AP Psych Unit 3 V1 Vocabulary
developmental psychology: a branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development throughout the lifespan.
cross-sectional study: research that compares people of different ages at the same point in time.
longitudinal study: research that follows and retests the same people over time.
teratogens: agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm.
fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS): physical and cognitive function deficits in children caused by their birth mother’s heavy drinking during pregnancy. In severe cases, symptoms include a small, out-of-proportion head and distinct facial features.
habituation: decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner.
maturation: biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience.
critical period: an optimal period early in the life of an organism when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces normal development.
adolescence: the transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence.
puberty: the period of sexual maturation, during which a person usually be- comes capable of reproducing.
menopause: the time of natural cessation of menstruation; also refers to the biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines.
sex: in psychology, the biologically influenced characteristics by which people define male, female, and intersex.
gender: in psychology, the attitudes, feelings, and behaviors that a given culture associates with a person’s biological sex. (See also gender identity.)
intersex: possessing male and female biological sexual characteristics at birth.
aggression: any physical or verbal behavior intended to harm someone physically or emotionally.
relational aggression: an act of aggression (physical or verbal) intended to harm a person’s relationship or social standing.
X chromosome: the sex chromosome found in females and males. Females typically have two X chromosomes; males typically have one. An X chromosome from each parent produces a female child.
Y chromosome: the sex chromosome typically found only in males. When paired with an X chromosome from the mother, it produces a male child.
testosterone: the most important male sex hormone. Males and females have it, but the additional testosterone in males stimulates the growth of the male sex
organs during the fetal period, and the development of male sex characteristics during puberty.
estrogens: sex hormones, such as estradiol, that contribute to female sex characteristics and are secreted in greater amounts by females than by males.
primary sex characteristics: the body structures (ovaries, testes, and external genitalia) that make sexual reproduction possible.
secondary sex characteristics: nonreproductive sexual traits, such as female breasts and hips, male voice quality, and body hair.
spermarche: the first ejaculation.
menarche: the first menstrual period.
role: a set of expectations (norms) about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave.
gender role: a set of expected behaviors, attitudes, and traits for men and for women.
sexual aggression: any physical or verbal behavior of a sexual nature that is unwanted or intended to harm someone physically or emotionally. Can be expressed as either sexual harassment or sexual assault.
gender identity: our personal sense of being male, female, neither, or some combination of male and female, regardless of whether this identity matches our sex assigned at birth, and the social affiliation that may result from this identity.
social learning theory: the theory that we learn social behavior by observing and imitating and by being rewarded or punished.
gender typing: the acquisition of a traditional masculine or feminine role.
androgyny: blending traditionally masculine and traditionally feminine psycho- logical characteristics.
transgender: an umbrella term describing people whose gender identity or expression differs from that associated with their birth-assigned sex.
sexuality: our thoughts, feelings, and actions related to our physical attraction to another.
asexual: having no sexual attraction toward others.
social script: a culturally modeled guide for how to act in various situations.
sexual orientation: according to the APA (2015), “a person’s sexual and emotional attraction to another person and the behavior and/or social affiliation that may result from this attraction.”
cognition: all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.
schema: a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.
assimilation: interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas.
accommodation (in developmental psychology): in developmental psychology, adapting our current schemas (understandings) to incorporate new information.
sensorimotor stage: in Piaget’s theory, the stage (from birth to nearly 2 years of age) at which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities.
object permanence: the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived.
preoperational stage: in Piaget’s theory, the stage (from about 2 to 6 or 7 years of age) at which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic.
conservation: the principle (which Piaget believed to be a part of concrete operational reasoning) that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects.
egocentrism: in Piaget’s theory, the preoperational child’s difficulty taking an- other’s point of view.
concrete operational stage: in Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 7 to 11 years of age) at which children can perform the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete (actual, physical) events.
formal operational stage: in Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) at which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts.
scaffold: in Vygotsky’s theory, a framework that offers children temporary sup- port as they develop higher levels of thinking.
theory of mind: people’s ideas about their own and others’ mental states — about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict.
language: our agreed-upon systems of spoken, written, or signed words, and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning.
phoneme: in a language, the smallest distinctive sound unit.
morpheme: in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix).
grammar: in a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others. Semantics is the language’s set of rules for deriving meaning from sounds, and syntax is its set of rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences.
universal grammar (UG): humans’ innate predisposition to understand the principles and rules that govern grammar in all languages.
babbling stage: the stage in speech development, beginning around 4 months, during which an infant spontaneously utters various sounds that are not all related to the household language.
one-word stage: the stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words.
two-word stage: the stage in speech development, beginning about age 2, during which a child speaks mostly in two-word sentences.
telegraphic speech: the early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram — “go car”— using mostly nouns and verbs.
aphasia: impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to Broca’s area (impairing speaking) or to Wernicke’s area (impairing under- standing).
Broca’s area: a frontal lobe brain area, usually in the left hemisphere, that helps control language expression by directing the muscle movements involved in speech.
Wernicke’s area: a brain area, usually in the left temporal lobe, involved in language comprehension and expression.
linguistic determinism: Whorf’s hypothesis that language determines the way we think.
linguistic relativism: the idea that language influences the way we think.Gen
Difference Between Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation
Gender Identity: Refers to an individual's personal sense of their gender, which may be male, female, neither, or a combination of both. It is an internal perception and can be different from an individual’s biological sex assigned at birth.
Sexual Orientation: Refers to the emotional, romantic, or sexual attraction one feels toward others. This defines who a person is attracted to, and can include orientations such as heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, and more.
In summary, gender identity is about who you are, while sexual orientation is about who you are attracted to.
