Psychology development

1. Piaget Stages – Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development includes four stages: Sensorimotor (0-2 years), Preoperational (2-7 years), Concrete Operational (7-11 years), and Formal Operational (12+ years).

2. Kohlberg Stages – Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of moral development consists of three levels: Preconventional (self-interest), Conventional (social rules), and Postconventional (abstract reasoning).

3. Erikson Stages – Erik Erikson’s psychosocial development theory has eight stages, each with a crisis to resolve, such as trust vs. mistrust (infancy) and identity vs. role confusion (adolescence).

4. Attachment Theory – Developed by John Bowlby and expanded by Mary Ainsworth, this theory explains how early bonds with caregivers shape emotional and social development.

5. Zygote – The fertilized egg that undergoes rapid cell division before becoming an embryo.

6. Fetus – The developing human organism from nine weeks after conception to birth.

7. Teratogen – Any harmful substance (e.g., drugs, alcohol, viruses) that can cause birth defects when exposure occurs during prenatal development.

8. Maturation – The biological growth process that enables orderly development, largely uninfluenced by experience.

9. Hippocampus – Immature before age 4 – The hippocampus, crucial for memory formation, is underdeveloped in early childhood, explaining infantile amnesia.

10. Object Permanence – The understanding that objects continue to exist even when they are not visible, a concept developed in the sensorimotor stage (Piaget).

11. Parenting Styles – Diana Baumrind’s theory categorizes parenting into four styles: Authoritative (high warmth, high control), Authoritarian (low warmth, high control), Permissive (high warmth, low control), and Neglectful (low warmth, low control).

12. Critical Period – A specific time in early development when an organism is particularly sensitive to environmental stimuli for learning certain skills (e.g., language acquisition).

13. Arnett’s Emerging Adulthood Stage – Jeffrey Arnett’s theory describes a phase (18-25 years) where individuals explore identity, relationships, and career paths before fully committing to adulthood.

14. Gender Identity – A person’s internal sense of being male, female, or another gender, which may or may not align with their assigned sex at birth.

15. Prospective Memory – The ability to remember to perform actions in the future (e.g., remembering to take medicine).

16. Alzheimer’s Disease Symptoms – A neurodegenerative disorder marked by memory loss, confusion, personality changes, and cognitive decline.

17. Theory of Mind – The ability to understand that others have thoughts, beliefs, and perspectives different from one’s own, typically developing around age 4-5.

18. Stranger Anxiety – The fear of unfamiliar people that develops around 8 months of age as infants form strong attachments.

19. Parallel Play – A form of play where children play alongside each other but do not directly interact, common in toddlers.

20. Pretend Play – Imaginative play where children act out scenarios, crucial for cognitive and social development.

21. Social Learning – Learning behaviors through observation, imitation, and modeling, as described by Albert Bandura.

22. Egocentrism – In Piaget’s preoperational stage, a child’s difficulty in seeing things from others’ perspectives.

23. Self-Concept – One’s understanding and evaluation of who they are, including identity, self-esteem, and self-worth.

24. Harry Harlow Monkey Study – A study on attachment in which infant monkeys preferred a soft cloth mother over a wire mother with food, highlighting the importance of comfort in attachment.

25. Lev Vygotsky Theory – Vygotsky emphasized the role of social interaction and cultural context in cognitive development, including the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD).

26. Empty Nest Syndrome – Feelings of sadness or loss parents experience when their children leave home.

27. Freud’s Stages of Development – Sigmund Freud’s psychosexual stages: Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency, and Genital, each tied to specific conflicts.

28. Nature vs. Nurture – The debate over whether genetics (nature) or environment/experience (nurture) plays a greater role in development.

29. Temperament – An individual’s innate personality traits, including emotional reactivity and adaptability.

30. Social Identity – The part of self-concept derived from group membership (e.g., race, religion, gender, nationality).

31. Social Tasks and Challenges of Adolescence – The developmental challenges teens face, such as identity formation, peer influence, and independence.

32. Emerging Adulthood – The transitional period (18-25 years) characterized by exploration of identity, relationships, and career paths.

33. 6 Universal Characteristics of Language – Features shared by all human languages, including semanticity (meaning), arbitrariness (symbols don’t have inherent meanings), displacement (talking about things not present), productivity (infinite combinations), cultural transmission (learned socially), and duality (sounds form meaningful units).