ap psych u3
term | definition |
Developmental Psychology | a branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the lifespan |
Teratogens | agents, such as chemicals, viruses or alcohol, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm |
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) | physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman’s heavy drinking |
Habituation | Decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation (for babies as they develop) |
Maturation | The orderly sequence of biological growth; is relatively uninfluenced by experience. The orderly sequence of biological growth; is 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 social independence. |
Pubert | The period of sexual maturation is when a person usually becomes 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. |
Intersex | possessing male and female biological sexual characteristics at birth. |
Relational aggression | Agression that harms and damages relationships 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 typically 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. |
Estrogen | sex hormones that contribute to female sex characteristics and are secreted in greater amounts by females than males. |
Secondary sex characteristics | nonreproductive like pubic hair, larger hips, and breasts |
Primary sex characteristics | body structures (ovaries, testes, and external genitalia) that make sexual reproduction possible; rapidly mature during the first 2 years of puberty. |
Menarche | First occurrence of menstruation, average age is currently 12 |
Gender identity | our personal sense of gender |
Social learning theory | the theory that we learn social behaviour by observing and imitiation and by being rewarded or punished |
Gender typing | taking on trad masc or fem roles |
Androgyny | nonbinary esque in between |
Social script | The script that tells us how to act in certain situations |
Sexual orientation | who we are attacted to in terms of gender |
Jean Piaget (4 stages of cognitive development): | cognitive development is guided by maturation and environmental interaction |
Sensorimotor stage | birth to age two. they know the world is terms of their SENSES and MOTOR activities. Milestones: object permanence, stranger anxiety |
Preoperational stage | 2-7 years. Representing things wiht words and images. Uses intuitive but not logical reasoning. Milestones: pretend play, egocentrism |
Concrete operational stage | 7-11 years. Thinking logically about concrete events. Grasping analogies and math. Milestones: Conservation, math |
Formal operational stage | 12+ years. Reasoning abstractly. Milestones: abstract logic, mature moral reasoning. |
Schema | concepts that enable us to organize experiences |
Assimilation | interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas |
Accommodation | adapting our current schemas to incorporate new information |
Object Permanence | the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived |
Egocentrism | difficulty perceiving things from another's perspectives |
Conservation | The principal that quantity remains the same despite changes in shape |
Scaffold | helps children learn with a temporary scaffold |
Lev Vygotsky- zone of proximal dev | The zone between what a child can and cannot do; where a child can do something with help |
Harry Harlow and Imprinting | Separated baby monkeys from parents and observed whether they are attached to food or to their parents; saw that monkeys preferred more “nurturing” parent. Shows imprinting. |
Mary Ainsworth & strange situation | a procedure for studying child-caregiver attachment; a child is placed in an unfamiliar environment while their caregiver leaves and then returns, and the child’s reactions are observed. |
Secure attachment | demonstrated by infants who comfortably explore environments in the presence of their caregiver, show only temporary distress when the caregiver leaves, and find comfort in the caregiver’s return. |
Insecure attachment | demonstrated by infants who display either a clinging, anxious attachment or an avoidant attachment that resists closeness. |
Stranger anxiety | the fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning at about 8 months of age. |
Attachment | an emotional tie with others; shown in young children by seeking closeness to caregivers and showing distress on separation. |
Temperament | a person’s characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity. |
Trust and mistrust | infancy, if needs are dependably met infants develop a sense of basic trust |
autonomy and shame and doubt | toddlers; learn to exercise their will and do things for themselves, or they doubt their abilities |
initiative and guilt | preschool; learn to intiate tasks and carry out plans or they feel guilty about their efforts to be independent |
competence and inferiority | children learn the pleasure of applying themselves to tasks, or they feel inferior |
identity and role confusion | teenagers test roles and then intergrate them to form a single indenityt or they become confused about who they are |
intimacy and isolation | young adults learn to form close relationships and gain the capacity for intimate love, or they feel socially isolated |
generativity and stagnation | middle aged people discover a sense of contributing to the world though family/work OR they feel a lack of purpose |
integrity and despair | older adults may feel a sense of satisfaction or of failure |
Social Clock | the culturally preferred timing of social events or “right time” |
Baumrind’s Parenting styles: | |
Authoritative | TOO MUCH parents are coercive. They impose rules and expect obedience: “Don’t interrupt.” “Keep your room clean.” |
Authoritarian | JUST RIGHT Parents are confrontive. They are both demanding and responsive. They exert control by setting rules, but, especially with older children, they encourage open discussion and allow exceptions. |
Permissive | TOO LITTLE Parents are unrestrained. They make few demands, set few limits, and use little punishment. |
Empty nest syndrome | a term used to describe the emotional and psychological changes that parents may experience when their children leave home to pursue their own lives |
Death Deferral | People tend to put off dying when there is an event to look forward to, |
Phoneme | smallest distinctive sound units in a language |
Morpheme | smallest language units that carry meaning (words) |
Grammar | set of rules in language |
Universal grammar (UG) | our innate predisposition to understand the principles and rules that govern grammar in all languages |
Babbling stage | sample all the sounds that they can make. Starts at 4 mo |
One-word stage | By 1 year. Ussually only one syllable words to communicate meaning |
Two-word stage (aka Telegraphic speech) | by 24 mo. two word sentences in telegraphic speech (want juice) ussually places adj before nouns |
Aphasia | impairment of language where people have either damange to brocas (cant speak) or wenickes (cant understand) |
Broca’s Area | Responsible for speaking |
Wernicke’s area | Responsile for understanding (W for words) |
Linguistic determinism | language determines the way that we think |
Linguistic relativism | the words that we use influence our thinking |
Ecological systems theory | different environments we encounter affect our cognitive, social and biological development |
Associative Learning | linking two events close together |
Behaviorism (John B. Watson) | focused on learned behaviours |
Cognitive learning | acquiring mental information that guides our behaviour |
Ivan Pavlov | classical conditioning with dogs and bells |
classical conditioning | associating two unrelated stimuli to illicit a response |
Stimulus | any event that evokes a response |
Respondent behavior | automatic response to some stimulas |
Neutral stimulus (NS) | a stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning. |
Unconditioned response (UCR) | an unlearned, naturally occurring response (such as salivation) to an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) (such as food in the mouth). |
Conditioned stimulus (CS) | an originally neutral stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS), comes to trigger a conditioned response (CR). |
Conditioned Response (CR) | a learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus (CS). |
Unconditioned stimulus (UCS) | a stimulus that unconditionally — naturally and automatically — triggers an unconditioned response UCR). |
Acquisition | intial learning of an association |
Extinction | diminished CR responses when the CS (tone) no longer signals a UCS (food) |
Spontaneous recovery | the reappearance of a weakened CR after a pause |
preparedness | each species predispositions prepare it to learn the associations that enhance its survival |
Higher-order (or second-order) conditioning | when a neutral stimulas becomes associated wiht a previously conditioned stimulus |
Stimulus generalization | the tendency to respond to stimuli similar to the CS |
Stimulus discrimination | the ability to distinguish between conditioned stimulus and other irrevelant stimuli (ie different tones) |
Operant conditioning | Subject learns behavior by associating it with consequences |
BF Skinner & operant chamber (aka skinner box) | a box that has a bar or lever for the animal to press to release food or water |
Edward Thorndike & Law of effect | behaviors followed by favorable (or reinforcing) consequences become more likely, and that behaviors followed by unfavorable (or punishing) consequences become less likely. |
Reinforcement | any event that strengthens or increases the frequency of a preceding response |
Shaping | operant conditiing that reinforces and guides behaviours closer to the desired behaviour |
discriminative stimulus | a stimulus that elicits a response after association with reinforcement |
Positive vs negative reinforcement | Postive= add desirable stimulus, negative= removes bad stimulus |
Positive vs negative punishment | Positive= add bad stimulus, negative= removes good stimulus |
Primary reinforcer | a reinforcing stimulus for things that are needed (like food or sleep) |
Conditioned reinforcer | learned association with primary reinforcers (like money, good grades, etc.) |
Continuous reinforcement schedule | reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs. |
Partial (Intermittent ) reinforcement schedule | reinforcing a response only part of the time; results in slower acquisition of a response but much greater resistance to extinction than does continuous reinforcement. |
Fixed-ratio schedule | reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses. |
Variable-ratio schedule | provide reinforcers after a seemingly unpredictable number of responses |
Fixed-interval schedule | reinforce a response after a fixed time period |
Variable-interval schedule | reinforce the first response after varying time intervals. |
Instinctive drift | the tendency of learned behavior to gradually revert to biologically predisposed patterns. |
Edward Tolman & Cognitive map | a mental representation of the layout of your enviornmnet |
Latent learning | unconcious learning (like of your school map) |
Insight learning | solving problems through sudden insight, |
Learned helplessness | when you fail so you stop trying |
Observational or social learning | learning by observing others |
Modeling | observing and imitating others to learn |
Mirror neurons | when one person does something and you see it, these neurons are excited |
Prosocial behavior | behaviour that has prosocial effects (positive, helpful) |
Antisocial behavior | behaviour that has antisocial effects (negative, unhelpful) |
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