AP Psychology Unit 3 FINAL

Developmental Psychology

The study of human growth and development across the lifespan.

Stability and Change

Studies if personalities and behaviors stay consistent throughout our lives (stability) or do they change over time (change)?

Nature and Nurture

Both nature and nurture matter to human development. Developmental psychologists are interested in the enduring effects of genetics and environmental factors that interact and contribute to development.

Continuous and Discontinuous Stages

Model that people go through distinct and separate phases of development and follow a specific order from one stage to the next.

Cross-Sectional Research

A study in which people of different ages are compared with one another.

Longitudinal Research

A study in which the same people are studied over a longer period of time.

Teratogens

Agents, such as viruses and drugs, that can cause birth defects or developmental abnormalities in a developing embryo or fetus when it is exposed to it during pregnancy.

Fine Motor Skills

Coordination of small actions.

Gross Motor Skills

Coordination of larger movements.

Infant Reflexes

Involuntary movements in response to stimulation: Stepping, Sucking, Rooting, Grasping, etc.

Rooting Reflex

An automatic response seen in newborn babies, who turn their face towards the stimulus and make sucking motions with the mouth.

Visual Cliff Experiment

Infant was placed on a glass surface with the appearance of a drop-off and hesitated or refused to crawl over 'the edge.' This indicated their ability to perceive depth and biological readiness to perceive spatial relationships.

Imprinting

A form of learning in which a very young animal fixes its attention on and follows the first object, person, or animal with which it has visual, auditory, or tactile experience.

Sensitive Period

Period of time during which an organism is most sensitive to environmental stimuli and in which learning most easily takes place before a narrowing of learning ability.

Critical Period Hypothesis

Suggests that there is a specific window of time during which humans are most adept at learning languages. It is typically thought to end around the time of puberty.

Adolescence

Period that begins with puberty and ends with transition into adulthood.

Puberty

Period of rapid growth and sexual maturation. Girls typically begin puberty around the age of 10. Boys typically begin puberty 2 years later. Marked by a physical growth spurt and changes including the development of primary and secondary sex characteristics.

Primary Sex Characteristics

Changes in the reproductive organs. For males, this includes the growth of the testes, penis, scrotum and spermarche. For females, this includes the growth of the uterus and menarche.

Secondary Sex Characteristics

Physical changes not directly linked to reproduction but signal sexual maturity. For males, this includes broader shoulders, a lower voice, the growth of darker and coarser facial and body hair. For females, this includes the broadening of hips and the growth of darker and coarser body hair.

Menarche

The first menstrual period a female experiences.

Spermarche

The first ejaculation a male experiences.

Menopause

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

Sex

Determined chromosomally and through physical characteristics.

Gender Identity

Typically reflected in the ways one behaves according to social expectations and other environmental factors for being male or female.

Sexual Orientation

A person's identity in relation to the gender or genders to which they are sexually attracted, developed by a combination of genetics, prenatal hormones, and social influences.

Schemas

A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.

Continuous Development

The view that development occurs as a gradual, incremental process of change throughout the lifespan.

Discontinuity

Human development occurs in a series of distinct, abrupt stages rather than as a smooth, gradual process

Assimilation

Taking in new information but not changing the schema. Placing new information into an existing schema.

Accommodation

Taking in new information and changing the schema to incorporate the new information. Changing an existing schema or creating a new schema.

Sensorimotor Stage

During this stage, children demonstrate the development of object permanence and think via movement and stimulation of the senses.

Object Permanence

The understanding that items continue to exist even when not sensed directly.

Preoperational Stage

Piaget's second stage of cognitive development (toddlerhood through early childhood) characterized by the use of mental symbols and pretend play but limited logical reasoning.

Conservation

The recognition that an object maintains its volume regardless of shape.

Reversibility

The ability to undo a sequence of events back to its original starting point.

Animism

When children believe that inanimate objects have lifelike qualities.

Egocentrism

The inability to take another's point of view.

Theory of Mind

The ability to understand that others have different beliefs, wishes, emotions, and perceptions that influence their behavior.

Concrete Operational Stage

Piaget's third stage of cognitive development (early through late childhood) in which children can think logically about concrete events but struggle with abstract thinking.

Formal Operational Stage

During this stage, individuals can think abstractly and hypothetically.

Scaffolding

The process in which the more knowledgeable other provides support or mentorship to a learner to help them achieve a new skill.

Zone of Proximal Development

The principle expresses moving from what one already knows to what is just beyond their knowledge base, to what students won't be able to grasp even with the help of others.

Crystallized Intelligence

Intelligence based on accumulated knowledge, skills, and experience that remains relatively stable throughout adulthood.

Fluid Intelligence

The ability to reason abstractly, solve novel problems, and process information quickly, which tends to decline with age.

Dementia

A progressive brain disease that involves memory loss, cognitive decline, neural death, and changes in behavior.

Language

A shared system of arbitrary symbols that are rule-governed and generative to produce an infinity of ideas.

Phonemes

The smallest individual sounds in any language.

Morphemes

The smallest units of meaning in a language (e.g., root words, prefixes, suffixes).

Semantics

The component of language that provides both the meaning of words and how words combine to form meaning.

Grammar

A system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others.

Syntax

The aspect of grammar that refers to the rules used to put words in the correct order in a sentence.

Cooing

Involves the soft vowel-like sounds produced by babies when they appear to be happy or content such as 'oo,' 'ah,' and 'ee.'

Babbling

Involves consonant-like sounds and begins around six months before a child can speak words such as 'ma-ma' or 'da-da.'

One-Word Stage

When children communicate using single words that often convey complex ideas. This is typical from 10-18 months.

Telegraphic Speech

Involves the first multi-word speech consisting of two or three-word expressions typical from 18-30 months.

Overgeneralization

A characteristic error when learning a language in which individuals apply grammatical rules too broadly.

Ecological Systems Theory

Explores how the social environment influences development. The five systems in this theory include: Microsystem, Mesosystem, Exosystem, Macrosystem and Chronosystem.

Microsystem

Groups that have direct contact with the individual such as family, friends and the immediate environment.

Mesosystem

The relationships between groups in the microsystem such as how family and friends get along.

Exosystem

Indirect factors in an individual's life such as events in the community or parent's workplace.

Macrosystem

Cultural and societal events that affect the individuals and others around them such as growing up in urban or rural areas.

Chronosystem

changes over time

Authoritarian

A parenting style of caregivers in which they are coercive, imposing rules and expecting obedience.

Authoritative

A parenting style of caregivers in which they are confrontive. They are both demanding and responsive. They exert control by setting rules, but, especially with older children, they encourage open discussion and allow exceptions.

Permissive

A parenting style of caregivers in which they are unrestraining. They make few demands, set few limits, and use little punishment.

Secure Attachment

Children have trusting relationships with caregivers allowing them to explore and return to the caregiver for comfort when necessary. This relationship often carries over into adulthood.

Insecure Attachment

Characterized by clinging to the caregiver and becoming upset when the caregiver leaves; includes avoidant, anxious, and disorganized attachment.

Anxiously Attached

Children are clingy and nervous but also may show aggression.

Avoidant Attachment

Children seem detached overall, with little distress at being separated.

Disorganized Attachment

Children show inconsistency, sometimes showing fear, affection, anger, or even just freezing in place and staring into space.

Temperament

A person's characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity which is related to how children attach to caregivers.

Separation Anxiety

The normal distress that a young child experiences when away from the caregiver to whom they are attached.

Contact Comfort

A researcher found that when infant monkeys were startled or frightened, they preferred a cloth surrogate mother over a wire mother who had food. The baby monkeys' response indicated contact comfort was more important to them than food.

Parallel Play

When children engage with peers by playing near each other but not together.

Pretend Play

When children engage with peers by making up and acting out scenarios.

Egocentrism (Adolescent)

An adolescent child's difficulty taking another's point of view. assuming others see, hear, and feel exactly as they do

Imaginary Audience

When adolescents believe that everyone is always watching them, noticing their failures; this leads to stress and humiliation.

Personal Fable

An exaggerated sense of being special and unique.

Social Clock

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

The Psychosocial Theory of Development

Proposes that different life stages present different psychosocial conflicts that require resolution in order to move healthily to the next stage in our lifespan.

Trust and Mistrust

The psychosocial stage of development in which the conflict involves learning to trust the caregiver.

Autonomy and Shame and Doubt

The psychosocial stage of development in which the conflict involves making one's own decisions and gaining independence.

Initiative and Guilt

The psychosocial stage of development in which the conflict involves children asserting their power and control in the world, often through taking initiative.

Industry and Inferiority

The psychosocial stage of development in which children focus on the ability to develop a sense of competence through productive activities like social interactions.

Identity and Role Confusion

The psychosocial stage of development in which individuals try to figure out who they are and who they want to become.

Intimacy and Isolation

The psychosocial stage of development in which individuals in early adulthood often seek a life partner with whom they will share their most closely held secrets and hopes.

Generativity and Stagnation

The psychosocial stage of development in which the conflict involves feeling satisfied and productive with your career, family, and the ways that you make the world a better place.

Integrity and Despair

The psychosocial stage of development in which the conflict is reflective; adults evaluate their choices and decide if they are satisfied with how they have lived or experience regret.

Aversive Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

Events that occur during childhood which act as a source of stress that affects an individual and the relationships they form throughout their lifespan.

Achievement

A committed sense of self, and a desire to accomplish something personally meaningful that contributes to the world beyond oneself.

Diffusion

When a person is without a clear commitment to a particular identity and perhaps with little sense of who they are.

Foreclosure

When a person commits to a profession without even exploring other options; the person is considered identity foreclosed.

Moratorium

When a person is actively exploring their identity.

Behavioral Perspective

Evolved from theories about learning via conditioning. Behaviorists have traditionally focused on observable behavior to the exclusion of mental processes.

Classical Conditioning

Focuses on the association of one stimulus with another stimulus to elicit a response.

Acquisition

The initial stage, when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus begins triggering the conditioned response.

Associative Learning

Learning that certain events occur together, typically two stimuli.

Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)

A stimulus that unconditionally and naturally triggers an unconditioned response (UCR).

Unconditioned Response (UCR)

An unlearned, naturally occurring response (such as salivation) to an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) (such as food).

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

An originally neutral stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS), begins to trigger a conditioned response (CR).