Educational Psychology and Human Development

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and concepts in cognitive development, metacognition, psychological theories, learner diversity, and exceptionalities.

Metacognition

An individual's ability to use prior knowledge to plan a strategy for approaching a learning task, take necessary steps to problem solve, reflect on and evaluate results, and modify their approach as needed.

Metacognitive Knowledge

What individuals know about themselves as cognitive processors, about different approaches for learning and problem solving, and about the demands of a specific task.

Metacognitive Regulation

Adjustments individuals make to their cognitive processes to help control their learning, including planning, information management, comprehension monitoring, debugging, and evaluation.

Person Variables

A category of metacognitive knowledge referring to what one recognizes about their own strengths and weaknesses in learning and processing information.

Task Variables

A category of metacognitive knowledge regarding what one knows or can figure out about the nature and processing demands required to complete a specific task.

Strategy Variables

A category of metacognitive knowledge involving the repertoire of strategies a person has ready to apply flexibly to accomplish a task.

14 Learner-Centered Psychological Principles

A holistic framework of internal psychological factors under the control of the learner, divided into cognitive/metacognitive, motivational/affective, developmental/social, and individual difference factors.

Erogenous Zone

An area of the body that is particularly sensitive to stimulation and serves as a primary source of pleasure during psychosexual development.

Fixation (Freudian)

The condition of becoming stuck in a specific psychosexual stage due to a lack of proper nurturance, parenting, or satisfaction during that stage.

Anal-Expulsive Personality

A personality outcome described by Freud where an individual becomes messy, wasteful, or destructive due to overly lenient toilet training.

Anal-Retentive Personality

A personality outcome described by Freud where an individual becomes stringent, orderly, rigid, and obsessive due to overly strict or early toilet training.

Oedipus Complex

Feelings experienced by young boys during the phallic stage involving the desire to possess the mother and replace the father.

Castration Anxiety

A young boy's fear during the phallic stage that he will be punished by his father for his feelings toward his mother.

Electra Complex

A term describing psychosexual feelings in young girls involving attraction to the father and competition with the mother during the phallic stage.

Womb Envy

A concept proposed by Karen Horney suggesting that men experience feelings of inferiority because they cannot give birth to children.

Ego Identity

The conscious sense of self that individuals develop through social interaction, which continually changes based on new experiences and daily interactions.

Object Permanence

The cognitive understanding developed in the sensorimotor stage that objects continue to exist even when they are out of sight.

Symbolic Function

The cognitive ability emerging in the preoperational stage to represent objects and events mentally.

Egocentrism (Piagetian)

The tendency of a preoperational child to see things solely from their own perspective and assume others share that same point of view.

Centration

The tendency of a child to focus on only one specific feature or dimension of an object or situation while excluding all other aspects.

Animism

The tendency of a preoperational child to attribute human-like qualities, feelings, and intentions to inanimate objects.

Decentering

The cognitive ability achieved in the concrete operational stage to perceive multiple features or dimensions of objects and situations simultaneously.

Seriation

The ability of a concrete operational child to arrange items in a logical order along a quantitative dimension such as size, weight, or volume.

Pre-conventional Morality

Kohlberg's first level of moral reasoning where a child's sense of right and wrong is externally controlled by authority figures and consequences.

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

The distance between a learner's actual developmental level in independent problem-solving and their potential development level under adult guidance or with peer collaboration.

More Knowledgeable Other (MKO)

An individual who possesses a higher level of ability or understanding than the learner regarding a specific task, process, or concept.

Scaffolding

Supportive activities and guidance provided by an educator or skilled peer to help a student progress through the Zone of Proximal Development.

Microsystem

The smallest and most immediate environment in Bronfenbrenner's theory, comprising direct relationships in the child's home, school, peer group, and community.

Mesosystem

The layer in ecological systems theory involving interactions and connections between a child's different microsystems, such as home and school.

Exosystem

Settings in Bronfenbrenner's model that affect a child indirectly, even though the child does not directly interact with or participate in them.

Macrosystem

The overarching ecological layer composed of cultural values, dominant beliefs, societal customs, and political/economic systems.

Chronosystem

The environmental dimension of time in Bronfenbrenner's theory, capturing shifts, transitions, and historical changes across a person's lifespan.

Disability

A measurable impairment or reduced capacity that directly limits a person's ability to execute physical movements, process sensory data, or perform cognitive tasks.

Handicap

The adverse effect or obstacle experienced by an individual as a result of a disability interacting with barriers or restrictions in the environment.

People-First Language

A linguistic standard in English that places the individual before the condition to avoid subconscious dehumanization when referring to people with disabilities.