AP Psych Unit 3 Vocab

Auditory sensory acuity: The ability to hear and distinguish sounds

Genetic mutation: An error in the replication of DNA that leads to change

Gross motor coordination: Gross motor skills are the movements we make with large muscles, like those in your legs, arms and torso. 

Growth spurt: A period of growth that occurs in a short period of time

Imprinting : Early stages of development can attach oneself to something, like why newborns like their parents more than strangers when being held by strangers.

Mature illness: An illness associated with aging

Mobility: The ability to move

Reaction time: A timeframe in which one can react to a stimulus

Reflex - automatic and involuntary responses to stimuli that help protect our bodies from harm or maintain balance. 

Rooting reflex - This reflex starts when the corner of the baby's mouth is stroked or touched.

Sensitive period - Sensitive periods are specific timeframes in which children are more receptive to learning and acquiring certain skills or abilities.

Visual sensory acuity - Visual acuity refers to the sharpness and clarity of vision, specifically the ability to see fine details.

Abstract Concept - Abstract concepts are ideas or thoughts that are not concrete or physical in nature. 

Animism - belief that objects that are inanimate (not living) have feelings, thoughts, and have the mental characteristics and qualities of living things.

Dementia → a generalized, pervasive deterioration of memory and at least one other cognitive function, such as language and an executive function, due to a variety of causes. 

Pretend play → a type of play where children use their imagination to create scenarios and act out different roles and events.

Reversibility → the ability of a process or change to be reversed or undone, such that the original state or condition can be restored.

Zone of proximity development- The gap between what a learner can do without help and what they can do with guidance and support.

Non-verbal gestures-  Forms of communication through body movements, facial expressions, and other non-verbal cues that convey meaning.

Syntax-  The set of rules that govern the structure of sentences in a language.

Adverse childhood experiences-  Potentially traumatic events that occur in childhood, such as abuse, neglect, or household dysfunction, which can impact development and health.

Anxious attachment- A type of insecure attachment characterized by fear of abandonment and a constant need for reassurance, often stemming from inconsistent caregiving in early relationships.

4 Main Parenting Styles- Authoritative,Authoritarian,Permissive,Neglectful 

Chronosystem- The dimension of time in Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory, representing changes in life events and transitions over time.

Exosystem- The part of Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory that includes external environments indirectly affecting the individual, such as a parent's workplace.

Identity diffusion- A lack of direction or commitment in forming an identity, often with little exploration or decision-making.

Identity foreclosure- Committing to an identity without exploring alternatives, often based on parental or societal expectations.

Identity moratorium-A period of active exploration without making a commitment to a specific identity.

Generativity- A concern for establishing and guiding the next generation, often through parenting or contributions to society.

Stagnation- A sense of self-absorption and lack of growth or productivity, often resulting from failure to contribute meaningfully to others.

Imaginary audience- A belief common in adolescence that others are constantly watching and judging one's actions.

Industry and inferiority- Erikson's stage (ages 6-12) where children develop a sense of competence through learning and accomplishment or feel inferior if they fail.

Macrosystem- The overarching cultural and societal influences in Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory.

Microsystem- The immediate environments and relationships that directly impact an individual, such as family and peers.

Mesosystem- The interactions between components of the microsystem, such as the relationship between family and school.

Parallel play- A developmental stage where children play alongside each other without direct interaction.

Psychosocial- Relating to Erikson's theory, it refers to the interaction between psychological development and social environment across different stages of life.

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

Taste aversion - A biological tendency in which an organism learns after a single experience to avoid a food with a certain taste, if eating it is followed by illness.

- A consequence refers to an event that occurs after a behavior and can either strengthen or weaken that behavior. It is the outcome or result of an action.

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

fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) - a condition in a child resulting from alcohol exposure during the mother's pregnancy, causing brain damage and growth problems.

critical period

Adolesce Consequence- the transitory period from childhood to adulthood, generally beginning with puberty and extending into independent adulthood.

Puberty - period of sexual maturation, during which a person is capable of reproducing.

Menopause: the point in a woman's life when her menstrual periods stop permanently and she can no longer get pregnant.

Sex: the biological and physiological characteristics that define a person as male or female, including chromosomes, hormones, and reproductive organs, essentially focusing on the physical aspects rather than social constructs related to gender

Gender: the male sex or the female sex, especially when considered with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones, or one of a range of other identities that do not correspond to established ideas of male and female.

Intersex: a term used to describe people with sex characteristics that are not typically considered male or female

The X chromosome - one of the two sex chromosomes in humans - carries a larger amount of genetic information compared to the Y chromosome. 

Y chromosome - one of the two sex chromosomes in humans. -  smaller than the X chromosome and carries fewer genes. Males have both an X and a Y chromosome, while females have two Xs. congrats on reading the definition of Y Chromosome.

Testosterone: The main male sex hormone is testosterone

Estrogens: 

primary sex characteristics: those organs and other physiological structures that are directly related sexual reproduction

secondary sex characteristics:  any physical characteristic developing at puberty which distinguishes between the sexes but is not directly involved in reproduction.

spermarche [sper-MAR-key]:  the first time a male ejaculates and is considered the male equivalent of menarche, the start of menstrual periods in females

menarche [meh-NAR-key]: refers to your first period, or your first time menstruating

Jean Piaget - Jean Piaget, the last century’s most influential observer of

children, was a Swiss biologist. developmental psychologist who is best known for his theory of cognitive development in children.

Cognition- all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

Schema- a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.

Assimilation- a cognitive process that manages how we take in new information and incorporate that new information into our existing knowledge(w/o changing)

Accommodation - in developmental psychology, adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information. 

sensorimotor stage  - in Piaget’s theory, the stage (from birth to nearly 2 years of age) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities.

object permanence

preoperational stage - in Piaget’s theory, the stage (from about 2 to 6 or 7 years of age) during 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- the preoperational child’s difficulty taking another’s point of view.

concrete operational stage- in Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 7 to 11 years of age) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events.

formal operational stage- in Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think

logically about abstract concepts.

Lev Vygotsky- has studies of child development focused on the ways a child’s mind grows by interacting with the social environment

scaffold-a framework that offers children temporary support 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.

Noam Chomsky- Linguist Noam Chomsky has proposed that all human languages share a

universal grammar

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

grammar-is a language’s set of rules that enable people to communicate. 

universal grammar (UG)-—the basic building blocks of language

Babbling Stage: The stage of speech development beginning around 4 months, where infants spontaneously utter sounds unrelated to the household language.

One-Word Stage: The stage in speech development, typically around age 1, when a child speaks mostly in single words. 

Two-Word Stage: The stage in speech development, starting around age 2, when a child begins to form two-word statements, showing the basics of syntax.

Telegraphic Speech: Early speech stage where a child uses mostly nouns and verbs, resembling a telegram (e.g., “want cookie”).

Generative Grammar: A theory by Noam Chomsky suggesting humans are biologically predisposed to develop grammar and generate infinite sentences using a universal grammar.

Semantics: The aspect of language concerned with meaning, including how words, sentences, and symbols convey ideas.

Neuroscience of Language

Paul Broca: A 19th-century neurologist who discovered that specific brain damage can impair speech production, leading to the identification of Broca’s area.

Broca’s Area: A region in the left frontal lobe involved in speech production; damage results in Broca’s aphasia (difficulty speaking but understanding remains intact).

Carl Wernicke: A neurologist who identified a brain region involved in language comprehension, leading to the understanding of Wernicke’s area.

Wernicke’s Area: A region in the left temporal lobe responsible for language comprehension; damage results in Wernicke’s aphasia (fluent but nonsensical speech and impaired understanding).

Developmental Psychology

Ecological Systems Theory: A theory by Urie Bronfenbrenner that human development is influenced by different environmental systems, including family, community, and culture.

Stranger Anxiety: A fear of unfamiliar people, usually developing in infants around 8 months as they form attachments to caregivers.

Social Anxiety: The intense fear of social situations where one may be judged, embarrassed, or scrutinized.

Attachment: An emotional bond between an infant and caregiver that influences the child’s sense of security and social development.

Attachment Theories and Studies

Harry Harlow: Psychologist known for research with rhesus monkeys, showing the importance of physical comfort in forming secure attachments.

Margaret Harlow: Collaborator in studies on maternal separation and its effects on attachment and social development in monkeys.

Imprinting: A form of attachment in certain animals where they form a strong bond with the first moving object they see during a critical period, studied by Konrad Lorenz.

Secure Attachment: A type of attachment where infants feel confident exploring their environment with a caregiver as a secure base.

Insecure Attachment: A type of attachment where infants may be anxious, avoidant, or resistant toward caregivers due to inconsistent or unresponsive caregiving.

Disorganized Attachment: A type of attachment seen in children who show confused or contradictory behaviors toward their caregiver, often linked to trauma or neglect.

Social Anxiety: The intense fear of social situations where one may be judged, embarrassed, or scrutinized.

Attachment: An emotional bond between an infant and caregiver that influences the child’s sense of security and social development.

Harry Harlow: Psychologist known for research with rhesus monkeys, showing the importance of physical comfort in forming secure attachments.

Margaret Harlow: Collaborator in studies on maternal separation and its effects on attachment and social development in monkeys.

Imprinting: A form of attachment in certain animals where they form a strong bond with the first moving object they see during a critical period, studied by Konrad Lorenz.

Secure Attachment: A type of attachment where infants feel confident exploring their environment with a caregiver as a secure base.

Insecure Attachment: A type of attachment where infants may be anxious, avoidant, or resistant toward caregivers due to inconsistent or unresponsive caregiving.

Disorganized Attachment: A type of attachment seen in children who show confused or contradictory behaviors toward their caregiver, often linked to trauma or neglect.

Temperament-  an individual's characteristic level of emotional excitability or intensity

Erik Erikson- add all stages

Identity - our sense of self; according to Erikson, the adolescent’s task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles.

social identity - our sense of self; according to Erikson, the adolescent’s task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles.

emerging adulthood-for some people in modern cultures, a period from the late teens to mid-twenties

social clock - the culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retiermerment -the period in a person's life when they choose to leave their job or career and stop working.

learning- the process of acquiring through experience new and relatively enduring information or behaviors.

associative learning-  a learning principle that states that ideas and experiences reinforce each other and can be mentally linked to one another.

Stimulus -  any object, event, or situation that elicits a response from an organism

respondent behavior

operant behavior -behavior that operates on the environment, producing consequences.

cognitive learning-the acquisition of mental information whether by observing events, by watching others, or through language.

Ivan Pavlov-  one of the earliest psychologists known for classical conditioning

classical conditioning- a type of learning in which we link two or more stimuli; as a result, to illustrate with Pavlov’s classic experiment, the first stimulus (a tone) comes to elicit behavior (drooling) in anticipation of the second stimulus (food).

John B. Watson-was a classical conditioning psychologist who is most famous for his "Little Albert" experiment 

Behaviorism- the view that psychology (1) should be an objective science that (2) studies behavior without reference to mental processes.

neutral stimulus (NS)-in classical conditioning, a stimulus that elicits no response before condition.

unconditioned response (UCR)-unconditioned response (UR) in classical conditioning, an unlearned, naturally occurring response (such as salivation) to an unconditioned stimulus (US) (such as food in the mouth).

unconditioned stimulus (UCS)-unconditioned stimulus (US) in classical conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally—naturally and automatically—triggers an unconditioned response UR). 

conditioned response (CR) - a learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus

conditioned stimulus (CS) - an originally neutral stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus, comes to trigger a conditioned response

acquisition - the initial stage, when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus begins triggering the conditioned response. In operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response.

higher-order conditioning -  

extinction - the diminishing of a conditioned response; occurs in classical conditioning when an unconditioned stimulus does not follow a conditioned stimulus; occurs in operant conditioning when a response is no longer reinforced

spontaneous recovery - the reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response

Generalization - tendency to respond to stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus. 

Overgeneralization - cognitive distortion in which an individual views a single event as an invariable rule. 

Discrimination - the learned ability to distinguish between conditioned stimuli and other irrelevant stimuli. 

Preparedness - a biological predisposition to learn associations, such as between taste and nausea, that has survival value.

John Garcia - challenged the prevailing idea that all associations can be learned equally well.

operant conditioning - organisms associate their own actions with consequences

B. F. Skinner - was a college English major and aspiring writer who, seeking a new direction, enrolled as a graduate student in psychology. He went on to become modern behaviorism’s most influential and controversial figure.

Edward L. Thorndike - called the law of effect: Rewarded behavior tends to recur (Figure 27.1), and punished behavior is less likely to recur

law of effect - Thorndike’s principle that behaviors followed by favorable consequences

become more likely, and that behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences

become less likely

operant chamber -  a chamber (also known as a Skinner box) containing a bar or key that  an animal can manipulate to obtain a food or water reinforcer; attached devices record the animal’s rate of bar pressing or key pecking

reinforcement - any event that strengthens the behavior it follows

shaping - an operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior.

discriminative stimulus - in operant conditioning, a stimulus that elicits a response after association with reinforcement (in contrast to related stimuli not associated with reinforcement)

positive reinforcement  -  

Negative reinforcement - A Learning technique that encourages a desired behavior by removing an unpleasant stimulus

Primary reinforcer- A stimulus that is naturally reinforcing and does not need to be learned 

Conditioned reinforcer- a stimulus that becomes a reinforcer because it’s associated with a primary 

Reinforcement schedule- a schedule of reinforcements where reinforcements is provided after a fixed number of responses occur

Continuous reinforcement schedule- a technique used in operant conditioning to reward a desired behavior every time it occurs

Partial (intermittent) reinforcement schedule- A learning method where a desired behavior is only reinforced(rewarded) occasionally not every time it occurs

Fixed-ratio schedule- a renforcement arrangements where a specific number of responses must be made before receiving a reward

Variable-ratio schedule- a reinforcement schedule that reward a behavior after an unpredictable number of responses 

Fixed-interval schedule - in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed

Variable-interval schedule - in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals.

Punishment - an event that tends to decrease the behavior that it follows. 

Instinctive drift -  the tendency of learned behavior to gradually revert to biologically predisposed patterns. This instinctive drift occurred as the animals reverted to their biologically predisposed patterns.

Robert Rescorla - But Robert Rescorla and Allan Wagner (1972) showed that an animal can learn the predictability of an event. If a shock is always preceded by a tone, and then may also be preceded by a light that accompanies the tone, a rat will react with fear to the tone but not to the light.

Edward C. Tolman - Evidence of cognitive processes has also come from studying rats in mazes, including classic studies by Edward Chase Tolman (1886–1959) and Charles Honzik that were done in Skinner’s youth. 

Prosocial behavior -Positive, constructive, helpful behavior. The opposite of antisocial behavior.

Antisocial behavior -  Antisocial modeling occurs when a person models behaviors that are not positive, constructive, or helpful. In Bandura’s study, the children were replicating these kinds of antisocial behaviors (hitting, kicking, throwing), which they had seen the adult display. 

Vicarious conditioning - learning through observing other people's responses to an environmental stimulus that is most noticeable to the observer.

Cognitive map - a mental representation of the layout of one’s environment. For example, after

exploring a maze, rats act as if they have learned a cognitive map of it.

Latent learning - learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it.

Insight learning - a sudden realization of a problem’s solution; contrasts with strategy-based solutions

Observational learning - Cognition supports observational learning (also called social learning),

in which higher animals, especially humans, learn without direct experience, by watching and imitating others. A child who sees his sister burn her fingers on a hot stove learns not to touch it.

Modeling - We learn our native languages and various other specific behaviors by observing and imitating others, a process called modeling.

Albert Bandura - Albert Bandura first proposed the social-cognitive perspective, which views personality as the product of the interaction between a person’s traits (including thinking) and the situation—the social world around us.

Mirror neurons - frontal lobe neurons that some scientists believe fire when we perform certain actions or observe another doing so. The brain’s mirroring of another’s action may enable imitation and empathy.