Psychology Exam 3: Developmental, Social, and Personality Psychology

Vocabulary flashcards covering key definitions, theories, and concepts across developmental, social, and personality psychology for Exam 3 review.

Rooting reflex

An innate reflex where touching an infant's cheek causes them to open their mouth and search for a nipple.

Habituation

The process where a child's automatic reaction or attention to a repeated sight, sound, or feeling slowly fades out because they have learned it is familiar and harmless.

Schema

A concept or framework that helps us organize and interpret the world around us.

Assimilation

Interpreting one's new experiences in terms of an existing schema without changing the schema.

Accommodation

Modifying an existing schema so that it can incorporate new information.

Sensorimotor stage

Piaget's stage ($0-2$ years) where children discover by sensing and doing, differentiate old and new things, and develop schemas of causality and object permanence.

Preoperational stage

Piaget's cognitive development stage during which language develops and theory of mind emerges.

Concrete operational stage

Piaget's cognitive development stage ($6-12$ years) during which conservation emerges.

Formal operational stage

Piaget's cognitive development stage during which abstract thinking develops.

Object permanence

The recognition that objects continue to exist even when they are no longer visible, developing in the sensorimotor stage ($0-2$ years).

Conservation

The awareness that physical qualities remain consistent in spite of changes in their shape or appearance, emerging in the concrete operational stage ($6-12$ years).

Theory of mind

The ability to take another person's perspective, emerging in the preoperational stage.

Safe haven

A function of secure attachment where an attachment figure provides a source of comfort when a child is distressed.

Secure base

A function of secure attachment where an attachment figure offers a source of affection and security in a new environment to promote exploration.

Preconventional morality

Kohlberg's level of moral development where reasoning is guided entirely by self-interest, such as avoiding punishment or gaining rewards.

Conventional morality

Kohlberg's level of moral development where reasoning upholds rules and laws and considers other people's evaluations and social approval.

Postconventional morality

Kohlberg's level of moral development where reasoning is guided by agreed-upon rights, basic ethical principles, and values such as the inherent worth of life.

Cognitive dissonance

The state or tension occurring when two beliefs or behaviors are inconsistent or contradictory.

Fundamental attribution error

The tendency when explaining another person's behavior to overestimate the impact of dispositional factors (traits, attitudes) and underestimate the impact of situational factors.

Self-serving bias

The tendency to attribute our own successes to internal dispositions and our failures to external situational factors.

Bystander theory

The social psychological theory stating that people are less likely to help an individual in need when they are in a group than when they are alone.

Diffusion of responsibility

A cause of the bystander effect where an increase in the number of people present reduces any single individual's felt obligation or responsibility to take action.

Pluralistic ignorance

Construing a situation as an emergency only to the degree that others react to it as one; if a group does nothing, observers assume there is no emergency.

Milgram's obedience study

A study demonstrating that people frequently obey authority figures against their personal comfort; $65\%$ of participants complied up to the maximum shock level.

Normative social influence

Conformity driven by a need for approval in unambiguous situations (e.g., line judgment studies), where what an individual publicly expresses does not match what they internally believe.

Informational social influence

Conformity driven by a need for clarification during ambiguous situations (e.g., autokinetic studies), where what an individual says aligns with what they genuinely believe.

Mere exposure effect

The psychological phenomenon where repeated exposure and increasing familiarity with a stimulus lead to an increased liking for it.

Companionate love

The deep affection felt for those with whom our lives are intertwined, marked by emotional intimacy without physiological arousal, which predicts long-term relationship stability.

Passionate love

A wildly emotional state present early in a relationship where tender and sexual feelings, elation, anxiety, altruism, and jealousy coexist.

Personality

The organization of enduring behavior patterns and typical ways of thinking, feeling, and acting that distinguish one person from another.

The Id

The unconscious psychic structure present at birth that operates on the 'pleasure principle' to satisfy basic sexual, aggressive, and survival drives.

The Ego

The personality structure that mediates between the desires of the Id, the ideals of the Superego, and reality, operating on the 'reality principle.'

The Superego

The moral arm of personality developed in early childhood that represents internalized standards for how one ought to behave and strives for perfection.

Repression

A defense mechanism involving keeping distressing thoughts and feelings buried in the unconscious.

Projection

A defense mechanism involving attributing one's own unacceptable thoughts, feelings, or motives to someone else.

Displacement

A defense mechanism involving diverting emotional feelings (usually anger) from their original source to a substitute target.

Reaction formation

A defense mechanism involving behaving in a manner that is directly opposite to one's true, unacknowledged feelings.

Regression

A defense mechanism characterized by a reversion to immature patterns of behavior.

Rationalization

A defense mechanism involving creating false but plausible excuses to justify unacceptable behavior.

Identification

A defense mechanism involving bolstering self-esteem by forming an imaginary or real alliance with a person or group.

Oral stage

Freud's psychosexual stage ($0-18$ months) where pleasure centers on the mouth (sucking, biting, chewing); adult fixation leads to smoking, eating, nail-biting, or sarcasm.

Anal stage

Freud's psychosexual stage ($18-36$ months) where pleasure focuses on bowel and bladder elimination; fixation can lead to anally retentive or anally expulsive traits.

Phallic stage

Freud's psychosexual stage ($3-6$ years) where pleasure centers on the genitals; fixation can lead to reckless and self-centered personality traits.

Anally retentive

An adult personality pattern arising from fixation during the anal stage, characterized by being orderly, thrifty, and stubborn.

Anally expulsive

An adult personality pattern arising from fixation during the anal stage, characterized by being messy, generous, and using lots of dirty humor.