Unit 6 AP Psychology

Developmental Psychology

A branch that examines how people are continually developing (physically, cognitively, & socially) from infancy through old age.

Zygote

the fertilized egg; it enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division (divides itself into some 100 cells) & develops into an embryo.

Embryo

developing human organism the from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month.

Fetus

the developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth

Teratogens

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

Fetal Alchohol Syndrome (FAS)

Physical & cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman's heavy drinking.

Habituation

A decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation.

Maturation

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

Cognition

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

Jean Piaget

Came up with theory of cognitive development

Schemas

a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.

Assimilation

interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas.

Accommodation

adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information.

Stage 1-Sensorimotor Stage

In Piaget's theory, the stage (from birth to about 2 years of age) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities. (through looking, hearing, touching, mouthing, and grasping).

Object Permanence

the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived.

Stranger Anxiety

fear of strangers that infants commonly display

Attachment

an emotional tie with another person. shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and displaying distress on separation

Stage 2: Preoperational Stage

In Piaget's theory, the stage (from 2 to about 6, or 7 years of age) during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend mental operations of concrete logic.

Conservation

the principle (which Piaget believed to be a part of concrete operation reasoning) that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects.

Egocentric

the preoperational child's difficulty taking another person's point of view.

Theory of Mind

people's ideas about their own and other's mental states-about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and behaviors these might predict.

Stage 3: Concrete Operational Stage

In Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 6 or 7 to 11 years of age) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events).

Zone of Proximal Development

the zone between what they could learn with and without help.

Critical Period

an optimal period shortly after birth when an organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development.

Imprinting

the process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period during very early life.

Temperament

a person's characteristic emotional reactivity & intensity

Basic Trust

a sense that the world is predictable & trust worthy; said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsible care-givers.

self-concept

our understanding and evaluation of who we are

Authoritarian

parents impose rules & expect obedience. "Don't interrupt." "Keep your room clean." "Don't stay out late or you'll be grounded." "Why? Because I said so".

Permissive

parents submit to their children's desires. They make few demands & use little punishment.

Authoritative

Parents are both demanding & responsive. They exert control by setting rules and enforcing them, but they also explain reasons for rules. And, especially with older children, they encourage open discussion when making rules & allow exceptions

Lawrence Kholberg

Stated that we go through three basic stages of moral reasoning (the moral ladder)

Preconventional Morality

1st stage of Kholberg's stages of moral reasoning:-Before age 9, most children's morality focuses on self interests: They obey the rules to either avoid punishment or to gain rewards

Conventional Morality

By early adolescence, morality focuses on caring for others and on upholding laws and social rules, simply because they are the laws and rules.

Postconventional Morality

With the abstract reasoning of formal operational thought, people may reach a third moral level. Actions are judged "right" because they flow from people's rights or from self-defined, basic ethical principles.

Identity

our sense of "self"; according to Erikson, the adolescent's task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integration various roles.

Social Identity

the "we" aspect of our concept: the part of our answer to "Who am I?" that comes from our group memberships.

Menopause

the time of natural cessation of menstruation; also refers to the biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines.

Cross-Sectional Study

a study in which people of different ages are compared with one another

Longitudinal Study

research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period.

Social Clock

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

Frontal Lobe-development

It is one of the last brain regions to mature, continuing to develop into a person's mid-20s. This stage of development is crucial for planning, reasoning, and social behavior, as well as integrating memory and attention.

Scaffolding

framework that offers children temporary support as they develop higher levels of thinking

Harlow Monkeys

A series of experiments conducted by Harry Harlow in the 1950s that studied attachment in infant monkeys by observing their preference for a soft, comforting surrogate mother over a wire mother that provided food.

Erik Erikson

A developmental psychologist known for his theory on psychosocial development, which outlines eight stages from infancy to adulthood, each characterized by a specific conflict that must be resolved.

Virtue

a positive trait or quality deemed to be morally good, exemplified in Erikson's stages as the outcome of successfully resolving conflicts.

Heinz Dilemma

A moral dilemma created by psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg that presents a situation where a man must choose between stealing a drug to save his wife's life or respecting the law.

Neurocognitive Disorders NCDs

are a group of disorders characterized by a decline in cognitive function, affecting memory, thinking, and social abilities, often associated with aging.