Unit 3 Ap psychology full review

Q: What are the major thematic issues in developmental psychology?

Stability vs. change, nature vs. nurture, and continuous vs. discontinuous development.

Q: What physical changes occur in adulthood?

Decline in reproductive ability, mobility, flexibility, reaction time, vision, and hearing.

Q: What are the main physical milestones in adolescence?

Growth spurt, puberty, and development of sex characteristics.

Q: What does the visual cliff experiment show?

Infants can perceive depth early on.

Q: What are critical/sensitive periods in development?

Times when certain skills (e.g., language) must develop or may be impaired.

Q: What is imprinting in non-human animals?

Bonding with the first moving object seen after birth for survival.

Q: What influences prenatal development?

Teratogens, maternal illness, genetics, hormones, and environment.

Q: What reflexes indicate normal infant development?

Rooting reflex and others.

Q: What is Vygotsky’s theory?

Children learn through social interaction and scaffolding in their zone of proximal development.

Q: What is the sensorimotor stage?

Infancy to toddlerhood; object permanence develops.

Q: What are assimilation and accommodation?

Assimilation: fitting new info into existing schemas; Accommodation: changing schemas for new info.

Q: What defines the preoperational stage?

Symbolic thinking, pretend play, egocentrism, lack of conservation.

Q: What defines the concrete operational stage?

Logical thinking and understanding conservation, but struggles with abstract thought.

Q: What defines the formal operational stage?

Abstract and hypothetical thinking (not everyone reaches this stage).

Q: What happens to intelligence with age?

Fluid intelligence declines; crystallized intelligence stays stable or improves.

Q: What is language?

A rule-governed, symbolic system used to communicate.

Q: What are the stages of language development

Cooing, babbling, one-word stage, telegraphic speech.

Q: What is overgeneralization in language?

Applying grammar rules too broadly (e.g., “goed” instead of “went”).

Q: How do adolescents form identity?

Through achievement, diffusion, foreclosure, and moratorium.

Q: What are ACEs?

Adverse childhood experiences that impact later relationships.

Q: What is Erikson’s psychosocial theory?

Eight stages with conflicts like trust vs. mistrust and identity vs. role confusion.

Q: How does attachment in childhood affect adulthood?

It influences adult relationships and attachment styles.

Q: What is the social clock?

Culturally expected timing of life events (e.g., marriage).

Q: What are imaginary audience and personal fable?

Types of adolescent egocentrism.

Q: What are the types of attachment?

Secure, avoidant, anxious, disorganized.

Q: What are parenting styles?

Authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive.

Q: What is the ecological systems theory?

Development is influenced by five systems: microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem.

Q: What is habituation?

Decreased response to a repeated stimulus.

Q: What is taste aversion?

Learned avoidance of a food after one negative experience.

Q: What is higher-order conditioning?

A CS becomes a UCS for a new CS.

Q: What is extinction and spontaneous recovery

Extinction: CR disappears; Spontaneous recovery: CR returns after rest.

Q: What is the difference between UCS, UCR, CS, and CR?

UCS naturally triggers UCR; CS triggers CR after learning.

Q: What is the Law of Effect?

Behaviors with rewards are repeated; those with punishment are not.

Q: What is shaping?

Gradually reinforcing steps toward a desired behavior.

Q: What is the difference between reinforcement and punishment?

Reinforcement increases behavior; punishment decreases it.

Q: What are reinforcement schedules?

Continuous (every time) and partial (fixed/variable ratio or interval).

Q: What is learned helplessness?

Giving up after repeated failure or punishment.

Q: What is social learning theory?

Learning by observing others (models), not just through rewards.

Q: What is insight learning?

Sudden realization of a solution.

Q: What is latent learning?

Learning that happens without reinforcement but appears later.