AP Psychology Vocabulary! | Unit 3: Development and Learning

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Developmental Psychology

The study of how biological, cognitive, and environmental factors influence growth throughout life.

Stability and Change

Enduring theme in developmental psychology concerning which traits remain consistent and which change over a lifespan.

Nature vs. Nurture

Enduring theme in developmental psychology focusing on the relative contributions of genetics and environment to development.

Continuous and Discontinuous Stages of Development

An enduring theme in developmental psychology discussing whether development occurs gradually or in distinct phases.

Cross-Sectional Research

A research design method used in developmental psychology that compares different age groups at one point in time.

Longitudinal Research

A research design method used in developmental psychology that studies the same individuals over an extended period.

Teratogens

Factors in prenatal development that can negatively influence major physical and psychological milestones.

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

A condition resulting from prenatal alcohol exposure that can lead to physical and cognitive defects.

Genetic Mutations

Alterations in DNA sequence that can influence prenatal development and subsequent traits.

Gross Motor Development

Development of large muscle movements in infancy and childhood.

Infant Reflexes

Involuntary movements present at birth that play a role in development.

Development of Depth Perception

The ability to visually perceive the world in three dimensions, which develops in infancy.

Rooting

An infant reflex where the baby turns their head in the direction of a touch on the cheek.

Visual Cliff

A laboratory device used to test depth perception in infants.

Critical Periods

Specific timeframes during development when certain experiences are crucial for normal development.

Imprinting

The process by which certain animals form strong attachments during an early-life critical period. (Example: Ducks think the first thing they see when they are born is their mother.)

Habituation

Decreased responsiveness to a repeated stimulus.

Maturation

The process of growth and development, both physically and mentally, that occurs naturally as a person ages. It's largely driven by genetics rather than learning or experience.

Puberty

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

Adolescence

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

Primary Sex Characteristics

The body structures that make sexual reproduction possible.

Secondary Sex Characteristics

Non-reproductive sexual traits, such as female breasts and hips, male voice quality, and body hair.

Menarche

The first menstrual period.

Spermarche

First ejaculation.

Menopause

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

Sex

Biological maleness or femaleness.

Gender

Refers to the sociocultural roles, behaviors, activities, expectations, and attributes typically associated with being male or female in a given society. It is distinct from biological sex and is considered a social construct that varies across cultures.

Sexual Orientation

An enduring sexual attraction toward members of either one's own sex (homosexual orientation), the other sex (heterosexual orientation), or both sexes (bisexual orientation).

Gender Role

A set of expected behaviors for males or for females.

Gender Identity

A person's deeply held sense of their own gender, which may or may not align with the sex they were assigned at birth.

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 both traditional masculine and feminine psychological characteristics.

Social Script

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

Cognition

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

Jean Piaget

Pioneer in the study of developmental psychology who introduced a stage theory of cognitive development.

Schema

A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.

Assimilation

Interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas.

Accommodation

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

Sensorimotor Stage

Piaget’s 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.

Object Permanence

The awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived. This concept develops during the sensorimotor stage.

Preoperational Stage

Piaget’s 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.

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 that develops during the concrete operational stage. (Water in two different sized glasses experiment).

Reversibility

Develops during the concrete operational stage, allowing children to perform mental operations on concrete objects. Children who understand reversibility can mentally reverse actions, such as recognizing that if a ball of clay is flattened, it can be reshaped back into a ball.

Egocentrism

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

Theory of Mind

The ability to understand that others have beliefs, desires, intentions, and perspectives that are different from one's own.

Concrete Operational Stage

Piaget’s stage (from about 7 to 11 years of age) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events.

Formal Operational Stage

Piaget’s stage (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts.

Lev Vygotsky

Russian developmental psychologist who emphasized the role of the social environment on cognitive development and introduced the zone of proximal development.

Scaffold

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

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

The difference between the tasks that an individual can accomplish alone and the tasks they can only do with support from a more knowledgable other person like a teacher or guardian.

Crystallized Intelligence

Our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age.

Dementia

Acquired disorders marked by cognitive deficits.

Language

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

Phonemes

In 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).

Semantics

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

Grammar

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

Syntax

The rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language.

Universal Grammar (UG)

Chomsky's theory that all languages share some basic elements.

Cooing

Early vowel-like sounds produced by infants.

Babbling

Stage of language development at about 4 months when an infant spontaneously utters nonsense sounds.

One-Word Stage

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

Two-Word Stage

Beginning about age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly two-word statements.

Telegraphic Speech

Early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram.
Example: “I hungry.” or “Cat drink milk.”

Overgeneralization

Occurs when children apply grammar rules too broadly.

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

Controls language expression - an area of the frontal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscle movements involved in speech.

Wernicke’s Area

Controls language reception - a brain area involved in language comprehension and expression; usually in the left temporal lobe.

Linguistic Determinism

Posits that the structure of a language affects its speakers' world view or cognition, and thus people's perceptions are relative to their spoken language. It suggests that our understanding of the world is limited by the language we use.

Linguistic Relativity

The idea that differences among languages cause differences in the thoughts of their speakers.

Ecological Systems Theory

Views the person as developing within a complex system of relationships affected by multiple levels of the surrounding environment.

Microsystem

The immediate environment with which a child interacts.

Mesosystem

The interaction between the different microsystems the child is involved in.

Exosystem

The settings that the child does not directly participate in but that affect the child nonetheless.

Macrosystem

The overarching cultural beliefs and values.

Chronosystem

Historical events and transitions that occur during development.

Attachment

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

Authoritarian Parenting

Parents impose rules and expect obedience.

Authoritative Parenting

Parents are both demanding and responsive; set rules and explain reasons.

Permissive Parenting

Parents submit to their children’s desires; make few demands and use little punishment.

Neglectful Parenting

Parents are uninvolved; neither demanding nor responsive.

Secure Attachment

Healthy emotional development, characterized by infants who use their caregiver as a secure base from which to explore their environment. These infants typically show moderate distress upon separation from their caregiver but are easily comforted and quickly return to exploration upon the caregiver's return. This attachment style develops when caregivers are consistently responsive and attuned to the infant's needs, providing a reliable source of comfort and security. Such caregivers are sensitive to the infant's signals, accurately interpreting their emotions, and responding appropriately and promptly. As a result, children develop a sense of trust and security, knowing that their needs will be met and that they can depend on their caregiver.

Insecure Attachment

Characterized by a pattern of distress or avoidance in response to a caregiver's presence or absence. It is marked by anxiety, ambivalence, or avoidance. Infants may exhibit behaviors such as excessive clinging, resistance to comfort, or indifference to the caregiver's return after a separation.

Avoidant Attachment

A style of insecure attachment where infants show little distress when separated from their caregiver and may not seek contact upon the caregiver's return, often displaying similar behavior towards strangers. This pattern typically develops when caregivers are consistently unresponsive to the child's needs, leading the infant to suppress their needs for closeness and learn to rely on themselves.

Anxious Attachment

A form of insecure attachment where infants exhibit significant distress upon separation from their caregiver but display ambivalent behavior upon the caregiver's return. These children often show anxiety and uncertainty even when the caregiver is present, constantly seeking reassurance and remaining preoccupied with the caregiver's availability. This attachment style typically results from inconsistent or unpredictable parenting, where the caregiver's responses are not always attuned to the child's needs.

Disorganized Attachment

Infants show inconsistent and contradictory behavior patterns in response to their caregivers, reflecting a lack of a coherent strategy for coping with separation or reunion. These behaviors can include freezing, rocking, or displaying apprehension towards the caregiver, suggesting a state of confusion or fear. Disorganized attachment often arises when caregivers are perceived as both a source of comfort and fear, possibly due to abuse, neglect, or unresolved parental trauma.

Strange Situation

A procedure for measuring attachment by evoking infants' reactions to stress.

Separation Anxiety

Distress displayed by infants when separated from their caregivers.

Stranger Anxiety

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

Basic Trust

A sense that the world is predictable and reliable.

Temperament

A person's characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity.

Self-Concept

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

Parallel Play

Children play alongside each other but do not interact.

Pretend Play

Children act out make-believe scenarios.

Adolescence

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

Imaginary Audience

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

Personal Fable

Adolescents' belief that they are unique and invulnerable.

Social Clock

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

Emerging Adulthood

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