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AP Psychology Unit 3 Notes: Development and Learning

January 27, 2025
AP Psychology Study Notes Unit 3

Use these AP Psychology study notes to review what you’ve learned in class and prepare for the AP exam. Read on for an overview of what is covered in Unit 3 of Barron's AP Psychology Premium Prep book, including some of the key terms you should study ahead of test day. These study notes should be used to supplement what you’re learning in your AP Psych class.


[ READ NEXT: AP Psychology Unit 4 Study Notes ]

AP Psychology: Unit 3 Summary 

This unit is an example of applied psychology, meaning that researchers apply psychological research to questions about how humans develop. Developmental psychologists use some unique research methods and study the entire life span, from before we are born to old age. Issues related to physical, cognitive, and social developmental topics are addressed. The learning part of this unit refers to many kinds of learning, including classical and operant conditioning as well as observational learning. In earlier unit study notes, you read about the behaviorist perspective: the view that human thinking and behavior is mostly influenced by classical and operant conditioning. You will learn details about that perspective in this unit.

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AP Psychology: Unit 3 Key Terms

Below, we describe some of the key terms you should review ahead of the AP Psychology exam.

  • Nature: Genetic factors.
  • Nurture: Environmental factors.
  • 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 ca
  • 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. These concepts demonstrate how the different aspects of objects are conserved even when their arrangement changes.
  • Abstract reasoning: Through abstract reasoning, we can manipulate objects and contrast ideas in our mind without physically seeing them or having real-world correlates.
  • Phonemes: Phonemes are the smallest units of sound used in a language. English speakers use approximately 44 phonemes.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Classical conditioning: Pavlov deduced the basic principle of classical conditioning (also called associative learning). People and animals can learn to associate neutral stimuli (e.g., sounds) with stimuli that produce reflexive, involuntary responses (e.g., food) and will learn to respond similarly to the new stimulus as they did to the old one (e.g., salivate).
  • Operant conditioning: Whereas classical conditioning is a type of learning based on association of stimuli, operant conditioning is a kind of learning based on the association of consequences with one’s behaviors. Edward Thorndike was one of the first people to research this kind of learning.
  • Latent learning: Latent learning was studied extensively by Edward Tolman. Latent means hidden, and latent learning is learning that becomes obvious only once a reinforcement is given for demonstrating it.
  • Insight learning: Wolfgang Köhler is well-known for his studies of insight learning in chimpanzees. Insight learning occurs when one suddenly realizes how to solve a problem.

The Eight Stages of Erikson’s Psychosocial Stage Theory

Erik Erikson was a psychodynamic theorist. He thought that our personality was profoundly influenced by our experiences with others, so he created the psychosocial stage theory. It consists of eight stages, each stage centering on a specific social conflict.

Stage

Social Conflict

Trust vs. Mistrust

Babies’ first social experience of the world centers on need fulfillment. Babies learn whether or not they can trust that the world provides for their needs. Erikson thought that babies need to learn that they can trust their caregivers and that their requests (crying, at first) are effective. This sense of trust or mistrust will carry throughout the rest of our lives, according to Erikson.

Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt

In this next stage, toddlers begin to exert their will over their own bodies for the first time. Autonomy is our control over our own body, and Erikson thought that potty training was an early effort at gaining this control. Toddlers should also learn to control temper tantrums during this stage. Children’s most popular word during this stage might be “No!,” demonstrating their attempt to control themselves and others. If we learn how to control ourselves and our environment in reasonable ways, we develop a healthy will. Erikson believes we can then control our own body and emotional reactions during the rest of the social challenges we will face.

Initiative vs. Guilt

In this stage, children’s favorite word changes from “No!” to “Why?” If we trust those around us and feel in control of our bodies, we feel a natural curiosity about our surroundings. Children in this stage want to understand the world. We take the initiative in problem solving and ask many (many!) questions. If this initiative is encouraged, we will feel comfortable about expressing our curiosity throughout the rest of the stages. If those around us scold us for our curiosity, we might learn to feel guilty about asking questions and avoid doing so in the future.

Industry vs. Inferiority

This stage is the beginning of our formal education. Preschool and kindergarten are mostly about play and entertainment. In the first grade, for the first time we are asked to produce work that is evaluated. We expect to perform as well as our peers at games and schoolwork. If we feel that we are as good at kickball (or math problems, or singing, and so on) as the child at the next desk, we feel competent. If we realize that we are behind or cannot do as well as our peers, which is having an inferiority complex, we may feel anxious about our performance in that area throughout the rest of the stages.

Identity vs. Role Confusion

In adolescence, Erikson felt our main social task is to discover what social identity we are most comfortable with. He thought that a person might naturally try out different roles before he or she finds the one that best fits his or her internal sense of self. Adolescents try to fit into groups in order to feel confident in their identities. An adolescent should figure out a stable sense of self before moving on to the next stage or risk having an identity crisis later in life. Other researchers connect this idea with the tendency of adolescents to think about how they are viewed by an imaginary audience and overestimate how much other people are thinking about or focusing on them.

Intimacy vs. Isolation

Young adults who established stable identities then must figure out how to balance their ties and efforts between work (including careers, school, or self-improvement) and relationships with other people. How much time should we spend on ourselves and how much time with our families? What is the difference between a platonic and a romantic relationship? Again, the patterns established in this stage will influence the effort spent on self and others in the future.

Generativity vs. Stagnation

Erikson felt that by the time we reach this stage, we are starting to look critically at our life path. We want to make sure that we are creating the type of life that we want for ourselves and our family. We might try to seize control of our lives at this point to ensure that things go as we plan. In this stage, we try to ensure that our lives are going the way we want them to go. If they are not, we may try to change our identities or control those around us to change our lives.

Integrity vs. Despair

Toward the end of life, we look back at our accomplishments and decide whether or not we are satisfied with them. Erikson thought that if we can see that our lives were meaningful, we can “step outside” the stress and pressures of society and offer wisdom and insight. If, however, we feel serious regret over how we lived our lives, we may fall into despair over lost opportunities.

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