Year 11 ATAR Psychology — Lifespan Development, Attitudes and Stereotypes

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering developmental psychology domains, brain changes, Piaget's stages, attachment theories, social identity theory, attitude formation, cognitive dissonance, and social attribution based on Year 11 ATAR Psychology notes.

Cognitive Development

A domain of development involving changes in thinking, memory, reasoning and language.

Social/emotional Development

A domain of development involving changes in relationships, emotional regulation and identity.

Physical Development

A domain of development involving changes in the body, brain, growth and motor skills.

Prefrontal Cortex

A brain structure that continues developing during adolescence, improving planning and impulse control.

Amygdala

A brain structure involved in emotional responses in the adolescent brain.

Corpus Callosum Myelination

A developmental process in the adolescent brain that improves communication between the hemispheres.

Cerebellum

A brain structure that continues developing in adolescence, refining coordination and movement.

Schema

A mental framework used to organise, interpret and understand information based on previous experiences.

Sensorimotor Stage

Piaget's first stage of cognitive development ($0\text{--}2$ years) characterised by object permanence.

Pre-operational Stage

Piaget's second stage of cognitive development ($2\text{--}7$ years) characterised by symbolic thinking, egocentrism and centration.

Concrete Operational Stage

Piaget's third stage of cognitive development ($7\text{--}11$ years) characterised by conservation and logical thinking about concrete objects.

Formal Operational Stage

Piaget's fourth stage of cognitive development ($12+$ years) characterised by abstract and hypothetical reasoning.

Attachment

A strong, enduring emotional bond between an infant and caregiver that provides security, comfort and support for development.

Harlow's Research Aim

To investigate whether infant attachment is primarily based on receiving food or on contact comfort.

Contact Comfort

A factor in attachment demonstrated by Harlow's research, where infant monkeys preferred a soft surrogate mother even when another provided food, suggesting comfort is important beyond feeding alone.

Maternal Deprivation

Prolonged loss or absence of a significant attachment relationship, especially during early development, which may negatively affect emotional, social and cognitive development.

Type A — Insecure Avoidant

An attachment classification where the infant avoids the caregiver on reunion.

Type B — Secure

An attachment classification where the infant seeks comfort and is soothed on reunion.

Type C — Insecure Resistant

An attachment classification where the infant seeks but resists comfort and remains distressed.

Enriched Environment

An environment that provides stimulation, learning opportunities and social interaction, supporting development.

Deprived Environment

An environment that lacks adequate stimulation or interaction, potentially impairing cognitive, social and emotional development.

Attitude

An evaluation (or learned evaluation) of a person, object, group, idea or situation that can influence thoughts, feelings and behaviour, involving cognitive, affective and behavioural components.

Social Identity Theory

Tajfel and Turner's theory that part of our self-concept comes from membership in social groups, wherein people categorise, identify, and compare groups, potentially producing in-group favouritism.

Social Categorisation

The process in Social Identity Theory of dividing people into groups.

Social Identification

The process in Social Identity Theory of adopting the identity of a group.

Social Comparison

The process in Social Identity Theory of comparing one's in-group with out-groups to maintain positive social identity.

Tripartite Model of Attitudes

A model proposing that attitudes are formed from the interaction of affective (feelings or emotions), behavioural (actions or behavioural intentions), and cognitive (beliefs and thoughts) components.

Cognitive Dissonance

Psychological discomfort caused by holding inconsistent beliefs, attitudes or behaviours, motivating people to reduce the inconsistency.

Situational Attribution

Explaining behaviour using external factors such as social pressure, environment or circumstances.

Dispositional Attribution

Explaining behaviour using internal characteristics such as personality, ability or motivation.

Effort Justification

Reducing cognitive dissonance by valuing an outcome more highly because considerable effort was required to achieve it.

Post-decision Dissonance

Discomfort after making a choice, particularly between attractive alternatives, which may be reduced by emphasising advantages of the chosen option and disadvantages of rejected options.

Avoidance (Cognitive Dissonance)

A response to cognitive dissonance that involves avoiding information or situations that challenge existing beliefs or highlight inconsistency.

Stereotype

A generalised belief about the characteristics of members of a social group, which may be inaccurate or oversimplified.

Prejudice

A preconceived, often negative attitude towards someone based on their group membership.

Discrimination

Unfair treatment of individuals because of their membership in a particular social group.

Just-World Phenomenon

The belief that the world is fair and people generally get what they deserve, which can lead to victim-blaming.

Contact Hypothesis

The theory that positive contact between groups under suitable conditions (equal status, common goals, cooperation and institutional support) can reduce prejudice.

Superordinate Goals

Shared goals that require cooperation between groups and cannot easily be achieved by one group alone, which can reduce intergroup hostility.

Mutual Interdependence

A condition where groups depend on each other to achieve a shared outcome, encouraging cooperation and reducing prejudice.

Equal-Status Contact

Interaction between groups where participants have equal standing, helping challenge stereotypes and reduce prejudice.

Explicit Attitudes

Conscious, deliberately reported evaluations, typically measured using self-report questionnaires, interviews and rating scales.

Implicit Attitudes

Automatic evaluations that may operate without conscious awareness, typically measured using indirect measures such as the Implicit Association Test (IAT).

Implicit Association Test (IAT)

An indirect measure used to assess implicit attitudes by examining response-time associations.