PSYC 3620: Developmental Psychology Ch. 2 Vocabulary 1. Unconscious mind: the part of the mind that contains thoughts & feelings about which we are unaware2. 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 mind3. Id: according to psychoanalytic theory, the part of the personality that consists of the basic drives, such as sex & hunger4. Pleasure principle: the idea that the id seeks immediate gratification for all of its urges5. Ego: the part of the personality that contends with the reality of the world & controls the basic drives6. Reality principle: the psychoanalytic concept that the ego has the ability to deal with the real world & not just drives & fantasy7. Superego: Freud’s concept of the conscience or sense of right & wrong8. Psychosexual stages: Freud’s idea that at each stage sexual energy is invested in a different part of the body9. Oral stages: Freud’s first stage, in which infants’ biological energy is centered on the mouth area10. Anal stage: Freud’s second stage, in which toddlers’ sexual energy is focused on the anus11. 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 parent12. Latency stage: Freud’s fourth stage, involving children ages 6 to 12, when the sex drive goes underground13. Genital stage: Freud’s fifth & final stage in which people 12 & older develop adult sexuality14. Psychosocial stages: Erikson’s stages that are based on a central conflict to be resolved involving the social world & the development of identity15. Epigenetic principle: the idea that each stage of development builds on the outcome of the stages that preceded it16. Behaviorism: the theory developed by John B. Watson that focuses on environmental control of observable behavior17. Social cognitive theory: the theory that individuals learn by observing others & imitating their behavior18. 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 CR19. Phobia: an irrational fear of something specific that is so severe that it interferes with day-to-day functioning20. Operant conditioning: the process that happens when the response that follows a behavior causes that behavior to happen more21. Reinforcement: a response to a behavior that causes that behavior to happen more22. Negative reinforcement: a response that makes a behavior more likely to happen again because it removes an unpleasant stimulus23. 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 time24. Punishment: administering a negative consequence or taking away a positive reinforcement to reduce the likelihood of an undesirable behavior occurring25. Extinction: in operant conditioning, the process by which a behavior stops when it receives no response from the environment26. Self-efficacy: a belief in our own ability to influence our own functioning & our life circumstances27. Schema: a cognitive framework that places concepts, objects, or experiences into categories or groups of associations28. Assimilation: fitting new experiences into existing mental schemas29. Accommodation: changing your mental schemas30. Accommodation: changing your mental schemas so they fit new experiences31. Equilibration: an attempt to resolve uncertainty to return to a comfortable cognitive state32. Constructivism: the idea that humans actively construct their understanding of the world, rather than passively receiving knowledge33. 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 knowledgeable34. 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 capability35. Dynamic assessment: a testing procedure that uses a test-intervene-test procedure to assess the examinee’s potential to change36. 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 form37. 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 memory38. Long-term memory: the capacity for nearly permanent retention of memories39. Encoding processes: the transformation processes through which new information is stored in long-term memory40. 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 links42. Ethology: the study of animal & human behavior in the natural environment43. Sociobiology: a theory that proposes that social behavior is determined by genes that evolved to promote adaptation44. Imprinting: in ethology, the automatic process by which animals attach to their mothers45. Microsystem: in ecological theory, the face-to-face interaction of the person in her immediate settings, such as home, school, or friendship groups46. Mesosystem: the interaction among the various microsystems, such as a child’s school & home47. Exosystem: settings that the child never enters but that affect the child’s development nevertheless, such as the parents’ place of work48. Macrosystem: cultural norms that guide the nature of the organizations & places that make up one’s everyday life49. Chronosystem: the dimension of time, including one’s age & the time in history in which one lives50. Neuropsychology: the study of the interaction of the brain & behavior51. Behavioral genomics: research that links behaviors with specific genes52. Dynamic systems theory: the theory that all aspects of development interact & affect each other in a dynamic process over