AP Psychology Final 3.6-3.7

Ecological Systems Theory

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

Stranger Anxiety

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

Attachment

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

A procedure for studying child-caregiver attachment by observing a child's reactions in an unfamiliar environment.

Secure Attachment

Demonstrated by infants who comfortably explore environments in the presence of their caregiver and show distress only temporarily.

Insecure Attachment

Demonstrated by infants who display either anxious attachment or avoidant attachment that resists closeness.

Temperament

A person’s characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity.

Basic Trust

A sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy, formed during infancy by experiences with responsive caregivers.

Self-Concept

All our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, answering the question, 'Who am I?'

Identity

Our sense of self; according to Erikson, it's the adolescent’s task to solidify a sense of self by testing various roles.

Social Identity

The 'we' aspect of our self-concept that comes from our group memberships.

Intimacy

The ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in young adulthood according to Erikson.

Emerging Adulthood

A period from about age 18 to mid-twenties, when many individuals in Western cultures are no longer adolescents but are not yet fully independent.

Social Clock

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

Learning

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

Associative Learning

Learning that certain events occur together, may involve two stimuli or a response and its consequence.

Stimulus

Any event or situation that evokes a response.

Respondent Behavior

Behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus.

Operant Behavior

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 to elicit behavior in anticipation.

Behaviorism

The view that psychology should be an objective science studying behavior without reference to mental processes.

Neutral Stimulus (NS)

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

Unconditioned Response (UCR)

An unlearned, naturally occurring response to an unconditioned stimulus.

Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)

A stimulus that triggers an unconditioned response naturally and automatically.

Conditioned Response (CR)

A learned response to a previously neutral stimulus following conditioning.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

An originally neutral stimulus that comes to trigger a conditioned response after association.

Acquisition

In classical conditioning, the initial stage when a neutral stimulus links with an unconditioned stimulus.

Higher-Order Conditioning

A procedure where a conditioned stimulus is paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second conditioned stimulus.

Extinction

The diminishing of a conditioned response when the unconditioned stimulus does not follow the conditioned stimulus.

Spontaneous Recovery

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

Generalization

The tendency for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses.

Discrimination

Learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and other non-associated stimuli.

Preparedness

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