[UNIT 6] AP Psych

• Developmental Psychology studies our physical, social, and cognitive development from womb to tomb.
• Piaget proposed four stages of cognitive development: sensorimotor (0-2), preoperational (2-7), concrete operational (7-11), formal operational (11+).
• Erikson's psychosocial stages are eight stages that describe how we develop as individuals throughout our lives.
• Kohlberg developed a three-stage model of moral reasoning based on Piaget's work: pre-conventional, conventional, and post-conventional.
• In the Kohlberg's theory of moral reasoning second stage, Conventional Level Stage, children begin to understand society’s expectations and conform to them.
• The three major debates of developmental psychology are Nature and Nurture, Continuity and Stages, and Stability and Change.
• The order of development of a baby in the course of prenatal development is zygote, embryo, then fetus.
• An embryo is now called a fetus after 9 weeks
• Teratogens are agents, such as chemicals or viruses, that can cause harm to an embryo or fetus during prenatal development
• A zygote is fertilized egg that has not yet undergone mitosis.
• After a zygote undergoes mitosis, the cell divides to form an embryo and lines along the walls of the uterus.
• Each embryo the zygote splits into specializes in structure and in function for the eventual baby
• Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is a teratogen that occurs in 1 of 700 children as a result of a pregnant mother drinking. It is an epigenetic spectrum disorder that occurs because it affects DNA by turning genes on and off.
• The rooting reflex of a baby is when something touches their cheek, and they will then instinctively look for a nipple to suck on.
• The suckling reflex of a baby is that they will suck whatever is in their mouth.
• The startle/moro reflex of a baby is when their arms and legs spread out when they are startled or feel like falling, then they will retract them promptly.

  
• The grasping reflex of a baby is when an object touches their palm, they will instinctively close it.
• The Babinski reflex in babies is if you stroke their foot, they will spread their toes
• Habituation is the decrease in response when a repeated stimulus is presented.
• Babies have a novelty preference, that they will look longer at newer things.
• Because babies cannot communicate, they have personalities but no temperaments. They communicate through body language.
• Temperament refers to how children react to situations and people around them.
• Maturation is the orderly sequence of biological growth
• In a child's development, the association areas are the last to develop.
• In a child's development, brain cells are overly produced during prenatal development, then undergo synaptic pruning during early childhood
• Synaptic pruning is the process of shutting down unused synapses while thousands of synapses are in development to maintain neural efficiency.
• Hippocampus and frontal lobes mature until and through adolesence, making it easier for those in maturation to remember things better.
• Infantile/Childhood Amnesia is the struggle to consciously recall things episodic memories from before 3-4 years old.
• Babies can learn, but do not experience generalization, and rather discrimination.
• Infantile Amnesia occurs because the overproduction of neural synapses make humans more forgetful
• Cognition is the ability to think, know, remember, and communicate
• Schemas are conceptualized categories which sort current knowledge.
• Children learn in schemas.
• Object permanence refers to an infant’s realization that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen or touched.
• Regarding schemas, assimilation is the process of adding things or interpreting things to your schema of it.
• Piaget's first stage is called the sensorimotor stage.
• Regarding schemas, accommodation is the process of altering existing schemas to accommodate new information.
• Egocentrism is the ability to only consider things in your own perspective and lack the consideration of others.
• Piaget's stages of cognitive development are a continuous stages rather than processes which happen abruptly.
• Theory of mind is the understanding that other people have their own thoughts, feelings, beliefs, etc., separate from our own.