12.2 Developmental and Social Psychology
Key Takeaways
- Erikson’s eight psychosocial stages pair a crisis with a healthy resolution theme; NMAT items often match age band to crisis (e.g., adolescence–identity).
- Attachment patterns (secure vs. insecure) reflect caregiver responsiveness and shape later relationship expectations without determining destiny alone.
- Social influence classics—Asch conformity and Milgram obedience—show situational pressure can override private judgment; group processes include social facilitation, loafing, and deindividuation.
- Attitudes, prejudice, helping, and self-concept are high-yield applied topics with direct relevance to patient communication and bias awareness in medicine.
12.2 Developmental and Social Psychology
Quick Answer: Developmental psychology maps change across the lifespan (Erikson crises, attachment, nature–nurture interplay). Social psychology explains how situations and groups shape attitudes, conformity, obedience, prejudice, and helping—skills that transfer to patient communication and bias awareness.
This section completes the psychology half of CEM’s Social Science surface: not only how individuals learn and remember, but how they grow over time and behave in social contexts.
Lifespan Development Highlights
Development is lifelong change in physical, cognitive, and psychosocial domains. Nature (genes, maturation) and nurture (experience, culture, environment) interact—avoid false dichotomies; most NMAT-appropriate answers treat them as joint contributors.
Piaget (brief bridge from cognition)
Piaget described qualitative stages of cognitive growth: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational, built on schemas, assimilation, and accommodation. Use Piaget when an item asks about children’s logic (egocentrism, conservation); use Erikson when the item is about identity, trust, or generativity crises.
Erikson’s psychosocial stages (high-yield table)
| Stage (approx. age) | Crisis | Healthy theme if resolved well |
|---|---|---|
| Infancy | Trust vs. mistrust | Hope; reliable caregivers |
| Early childhood | Autonomy vs. shame/doubt | Will; appropriate independence |
| Play age | Initiative vs. guilt | Purpose; directed exploration |
| School age | Industry vs. inferiority | Competence; mastery |
| Adolescence | Identity vs. role confusion | Fidelity; coherent self |
| Young adulthood | Intimacy vs. isolation | Love; close relationships |
| Middle adulthood | Generativity vs. stagnation | Care; contribution to others |
| Late adulthood | Integrity vs. despair | Wisdom; life review |
Exam habit: Match the age band + crisis name, then pick the resolution theme. Do not invent extra stages.
Attachment
Attachment is the enduring emotional bond between infant and caregiver. Secure attachment typically follows sensitive, responsive care; insecure patterns (avoidant, ambivalent/resistant; later work also discusses disorganized) reflect less consistent or frightening care. The strange situation procedure (Ainsworth tradition) is the classic measurement story. Attachment is a risk/resilience factor, not a life sentence—later relationships and therapy can revise internal working models.
Social Psychology Core
Attitudes
An attitude is an evaluation of people, objects, or ideas (affective, behavioral, cognitive components in classic models). Cognitive dissonance (Festinger): inconsistency among beliefs/behaviors creates discomfort that people reduce by changing attitude, behavior, or rationalization. Persuasion routes (central vs. peripheral in elaboration-likelihood style thinking) matter when messages use strong arguments versus cues (attractiveness, authority).
Conformity and obedience
| Classic | Design gist | Main lesson |
|---|---|---|
| Asch | Line-length judgments with confederates giving wrong answers | People conform to majority even when the truth is clear; informational vs. normative influence |
| Milgram | “Teacher” shocks a “learner” under experimenter orders (simulated harm) | Situational obedience to authority can produce extreme compliance; many participants went far |
Neither study means “people are evil”; both show situation power. Ethical limits on modern replications are stricter (see Section 12.3).
Group processes
- Social facilitation: Presence of others improves performance on simple/well-learned tasks; can impair complex/new tasks.
- Social loafing: Individuals exert less effort when outputs are pooled and individual contribution is hard to identify.
- Deindividuation: Reduced self-awareness in anonymous groups can increase impulsive or antisocial acts.
- Groupthink: Cohesive groups under pressure may suppress dissent and produce flawed consensus.
- Group polarization: Discussion can push average attitudes toward more extreme same-direction positions.
Prejudice, discrimination, and stereotypes
Stereotypes are cognitive generalizations; prejudice is affective evaluation (often negative); discrimination is behavioral treatment based on group membership. Sources include social categorization (in-group/out-group), realistic conflict over resources, and social learning. Implicit bias can operate outside full awareness—relevant for equitable clinical care even when explicit attitudes are egalitarian. Contact under equal status with common goals can reduce prejudice (contact hypothesis conditions), though real-world application is nuanced.
Helping behavior (prosocial)
Whether bystanders help depends on noticing, interpreting as emergency, assuming responsibility, knowing how to help, and deciding to act. The bystander effect and diffusion of responsibility explain lower help when many people are present. Empathy–altruism and social exchange accounts debate pure altruism vs. cost–benefit motives; for NMAT, know the decision steps and diffusion concept.
Self-concept and related self constructs
Self-concept is the organized set of beliefs about oneself; self-esteem is evaluative; self-efficacy (Bandura) is belief in ability to execute specific actions. Self-serving bias attributes successes internally and failures externally more often than vice versa. Spotlight effect and false consensus are common social-cognitive distortions useful for interpreting exam scenarios.
Medical-School Relevance (Without Overclaiming)
Social and developmental ideas transfer to medicine as communication and equity skills, not as substitutes for clinical training:
- Patient communication: Match explanations to developmental level; respect autonomy while supporting adherence (motivation, self-efficacy).
- Attachment-informed care: Caregivers’ stress and trust history affect pediatric visits and adult help-seeking.
- Bias awareness: Stereotypes about age, gender, class, ethnicity, or language can distort history-taking and treatment offers; structured checklists and perspective-taking reduce error.
- Team behavior: Social loafing and groupthink appear in rounds and committees; clear roles and psychological safety improve outcomes.
- Public health messaging: Attitude change and persuasion routes matter for vaccination and lifestyle campaigns.
Keep answers concept-first: NMAT Social Science rewards correct psychological labels applied to short vignettes, not moralizing essays.
Study Checklist
- Memorize Erikson’s crisis pairs by life period.
- Separate conformity (peers/majority) from obedience (authority).
- Define stereotype vs. prejudice vs. discrimination in one sentence each.
- Link self-efficacy to behavior change (study plans and patient goals).
- When stuck between nature-only and nurture-only options, prefer interaction wording if it matches the stem.
According to Erikson, the primary psychosocial crisis of adolescence is:
In the classic Asch line-judgment studies, participants often gave incorrect answers primarily because of:
Which distinction is most accurate?