Unit 3 - Psychology: Development and Learning

Developmental Psychology

a branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development throughout the lifespan

Cross-sectional study

research that compares people of ages at the same point in time

Longitudinal Study

research that follows and retests the same people over time

Teratogens

agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm

Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)

physical and cognitive function deficits in children caused by their birth mother’s heavy drinking during pregnancy

Maturation

iological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience

Critical Period

an optimal period early in the life of an organism when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces normal development

Adolescence

the transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence

Puberty

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

Menopause

the time of natural cessation of menstruation, the biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines

Sex

in psychology, the biologically influenced characteristics by which people define male, female, and intersex

Gender

in psychology, the attitudes, feeling, and behaviors that a given culture associates with a person’s biological sex

Intersex

possessing male and female biological sexual characteristics at birth

Aggression

any physical or verbal behavior intended to harm someone physically or emotionally

Relational Aggression

an act of aggression (physical or verbal) intended to harm a person’s relationship or social standing

X Chromosome

the sex chromosome found in females and males. Females typically have two x chromosomes; males typically have one. An X chromosome from each parent produces a female child

Y Chromosome

the sex chromosome typically found only in males. When paired with an x chromosome from the mother, it produces a male child

Testosterone

the most important male sex hormone. Males and females have it, but the additional testosterone in males stimulates the growth of the male sex organs during the fetal period, and the development of male sex characteristics during puberty

Estrogens

sex hormones, such as estradiol, that contribute to female sex characteristics and are secreted in greater amounts by females than males

Primary Sex characteristics

the body structures (ovaries, testes, and external genitalia) that make sexual reproduction possible

Secondary Sex characteristics

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

Spermarche

the first ejaculation

Menarche

the first menstrual period

Role

a set of expectations (norms) about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave

Gender role

a set of expected behaviors, attitudes, and traits for man and for women

Sexual Aggression

any physical or verbal behavior of a sexual nature that is unwanted or intended to harm someone physically or emotionally

Gender Identity

our personal sense of being male, female, neither, or some combination of male and female, regardless of whether this identity matches out sex assigned at birth, and the social affiliation that may result from this identity

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

blending traditionally masculine and traditionally feminine psychological characteristics

Sexuality

our thoughts, feelings, and actions related to our physical attraction to another

Asexual

having no sexual attraction toward others

Sexual Orientation

according to the APA “a person’s sexual and emotional attraction to another person and the behavior and/or social affiliation that may result from this attraction

Cognition

all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

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 schemas (understandings) to incorporate new information

Sensorimotor stage

in Piaget’s theory, the stage from birth to 2 years of age, at 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

Preoperational stage

in Piaget’s theory, the stage from 2 to 7, at which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic

Conservation

the principle that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects

Egocentrism

in Piaget’s theory, the preoperational child’s difficulty taking another’s point of view

Concrete operational stage

in Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development, from 7 to 11, at which children can perform the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete (actual, physical) events

Formal operational stage

in Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development, beginning at age 12, at which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts

Scaffold

in Vygotsky’s theory, a framework that offers children temporary support as they develop higher levels of thinking

Theory of Mind

People’s ideas about their own and others’ mental states - about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict

Language

our agreed upon systems of spoken, written, or signed words, and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning

Phoneme

in a language, the smallest distinctive sound unit

morpheme

the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or part of a word (such as a prefix)

Grammar

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

Universal Grammar (UG)

humans innate predisposition to understand the principles and rules that govern grammar in all languages

Aphasia

impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to Broca or Wernicke’s areas

Broca’s Area

a frontal lobe brain area, usually in the left hemisphere, that helps control language expression by directing the muscle movements involved in speech

Wernicke’s area

a brain area, usually in the left temporal lobe, involved in language comprehension and expression

Linguisti Determinism

Whorf’s hypothesis that language determines the way we think

Linguistic Relativism

the idea that language influences the way we think

Ecological Systems Theory

that different environments we encounter affect our cognitive, social, and biological development

Stranger Anxiety

 the fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning at 8 months old

Attachment

the emotional tie with others, shown in young children by closeness to caregivers and distress when separated

Imprinting

the process by which certain animals form strong attachments early in life

Strange Situation

a procedure for studying child-caregiver attachment, child’s reactions after caregiver leaves unfamiliar environment

Secure Attachments

infants who comfortably explore environments when caregiver is present

Insecure Attachment

children are anxious and clingy in environments

temperament

a person’s characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity

Basic Trust

according to Erik Erikson, a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy, formed in infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers

Self-Concept

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

Identity

our sense of self, according to Erikson, the adolescent’s task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles

Social identity

the “we” aspect of our self-concept; the part of our answer to “who am I?” that comes from our group memberships

Intimacy

the ability to form close, loving relationships

Emerging adulthood

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

Social clock

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

Learning

the process of acquiring through experience new and relatively enduring information or behaviors

Habituation

decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation

Associative Learning

learning that certain events occur together

Stimulus

any event or situation that evokes a response

Respondent behavior

behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus

Operant behavior

behavior that operates on the environment, producing a consequence

Cognitive learning

the acquisition of mental information, whether by observing events, by watching others, or through language

Classical Conditioning

a type of learning in which we link two or more stimuli

Pavlov’s Dogs Experiment

The first stimulus (a tone) comes to elicit behavior (drooling) in anticipation of the second stimulus (food

Behaviorism

the view that psychology 1) should be an objective science that 2) studies behavior without reference to mental processes

Neutral Stimulus (NS)

a stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning

Unconditioned Response (UCR)

an unlearned, naturally occurring response to an unconditioned stimulus (UCS)

Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)

a stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers an unconditioned response (UCR)

Conditioned Response (CR)

 a learned response to a previously neutral stimulus

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

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

Acquisition

in classical conditioning, the initial stage when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus begins  triggering the conditioned response

Higher order conditioning

a procedure in which the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experience is paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second (often weaker) conditioned stimulus (aka second-order conditioning)

Extinction

in classical conditioning, the diminishing of a conditioned response when an unconditioned stimulus does not follow a conditioned stimulus

Spontaneous recovery

the reappearance, after a pause, of a weakened conditioned response

Generalization

in classical conditioning, the tendency once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses

Discrimination

in classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and other stimuli that have not been associated with a conditioned stimulus

Preparedness

a biological predisposition to learn associations, such as between taste and nausea, that have survival value

Taste Aversion learning/The Garcia Effect

an organism develops a strong aversion to a particular taste or food after experiencing illness (even if the illness is unrelated to the food)(a type of classical conditioning)

Operant Conditioning

a type of learning in which a behavior becomes more likely to recur if followed by a reinforcer or less likely to recur if followed by a punisher

Law of effect

behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely, behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences are less likely

Operant Chamber

in operant conditioning, a chamber/Skinner box containing a bar or key that an animal can manipulate to obtain a food or water

Reinforcement

in operant conditioning, any event that strengthens the behavior it follows

Shaping

an operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior

Discriminative Stimulus

in operant conditioning, a stimulus that elicits a response after association with reinforcement (in contrast to related stimuli not associated with reinforcement)