EXAM 2 Review

Learning

1. Learning is the changing of behavior in response to experience and comes in a number of forms, each of which operates according to distinct principles. 

2. Classical conditioning is the process of repeatedly pairing an original (unconditioned) stimulus, which naturally produces a reflexive (unconditioned) response, with a new (neutral) stimulus, such that the new stimulus produces the same response. 

3. Operant conditioning theory is based on the idea that human behavior is influenced by “operants” in the environment. These include positive and negative reinforcement, which encourage behavior, as well as punishment, which suppresses behavior. 

4. According to cognitive psychologists, complex higher-level mental processes are at work during the learning process, as can be seen in cognitive maps, latent learning, insight learning, and observational learning. 

5. Learning theories can explain phenomena like emotional learning, taste aversion, superstitious behavior, and learned helplessness. 

6. One practical application of learning theories is finding solutions to behavioral problems via techniques like behavior modification, biofeedback, coping strategies, and self-control.

Key Terms: Learning

Principles of Learning

• Learning: A relatively permanent change in behavior based on experience. 

• Classical conditioning: A method of learning that creates new associations between neutral stimuli and reflex-causing stimuli. 

• Operant conditioning: A method of learning that alters the frequency of a behavior by manipulating its consequences through reinforcement or punishment. 

• Observational learning/social learning: A form of learning that occurs by watching the behaviors of others.

Classical Conditioning

• Unconditioned stimulus (UCS): A stimulus capable of reflexively evoking a response. 

• Unconditioned response (UCR): A reflexive response produced by an unconditioned stimulus. 

• Neutral stimulus (NS): A stimulus that does not produce a reflexive response. 

• Conditioned stimulus (CS): A stimulus that produces a response because it has been repeatedly paired with an unconditioned stimulus. 

• Conditioned response (CR): A learned response produced by a conditioned stimulus. 

• Acquisition: When a behavior, such as a conditioned response, has been learned. 

• Higher order conditioning: A form of classical conditioning in which a previously conditioned stimulus is used to produce further learning. 

• Expectancy: The anticipation of future events or relationships based on past experience.

• Stimulus generalization: The tendency to respond to another stimulus that is similar but not identical to the original conditioned stimulus. 

• Stimulus discrimination: The ability to distinguish between similar but non-identical stimuli. 

• Extinction: The cessation of a learned response, usually resulting from an end to conditioning. 

• Spontaneous recovery: The reappearance of a learned response after its apparent extinction.

Operant Conditioning

• Law of effect: The idea that responses that lead to positive effects are repeated, while responses that lead to negative effects are not repeated. 

• Skinner box: A laboratory apparatus used to study operant conditioning in animals, which typically contains a lever that animals can press to dispense food as reinforcement. 

• Operant: A behavior that has some effect on the environment. 

• Reinforcer: A stimulus that increases the likelihood that a specific behavior will occur. 

• Positive reinforcer: Any pleasant stimulus rewarded after a desired behavior. 

• Negative reinforcer: Anything that counteracts an unpleasant stimulus. 

• Escape conditioning: Conditioning with a negative reinforcer that reduces or removes the unpleasantness of something that already exists. 

• Avoidance conditioning: Conditioning with a negative reinforcer that prevents the unpleasantness of something that has yet to occur. 

• Punishment: The use of a negative stimulus or the withdrawal of a positive stimulus in order to suppress an undesirable behavior. 

• Discriminative stimulus: A stimulus that signals whether a behavior or response will lead to reinforcement. 

• Shaping: The process of gradually molding behavior to get a final desired response by reinforcing successive approximations to the desired behavior. 

• Primary reinforcer: A stimulus that is intrinsically pleasant, often because it satisfies a basic need. 

• Secondary reinforcer: A stimulus that individuals have been conditioned to desire through association with a primary reinforcer. 

• Token reinforcer: Any secondary reinforcer that is tangible, such as money or gold stars given by a teacher. 

• Continuous reinforcement: The use of reinforcement after each and every instance of a desired response. 

• Partial reinforcement: The use of reinforcement after a desired response only part of the time. 

• Schedule of reinforcement: A rule or plan for determining how often behaviors will be reinforced. 

• Fixed ratio (FR): A schedule in which reinforcement follows a constant number of responses. 

• Variable ratio (VR): A schedule in which reinforcement follows a varied number of responses. 

• Fixed interval (FI): A schedule in which reinforcement for a desired response is only available after a set amount of time. 

• Variable interval (VI): A schedule in which reinforcement for a desired response is only available after a varying amount of time. 

• Partial reinforcement extinction effect: Behaviors learned on a partial reinforcement schedule are more difficult to extinguish than behaviors learned on a continuous reinforcement schedule.

Other Types of Learning

• Cognitive learning: High-level learning that involves thinking, anticipating, and other complex mental processes. 

• Cognitive map: A mental representation of an environment or concept that facilitates understanding. 

• Latent learning: Learning that occurs without any obvious reinforcement and remains unexpressed until reinforcement is provided. 

• Bobo doll experiment: A classic study by Albert Bandura in which children viewed a film of an adult violently hitting an inflatable “Bobo” doll and then were allowed to play with the doll. The children showed aggression towards the doll, demonstrating the power of observational learning. 

• Self-efficacy: The extent to which a person believes him- or herself capable of success in a particular situation. 

• Insight learning: A type of learning that occurs by suddenly understanding how to solve a problem rather than by trial and error.

Applications of Learning

• Emotional learning: How emotions and emotional state affect cognitive processes, including memory formation and retrieval. 

• Little Albert experiment: John Watson conditioned an 11-month-old boy to have a fear of white rats using classical conditioning. 

• Taste aversion: An active dislike for a particular food, developed through conditioning. 

• Superstitious behavior: Behavior that is learned through an accidental reinforcement process, creating a false link between cause and effect. 

• Accidental conditioning: Conditioning that occurs when a good or bad outcome happens to follow a particular behavior for unconnected reasons, thus promoting superstitious behavior. 

• Learned helplessness: The learned inability to overcome obstacles or avoid punishment. 

Solutions to Behavioral Problems 

• Behavior modification: The process and techniques used to change a particular behavior. 

• Systematic desensitization: A behavior modification technique that attempts to treat phobias through planned exposure to fearful stimuli. 

• Aversion therapy: A process of behavior modification that works by associating an undesirable habitual behavior with an aversive stimulus. 

• Biofeedback: The electronic monitoring of autonomic functions (like heart rate, blood pressure, or stress responses) for the purpose of bringing those functions under partially voluntary control. 

• Coping: The behavioral and cognitive strategies used to manage stress.

Important Contributors

• Albert Bandura: Conducted the Bobo doll experiment, which demonstrated that aggression is learned by observing and modeling others. 

• John Garcia: Discovered taste aversion when looking at the impact of radiation on rats. Rats became nauseous from the radiation, but since the taste of water from a plastic bottle was accidentally paired with this radiation, the rats developed an aversion for this water. 

• Ivan Pavlov: Conditioned dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell after repeated pairings with food, thereby discovering classical conditioning.

• Robert Rescorla: Studied cognitive processes in classical conditioning and maintained that an unconditioned stimulus is more effective if it surprises the learner. 

• Martin Seligman: Developed the concept of learned helplessness after conducting experiments on dogs that were unable to escape an unpleasant situation. 

• B.F. Skinner: The behaviorist most responsible for developing operant conditioning theory. 

• Edward Thorndike: A behaviorist known for the law of effect, which served as the foundation for Skinner’s operant conditioning theory. 

• Edward Tolman: A behaviorist who developed the idea of latent learning by conducting experiments in which rats learned to run mazes even when reinforcement was withheld. 

John Watson: Founder of the behaviorist school who believed that psychology could only scientifically examine behavior, and not unobservable mental processes. Watson conducted the Little Albert experiment.

Thinking- Intelligence

1. Cognitive processes vary along several dimensions, including effortful versus automatic processing, deep versus shallow processing, and focused versus divided attention. 

2. Several distinct types of memory exist, with memories encoded, stored, transformed, and retrieved by a variety of processes. Memory can be improved using mnemonics and other strategies. 

3. Language contains a number of distinct aspects including phonology, morphology, semantics, syntax, and pragmatics. A variety of biological, cognitive, and cultural factors affect how we acquire, develop, and use language. 

4. Humans use a variety of methods to solve problems, including trial-and-error, algorithms, heuristics, and insight. 

5. A number of processes govern creative thinking, which enables human beings to discover new ideas and novel solutions to problems.

6. Intelligence refers to general cognitive ability and is assessed by a number of different kinds of tests. Intelligence research and testing remains controversial because of disagreements about the meaning of intelligence.

7. Different theories present a range of definitions of intelligence. Early theories posited a single general intelligence that applied to all mental abilities. More recent theories have suggested there are multiple kinds of intelligence. 

8. IQ tests were originally developed for children and measured abstract verbal abilities as a way to assess intelligence. Modern IQ tests employ both verbal and non-verbal questions to assess intelligence. When developing intelligence tests, researchers strive for high measures of validity and reliability. 

9. Cultures place importance on the type of intelligence that is most applicable to their societies.

Key Terms: Cognitive Psychology

Cognitive Processes

• Cognition: The process of thinking or mentally processing information such as concepts, language, and images. 

• Automatic processing: The unconscious processing of incidental or well-learned information. 

• Effortful processing: Active processing of information that requires sustained effort. 

• Shallow processing: Processing information based on its surface characteristics. 

• Deep processing: Processing information with respect to its meaning. 

• Attention: The brain’s ability to focus on stimuli. 

• Focused attention: The ability to concentrate on a single target stimulus. 

• Divided attention: The ability to focus on two or more stimuli simultaneously; colloquially known as multitasking.

Memory

• Memory: Learning that has persisted over time and information that has been stored and can be retrieved. 

• Encoding: The process of putting new information into memory. 

• Acoustic codes: The encoding of information as sequences of sounds. 

• Visual codes: The encoding of information as pictures. 

• Semantic codes: The encoding of information with respect to its meaning. 

• Imagery: A set of mental pictures that serves as an aid to effortful processing. 

• Self-reference effect: The tendency to recall information best when it is put into a personal context. 

• Sensory memory: The stage of memory that holds an exact copy of incoming information for just a few seconds. 

• Iconic memory: Visual sensory memory. 

• Echoic memory: Auditory sensory memory.

•  Short-term memory: The memory system that holds small amounts of information for brief periods of time. 

• Maintenance rehearsal: Repetition of a piece of information to keep it within your active short-term memory. 

• Working memory: Type of memory that enables you to keep a few different pieces of information in your consciousness at the same time and to actively process that information. 

• Elaborative rehearsal: Type of rehearsal that links new information with existing memories and knowledge. 

• Implicit memory/procedural memory: The long-term memory of conditioned responses and learned skills.

• Explicit memory/declarative memory: Memories that require conscious recall. 

• Semantic memory: Explicit memory of facts. 

• Episodic memory: Explicit memory of experiences. 

• Spacing effect: The tendency for distributed study to result in better, longer-term retention than other methods. 

• Recency effect: Enhanced memory of items at the end of a list. 

• Primacy effect: Enhanced memory of items at the start of a list. 

• Serial position effect: The tendency to most effectively recall the first and last several items in a list. 

• Mnemonic: A memory aid, especially a technique that uses imagery and organizational devices. 

• Method of loci: A mnemonic technique that works by placing an image of each item to be remembered at particular points along an imaginary journey through a location. 

• Chunking: A memory trick that involves taking individual elements of a large list and grouping them together into elements with related meaning. 

• Retrieval: The process of demonstrating that some- thing learned has been retained. 

• Recall: The ability to retrieve information with minimal external cues. 

• Recognition: The ability to correctly identify previously learned information. 

• Relearning: Memorization of information that was previously learned and forgotten, which is faster than initial learning. 

• Priming: The activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations that helps with memory retrieval. 

• Mood-congruent memory: Occurs when one’s current mood cues memories that were formed during the same mood.

• Déjà vu: The feeling that a new experience, such as visiting an unfamiliar place, has actually happened to you before. 

• Misinformation effect: A phenomenon in which memories are altered by misleading information provided at the point of encoding or recall. 

• Source amnesia: A memory construction error in which a person remembers the details of an event, but confuses the context under which those details were gained. 

• Memory decay: The natural loss of memories over time. 

• Amnesia: The inability to store and/or retrieve memories. 

• Anterograde amnesia: The inability to encode new memories.

• Retrograde amnesia: The inability to recall previously formed memories, usually those memories prior to a brain injury. 

• Interference: A retrieval error caused by the exis- tence of other similar information. 

• Retroactive interference: The disruptive effect of new learning on the retrieval of old information. 

• Proactive interference: The disruptive effect of old learning on the retrieval of new information. 

• Repression: A basic defense mechanism in which a person unconsciously pushes unwanted, anxiety-producing memories out of awareness. 

• Suppression: A basic defense mechanism in which a person actively tries to push a memory out of mind. 

• Flashbulb memory: Images that seem locked in the memory at a time of personal trauma, an accident, or some other emotionally significant event.

Language (ch.8)

• Language: Words or symbols and the rules for combining them meaningfully. 

• Phonology: The actual sound of language. 

• Phoneme: The smallest unit of sound in a language. 

• Morphology: The structure of words. 

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

• Semantics: The set of rules that we use to derive meaning from words and sentences. 

• Syntax: The way in which words are put together to form sentences. 

• Grammar: The set of rules for combining language units into meaningful speech or writing. 

• Pragmatics: The dependence of language on context and preexisting knowledge. 

• Babbling: The repetition of syllables that represent an infant’s first attempt at speech. 

• One-word stage: The stage of language development during which children tend to use one word at a time. 

• Two-word stage: The stage of language development during which children tend to use two-word phrases. 

• Language acquisition device: A theoretical pathway in the brain that allows infants to process and absorb language rules. 

• Universal grammar: A theoretical common set of rules that apply to all languages.

Problem-Solving Strategies

• Trial-and-error: A less sophisticated type of problem-solving approach in which different solutions are tried until the correct one is found. 

• Algorithm: A step-by-step procedure that guarantees a solution to a problem. 

• Heuristic: A simple thinking strategy or technique that allows one to make judgments efficiently. 

• Availability heuristic: A mental shortcut through which judgments are based on the information that is most easily brought to mind. 

• Representativeness heuristic: A mental shortcut that involves judging whether something belongs in a given class on the basis of its similarity to other members of that class. 

• Insight: A sudden and often completely new realization of the solution to a problem.

Creative Thinking

• Creativity: The ability to create ideas that are new. 

• Convergent thinking: Thinking that is directed to the discovery of a single right solution.

• Divergent thinking: Thinking that produces many alternatives and promotes open-ended thought. 

• Overconfidence: The tendency to overestimate the correctness of your beliefs and judgments. 

• Belief bias: Making illogical conclusions in order to confirm your preexisting beliefs. 

• Belief perseverance: The tendency to maintain a belief even after the evidence you used to form the belief is proven wrong. 

• Confirmation bias: The tendency to search for information that supports your existing beliefs and to ignore evidence that contradicts what you think is true. 

• Fixation: The tendency to repeat wrong solutions as a result of becoming blind to alternatives. 

• Mental set: The tendency to use old patterns to solve new problems. 

• Functional fixedness: The tendency to think about familiar objects only in familiar ways.

What is Intelligence?

• Intelligence: The ability to solve problems, learn from experience, and use knowledge to adapt to novel situations. 

• Aptitude tests: Tests designed to predict future performance in an ability.

• Achievement tests: Tests designed to assess current performance in an ability. 

• Speed tests: Tests that assess quickness of problem solving by offering many questions in limited time. 

• Power tests: Tests with questions of increasing difficulty, used to assess the highest-difficulty problem a person can solve. 

• Verbal tests: Tests that use word problems to assess abilities. 

• Abstract tests: Tests that use non-verbal measures to assess abilities.

Intelligence Theories

• Factor analysis: A statistical method that identifies common causes of variance in different tests. 

• g factor: The general intelligence factor, which accounts for a large amount of the variability in IQ scores. 

• Crystallized intelligence: The ability to apply previously learned knowledge to solve a new task. 

• Fluid intelligence: The ability to solve new tasks for which there is no prior knowledge. 

• Savant syndrome: A condition in which someone shows exceptional ability in a single skill but limited general mental ability. 

• Multiple intelligence theory: Gardner’s theory that proposes eight different intelligences: musical-rhythmic, visual-spatial, verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic. 

• Triarchic theory of intelligence: Sternberg’s theory that proposes three distinct intelligences (analytical, creative, and practical), which work together to make up your overall intelligence. 

• Analytical intelligence: The ability to solve traditional academic problems, as measured by early IQ tests.

• Creative intelligence: The ability to apply knowledge to new situations. 

• Practical intelligence: The ability to apply life experiences to problem-solving tasks. 

• Emotional intelligence: The ability to perceive, understand, manage, and correctly utilize emotion in everyday life.

Intelligence Tests

• Mental age: Based on the average level of performance for a particular chronological age, mental age represents a child’s level of cognitive ability. 

• Stanford-Binet IQ Test: An early IQ test created by Terman that originally measured intelligence by dividing mental age by chronological age and multiplying by 100. 

• Intelligence Quotient (IQ): A standardized scale used to measure intellectual abilities. 

• Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC): An IQ test that measures intelligence using both verbal and non-verbal tasks. 

• Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS): The first commonly used intelligence test specifically designed for adults, which measures intelligence using both verbal and non-verbal tasks. 

• Validity: A measure of the extent to which a test actually assesses what it claims. 

• Reliability: A measure of consistency in test results. 

• Content validity: The extent to which a test accurately assesses the entire range of abilities it is designed to measure. 

• Face validity: A superficial measure of validity based only on a brief examination; does not require the use of statistical analysis. 

• Criterion-related validity: The extent to which a test correlates with current or future performance in the area it purports to measure.

• Concurrent validity: The extent to which a test correlates with current performance in the area it purports to measure. 

• Predictive validity: The extent to which a test cor- rectly predicts future performance in the area it purports to measure. 

• Split-half reliability: A measure of reliability that involves splitting items on a test into random halves and scoring each separately. 

• Equivalent-form reliability: A measure of reliability that compares scores on two versions of the same test administered at separate times. 

• Test-retest reliability: A measure of reliability that compares scores on the same test by the same test-takers at two different times. 

• Standardization: A process by which scores for a population are placed into set intervals to allow for easy analysis of test results. 

• Norms: In testing, average scores after standardiza- tion for a population. 

• Flynn effect: The ongoing increase in average IQ scores over time, which requires IQ tests to be renormed periodically. 

• Normal curve: A bell-shaped pattern that is formed when plotting population norms for a large number of natural abilities. 

• Gifted: A label for individuals who have an IQ above 130. Intellectual disability: A condition of varying severity found in individuals with IQ scores below 70. 

• Cultural bias: The allegation that IQ tests give unfair advantages or disadvantages to members of par- ticular cultures.

Important Contributors

• Alfred Binet: Pioneer in intelligence testing who created a standardized test to identify children requiring extra attention in school.

• Noam Chomsky: One of the founders of modern linguistics, whose theory of language acquisition emphasizes universal grammar and maintains that humans have a built-in readiness to learn language. 

• Hermann Ebbinghaus: Ebbinghaus’s memory experiments demonstrated that meaningless stimuli are more difficult to memorize and recall than meaningful stimuli, that learning is more effective when spaced out over time, and that forgetting happens most rapidly right after learning occurs and slows down over time. 

• Francis Galton: Founded psychometrics, developed the idea of nature versus nurture, and believed genetics was the most important factor in intelligence. 

• Howard Gardner: Developed the theory of multiple intelligences to expand upon traditional conceptions of intelligence. 

• Daniel Goleman: Proponent of the importance of emotional intelligence.

• Wolfgang Köhler: Conducted research on chimpanzees, who used insight to solve the problem of obtaining out-of-reach food using poles and stackable boxes. 

• Elizabeth Loftus: Known for her work in the study of false memory formation and the misinformation effect, Loftus’s experiments revealed that the memories of eyewitnesses can often be altered after exposing them to incorrect information about an event, demonstrating the malleability of memory. 

• George A. Miller: One of the founders of cognitive psychology, Miller discovered that human short-term memory is usually limited to holding between five and nine pieces of information at a time. 

• Charles Spearman: Believed all intelligence could be traced to a single underlying general mental ability known as g. 

• Robert Sternberg: Created the triarchic theory of intelligence, which maintains that analytical, creative, and practical abilities come together to create intelligence. 

• Lewis Terman: Expanded Binet’s system to create the concept of IQ and early IQ tests, which used mental and chronological age to calculate IQ. 

• L.L. Thurstone: Critic of Spearman who believed intelligence was made up of seven separate mental abilities.

• Lev Vygotsky: A prominent educational psychologist who argued that culture was the most important force in cognitive development, including the development of language.

David Wechsler: Developed modern IQ tests for children and adults with subscores for different mental abilities.

1. There are a variety of factors that contribute to an individual’s physical, social, and cognitive development. Most psychologists agree that both nature and nurture play a role in development. 

2. Infants are born with a variety of reflexes and tend to develop motor skills in a particular order and according to certain rules. 

3. Infants are born with temperaments, characteristic ways of reacting emotionally that influence how infants become attached to their caregivers, which in turn influences how they form attachments as adults. 

4. Piaget maintained that cognitive development occurred in a series of four stages, while Vygotsky focused on sociocultural influences on cognitive development and argued that children need the assistance of others to learn new abilities. 

5. Kohlberg argued that moral reasoning occurs at three distinct stages, while his critics contend that behaviors are often not confined to a single stage and that his model ignored feminist values like empathy. 

6. People achieve significant developmental milestones as they age and pass through adolescence, adulthood, and older adulthood. Freud and Erikson use stage theories to describe these changes.

Key Terms: Developmental Psychology

Nature and Nurture

• Nature: Innate biological factors that influence development and personality. 

• Nurture: External and environmental factors, including learning, that influence development and personality.

• Range of reaction: The upper and lower boundaries of a characteristic set by an individual’s genes. Environmental factors determine where within that range the characteristic will fall.

Gestation

• Gestation/prenatal development: The process of development from conception to birth. 

• Conception: Fusion of two gametes: one male sex cell (the sperm) and one female sex cell (the egg). 

• Germinal stage: The first stage of gestation, which lasts about 2 weeks, in which the zygote migrates from the Fallopian tube to implant itself in the uterine wall. 

• Embryonic stage: The second stage of gestation, which lasts about 6 weeks, in which cells begin to differentiate and organs begin to develop. 

• Fetal stage: The final stage of gestation, which lasts about 7 months, in which the fetus gains increased mobility and develops rapidly. 

• Teratogens: Substances that damage the process of fetal development such as tobacco and alcohol. 

• Fetal alcohol syndrome: A developmental disorder caused by a mother’s heavy alcohol use during pregnancy.

Motor Skill Development

• Motor development: The emergence of the ability to execute physical actions such as walking, crawling, reaching, and rolling.

• Reflexes: Innate motor responses that are triggered by specific patterns of sensory stimulation. 

• Rooting reflex: The tendency for an infant to move its mouth toward any object that touches its cheek. 

• Sucking reflex: The tendency for an infant to suck any object that enters its mouth. 

• Moro reflex: The outstretching of the arms and legs in response to a loud noise or a sudden change in the environment. 

• Grasping reflex: The vigorous grasping of an object that touches the palm. 

• Babinski reflex: The projection of the big toe and the fanning of the other toes when the sole of the foot is touched, found only in infants. 

• Plantar reflex: The curling of the toes when the sole of the foot is touched, developed after infancy. 

• Cephalocaudal rule: The tendency for motor skills to emerge in sequence from the head to the feet, also known as the “top-to-bottom” rule. 

• Proximodistal rule: The tendency for motor skills to emerge in sequence from the center to the periphery, also known as the “inside to outside” rule.

Temperament and Attachment

• Attachments: Strong emotional bonds to other people. 

• Internal working model of attachment: A set of expectations an infant forms about how its primary caregiver will respond to it. 

• Secure attachment: Attachment style for an infant who feels safe in the presence of its caregiver, becomes distressed when its caregiver leaves, and is soothed when its caregiver returns. 

• Avoidant attachment: Attachment style for an infant who shows little emotion toward its caregiver and appears to be unconcerned if its caregiver stays or leaves. 

• Ambivalent attachment: Attachment style for an infant who is distressed when its caregiver leaves but isn’t soothed when its caregiver returns, ignoring or rebuffing its caregiver’s attempts to calm it. 

• Disorganized attachment: Attachment style for an infant who shows no consistent pattern of response when its caregiver is present or absent. 

• Temperament: An individual’s characteristic pattern of emotional reactivity.

Parenting Style

• Demandingness: The extent to which parents control their children’s behavior or demand their maturity. 

• Responsiveness: The degree to which parents are accepting and sensitive to their children’s emotional and developmental needs. 

• Authoritative parenting: Parents have high expectations for their children but are able to adjust their expectations with understanding and support. 

• Permissive parenting: Parents are responsive, but not demanding, and may establish inconsistent rules for their children in an attempt to avoid confrontation; also called indulgent parenting. 

• Authoritarian parenting: Parents are demanding and cold, tend to have very high expectations of their children but typically fail to show positive affirmation, even when their children succeed; also called strict parenting. 

• Neglectful parenting: Parents are cold and unresponsive to their children, tend not to establish rules for them, and are often indifferent to how they behave.

Cognitive Development

• Cognitive development: The emergence of intellectual abilities, as well as the study of this process. 

• Sensorimotor stage: A Piagetian stage in which infants (ages 0–2) learn about the world through movement and senses, develop schemata, and begin to show evidence of object permanence. 

• Schemata: Theories or models about how the world works; plural of schema. 

• Assimilation: The application of a schema to a novel situation. 

• Accommodation: The revision of a schema when presented with new information. 

• Object permanence: The understanding that objects continue to exist even when they are no longer visible. 

• Preoperational stage: A Piagetian stage in which young children (ages 2–6) lack understanding of conservation and initially think egocentrically but eventually develop theory of mind. 

• Egocentrism: A self-centered perspective that arises from the failure to understand that the world appears differently to different people. 

• Theory of mind: The understanding that human behavior is guided by mental representations of the world, and that the world appears differently to different people. 

• Concrete operational stage: A Piagetian stage in which children (ages 6–11) can think logically about physical objects and understand the conservation of physical properties. 

• Conservation: The understanding that quantities remain constant even when outward appearances change. 

• Formal operational stage: The Piagetian stage in which children and adolescents (age 11+) gain a deeper understanding of their own and others’ minds and begin to reason abstractly. 

• Zone of proximal development (ZPD): According to Vygotsky, a set of skills that children are not yet able to do independently, but that they can do with the assistance of a more knowledgeable other. 

• More knowledgeable other (MKO): According to Vygotsky, someone who has a better understanding of a task compared to the learner.

Moral Development

• Pre-conventional stage: The first stage of Kohlberg’s moral development theory, in which the morality of an action is determined by the consequences for the actor. 

• Conventional stage: The second stage of Kohlberg’s moral development theory, in which the morality of an action is determined by the extent to which it conforms with rules and norms. 

• Post-conventional stage: The third stage of Kohlberg’s moral development theory, in which the morality of an action is determined by general principles and core values. 

• Ethics of care: Carol Gilligan’s feminist approach to moral development that emphasizes values like empathy and benevolence over abstract duties and obligations. 

• Moral intuitionist perspective: The idea that humans evolved to react emotionally to events that are particularly relevant to our survival and reproduction, and that these emotional responses dictate how we respond in moral dilemmas.

Socialization

• Psychosexual stages: Freud’s distinct developmental stages that focus on pleasures and behaviors associated with particular parts of the body.

• Erotogenic zone: The part of the body that the child’s libido is fixated on in a given psychosexual stage. 

• Libido: A psychic energy that is part of an individual’s id, encompassing all drives that an individual possess. 

• Fixation: According to Freud, fixation occurs when a person’s libido becomes arrested at a particular psychosexual stage, which may have long-term implications for one’s personality. 

• Oral stage: An infant focuses on the pleasures and frustrations associated with the mouth, sucking, and being fed. 

• Anal stage: A child experiences pleasures and frustrations associated with the anus, retention and excretion of feces and urine, and toilet training. 

• Phallic stage: The child’s experience is dominated by pleasures, conflicts, and frustrations associated with the genital region. 

• Oedipus complex: A developmental episode during the phallic stage in which a boy develops sexual feelings for his mother, initial jealousy of his father, and eventually, in an effort to resolve this conflict, identifies with his father. 

• Electra complex: A developmental episode during the phallic stage in which a girl develops sexual feelings for her father and identifies with her mother to resolve this conflict. 

• Latency stage: When the child does not experience a major conflict and instead focuses on the development of creative, intellectual, athletic, and interpersonal skills. 

• Genital stage: Freud’s final psychosexual stage, in which the individual develops a full adult personality with the capacity to work, love, and relate to others. 

• Trust vs. mistrust: Erikson’s first stage, which lasts from birth to 18 months, in which an infant develops a sense of trust when its caregiver provides reliable care and protection or mistrust when deprived of a stable relationship with its caregiver. 

• Autonomy vs. shame and doubt: Erikson’s second stage, which lasts from 18 months to 3 years, in which a child strives to develop a sense of personal independence, experiencing shame and doubt if he is unable to do tasks independently. 

• Initiative vs. guilt: Erikson’s third stage, which lasts from 3 to 6, in which a child either begins leading her peers and develops initiative or develops guilt if she fails to have positive peer interactions. 

• Industry vs. inferiority: Erikson’s fourth stage, which lasts from 6 to 12, in which a child attempts to learn skills that have social value, but can develop feelings of inferiority if she fails to learn these skills. 

• Identity vs. role confusion: Erikson’s fifth stage, which occurs during adolescence, in which individuals try out multiple roles before deciding what role they want to occupy in society, with the risk of developing role confusion if a stable role isn’t found. 

• Intimacy vs. isolation: Erikson’s sixth stage, which occurs during young adulthood, in which individuals share themselves more intimately with others, but can develop feelings of isolation. 

• Generativity vs. stagnation: Erikson’s seventh stage, which occurs in middle age, in which older adults reflect on how they’re giving back to society, and may develop a sense of stagnation if they feel their contributions are inadequate. 

• Ego integrity vs. despair: Erikson’s eighth and final stage, which occurs during old age, in which seniors look back on their lives and contemplate their accomplishments, potentially developing feelings of despair if they are dissatisfied with the course their lives ran.

Sex and Gender

• Biological sex: The set of physiological characteristics, including chromosomal composition, hormones, and genitalia, that individuals are born with that determine if they are male, female, or intersex. 

• Intersex: A broad classification that describes anyone whose physiological characteristics are neither clearly male nor clearly female. 

• Gender identity: The psychological identification as male, female, something in between, or neither. 

• Gender expression: How someone outwardly expresses their gender identity through fashion, pronoun preference, and physical appearance. 

• Transgender: Individuals whose gender identity does not align with their sex at birth. 

• Gender role: A set of social expectations for behaviors that are deemed appropriate based on a person’s gender.

Adolescence

• Adolescence: The period of development that begins with the onset of sexual maturity and lasts until the beginning of adulthood. 

• Puberty: A period of bodily changes associated with sexual maturity. 

• Primary sex characteristics: Bodily structures or processes directly involved with reproduction. 

• Secondary sex characteristics: Bodily structures or processes that are not directly involved with reproduction but that change dramatically during puberty. 

• Synaptic pruning: A process by which neural synapses that are not frequently used are targeted for elimination.

Aging

• Socioemotional selectivity theory: A theory stating that young adults tend to focus on useful information, while older adults tend to focus on information that brings emotional satisfaction.

Important Contributors

• Mary Ainsworth: Developed the Strange Situation and attachment theory. 

• Albert Bandura: Known for his contribution to the field of observational learning, including his famous Bobo doll experiment on aggression. 

• Diana Baumrind: Known for her research on four types of parenting styles. 

• John Bowlby: Contributed to attachment theory and developed the idea of an internal working model of attachment. 

• Erik Erikson: A psychoanalyst known for identifying psychosocial developmental stages. 

• Sigmund Freud: The founder of psychoanalysis, who created a theory of psychosexual developmental stages. 

• Harry Harlow: Conducted research on rhesus monkeys, discovering they prefer contact to food acquisition, which was influential for attachment theory. 

• Lawrence Kohlberg: Developed a theory of moral development involving three distinct stages of moral reasoning. 

• Konrad Lorenz: Conducted naturalistic observations of geese and other animals and discovered a simple form of attachment known as imprinting. 

• Jean Piaget: Developed a well-known stage theory of cognitive development, involving a progression of four distinct stages. 

Lev Vygotsky: A proponent of sociocultural theory who introduced the concepts of zone of proximal development (ZPD) and more knowledgeable other (MKO).