Unit 3 AP psychology

Abstract Thinking

capacity to understand hypothetical concepts

Achievement (of Identity)

the individual has experienced an identity crisis and has made commitments necessary for building a sense of identity

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.

Adolescent Egocentrism

the heightened self-consciousness of adolescents

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

Stressful or traumatic experiences, including abuse, neglect, and a range of household dysfunction, such as witnessing domestic violence or growing up with substance abuse, mental disorders, parental discord, or crime in the home.

Animism

Belief that objects, such as plants and stones, or natural events, like thunderstorms and earthquakes, have a discrete spirit and conscious life.

Anxious Attachment

attachments marked by anxiety or ambivalence. an insecure attachment style

Associative Learning

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

Attachment

an emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation

Avoidant Attachment

infants who seem unresponsive to the parent when they are present, are usually not distressed when she leaves, and avoid the parent when they return

Biological Preparedness

a propensity for learning particular kinds of associations over others

Characteristics

distinguishing traits, qualities, or properties

Classical Conditioning

a type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events

Cognitive Maps

An internal representation of the spatial relationships between objects in an animal's surroundings.

Concrete Operational Stage

in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 6 or 7 to 11 years of age) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events

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

Continuous Reinforcement

reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs

Counterconditioning

a behavior therapy procedure that uses classical conditioning to evoke new responses to stimuli that are triggering unwanted behaviors; includes exposure therapies and aversive conditioning

Critical Periods

Periods in the developmental sequence during which an organism must experience certain kinds of social or sensory experiences in order for normal development to take place

Cross-Sectional Research

compares multiple segments of a population at a single time

crystallized intelligence

our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age

Dementia

a slowly progressive decline in mental abilities, including memory, thinking, and judgment, that is often accompanied by personality changes

Diffusion (of Identity)

An uncertainty about personal identity

Disorganized Attachment

a type of attachment that is marked by an infant's inconsistent reactions to the caregiver's departure and return

Egocentrism

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

Emerging Adulthood

for some people in modern cultures, a period from the late teens to mid-twenties, bridging the gap between adolescent dependence and full independence and responsible adulthood

Extinction

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

Fine Motor skills

physical abilities involving small body movements, especially of the hands and fingers, such as drawing and picking up a coin

Fluid intelligence

our ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease during late adulthood

Foreclosure (of Identity)

To prematurely adopt an "identity"

Formal Operational Stage

in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts

Generalization

the tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses

Grammar

in a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others

Gross motor skills

physical abilities involving large body movements, such as walking and jumping

Habituation

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

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.)

Imaginary Audience

adolescents' belief that they are the focus of everyone else's attention and concern

Imprinting

A primitive form of learning in which some young animals follow and form an attachment to the first moving object they see and hear.

Insecure Attachment

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

Insight Learning

The process of learning how to solve a problem or do something new by applying what is already known

Instinctive Drift

tendency for animals to return to innate behaviors following repeated reinforcement

Language

our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning

Latent Learning

learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it

Learned Helplessness

the hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or human learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events

Longitudinal Research

A research design in which the same individuals are followed over time and their development is repeatedly assessed.

Mearche

beginning of the first menstrual period and ability to reproduce

Menopause

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

Moratorium (of Identity)

to actively search for a sense of self

Morphemes

The smallest units of meaning in a language.

Object Permanence

the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived

One-Trial Conditioning

when one pairing of CS and a US produces considerable learning

One-Word Stage

the stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words

Operant Conditioning

a type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher

Overgeneralization

the tendency to interpret a single negative event as a never-ending pattern of defeat and failure

Parallel Play

activity in which children play side by side without interacting

Partial Reinforcement

reinforcing a response only part of the time; results in slower acquisition of a response but much greater resistance to extinction than does continuous reinforcement

Personal Fable

type of thought common to adolescents in which young people believe themselves to be unique and protected from harm

Phonemes

in language, the smallest distinctive sound unit

Preoperational Stage

in Piaget's theory, the stage (from about 2 to 6 or 7 years of age) during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic

Pretend Play

make-believe activities in which children create new symbolic relations, acting as if they were in a situation different from their actual one

Primary Reinforcers

Events that are inherently reinforcing because they satisfy biological needs

Primary Sex Characteristics

the body structures that make sexual reproduction possible

Punishment

an event that tends to decrease the behavior that it follows

reinforcement

in operant conditioning, any event that strengthens the behavior it follows

Reinforcement Generalization

The tendency to respond similarly to different stimuli that are associated with the same reinforcement.

Reversibility

the capacity to think through a series of steps and then mentally reverse direction, returning to the starting point

Rooting

a reflex in which a newborn turns its head in response to a gentle stimulus on its cheek

Scaffold

a framework that offers children temporary support as they develop higher levels of thinking

Secondary Reinforcers

learned reinforcers, such as money, that develop their reinforcing properties because of their association with primary reinforcers

Secondary Sex

Based on other physical features such as breast development or facial hair

Secure Attachment

a relationship in which an infant obtains both comfort and confidence from the presence of his or her caregiver

Semantics

the set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language; also, the study of meaning

Sensorimotor Stage

in Piaget's theory, the stage (from birth to about 2 years of age) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities

Seperation Anxiety

the distress displayed by infants when a customary care provider departs

Shaping

an operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior

Social Clock

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

Social Learning Theory

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

Spermarche

first occurrence of ejaculation

Spontaneous Recovery

the reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response

Stimulus Discrimination

a differentiation between two similar stimuli when only one of them is consistently associated with the unconditioned stimulus

Stranger Anxiety

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

Superstitious Behavior

a behavior repeated because it seems to produce reinforcement, even though it is actually unnecessary

Syntax

The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language.

Taste Aversion

a type of classical conditioning in which a previously desirable or neutral food comes to be perceived as repugnant because it is associated with negative stimulation

Telegraphic Speech

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

Temperament

a person's characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity

Teratogens

Agents that damage the process of development, such as drugs and viruses

The Law of Effect

Thorndike's principle that behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely, and that behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely

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.

Vicarious Conditioning

classical conditioning of a reflex response or emotion by watching the reaction of another person

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

Vygotsky's concept of the difference between what a child can do alone and what that child can do with the help of a teacher