Everything AP psych 5 unit

Cognitive Development

(Jean Piaget)

Piaget argued that children actively construct their understanding of the world through schemas (mental frameworks), using assimilation (fitting new info into existing schemas) and accommodation (modifying schemas to fit new info). He mapped out four structural stages:

Sensorimotor Stage

(Birth–2 years): Infants explore the world purely through senses and motor actions.

Object Permanence

—the awareness that things continue to exist even when out of sight.

Preoperational Stage

(2–7 years): Children begin using language and symbolic thought but lack logical reasoning.

Key traits Egocentrism and conservation

Egocentrism (difficulty seeing things from another person's perspective) and a lack of Conservation (the understanding that physical properties, like volume, remain the same despite changes in shape).

Concrete Operational Stage (7–11 years):

Children gain the ability to think logically about concrete, physical events. They fully master conservation and mathematical transformations.

Formal Operational Stage (12+ years):

Individuals develop the capacity for abstract reasoning, systematic logic, and hypothetical "what-if" thinking.

Attachment Theory

(Mary Ainsworth): Studied through the "Strange Situation" experiment to observe how infants react when their mothers leave and return.

Secure Attachment:

Infants explore comfortably in the mother's presence, become distressed when she leaves, and are easily comforted upon her return.

Insecure Attachment:

May manifest as Anxious-Ambivalent (extremely distressed when she leaves, but angry/resistant upon return) or Avoidant (shows little emotion when she leaves or returns).

Contact Comfort (Harry Harlow):

Conducted experiments with infant rhesus monkeys raised by surrogate wire and cloth "mothers." Found that monkeys overwhelmingly preferred the soft cloth mother for emotional comfort over the bare wire mother, even though the wire mother provided the food. This proved attachment is based on physical warmth and security, not just nourishment.

Moral Development

(Lawrence Kohlberg)

Kohlberg presented participants with moral dilemmas (like the Heinz Dilemma) and classified their reasoning into three universal levels:

Preconventional Morality:

Morality is entirely self-interested. Actions are judged as right or wrong based purely on direct consequences (obeying rules to avoid punishment or gain concrete rewards).

Conventional Morality:

Morality is focused on social rules and expectations. Actions are guided by upholding laws, gaining social approval, and maintaining social order.

Postconventional Morality:

Morality is defined by abstract, self-defined ethical systems and universal human rights, which may sometimes conflict with existing societal laws.

Psychosocial Development

(Erik Erikson)

Erikson proposed that our personalities are shaped by navigating 8 distinct social crises across our lifetime. Two critical stages heavily emphasized for the AP exam are:

Identity vs. Role Confusion (Adolescence):

Teenagers work on refining a sense of self by testing roles and integrating them to form a single, cohesive identity, or they become confused about who they are.

Integrity vs. Despair (Late Adulthood):

Older adults look back and reflect on their life choices, feeling either a sense of satisfaction and completion (integrity) or deep regret and missed opportunities (despair).

Psychodynamic Therapies:

Deeply rooted in psychoanalysis. They employ techniques like free association (saying whatever comes to mind without censoring) and dream interpretation to uncover repressed conflicts lurking in the unconscious mind.

Cognitive Therapies:

Focus on combating maladaptive, irrational thinking patterns through cognitive restructuring.

The Cognitive Triad

(Aaron Beck): Identifies that depression is often fueled by a loop of negative thoughts about oneself, the world, and the future.

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA):

Applies the strict principles of classical and operant conditioning to eliminate unwanted behaviors and develop functional skills.

Exposure Therapies:

Includes systematic desensitization (gradually facing a fear hierarchy while maintaining a relaxed state)

Aversion therapy

(pairing an unwanted habit with an unpleasant stimulus).

Token Economies:

An operant conditioning setup where individuals earn tokens for desirable behaviors, which can later be exchanged for privileges or rewards.

Biofeedback:

Uses electronic monitoring equipment to give patients real-time information about physiological processes (like heart rate or muscle tension) to help them gain conscious control over their body's stress responses.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT):

An integrated approach that combines changing self-defeating thinking patterns with modifying physical behaviors

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT):

Frequently utilized to treat borderline personality disorder, severe emotional dysregulation, and self-harming behaviors.

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT - Albert Ellis):

A highly confrontational cognitive-behavioral method used to aggressively challenge and alter irrational, absolutist beliefs causing anxiety or anger.

Humanistic Therapy (Person-Centered Therapy):

Developed by Carl Rogers. It focuses on absolute personal growth by utilizing active listening and providing the client with unconditional positive regard (complete, non-judgmental acceptance).

Hypnosis:

Research shows it can be effective for managing physical pain and minor anxiety. Exam Warning: Science does not support the use of hypnosis to retrieve accurate hidden memories or to regress individuals in age.

Psychoactive Medications:

Alter neurotransmitter systems in the central nervous system to address chemical imbalances: Types include anti-depressants, anti-anxiety drugs, lithium (mood stabilizer for bipolar disorder), and anti-psychotics.

Tardive Dyskinesia:

A severe neurological side effect of long-term use of older anti-psychotic medications, causing involuntary, repetitive facial movements due to the disruption of dopamine regulation.

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS):

A non-invasive delivery of repeated pulses of magnetic energy to stimulate or dampen brain activity in specific regions.

Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT):

A biomedical therapy for severely depressed patients in which a brief electric current is sent through the brain of an anesthetized patient to trigger a brief seizure.

Psychosurgery / Lobotomy:

The surgical removal or destruction of specific brain tissue (such as lesioning) to alter behavior.