Cognitive Development and Emotional Intelligence Concepts

Symbolic representation

Involves using something (a symbol) to stand for or represent something else.

Analogical representation

Mental or artificial images that closely replicate the physical characteristics of the reality they model.

Prototype

We categorize things by comparing them to a mental representation of the best/most typical example of a category.

Exemplar

Humans categorize objects and ideas by comparing new stimuli to specific, stored instances of those categories.

Scripts

Mental frameworks that guide behavior in specific situations.

Pros of scripts

Reduced anxiety in new situations, help us to navigate social situations, improved confidence.

Cons of scripts

Lack of flexibility, reinforcement of negative patterns, can be difficult to change, can be used to manipulate others.

Decision making

Humans don't always act rationally, and often take mental shortcuts that cause them to make irrational decisions.

Representativeness heuristic

People judge the likelihood of an event or object belonging to a category based on how similar it is to their mental prototype or stereotype of that category.

Framing

People's decisions are influenced by how information is presented, even if the underlying information remains the same.

Anchoring

People rely too heavily on an initial piece of information when making subsequent judgments or decisions.

Functional fixedness

Cognitive bias that limits a person's ability to see an object or tool being used in a way other than its intended purpose.

Aptitude tests

Designed to predict a person's future performance or a person's ability to learn a new skill.

Achievement tests

Tests designed to assess what a person has learned (knowledge and skills).

Example of symbolic representation

American flag represents our country, heart represents love.

Example of analogical representation

Squiggles on a map representing rivers, diagrams, lines in a picture represent edges in a scene.

Example of prototype

A prototype of fruit would be an apple.

Example of exemplar

When you see a new bird, you compare it to the stored examples of birds in your memory.

Example of scripts in restaurants

When you enter a restaurant, you typically enter, get seated, look at the menu, order, eat, pay, and leave.

Example of representativeness heuristic

You meet a woman who is wearing a suit, carrying a briefcase, and seems confident; you might assume she's a business executive.

Example of framing

A product labeled '95% fat-free' is perceived more favorably than one labeled '5% fat'.

Example of anchoring

A car dealer might start with a high asking price to anchor the buyer's perception of value.

Example of functional fixedness

Seeing a box only as a container, instead of using it as a platform or a building block.

Fluid intelligence

Global capacity to reason, ability to learn new things, think abstractly and problem solve.

Crystallized intelligence

Prior learning and past experiences, based on facts, increases with age.

Emotional intelligence (EI)

Regulating our moods, resisting impulses and temptations, and controlling our behaviors are all important components of EI.

Phonemes

Any of the perceptually distinct units of sound in a specified language that distinguish one word from another.

Effects of teratogens

Disorders involving language, reasoning, social behavior, or emotional behavior may be apparent when the child is older.

Physical effects of teratogens

Cleft lip and palate, cardiovascular issues, small bones, missing body parts, brain or spinal cord issues.

Synaptic blooming

The rapid formation of synaptic connections between neurons, allowing the brain to establish a wide array of potential connections and pathways.

Synaptic pruning

The process that involves the elimination of excess or unnecessary synaptic connections, refining neural networks based on experience and activity.

Grasping reflex

Involuntary reflex in infants where stroking the palm leads to the infant's fingers closing tightly around the object.

Rooting reflex

Reflex that helps newborns find and latch onto a nipple to feed.

Sucking reflex

Involuntary, survival reflex in newborns that triggers sucking when something touches the roof of their mouth.

Newborn Stage (0-2 months)

Babies can see shapes, light, and movement but have poor detail vision, focusing best on objects about 8-12 inches away.

Development of visual acuity (2-6 months)

Babies' vision improves rapidly, allowing them to focus more clearly on objects and track movement better.

Development of visual acuity (6-12 months)

Babies' ability to see fine details improves, and they start to develop depth perception and hand-eye coordination.

Development of visual acuity (1-3 years)

Toddlers can focus on smaller details and recognize and name familiar objects and people from a distance.

Development of visual acuity (3-5 years)

Children typically reach near-adult levels of visual acuity, seeing small details and distinguishing objects at various distances.

Visual Acuity

By age of 5-6: children generally have fully developed visual acuity.

Infantile Amnesia

Refers to the phenomenon where adults are unable to recall memories from their early childhood, typically before the age of 3 or 4.

Example of Infantile Amnesia

A person might not be able to recall any specific events from their first birthday party or their first day at daycare, even though these experiences would have occurred during their early childhood.

Harry Harlow's Monkey Experiments

A series of groundbreaking studies in the 1950s and 1960s that explored the nature of attachment and the importance of nurturing relationships in early development.

Cloth vs Wire Mother Experiment

Harlow separated infant monkeys from their mothers and placed them in a cage with two surrogate mothers: one made of wire that could provide food, and one made of soft cloth that did not provide food.

Preference for Cloth Mother

Despite the fact that the wire mother provided nourishment, the infant monkeys preferred to stay with the soft, cloth mother for comfort and warmth.

Monkey with a Choice

Harlow placed infant monkeys in a novel environment and observed their behavior; when frightened, they would run to the soft, cloth mother for reassurance and comfort.

Long-Term Effects of Deprivation

Studied the effects of early maternal deprivation on monkeys, which later exhibited abnormal social behaviors, such as being overly fearful, aggressive, or unable to interact properly with other monkeys.

Importance of Early Nurturing Relationships

Monkeys deprived of maternal contact during critical periods showed long-term behavioral and social difficulties, highlighting the importance of early nurturing relationships for emotional health.

Attachment

The emotional bond between an infant and its caregiver is crucial for social and emotional development.

Strange Situation and Attachment Styles

Identifies four main attachment styles: secure, insecure-avoidant, insecure-resistant (also called anxious), and disorganized.

Secure Attachment

Children with secure attachment feel comfortable exploring their environment when their caregiver is present, are distressed when they leave, and are easily soothed upon their return.

Insecure-Avoidant Attachment

Children with this style may show little distress when their caregiver leaves and avoid them upon their return, indicating a lack of emotional connection.

Insecure-Resistant (Anxious) Attachment

Children with this style are anxious before separation and show ambivalence or resistance to the caregiver upon their return, often exhibiting a mix of seeking and rejecting comfort.

Disorganized Attachment

children with disorganized attachment display confused or contradictory behaviors, such as seeming disoriented or dazed, and may avoid or resist the parent

Oxytocin

a hormone and neurotransmitter that plays a key role in various physiological and emotional processes, especially related to bonding, social behavior, and reproduction

Object permanence

the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they are not directly seen, heard, or sensed

Egocentrism

cognitive bias where an individual focuses primarily on their own perspective and fails to take into account the viewpoints of others

Sensorimotor Stage

birth- 2 years- differentiates self from objects, recognizes self as agent of action and begins to act intentionally, achieves object permanence

Preoperational Stage

2-7 years- learns to use language and to represent objects by images and words, thinking is still egocentric, classifies objects by a single feature

Concrete Operational Stage

7-12 years- can think logically about objects and events, achieves conservation of age, weight, and mass

Formal Operational Stage

12+- can think logically about abstract propositions and test hypotheses systematically, becomes concerned with the hypothetical future, and ideological problems

Conservation

understanding that the quantity or amount of something remains the same, even when its appearance changes, such as when it's stretched, cut, or poured into a different container

Theory of Mind

Allows people to understand, predict, and attempt to influence others' behavior

Kohlberg's Level 1

moral reason is based on consequences of actions, focusing on avoiding punishment or seeking rewards

Kohlberg's Stage 1

A child might obey a rule simply because they fear punishment.

Kohlberg's Stage 2

A child might steal a cookie from the jar but do so with the expectation of receiving a reward or favor in return.

Moral reasoning

The process of determining right from wrong based on personal beliefs, societal norms, and ethical principles.

Level 2 moral reasoning

Moral reasoning based on conforming to societal norms, laws, and expectations.

Stage 3 moral reasoning

A stage where individuals refrain from actions like stealing to maintain approval from others.

Stage 4 moral reasoning

A stage where individuals obey laws to maintain social order and fairness.

Stage 5 moral reasoning

A stage where individuals believe it is acceptable to break unjust laws for the greater good.

Stage 6 moral reasoning

A stage where individuals act according to deeply held ethical principles, regardless of consequences.

Socioemotional selectivity theory

The theory that as people age, they perceive time as limited and focus on meaningful experiences.

Marriage and health

Married individuals report greater happiness and lower risks of depression compared to unmarried individuals.

Unhappily married people

Individuals in unhappy marriages are at greater risk for poor health and higher mortality rates.

Emotion

An immediate reaction to something, such as anger or fear.

Mood

A long-lasting state that influences thought and behavior, such as happiness or sadness.

Positive moods

States of feeling happy or cheerful.

Negative moods

States of feeling sad or depressed.

Erikson's stages of psychosocial development

A theory outlining eight stages through which a healthy developing individual passes from infancy to late adulthood.

Primary emotions

Innate, adaptive, and universal emotions shared across cultures, such as anger, fear, sadness, disgust, happiness, surprise, and contempt.

Secondary emotions

Blends of primary emotions, including remorse, guilt, submission, shame, love, bitterness, and jealousy.

James-Lange theory of emotion

Facial expressions lead to emotional interpretations, where emotion-inducing sensory stimuli are received and interpreted by the cortex, triggering changes in visceral organs and skeletal muscles.

Facial feedback hypothesis

Suggests that facial expressions can influence our emotions, proposing that sensory feedback from facial muscles to the brain can trigger or modulate emotional experiences.

Cannon-Bard theory of emotion

Proposes that emotional experience and expression occur simultaneously and independently, with emotional stimuli causing both feelings and expressions at the same time.

Schachter-Singer Two-Factor theory of emotion

States that the label applied to physiological arousal results in the experience of an emotion, with misattribution of arousal occurring when the source of arousal is incorrectly identified.

Cultural display rules for emotions

Culturally specific standards that dictate which emotions are appropriate to express, in what situations, and to what extent.

Issue with Maslow's hierarchy of needs

Lacks empirical support.

Needs

Fundamental requirements for survival and well-being, such as food, water, shelter, and sleep.

Drives

Psychological or physiological urges that motivate individuals to satisfy their needs, often rooted in a state of tension or imbalance.

Yerkes-Dodson law

Describes the relationship between arousal and performance, suggesting that performance improves with arousal only up to a certain point, after which it declines.

Extrinsic motivation

The drive to perform a task to receive an external reward or avoid punishment, rather than for inherent satisfaction.

Intrinsic motivation

The drive to engage in an activity because it is inherently interesting or enjoyable, rather than for external rewards.

Self-efficacy

If you think you will succeed, you will try harder and persist longer than if you expect you won't succeed. Ex: A student who feels confident they can master a difficult subject and perform well on an exam.

Achievement motivation

Setting appropriately challenging goals to motivate behavior. Ex: A student consistently striving to excel in their studies, seeking challenging tasks, and setting high academic goals.

Social brain hypothesis

Mastering social interactions is the purpose of having large neocortex (e.g., prefrontal cortex). Ex: Humans, with their large brains and complex social systems, are a prime example of the social brain hypothesis in action.

Outgroup homogeneity effect

People perceive members of outgroups (groups they don't belong to) as more similar to each other than members of their own ingroup (group they belong to), leading to the 'they are all the same' perception. Ex: A person might perceive all members of a different racial or ethnic group as having the same traits, ignoring individual differences.

Social facilitation

Individuals tend to perform better on simple or well-rehearsed tasks when in the presence of others, but may perform worse on complex or unfamiliar tasks. Ex: An athlete performing better during a race with an audience than during practice alone, a musician playing a familiar piece more confidently in front of a crowd.

How to decrease social loafing

Monitor their efforts and make them feel personal responsibility.

Deindividuation

A state that may occur when part of a group characterized by reduced individuality, self-awareness, attention to personal standards. Ex: Online trolling, rioting, or hazing rituals, where anonymity and group dynamics can diminish individual accountability.