AP Psychology development

What is the Nature vs. Nurture debate?

It is the debate over the contributions of genes (nature) and experience (nurture) to the development of psychological traits and behaviors.

What are Teratogens?

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

What is a Critical Period in development?

An optimal period early in the life of an organism when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces normal development.

What are Reflexes in infants?

Inborn, automatic responses to a particular form of sensory stimulation.

What is the Rooting Reflex?

A baby's tendency to turn toward a touch on the cheek and open the mouth.

What are Gross Motor Skills?

Physical abilities involving large body movements, such as walking and jumping.

What does the Visual Cliff experiment test?

It tests depth perception in infants and young animals.

What is a Growth Spurt?

A rapid increase in growth which occurs during puberty.

What are Schemas?

Frameworks that organize and interpret information.

What is Assimilation in cognitive development?

Interpreting new experiences in terms of existing schemas.

What is Accommodation in cognitive development?

Adapting current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information.

What is Object Permanence?

The awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived, typical of the Sensorimotor Stage.

What is Pretend Play?

Engaging in activities where children use mental symbols to represent objects or events.

What does Egocentric mean in Piaget's theory?

The difficulty of preoperational children in taking another's point of view.

What is the Theory of Mind?

People's ideas about their own and others' mental states—about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts.

What is the Concept of Conservation?

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

What is the Formal Operational Stage?

The stage during which people begin to think logically about abstract reasoning and hypothetical thinking.

What does Metacognition refer to?

Thinking about thinking; the ability to evaluate a cognitive task to determine how best to accomplish it.

What is the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)?

Vygotsky's concept of the difference between what a learner can do without help and what they can do with help.

What is Trust vs. Mistrust in Erikson's stages?

Infancy; developing a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy.

What is Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt?

Toddlerhood; learning to exercise will and do things for themselves.

What is Initiative vs. Guilt?

Preschool; learning to initiate tasks and carry out plans.

What is Industry vs. Inferiority?

Elementary school; learning the pleasure of applying themselves to tasks.

What is Identity vs. Role Confusion?

Adolescence; refining a sense of self by testing roles.

What is Intimacy vs. Isolation?

Young adulthood; forming close relationships and the capacity for intimate love.

What is Generativity vs. Stagnation?

Middle adulthood; discovering a sense of contributing to the world.

What is Integrity vs. Despair?

Late adulthood; reflecting on life with a sense of satisfaction or failure.

What is Temperament?

A person's characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity.

What are Secure Attachments?

Infants comfortably explore in the presence of their caregiver and seek contact upon return.

What are Insecure Attachments?

Infants are less likely to explore and may show anxious/ambivalent, avoidant, or resistant behaviors upon the caregiver's return.

What is Separation Anxiety?

Emotional distress seen in many infants when they are separated from people to whom they have formed an attachment.

What are the characteristics of Authoritarian Parenting?

Parents impose strict rules and expect obedience, often saying 'Because I said so'.

What is Permissive Parenting?

Parents submit to their children's desires, making few demands and using little punishment.

What is Authoritative Parenting?

Parents who are demanding and responsive, setting rules but explaining the reasons behind them.

What are Phonemes?

The smallest distinctive sound unit in language.

What are Morphemes?

The smallest unit that carries meaning, such as a prefix or suffix.

What is Syntax?

The rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences.

What are Semantics?

The set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences.

What is Babbling?

Begins around 4 months; infants spontaneously utter various sounds.

What is One-Word (Holophrastic) Speech?

When children speak mostly in single words to communicate big ideas.

What is Two-Word / Telegraphic Speech?

When children speak like a telegram, using mostly nouns and verbs.

What does Overgeneralization / Overregularization refer to?

Applying a grammatical rule too widely, like saying 'I goed to the store'.

What is Imaginary Audience?

The belief that others are as interested in them as they themselves are.

What is Personal Fable?

The belief that one's feelings and ideas are unique and that one is invulnerable.

What is a Microsystem in Bronfenbrenner’s theory?

The immediate environment, including family, school, and peers.

What is a Mesosystem?

Connections between microsystems, such as parent-teacher conferences.

What is an Exosystem?

External settings that indirectly affect the individual, like a parent’s workplace.

What is a Macrosystem?

The larger cultural context, including values, laws, and customs.

What is a Chronosystem?

The dimension of time as it relates to a person's environment, such as the timing of events like a divorce.

What is Developmental Psychology?

The branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span.

What is Maturation?

The internally programmed biological growth process enabling orderly changes in behavior.

What are the Pre-natal Stages of Development?

The stages of growth before birth: Zygote, Embryo, and Fetus.

What are Primary Sex Characteristics?

The body structures that make sexual reproduction possible, like ovaries and testes.

What are Secondary Sex Characteristics?

Non-reproductive sexual traits, such as breasts, body hair, and voice quality.

What is Habituation?

Decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation; infants lose interest with repeated exposure.

What is Ainsworth’s Theory (The Strange Situation)?

Research that categorized attachment into secure and insecure types based on infant reactions to a caregiver.

What is Harlow’s Theory (Contact Comfort)?

Research showing attachment is based on physical touch rather than just nourishment.

What is Lorenz’s Theory (Imprinting)?

The process by which certain animals form strong attachments during an early-life critical period.

What are Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development?

A four-stage theory detailing how children’s thinking changes: Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete Operational, Formal Operational.

What are Kohlberg’s Moral Stages?

A theory of moral development divided into three levels: Preconventional, Conventional, and Postconventional.

What does Gilligan’s Theory argue?

That Kohlberg's stages were male-centric and that women often prioritize a care perspective over a justice perspective.

What is Mischel’s Theory (The Marshmallow Test)?

Research on delayed gratification, showing the ability to wait for a larger reward predicts future success.

What is Gender Identity?

Our sense of being male or female.

What is Gender Role?

A set of expected behaviors for males or females.

What is Self-concept?

All our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, answering the question, 'Who am I?'

What is Adolescence?

The transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence.

What is Emerging Adulthood?

A period from the late teens to mid-twenties, bridging the gap between teenage dependence and full adult independence.

What is the Critical Period Hypothesis?

The theory that there is a window of time during which language must be learned, or it won't be fully mastered.

What are Broca’s and Wernicke’s Areas?

Broca’s Area is involved in speech production, and Wernicke’s Area is involved in language comprehension.

How does Memory change with Aging?

While recognition memory remains strong, recall memory declines as people age.

What is a social convoy in aging?

A narrowing of social circles but where those connections become more meaningful as people age.

What does Theory of Mind refer to?

The ability to understand others' mental states; individuals on the Autism Spectrum often face challenges with this.