AP Psych: Unit 3

developmental stuff like that.

Developmental Psychology

a branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the lifespan.

cross-sectional studies

research that compares people of different ages at the same point in time.

longitudinal studies

research that follows and retests the same people over time.

Teratogen

agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm.

fetal alcohol syndrom (FAS)

physical and cognitive function deficits in children caused by their birth mother’s heavy drinking during pregnancy. In severe cases, symptoms include a small, out-of-proportion head and distinct facial features.

habitutation

decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner.

Maturation

biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience.

Critical period

an optimal period early in the life of an organism when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces normal development.

Adolescence

the transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence.

puberty

the period of sexual maturation, during which a person usually becomes capable of reproducing.

menopause

the time of natural cessation of menstruation; also refers to the biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines.

sex

the biologically influenced characteristics by which people define male, female, and intersex.

gender

the attitudes, feelings, and behaviors that a given culture associates with a person’s biological sex.

intersex

possessing male and female biological sexual characteristics at birth.

aggression

any physical or verbal behavior intended to harm someone physically or emotionally.

relational agression

an act of aggression (physical or verbal) intended to harm a person’s relationship or social standing.

X chromosome

the sex chromosome found in females and males. Females typically have two X chromosomes; males typically have one.

Y Chromosome

the sex chromosome typically found only in males.

testosterone

the most important male sex hormone

estrogens

sex hormones that contribute to female sex characteristics and are secreted in greater amounts by females than by males.

primary sex characteristics

the body structures (ovaries, testes, and external genitalia) that make sexual reproduction possible.

secondary sex characteristics

nonreproductive sexual traits, such as female breasts and hips, male voice quality, and body hair.

spermarche

the first ejaculation.

menarche

the first menstrual period.

role

a set of expectations (norms) about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave.

gender roles

a set of expected behaviors, attitudes, and traits for men and for women.

sexual aggression

any physical or verbal behavior of a sexual nature that is unwanted or intended to harm someone physically or emotionally. Can be expressed as either sexual harassment or sexual assault.

gender identity

our personal sense of being male, female, neither, or some combination of male and female, regardless of whether this identity matches our sex assigned at birth, and the social affiliation that may result from this identity.

social learning theory

the theory that we learn social behavior by observing and imitating and by being rewarded or punished.

gender typing

the acquisition of a traditional masculine or feminine role.

androgyny

displaying traditionally masculine and traditionally feminine psychological characteristics.

sexuality

our thoughts, feelings, and actions related to our physical attraction to another.

asexual

having no sexual attraction toward others.

social scripts

a culturally modeled guide for how to act in various situations.

sexual orientation

a person’s sexual and emotional attraction to another person and the behavior and/or social affiliation that may result from this attraction.

cognition

all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

schemas

a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.

(Jean Piaget- cognitive development)

assimilation

interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas.

accomodation

adapting our current schemas (understandings) to incorporate new information.

Sensorimotor stage

in Piaget’s theory, the stage (0-2y.o) at which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities.

object permanence

the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived.

preoperational stage

in Piaget’s theory, the stage (2-7y.o) at which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic.

conservation

the principle (which Piaget believed to be a part of concrete operational reasoning) that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects.

egocentric

in Piaget’s theory, the preoperational child’s difficulty taking another’s point of view.

concrete operational stage

in Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (7-11y.o) at which children can perform the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events.

formal operational

in Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (12y.o) at which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts.

scaffold

in Vygotsky’s theory, a framework that offers children temporary support as they develop higher levels of thinking.

theory of mind

people’s ideas about their own and others’ mental states — about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict.

language

our agreed-upon systems of spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning.

phonemes

in a language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.

morphemes

in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix).

grammar

a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others. Semantics is the language’s set of rules for deriving meaning from sounds, and syntax is its set of rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences.

universal grammar

humans’ innate predisposition to understand the principles and rules that govern grammar in all languages. (Chomsky)

babbling stage

the stage in speech development, beginning around 4 months, during which an infant spontaneously utters various sounds that are not all related to the household language.

one-word stage

the stage in speech development, during which a child speaks mostly in single words. (1-2yo)

two-word stage

the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly in two-word statements. (2yo)

telegraphic stage

the early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram — “go car” — using mostly nouns and verbs.

aphasia

impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to Broca’s area (impairing speaking) or to Wernicke’s area (impairing understanding).

Broca’s area

a frontal lobe brain area, usually in the left hemisphere, that helps control language expression by directing the muscle movements involved in speech.

Wernicke’s area

a brain area, usually in the left temporal lobe, involved in language comprehension and expression.

linguistic determinism

Whorf’s hypothesis that language determines the way we think. More extreme, because we think of things that do not have words.

linguist relativism

the idea that language influences the way we think.

ecological systems theory

a theory of the social environment’s influence on human development using systems ranging from direct to indirect influences.

stranger anxiety

the fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age.

attatchment

an emotional tie with others; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to caregivers and showing distress on separation.

imprinting

the process by which certain animals form strong attachments during early life.

strange situation

(Mary Ainsworth) a procedure for studying child-caregiver attachment; a child is placed in an unfamiliar environment while their caregiver leaves and then returns, and the child’s reactions are observed.

secure attatchment

demonstrated by infants who comfortably explore environments in the presence of their caregiver, show only temporary distress when the caregiver leaves, and find comfort in the caregiver’s return.

insecure attatchment

demonstrated by infants who display either a clinging, anxious attachment or an avoidant attachment that resists closeness.

temperament

a person’s characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity.

basic trust

according to Erik Erikson, a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy; said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers.

self-concept

all our thoughts and feelings about ourselves in answer to the question, “Who am I?”

identity

our sense of self; according to Erikson, the adolescent’s task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles.

social identity

the “we” aspect of our self-concept; the part of our answer to “Who am I?” that comes from our group memberships.

intimacy

in Erikson’s theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in young adulthood.

emerging adulthood

a period from about age 18 to the mid-twenties, when many persons in Western cultures are no longer adolescents but have not yet achieved full independence as adults.

social clock

the culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement.

learning

the process of acquiring through experience new and relatively enduring information or behaviors.

associative learning

learning that certain events occur together. The events may be two stimuli (as in classical conditioning) or a response and its consequence (as in operant conditioning).

stimulus

any event or situation that evokes a response.

respodent behavior

behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus.

operant behaviors

behavior that operates on the environment, producing a consequence.

cognitive learning

the acquisition of mental information, whether by observing events, by watching others, or through language.

classical conditioning

a type of learning in which we link two or more stimuli; as a result, to illustrate with Pavlov’s classic experiment, the first stimulus (a tone) comes to elicit behavior (drooling) in anticipation of the second stimulus (food).

behaviorism

the view that psychology should be an objective science that studies behavior without reference to mental processes.

neutral stimuli

in classical conditioning, a stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning.

Unconditioned response

in classical conditioning, an unlearned, naturally occurring response (such as salivation) to an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) (such as food in the mouth).

unconditioned stimulus

in classical conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally — naturally and automatically — triggers an unconditioned response UCR).

conditioned response

in classical conditioning, a learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus (CS).

conditioned stimulus

in classical conditioning, an originally neutral stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS), comes to trigger a conditioned response (CR).

Acquisition

in classical conditioning, the initial stage, when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus begins triggering the conditioned response. In operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response.

higher-order conditioning

a procedure in which the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experience is paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second (often weaker) conditioned stimulus. For example, an animal that has learned that a tone predicts food might then learn that a light predicts the tone and begin responding to the light alone. (Also called second-order conditioning.)

extinction

in classical conditioning, the diminishing of a conditioned response when an unconditioned stimulus does not follow a conditioned stimulus. (In operant conditioning, when a response is no longer reinforced.)

spontaneous recovery

the reappearance, after a pause, of a weakened conditioned response.

generalization

(also called stimulus generalization) in classical conditioning, the tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses. (In operant conditioning, when responses learned in one situation occur in other, similar situations.)

discrimination

in classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and other stimuli that have not been associated with a conditioned stimulus. In operant conditioning, the ability to distinguish responses that are reinforced from similar responses that are not reinforced.

preparedness

a biological predisposition to learn associations, such as between taste and nausea, that have survival value.

law of effect

Thorndike’s principle that behaviors followed by favorable (or reinforcing) consequences become more likely, and that behaviors followed by unfavorable (or punishing) consequences become less likely.

operant chamber

in operant conditioning research, a chamber (also known as a Skinner box) containing a bar or key that an animal can manipulate to obtain a food or water reinforcer; attached devices record the animal’s rate of bar pressing or key pecking.

reinforcement

Skinner’s concept, in operant conditioning, any event that strengthens the behavior it follows.