AP Psychology Unit 3 Notes

3.1: Themes and Methods in Developmental Psychology

• Developmental psychology

  • Chronological development

  • Thematic development

    • Stability vs. Change

    • Nature vs. Nurture

    • Continuity vs. Discontinuity

  • Cross sectional vs. Longitudinal studies

    • Cross sectional- different age groups at the same time being studied

    • Longitudinal- same person being followed and observed throughout study

TEST Video Notes:

• Case study: Genie Wiley

  • Suffered from extreme abuse and neglect

  • “Forbidden Experiment”

  • Critical period hypothesis: Suggests that there is a specific window of time during which humans are most adept at learning languages

    •  It is typically thought to end around the time of puberty

  • Longitudinal study

• Types of Studies

  • Cross-sectional study: a study in which people of different ages are compared with one another

  • Longitudinal study: research in which the same people are studied over a longer period of time

• Developmental psychology is the branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the lifespan

  • Nature vs. Nurture

    • Nature: the genetic or biological factors that influence who we are 

    • Nurture: the environmental and experimental factors that shape who we are 

    • Both ideas matter to human development as developmental psychologists are interested in how they interact and contribute to development

  • Continuous vs. Discontinuous

    • Continuous: gradual process

    • Discontinuous: distinct, defined stages

      • Stage Theory: model that people go through distinct phases of growth and follow a specific order from one stage to the next 

  • Stability vs. Change

    • Stability: personalities and behaviors stay the same or consistent

    • Change: different from how you used to have (something new/different)

3.2: Physical Development across the lifespan

• Development in the womb

  • Environmental factors: nurture 

  • Teratogens: foreign substance that negatively affects the healthy growth and development in the womb

    • Usually a chemical that adversely affects the child’s development (drugs, alcohol etc.)

  • Maternal illness/wellness

    • If the mom is addicted to drugs and is using during pregnancy, when the baby comes out, it experiences withdrawals putting extra stress 

    • You wouldn’t be able to recognize the signs until later as the baby develops but usually then it's too late 

    • STDs can be transmitted through birth to the baby

  • Hormones

    • Stress of the mother during the pregnancy affects the growth of the baby which can pick up on the stress 

• Early childhood is considered to be from birth to age 2

  • Physical development across populations has similar timeline 

    • Nature influenced by nurture

  • Infant Development: Reflexes

    • Rooting: when a baby is born they immediately look for their mother’s breasts for feeding 

    • Babinski Reflex: when you tickle a baby’s feet, it splays their toes

  • Depth Perception

    • Understanding gained of depth perception in the world is important for life or death situations and for getting around because they start crawling/walking

  • Visual Cliff Experiment: fear was nature and learning was nurture

• Childhood is considered from ages 3-8

  • Critical Periods: if the child doesn’t achieve what they’re supposed to in that period, they lose their chance of ever getting back that time and they lower their range of abilities

    • Language- if this is not exposed to early enough, communication could be completely cut off with no chance for repair

    • If the parent doesn’t interact and have enough conversations with the kid, the child will struggle with language development later in life and hit a ceiling for its abilities

  • Imprinting: children are ready to look to a parent as a caregiver

    • Happens early and if it happens later then it can create problems with other bonds or relationships they form in life

• Adolescence from ages 9-18

  • Growth spurts 

    • Girls grow first and then boys on average

  • Puberty 

    • Physical and hormonal changes 

    • Comes more earlier now 

    • Psychological changes 

• Adulthood from ages 19 to the rest of your lifes

  • Most of one’s life

  • Most growing is over

    • You could get shorter or gain some weight 

  • Level off in some areas and then decline in senses, hearing, loss of hair, perception, cognitivity, loss of testosterone and estrogen 

TEST Video Notes:

• Heritability represents the proportion of individual difference in a trait that's attributed to genetic factors

• Neurological development

  • Brain develops throughout the entire pregnancy 

  • Major structural development lasts until about 18 weeks, but it continues to develop for the remainder of the pregnancy and through young adulthood

  • Folic acid is crucial for the healthy formation of the brain and spinal cord

  • The path of an action potential as it travels along a neuron goes from the Dendrite, Soma, Axon, ending at Axon Terminal

• Teratogens are agents, such as viruses and drugs, that can cause birth defects or developmental abnormalities in a developing embryo or fetus when it is exposed to it during pregnancy

  • Drugs

    • Ex: Fetal alcohol syndrome (condition in children whose mother drank alcohol during pregnancy)

  • Infections

  • Environmental chemicals

  • Extent of damage depends on factors exposure, timing, and genetic susceptibility

• Critical or sensitive period is the period of time during which an organism is most sensitive to environmental stimuli

• Motor development

  • Maturation is the orderly sequence of biological growth

  • Skills emerge as the nervous system and muscles develop

  • Moto development order is sequential but the timing is variable

  • Move from reflexive reactions to advanced motor functions

• Reflexes are involuntary movements in response to stimulation

  • Sucking, Rooting, Grasp, Babinski, Moro, Tonic Neck, Stepping 

• Motor movement in infancy and toddlerhood

  • Fine motor skills: coordination of small actions

  • Gross motor skills: coordination of larger movements

  • Major milestones: raising head and chest, rolling over, sitting with support, sitting without support, crawling, and walking

• Depth perception refers to our capability to perceive objects in three dimensions and distinguish variations

  • Visual cliff experiment (Gibson and Walk, 1960)

    • Infant was placed on a glass surface with the appearance of a drop off

    • Infants hesitated or refused to crawl over “the edge”

    • Indicated their ability to perceive depth and biological readiness to perceive spatial relationships

• Critical period- language

  • Revisit notes from 3.1 video on Genie Wiley case

• Adolescence is the period that begins with puberty and ends with transition into adulthood 

  • Physical changes

  • Cognitive changes

  • Social changes

• Puberty is the period of rapid growth and sexual maturation

  • Girls typically begin puberty around the age of 10 while boys typically begin two years later

  • Marked by a physical growth spurt and changes, including the development of primary and secondary sex characteristics

    • Primary Sexual Characteristics: changes in the reproductive organs

      • Males- the growth of the testes, penis, scrotum and spermarche

      • Females- the growth of the uterus and menarche

    • Secondary Sexual Characteristics: physical changes not directly linked to reproduction but signal sexual maturity

      • Males- broader shoulders, a lower voice, the growth of darker and coarser facial and body hair

      • Females- broadening of hips and the growth of darker and coarser body hair

• Brain development

  • During puberty, the teenage brain undergoes significant changes both structurally and functionally. These changes are primarily influences by hormonal shifts, genetic factors, and environmental experiences

    • Neural pruning: brain eliminates unnecessary synaptic connections, focusing on strengthening the essential ones (lose it or use it)

    • Prefrontal cortex development: responsible for decision making, impulse control, reasoning, and judgment

    • Myelination: fatty substance that wraps around nerve fibers and this process improves efficiency of neural signaling, enhancing speed at which information travels within the brain (increases in adolescents)

    • Emotional centers: amygdala changes during puberty (increases sensitivity) as teenagers experience heightened emotional responses such as intense emotions, mood swings, and stronger response to social cues and peer influence

    • Reward pathways: increased sensitivity to reward and social stimuli, contributing to adolescents risk-taking behavior and sensation-seeking tendencies

• Physical changes- Muscle Mass

  • Loss of muscle mass and strength 

    • Decline in hormones like testosterone

    • Decreased physiological activity 

    • Consistent exercise, like weight lifting and aerobic exercise can improve these negative effects 

• Physical changes- Vision & Hearing

  • Vision: Loss of elasticity in the lens makes it harder to focus, especially on items that are up close

  • Hearing: may become harder to hear higher-frequency sounds and decreases ability to locate sounds

• Physical changes- Brain functioning

  • The brain loses 5-10% of its weight between the ages of 20 and 90

  • White matter increases well in the 50’s but decreases after that leading to slower processing

  • Crystalized intelligence increases, whole fluid intelligence decreases

• Physical changes- Implications

  • Reaction time decreases due to:

    •  changes in processing speed, decrease in muscle mass

    • Changes in visual and auditory processing

    • A slower nervous system and cognitive processing

• Factors influencing life expectancy include biological, lifestyle, environmental, socioeconomics, and healthcare

3.3

TEST Video Notes:

3.4: Cognitive Development Across the Lifespan

• Piaget

  • Piaget believed that wind progress in a fixed fashion: cognition (thinking/understanding) develops in stages 

  • Stage are nature inclined 

1. Sensorimotor Stage (Birth-2 years) 

• Real interaction for babies is with hand/mouth

  • With their senses

• Object Permanence- if a kid can't see it. It doesn't exists

  • At first, they lack object permanence, then they develop object permanence (understanding)

2. Preoperational Stage (2-7 years)

• Egocentrism- kid cannot understand anyone else’s viewpoint but their own 

  • Hard for them to understand others perceptions

• Pretend play

• Theory of the mind

  • Thinking of how others would feel (empathy)

• Do not understand the following (logistics):

  • Conservation- knowing quantity doesn’t change despite alteration to shape, especially if it’s a liquid in a container being switched

  • Reversibility- knowing that things that are torn apart can be put back together

3. Concrete Operational Stage (7-12 years)

• Overcome shortcomings of preoperational stage

• Become logical and reasoning

• Struggle to overcome logic and think hypothetically, theoretically, or conceptually

4. Formal Operational stage (12-rest of life)

• Last stage of cognitive development (according to Piagets)

• Ability to think hypothetically, theoretically, & conceptually

  • Material vs. immaterial

  • Concrete vs. abstract

  • Reality vs. Theory

  • Metacognition (think about thinking)

  • Hypothesis testing

• Vygotsky and Social Learning Theory

  • Learning is not cognitive but social depending on the type of environment you are in 

    • Ex: Language, mannerism, and preference 

  • No concrete stages (continuity)

  • Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

  • ZPD: this is the time you want to teach kids (where learning and change happens)

  • Scaffolding: combing/ connecting things you don’t understand and what you don’t to see change and progression 

  • Work with people just outside of comfort zone and you will be able to teach better

  • Gradual progression. Start with simple things and then build complexity. 

• Fluid vs. Crystalized Intelligences 

  • Fluid: gaining new information, encountering and solving new problems. How open are you to new ideas? 

  • Crsytalized: already obtained information, experience, in problem solving 

TEST Video Notes:

• Continuity describes development involving gradual change in behaviors and thought processes

• Thinking develops through schemas 

• Assimilation: taking in new information but not changing the schema 

  • Placing new information into an existing schema

• Accommodation: is taking in new information and changing the schema to incorporate new information 

  • Changing an existing schema or creating new schemas

• Piaget’s Theory:

• Sensorimotor stage (birth -2yrs)

  • Explores world through senses

  • Object performance is not there (if they cant see an object it doesn’t exist anymore)

    • Develops near the end of the stage

  • Separation anxiety 

• Preoperational stage (2-7 yrs)

  • Struggle with logic

  • Symbolic thought use language and symbols to express ideas and understand the world

  • Pretend play- use their animation and fuels problem solving skills 

  • Animism- assign nonliving objects, human traits

  • Egocentrism- think others automatically understand their perspective 

  • Inability to conserve or know that the quantity or volume of an object remains the same despite changes

  • Lack reversibility 

  • Around age 4 they develop a skill called Theory of Mind in which they are able to understand others and how they think and feel 

• Concrete operational stage (7-12 yrs)

  • Understand conservation and reversibility and overcome preoperational struggles

• Formal Operational Stage (12 yrs and older)

  • Abstract thinking involved examining possibilities that are not concrete 

    • Things such as fairness and justice

  • Hypothetical reasoning involved predicting and systematically testing ideas that lead to logical conclusions

  • Metacognition involves examining one’s mental process 

• Vygotsky’s Theory of Social Cognition 

• ZPD: refers to what the learner can do with help from a more knowledgeable other 

• The gap between what they can do alone and what they need help with 

• Scaffolding is when a mentor of some sort helps them learn a new skill

• Piaget focuses on individual milestones and internal processes while Vygotsky focuses on social interaction, cultural context and collaborative learning

• Crystallized intelligence: aspect of general intelligence with facts and information 

• Fluid intelligence: aspect of general intelligence consisting of the ability to reason quickly and abstractly

  • Declines through age, mainly late adulthood

• Neurocognitive disorders involve problems with mental functioning 

• In the DSM-5-TR, neurocognitive disorders are categorized as mild or major

• Alzeimer’s disease involved memory loss and cognitive decline and changes in behavior 

3.5 Communication and Language Development

• Language: a method of communication

  • Becomes mutually agreed upon 

• Basic Structures:

  • Occur at around the same time across populations meaning its nature oriented and not nurture oriented

  • Cooing: noise made without moving mouth (0-6 months)

  • Babbling: nonsensical, doesn’t mean anything, random noises. Naturally done, not nature (6-8 months)

  • One word stage: says one word (9-18 months)

  • Telegraphic speech: combining words to create short sentences (18-36 months)

• Error in Language Learning:

  • Overgeneralization: correct grammar rule used wrong 

  • Go → past tense: goed when it should be went

TEST Video Notes:

• Language is a creative, shared system of symbols, including phonemes and morphemes, governed by grammar, which includes semantics and syntax rules 

• Across cultures, individuals also use nonverbal gestures to communicate 

• Phonemes vs. Morphemes

  • Phonemes: the smallest individual sounds in any language

    • Ex: Dog-> d/o/g

  • Morphemes: the smallest units of meaning in a language, such as root words, prefixes, and suffixes

• Syntax vs. Semantics

  • Syntax: The aspect of grammar that refers to the rules used to put words in the correct order in a sentence

  • Semantics: The component of language that provides both the meaning of words and how words combine to form meaning

• Aspects of the language acquisition process are shared across cultures

  • Cooing: involves the soft vowel-like sounds produced by babies when they appear to be happy of content

  • Babbling: involves consonant-like sounds and begins around six months

• Early linguistic developments

  • One word stage: when children communicate using single words that often convey complex ideas

    • Typically from 10-18 months 

  • Telegraphic speech: involves the first multi-word speech consisting of two or three-word expressions typically from 18-30 months

• Overgeneralization is a characteristic error when learning a language in which individuals apply grammatical rules too broadly

3.6: Social-Emotional Development Across the Lifespan

Ecological Systems Theory:

• Method of considering social contexts

• Systems to identify and explain different environments that individuals operate in 

1. Individual

• Age, sex, health name, biological components such as genetics, hormones, and microbes

• Hunger could also affect socialization if its extreme 

2. Microsystem

• Friends, family and immediate environment 

• Those we interact with regularly (reciprocal influence)

• Most personal interactions, critical for development

3. Mesosystem 

• Interactions between different microsystems 

• Ex: parent and teacher interacting at a parent teacher conference

• Influence on the individual is less direct but apparent 

4. Exosystem

• Indirect influences such as neighbors, community and mass media 

• Ex: parents workplace, events in the community 

5. Macrosystem

• Social and cultural views, geography, socioeconomic status and ideology

• Things that apply to culture, wealth and race

• More about established elements than ones specific to the individuals’ development 

6. Chronosystem

• Development over time, life changes, historical events 

• How time has an affect, major changes or big life events 

Parenting Styles:

• Permissive

  • Few rules and consequences, few guidelines 

  • Parent is more concerned with being on good terms with child 

  • Doesn’t want to restrict them providing freedom with no direction 

• Authoritarian

  • High expectations and lots of ruled 

  • Extreme and harsh

• Authoritative

  • Mix of both styles 

  • Rules, guidelines and consequences

  • Commutative and manageable expectations and more freedom as child grows and older responsible 

Attachment Styles and Themes:

• Based on how the child responds to the parent 

• Connecting between parents and children 

• Secure: healthy and looks to parent for comfort and support 

• Insecure: unhealthy

  • Avoidant: used to parent leaving. Grow very independent and sufficient 

  • Anxious: parent cant console child. Very emotional

  • Disorganized: child has trust issues & maintain distance from others 

• Not like critical periods. You can develop secure from insecure relationships over time

Temperament (disposition)

• A person’s approach to the world and others

• Personality is based on temperament (nature and stable)

• Sanguine: outgoing

• Choleric: short tempered and strong willed 

• Melancholic: sad 

• Phlegmatic: easy going, chill

Separation Anxiety

• From when the caregiver leaves & are in the presence of strangers

• Connected to the idea of object permanence

• Don't bite the hand that feeds

  • Harry Laflow (1958)

    • Monkey Experiment: monkeys were separated from caregivers

    • Displayed children's preference for comfort over food

  • Which is more important between comfort and food? -> BOTH

The importance of Peers

• Play for small children

• Acceptance and behavior for Adolescents 

Adulting

• The Social Clock: as you become an adult & when is it considered by society that you are an adult 

  • Also puts pressure as to whether or not it’s too late if you miss timeframe

• Depends on the culture

• Typically surrounding some event/milestone 

  • Marriage, ritual rite, graduation, job, etc.

• Friends/parenting/other relationships

• Can be affected by temperament 

Stage Theory of Psychosocial Development 

• Erik Erickson

• Stage Theory: discontinuity

• Conflict resolution

• Based on age and social situation/circumstances/relationships

  • As you grow up, you find yourself in different situations

• Problems come from unhealthy resolution

• Can return and fix problems (therapy)

1. Trust vs Mistrust

2. Autonomy vs. Shame & doubt

3. Initiative vs. Guilt

4. Industry vs. Inferiority

5. Identity vs. Role confusion

6. Intimacy vs. Isolation

7. Generativity vs. Stagnation

8. Integrity vs. Despair

*More information in TEST video notes

Trauma and its Impact

• ACEC (Adverse childhood experiences)

• Inventory of childhood

• How does it impact later development/relationships/behaviors?

TEST Video Notes:

• Authoritarian parents raise children who tend to be hard-working but unhappy. 

  • Quick to blame others and may rebel against their parents 

• Permissive parents have children who react poorly to frustration

  • They lack self control and emotional regulation 

• The children of neglectful parents tend to be immature and lonely, with poor relationship skills 

• Authoritative parents have the happiest, articulate children who form better relationships

• Cultural differences play a role based on parenting styles and the outcome 

• When considering different social and cultural norms, different styles of parenting may not be consistent

• Harry Harlow conducted an experiment that demonstrated that monkeys bonded from confort, not food

  • Monkeys preferred the fake mom with the soft towel than the one with food

• The strange situation

  • The mither and child would enter

  • A stranger would enter

  • The mother leaves

  • The mother returns

  • Both adults leave 

  • The stranger returns

  • Finally the mother returns

  • The way the child reacts show the type of attachment style the child has

• Secure: trusting relationships with caregivers and carry onto adulthood

• Anxiously attached: clingy and nervous but also show aggression 

• Avoidant attachment: seem detached overall with little distressed when separated

• Disorganized attachment: shows fear sometimes, anger, or freezing in place or staring off into space

• Friends are important for young people due to: companionship, emotional support, validation, social skills, intimacy, assistance/advice, conflict resolution 

• Relationships with peers are equal power relationships.

  • Form based on proximity, age, interests 

  • Often manifests how they play with others

• Play

  • Usually begin with solitary play (alone)

  • Then Onlooker play

  • Parallel play: play near each other but not together

  • Cooperative play: when they play together on the same task 

  • Pretend play: children make up and act out scenarios 

• Adolescent relationships:

  • Extremely sensitive to what others think and base their behaviors around this fact 

  • Awareness of others creates a stronger self awareness (focused on themselves and their flaws)

  • May believe that everyone is always watching them and noticing their failures (imaginary audience)

  • Leads to stress and humiliation

  • Larger focus on individual relationships and less on groups 

  • Focus on one’s self and identity (form of egocentrism)

  • Leads to personal fable which is an exaggerated sense of being special and unique 

  • Relationships reflect these characteristics

• Adulthood Relationships:

  • Committed relationships formed by may people in adulthood tend to be far more involved and serious 

  • Continued emphasis on intimacy and closeness to form family structures in both traditional and nontraditional ways

  • May not have social groups as much as adolescents 

  • Relationships can form from: co-workers, activities, church, extended family and long term friends

  • Relationships center around different purposes and convenience

• Cultural differences in Adult Relationships:

  • Frequency of major life events 

  • The average age of 1st marriage is significantly different from one culture to another, and the age the 1st child is born 

• Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory of Development:

  • One of the first stages theories to propose changes throughout the lifespan

  • Each stage involves a conflict between two outcomes, positive and negative

1. Trust vs. Mistrust (0-1.5 yrs)

   1. Involves learning to trust the caregiver. Will the caregiver be there when the baby needs them 

2. Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt (1.5-3 yrs)

   1. Involves making one’s own decisions and gaining independence or will their parent do everything for them

3. Initiative vs. Guilt (3-6 yrs)

   1. If they are shamed for making a mistake or doing something wrong instead of being patiently taught

   2. Relates to when making their friends 

4. Industry vs. Inferiority (6-12 yrs)

   1. Kids compare themselves to others and try to measure up to them in different environments 

   2. Affects their self esteem 

5. Identity vs. Role Confusion (12-18 yrs)

   1. Figuring out who you are and what you will become 

   2. Change their friend groups and interests

6. Intimacy vs, Isolation (19-40 yrs)

   1. Trying to build deeper relationships and try to get married and form long term commitments with those they meet in the youth 

7. Generativity vs. Stagnation (40-65 yrs)

   1. Involves feeling satisfied and productive with your career, family and the way you can give back to the world 

   2. Volunteer work and giving back to make their community better

8. Ego integrity vs. Despair (65 to death)

   1. Reflective stage in which they reflect on their life and if they’ve lived a meaningful one and what they contributed

   2. Their regrets and what they could have done differently

• James Marcia’s theory of Identity Development:

  • Commitment (yes) and Exploration (no): identity foreclosure in which someone else has given them an identity. Maybe a parent or friend group 

  • Commitment (no) and Exploration (no): identity diffusion in which they are all over the place and haven't figured anything out

  • Commitment (no) and Exploration (yes): identity moratorium in which there is a grace period where they are working on it but not there yet 

  • Commitment (yes) and Exploration (yes): identity achievement in which they know who they want to be. 

3.7: Classical Conditioning (Learning)

Learning

• According to psychology (and behaviorists)

• Must involve observable actions

• Learning only takes place when behavior changes (observable)

Classical conditioning

• Early behaviorists

• All behaviors are learned behaviors

• Programmed based on environment

• All learned behaviors are conditioned

• A stimuli/response condition

• No high-level evaluation (cognition)

3 parts: 

• 2 stimuli (unconditional, conditional and neutral)

  • Conditional and neutral are the same thing

  • Elicits a physiological response 

  • Takes stimuli and change it from neutral to into conditional 

  • Unconditional stimuli is the thing you can’t help but experience (mouth salivating for food)

  • Ex: mouth darts tingling because it will know what happens after you put the sour candy in your mouth 

• 1 response

  • Looks for what causes the response naturally and pair the stimulus to the response

  • By pairing the sound of the bell with food, when the dog hears the bell, they salivate. Pairs the sound of bell to salivation

  • Want the neutral stimulus (NS) to become conditioned stimulus (CS)

  • NS replaces UCS to create the CR

Terminology:

• Acquisition: pair the neutral stimulus with the conditioned response 

  • CS creates the CR

• Extinction: the neutral stimulus doesn’t associate with UCS

  • CS no longer creates CR (breaks association)

• Spontaneous recovery: stimulus is presented again after extinction and elicits a response

• Stimulus Discrimination:

  • Subject understands the difference between similar stimulus 

• Stimulus Generalization:

  • Subject doesn’t understand the difference between stimulus 

• Counterconditioning:

  • Conditioning as treatment (to help with phobias)

  • You are directly conditioned to be afraid of something and so you expose them to the stimuli repeatedly in an attempt to break the connection between response and stimuli 

  • Can be toward (encourage) and away (discourage)

Taste aversion:

• Classical conditioning and biological (instinctual) drives

• You went to a restaurant and you had bad food and get sick so now you associate the restaurant with bad feelings

• The power of taste and your response