review terms 4

Review Terms

Behavioral Perspective

• Focuses on observable behaviors and the ways they are learned.

Associative Learning

• Involves connecting certain stimuli or events that occur together in the environment.

Habituation (Non-Associative Learning)

• Decreased response to a repeated stimulus over time.

Classical Conditioning

• Learning process that pairs a neutral stimulus with a stimulus that elicits a reflexive response until the neutral stimulus alone elicits that response.   - Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): A stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers a response without conditioning.   - Unconditioned Response (UR): The natural reaction to an unconditioned stimulus.   - Conditioned Stimulus (CS): A previously neutral stimulus that, after becoming associated with the unconditioned stimulus, eventually comes to trigger a conditioned response.   - Conditioned Response (CR): A learned response to a previously neutral stimulus that becomes conditioned.   - Acquisition: The initial stage in classical conditioning during which association between a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus is learned.   - Extinction: The diminishing of a conditioned response when the conditioned stimulus no longer follows the unconditioned stimulus.   - Spontaneous Recovery: The reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response.   - Stimulus Discrimination: Learning to respond only to the original stimulus, and not to other similar stimuli.   - Stimulus Generalization: The tendency to respond to stimuli that are similar to the conditioned stimulus.   - Higher-Order Conditioning: A procedure in which the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experience is paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second (often weaker) conditioned stimulus.   - Counterconditioning: A behavior therapy procedure that uses classical conditioning to evoke new responses to stimuli that are triggering unwanted behaviors.   - Taste Aversion: The intense dislike and/or avoidance of particular foods that have been associated with nausea or discomfort.   - One-Trial Conditioning: Conditioning that occurs with only one pairing of a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus.   - Biological Preparedness: The propensity of living beings to learn certain associations, such as taste and nausea, with only one or few pairings due to the survival value of the learning.

Operant Conditioning

• A method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior.   - The Law of Effect: Thorndike's principle that behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely, and behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely.   - Reinforcement: In operant conditioning, any event that strengthens the behavior it follows.     - Primary Reinforcers: Events that are inherently reinforcing because they satisfy biological needs.     - Secondary Reinforcers: Events that acquire reinforcing qualities through their association with primary reinforcers.   - Reinforcement Discrimination: Occurs when an organism learns to make a response in the presence of one stimulus but not another.   - Reinforcement Generalization: The spread of a response to stimuli similar to the one that was conditioned.   - Punishment: An event that tends to decrease the behavior that it follows.     - Positive Reinforcement: Increasing behaviors by presenting positive stimuli, such as food. (ADD stimulus)       - Example: Adding a pleasant stimulus/consequence to increase behavior.     - Negative Reinforcement: Increasing behaviors by stopping or reducing negative stimuli, such as shock. (REMOVE stimulus)       - Example: Removing an aversive stimulus to increase behavior.     - Positive Punishment: The administration of a stimulus to decrease the probability of a behavior's recurring. (ADD aversive stimulus/consequence)       - Example: Adding an aversive stimulus/consequence to reduce behavior.     - Negative Punishment: The removal of a stimulus to decrease the probability of a behavior's recurring. (REMOVE pleasant stimulus)       - Example: Removing a pleasant stimulus to decrease behavior.   - Shaping: A conditioning paradigm used primarily in the experimental analysis of behavior.   - Instinctive Drift: The tendency of an animal to revert to instinctive behaviors that interfere with a conditioned response.   - Superstitious Behavior: Behavior that increases in frequency because its occurrence is accidentally paired with the delivery of a reinforcer.

Reinforcement Schedules

• A rule stating which instances of a behavior will be reinforced.   - Fixed (constant):     - Fixed Ratio: Reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses (e.g. reinforces every third bar press).     - Fixed Interval: Reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed (e.g. reinforces first bar press after 30-second intervals).   - Variable (variable):     - Variable Ratio: Reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses (e.g. reinforce bar press after 3, 8, 2, 5, 3, 6 presses of the bar).     - Variable Interval: Reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals (e.g. reinforces bar press after 30 seconds, 12 seconds, 8 seconds, 33 seconds, 15 seconds).   - Continuous Reinforcement: Reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs.   - Partial Reinforcement: Reinforcing a response only part of the time; results in slower acquisition of a response but greater resistance to extinction compared to continuous reinforcement.

Learned Helplessness

• The hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or human learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events.

Social Learning Theory

• The theory that we learn social behavior by observing and imitating and by being rewarded or punished.   - Vicarious Conditioning: Learning that occurs through observing the reactions of others to an environmental stimulus.

Insight Learning

• A form of problem solving in which the organism develops a sudden insight into or understanding of a problem's solution.

Latent Learning

• Learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it.

Cognitive Maps

• A mental representation of the layout of one's environment.

Developmental Psychology

• The study of continuity and change across the life span.   - Stability and Change: The debate regarding which traits persist through the lifespan and which change.   - Nature and Nurture: The discussion about the relative importance of genetics (nature) and environment (nurture) in their influence on behavior and mental processes.   - Continuous Development: The view that development is a cumulative process, gradually improving on existing skills.   - Discontinuous Development: The view that development takes place in unique stages, which happen at specific times or ages.   - Cross-sectional Research: A study in which people of different ages are compared with one another.   - Longitudinal Research: Research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period.

Teratogens

• Agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm.

Milestones

• Important markers of development such as walking, talking, and grasping objects.

Prenatal Development

• The process that occurs between the formation of the zygote and birth.

Fine Motor Coordination

• The ability to make movements using the small muscles in our hands and wrists.

Gross Motor Coordination

• The ability to make movements using the large muscles in our arms, legs, and torso.

Maturation

• Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience.

Reflexes

• Automatic responses to sensory stimuli, like the knee-jerk response.   - Rooting Reflex: A baby's tendency, when touched on the cheek, to turn toward the touch, open the mouth, and search for the nipple.

Secondary Sex Characteristics

• Non-reproductive sexual traits, such as female breasts and hips, male voice quality, and body hair.

Menarche

• The first menstrual period.

Spermarche

• The first ejaculation.

Visual Cliff

• A laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals.

Critical Periods

• An optimal period shortly after birth when an organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development.

Sensitive Periods

• Times in development when a person is particularly open to certain kinds of experiences.

Imprinting

• The process by which certain animals form strong attachments during an early-life critical period.

Growth Spurt

• A rapid increase in height and weight that occurs during puberty.

Puberty

• The period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing.

Primary Sex Characteristics

• The body structures (ovaries, testes, and external genitalia) that make sexual reproduction possible.   - Menopause: The natural cessation of menstruation that also marks the end of reproductive capacity in women.

Jean Piaget

• A Swiss psychologist known for his theory of cognitive development that describes how children construct a mental model of the world.   - Schemas: Frameworks that help organize and interpret information.   - Assimilation: The process by which new information is incorporated into pre-existing schemas.   - Accommodation: The process by which schemas are altered to fit new information.   - Sensorimotor Stage: Stage (from birth to about 2 years of age) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities.     - Object Permanence: The awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived.   - Preoperational Stage: 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.     - Mental Symbols: Objects or events that a child knows and can think about, even if they are not physically present.     - Pretend Play: Play that involves making up and acting out a scenario; typically observed during the preoperational stage.     - Conservation: The principle that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in forms of objects.     - Reversibility: The ability to recognize that numbers or objects can be changed and returned to their original condition.     - Animism: The belief that objects that are inanimate have feelings, thoughts, and the mental characteristics and qualities of living things.     - Egocentrism: The preoperational child's difficulty taking another's point of view.     - Theory of Mind: The ability to understand that others have their own thoughts and perspectives.   - Concrete Operational Stage: 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: Stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts.

Lev Vygotsky

• A psychologist known for his sociocultural theory of cognitive development, emphasizing how culture and social interactions guide cognitive development.   - Scaffolding: A technique used by a teacher to adapt their support methods to fit the student's current level of performance, gradually decreasing the guidance as the student becomes more competent.   - Zone of Proximal Development: The difference between what a learner can do without help and what they can do with help.

Ecological Systems Theory

• A theory introduced by Bronfenbrenner that explains how the inherent qualities of a child and their environment interact to influence how they will grow and develop.   - Microsystem: The immediate environment where an individual lives; includes family, peers, school, and neighborhood.   - Mesosystem: The relations between microsystems or connections between contexts.   - Exosystem: External environmental settings that only indirectly affect development (e.g., parent's workplace).   - Macrosystem: The larger cultural context, including socioeconomic status, wealth, poverty, and ethnicity.   - Chronosystem: The patterning of environmental events and transitions over the life course, as well as sociohistorical circumstances.

Parenting Styles

  - Authoritarian Parenting: High demands and low responsiveness; parents have high expectations but provide little feedback and nurturance.   - Authoritative Parenting: High responsiveness and high demands; responsive to children's emotional needs while maintaining high standards.   - Permissive Parenting: Low demands with high responsiveness; very loving yet provide few guidelines and rules.

Attachment Styles

• Patterns of attachment defined as lasting psychological connectedness between human beings.   - Secure Attachment: Characterized by trust, lack of concern with being abandoned, and the view that one is worthy and well liked.   - Insecure Attachment: Characterized by concern that others will not reciprocate one's desire for intimacy, resulting in higher anxiety and avoidance.   - Avoidant Attachment: Difficulty developing intimate relationships due to past rebuffed attempts.   - Anxious Attachment: Characterized by a concern that others will not reciprocate desire for intimacy, resulting in frequent anxiety.   - Disorganized Attachment: Lack of clear attachment behavior, signals, and responses.

Temperament

• Basic emotional style that appears early in development and is largely genetic in origin.

Separation Anxiety

• Emotional distress seen in many infants when they are separated from people with whom they have formed an attachment.

Contact Comfort

• The physical and emotional comfort that an infant receives from being in physical contact with its mother.

Play Types

  - Parallel Play: Activity in which children play side by side without interacting.   - Pretend Play: Play involving imaginary people and situations (also called fantasy play, dramatic play, or imaginative play).

Adolescent Development Concepts

• Imaginary Audience: Adolescents' belief that they are the focus of everyone else's attention and concern.
• Personal Fable: Adolescents' belief that they are special and unique, believing that no life's difficulties will affect them regardless of their behavior.
• Social Clock: Culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement.
• Emerging Adulthood: A period from about age 18 to the mid-twenties, when many in Western cultures are no longer adolescents but have not yet achieved full independence as adults.

Stage Theory of Psychosocial Development (Erikson)

• A theory that identifies eight stages in which a healthy developing individual should pass through from infancy to late adulthood.   - Trust vs. Mistrust: The first stage centers around the infant's basic needs being met by parents.   - Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt: The second stage involves toddlers developing independence.   - Initiative vs. Guilt: The third stage involves independence in planning and activities.   - Industry vs. Inferiority: The fourth stage occurs during childhood (ages 6-11).   - Identity vs. Role Confusion: The fifth stage involves developing personal identity.   - Intimacy vs. Isolation: The sixth stage explores relationships leading toward commitments.   - Generativity vs. Stagnation: The seventh stage focuses on contributing to development of younger individuals.   - Integrity vs. Despair: The final stage involves reflecting on life, leading to satisfaction or regret.

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES)

• Potentially traumatic events occurring in childhood (0-17 years) such as violence, abuse, or neglect.

Achievement (Adolescent Development)

• Typically refers to the attainment of educational qualifications or success in a particular career or field.

Foreclosure (Adolescent Development)

• The identity status of a person who has established an identity based on the choices of others without engaging in identity experimentation.

Moratorium (Adolescent Development)

• The identity status of individuals in the midst of an identity crisis without a clear commitment to an identity.

Possible Selves

• Component of self-concept involving individuals' ideas of what they might become, what they would like to become, and what they fear becoming.

Stage Age Range Key Concepts