3A Self: Developmental Psychology

Question 1

As a key principle of Piaget’s theory, what is adaptation?

Answer 1

• Adaptation: the continuous process of using the environment to learn - learning to adjust to changes in the environment

Question 2

As a key principle of Piaget’s theory, what is assimilation?

Answer 2

• Assimilation: the process of taking in new information and fitting it into/making it a part of an existing mental idea about objects or the world
• Learning to make sense of new information by applying it to existing knowledge, e.g. child calls truck ‘car’ for the first time

Question 3

As a key principle of Piaget’s theory, what is accommodation?

Answer 3

• Accommodation: changing an existing mental idea in order to fit in new information, e.g. child makes a new category of ‘truck’ to distinguish between trucks and cars

Question 4

As a key principle of Piaget’s theory, what is a schema?

Answer 4

• Schema: a mental idea or organised representation of what something is and how to deal with it

Question 5

What is Piaget’s first stage of cognitive development and describe it.

Answer 5

• Sensorimotor stage (birth-2 years): Infants construct their understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences with motor abilities
• Goal orientated behaviour: behaviour is carried out with a particular purpose, e.g. reaching onto table to grab objects on it
• Acquire object permanence: the ability to realise that an object still exists despite it being out of sight or reach

Question 6

What is Piaget’s second stage of cognitive development and describe it.

Answer 6

• Pre-operational stage (2-7 years): Increasingly able to internally represent events (think about and imagine)
• Egocentrism: the child has difficulty adopting another person’s viewpoint therefore only think for themselves
• Animism: belief that everything which exists has some kind of awareness e.g. ‘naughty table’
• Transformation: ability to understand the transformation of states, eg. ice to liquid water, but cannot explain
• Centration: can only focus on one quality or feature of an object at one time
• Reversibility: ability to follow a line of reasoning back to the original statement

Question 7

What is Piaget’s third stage of cognitive development and describe it.

Answer 7

• Concrete operation stage (7-12 years): Revolves around what the child knows and what they can experience through their senses
• Conservation: the ability to recognise that an object does not change mass, weight or volume when it’s appearance is changed
• Classification: the ability to organise information into categories based on the common features that sets them apart from other groups

Question 8

What is Piaget’s fourth stage of cognitive development and describe it.

Answer 8

• Formal operation stage (12 and up): More complex thought processes become evident and sophisticated thinking
• Abstract thinking: thinking that does not rely on visualising in order to understand concepts
• Logical thinking: able to develop strategies to solve problems, identify ranges of solutions and develop hypotheses and test solutions

Question 9

What were criticisms to Piaget’s theory?

Answer 9

• Underestimation of young minds
• Insufficient attention to social influences on performance
• Children may fail Piagetian tasks due to lack of familiarity rather than cognitive ability (low validity)

Question 10

What are the contributions of Piaget’s theory?

Answer 10

• Emphasised that children are active and construct understanding through interaction with the world
• Develop from concrete to abstract thinking and reasoning
• That development leads to people being less ecocentric, have ability to think symbolically and reason abstractly

Question 11

As a follow up study to Piaget, what did Donaldson (1974) test?

Answer 11

• Showed that children as young as 4 could conserve if situation is given meaning
• Piaget concentrates highly on math and logic skills, but between 7-11 children acquire a range of new skills which Piaget chose to ignore
• Donaldson performed a conservation task with coins amongst 6 year olds
• If the researcher altered second row of coins, only 16% were able to conserve
• If a ‘naughty teddy bear’ messed the coins, 62% were able to conserve

Question 12

As a follow up study to Piaget, what did Siegal & Gilligan (1991) find?

Answer 12

• Problems arose when experimenters ask questions where answer is obvious or question is repeated and answer has already been given
• Children may change answer because … trying to please examiner, ‘are you sure’ makes child rethink answer, some children give answer without explaining reasoning
• Piaget assumed that if a child failed a cognitive task, they lacked competence to perform it

Question 13

Describe stage 1 of level 1 in Kohlberg’s theory of moral development.

Answer 13

• Stage 1: Obedience and punishment driven - what is right and wrong is determined by what is punishable

Question 14

Describe stage 2 of level 1 in Kohlberg’s theory of moral development.

Answer 14

• Stage 2: Self-interest driven - right/wrong is determined by what brings reward and what people want

Question 15

Describe stage 3 of level 2 in Kohlberg’s theory of moral development.

Answer 15

• Stage 3: Interpersonal accordance and conformity driven - being moral is being a good person in your eyes and the eyes of others, what is considered right by the majority of the people

Question 16

Describe stage 4 of level 2 in Kohlberg’s theory of moral development.

Answer 16

• Stage 4: Authority & social order obedience driven - doing good means ‘doing one’s duty’ by obeying authority and maintaining social order, where laws are unquestionably accepted and obeyed.

Question 17

Describe stage 5 of level 3 in Kohlberg’s theory of moral development.

Answer 17

• Stage 5: Social contract driven - holding different opinions and values, laws are considered a social contract rather than rigid dictums, still are respected but individual rights supersede laws if they restrict

Question 18

Describe stage 6 of level 3 in Kohlberg’s theory of moral development.

Answer 18

• Stage 6: Universal ethical principles driven - moral action determined by conscience, and may or may not be in accordance with laws or public opinion, where reasoning is abstract using universal ethical principles

Question 19

What were criticisms to Kohlberg’s theory?

Answer 19

• It was centred around male participants
• Dilemma choice were western views of moral development
• Shweder found that it did not allow for reasoning from different cultures due to western bias
• Cross sectional research rather than logitudinal

Question 20

What was Gilligan’s follow up study in relation to Kohlberg’s theory?

Answer 20

• Found differences between genders in regards to moral decision making (men focusing on justice, women on care)
• Examined 29 American women with the dilemma of whether or not to continue with a pregnancy
• Level 1: self interest - justified responses based on own needs and wishes
• Level 2: self sacrifice - argued rights of others (unborn child) and considered wishes of partner
• Level 3: care as a universal obligation - reached a balance between care for others and personal wellbeing