Mom and Dad Made Me Do It
You received 23 of these DNA-carrying structures from each parent. Thanks, Mom and Dad!
What are chromosomes?
If a trait helps organisms survive and reproduce, this process may make it more common over generations. Darwin knows a thing or two about this.
What is natural selection?
Before becoming an embryo or fetus, a developing human starts here.
What is a zygote?
Infants learn about the world through looking, touching, grabbing, and occasionally licking during this Piaget stage.
What is sensorimotor?
This strong emotional bond leads an infant to seek closeness to a caregiver.
What is attachment?
Your entire genetic instruction manual—not exactly light beach reading.
What is the genome?
This field asks whether some modern behaviors may have helped our ancestors survive or reproduce.
What is evolutionary psychology?
Alcohol and certain drugs can earn this unfriendly prenatal label.
What are teratogens?
Imagination is booming, but logical operations are still buffering during this stage.
What is preoperational?
Harlow’s baby monkeys preferred the soft cloth mother because she provided this kind of comfort.
What is contact comfort?
The biological starting point for why one baby is calm while another loudly reviews the world.
What is temperament?
"Everyone around here does it this way” points to this system of shared beliefs, customs, and behaviors.
What is culture?
Peekaboo stops being an existential crisis after a baby develops this understanding.
What is object permanence?
A child finally understands that the same amount of juice remains the same in a taller glass. Welcome to this stage, conservation queen.
What is the concrete operational stage?
An infant confidently explores a new room but returns to the caregiver when distressed, demonstrating this attachment style.
What is secure attachment?
These twins are nature’s closest thing to a genetic copy-and-paste. They help us understand heritability.
What are identical twins?
“I need to do what is best for me” fits this cultural orientation.
What is individualism?
A child calls a cow, horse, and goat “doggie.” Piaget says the child is using this process.
What is assimilation?
Hypothetical reasoning and abstract thinking appear during this stage.
What is the formal operational stage?
This limited developmental window is a time when particular experiences are especially important.
What is a critical period?
Your environment cannot rewrite your DNA sequence, but it may turn certain genes up, down, on, or off through this process.
What are epigenetics (or gene expression)?
An evolutionary psychologist would say our preference for certain behaviors exists today because those behaviors helped our ancestors accomplish these two biological goals.
What are survival and reproduction?
A child understands that her friend may think, feel, or believe something different from what she does. This social-cognitive ability has developed.
What is theory of mind?
A child realizes that not all four-legged animals are dogs and changes the original animal schema.
What is accommodation?
"At birthday parties, we sing, open presents, and eat cake” is an example of this culturally learned guide for behavior.
What is a social script?