Pyschology 3.3-3.6

Important Terms & Simple Definitions

  • Continuous Development

    • Definition: Growth that happens gradually, resembling vocabulary expansion where a child learns a bit more each year.

  • Discontinuous Development

    • Definition: Growth that occurs in clear, separate stages.

    • Example: Piaget’s age-based stages of cognitive development, reflecting significant changes in capabilities.

  • Assimilation

    • Definition: The cognitive process of fitting new information into existing cognitive schemas.

    • Example: Calling any four-legged animal “dog.”

  • Accommodation

    • Definition: A cognitive process involving changing or creating a mental schema when new information does not fit.

    • Example: Learning that “cat” is different from “dog.”

  • Piaget’s Stages

    • Overview: A theory comprising four major age-based periods of cognitive growth:

    1. Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 years)

      • Main focus: Learning through sensory experiences and motor actions.

      • Key Development: Development of object permanence, the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen.

    2. Preoperational Stage (2-7 years)

      • Characteristics: Symbolic play, egocentrism (difficulty seeing perspectives other than one's own), animism (attributing life-like qualities to inanimate objects), and early attempts at conservation (understanding changes in amount or volume).

    3. Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 years)

      • Skills: Logical reasoning about concrete facts.

      • Cognitive skills: Ability to reverse actions and understand conservation.

    4. Formal Operational Stage (12 years-adulthood)

      • Competencies: Abstract, hypothetical, and systematic reasoning skills develop.

  • Object Permanence

    • Definition: The understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be directly observed.

    • Emergence: Typically develops around 8 to 12 months of age.

  • Reflexive Actions

    • Definition: Automatic bodily responses exhibited by newborns, like sucking and grasping.

  • Primary Circular Reactions

    • Definition: Repeating pleasurable actions that involve one's own body.

    • Example: Repeatedly sucking one's thumb.

  • Secondary Circular Reactions

    • Definition: Repeating actions that affect the environment.

    • Example: Shaking a rattle to produce sound.

  • Coordination of Secondary Schemas

    • Definition: Goal-directed behavior comprising the ability to solve simple problems.

  • Tertiary Circular Reactions

    • Definition: Experimenting with new actions to see the effects of those actions.

  • Mental Representation

    • Definition: The ability to create internal symbols or images of objects that are not currently present.

  • Egocentrism

    • Definition: The difficulty a child has in seeing the world from another person's perspective.

Additional Cognitive Development Terms

  • Animism

    • Definition: The belief that inanimate objects possess feelings or intentions.

  • Centration

    • Definition: A cognitive tendency to focus on one aspect of a problem while ignoring other relevant features.

    • Example: Judging the amount of water solely by its height in a glass.

  • Irreversibility

    • Definition: The inability to mentally reverse a process.

    • Example: Not realizing that a melted ice cube can refreeze.

  • Conservation

    • Definition: The understanding that quantity remains constant despite changes in shape or appearance.

  • Decentration

    • Definition: The ability to consider multiple aspects of a situation simultaneously, which is seen in the concrete operational stage.

  • Reversibility

    • Definition: The understanding that an action can be undone, restoring the original state.

    • Example: Reshaping clay back into its original form after molding.

  • Abstract Thinking

    • Definition: The ability to reason about concepts that are not tied to concrete objects or actual situations.

  • Hypothetical-Deductive Reasoning

    • Definition: The process of formulating and systematically testing hypotheses about the world.

  • Problem-Solving (Formal Operational)

    • Definition: The use of multiple strategies and logical steps to arrive at a solution.

  • Propositional Thought

    • Definition: The ability to evaluate logical relationships between statements independently of real-world context.

Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory

  • Overview: A developmental theory positing that cognitive development is heavily influenced by social interaction and cultural contexts.

  • Social Interaction

    • Definition: The learning that occurs through dialogue and collaboration with more knowledgeable individuals, such as parents, teachers, or peers.

  • Cultural Tools

    • Definition: Tools like language, symbols, and technological artifacts that facilitate cognitive processes and mediate thinking.

  • Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

    • Definition: The difference between what a child can do independently and what they can achieve with guidance and assistance.

  • Scaffolding

    • Definition: The strategy of providing temporary support that is gradually removed as the learner gains competence.

  • More Knowledgeable Other (MKO)

    • Definition: An individual who has more understanding or knowledge about a task or concept, providing guidance to those with less experience.

  • Internalization

    • Definition: The process through which external social activities transform into internal cognitive processes.

  • Crystallized Intelligence

    • Definition: A type of intelligence that refers to the accumulation of knowledge and skills over time, including facts and vocabulary.

Fluid Intelligence and Dementia

  • Fluid Intelligence

    • Definition: The capacity to solve new problems, identify patterns, and reason without relying on prior knowledge or experiences.

  • Dementia

    • Definition: A category of conditions marked by a persistent decline in memory, reasoning, and everyday functioning.

  • Alzheimer’s Disease

    • Definition: The most prevalent form of dementia, characterized by progressive memory loss and cognitive decline.

Language and Communication

  • Language

    • Definition: A shared system of symbols—including words, signs, and sounds—that individuals utilize to express thoughts and ideas.

  • Communication

    • Definition: Any method of exchanging information, which may be verbal (spoken or written) or non-verbal (gestures, facial expressions).

  • Phoneme

    • Definition: The smallest sound unit in language that can change a word's meaning.

    • Example: The difference between /b/ in “bat” and /p/ in “pat.”

  • Morpheme

    • Definition: The smallest unit of meaning in a language.

    • Free Morpheme: A morpheme that can stand alone as a word (e.g., “book”).

    • Bound Morpheme: A morpheme that must be attached to another morpheme to convey meaning (e.g., the prefix “un-” in “unhappy”).

  • Grammar

    • Definition: The set of rules governing how words are arranged to form coherent sentences, including elements like punctuation and verb tense.

  • Syntax

    • Definition: The specific word order and structure that creates meaningful sentences.

    • Example: The difference between the sentences “The cat chased the mouse” and “The mouse chased the cat.”

Stages of Language Development

  • Cooing

    • Definition: The first vocal exploratory stage in infants (occurs at 2-3 months) characterized by the production of vowel-like sounds (e.g., “oo-ooh”).

  • Babbling

    • Definition: The subsequent stage (occurs at 4-6 months) in which infants produce repetitive consonant-vowel combinations like “ba-ba” or “da-da.”

  • One-Word Stage

    • Definition: Developmental phase from 12 to 18 months when toddlers use single words to label objects or express needs (e.g., “Milk,” “Mama”).

  • Telegraphic Speech

    • Definition: A language development phase between 18 and 24 months involving short two- to three-word phrases that often omit less critical syntactical elements (e.g., “Want cookie,” “Big dog”).

  • Overgeneralization

    • Definition: A common linguistic error in which children extend regular grammatical rules to irregular words, such as saying “goed” instead of “went.”

  • Non-verbal Manual Gestures

    • Definition: Gestures involving hand or arm movements that convey meaning independent of speech, including sign language and supporting gestures for comprehension.

Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory

  • Overview: A psychological model illustrating how different environmental layers (from immediate family to broader societal contexts) influence child development.

  • Microsystem

    • Definition: The immediate settings in which the child lives, such as family, school, and peers, where direct interactions take place.

  • Mesosystem

    • Definition: The interconnections between the child’s microsystems (e.g., how experiences at home affect performance at school).

  • Exosystem

    • Definition: Indirect influences on a child’s development, such as a parent's workplace or community services that have ramifications for the child's life.

  • Macrosystem

    • Definition: The broad cultural values, laws, and societal norms that define the overall context in which a child develops.

  • Chronosystem

    • Definition: The dimension of time that includes life transitions (like divorce) and historical changes (such as technological advancements) that influence development.

Parenting Styles

  • Overview: Distinct patterns of parental behaviors that play a critical role in children's social-emotional outcomes.

    • Authoritative

      • Description: High levels of warmth and high control; tends to lead to children who are secure and autonomous.

    • Authoritarian

      • Description: Low warmth, high control; often produces children who may comply but struggle with anxiety or self-esteem.

    • Permissive

      • Description: High warmth, low control; children might experience difficulties with self-discipline and impulse control.

    • Uninvolved (Neglectful)

      • Description: Low warmth and low control; often linked to insecure attachment and various behavioral challenges.

Attachment Theory

  • Overview: A framework introduced by Bowlby and Ainsworth illustrating how early caregiver bonds shape future relationships.

  • Attachment Styles:

    • Secure Attachment

    • Definition: Developed when caregivers are consistently responsive; results in children feeling safe to explore and forming healthy relationships.

    • Anxious-Ambivalent Attachment

    • Definition: Forms due to unpredictable caregiver responses; leads to clinginess and dependency in children.

    • Avoidant Attachment

    • Definition: Emerges from emotionally unavailable caregivers; results in children who suppress their emotional needs and distrust closeness.

    • Disorganized/Disoriented Attachment

    • Definition: Arises in the context of frightening or abusive caregiving; children display erratic behavior and experience a higher risk of mental health issues.

Child Temperament and Anxiety

  • Temperament

    • Definition: Innate personality traits observable in infancy (such as activity level and emotional reactivity) that shape children's interactions with their environments.

  • Separation Anxiety

    • Definition: The distress experienced by infants or young children when separated from a primary caregiver; typically peaks between 6 months to 2 years.

Harlow’s Monkey Study

  • Overview: An influential experiment demonstrating that infant rhesus monkeys preferred the comfort of a soft “cloth mother” for emotional security over a wire “mother” that provided food, underscoring the critical importance of emotional nurturing in development.

Peer Relationships

  • Developmental Trajectory

    • Definition: Interactions with peers evolve from parallel play (during early childhood) to more cooperative and interactive play, developing into stable friendships in middle childhood, and evolving into deeper friendships or romantic relationships in adolescence.

Social Clock

  • Definition: A sociocultural concept denoting the culturally expected timing for significant life events (such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement).

  • Implications: Deviating from the social clock can lead to pressure or self-doubt regarding life choices.

Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages

  • Overview: A theory outlining eight age-linked developmental challenges, each posing a “conflict” that, if resolved positively, contributes to the development of virtues necessary for progression in life stages.

    • Example: Trust vs. Mistrust leads to trust; Identity vs. Role Confusion cultivates a stable sense of self.

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

  • Definition: Potentially traumatic events that occur before the age of 18 (e.g., abuse, neglect, household dysfunction).

  • Impact: These experiences can disrupt brain development, affect attachment, and increase the risk of later mental health problems.