Maturation

Every chapter there's always that one vocabulary term that you think 'oh, I know this word!' and then it's something COMPLETELY different. In developmental psychology the term was maturation - when I heard it I was thinking - 'great! this is easy, the process of someone becoming mature!' Obviously that was right when Mrs. Perl bursted my bubble and said that it wasn't the same thing.
What other words have we had that often seem like we know them, but then we realize they're not what we thought? 

In psychology, maturation refers to the step-by-step physical process of growth. What I think is most interesting about maturation is that we have to follow each step - we have to go through the beginning steps to get to the next ones. It's the same for every single person - they may move through each stage more quickly than others - but every person goes through the same process.

I think that's something really cool about psychology - it teaches us things that can apply to specific individuals, but it also teaches us things that can apply to all of us. It's hard to think of many things that really apply to EVERYONE - but psychology often does so. What other things can you think of that really apply to everyone?