AP Psychology unit 9
AP Psychology - Module 45 Notes
Developmental Psychology's Major Issues
Developmental Psychology: Examines physical, cognitive, and social development across the lifespan, focusing on three major issues:
Nature vs. Nurture: The interaction between genetics and environment.
Continuity vs. Stages: Whether development is gradual or occurs in distinct stages.
Stability vs. Change: What aspects of personality remain stable vs. what changes over time.
Stability & Identity: Stability provides a sense of identity, while change allows for growth and adaptation.
Prenatal Development and the Newborn
Stages of Prenatal Development:
Zygote (0-2 weeks): Fertilized egg undergoes rapid cell division.
Embryo (2-9 weeks): Inner cells form the embryo, outer cells form the placenta.
Fetus (9 weeks-birth): Recognizably human, begins learning language in the womb.
Teratogens: Harmful agents (viruses, drugs, alcohol) that can negatively affect prenatal development.
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS): Caused by heavy drinking during pregnancy, leading to physical and cognitive abnormalities, including small head size and facial deformities.
Newborn Reflexes (Essential for survival):
Rooting Reflex: Baby turns head and opens mouth when touched near the cheek, searching for a nipple.
Habituation: Decreased response to repeated stimuli. As infants become familiar with a stimulus, they lose interest and look away sooner.
Nature nurture (heredity environment)
The relationship is an interaction over a lifetime
Combination of genetic potential and experience in an area (math music ect)
Prenatal neonatal infancy
Know teratogens and examples
teratogens (fetal alcohol syndrome)
Rooting reflex: how a baby turns toward a touch on cheek and opens their mouth looking for food
Habituation
Brain development: use it or lose it pruning process in the brain
We learn when a neural pathway is used over and over again
Practice does matter
Infantile amnesia
Challenge remembering things before 3
Connection of the development of hippocampus and frontal lobe
Connection to elizabeth loftus chap 7 and constructed memories
AP Psychology - Module 46 Notes
Infancy and Childhood: Physical Development
Maturation
Maturation: The biologically programmed sequence of growth and development (nature), with experience (nurture) adjusting the course.
Brain Development
Brain & Mind Develop Together:
Ages 3-6: The frontal lobes (responsible for rational planning) develop rapidly.
Association areas (thinking, memory, and language) are the last to mature, developing into puberty.
Fiber pathways supporting language and motor skills continue growing.
Motor Development
Motor skills develop in a predictable sequence:
Roll over → Sit up → Crawl → Walk (guided by genetic programming).
The cerebellum, which controls balance and coordination, develops around age 1, helping babies learn to walk.
Brain Maturation & Infant Memory
Infantile Amnesia:
Before age 3-4, conscious memories are not well-formed due to the immaturity of the hippocampus and frontal lobes.
As these brain areas mature (ages 4-8), children develop better long-term memory retention.
AP Psychology - Module 47 Notes
Cognitive Development in Children (Jean Piaget & Lev Vygotsky)
Cognitive Development & Schemas
Cognition: All mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.
The brain builds schemas (mental frameworks for organizing information).
Assimilation: Interpreting new experiences using existing schemas.
Accommodation: Adjusting schemas to include new information.
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
1. Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 years)
Infants experience the world through senses and actions (looking, touching, mouthing).
Object Permanence: The understanding that objects exist even when out of sight (develops around 6-8 months).
Separation Anxiety: Fear of strangers or being away from caregivers.
2. Preoperational Stage (2-7 years)
Symbolic Thinking: Uses words/images to represent objects but lacks logical reasoning.
Egocentrism: Difficulty seeing the world from another person’s perspective.
Theory of Mind: Understanding that others have different thoughts, feelings, and perspectives (develops later in this stage).
Lack of Conservation: Children don’t understand that quantity remains the same despite changes in shape.
3. Concrete Operational Stage (7-12 years)
Logical Thinking: Understands concrete (real-world) problems and mathematical operations.
Conservation: Realizes that mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in form.
4. Formal Operational Stage (12+ years - adulthood)
Develops abstract and hypothetical reasoning.
Can think about moral reasoning and hypothetical scenarios.
Lev Vygotsky’s Alternative Theory: Social & Cultural Learning
Language & Thought: By age 7, children use inner speech to problem-solve and regulate emotions.
Scaffolding: A mentor (parent, teacher, peer) provides temporary support to help a child learn new skills.
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD): The range between what a child can do alone vs. what they need help with.
AP Psychology - Module 48 Notes
Social Development in Infancy & Childhood
Stranger Anxiety
Stranger Anxiety: Fear of unfamiliar people typically begins around 8 months.
This is due to the infant's ability to recognize familiar faces and become wary of those they don’t know.
Origins of Attachment
Attachment: An emotional tie with a caregiver, where infants seek closeness and display distress when separated.
Originally, psychologists believed attachment formed due to nourishment, but Harlow’s monkey experiment proved otherwise.
Harlow’s Monkey Experiment (1950s)
Infant monkeys were separated from their mothers and given two artificial "mothers":
A wire mother with food.
A cloth mother with no food.
Monkeys preferred the cloth mother, showing that comfort and security are more important than just food in attachment.
Critical Period & Imprinting (Konrad Lorenz)
Critical Period: A limited time window when certain events must occur for proper development.
Imprinting: A rigid, innate attachment seen in some animals (e.g., ducklings following the first moving object they see).
Attachment Styles (Mary Ainsworth - Strange Situation Experiment)
Secure Attachment (60%):
Explores freely in the presence of the caregiver.
Distressed when the caregiver leaves, but seeks comfort upon return.
Insecure Attachment (Anxious/Avoidant):
Anxious: Clings to caregiver, highly distressed when they leave, difficulty calming down.
Avoidant: Doesn’t seek closeness, indifferent to caregiver’s presence or absence.
Temperament & Parenting
Temperament: A person’s natural emotional reactivity and intensity.
Nature vs. Nurture:
Some attachment styles are influenced by parenting styles.
However, genetics also play a role in temperament.
Separation Anxiety peaks around 13 months, then gradually declines.
Attachment & Later Relationships (Erik Erikson)
Basic Trust: A sense that the world is predictable and reliable, formed through secure attachment.
Early attachments influence future relationships and one’s comfort with intimacy.
Secure attachment → Healthy relationships, high self-esteem.
Insecure attachment → Struggles with trust, fear of intimacy, or emotional dependence.
Deprivation of Attachment
Effects of Neglect & Abuse:
Children in neglectful or abusive environments may develop attachment issues.
Some exhibit hypersensitivity to anger and brain changes in stress regulation.
"Abuse-breeds-abuse" Phenomenon:
Many abusive parents and convicted criminals report being neglected or abused as children.
However, many children who face adversity become resilient and lead normal lives.Effects of Abuse & Neglect
Abused children tend to be hypersensitive to anger.
Brain changes in response to abuse often involve serotonin, a chemical that helps calm aggressive impulses.
Relationship breakups in adulthood can take a toll on future attachments. Detaching is a process, not a single event.
Day Care & Child Development
Does daycare affect child development?
Research suggests no major impact on children's attachments or achievements.
Children in day care may develop advanced language and thinking skills but show slightly higher levels of aggression and defiance.
Eleanor Maccoby’s research:
The correlation between problem behaviors and time in day care suggests "some risk for some children"in certain day-care settings.
Self-Concept & Development
Self-Concept: A child’s understanding and assessment of who they are.
Mirror Test (Self-Recognition):
Researchers placed a colored mark on a child's nose.
By 15-18 months, children begin to touch their own nose when looking in a mirror, indicating self-awareness.
By 18 months, they have developed a schema of their face and recognize changes.
Self-concept influences actions and builds confidence or insecurity.
Parenting Styles (Diana Baumrind’s Research)
Authoritarian (Too Hard):
Strict rules, high expectations, little warmth.
Children may become obedient but less happy and have lower self-esteem.
Permissive (Too Soft):
Few rules, little discipline, indulgent parents.
Children may be impulsive, immature, and struggle with authority.
Authoritative (Just Right):
Demanding but responsive, sets clear rules with explanations.
Children tend to have high self-esteem, self-reliance, and social competence.
Parenting styles are correlated with child outcomes, but correlation does not imply causation.
Culture & Child Rearing
Western Cultures emphasize individualism and independence.
Asian & African Cultures focus on family identity and interdependence.
No single parenting style is "best"—it depends on cultural values and social norms.
MYER'S PSYCHOLOGY FOR AP - MODULE 49: GENDER DEVELOPMENT
Gender Defined
Gender: The socially constructed roles and characteristics by which a culture defines male and female.
How Are We Alike? How Do We Differ?
Genetics: 45 out of 46 chromosomes are identical in males and females.
Aggression: Men tend to admit to more physical aggression, while women may display more indirect or verbal aggression, such as ostracism or spreading rumors.
Work Preferences: Men are more likely to prefer working with things, while women tend to prefer working with people.
The Nurture of Gender: Cultural Influences
Gender Roles: The social expectations that guide men's and women's behaviors. These roles can vary across cultures and time periods.
Role in Society: A role refers to a cluster of prescribed actions or behaviors expected from individuals in a particular social position.
Gender roles can vary widely across industrialized countries and their attitudes toward gender.
Gender Identity
Gender Identity: A person’s sense of being male or female, which may or may not align with their assigned birth sex.
Social Learning Theory: Children acquire their gender identity by observing and imitating others, and learning masculine or feminine roles through reinforcement and punishment.
Gender Schema: A framework for organizing boy-girl characteristics, which helps individuals interpret gender-related information.
Transgender
Transgender: A term describing people whose gender identity and expression differ from those associated with their birth sex.
Distinction: Gender identity (how one feels about their gender) is distinct from sexual orientation (the direction of one's sexual attraction).
Transgender Individuals may identify as heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or asexual.
Myers' Psychology for AP – Module 52
Adolescence: Social Development and Emerging Adulthood
Forming an Identity
Identity: Our sense of self; according to Erikson, an adolescent’s task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles.
Social Identity: The "we" aspect of self-concept; part of our answer to “Who am I?” that comes from group memberships.
Erikson’s Stage Theory in its Final Version
Erikson argued that achieving identity in adolescence is followed in young adulthood by a developing capacity for intimacy, the ability to form emotionally close relationships.
Parents and Peer Relationships
Parent-child conflict tends to be greater during adolescence, especially with first-born children and with mothers.
Adolescence is a time of diminishing parental influence and increasing peer influence.
Emerging Adulthood
Emerging adulthood is a stage for some people in modern cultures, typically spanning from the late teens to mid-twenties.
Bridges the gap between adolescent dependence and full independence/responsible adulthood
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AP Psychology – Module 53: Sexual Development
Sex
Our biology influences gender differences in two ways:
Genetically: Through differing sex chromosomes.
Physiologically: Through differing concentrations of sex hormones.
Mothers provide the X chromosome, while fathers determine sex by contributing either:
X chromosome → Female
Y chromosome → Male
Testosterone stimulates the development of male sex organs in the fetus and the emergence of male sex characteristics during puberty.
Puberty: The period of sexual maturation, enabling reproduction.
Primary sex characteristics: Body structures (ovaries, testes, and external genitalia) essential for reproduction.
Secondary sex characteristics: Nonreproductive traits (female breasts, hips, male voice change, and body hair).
Increasingly, girls experience earlier puberty due to higher body fat, hormone-mimicking chemicals, and family-related stress.
Intersex individuals are born with a combination of male and female physical traits.
The brain’s gender identity is not determined by physical features.
Early sex-reassignment surgeries can be risky for individuals who later do not identify with their assigned sex.
AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) is a life-threatening sexually transmitted infection caused by HIV. It weakens the immune system, making the body vulnerable to infections.
Sexual Orientation
Sexual orientation: Enduring attraction toward members of the same sex, opposite sex, or both sexes.
Efforts to change sexual orientation are often unsuccessful and may pose risks.
Homosexuality is not linked to mental disorders, social problems, or emotional issues.
Studies suggest no difference in parental relationships between homosexuals and heterosexuals.
Homosexual behavior is observed in the animal world.
Brain differences: The hypothalamus is larger in heterosexual men than in homosexual men and women.
Genetic influences:
Genes that influence strong attraction to men in women may also lead some men to be attracted to men.
Identical twins are more likely than fraternal twins to share a sexual orientation.
Prenatal environment: Hormonal exposure in the womb may influence sexual orientation.
Men with older brothers are more likely to be gay (the fraternal birth-order effect). This may result from a maternal immune response to male fetuses.
AP Psychology – Module 54: Adulthood (Physical, Cognitive, and Social Development)
Physical Development
Menopause: The end of menstrual cycles, typically around age 50.
With aging, sexual activity decreases.
Exercise benefits:
Strengthens muscles, bones, and energy.
Helps prevent obesity and heart disease.
Stimulates brain cell development and neural connections by increasing oxygen and nutrient flow.
Aging leads to deterioration from disuse more than overuse.
Cognitive Development
Memory retention depends on the type of information:
Meaningless information (e.g., nonsense syllables) is harder to retain with age.
Types of research studies:
Cross-sectional study: Compares people of different ages.
Longitudinal study: Studies the same individuals over time.
Terminal decline: Memory deterioration associated with aging.
Social Development
Social clock: Culturally preferred timing of major life events (marriage, parenthood, retirement).
Erik Erikson’s adulthood stages:
Intimacy and generativity: Forming close relationships and contributing to society.
Integrity: Feeling that life has been meaningful and worthwhile.
Marriage correlates with:
Increased happiness
Greater sexual satisfaction
Higher income
Better physical and mental health
Work can enhance happiness.
Brain aging:
The amygdala, a center for processing emotions, becomes less responsive to negative events.
The hippocampus, which processes memories, interacts with the amygdala.
Older adults react less strongly to negative images.
vygotsky / soc-cog , dev/ zone of proximal development
Children may develop slowly or quickly based on support and guidance
LIL duckling similar to humans mere exposure children like rewatch reread
Critical period
The optional/best time to learn or develop
Case of genie
Harlow's monkeys contact comfort
baumrind/ dev psych / parenting styles
authoritative/ democratic
authoritarian/ dictatorial
Permissive
Know difference of sex and gender
Eric erikson changed his name to son of himself in his late 30s
Know stages and main conflict to be resolved
Identity vs role
Cross sectional study when people of different ages are compared to each other
Longitudinal study
Research when the same people are restudied and retested over long period of time
Similar to the case study, but longitudinal is a larger group
Piaget stages terms and theories