AP Psychology – Unit 9: Developmental Psychology

DEVELOPMENTAL ISSUES, PRENATAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE NEWBORN

A. Developmental Psychology’s Major Issues

1. What 3 issues have engaged developmental psychologists?

2. What findings in psychology support the concept of stages in development and the idea of stability in personality across the life span?

3. What findings challenge these ideas?

B. Prenatal Development and the Newborn

4. zygotes

5. Embryo

6. Fetus

7. Teratogens

8. Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)

9. Habituation

10. What is the course of prenatal development?

11. How do teratogens affect that development?

12. How do researchers explore infants’ mental abilities?

INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD: PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

A. Physical Development

13. Maturation

14. During infancy and childhood, how does the brain develop?

15. During infancy and childhood, how do motor skills develop?

B. Brain Maturation and Infant Memory

16. How does an infant’s developing brain begin processing memories?

INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD: COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

17. Schemas

18. Assimilate

19. Accommodate

A. Piaget’s Theory and Current Thinking

20. Object permanence

21. Conservation

22. Egocentric

23. Theory of mind

24. Lev Vygotsky

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Typical Age Range / Description of Stage / Developmental Phenomena
25. Sensorimotor
26. Preoperational
27. Concrete operational
28. Formal operational

29. How were Vygotsky’s ideas about development different from those of Piaget?

30. How do today’s researchers differ from Piaget?

INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD: SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

A. Origins of Attachment

31. Stranger anxiety

32. Attachment

33. Harry & Margaret Harlow

34. Critical period

35. Imprinting

B. Attachment Differences: Temperament and Parenting

36. Mary Ainsworth

37. Secure attachment

38. Insecure attachment

39. Temperament

40. Basic trust

41. Describe Ainsworth’s strange situation experiment.

C. Deprivation of Attachment

42. Does childhood neglect, abuse, or family disruption affect children’s attachments?

D. Day Care

43. How does day care affect children?

E. Self-Concept

44. How do children’s self-concepts develop?

F. Parenting Styles

45. Authoritarian parents

46. Permissive parents

47. Authoritative parents

48. How do children’s traits relate to parenting styles?

GENDER DEVELOPMENT

A. How Are We Alike? How Do We Differ?

49. What are some gender similarities and differences in aggression?

50. What are some gender similarities and differences in social power?

51. What are some gender similarities and differences in social connectedness?

B. The Nurture of Gender: Our Culture

52. Gender roles

53. Gender identity

54. Social learning theory

55. Gender typing

56. Transgender

PARENTS, PEERS AND EARLY EXPERIENCES

A. Experience and Brain Development

57. How do early experiences modify the brain?

B. How Much Credit or Blame Do Parents Deserve? Peers?

58. In what ways do parents and peers shape children’s development?

ADOLESCENCE: PHYSICAL AND COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

A. Adolescence

59. Adolescence

60. Moral reasoning

61. What physical changes mark adolescence?

62. How did Piaget, Kohlberg, and later researchers describe adolescent cognitive and moral development?

Kohlberg’s Levels of Moral Thinking
Level (approximate age) / Focus / Example
63. Preconventional morality
64. Conventional morality
65. Postconventional morality

ADOLESCENCE: SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT AND EMERGING ADULTHOOD

A. Forming an Identity

66. Social identity

67. Intimacy

Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development
Stage (approximate age) / Issue / Description of Task
68. / Trust v. mistrust
69. / Autonomy v. shame and doubt
70. / Initiative v. guilt
71. / Competence v. Inferiority
72. / Identity v. role confusion
73. / Intimacy v. Isolation
74. / Generativity v. stagnation
75. / Integrity v. despair

B. Parent and Peer Relationships

76. How do parents and peers influence adolescents?

C. Emerging Adulthood

77. What is emerging adulthood?

SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT

A. Prenatal Sexual Development

78. X chromosome

79. Y chromosome

80. Testosterone

81. Puberty

82. Primary sex characteristics

83. Secondary sex characteristics

84. Menarche

85. What are some of the ways that sexual development varies?

86. How can sexually transmitted infections be prevented?

87. What factors influence teenagers’ sexual behaviors and use of contraceptives?

88. What possible biological influences on sexual orientation have researchers explored?

ADULTHOOD: PHYSICAL, COGNITIVE, AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

A. Physical Development

89. Menopause

90. What physical changes occur during middle and late adulthood?

B. Cognitive Development

91. Cross-sectional studies

92. Longitudinal studies

93. How does memory change with age?

C. Social Development

» Terms to Know:

94. Social clock

95. Empty nest

96. What themes and influences mark our social journey from early adulthood to death?

D. Death and Dying

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Stages of Loss and Grief
Stage / Description
97. Denial and isolation
98. Anger
99. Bargaining
100. Depression
101. Acceptance