PSYC 250 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Sexual Differentiation, Mitosis, Preformationism

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 250
• Professor: Tyler Wereha

Document Summary

Developmental psychology chapter 2: prenatal development and the newborn period. Back in history, we see great diferences in how people have thought about prenatal development. Epigenesis: the emergence of new structures and functions in the course of development. Aristotle rejected the idea of preformation o. Individual already composed of a full set of tiny parts. We originated as a single cell that resulted from the union of two highly specialized cells: sperm from father and egg from mother. Gametes or germ cells reproductive: cells that contain only half the genetic material of all the other cells in the body: egg and sperm. Gametes are produced through meiosis: meiosis: cell division that produces gametes. Eggs and sperm receive only one member from each of the 23 chromosome pairs contained in all other cells of the body. Women"s eggs are produced during her prenatal development. Process of reproduction starts with the launching of an egg from the ovaries into the fallopian tubes.