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accommodation
Process in cognitive development; involves altering or reorganizing the mental picture to make room for a new experience or idea.
ambivalent attachment
Type of infant-parent attachment in which the infant seeks contact but resists once the contact is made.
asocial phase
Phase in attachment development in which the neonate doesn't distinguish people from objects.
assimilation
Process in cognitive development; occurs when something new is taken into the child's mental picture.
attachment
Process in which the individual shows behaviors that promote proximity with a specific object or person.
avoidant attachment
Type of infant-parent attachment in which the infant avoids the parent.
Babinski reflex
Reflex that occurs when you stroke the bottom of the baby's feet; the baby first spreads the toes out and then curls them in.
childhood
The period of human development roughly between 2 and 11 years.
cognitive development
Changes over time in mental processes such as thinking, memory, language, and problem solving.
concrete operations period
Stage in cognitive development; from to years, the time in which the child's ability to solve problems with reasoning greatly increases.
conservation
The ability to recognize that something stays the same even if it takes on a different form; Piaget tested conservation of mass, number, length, and volume.
contact comfort
In attachment, comfort felt by infants in physical contact, especially when it is soft or warm.
conventional morality
Level II in Kohlberg's theory, in which moral reasoning is based on conformity and social standards.
decenter
The ability to realize that your way of looking at the world is only one perspective.
development
Changes in the physical, cognitive, and personality-social characteristics of the individual over time.
embryonic stage
Stage in prenatal development; from about two to eight weeks, during which three layers of cells form.
fetal stage
Stage in prenatal development, from eight weeks until birth.
gender identity
A person's sense of maleness or femaleness; the learned psychological identification with a particular sex.
identity achievement
In Marcia's adolescent identity theory, the status of individuals, who have struggled with values and beliefs and have made a personal commitment.
indiscriminate attachment phase
Stage of attachment in which babies prefer humans to nonhumans, but do not discriminate among individual people.
infancy
Period of the first two years of life during which the neonate becomes a small, achieving child.
maturation
The genetically controlled process of growth that results in orderly changes in behavior.
menarche
Onset of menstruation in females.
menopause
End of menstruation in women.
moral development
Development of individuals as they adopt their society's standards of right and wrong; development of awareness of ethical behavior.
Moro reflex
Reflex that occurs when something in the environment changes quickly and the baby quickly extends both arms and brings the feet close to the body (startle reflex).
multiple attachment phase
Later attachment stage in which the baby begins to form attachments to people other than the primary caretaker.
neonate
Newborn infant; the individual immediately after birth.
object permanence
The ability to realize that objects continue to exist even if we can no longer see them.
postconventional morality
Level III in Kohlberg's theory, in which moral reasoning is based on personal standards and beliefs; highest level of moral thinking.
preconventional morality
Level I of Kohlberg's theory, in which moral reasoning is largely due to the expectation of rewards and punishments.
prenatal development
The growth of an individual from conception until birth.
preoperational thought period
Period in cognitive development; from two to seven years, the period during which the child learns to represent the environment with objects and symbols.
psychosexual stages
Freud's theoretical stages in personality development.
puberty
Sexual maturation; the time at which the individual is able to perform sexually and reproduce.
reversal
The ability to work a problem backwards.
rooting reflex
Reflex that occurs when you touch a baby's cheek and he or she turns his or her head toward the source.
scheme
A unit of knowledge that the person possess; used in Piaget's cognitive development theory.
secure attachment
Type of infant-parent attachment in which the infant actively seeks contact with the parent.
self-concept
An individual's knowledge of who he or she is.
sensorimotor period
Period in cognitive development; first two years, during which the infant learns to coordinate sensory experiences with motor activities.
specific attachment phase
Stage at about six months, in which the baby becomes attached to a specific person.
strange situation procedure
A measure of attachment developed by Ainsworth that consists of eight phases during which the infant is increasingly stressed.
sucking reflex
Reflex that occurs when something touches the baby's lips and he or she attempts sucking.
temperament
Emotional part of personality; ways of responding to the environment that begin in infancy.
zygote stage
First stage in prenatal development; first two weeks after conception; the zygote divides and travels down the fallopian tube to become attached to the wall of the uterus.