Week 13: Social Cognition & Relationships

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering language development, social cognition, Theory of Mind, attachment theory across the lifespan, peer social statuses, and theories of aging from Dr. Sylvia Harmon-Jones's lecture.

Pragmatic Competence

The ability to use language effectively in social contexts, including appropriate conversation initiation, avoiding stereotyped language, utilizing context, and using nonverbal communication.

Child Directed Speech (CDS)

A style of speech characterized by high-pitched, exaggerated intonation, simple and well-formed sentences, frequent questions, and repetitions or recasts that match a child's emerging language abilities.

Expansion

A language-supportive strategy where an adult elaborates on the complexity and completeness of a child's statement (e.g., responding to 'Go zoo!' with 'Yes, we will go to the zoo!').

Recast

A subtle language correction technique in which an adult restructures a child's grammatically incorrect utterance into an accurate form while affirming the message (e.g., responding to 'Goed zoo' with 'That’s right – we went to the zoo today').

Dynamic Skills Theory

A theoretical framework proposing that language and self-regulation are dynamic skills developing concurrently during childhood, such that competence in one strand actively influences the development of the other.

Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon

A temporary retrieval state occurring in late adulthood in which an individual knows a specific word in memory but cannot immediately retrieve or recall it.

Social Cognition

The set of cognitive mental processes utilized to perceive, interpret, remember, and respond to information concerning oneself, other individuals, and social situations.

Theory of Mind (ToM)

The cognitive capacity to infer and attribute mental states—such as beliefs, desires, intentions, and knowledge—to oneself and others.

First-Order Theory of Mind

The ability to recognize that another individual can hold a mental belief that diverges from objective physical reality, typically developing between 4 and 5 years of age.

Second-Order Theory of Mind

The ability to understand that one individual can hold a belief regarding another person's mental belief, typically developing around 6 to 7 years of age.

Sally-Anne Task

A false-belief experimental paradigm assessing whether a child recognizes that Sally will search for her hidden marble in her basket where she mistakenly believes it to be, rather than in Anne's box where it was moved in her absence.

Band-Aid Task

A false-belief test in which a child views a familiar Band-Aid box containing unexpected items (such as crayons) and is evaluated on self-beliefs prior to opening and other-beliefs regarding an uninformed observer.

Mind-Mindedness

A caregiver trait characterized by treating children as individuals with minds, actively encouraging conversations, reflections, and discussions about desires, intentions, thoughts, and emotions.

Attachment

A deep and enduring emotional bond that forms between an infant and their primary caregiver, scaffolding social-emotional development and extending to close relationships across the lifespan.

Internal Working Model of Attachment

A cognitive mental framework comprised of mental representations of the caregiver, the relationship with the caregiver, and the self as deserving of love and care.

Secure Base

A responsive caregiver or attachment figure who serves as a reliable anchor of safety, enabling a child to explore their environment and return for comfort, reassurance, or protection when threatened.

Filial Imprinting

A rapid, irreversible ethological learning process occurring within a critical or sensitive period post-birth, whereby young animals form an instinctual social attachment to the first moving object encountered.

Stages of Separation Distress (Bowlby)

The predictable three-stage behavioral sequence displayed by children separated from their parents: Protest (crying, anger, distress), Despair (quiet, withdrawn, depression), and Detachment (superficial recovery and interacting with others).

Forty-Four Juvenile Thieves Study

John Bowlby's 1944 investigation finding that children exhibiting an absence of guilt, shame, and affection often had early childhood histories marked by prolonged separations from their mothers prior to age five.

Contact Comfort

The physical reassurance provided by soft, comforting tactile contact; demonstrated in Harry Harlow's 1958 rhesus monkey experiments to be more foundational to attachment than nutritional feeding.

The Strange Situation

Mary Ainsworth's structured observational laboratory procedure involving a series of caregiver separations and reunions to classify infant-caregiver attachment patterns.

Secure Attachment (Infancy)

An attachment pattern in which an infant explores freely in the caregiver's presence, displays distress when the caregiver departs, and is quickly comforted and soothed upon their return.

Avoidant Attachment (Infancy)

An insecure attachment pattern where an infant explores readily without utilizing the caregiver as a base, exhibits minimal visible separation distress, and ignores or actively avoids the caregiver upon return.

Ambivalent/Resistant Attachment (Infancy)

An insecure attachment pattern characterized by limited exploration, excessive clinging, extreme distress during separation, and simultaneous contact-seeking accompanied by resistance, anger, or difficulty being soothed upon reunion.

Disorganized Attachment

An attachment category identified by Main and Solomon (1986) involving confusing, disoriented, or contradictory behaviors upon reunion—such as freezing or approaching with fear—most prevalent among neglected or abused infants.

Pre-attachment Phase

The initial developmental phase of attachment (0 to 2 months) where infant sociability, vocalizations, and orientation toward human caregivers are largely indiscriminate.

Attachment in the Making Phase

The developmental phase of attachment (approx. 3 to 7 months) in which infants show heightened responsiveness and friendliness toward one or two familiar caregivers, but show little protest upon parental departure.

Clear-Cut Attachment Phase

The developmental phase of attachment (approx. 8 to 24 months) defined by active proximity seeking, crying and clinging upon parental departure, and wariness or fear toward unfamiliar individuals.

Adult Attachment Dimensions (Fraley et al., 2000)

A continuous measurement framework assessing adult attachment via two distinct axes: Attachment Anxiety (fear of rejection, abandonment, and unreliability) and Attachment Avoidance (discomfort with emotional intimacy, closeness, and dependency).

Developmental Cascade of Attachment (Simpson et al., 2007)

The indirect developmental trajectory whereby infant secure attachment at 12 months predicts childhood peer competence, which predicts age-16 friendship intimacy, ultimately predicting positive emotional experiences in adult romantic relationships.

Sociometric Techniques

Quantitative research methods using peer group nominations (most liked and most disliked peers) and rating scales to assess peer social acceptance and status categories.

Controversial Children

A sociometric peer status category designating children who are nominated as liked by many peers but also disliked by many peers, frequently demonstrating leadership traits alongside disruptive or bullying behaviors.

Neglected Children

A sociometric peer status category designating children who are neither liked nor disliked by peers, displaying low rates of social interaction and often characterized by shyness or being invisible to classmates.

Damon's Stages of Friendship

A developmental model identifying the changing basis of friendship: Stage 1 (approx. 4–7 years; based on others' behaviour and pleasant interactions), Stage 2 (approx. 8–10 years; based on mutual trust and rewards), and Stage 3 (approx. 11–15 years; based on psychological closeness, intimacy, and loyalty).

Disengagement Theory

An aging theory by Cumming and Henry (1961) suggesting that optimal aging requires older adults to gradually lessen emotional ties and withdraw from societal roles and obligations.

Activity Theory

An aging theory by Havighurst (1961) arguing that life satisfaction in late adulthood is directly maintained through continued active engagement, social involvement, and replacement of lost roles.

Socioemotional Selectivity Theory

Carstensen's life-span motivation theory asserting that when perceived time horizons become limited, individuals prioritize emotion regulation, positive experiences, and emotionally meaningful close relationships over knowledge acquisition and novelty.

Positivity Effect

An age-related cognitive and emotional phenomenon wherein older adults selectively focus attention on, and better remember, emotionally positive information while systematically avoiding negative information.