AP Psychology Unit 3 :)

Unit 3: Development & Learning

Table of Contents

• Topic 2.8 part I: Intelligence

  • Discussion Questions

  • Historical Views of Intelligence

  • Definition of Intelligence

  • General Intelligence (g)

  • Cattell-Horn-Carroll Theory (CHC)

  • Modern Views of Intelligence

  • Triarchic Theory

  • Multiple Intelligences

  • Emotional Intelligence

  • Growth vs. Fixed Mindset

• Topic 2.8 part II: Intelligence and Achievement Testing

  • Measuring Mental Abilities

  • Intelligence Tests

  • Alfred Binet and the Binet-Simon Test

  • Louis Terman and the Stanford-Binet Test

  • Intelligence Quotient (IQ)

  • Wechsler Scales

  • Psychometric Principles for Assessments

    • Standardization

    • Validity

    • Reliability

  • Socio-cultural Responsiveness of Assessments

  • Systemic Issues with Intelligence Assessments

  • Comparing Mental Ability Among Different Age Groups

  • Flynn Effect

  • Variation in IQ Scores

  • Academic Assessments

• Topic 3.1: Themes and Methods in Developmental Psychology

  • Overview of Developmental Psychology

  • Themes in Developmental Psychology

• Topic 3.2: Physical Development Across the Lifespan

  • Prenatal Development

  • Teratogens

  • Infant and Child Development

  • Childhood Development

• Topic 3.4: Cognitive Development Across the Lifespan

  • Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development

  • Vygotsky’s Theory of Cognitive Development

• Topic 3.5: Communication & Language Development

  • Components of Language

  • Language Development Stages

  • Psycholinguistic Theories

• Topic 3.6 part I: Social Emotional Development Across the Lifespan

  • Temperament

  • Attachment Theories

  • Harlow’s Monkeys Experiments

• Topic 3.6 part II: Social Emotional Development Across the Lifespan

  • Peer Relationships

  • Erikson’s Stage Theory of Psychosocial Development

  • Effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

  • James Marcia’s Theory of Identity Development

Topic 2.8 part I: Intelligence

Discussion Questions

• How do YOU define intelligence? How can it be measured?

• How do intelligent people get to be intelligent?

• Can intelligence change over the course of one’s life?

• Are there intelligent people who don’t do well at school?

• Might different societies define intelligence differently?

  • Consider non-literate, paleolithic society's definition of intelligence.

• Is there one form of intelligence, or can people be intelligent in different ways?

Historical Views of Intelligence

• Definition of Intelligence:

  • Psychological definition focuses on the ability to learn from experience, understand shared information, solve problems, and adapt to new situations.

• General Intelligence (g):

  • Proposed by Charles Spearman, who argued that a single general intelligence (g) underlies diverse cognitive abilities.

  • Factor Analysis: Spearman used this statistical method to demonstrate how performance in various cognitive domains correlates.

  • Robert Plomin noted that g reliably predicts academic achievement.

• Cattell-Horn-Carroll Theory (CHC):

  • Acknowledges multiple factors influencing intelligence, including:

  • Fluid Intelligence (Gf): Ability to reason abstractly and solve novel problems.

  • Crystallized Intelligence (Gc): Accumulated knowledge, often reflected in vocabulary and applied skills.

  • Identification of specific abilities, including memory capacity and processing speed.

Modern Views of Intelligence

• Triarchic Theory (Robert Sternberg):

  • Proposes three types of intelligence:

  • Analytical Intelligence: Problem-solving used in traditional academic assessments.

  • Creative Intelligence: Adapting to new situations and generating innovative ideas.

  • Practical Intelligence: Navigating everyday tasks or ‘street smarts.’

• Multiple Intelligences (Howard Gardner):

  • Suggests eight independent intelligences, including:

  • Linguistic-verbal

  • Logical-mathematical

  • Spatial

  • Musical

  • Bodily-kinesthetic

  • Interpersonal

  • Intrapersonal

  • Naturalistic

  • Savant Syndrome: Individuals with very high abilities in one area but low performance in others.

• Emotional Intelligence:

  • Ability to recognize, understand, and manage emotions in oneself and others.

  • Components include:

    • Perceiving emotions

    • Understanding and predicting emotions

    • Managing emotions to facilitate thinking

  • Concept developed in the 1920s by Thorndike and further advanced by Goleman and Mayer in the late 1990s.

• Growth and Fixed Mindset:

  • Fixed Mindset (Dweck): Belief that intelligence is static and unchangeable, impacting responses to failure.

  • Growth Mindset: Understanding that abilities can be developed through effort, fostering resilience.

  • Grit (Angela Duckworth): Persistence and passion for long-term goals as a success predictor.

Comparison of Intelligence Theories | TABLE 2.8-1

Topic 2.8 part II: Intelligence and Achievement Testing

Measuring Mental Abilities

• Intelligence Test: Aimed to measure mental ability relative to others using numerical scores.

  • Controversy exists around whether these tests genuinely measure intelligence or merely categorize it.

Alfred Binet and the Binet-Simon Test

• Alfred Binet:

  • French psychologist who devised a test in the early 1900s to identify school children needing support.

  • Established the concept of mental age as a level of performance typical for specific chronological ages.

  • Emphasized environment's role in intellectual development, with schooling as a means to assist lower-scoring children.

Louis Terman and the Stanford-Binet Test

• Louis Terman:

  • Adapted Binet’s test to reflect innate intelligence and added adult age norms, resulting in the Stanford-Binet test.

Intelligence Quotient (IQ)

• The IQ was initially calculated as:
  $IQ = \frac{Mental\ Age}{Chronological\ Age} \times 100$

• Now, IQ is based on performance relative to age peers, with 68% scoring between 85-115, following a normal curve.

Wechsler Intelligence Scales

• David Wechsler: Developed WAIS (for adults) and WISC (for children).

• Tests consist of 15 subtests for varied intelligence areas, providing scores for verbal comprehension and perceptual reasoning alongside an overall score.

Psychometric Principles for Assessments

• Psychometrics: Study of how to measure human abilities and traits.

• Key Characteristics of Good Tests:

  • Standardization: Establishing norms using a representative sample to ensure fair comparison.

  • Validity: The test measures what it claims to measure.

    • Types of validity: content, construct, and predictive.

  • Reliability: Consistent results across different contexts and times.

    • Examples: split-half reliability and test-retest reliability.

Socio-cultural Responsiveness of Assessments

• Valid assessments should be aware of socio-cultural factors, ensuring they don't require knowledge specific to one demographic.

• Issues such as stereotype threat and stereotype lift demonstrate how expectations can impact performance.

Systemic Issues with Intelligence Assessments

• Intelligence tests historically discriminated against various social and demographic groups, impacting access to education, employment, and more.

• The eugenics movement misused psychological assessments to justify forced sterilizations, affecting marginalized populations.

Comparing Mental Ability Among Different Age Groups

• Cross-Sectional Studies: Compare different age groups at one point in time; often show decline in intelligence with age.

• Longitudinal Studies: Follow the same group over time, showing stability and sometimes increases in intelligence with age.

Flynn Effect

• James Flynn: Noted increases in IQ scores across generations, not attributed to innate intelligence but to societal and educational improvements.

  • Factors include education, nutrition, environment, and technological engagement.

Variation in IQ Scores

• Within Groups vs. Between Groups: IQ scores show greater variation within groups, indicating individual genetics may play a more significant role than group affiliation.

  • Gender differences: Girls excel in verbal tasks; boys in spatial reasoning in co-educational environments.

Academic Assessments

• Intelligence tests gauge cognitive potential, whereas academic assessments reflect learned knowledge in specific subjects.

• Two types of academic assessments:

  • Achievement Tests: Measure crystallized intelligence.

  • Aptitude Tests: Assess potential to learn new skills, like the SAT.

Topic 3.1: Themes and Methods in Developmental Psychology

Developmental Psychology

• The study of chronological order and themes of human growth throughout life.

• Focuses on physical, social, and cognitive changes in developmental stages, such as childhood and adolescence.

• Methods include cross-sectional and longitudinal studies.

Themes in Developmental Psychology

• Nature vs. Nurture: Interaction between genetics and environment in development.

• Stability vs. Change: Whether characteristics remain consistent or transform throughout a lifespan.

• Continuous vs. Discontinuous Stages: Whether changes happen gradually or in distinct stages.

Topic 3.2: Physical Development Across the Lifespan

Prenatal Development

• Prenatal Development: Influences future behaviors and mental processes.

  • Stages include early development from blastocyst to embryo in the first two months.

Teratogens

• Teratogens: Substances or conditions that adversely affect prenatal development, causing birth defects or impairments.

  • Examples include maternal illnesses, genetic mutations, hormonal factors, and environmental toxins.

Infant and Child Development

• Infant Reflexes: Essential for survival; include rooting and sucking reflexes.

  • Presence indicates a healthy milestone track.

Memory Development

• Born with fewer neural connections, leading to challenges in recalling episodic memories before ages 3-5 (infantile amnesia).

• Able to form semantic and procedural memories, allowing quicker re-learning of languages previously heard.

Critical Periods & Neuroplasticity

• Critical Period: An optimal time for exposure to stimuli for normal development.

• Neuroplasticity: Changes in neural connections with experience, continues throughout life but diminishes in older age.

Effects of Environment on Development

• Early experiences shape neural connections. Enriched environments foster cognitive skills; experiments with rats illustrate the impact of stimulation on growth.

Topic 3.4: Cognitive Development Across the Lifespan

Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development

• Stage 1: Sensorimotor (0-2 years): Learning through senses; development of object permanence.

• Stage 2: Preoperational (2-7 years): Symbolic representation; lack of logical reasoning.

  • Characteristics include egocentrism and animism.

• Stage 3: Concrete Operational (7-11 years): Logical thinking about concrete events; understanding conservation.

• Stage 4: Formal Operational (12-adult): Abstract reasoning and hypothetical thinking.

Vygotsky’s Theory of Cognitive Development

• Emphasizes social interaction as a key to cognitive growth, with children developing through guidance (scaffolding) in the zone of proximal development.

Topic 3.5: Communication & Language Development

Language Components

• Semantics, Syntax, Grammar, Phonology: Foundations for language that include meaning, order, structural rules, and sounds.

• From cooing to two-word speech and later telegraphic speech, children progress through identifiable language stages.

• Chomsky’s Nativist Theory: Proposes that language is an innate human ability, complemented by a universal grammar.

• Whorf's Hypothesis: Language shapes perception and cultural understanding.

Topic 3.6 Part I: Social Emotional Development Across the Lifespan

Temperament and Attachment

• Temperament: Innate individual differences in behavior and emotional response.

• Attachment: Important emotional bond between caregiver and infant crucial for social development, categorized by styles (secure vs. insecure) through Ainsworth's Strange Situation Experiment.

Harlow’s Monkeys:

• Demonstrated the necessity of contact comfort for healthy development in monkeys separated from their mothers, challenging Freud's cupboard theory.

Topic 3.6 Part II: Social Emotional Development Across the Lifespan

Peer Relationships

• Transitioning from parallel play in early childhood to more social interactions as children age, including concepts of adolescent egocentrism impacting decision-making.

Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages

• Erikson’s Theory: Describes eight stages from infancy to late adulthood characterized by conflicts (e.g., trust vs. mistrust) essential for healthy development.

Effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

• Experiences like abuse or neglect during childhood profoundly affect adult relationships and development patterns.

• Sociocultural differences can influence perceptions of ACEs and coping strategies.

James Marcia’s Theory of Identity Development

• Critical processes in adolescent identity formation include diffusion, moratorium, foreclosure, and achievement.

• Development is influenced by identity crises and commitment levels, culminating in the healthiest identity outcomes through achievement.