child development

Primary Emotions

Basic emotions present at birth or emerging in the first year (happiness, fear, anger, sadness, surprise, disgust).

Secondary Emotions

Complex, self-conscious emotions that develop in the second year and require self-awareness (embarrassment, pride, guilt, shame).

Social Smiles

Smiles directed toward people, particularly caregivers, emerging between 6 weeks and 3 months.

Social Referencing

The use of social information (facial expressions/tone) from others to navigate ambiguous situations.

Emotional Discrimination

The capacity to distinguish among different emotional expressions.

Matching Studies

Research assessing if infants can match emotional content across different senses, such as matching a happy voice to a smiling face.

Emotional Regulation

The monitoring, evaluating, and moderating of emotional responses, particularly during stress.

Effortful Control (Infant/Toddler)

The capacity to voluntarily regulate attention and behaviors in emotionally challenging situations.

Inhibitory Control

The suppression of a preferred response in favor of an acceptable response.

Temperament

A person's intensity of reactivity and regulation of emotions, activity, and attention; present from birth.

Easy Babies (Temperament)

Babies who adapt to environments, have regular habits, positive emotions, and low reaction intensity (40%).

Difficult Babies (Temperament)

Babies with irregular patterns, slow adaptation, frequent crying, and high negative emotional intensity (10%).

Slow-to-Warm-Up Babies (Temperament)

Babies who are moody, inactive, tend to withdraw, and show negative emotions (15%).

Goodness-of-Fit Model

The compatibility between a child's temperament and the requirements/expectations of their social environment.

Secure Attachment

Infant uses caregiver as a secure base, protests separation, and greets positively upon return (62-68%).

Insecure Avoidant Attachment

Infant explores freely, is not distressed by separation, and is indifferent/avoidant upon reunion (15%).

Insecure Resistant (Ambivalent) Attachment

Infant is clingy, extremely upset by separation, and resists comfort upon return (~9%).

Disorganized/Disoriented Attachment

Infant exhibits contradictory behaviors like freezing or fear toward the caregiver; associated with abuse/neglect (~15%).

Monkey Love Study (Harlow)

Study showing monkeys preferred a cloth mother (contact comfort) over a wire mother with food, proving attachment is based on comfort, not feeding.

Strange Situation Procedure

Assessment with eight episodes simulating caregiver-infant interactions to test attachment style.

Moral Retribution

The tendency to punish individuals who misbehave; an aspect of innate moral sense observed in toddlers.

Piaget's Stages

Sensorimotor (0-2), Preoperational (2-7), Concrete Operational (7-12), and Formal Operations (12+).

Constructivist

View that children are active learners ('little scientists') intrinsically motivated to discover knowledge on their own.

Assimilation

Interpreting a new experience using an existing mental schema (e.g., calling a plane a 'bird').

Accommodation

Modifying an existing schema to incorporate new experiences (e.g., creating a new category for planes).

Equilibration

The process of balancing assimilation and accommodation to reach a stable understanding.

Preoperational Stage

Period (2-7 years) characterized by the achievement of mental representation and symbolic understanding, but lack of logical operations.

Symbolic Understanding

Recognition that things can stand for or represent other things, allowing for pretend play.

Dual Representation

Understanding that an object can be itself and a symbol for something else simultaneously (emerges around age 3).

Egocentrism

The tendency to assume others view the world exactly as one does (e.g., Three-Mountain Task).

Animistic Thinking

Attributing human qualities (thoughts, feelings) to inanimate entities.

Essentialism

Belief that entities in a category share an unseen underlying nature/essence.

Appearance-Reality Task

Tasks revealing young children focus on immediate appearance rather than reality (e.g., believing a cat in a dog mask is a dog).

Hierarchical Classification

Ability to organize things into superordinate and subordinate categories; preoperational children struggle with this (class inclusion).

Centration

Tendency to focus on one striking dimension of a problem while ignoring others.

Theory of Mind (TOM)

Capacity to attribute mental states (beliefs, desires) to oneself and others.

False Belief

Understanding that others can hold beliefs contrary to reality (e.g., Maxi chocolate task); typically achieved by age 4-5.

Concrete Operational Stage

Stage (7-11 years) where children can reason logically about concrete/tangible topics.

Seriation

Systematic ordering of items along a continuous dimension (e.g., length).

Transitive Inference

Ability to logically infer a serial relationship between items (if A>B and B>C, then A>C).

Conservation

Recognizing core properties (mass, volume) remain unchanged despite changes in appearance.

Decentration

Ability to focus on multiple aspects of a problem simultaneously.

Reversibility

Understanding that mental transformations can be reversed to return to the original state.

Inductive Reasoning

Drawing broader conclusions from specific observations (specific → general).

Self-Determination Theory

Theory that motivation is enhanced when individuals make choices without external pressure (autonomy).

Intrinsic Motivation

Engaging in activity for inherent pleasure/interest.

Extrinsic Motivation

Engaging in activity due to external pressures/rewards.

Fixed Mindset (Entity Theory)

Belief that intelligence is innate and unchangeable.

Growth Mindset (Incremental Theory)

Belief that intelligence is malleable and can improve with effort.

Fluid Intelligence

Ability to think abstractly and solve novel problems.

Crystallized Intelligence

Accumulated knowledge and facts gained through experience.

Triarchic Theory (Sternberg)

Intelligence comprises Analytic, Creative, and Practical abilities.

Emotional Valence

The quality of an emotion as 'good' (positive) or 'bad' (negative).

Emotional Arousal

The intensity or strength of an emotion.

Emotional Self-Regulation

Initiating, inhibiting, or modulating internal feeling states and behaviors.

Display Rules

Cultural norms dictating when/how emotions should be expressed or masked.

Delay of Gratification

Resisting an immediate reward to obtain a larger reward later (e.g., Marshmallow task).

Highly Inhibited Children

Children with high fearfulness and low tolerance for novelty.

Under-controlled Children

Children who struggle to control attention/emotions and have low effortful control.

Well-regulated Children

Children skilled at managing emotions and attention.

Emotion Coaching

Parenting style that validates feelings and assists in learning coping strategies.

Parallel Play

Children play side-by-side with similar activities but do not interact.

Cooperative Play

Socially reciprocal play requiring cooperation and mutual gratification.

Instrumental Aggression

Harm used as a means to achieve a goal (e.g., get a toy).

Hostile Aggression

Actions intended to injure someone driven by anger.

Relational Aggression

Non-physical aggression intended to harm friendships/social status (rumors, exclusion).

Coercive Family Environment

Cycle where negative behaviors are reinforced by family members (e.g., giving in to stop a tantrum).

Morality of Constraint

Piaget's stage (<7 years) where rules are absolute and focus is on consequences, not intent.

Autonomous Morality

Piaget's stage (>11 years) where rules are relative and intentions matter more than consequences.

Pre-conventional Morality (Level 1)

Moral decisions based on fear of punishment or self-interest.

Conventional Morality (Level 2)

Moral decisions based on social consensus and laws.

Post-conventional Morality (Level 3)

Moral decisions based on universal ethical principles and justice.

Social Domain Theory

Morality arises from three domains: Moral (justice/rights), Psychological (intentions/beliefs), and Societal (conventions/norms).

In-Group Bias

Tendency to treat members of one's own group more favorably than an out-group.

Self-Conscious Emotions

Complex emotions requiring attribution to self-traits (guilt, shame, pride).

Guilt

Focused on the action ('I did something bad').

Shame

Focused on the self ('I am bad').

Authentic Pride

Stems from effort and accomplishment; prosocial.

Hubristic Pride

Stems from attribution to overall greatness; antisocial.

Counterfactual Emotion Tasks

Testing understanding that emotions depend on comparing reality to 'what could have been' (regret/relief).

Counterfactual Consoling

Consoling strategy asserting a situation 'could have been worse'.

Second-Order False Belief

Understanding that one person can hold a false belief about someone else's belief.

Intensification (Display Rule)

Exaggerating an emotion beyond what is felt.

Minimization (Display Rule)

Reducing the outward expression of an emotion.

Neutralization (Display Rule)

Displaying a poker face/neutral expression.

Substitution (Display Rule)

Replacing a genuine feeling with a different emotion.

Internalizing Problems

Behaviors directed inward (suppressing feelings, anxiety, depression).

Externalizing Problems

Behaviors directed outward (aggression, acting out).

Industry vs. Inferiority

Erikson's stage for school-age children focusing on mastery and accomplishment vs. failure.

Authoritative Parenting

High Warmth/High Control; responsive and sets clear standards (best outcomes).

Authoritarian Parenting

Low Warmth/High Control; autocratic and expects obedience.

Permissive Parenting

High Warmth/Low Control; lenient and indulgent.

Uninvolved Parenting

Low Warmth/Low Control; neglectful and disengaged.

Sociometric Nomination

Peer assessment where children name peers they 'like most' and 'like least'.

Popular Children

Many positive nominations, few negative.

Rejected Children

Few positive nominations, many negative (aggressive or withdrawn types).

Neglected Children

Few nominations of either kind; ignored but not at risk.

Controversial Children

Many positive AND many negative nominations.

Formal Operational Stage

Piaget's final stage (11/12+ years) marked by abstract and hypothetical reasoning.

Abstract Thinking

Ability to reason about ideas that are not real or tangible.