Untitled Flashcards Set

Unit 3 Psychology Development study guide 

Longitudinal Studies- a research method where the same group of participants are studied repeatedly over a long period of time

Cross-Sectional Studies - a research design where data is collected from a diverse group of individuals at a single point in time

Teratogen - any substance or agent that can cause abnormalities in a developing fetus when a pregnant woman is exposed to it, potentially leading to birth defects

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome - a developmental disorder in a child caused by heavy alcohol consumption by the mother during pregnancy

Reflexes - a involuntary, automatic, and nearly instantaneous response to a stimulus, occurring without conscious thought or effort, often serving to protect the body from harm or maintain balance

Visual Cliff Apparatus - a specially designed experimental setup used to study depth perception in infants and animals

Maturation - the process of biological growth and development that occurs naturally over time, enabling orderly changes in behavior, largely independent of environmental influence

Critical Period - a specific time window during development where an organism is highly sensitive to environmental stimuli

Sensitive Period - a specific developmental window where an individual is particularly receptive to learning certain skills or acquiring specific knowledge, making it the optimal time for exposure to relevant stimuli

Imprinting - a rapid learning process where a newborn animal forms a strong attachment to the first moving object it encounters within a critical period shortly after birth, usually identifying that object as its caregiver and following it instinctively

Gross Movement - a large, coordinated body movement that utilizes large muscle groups, like walking, running, jumping, or crawling

Fine Motor Skills - the ability to control small muscle groups, primarily in the hands and fingers, to perform precise movements, like writing, buttoning clothes, or using scissors

Crystallized Intelligence - he accumulated knowledge, skills, and facts a person has acquired throughout their life

Fluid Intelligence - the ability to solve new problems, reason abstractly, and think flexibly in novel situations without relying on previously learned knowledge

Dementia - a significant decline in cognitive functions like memory, language, and reasoning abilities, caused by a variety of factors, which becomes severe enough to disrupt a person's daily life and activities

Piaget's 4 Stages of Development - sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational

Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development - the gap between what a learner can accomplish independently and what they can achieve with guidance from a more knowledgeable person

Language - a complex system of communication that uses symbols, words, or signs to express thoughts, ideas, and emotions, following a set of rules (grammar) to convey meaning

Phonemes - the smallest distinctive unit of sound in a language

Morphemes - the smallest unit of language that carries meaning

Grammar - the set of rules that govern how words are combined to form meaningful sentences within a language

Cooing Stage - an early stage of infant language development where babies produce soft, vowel-like sounds like "oo" or "ah," typically occurring between 2-3 months old

Babbling Stage -  a developmental period where infants, typically between 6 and 9 months old, begin experimenting with producing various sounds by combining consonants and vowels, like "ba-ba" or "ma-ma," while not yet forming recognizable words

One-Word Stage - the developmental period when a child begins to use single words to communicate entire thoughts or ideas, usually occurring around 12-18 months old

Two-Word Stage - a developmental phase where a child typically between 18-24 months old starts to combine two words together to communicate

Overgeneralization of language rules - when a child learning language applies a grammatical rule too broadly, resulting in incorrect usage

Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development - a theory by Erik Erikson that outlines eight distinct stages of human development, each characterized by a psychosocial crisis that individuals must navigate and resolve to achieve healthy personality development throughout their lifespan

Associative Learning –a type of learning where an individual forms a connection between two stimuli or a stimulus and a response

Habituation - a decrease in response to a stimulus after repeated exposure to it

Classical Conditioning – a type of learning where an organism learns to associate two stimuli together, resulting in a new learned response to a previously neutral stimulus by repeatedly pairing it with a naturally occurring stimulus that elicits a reflexive response

Conditioned Response - a learned behavior that occurs when a previously neutral stimulus (conditioned stimulus) becomes associated with a naturally occurring stimulus, triggering a response that is similar to the one elicited by the original stimulus

Conditioned Stimulus - a previously neutral stimulus that, through repeated pairing with an unconditioned stimulus, eventually triggers a conditioned response

Acquisition - the initial stage of learning in classical conditioning, where a neutral stimulus becomes associated with an unconditioned stimulus, leading to the development of a conditioned response

Higher Order Conditioning - a classical conditioning process where a neutral stimulus becomes associated with an already established conditioned stimulus, eventually eliciting a conditioned response even though it was never directly paired with the unconditioned stimulus

Extinction - the gradual weakening or disappearance of a learned behavior when it is no longer reinforced

Spontaneous Recovery - the reappearance of a previously extinguished conditioned response after a period of time without exposure to the conditioned stimulus

Generalization - the tendency to respond in the same way to different but similar stimuli

Discrimination - the act of behaving negatively towards an individual based on their membership in a particular group

Operant Conditioning - a type of learning where a behavior is strengthened or weakened based on its consequences

Reinforcement - a consequence that strengthens or increases the likelihood of a behavior occurring by providing a desirable outcome or removing an undesirable one

Law of Effect - behaviors which produce a satisfying outcome are more likely to be repeated, while behaviors that produce an unsatisfying outcome are less likely to be repeated again

Shaping - a technique in operant conditioning where a desired behavior is gradually taught by reinforcing successive approximations of that behavior

Instinctive Drift - the tendency of an animal to revert back to its natural, instinctual behaviors, even after being trained to perform a different learned behavior, often interfering with the previously learned actions

Superstitious Behavior - a behavior that is repeated based on the mistaken belief that it causes a desired outcome, even though there is no logical or scientific connection between the action and the result

Learned Helplessness - a psychological state where an individual feels powerless to change their situation due to repeated exposure to uncontrollable negative events, leading them to stop attempting to escape or avoid those events even when the opportunity arises, essentially believing their actions have no effect on the outcome

Reinforcement Schedules - a set of rules that determine how often a desired behavior will be reinforced

Continuous - a gradual and ongoing process of change, where development occurs steadily without distinct stages

Partial - a type of reinforcement schedule where a desired behavior is only rewarded occasionally, meaning the response is not reinforced every time it occurs

Fixed Interval - a schedule of reinforcement where a response is only rewarded after a specific, predetermined amount of time has passed since the last reinforcement

Fixed Ratio -  a schedule of reinforcement where a behavior is rewarded after a specific, predetermined number of responses have been made

Variable Interval - a schedule of reinforcement where a response is rewarded after an unpredictable amount of time has passed

Variable Ratio - a reinforcement schedule where a behavior is rewarded after an unpredictable number of responses, resulting in a high, steady rate of responding, often considered the most persistent behavior due to the uncertainty of when the next reward will occur