PSYC 2000 Chapter : Chapter 8
Document Summary
Developmental psychology: developmental psychology: branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span, 3 major issues, nature/nurture, continuity/stages, stability/change. Module 13: prenatal development and the newborn: single sperm cell (male) penetrates outer coating of egg (female) and fuses to form a fertilized cell. The competent newborn: habituation: decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulations, 4 month olds showed habituation to a series of cat pictures and looked longer at the novel dog stimulus, newborns prefer human faces. Physical and motor development: maturation: biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively. Module 14: infancy and childhood uninfluenced by experience. Infants can form memories, but they don"t last: average age of earliest lasting memory: 3. 5 years, examples, moving, 3rd or 4th birthday party. Cognitive development: schemas: schema: a conceptual framework that organizes and interprets information, assimilation: interpreting our new experience in terms of our existing schemas, accommodation: adapting our current schema to incorporate new information.
