Chapter 16: Social Development Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, attachment styles, parenting styles, social cognition, moral development theories, and Erikson's psychosocial stages from Chapter 16.

Social development

Predictable changes in interpersonal thought, feeling and behaviour throughout the life span.

Attachment

Enduring emotional ties that children form with their primary caregivers, including a desire for proximity, a sense of security, and distress when absent.

Contact comfort

The perceived security provided by soft physical contact, established by Harlow as the crucial element in forming attachment relationships in primates rather than food.

Imprinting

The tendency of young animals of certain species to follow an animal to which they were exposed during a sensitive period early in their lives.

Separation anxiety

Distress at separation from attachment figures that typically emerges around six to seven months of age across human cultures.

Strange Situation

An experimental procedure developed by Mary Ainsworth where an infant's responses to a mother's absence and return are observed to measure attachment quality.

Secure attachment style

An infant attachment pattern characterised by welcoming the mother's return and seeking closeness to her.

Avoidant attachment style

An infant attachment pattern characterised by ignoring or avoiding the mother upon her return.

Ambivalent attachment style

An infant attachment pattern characterised by anger and rejection toward the mother while simultaneously indicating a clear desire to be close to her.

Disorganised attachment style

An infant attachment pattern characterised by contradictory, confused, or disoriented behaviours upon reunion with the primary caregiver.

Internal working model

A mental representation of attachment relationships that forms the basis for expectations in close relationships throughout life.

Temperament

A person's natural disposition or mood, reflecting their emotional dispositions and reactivity.

Adult attachment

Patterns of mental representation, emotion, and proximity-seeking in adults related to childhood attachment patterns.

Socialisation

The transactional, lifelong process by which individuals learn the rules, beliefs, values, skills, attitudes, and behaviour patterns of their society.

Authoritarian parents

Parents who place high value on obedience and respect for authority, enforcing strict standards with frequent punishment and little discussion.

Permissive parents

Parents who impose minimal controls on their children, accepting impulsive behaviours and allowing children to make their own decisions.

Authoritative parents

Parents who set and firmly enforce standards for their children while encouraging verbal give-and-take and explaining their views.

Uninvolved parents

Parents who consistently place their own needs above the needs of their child.

Guidance approach

A child-rearing approach where parents help children manage their emotions, cooperate with others, and learn considerate behaviours.

Sex typing

The process by which children acquire personality traits, emotional responses, skills, behaviours, and preferences considered culturally appropriate to their sex.

Gender roles

The range of behaviours considered appropriate by society for males and females.

Gender identity

A person's internal sense of their gender and categorisation as male, female, gender fluid, agender, or non-binary.

Gender stability

The cognitive understanding that one's own gender remains constant over time.

Gender constancy

The knowledge that a person's biological sex is generally fixed and permanent and is not altered by changes in appearance or activities.

Gender schemas

Mental representations that associate psychological characteristics and cultural definitions with one sex or the other.

Rejected children

Children who are actively disliked and frequently placed on the disliked list by their peers.

Neglected children

Children who are ignored by their peers and receive neither positive nor negative peer nominations.

Social cognition

The processes and understanding by which people conceptualise and make sense of themselves, others, social interactions, and relationships.

Self-concept

An organised pattern of thought and mental representation about oneself.

Theory of mind

An implicit set of ideas about the existence of mental states, such as beliefs and feelings, in oneself and others.

Perspective-taking

The ability to understand other people's viewpoints or perspectives.

Morality of constraint

Piaget's first stage of moral judgement, in which young children view moral rules as absolute, unchangeable, and dictated by authority.

Morality of cooperation

Piaget's stage of moral judgement where older children view moral rules as strategies for social interaction that can be changed by mutual agreement.

Preconventional morality

Kohlberg's level of moral reasoning where individuals follow moral rules either to avoid punishment or to obtain rewards.

Conventional morality

Kohlberg's level of moral reasoning where right and wrong are defined by learned social standards, authority approval, and maintaining law and order.

Postconventional morality

Kohlberg's level of moral reasoning centred on abstract, self-defined principles that may transcend societal rules.

Prosocial behaviour

Behaviour that benefits specific other individuals or society as a whole.

Empathic distress

Feeling upset for another person who is hurting, which motivates moral or prosocial behaviour.

Empathy

The capacity to understand another person's experience both cognitively and emotionally.

Psychosocial stages

Erikson's theory proposing eight life-span stages where an individual faces normative challenges or developmental crises.

Basic trust versus mistrust

Erikson's first stage (0 to 18 months) where infants come to trust caregivers or perceive the world as hostile and unreliable.

Autonomy versus shame and doubt

Erikson's second stage (1 to 2 years) where toddlers learn to feel secure in their independence or experience self-doubt and shame.

Initiative versus guilt

Erikson's third stage (3 to 6 years) where children develop goal-directedness and responsibility versus a rigid, self-critical conscience.

Industry versus inferiority

Erikson's fourth stage (7 to 11 years) where school-age children develop a sense of competence in productive skills or suffer from feelings of inadequacy.

Identity versus identity confusion

Erikson's fifth stage (adolescence) where individuals strive to establish a stable sense of who they are and what they value.

Intimacy versus isolation

Erikson's sixth stage (young adulthood) focused on establishing enduring, committed friendships and romantic relationships versus social withdrawal.

Generativity versus stagnation

Erikson's seventh stage (midlife) where adults concern themselves with guiding the next generation and producing lasting value versus feeling unfulfilled.

Integrity versus despair

Erikson's eighth stage (older age) where individuals look back on life with a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction or sadness and regret.

Conflict model

Theoretical view holding that conflict, rebellion, and crisis are normal and necessary aspects of adolescent development.

Continuity model

Theoretical view holding that adolescence for most individuals is continuous with childhood and adulthood rather than marked by turbulence.

Social connectedness

How people perceive the quality of their connections, including the degree of interaction with family, friends, wider social circles, and community.