AP Psych Unit 7 Development and Intelligence

Developmental Psychology

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

Jean Piaget

Swiss psychologist known for his work on child development, proposing the theory of cognitive development.

Lev Vygotsky

Russian psychologist who emphasized the role of social interaction in cognitive development.

Zone of Proximal Development

Difference between what a learner can do without help and what they can achieve with guidance.

Conservation

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

Schema

A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.

Accommodation

Adapting current schemas to incorporate new information.

Assimilation

Interpreting new experiences in terms of existing schemas.

Object Permanence

The awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived.

Sensorimotor Stage

In Piaget’s theory, the stage from birth to about 2 years where infants know the world via sensory impressions and motor activities.

Preoperational Stage

In Piaget’s theory, the stage from about 2 to 6 or 7 years when a child learns to use language but not concrete logic.

Egocentric

The preoperational child’s difficulty in taking another’s point of view according to Piaget.

Theory of Mind

Ideas about one's own and others' mental states, including feelings, perceptions, and thoughts.

Concrete Operational Stage

In Piaget’s theory, the stage from about 6 or 7 to 11 years when children can think logically about concrete events.

Formal Operational Stage

In Piaget’s theory, the stage beginning about age 12 when people start to think logically about abstract concepts.

Abstract Thinking

The ability to think beyond concrete, literal ideas and consider non-tangible concepts.

Scaffolding

Instructional techniques used to help students achieve greater understanding and independence in learning.

Animism

The belief by children in the preoperational stage that inanimate objects have feelings and intentions.

Reversibility

The cognitive ability to understand that actions can be reversed to restore the original state.

Telegraphic Speech

Stage in language acquisition where a child speaks using primarily nouns and verbs, often short sentences.

Zygote

The fertilized egg that develops into an embryo after approximately two weeks of rapid cell division.

Embryo

The developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization to the second month.

Fetus

The developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth.

Teratogen

Agents that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm.

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

Cognitive and physical abnormalities in children caused by heavy drinking during pregnancy.

Rooting Reflex

An automatic response in newborns that helps them turn towards stimuli for breastfeeding.

Habituation

Decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation, leading to waning interest in familiar stimuli.

Maturation

Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience.

Autism

A developmental disorder affecting communication and behavior, featuring a range of symptoms.

Stranger Anxiety

Fear of strangers commonly displayed by infants around 8 months of age.

Strange Situation

Ainsworth's method for assessing infant attachment to the mother through separations and reunions.

Attachment

An emotional tie to another person.

Secure Attachment

Infants use the mother as a home base to explore but seek comfort from her when threatened.

Insecure Attachment

Characterized by dependence on a caregiver and reluctance to explore, often due to unresponsive parenting.

Critical Period

An optimal time shortly after birth for exposure to certain stimuli for proper development.

Authoritative Parenting

A parenting style that is demanding yet responsive, allowing for some degree of independence.

Authoritarian Parenting

A strict parenting style with high demands and low responsiveness.

Permissive Parenting

A parenting approach characterized by high nurturance but low discipline and control.

Erik Erikson’s Stages of Development

A theory outlining eight stages from infancy to adulthood, each presenting a crisis for psychosocial growth.

Identity

Our sense of self; the adolescent task of solidifying self through testing roles.

Basic Trust

A sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy, formed during infancy.

Self-Concept

All thoughts and feelings about oneself in response to 'Who am I?'

Cross-Sectional Study

Observational research analyzing data from a population at one specific point in time.

Longitudinal Study

A research method that collects data from the same group over time to examine changes.

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

Negative experiences during childhood that can impact long-term development and health.

Intelligence

mental quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations.

Intelligence Quotient (IQ)

defined originally as the ratio of mental age (ma) to chronological age (ca) multiplied by 100 (thus, IQ = ma/ca × 100). On contemporary intelligence tests, the average performance for a given age is assigned a score of 100, with scores assigned to relative performance above or below average.

Mental Age

a measure of intelligence test performance devised by Binet; the chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance. Thus, a child who does as well as the average 8-year-old is said to have a mental age of 8.

Stanford-Binet

the widely used American revision (by Terman at Stanford University) of Binet’s original intelligence test.

General Intelligence (g)

a general intelligence factor that, according to Spearman and others, underlies specific mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test.

Savant Syndrome

a condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional specific skill, such as in computation or drawing.

Emotional Intelligence

the ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions.

Aptitude Test

a test designed to predict a person’s future performance; aptitude is the capacity to learn.

Achievement Test

a test designed to assess what a person has learned.

Standardization

defining uniform testing procedures and meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested group.

Normal Curve

the symmetrical, bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many physical and psychological attributes. Most scores fall near the average, and fewer and fewer scores lie near the extremes.

Reliability

the extent to which a test yields consistent results, as assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves of the test, on alternate forms of the test, or on retesting.

Validity

the extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to. (See also content validity and predictive validity.)

Construct Validity

the extent to which a test samples the behavior that is of interest.

Predictive Validity

the success with which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict;

It is assessed by computing the correlation between test scores and the criterion behavior. (Also called criterion-related validity.)

Stereotype Threat

The fear that one's behavior will confirm an existing stereotype of a group with which one identifies. This fear can actually lead to decreased performance.

Flynn Effect

The Flynn Effect refers to the observed phenomenon where average intelligence scores on IQ tests have been steadily increasing over time. This increase cannot be attributed solely to genetic factors and challenges psychometric theories that emphasize a significant genetic basis for measured IQ.

Growth Mindset

A growth mindset refers to the belief that one's abilities and intelligence can be developed through effort, learning, and perseverance. It is the understanding that failure and challenges are opportunities for growth rather than fixed limitations.

Fixed Mindset

A fixed mindset is the belief that one's abilities, intelligence, and talents are static traits that cannot be developed or improved. This perspective leads individuals to avoid challenges, give up easily, and see effort as fruitless, as they believe their qualities are predetermined and unchangeable. This mindset can significantly influence learning, motivation, and overall achievement.

fluid intelligence

Fluid intelligence refers to the ability to think logically and solve problems in novel situations, independent of acquired knowledge or past experience. It involves skills such as abstract reasoning, problem-solving, and pattern recognition.

crystalized intelligence

Crystallized intelligence is the accumulation of knowledge, facts, and information that a person has acquired throughout their life. It includes language skills, vocabulary, and general knowledge.

Spearman’s General Intelligence (G Factor)

The idea that there is a broad mental capacity that can be quantified on an intelligence test

Savant Syndrome

a condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional specific skill

Down Syndrome

Extra copy of 21^st chromosome that can lead to some cognitive impairments

Achievement Tests

tests designed to assess what a person has learned.                  EX: AP Exams. SOLs.

Aptitude Tests

tests designed to predict a person’s future performance.

Flynn Effect

the more a test is given, the better people score on the test. 

Reliability

the extent to which a test yields consistent results  

Test-Retest

Can the same test takers achieve similar results?

Split Half

Measures consistency by breaking the test in half and comparing.

Validity

The extent to which a test does what it’s supposed to do.

Content Validity

the extent to which a test assesses the material it is covering.

Construct Validity

The extent to which a test assesses an abstract trait. 

Predictive Validity

the extent to which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict.

IQ

Intelligence Quotient

Stanford-Binet

The most common American IQ Test administered

Standardization

Defining meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested group

Normal Curve (Bell Curve)

Evenly distributed set of data in graph form

Intellectual disability

IQ score below 70 is considered mental retardation

Analytic Intelligence

Problem solving

Creative Intelligence

Creation/imagination

Practical Intelligence

Real World application/prioritization

Thurstone’s Primary Mental Abilities

Intelligence is broken down into 7 Factors: Verbal comprehension, verbal fluency, number facility, spatial visualization, perceptual speed, memory, and inductive reasoning

Emotional Intelligence

Our ability to:Perceive emotions,Understand emotions,Manage emotions,Use emotions for adaptive or creative thinking

Fluid Intelligence

the capacity to think logically and solve problems in novel situations, independent of acquired knowledge

who invented Fluid VS. Crystalized Intelligence

Proposed by Raymond Cattell

Crystalized Intelligence

the ability to use skills, knowledge, and experience (wisdom).

Fixed Mindset

belief that intelligence and abilities are innate and cannot be significantly changed.

Growth Mindset

belief that these qualities can be developed through effort and learning

Culture-Fair Tests

The goal of testing that is free of cultural bias

Stereotype Threat

the sense that you will be judged on the negative stereotype of your group rather than your own abilities

Stereotype Lift

a boost in performance if one thinks they will do better than other groups.