Erikson, Piaget & Psychology Theories & Concepts Explained

Little Albert Experiment Summary: What Textbooks Get Wrong

Picture a calm baby happily reaching for a white rat. A few weeks later, the same baby bursts into tears at a rabbit, a fur coat, and a Santa Claus mask. Nothing about the animals changed. What changed was a hammer striking a steel bar right behind his head. That scene is the Little Albert experiment summary in a nutshell,...

Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory: 4 Systems or 5?

Two students sit in the same classroom with the same teacher and the same homework. One thrives. The other falls apart by midterm. A personality quiz won’t explain the gap, but Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory usually can. Bronfenbrenner argued that development happens inside layers of environment, from a child’s kitchen table to the culture they grow up in, and that...

Theory of Mind Development: Why Kids Fail Sally-Anne at 3

A three-year-old watches a puppet hide a marble, then confidently predicts the puppet will search wherever the marble really is. Two years later, the same child gets it right and may even laugh at the puppet’s mistake. That leap is the heart of theory of mind development, and psychologists have spent decades mapping what changes in between. The path runs...

ABC Model of Attitude: Why Feelings, Actions and Beliefs Clash

You know exercise is good for you. You even like how it feels afterward. Yet your running shoes have been sitting by the door since March. The ABC model of attitude explains this kind of mismatch: it treats every attitude as three separate parts instead of one single opinion, and those parts do not always point the same way. That...

Social Norms in Psychology: The Unwritten Rules Running Your Day

You step into a crowded elevator and, without a word, everyone turns to face the doors. Nobody announced a rule. Nobody is checking. Yet you comply, and facing the back would feel strangely exposed. That quiet pressure sits at the heart of social norms in psychology: shared expectations that steer behavior without any written rulebook. Norms do far more than...

Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory in Adolescence: Why Same-Age Teens Differ

Picture two 16-year-olds in the same city. Same grade, similar marks, similar talents. One is certain she will be a doctor because that has always been the plan. The other changes his mind about who he is every few months, and his parents seem fine with it. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory in adolescence offers a way to explain that gap....