PSY 100 Chapter Notes - Chapter 10: Birth Weight, Habituation, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Document Summary
It enables us to depend on others and be concerned about children"s healthy development. Our potential for change gives us our hope for a brighter future. It motivates our concerns about present influences and lets us adapt and grow with experience. Developmental psychology: a branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the lifespan. A: the life cycle begins at conception, when one sperm cell unites with an egg to form a zygote. The zygote"s inner cells become the embryo, and the outer cells become the placenta. In the next 6 weeks, body organs begin to form and function, and by 9 weeks, the fetus is recognizably human. Teratogens are potentially harmful agents that can pass through the placental screen and harm the developing embryo or fetus, as happens with fetal alcohol syndrome. Sperm fertilizes the egg in the womb by releasing digestive enzymes that eat away at the eggs protective coating.