Psychology Unit 6 Learning Guide 2

Teratogens

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

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 understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information.

Object permanence

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

Conservation

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

Ego-centrism

[in Piaget’s theory] The preoperational child’s difficulty in taking another’s point of view.

Stranger anxiety

The fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning at about 8 months of age.

Attachment

An emotional tie with another person; shown in younger children by seeking closeness to their caregiver and showing distress on separation.

Critical period

A term referring to a fixed, crucial period during an organism's early development when it can learn essential survival skills.

Imprinting

The process by which certain animals form strong attachments during early life.

Temperament

A person’s characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity.

Insecure attachment

Demonstrated by infants who display either a clinging, anxious attachment or an avoidant attachment that resists closeness.

Secure attachment

Demonstrated by infants who comfortably explore environments in the presence of the caregiver, show only temporary distress when the caregiver leaves, and find comfort in the caregiver’s return.

Sex

The biologically influenced characteristics by which people define male and female.

Gender

The socially influences characteristics by which people define boy, girl, woman, and men.

Gender identity

Our sense of being male, female, or some combination of the two.

Gender typing

The acquisition of a traditional masculine or feminine role.

Social Learning Theory

The theory that we learn social behavior by observing and imitating and by being rewarded or punished.

Androgyny

Displaying both traditional masculine and feminine psychological characteristics.

Animism

Adding human characteristics to objects.

Theory of Mind

Vygotsky’s Theory: Scaffold

When a more knowledgeable other provides support or models skills to help children develop new skills.

Vygotsky’s Theory: Zone of Proximal Development

The space between what a cold can learn with or without help.

Basic Trust

A sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy; said to form during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers.

Authoritative

Sets clear rules, expects open communication, natural consequences, and solves problems with the child; together.

Authoritarian

Mainly parent driven, one way communication, strict rules, and no expectations; dictatorship.

Permissive

Child driven where parents rarely gives or enforces rules/overindulging the child to avoid conflict.

Neglectful

Uninvolved/absent provides little nurture and guidance.

Parallel Play

When kids play near one another but seperately.

Imaginary Audience

Cognitive distortions in adolescence where individuals feel watched, judged, and scrutinized by others.

Personal Fable

A cognitive distortion where in adolescents, they feel as though they are special, unique, and invincible.

Identity Achievement

Commitment predetermined by social, political, or religious affiliation.

Identity Moratorium

Period of exploration of alternatives.

Identity Foreclosure

Adulthood acceptance of social, religious, political, or vocational alternatives.

Identity Diffusion

Ambiguous belief systems; no vocational commitment.

Chronosystem

Life stage and related events; time and timing of events.

Macrosystem

Cultural values, influences, and laws.

Exosystem

Environments that indirectly affect the child.

Mesosytem

Relationships or connections between microsystems; groups.

Microsystem

Immediate surroundings; direct contact groups.

Menarche

The first occurrence of menstruation.

Spermarche

The first ejaculation of semen in males.

Crystallized Intelligence

Accumulated culture, knowledge, and verbal skills that are myelinated over time.

Fluid Intelligence

Biology based faced of intelligence; our ability to reason speedily and abstractly.

Social Clock

The “appropriate” timing for major life events like marriage.

Midlife Crisis

A period of time with intense psychological stress and emotional trauma.

Noam Chomsky - Nativist Theory

Belief that we are naturally equipped with a “language acquisition device” that helps us acquire language easily and rapidly if language acquisition does not occur by a certain time, it may be impossible.

B.F. Skinner - Behaviorist Theory

Belief that we learned language through imitation and reinforcement.

Lev Vygotsky - Sociocultural Theory

Belief that we learned through social interaction with a more knowledgeable other.