CSS Psychology Social and Developmental Psychology Syllabus

What is the bystander effect?

The phenomenon where the presence of other people decreases the likelihood that any one individual will help a person in need.

What is diffusion of responsibility?

The tendency for individuals to feel less personal responsibility to act when others are present, because responsibility is shared among the group.

Which case prompted research into the bystander effect, and who studied it?

The 1964 Kitty Genovese murder; studied by John Darley and Bibb Latané.

What are the five steps in Latané and Darley's decision model of bystander intervention?

(1) Notice the event, (2) interpret it as an emergency, (3) assume responsibility, (4) decide how to help, (5) implement the help.

What does the empathy-altruism hypothesis (Batson) propose?

That feeling empathy for a person in need produces genuinely altruistic motivation to help, not just self-serving motivation.

What is an attitude in social psychology?

A learned evaluative tendency (favorable or unfavorable) toward a person, object, idea, or situation.

What are the three components of the ABC (tripartite) model of attitudes?

Affective (feelings), Behavioral (action tendencies), and Cognitive (beliefs/thoughts).

What is cognitive dissonance (Festinger)?

The psychological discomfort that arises from holding contradictory attitudes or when behavior conflicts with attitudes, motivating attitude change to reduce the discomfort.

What are the two routes to persuasion in the Elaboration Likelihood Model (Petty & Cacioppo)?

The central route (careful processing of message content/arguments) and the peripheral route (reliance on superficial cues like attractiveness or credibility).

Name the four key elements of persuasive communication (Yale attitude change approach).

The source (communicator), the message, the channel (medium), and the audience.

What is the foot-in-the-door technique?

A compliance strategy in which agreeing to a small initial request increases the likelihood of agreeing to a larger later request.

What are social norms?

Shared rules or expectations within a group or society that prescribe appropriate behavior in given situations.

Distinguish descriptive norms from injunctive norms.

Descriptive norms describe what people actually do; injunctive norms prescribe what people ought to do (what is approved/disapproved).

What is the norm of reciprocity?

The social expectation that people will respond to a positive action with another positive action—repaying others for what they have provided.

What is the social responsibility norm?

The expectation that people should help those who are dependent on them or in need, regardless of return benefit.

What characterizes physical development across the lifespan?

Changes in bodily structure, motor skills, brain growth, height, weight, and biological maturation from conception through aging.

What is the cephalocaudal trend of physical development?

Growth and motor control proceed from the head downward to the rest of the body (head before trunk before legs).

What is the proximodistal trend of physical development?

Growth and motor control proceed from the center of the body outward to the extremities (trunk before arms before hands/fingers).

What are the three stages of prenatal physical development?

The germinal stage (0–2 weeks), the embryonic stage (3–8 weeks), and the fetal stage (9 weeks to birth).

What is a teratogen?

Any environmental agent (e.g., drugs, alcohol, viruses, radiation) that can cause harm or birth defects during prenatal development.

Who proposed the major theory of cognitive development based on stages?

Jean Piaget.

List Piaget's four stages of cognitive development in order.

Sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational.

What cognitive milestone defines Piaget's sensorimotor stage (0–2 years)?

Object permanence—understanding that objects continue to exist even when out of sight.

What limitations characterize Piaget's preoperational stage (2–7 years)?

Egocentrism (inability to take others' viewpoints) and lack of conservation; symbolic/representational thought begins.

What is conservation, and in which Piagetian stage is it mastered?

The understanding that quantity remains the same despite changes in shape or appearance; mastered in the concrete operational stage (7–11 years).

What thinking ability emerges in Piaget's formal operational stage (11+ years)?

Abstract, hypothetical, and logical reasoning, including systematic problem-solving.

What is Vygotsky's 'Zone of Proximal Development'?

The gap between what a learner can do independently and what they can achieve with guidance from a more knowledgeable other.

What is attachment, and who identified its styles via the 'Strange Situation'?

An emotional bond between infant and caregiver; styles (secure, avoidant, resistant/ambivalent) were identified by Mary Ainsworth.

Name the eight stages of Erikson's psychosocial development theory.

Trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs. shame/doubt, initiative vs. guilt, industry vs. inferiority, identity vs. role confusion, intimacy vs. isolation, generativity vs. stagnation, and integrity vs. despair.

What are Kohlberg's three levels of moral development?

Preconventional, conventional, and postconventional morality.

List the major stages (periods) of the human lifespan in developmental psychology.

Prenatal, infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, middle adulthood, and late adulthood (old age).