Unit 3 Study Guide: Developmental and Social Psychology

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering core terms, developmental milestones, cognitive theories, and social psychology concepts from the Unit 3 study guide.

Schema

A mental framework that organizes and interprets information, which can take the form of images, models, or concepts.

Assimilation

The process of interpreting a new experience in terms of existing schemas.

Accommodation

The process of adjusting or altering a schema to take in and incorporate new information.

Sensorimotor Stage

Piaget's developmental stage (from birth to approximately age 2) in which infants explore the world through looking, hearing, touching, mouthing, and grasping.

Object Permanence

The developmental milestone mastered during the sensorimotor stage involving the awareness that things continue to exist even when not directly perceived.

Preoperational Stage

Piaget's developmental stage (ages 2 to 6) characterized by pretend play and egocentrism.

Egocentrism

A cognitive limitation in the preoperational stage where a child thinks that everyone has the exact same thoughts and perspectives as them.

Concrete Operational Stage

Piaget's developmental stage (ages 7 to 11) marked by the development of logical thinking regarding concrete events.

Conservation

A developmental milestone mastered during the concrete operational stage involving the understanding that properties of an object remain the same despite changes in form or appearance.

Formal Operational Stage

Piaget's developmental stage (ages 12 and older) marked by the capacity for abstract thinking about hypothetical events.

Theory of Mind

An understanding of one's own and others' mental states, enabling individuals to engage in perspective-taking.

Scaffolding

A concept proposed by Vygotsky where adults offer temporary support to help a child reach a higher level of thinking.

Zone of Proximal Development

The range of tasks where contextual cues and guidance help a child accomplish something they cannot do alone, such as in reading or math.

Separation Anxiety

Distress experienced by a young child over separation from parents, typically emerging around 13 months of age.

Stranger Anxiety

A normal developmental fear of unfamiliar people exhibited by infants, typically beginning around 8 months of age.

Attachment

An emotional tie formed with other people.

Temperament

An infant's characteristic style and intensity of emotional reactivity.

The Strange Situation

A laboratory observation procedure developed by Mary Ainsworth involving mother separation and reunion in an unfamiliar room to observe and categorize infant attachment.

Authoritarian Parenting

A strict parenting style associated with children exhibiting lower social skills, lower self-esteem, an overreacting brain response when making mistakes, and an activated fight-or-flight response.

Permissive Parenting

A parenting style associated with children who tend to be aggressive and immature.

Negligent Parenting

An uninvolved parenting style associated with children demonstrating poor academic and social outcomes.

Authoritative Parenting

A supportive and structured parenting style shown to produce the most well-adjusted adults, fostering high self-esteem, self-reliance, self-regulation, and social competence.

Personal Fable

An adolescent belief in their own immortality or invulnerability, leading to the assumption that bad events happening to others will not happen to them and increasing risky behavior.

Preconventional Morality

The stage in Kohlberg's theory of moral development where individuals obey rules solely to avoid punishment or obtain rewards.

Conventional Morality

The stage in Kohlberg's theory of moral development where individuals uphold laws and rules to gain social approval.

Postconventional Morality

The highest stage in Kohlberg's theory of moral development where actions reflect internalized beliefs in basic rights and self-defined ethical principles.

Social Psychology

The scientific field that attempts to explain how individuals' thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of other human beings.

External (Situational) Attribution

Explaining the cause of an observed behavior by pointing to factors outside the person doing the action, such as peer pressure or the difficulty of an exam.

Internal (Dispositional) Attribution

Explaining the cause of an observed behavior by pointing to a person's enduring traits, personality, ability, or emotions, such as laziness.

Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency to overestimate the influence of personality traits and underestimate situational factors when explaining someone else's behavior.

Actor-Observer Bias

The shift in attributions depending on whether an individual is at the center of the situation (attributing to the situation) or witnessing someone else (attributing to personality).

Self-Serving Bias

The tendency to explain one's own behavior by taking credit for success while blaming external situational factors for failures.

Attitude

An evaluative belief or opinion about people, objects, or ideas, comprised of affective, behavioral, and cognitive components.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

A process wherein an individual's beliefs or expectations influence their actions in such a way that the anticipated outcome comes true.

Cognitive Dissonance

A state of psychological tension that occurs when a person is confronted with two conflicting attitudes or a conflict between their attitudes and behaviors.

Persuasive Communication

A form of communication aimed at changing someone's attitude or beliefs by delivering a message advocating a specific side of an issue.

Foot-in-the-Door Technique

A persuasion strategy that involves making a small initial request to secure compliance before following up with a larger request.

Door-in-the-Face Technique

A persuasion strategy that involves making an initial large request that is rejected, followed by a smaller, target request.

Low-Ball Technique

A persuasion strategy in which an attractive deal is initially offered, but the terms of the original agreement are altered to be less favorable after commitment.

Obedience

Complying with direct demands or instructions given by an authority figure who possesses perceived power, such as a parent or professor.

Social Facilitation

The enhancement of performance on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others.

Social Loafing

The tendency for individuals in a group to exert less effort when pooling contributions toward a common goal compared to when held individually accountable.

Deindividuation

The loss of self-awareness and self-restraint that frequently occurs when individuals are immersed in a group setting.

Risky Shift

The phenomenon in which decisions reached collectively by a group are riskier than those made by individuals acting alone.

Group Polarization

The tendency for like-minded group members to adopt more extreme opinions and positions following group discussion.

Groupthink

A mode of group decision-making where the desire for uniformity and harmony leads to a consensus that discourages or eliminates all dissenting viewpoints.

Prejudice

An unjustifiable negative attitude and set of stereotyped beliefs held toward members of a particular group.

Discrimination

Negative actions, microaggressions, or unjustifiable behaviors directed against members of a social group based on explicit or implicit prejudice.

Stereotype

A generalized belief about a specific group of people that functions as a mental heuristic.

Implicit Bias

An unconscious set of mental representations and prejudices toward particular social groups that guides attitudes and behaviors without conscious awareness.

Explicit Bias

Conscious, deliberate beliefs and attitudes that an individual openly acknowledges holding regarding a group of people.

Ingroup

A social group to which an individual feels a sense of belonging, often coupled with an unfavorable view of outside groups.

Confirmation Bias

The tendency to search for, interpret, notice, and recall information that supports one's preexisting beliefs.

Just-World Phenomenon

The belief that the world is inherently fair, where good people are rewarded and bad people are punished, often resulting in victim-blaming.

Scapegoat Theory

The theory that prejudice arises in part from a psychological tendency to blame an outgroup for negative circumstances or frustrations.

Altruism

An unselfish concern for the welfare of others, prioritizing the needs of others over oneself.

Bystander Effect

The tendency for an individual to be less likely to offer help to a victim when other bystanders are present, often driven by diffusion of responsibility.