Social Development Vocabulary Flashcards

Flashcards from lecture notes on social development focusing on vocabulary terms.

Maturation

The unfolding of increasingly complex social skills and abilities.

Social Dyads

A pair of social partners, such as friends, parent & child, or marital partners.

Fearful Temperament

A tendency to exhibit apprehension and/or avoidance in novel situations; a risk factor for childhood anxiety, particularly social anxiety.

Multifinality

The divergence of developmental paths in which two individuals start out similarly but end at very different points.

Equifinality

The convergence of developmental paths in which children follow very different paths to reach the same developmental end point.

Id

Present at birth; seeks immediate pleasure (pleasure principle).

Ego

Develops next; rational and works to meet needs in socially acceptable ways.

Superego

Develops by internalizing parental and societal rules (conscience).

Oedipus Complex

Boys desire mother, fear punishment from father (castration anxiety), eventually identify with father.

Electra Complex

Girls desire father, blame mother develop “penis envy,” then identify with mother.

Latency Period

Time of social growth and learning, no sexual focus.

Fixation

If a child doesn’t properly move through a stage, it may affect adult personality.

Psychosocial Conflict

Each stage includes a central struggle between two opposing outcomes.

Generativity

Being productive and giving back to the next generation.

Unconditioned Stimulus

Naturally triggers a response (e.g., food).

Unconditioned Response

Natural reaction (e.g., salivation to food).

Conditioned Stimulus

Previously neutral stimulus (e.g., bell) that gets associated with the UCS.

Conditioned Response

Learned response to the CS alone (e.g., salivating to bell).

Positive Reinforcement

Adding something pleasant to increase behavior (e.g., praise, treats).

Negative Reinforcement

Removing something unpleasant to increase behavior (e.g., stopping nagging).

Positive Punishment

Adding something unpleasant to decrease behavior (e.g., scolding).

Negative Punishment

Taking away something pleasant to decrease behavior (e.g., taking away TV time).

Primary Drive

A basic biological need, such as hunger, that motivates behavior.

Reciprocal Determination

A two-way process where children influence and are influenced by their environment.

Self-Efficacy

A child’s belief in their own ability to handle social situations and succeed.

Collective Efficacy

Belief in the group’s ability (family, school, neighborhood) to succeed.

Schemas

Organized patterns of thoughts and action.

Assimilation

New experiences are incorporated into existing schemas; adding information.

Accommodation

New experiences cause existing schemas to change; modifying existing knowledge.

Disequilibrium

An imbalance between existing schemas and new experiences.

Object Permanence

An object continues to exist even when it cannot be seen.

Egocentrism

Tending to view the world from one’s own perspective and to have difficulty seeing things from another’s viewpoint.

Domain Specificity

The idea that different types of social knowledge are processed differently.

Zone of Proximal Development

The difference between what a child can do independently and what the child can do with assistance from adults or more advanced peers.

Microsystem

The immediate environment children live and interact with.

Mesosystem

Interrelations among the components of the microsystem.

Exosystem

The collection of settings that impinge on a child’s development but in which the child does not play a direct role.

Macrosystem

The system that surrounds the micro-, meso-, and exosystems, representing the values, ideologies, and laws of the society or culture.

Chronosystem

The time-based dimension that can alter the operation of all other systems in Bronfenbrenner’s model.

Species-Specific Behavior

Behaviors seen universally across a species that serve a function.

Critical Period

A sensitive window in development when certain experiences have lasting effects.

Adaptive Value

The survival function of a behavior.

Parental Investment

The effort and resources parents put into raising their children.

Adaptive Behavior

Traits that evolved because they helped our ancestors survive and reproduce.

Theory of Mind

The ability to understand others’ intentions and thoughts.

Early Maturation

Accelerated development in response to environmental stress.

Behavior Genetics

The study of how heredity and environment influence behavior.

Temperament

Biologically based traits like activity level, fearfulness, or irritability.

Gene-Environment Interaction

When the effect of genes depends on the environment (and vice versa).

Normative Events

Events that happen to most people at about the same age.

Maturation Norms

Biological developments that occur at predictable times.

Social Norms

Culturally expected life events tied to age.

Nonnormative Events

Unexpected or unique life experiences that affect development.

Historical Events

Major societal or global events that shape the experiences of an entire age group or cohort.

Cohort

People born around the same time who experience the same historical events.

Attrition

Participants dropping out over time.

Reactivity

People behave differently when they know they’re being watched.

Habituation

The presence of an observer is ignored over time.

Observer Bias

An observer’s tendency to be influenced by knowledge about the research design or hypothesis.

Interactional Synchrony

Timing coordination of social behavior.