Key Terms

adolescence	The developmental period of transition from childhood to early adulthood; it involves biological, cognitive, and socioemotional changes.



adolescent generalization gap	Adelson's concept of widespread generalizations about adolescents based on information about a limited, highly visible group of adolescents.



biological processes	Changes in an individual's physical nature and appearance.



cognitive processes	Changes in an individual's thinking and intelligence.



contexts	Settings in which development occurs. These settings are influenced by historical, economic, social, and cultural factors.



continuity-discontinuity issue	Continuity is the gradual, cumulative change from conception to death. Discontinuity is development progressing through distinct stages in the life span.



development	The pattern of change that begins at conception and continues through the life cycle. Most development involves growth, although it also includes decay (as in death and dying).



early adolescence	The developmental period that corresponds roughly to the middle school or junior high school years and includes most pubertal change.



early adulthood	The developmental period beginning in the late teens or early twenties and lasting into the thirties.



early childhood	The developmental period extending from the end of infancy to about 5 or 6 years of age; sometimes called the preschool years.



early-later experience issue	This issue focuses on the degree to which early experiences (especially early in childhood) or later experiences are the key determinants of development.



generational inequity	The unfair treatment of younger members of an aging society in which older adults pile up advantage by receiving inequitably large allocations of resources, such as Social Security and Medicare.



infancy	The developmental period that extends from birth to 18 or 24 months.



inventionist view	The view that adolescence is a sociohistorical creation. Especially important in this view are the sociohistorical circumstances at the beginning of the twentieth century, a time when legislation was enacted that ensured the dependency of youth and made their move into the economic sphere more manageable.



late adolescence	Approximately the latter half of the second decade of life. Career interests, dating, and identity exploration are often more pronounced in late adolescence than in early adolescence.



late adulthood	The developmental period that lasts from about 60 to 70 years of age until death.



middle adulthood	The developmental period that is entered at about 35 to 45 years and exited at about 55 to 65 years of age.



middle and late childhood	The developmental period extending from about 6 to about 10 or 11 years of age; sometimes called the elementary school years.



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



prenatal period	The time from conception to birth.



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



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



stereotype	A broad category that reflects our impressions and beliefs about people. All stereotypes refer to an image of what the typical member of a particular group is like.



storm-and-stress view	G. Stanley Hall's concept that adolescence is a turbulent time charge with conflict and mood swings.



youth	Kenniston's term for the transitional period between adolescence and adulthood that is a time of economic and personal temporariness.

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