PSYC 3620 Developmental Psychology Ch 2 Vocabulary 1 Unconscious mind the part of the mind that contains thoughts feelings about which we are unaware 2 Free association the process used by psychoanalysis in which one thinks of anything that comes to mind in relation to a dream or another thought to reveal the contents of the unconscious mind 3 Id according to psychoanalytic theory the part of the personality that consists of the basic drives such as sex hunger 4 Pleasure principle the idea that the id seeks immediate gratification for all of its urges 5 Ego the part of the personality that contends with the reality of the world controls the basic drives 6 Reality principle the psychoanalytic concept that the ego has the ability to deal with the real world not just drives fantasy 7 Superego Freud s concept of the conscience or sense of right wrong 8 Psychosexual stages Freud s idea that at each stage sexual energy is invested in a different part of the body 9 Oral stages Freud s first stage in which infants biological energy is centered on the mouth area 10 Anal stage Freud s second stage in which toddlers sexual energy is focused on the anus 11 Phallic stage Freud s third stage in which children ages 3 to 6 overcome their attraction to the opposite sex parent begin to identify with the same sex parent 12 Latency stage Freud s fourth stage involving children ages 6 to 12 when the sex drive goes underground 13 Genital stage Freud s fifth final stage in which people 12 older develop adult sexuality 14 Psychosocial stages Erikson s stages that are based on a central conflict to be resolved involving the social world the development of identity 15 Epigenetic principle the idea that each stage of development builds on the outcome of the stages that preceded it 16 Behaviorism the theory developed by John B Watson that focuses on environmental control of observable behavior 17 Social cognitive theory the theory that individuals learn by observing others imitating their behavior 18 Classical conditioning the process by which a stimulus the UCS that naturally evokes a certain response the UCR is paired repeatedly with a neutral stimulus eventually the NS becomes the CS evokes the same response now called the CR 19 Phobia an irrational fear of something specific that is so severe that it interferes with day to day functioning 20 Operant conditioning the process that happens when the response that follows a behavior causes that behavior to happen more 21 Reinforcement a response to a behavior that causes that behavior to happen more 22 Negative reinforcement a response that makes a behavior more likely to happen again because it removes an unpleasant stimulus 23 Schedules of reinforcement schedules ratio or interval on which reinforcement can be delivered based on a fixed or variable number of responses or fixed or variable lengths of time 24 Punishment administering a negative consequence or taking away a positive reinforcement to reduce the likelihood of an undesirable behavior occurring 25 Extinction in operant conditioning the process by which a behavior stops when it receives no response from the environment 26 Self efficacy a belief in our own ability to influence our own functioning our life circumstances 27 Schema a cognitive framework that places concepts objects or experiences into categories or groups of associations 28 Assimilation fitting new experiences into existing mental schemas 29 Accommodation changing your mental schemas 30 Accommodation changing your mental schemas so they fit new experiences 31 Equilibration an attempt to resolve uncertainty to return to a comfortable cognitive state 32 Constructivism the idea that humans actively construct their understanding of the world rather than passively receiving knowledge 33 Zone of proximal development according to Vygotsky this is what a child cannot do on her own but can do with help from someone more skilled or knowledgeable 34 Scaffolding the idea that more knowledgeable adults children support a child s learning by providing help to move the child just beyond his current level of capability 35 Dynamic assessment a testing procedure that uses a test intervene test procedure to assess the examinee s potential to change 36 Sensory memory the capacity for information that comes in through our senses to be retained for a very brief period of time in its raw form 37 Working or short term memory memory capacity that is limited to only a brief time but that also allows the mind to process information to move it into long term memory 38 Long term memory the capacity for nearly permanent retention of memories 39 Encoding processes the transformation processes through which new information is stored in long term memory 40 Stores model the idea that information is processed through a series of mental locations sensory to short term to long term memory stores 41 Connectionist neural network model in this model of memory the process is envisioned as a neural network that consists of concept nodes that are interconnected by links 42 Ethology the study of animal human behavior in the natural environment 43 Sociobiology a theory that proposes that social behavior is determined by genes that evolved to promote adaptation 44 Imprinting in ethology the automatic process by which animals attach to their mothers 45 Microsystem in ecological theory the face to face interaction of the person in her immediate settings such as home school or friendship groups 46 Mesosystem the interaction among the various microsystems such as a child s school home 47 Exosystem settings that the child never enters but that affect the child s development nevertheless such as the parents place of work 48 Macrosystem cultural norms that guide the nature of the organizations places that make up one s everyday life 49 Chronosystem the dimension of time including one s age the time in history in which one lives 50 Neuropsychology the study of the interaction of the brain behavior 51 Behavioral genomics research that links behaviors with specific genes 52 Dynamic systems theory the theory that all aspects of development interact affect each other in a dynamic process over time