Chapter 7

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering key theories, stages, and concepts in biological, cognitive, social, and moral human development from PSY100 Lecture 7.

Natural Selection

A central concept in Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory explaining how organisms adapt to their environment based on three phenomena: genetic variability, genetic inheritance, and genetic selection.

Psychosexual Theory

Sigmund Freud's developmental theory proposing that human sexual desires, drives, and instincts play a crucial role in shaping personality through childhood experiences across distinct stages.

Fixation

In Freudian theory, a condition where an individual gets stuck in a particular developmental stage due to unresolved conflicts or unmet needs.

Oral Stage

Freud's first psychosexual stage (the first $18$ months of life), where infants explore using their mouth, lips, and tongue, deriving pleasure from chewing, biting, and licking.

Anal Stage

Freud's second psychosexual stage ($18\text{th}$ to $36\text{th}$ month of life), marked as the beginning of socialization, where children learn to control bodily functions through toilet training.

Anal-Retentiveness

A manifestation of anal fixation characterized by traits of being organized, stubborn, careful, controlling, and orderly.

Anal-Expansiveness

A manifestation of anal fixation characterized by traits of being messy, careless, rebellious, and disorganized.

Phallic Stage

Freud's third psychosexual stage (ages $3$ to $5$ years, lasting $1$ to $2$ years), where children develop curiosity about sex organs and navigate Oedipus or Electra complexes.

Oedipus Complex

A phallic stage phenomenon where young boys develop romantic feelings for their mothers and view their fathers as rivals.

Electra Complex

A phallic stage phenomenon where young girls feel attraction toward their fathers and view their mothers as competition.

Latency Stage

Freud's fourth psychosexual stage (ages $5$ or $6$ to $12$), during which children direct energy into socially acceptable pursuits and learn gender behaviors from same-sex peers.

Genital Stage

Freud's final psychosexual stage (starting around age $12$ at puberty), wherein reproductive maturation reactivates sexual urges and individuals seek romantic partners.

Classical Conditioning

Ivan Pavlov's learning theory showing how an unconditioned stimulus ($\text{UCS}$) pairing with a neutral stimulus ($\text{NS}$) transforms the neutral stimulus into a conditioned stimulus ($\text{CS}$) that elicits a conditioned response ($\text{CR}$).

Operant Conditioning

B.F. Skinner's learning theory stating that organisms tend to repeat behaviors that are followed by favorable or desirable consequences.

Reinforcement

In operant conditioning, a consequence (positive or negative) that encourages an individual to maintain or increase behaviors leading to desirable outcomes.

Punishment

In operant conditioning, a consequence (positive or negative) that guides an individual to avoid or reduce behaviors leading to undesirable outcomes.

Social Learning Theory

Albert Bandura's theory proposing that children develop new habits and behaviors through observation, imitation, and modeling.

Social Role Theory

A perspective highlighting behavioral differences between genders and explaining how individuals assume diverse social roles across life stages via role playing, differentiation, and integration.

Role Strain

Stress or difficulty that arises when an individual struggles or is unable to adequately perform and integrate multiple social roles.

Life Course Theory

A developmental approach viewing an individual as a holistic person undergoing life stages where success or failure in one stage affects progression in subsequent stages.

Integrity vs. Despair

Erik Erikson's eighth life stage ($65$ years and older), addressing the central issue 'Has my life been meaningful?' and resulting in the strength or virtue of wisdom.

Peck's Conflicts

Robert Peck's ($1968$) three sub-conflicts of Erikson's eighth stage: Ego Differentiation vs. Work-Role Preoccupation, Body Transcendence vs. Body Preoccupation, and Ego Transcendence vs. Ego Preoccupation.

Assimilation

In Jean Piaget's cognitive theory, the process of incorporating new experiences into existing cognitive structures without changing the existing schema.

Accommodation

In Jean Piaget's cognitive theory, the process of modifying existing cognitive structures to adapt to new experiences or novel situations.

Egocentrism

A characteristic of Piaget's preoperational stage where children view the world exclusively from their own perspective and believe no other perspective exists.

Animism

A preoperational belief that inanimate objects possess lifelike qualities, such as thoughts, intentions, and feelings.

Centration

The tendency of children in the preoperational stage to focus exclusively on one salient aspect of a situation while ignoring other relevant dimensions.

Irreversibility

The inability of preoperational children to mentally reverse a sequence of actions or events back to their original state.

Decentering

The ability developed during Piaget's concrete operational stage to consider multiple aspects or dimensions of an object or problem simultaneously.

Compensation

The logical understanding in the concrete operational stage that a change in one dimension can balance out or compensate for a change in another.

Conservation

The concrete operational understanding that basic physical properties of an object (such as amount, volume, or mass) remain unchanged even when its visual appearance is altered.

Formal Operational Period

Piaget's final cognitive stage ($11$ years and up) characterized by proficiency in abstract thought, theoretical reasoning, combinatorial reasoning, correlational reasoning, and functional reasoning.

Attachment

A close emotional bond between two individuals characterized by mutual affection and the desire to maintain physical proximity.

Asocial Phase

The first phase of attachment development (first $6$ weeks of life) where infants show positive responses to both social and nonsocial stimuli without strong differentiation.

Indiscriminate Attachments Phase

The second attachment phase ($6\text{th}$ week to $6\text{th}\text{–}7\text{th}$ month) where babies begin smiling more at humans than objects and welcome attention from caregivers and strangers alike.

Specific Attachments Phase

The attachment phase ($7\text{th}$ to $9\text{th}$ months) marked by distress upon separation from primary caregivers, vigilance toward strangers, and secure attachment formation.

Affective / Emotional Component of Morality

The dimension of morality consisting of internal feelings regarding right and wrong that motivate ethical thinking and conduct.

Cognitive Component of Morality

The dimension of morality that involves conceptualizing right and wrong and logically deciding how to act in moral situations.

Behavioral Component of Morality

The observable aspect of morality concerning how an individual actually acts when faced with the temptation to violate moral rules, lie, or cheat.

Independent Variable (IV)

The factor in an experiment that is systematically manipulated or altered by the researcher to determine its effect on the dependent variable.

Dependent Variable (DV)

The factor in an experiment that is observed and measured to assess any changes resulting from variations in the independent variable.