does not follow any one theoretical approach, but instead selects and uses whatever is considered the best in many different theories.



ecological theory	Bronfenbrenner's environmental system view of development, involving five environmental systems-microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem. These emphasize the role of social contexts in development.



ecological view	The view that perception functions to bring organisms in contact with the environment and to increase adaptation.



egocentrism	The inability to distinguish between one's own perspective and someone else's (salient feature of the first substage of preoperational thought).



ego transcendence versus ego preoccupation	A developmental task of aging described by Peck, in which older adults must come to feel at ease with themselves by recognizing that although death is inevitable and probably not too far away, they have contributed to the future through the competent raising of their children or through their vocations and ideas.



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.



embryonic period	The period of prenatal development that occurs 2 to 8 weeks after conception. During the embryonic period, the rate of cell differentiation intensifies, support systems for the cells form, and organs appear.



emotion	Feeling or affect, that can involve physiological arousal (a fast heartbeat, for example), conscious experience (thinking about being in love with someone, for example), and behavioral expression (a smile or grimace, for example).



emotional intelligence	A form of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one's own and others' feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one's thinking and action.



empty nest syndrome	A decrease in marital satisfaction after children leave home, because parents derive considerable satisfaction from their children.



episodic memory	The retention of information about the where and when of life's happenings.



Erikson's theory	Eight stages of psychosocial development unfold throughout the human life span. Each stage consists of a unique developmental task that confronts individuals with a crisis that must be faced.



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.



ethnicity	A characteristic based on cultural heritage, nationality characteristics, race, religion, and language.



ethology	An approach that stresses that behavior is strongly influenced by biology, tied to evolution, and characterized by critical or sensitive periods.



euthanasia	The act of painlessly ending the lives of persons who are suffering from incurable diseases or severe disabilities; sometimes called "mercy killing."



evocative genotype-environment correlations	Correlations that exist when the child's genotype elicits certain types of physical and social environments.



evolutionary psychology	A contemporary approach that emphasizes that behavior is a function of mechanisms, requires input for activation, and is ultimately related to survival and reproduction.



experimental group	A group whose experience is manipulated in an experiment.



experimental research	Research involving experiments that permit the determination of cause. A carefully regulated procedure in which one or more of the factors believed to influence the behavior being studied are manipulated and all other factors are held constant.



expertise	Having an extensive, highly organized knowledge and understanding of a particular domain.



explicit memory	Memory of facts and experiences that individuals consciously know and can state.



family at midlife	The fifth stage in the family life cycle, a time of launching children, linking generations, and adapting to midlife developmental changes.



family in later life	The sixth and final stage in the family life cycle, involving retirement and, in many families, grandparenting.



family with adolescents	The fourth stage of the family life cycle, in which adolescent children push for autonomy and seek to develop their own identities.



fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)	A cluster of abnormalities that appears in the offspring of mothers who drink alcohol heavily during pregnancy.



fetal period	The prenatal period of development that begins 2 months after conception and lasts for 7 months, on the average.



fine motor skills	Motor skills that involve more finely tuned movements, such as finger dexterity.



first habits and primary circular reactions	Piaget's second sensorimotor substage, which develops between 1 and 4 months of age. In this substage, infants' reflexes evolve into adaptive schemes that are more refined and coordinated.



fluid intelligence	The ability to reason abstractly, which steadily declines from middle adulthood on, according to Horn.



fragile X syndrome	A genetic disorder involving an abnormality in the X chromosome, which becomes constricted and, often, breaks.



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.



friendship	A form of close relationship that involves enjoyment, acceptance, trust, respect, mutual assistance, confiding, understanding, and spontaneity.



games	Activities engaged in for pleasure that include rules and often competition with one or more individuals.



gender	The social and psychological dimension of being male or female.



gender	The social dimension of being male or female.



gender identity	The sense of being male or female, which most children acquire by the time they are 3 years old.



gender role	A set of expectations that prescribes how females or males should think, act, and feel.



gender-role transcendence	The belief that, when an individual's competence is at issue, it should not be conceptualized on the basis of masculinity, femininity, or androgyny but, rather, on a personal basis.



gender schema theory	The theory that an individual's attention and behavior are guided by an internal motivation to conform to gender-based sociocultural standards and stereotypes.



gender stereotypes	Broad categories that reflect our impressions and beliefs about females and males.



generational inequity	An aging society's being unfair to its younger members because older adults pile up advantages by receiving inequitably large allocations of resources.



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.



genes	Units of hereditary information composed of DNA. Genes act as a blueprint for cells to reproduce themselves and manufacture the proteins that maintain life.



genital herpes	A sexually transmitted disease caused by a large family of viruses of different strains. These strains also produce other, nonsexually transmitted diseases such as chicken pox and mononucleosis.



genotype	A person's genetic heritage; the actual genetic material.



germinal period	The period of prenatal development that takes place in the first 2 weeks after conception. It includes the creation of the zygote, continued cell division, and the attachment of the zygote to the uterine wall.



gifted	Having above-average intelligence (an IQ of 120 or higher) and/or superior talent for something.



gonads	The sex glands-the testes in males and the ovaries in females.



gonorrhea	Reported to be one of the most common STDs in the United States, this sexually transmitted disease is caused by a bacterium called gonococcus, which thrives in the moist mucous membranes lining the mouth, throat, vagina, cervix, urethra, and anal tract. This disease is commonly called the "drip" or the "clap."



grasping reflex	A neonatal reflex that occurs when something touches the infant's palms. The infant responds by grasping tightly.



grief	The emotional numbness, disbelief, separation anxiety, despair, sadness, and loneliness that accompany the loss of someone we love.



gross motor skills	Motor skills that involve large muscle activities, such as walking.



habituation	Repeated presentation of the same stimulus, which causes reduced attention to the stimulus.



hardiness	A personality style characterized by a sense of commitment (rather than alienation), control (rather than powerlessness), and a perception of problems as challenges (rather than threats).



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.



hidden curriculum	Dewey's concept that every school has a pervasive moral atmosphere, even if it doesn't have a program of moral education.



holophrase hypothesis	The hypothesis that a single word can be used to imply a complete sentence; infants' first words characteristically are holophrastic.



hormonal stress theory	The theory that aging in the body's hormonal system can lower resilience to stress and increase the likelihood of disease.



hormones	Powerful chemical substances secreted by the endocrine glands and carried through the body by the bloodstream.



hospice	A humanized 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.



HPV	A virus (human papillomavirus) that causes warts on people. A few types of the virus cause warts on the genitals.



hypothalamus	A structure in the higher portion of the brain that monitors eating, drinking, and sex.



hypotheses	Specific assumptions and predictions that can be tested to determine their accuracy.



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.



identity achievement	Marcia's term for adolescents who have undergone a crisis and have made a commitment.



identity diffusion	Marcia's term for adolescents who have not yet experienced a crisis (explored meaningful alternatives) or made any commitments.



identity foreclosure	Marcia's term for adolescents who have made a commitment but have not experienced a crisis.



identity moratorium	Marcia's term for adolescents who are in the midst of a crisis, but their commitments are either absent or vaguely defined.



imaginary audience	Adolescents' belief that others are as interested in them as they themselves are; attention-getting behavior motivated by a desire to be noticed, visible, and "on stage.''



imminent justice	The concept that, if a rule is broken, punishment will be meted out immediately.



implicit memory	Memory without conscious recollection; involves skills and routine procedures that are automatically performed.



inclusion	Educating a child with special education needs full-time in the regular classroom.



independent variable	The manipulated, influential, experimental factor in an experiment.



individual differences	The stable, consistent ways that people are different from each other.



individuality	According to Cooper and her colleagues, individuality consists of two dimensions: self-assertion (the ability to have and communicate a point of view) and separateness (the use of communication patterns to express how one is different from others).



individualized education plan (IEP)	A written statement that spells out a program tailored to a child with a disability. The plan should be (1) related to the child's learning capacity, (2) specially constructed to meet the child's individual needs and not merely a copy of what is offered to other children, and (3) designed to provide educational benefits.



individuated-connected level	In White's model, this is the highest level of relationship maturity. One is acquiring an understanding of oneself, as well as consideration for others' motivations and anticipation of their needs. One now feels concern and caring that involve emotional support and individualized expressions of interest.



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.



infant-directed speech	Speech often used by parents (in which case it sometimes is called "parentese") and other adults when they talk to babies. It has a higher than normal pitch and involves the use of simple words and sentences.



infinite generativity	An individual's ability to generate an infinite number of meaningful sentences using a finite set of words and rules, which makes language a highly creative enterprise.



information-processing approach	The approach that emphasizes that individuals manipulate information, monitor it, and strategize about it. Central to information processing are the processes of memory and thinking.



innate goodness view	The idea, presented by Swiss-born philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, that children are inherently good.



insecure avoidant babies	Babies that show insecurity by avoiding the caregiver.



insecure resistant babies	Babies that might cling to the caregiver, then resist her by fighting against the closeness, perhaps by kicking or pushing away.



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.



intelligence	Problem-solving skills and the ability to learn from and adapt to the experiences of everyday life.



intelligence quotient (IQ)	A person's mental age divided by chronological age, multiplied by 100.



intermodal perception	The ability to relate and integrate information about two or more sensory modalities, such as vision and hearing.



internalization	The developmental change from behavior that is externally controlled to behavior that is controlled by internal standards and principles.



internalization of schemes	Piaget's sixth and final sensorimotor substage, which develops between 18 and 24 months of age. In this substage, the infant's mental functioning shifts from a purely sensorimotor plane to a symbolic plane, and the infant develops the ability to use primitive symbols.



intimacy in friendships	Self-disclosure and the sharing of private thoughts.



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).



justice perspective	A moral perspective that focuses on the rights of the individual; individuals independently make moral decisions.



juvenile delinquent	An adolescent who breaks the law or engages in behavior that is considered illegal.



Klinefelter syndrome	A chromosomal disorder in which males have an extra X chromosome, making them XXY instead of XY.



kwashiorkor	A condition caused by a deficiency in protein in which the child's abdomen and feet become swollen with water.



laboratory	A controlled setting from which many of the complex factors of the real world have been removed.



language	A system of symbols used to communicate with others. In humans language is characterized by infinite generativity and rule systems.



language acquisition device (LAD)	A biological endowment, hypothesized by Chomsky, that enables the child to detect certain language categories, such as phonology, syntax, and semantics.



lateralization	Specialization of function in one hemisphere of the cerebral cortex or the other.



launching	The process in which youths move into adulthood and exit their family of origin.



learning disability	A disability that involves (1) having normal intelligence or above, (2) having difficulties in at least one academic area and usually several, and (3) having no other problem or disorder, such as mental retardation, that can be determined as causing the difficulty.



least restrictive environment (LRE)	The concept that a child with a disability must be educated in a setting that is as similar as possible to the one in which children who do not have a disability are educated.



leaving home and becoming a single adult	The first stage in the family life cycle and that involves launching.



leisure	The pleasant times after work when individuals are free to pursue activities and interests of their own choosing.



life expectancy	The number of years that will probably be lived by the average person born in a particular year.



life-history records	Records of a lifetime chronology of events and activities; often a combination of data records on education, work, family, and residence.



life-process model of addiction	The view that addiction is not a disease but rather a habitual response and a source of gratification and security that can be understood only in the context of social relationships and experiences.



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 years of age.



life-span perspective	The view that development is lifelong, multidimensional, multidirectional, plastic, contextual, multidisciplinary, and involves growth, maintenance and regulation.



longitudinal approach	A research strategy in which the same individuals are studied over a period of time, usually several years or more.



long-term memory	A relatively permanent type of memory that holds huge amounts of information for a long period of time.



low-birthweight infant	An infant born after a regular priod of gestation (the length of time between conception and birth) of 38 to 42 weeks but who weigh less than 51Ú2 pounds.



mainstreaming	Educating a child with special education needs partially in a special education classroom and partially in a regular classroom.



major depression	A mood disorder in which the individual is deeply unhappy, demoralized, self-derogatory, 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.



marasmus	A wasting away of body tissues in the infant's first year, caused by severe protein-calorie deficiency.



Maximally Discriminative Facial Movement Coding System (MAX)	Izard's system of coding infants' facial expressions related to emotions. Using MAX, coders watch show-motion and stop-action videotapes of infants' facial reactions to stimuli.



meiosis	The process of cell doubling and separation of chromosomes in which each pair of chromosomes in a cell separates, with one member of each pair going into each gamete.



memory	A central feature of cognitive development, pertaining to all situations in which an individual retains information over time.



menarche	First menstruation.



menopause	The complete cessation of a woman's menstruation, which usually occurs in the late forties or early fifties.



mental age (MA)	Binet's measure of an individual's level of mental development, compared with that of others.



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.



metacognition	Cognition about cognition, or knowing about knowing.



middle adulthood	The developmental period beginning at approximately 40 years of age and extending to about 60.



mitosis	The process by which each chromosome in a cell's nucleus duplicates itself.



mnemonics	Techniques designed to make memory more efficient.



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.



moral development	Development regarding rules and conventions about what people should do in their interactions with other people.



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.



multi-infarct dementia	Sporadic and progressive loss of intellectual functioning caused by repeated temporary obstruction of blood flow in cerebral arteries.



myelination	The process in 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.



natural childbirth	Developed in 1914 by Dick-Read, this method attempts to reduce the mother's pain by decreasing her fear through education about childbirth and relaxation techniques during delivery.



naturalistic observation	Observations that take place out in the real world instead of in a laboratory.



nature-nurture issue	Nature refers to an organism's biological inheritance, nurture to environmental influences. The "nature" proponents claim biological inheritance is the most important influence on development; the "nurture" proponents claim that environmental experiences are the most important.



neglected children	Children who are infrequently nominated as a best friend but are not disliked by their peers.



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.



neo-Piagetians	Developmentalists who have elaborated on Piaget's theory, believing that children's cognitive development is more specific in many respects than Piaget thought.



neuron	Nerve cell that handles information processing at the cellular level.



new couple	Forming the new couple is the second stage in the family life cycle. Two individuals from separate families of origin unite to form a new family system.



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."



normal distribution	A symmetrical distribution with most cases falling in the middle of the possible range of scores and a few scores appearing toward the extremes of the range.



object permanence	The Piagetian term for one of an infant's most important accomplishments: understanding that objects and events continue to exist, even when they cannot directly be seen, heard, or touched.



onlooker play	Play in which the child watches other children play.



operations	In Piaget's theory, an internalized set of actions that allows a child to do mentally what she formerly did physically.



oral rehydration therapy (ORT)	Treatment to prevent dehydration during episodes of diarrhea by giving fluids by mouth.



organic retardation	Mental retardation that involves some physical damage and is caused by a genetic disorder or brain damage.



organogenesis	Organ formation that takes place during the first 2 months of prenatal development.



original sin view	Advocated during the Middle Ages, the belief that children were born into the world as evil beings and were basically bad.



osteoporosis	A disorder of aging 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.



pain cry	A sudden appearance of loud crying without preliminary moaning and a long initial cry followed by an extended period of breath holding.



parallel play	Play in which the child plays separately from others, but with toys like those the others are using or in a manner that mimics their play.



Parkinson's disease	A chronic, progressive disease characterized by muscle tremors, slowing of movement, and partial facial paralysis.



passive euthanasia	The withholding of available treatments, such as life-sustaining devices, allowing the person to die.



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.



perception	The interpretation of what is sensed.



personal fable	The part of adolescent egocentrism that involves an adolescent's sense of uniqueness and invincibility.



personal fable	The part of adolescent egocentrism that involves an adolescent's sense of uniqueness and invincibility.



personality type theory	John Holland's view that it is important to match an individual's personality with a particular career.



phenotype	The way an individual's genotype is expressed in observed and measurable characteristics.



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.



Piaget's theory	Children actively construct their understanding of the world and go through four stages of cognitive development.



pituitary gland	An important endocrine gland that controls growth and regulates other glands.



placenta	A life-support system that consists of a disk-shaped group of tissues in which small blood vessels from the mother and offspring intertwine.



pluralism	The coexistence of distinct ethnic and cultural groups in the same society. Individuals with a pluralistic stance usually advocate that cultural differences be maintained and appreciated.



popular children	Children who are frequently nominated as a best friend and are rarely disliked by their peers.



postconventional reasoning	The highest level in Kohlberg's theory of moral development. Morality is completely internalized.



postformal thought	A form of thought, proposed as a fifth stage, 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.



postpartum period	The period after childbirth when the mother adjusts, both physically and psychologically, to the process of childbirth. This period lasts for about 6 weeks or until her body has completed its adjustment and returned to a near prepregnant state.



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. Sensorimotor play, which often involves practice play, is primarily confined to infancy, while practice play can be engaged in throughout life.



preconventional reasoning	The lowest level in Kohlberg's theory of moral development. The individual shows no internalization of moral values-moral reasoning is controlled by external rewards and punishment.



prepared childbirth	Developed by French obstetrician Ferdinand Lamaze, this childbirth strategy is similar to natural childbirth but includes a special breathing technique to



pretense/symbolic play	Play in which the child transforms the physical environment into a symbol.



preterm infant	An infant born prior to 38 weeks after conception.



primary circular reactions	A scheme based on the infant's attempt to reproduce an interesting or a pleasurable event that initially occurred by chance.



Project Follow Through	An adjunct to Project Head Start, in which the enrichment programs are carried through the first few years of elementary school.



Project Head Start	Compensatory education designed to provide children from low-income families the opportunity to acquire the skills and experiences important for school success.



proximodistal pattern	The sequence in which growth starts at the center of the body and moves toward the extremities.



psychoanalytic theory	Development is primarily unconscious and heavily colored by emotion. Behavior is merely a surface characteristic. It is important to analyze the symbolic meanings of behavior. Early experiences are important in development.



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 same-sex parent, unconsciously adopting the same-sex parent's characteristics.



psychological age	An individual's adaptive capacities compared to those of other individuals of the same chronological age.



puberty	A period of rapid skeletal and sexual maturation that occurs mainly in early adolescence.



questionnaire	A method similar to a highly structured interview except that respondents read the questions and mark their answers on paper rather than respond verbally to the interviewer.



random assignment	In experimental research, the assignment of participants to experimental and control groups by chance.



rape	Forcible sexual intercourse with a person who does not consent to it.



reaction range	The range of possible phenotypes for each genotype, suggesting the importance of an environment's restrictiveness or richness.



receptive vocabulary	The words an individual understands.



reciprocal socialization	Socialization that is bidirectional; children socialize parents, just as parents socialize children.



reflexive smile	A smile that does not occur in response to external stimuli. It happens during the month after birth, usually during irregular patterns of sleep, not when the infant is in an alert state.



rejected children	Children who are infrequently nominated as a best friend and are actively disliked by their peers.



REM (rapid eye movement) sleep	A recurring sleep stage during which vivid dreams commonly occur.



reproduction	The process that, in humans, begins when a female gamete (ovum) is fertilized by a male gamete (sperm).



restrained eaters	Individuals who chronically restrict their food intake to control their weight. Restrained eaters are often on diets, are very conscious of what they eat, and tend to feel guilty after splurging on sweets.



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.



role-focused level	In White's model, this is the second level of relationship maturity, at which one begins to perceive others as individuals in their own right. One's perspective is still stereotypical and emphasizes social acceptability.



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.



rooting reflex	A newborn's built-in reaction that occurs when the infant's check is stroked or the side of the mouth is touched. In response, the infant turns its head toward the side that was touched, in an apparent effort to find something to suck.



scaffolding	In cognitive development, Vygotsky used this term to describe the changing support over the course of a teaching session, with the more skilled person adjusting guidance to fit the child's current performance level.



scaffolding	Parental behavior that supports children's efforts, allowing them to be more skillful than they would be if they relied only on their own abilities.



scheme	In Piaget's theory, a cognitive structure that helps individuals organize and understand their experiences.



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, or focused on the world, moving beyond preoccupation with the self in sensorimotor interactions.



secure attachment	The infant uses a caregiver as a secure base from which to explore the environment. Ainsworth believes that secure attachment in the first year of life provides an important foundation for psychological development later in life.



selective optimization with compensation theory	The theory that successful aging is related to three main factors: selection, optimization, and compensation.



self-concept	Domain-specific evaluations of the self.



self-esteem	The global evaluative dimension of the self. Self-esteem is also referred to as self-worth or self-image.



self-focused level	The first level of relationship maturity, at which one's perspective of another or of a relationship is concerned only with how it affects oneself.



self-understanding	The child's cognitive representation of self, the substance and content of the child's self-conceptions.



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."



sensation	The product of the interaction between information and the sensory receptors-the eyes, ears, tongue, nostrils, and skin.



sensorimotor play	Behavior engaged in by infants to derive pleasure from exercising their existing sensorimotor schemas.



sequential approach	A combined cross-sectional, longitudinal design.



seriation	The concrete operation that involves ordering stimuli along a quantitative dimension (such as length).



service learning	A form of education that promotes social responsibility and service to the community.



sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)	Diseases that are contracted primarily through sexual contact, which is not limited to sexual intercourse. Oral-genital and anal-genital contact also can transmit STDs.



sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)	Diseases that are contracted primarily through sex.



shared environmental experiences	Children's common environmental experiences that are shared with their siblings, such as their parents' personalities and intellectual orientation, the family's social class, and the neighborhood in which they live.



short-term memory	The memory component in which individuals retain information for 15 to 30 seconds, assuming there is no rehearsal.



sickle-cell anemia	A genetic disorder that affects the red blood cells and occurs most often in people of African descent.



simple reflexes	Piaget's first sensorimotor substage, which corresponds to the first month after birth. In this substage, the basic means of coordinating sensation and action is through reflexive behaviors, such as rooting and sucking, which the infant has at birth.



slow-to-warm-up child	A child who has a low activity level, is somewhat negative , shows low adaptability, and displays a low intensity mood.



social age	Social roles and expectations related to a person's age.



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.



social cognitive theory	The theory that behavior, environment, and person/cognitive factors are important in understanding development.



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 inappropriate behavior.



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.



social play	Play that involves social interactions with peers.



social policy	A national government's course of action designed to influence the welfare of its citizens.



social smile	A smile is response to an external stimulus, which, early in development, typically is in response to a face.



socioemotional processes	Changes in an individual's relationships with other people, emotions, and personality.



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.



solitary play	Play in which the child plays alone and independently of others.



stability-change issue	The issue of whether development is best described as involving stability or as involving change. This issue involves the degree to which we become older renditions of our early experience or instead develop into someone different from who we were at an earlier point in development.



standardized tests	Tests that require people to answer a series of questions and that have two distinct features: (1) Usually the individual's score is totaled to yield a single score, or set of scores, that reflects something about the individual; (2) the individual's score is compared to the scores of a large group of similar people to determine how the individual responded relative to others.



stranger anxiety	An infant's fear and wariness of strangers; it needs to appear in the second half of the first year of life.



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.



sucking reflex	A newborn's built-in reaction of automatically sucking an object placed in its mouth. The sucking reflex enables the infant to get nourishment before it has associated a nipple with food.



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.



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 2 and 4 years of age).



syphilis	A sexually transmitted disease caused by the bacterium Treponema pallidum, a spirochete.



tabula rasa view	The idea, proposed by John Locke, that children are like a "blank tablet."



telegraphic speech	The use of short and precise words to communicate; young children's two- and three-word utterances characteristically are telegraphic.



temperament	An individual's behavioral style and characteristic way of emotional response.



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.



terminal drop hypothesis	The hypothesis that death is preceded by a decrease in cognitive functioning over approximately a 5-year period prior to death.



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 variety of properties that objects possess and by the multiplicity of things they can make happen to objects.



theory	An interrelated, coherent set of ideas that helps to explain events and make predictions.



theory of mind	Individuals' thoughts about how mental processes work.



top-dog phenomenon	The circumstance of moving from the top position in elementary school to the lowest position in middle or junior high school.



top-dog phenomenon	The circumstance of moving from the top position in elementary school to the lowest position in middle or junior high school.



transitivity	In concrete operational thought, a mental concept that underlies the ability to logically combine relations to understand certain conclusions. It focuses on reasoning about the relations between classes.



triangular theory of love	Sternberg's theory that love has three main forms: passion, intimacy, and commitment.



triarchic theory of intelligence	Sternberg's theory that intelligence consists of componential intelligence, experiential intelligence, and contextual intelligence.



trophoblast	The outer layer of cells that develops in the germinal period. These cells provide nutrition and support for the embryo.



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.



twin study	A study in which the behavioral similarity of identical twins is compared with the behavioral similarity of fraternal twins.



Type A behavior pattern	A cluster of characteristics-being excessively competitive, hard-driven, impatient, and hostile-thought to be related to the incidence of heart disease.



Type B behavior pattern	Being primarily calm and easygoing.



umbilical cord	A life-support system containing two arteries and one vein that connects the baby to the placenta.



unoccupied play	Play in which the child is not engaging in play as it is commonly understood and might stand in one spot, look around the room, or perform random movements that do not seem to have a goal.



values clarification	An approach to moral education that emphasizes helping people clarify what their lives are for and what is worth working for. Students are encouraged to define their own values and to understand the values of others.



Vygotksky's theory	A sociocultural cognitive theory that emphasizes developmental analysis, the role of language, and social relations.



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.



wisdom	Expert knowledge about the practical aspects of life that permits excellent judgment about important matters.



working memory	The concept currently used to describe short-term memory as a place for mental work. Working memory is like a "workbench" where individuals can manipulate and assemble information when making decisions, solving problems, and comprehending written and spoken language.



XYY syndrome	A chromosomal disorder in which males have an extra Y chromosome.



zone of proximal development (ZPD)	Vygotsky's term for tasks too difficult for children to master alone but that can be mastered with assistance.



zygote	A single cell formed through fertilization.

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