Unit 3 Developmental Psychology and Classical Conditioning ID Terms

Definitions from AMSCO Book

Teratogens

Agents that harm the embryo or fetus, such as: alcohol, nicotine, drugs, viruses, toxoplasmosis (cat feces), food poisoning.

Anxious Attachment

A form of insecure attachment where the child becomes overly dependent and anxious due to inconsistent caregiving.

Avoidant Attachment

A type of insecure attachment where a child avoids closeness or emotional connection, often resulting from a caregiver’s neglect or rejection.

Authoritarian Parenting

Dictatorial parents who enforce rules without input from children (“my way or the highway”). They often produce children with lower self-esteem and poor decision-making skills

Authoritative Parenting

Responsive and balanced parents who set rules and expectations while considering children’s input. They foster high self-esteem and good decision-making skills in children.

Rooting Reflex

A newborn reflex where touching the cheek causes the infant to turn their head and begin to suck. This is an innate behavior aiding in feeding.

Visual Cliff

A depth perception test conducted by Eleanor Gibson and R.D. Walk using a Plexiglas® table with an opaque and clear side, creating the illusion of a drop-off. Infants avoided the "cliff," suggesting innate depth perception​.

Critical Periods

A specific time in which an emotional or social landmark is developed that will not or cannot occur at a later date. The period of time when an organism has heightened sensitivity for the development of a particular skill.

Imprinting

Early-life attachment formation in animals during a critical period.

Adolescence

A developmental stage during which individuals undergo significant physical, emotional, and social changes, transitioning from childhood to adulthood​. The period of time between puberty and adulthood when people experience physical, social, and moral changes.

Puberty

The biological stage where individuals reach sexual maturity, marked by the development of primary and secondary sex characteristics​; Onset of sexual maturity. The physical beginnings of sexual maturity.  

Primary Sex Characteristics

Physical features directly related to reproduction, such as the development of the reproductive organs​.

Secondary Sex Characteristics

Physical features not directly related to reproduction, such as facial hair in males and breast development in females​.

Menarche

The first menstrual period in females, signaling the onset of reproductive capability.

Spermarche

The first ejaculation in males, signaling the onset of reproductive capability​.

Sensorimotor Stage

The first of Piaget’s stages of cognitive development, lasting from birth through roughly the first two years of life. Children use senses and motor abilities to learn about the world and develop object permanence. For example, touching a musical mobile hanging above the crib will make a satisfying noise.

Object Permanence

At about eight months of age, a child begins to understand that objects exist even when hidden​. Develops in the sensorimotor stage.

Preoperational Stage

Piaget’s second stage of cognitive development, lasting from roughly ages two through seven. Children use symbolic thinking to understand the world but remain egocentric and lack the mental operations that allow logical thinking.

Conservation

The understanding that two equal quantities remain equal even though their form or appearance is rearranged.

Egocentrism

Seeing the world only through one’s own perspective. The inability to consider another person’s point of view.

Concrete Operational Stage

Piaget’s third stage of cognitive development, lasting from roughly ages seven through eleven. Children gain cognitive operations for logical thinking about concrete events, understand conservation, and perform mathematical operations, but they cannot reason abstractly.

Formal Operational Stage

The fourth and final stage of Piaget’s cognitive development theory, beginning in early adolescence. Further development of cognitive operations enables adolescents to engage in abstract thinking and hypothetical-deductive reasoning.

Lev Vygotsky

A Russian psychologist who introduced the sociocultural perspective, emphasizing that the social and cultural environment influences cognitive development. Vygotsky proposed the concept of the "zone of proximal development" to describe the difference between what a learner can do independently and what they can do with assistance​. Russian psychologist who developed the theory of mind.

Scaffold

Refers to the temporary support provided to a learner to perform a task they cannot yet perform independently, with the goal of gradually reducing assistance as competence increases​.

Babbling Stage

A stage in language development where infants produce repetitive sounds like "ba-ba" or "da-da" as they begin to experiment with speech sounds.

Telegraphic Speech

A stage of language development around age two where a child speaks mostly in two- or three-word statements. Speech resembles a telegram and includes mostly nouns and verbs, e.g., "car go" or "want cookie"​.

Overgeneralization

The application of grammar rules in instances where they do not apply, such as saying "Daddy buyed me a present".

Permissive Parenting

Includes two subtypes: (1) rejecting-neglecting parents, who are uninvolved and indifferent, leading to low self-esteem in children, and (2) indulgent parents, who seek friendship with their children and set few boundaries, leading to impulsive and demanding behavior​. A parenting style where parents are very lenient, set few rules, and rarely discipline their children, essentially allowing them to do what they want with minimal guidance or structure, often prioritizing their child's happiness over establishing clear boundaries or expectations.

Neglectful Parenting

A form of permissive parenting where parents are uninvolved in their children’s lives, often due to work or personal distractions. These children typically have low self-esteem and act prematurely as adults​.

Secure Attachment

A strong emotional bond between child and caregiver, characterized by the child feeling safe and secure, especially in a new or stressful situation​.

Insecure Attachment

Results when a caregiver does not consistently respond to a child’s needs, leading to anxiety, avoidance, or other insecure attachment behaviors​.

Disorganized Attachment

This type of insecure attachment is characterized by the child displaying confused and contradictory behaviors, such as approaching the caregiver but looking away. This may occur in response to neglect or abuse.

Strange Situation

A research method designed by Mary Ainsworth to observe attachment relationships between caregivers and infants. It involves a series of episodes where the child experiences separations and reunions with the caregiver and interactions with a stranger​.

Separation Anxiety

Distress and anxiety exhibited by infants and toddlers when separated from their primary caregiver. It typically emerges around 8 to 12 months and lessens as children grow older​.

Stranger Anxiety

Fear and distress that develops when children are confronted by unfamiliar people, typically occurring from around 8 months to 18 months of age.

Imaginary Audience

A cognitive distortion during adolescence in which individuals believe that their actions and appearance are constantly being scrutinized by others, reflecting an increased self-consciousness.

Personal Fable

A belief held by adolescents that they are unique and invincible, often leading them to think they are exempt from harm or that their experiences are unparalleled​.

Social Clock

The culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement. It reflects societal norms about the proper timeline for life milestones​.

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

Traumatic events or situations occurring during childhood, such as abuse, neglect, or family dysfunction, which can have long-term negative impacts on physical and mental health.

Learning

A relatively permanent change in behavior resulting from experience or practice. It excludes changes due to temporary biological states, instincts, reflexes, or maturation.

John Locke

An English philosopher who proposed the concept of the tabula rasa, or "blank slate," suggesting that individuals are shaped entirely by their experiences​.

Environmental Determinism

The idea that all behavior is caused by external environmental factors, implying that free will is an illusion​.

John Watson

A psychologist who emphasized observable behavior as the basis for study and was a key figure in behaviorism. He conducted the Little Albert experiment, demonstrating conditioned fear​. Father of behaviorism.

Little Albert

The subject of Watson's experiment, where a young child was conditioned to fear a white rat through classical conditioning paired with a loud noise.

Phobias

Irrational fears that can develop through classical conditioning when a neutral stimulus is paired with a fear-inducing unconditioned stimulus​..

Ivan Pavlov

A Russian physiologist who discovered classical conditioning through experiments with dogs, linking neutral stimuli (e.g., bells) to unconditioned stimuli (e.g., food)​.

Classical Conditioning

Associate an involuntary response and a stimulus.

Neutral Stimulus (NS)

Another stimulus that happens close in time with the UCS, but has nothing to do with it; “neutral”.

Associative Learning

Learning that two events are linked together. Both classical and operant conditioning are types of associative learning.

Stimulus-Response Learning

The process by which behavior is modified through an association between a stimulus and a response​.

Acquisition

The initial stage in classical conditioning where a neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with an unconditioned stimulus to establish a conditioned response.

Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)

An original stimulus that causes a response - something that elicits a natural, reflexive response.

Unconditioned Response (UCR)

The unconscious response to the original stimulus.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

The once neutral stimulus; it is associated with the UCS, thus learned to cause the same response.

Conditioned Response (CR)

The unconscious response to the CS.

Contiguity

The closeness in time between the CS and US. The shorter the time between the Conditioned Stimulus and the Unconditioned Stimulus, the quicker and stronger the association.

Taste Aversion

Discovered by John Garcia; classical conditioning that is a unique condition aversion that is accomplished rapidly by a single pairing of illness/nausea + a specific food. A learned avoidance of a particular taste or food, typically resulting from a negative experience.

John Garcia

Discovered taste aversion.

Stimulus Discrimination

Learned ability to distinguish between a CS and other similar stimuli.

Stimulus Generalization

Similar stimuli elicit similar responses.

Higher Order Conditioning

A process where a new neutral stimulus becomes associated with an existing conditioned stimulus, forming a second conditioned response​.

Extinction

When a CR no longer follows a CS.

Spontaneous Recovery

Reappearance of an extinguished response after a rest period.