Unit 3: Development and Learning
Lifespan Development
Objectives:
- Trace development from infancy through adulthood across cognitive, social, and physical domains
- Understand the impact of parenting, culture, and biological factors on development
- Learn the principles of classical and operant conditioning
- Explore observational and cognitive learning
Exam Weight: 15 -25%
College Board Expects Students To:
- Explain how enduring themes inform developmental psychology.
- Describe ways cross-sectional and longitudinal research design methods used in developmental psychology inform understanding about behavior and mental processes.
- Explain how physical development before birth applies to behavior and mental processes.
- Explain how physical development in infancy and childhood apply to behavior and mental processes.
- Explain how physical development in adolescence applies to behavior and mental processes.
- Explain how physical development in adulthood applies to behavior and mental processes.
- Describe how sex and gender influence socialization and other aspects of development.
- Explain how theories of cognitive development apply to behavior and mental processes.
- Explain how key components of language and communication apply to behavior and mental processes.
- Explain how language develops in humans.
- Explain how social development relates to behavior and mental processes.
- Explain how classical conditioning applies to behavior and mental processes.
- Explain how operant conditioning applies to behavior and mental processes.
- Explain how social learning applies to behavior and mental processes.
- Explain how cognitive factors in learning apply to behavior and mental processes.
Developmental psychology deals with the behavior of organisms from conception to death and examines the processes that contribute to behavioral change throughout the life span . The major areas of emphasis in the course are prenatal development, motor development, socialization, cognitive development, adolescence, and adulthood .
AP students in psychology should be able to do the following:
• Discuss the interaction of nature and nurture (including cultural variations) in the determination of behavior .
• Explain the process of conception and gestation, including factors that influence successful fetal development (e .g ., nutrition, illness, substance abuse) .
• Discuss maturation of motor skills .
• Describe the influence of temperament and other social factors on attachment and appropriate socialization .
• Explain the maturation of cognitive abilities (e .g ., Piaget’s stages, information processing) .
• Compare and contrast models of moral development (e .g ., Kohlberg, Gilligan) .
• Discuss maturational challenges in adolescence, including related family conflicts .
• Explain how parenting styles influence development .
• Characterize the development of decisions related to intimacy as people mature .
• Predict the physical and cognitive changes that emerge as people age, including steps that can be taken to maximize function .
• Describe how sex and gender influence socialization and other aspects of development .
• Identify key contributors in developmental psychology (e .g ., Mar y Ainsworth, Albert Bandura, Diana Baumrind, Erik Erikson, Sigmund Freud, Carol Gilligan, Harry Harlow, Lawrence Kohlberg, Konrad Lorenz, Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky) .
Resources
The Developing Child - DISCOVERING PSYCHOLOGY
Maturing and Aging-DISCOVERING PSYCHOLOGY
The Growth of Knowledge: Crash Course Psychology #18
Monkeys and Morality: Crash Course Psychology #19
CrashCourse
Adolescence: Crash Course Psychology #20
Learning
This section of the course introduces students to differences between learned and unlearned behavior . The primary focus is exploration of different kinds of learning, including classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning .
AP students in psychology should be able to do the following:
• Distinguish general differences between principles of classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning (e .g ., contingencies) .
• Describe basic classical conditioning phenomena, such as acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization, discrimination, and higher-order learning .
• Predict the effects of operant conditioning (e .g ., positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment) .
• Predict how practice, schedules of reinforcement, and motivation will influence quality of learning .
• Interpret graphs that exhibit the results of learning experiments .
• Provide examples of how biological constraints create learning predispositions .
• Describe the essential characteristics of insight learning, latent learning, and social learning .
• Apply learning principles to explain emotional learning, taste aversion, superstitious behavior, and learned helplessness .
• Suggest how behavior modification, biofeedback, coping strategies, and self- control can be used to address behavioral problems .
• Identify key contributors in the psychology of learning (e .g ., Albert Bandura, John Garcia, Ivan Pavlov, Robert Rescorla, B . F . Skinner, Edward Thorndike, Edward Tolman, John B . Watson) .
Resources
Learning -DISCOVERING PSYCHOLOGY
The Self - DISCOVERING PSYCHOLOGY
How to Train a Brain - Crash Course Psychology #11
The Bobo Beatdown - Crash Course Psychology #12
Mr. Sinn's AP Psychology Unit 3 Review Videos
• Distinguish general differences between principles of classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning (e .g ., contingencies) .
• Describe basic classical conditioning phenomena, such as acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization, discrimination, and higher-order learning .
• Predict the effects of operant conditioning (e .g ., positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment) .
• Predict how practice, schedules of reinforcement, and motivation will influence quality of learning .
• Interpret graphs that exhibit the results of learning experiments .
• Provide examples of how biological constraints create learning predispositions .
• Describe the essential characteristics of insight learning, latent learning, and social learning .
• Apply learning principles to explain emotional learning, taste aversion, superstitious behavior, and learned helplessness .
• Suggest how behavior modification, biofeedback, coping strategies, and self- control can be used to address behavioral problems .
• Identify key contributors in the psychology of learning (e .g ., Albert Bandura, John Garcia, Ivan Pavlov, Robert Rescorla, B . F . Skinner, Edward Thorndike, Edward Tolman, John B . Watson) .
Resources
Learning -DISCOVERING PSYCHOLOGY
The Self - DISCOVERING PSYCHOLOGY
How to Train a Brain - Crash Course Psychology #11
The Bobo Beatdown - Crash Course Psychology #12
Mr. Sinn's AP Psychology Unit 3 Review Videos