AP Psychology: Developmental Psychology Notes

Use these AP Psychology study notes to review what you’ve learned about developmental psychology in your AP class. We’ll break down some of the key concepts and terms you should study ahead of the AP Psych exam. Then, test your knowledge with our AP Psychology quiz. 

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AP Psychology Developmental Psychology: Key Takeaways

Review some of the key takeaways from your AP Psychology Developmental Psychology unit.

1. Developmental psychologists study how our behaviors and thoughts change over the course of our entire lives, from birth to death (or from conception to cremation).
2. Studies in developmental psychology are usually either cross-sectional or longitudinal. Cross-sectional research uses participants of different ages to compare how certain variables may change over the lifespan. Longitudinal research takes place over a long period of time. Instead of sampling from various age groups as in cross-sectional research, a longitudinal study examines one group of participants over time.
3. Different cultures encourage different gender roles, which are behaviors that a culture associates with a gender. Gender roles vary widely among cultures. A behavior considered feminine in one culture, such as holding hands with a friend, might be considered masculine or not gender specific in another. Different psychological perspectives provide different theories that try to explain how gender roles develop.
4. Besides nature versus nurture, one of the other major controversies in developmental psychology is the argument about continuity versus discontinuity. Do we develop continually, at a steady rate from birth to death, or is our development discontinuous, happening in fits and starts with some periods of rapid development and some of relatively little change?

AP Psychology Developmental Psychology: Key Terms

Study for the AP Psychology exam by reviewing some key terms.

• Nature: Genetic factors
• Nurture: Environmental factors
• Reflexes: All babies exhibit a set of reflexes, which are specific, inborn, automatic responses to certain specific stimuli.
• Visual cliff: Some researchers develop innovative techniques like the visual cliff to measure what babies can perceive visually. The visual cliff experiments involved placing babies who could crawl onto a platform that was partially covered with see-through material (glass or plexiglass).
• Zone of proximal development: Psychologist Lev Vygotsky’s concept of zone of proximal development is one answer to this question of continuity versus discontinuity: a child’s zone of proximal development is the range of tasks the child can perform independently and those tasks the child needs assistance with.
• Object permanence: Babies at first do not realize that objects continue to exist even when they are out of sensory range. When babies start to look for or somehow acknowledge that objects do exist when they cannot see them, they have object permanence.
• Concepts of conservation: The realization that properties of objects remain the same even when their shapes change.
• Formal operational stage: This final stage of Piaget, the formal operational stage, describes adult reasoning. Piaget theorized that not all of us reach formal operations in all areas of thought. Formal operational reasoning is abstract reasoning.
• Abstract reasoning: Through abstract reasoning, we can manipulate objects and contrast ideas in our mind without physically seeing them or having real-world correlates.
• Personal fable: A personal fable is a child’s belief that they are unique or different from everyone else, or they can develop an attitude of superiority or invulnerability.
• Phonemes: Phonemes are the smallest units of sound used in a language. English speakers use approximately 44 phonemes.
• Morphemes: A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaningful sound. Morphemes can be words, such as a and but, or they can be parts of words, such as the prefixes an- and pre-. So, language consists of phonemes put together to become morphemes, which make up words.
• Babbling: The babbling stage appears to be innate; even babies born completely deaf go through the babbling stage. This babbling represents experimentation with phonemes. They are learning what sounds they can produce. Babies in this stage can produce any phoneme from any language in the world.
• Attachment parenting: The reciprocal relationship between caregiver and child.
• Temperament: Our emotional style or typical way we react to stressful situations.
• Authoritarian parents: Authoritarian parents set strict standards for their children’s behavior and apply punishments for violations of these rules. Obedient attitudes are valued more than discussions about the rationale behind the standards. Punishment for undesired behavior is more often used than reinforcement for desired behavior.
• Permissive parents: Permissive parents do not set clear guidelines for their children. The rules that do exist in the family are constantly changed or are not enforced consistently. Family members may perceive that they can get away with anything at home.

• Authoritative parents: Authoritative parents have set consistent standards for their children’s behavior, but the standards are reasonable and explained. The rationale for family rules is discussed with children old enough to understand them. Authoritative parents encourage their children’s independence but not past the point of violating rules. They praise as often as they punish.

See how you would do on the AP Psych exam by taking realistic questions in our quick quiz.