Unit 6: Developmental Psychology
AP Psychology: 59 practice questions with detailed explanations.
Unit Study Guide
Executive Summary
Unit 6 tracks change across the lifespan: physical, cognitive, social, and moral development, and the nature–nurture dance that shapes it.
The big debates
Nature (genes) vs nurture (environment) is settled as an interaction; continuity vs stages asks whether development is gradual or stepwise; stability vs change asks whether traits persist.
Cognitive development
Piaget's stages: sensorimotor (object permanence), preoperational (egocentrism, lack of conservation), concrete operational (logical thought about concrete objects), formal operational (abstract reasoning). Vygotsky stressed the social scaffold — the zone of proximal development.
Social development
Attachment (Harlow's contact comfort; Ainsworth's secure/insecure patterns) shapes later relationships. Parenting styles: authoritative (warm + firm — best outcomes), authoritarian, permissive, neglectful. Erikson's stages frame identity across the lifespan.
Moral development
Kohlberg's preconventional → conventional → postconventional progression; Gilligan noted care-based morality's absence in his male-only samples.
Gender and sexuality
Gender identity, roles, and expression develop through biology and socialization; sexual orientation is a natural human variation, not a choice or disorder.
Exam traps
Object permanence marks the end of sensorimotor, not preoperational. Authoritative parenting is demanding AND responsive — not permissive. Nature and nurture always interact; questions rarely have a single-cause answer.