6: Developmental 1+2

Question 1

What do developmental psychologists do?

Answer 1

They look at how we develop over time (lifespan)

Question 2

What are three ways in which developmental psychologists observe growth?

Answer 2

Physical, cognitive, and social developmental trajectories.

Physical change: How do we grow throughout life? Our mind, bodies, etc.

Cognitive change: How does our mind develop? How does the way we think change? Can we map this out?

Social change: Social interactions and how they change through life. How do we change in relation to other people?

Question 3

What do developmental psychologists look at? What do they do?

Answer 3

They look at the “norm” for a given age. We have the same brain, so physical development should be somewhat consistent.

If a child diverges from a trajectory, its time for intervention

Question 4

Are Developmental Trajectories Universal? Does our environment matter at all?

Answer 4

Yes and no.
Our brain follows a similar trajectory, but our environment plays a major role.

Our environment can restrain/inspire growth (think the African tribes and walking/climbing example)

Question 5

Is development continuous or discontinuous?

Answer 5

Development is continuous in some cases (happens gradually, e.g. heigh)

Development is discontinuous (stages) in some cases (much like installing a windows update)

Question 6

Define psychosexual development

Answer 6

developmental theory by Freud
- Development takes place in childhood.
- 5 stages we pass through: Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latent, Genital
- How these desires are handled by parents can lead to fixation

Question 7

Who discovered Psychosocial Development? How did he do it?

Answer 7

Erik Erikson, a follower of Freud. He had a couple disagreements as he grew and founded Psychosocial development theory.

Question 8

What does the Psychosocial development theory focus on/claim?

Answer 8

It focuses on social development - ego development (how we interact with others affects our sense of self/ who we are)

It claims that development occurred through 8 stages in one’s WHOLE LIFE

At each stage, there were tasks we had to resolve. We would feel happy if we passed them and we would feel lacking in certain areas of our lives if we didn’t resolve them.

Question 9

What are the 8 stages of Erik Erikson’s Social Development Model?

Answer 9

Stage 1:
0-1 years old. Trust vs. Mistrust (basic needs such as nourishment and affection will be met)

Stage 2:
1-3 years old. Autonomy vs. Shame/doubt (develop a sense of independence in many tasks)

Stage 3:
3-6 years old. Initiative vs. Guilt (take initiative on some activities - may develop guilt when unsuccessful or when boundaries are overstepped)

Stage 4:
7-11 years old. Industry vs Inferiority (develop self-confidence in abilities when competent or sense of inferiority when not)

Stage 5:
12-18 years old. Identity vs. Confusion (experiment with and develop identity and roles)

Stage 6:
19-29 years old. Intimacy vs. Isolation (establish intimacy and relationships with others)

Stage 7:
30-64 years old. Generativity vs, stagnation (contribute to society and be part of a family)

Stage 8:
65+ years old. Integrity vs despair (assess and make sense of life and meaning of contribution)

Question 10

Who is Piaget? What did he establish?

Answer 10

Piaget is one of the most influential psychologists of out time and he developed the theory of Cognitive Development.

Question 11

What are cognitive schemas? When do children make then?

Answer 11

They are mental models/framework for organizing things into categories based on shared characteristics

When children learn, they create, expand, and change cognitive schemas through assimilation and accommodation.

Question 12

What is assimilation?

Answer 12

Refers to taking a new instance of something and applying it to a schema
Ex/ Seeing a broke college student eating ramen.
Ex/ Child, bookstore, library example

Question 13

What is accommodation?

Answer 13

Refers to changing a schema with new information
Ex/ Seeing a broke college professor eating ramen, realizing that he isn’t a “college student”, and changing the schema.
Ex/ Child, bookstore, library example

Question 14

What happens when important cognitive schemas are violated?

Answer 14

Fear, crying, etc.
Ex/ Think child seeing her dad with and without facial hair example.

Question 15

Describe Piaget’s model of Cognitive Development.

Answer 15

4 stages to his “stage model” of development:
- Sensorimotor stage
- Preoperational stage
- concrete operational stage
- formal operation stage

Each stage, children are faced with a development task

Believed that children don’t think like adults and that they make ‘mistakes’

Learning from these mistakes (assimilation/accommodation) developed their cognitive schema.

Question 16

What is the sensorimotor stage? Age? Developmental Tasks?

Answer 16

• The stage where you experience the world through senses and movement.
• (0-2 years old)

Developmental tasks:
- Object permanence
- stranger anxiety (assimilation)
Both develop at around 8 months old.

Question 17

What is the preoperational stage? Age? Development tasks?

Answer 17

The preoperational stage is where you start thinking symbolically (symbols represent words, ideas).
- pretend play
- still does not understand logic/manipulated information

• 2-7 years old

Developmental tasks:
- Conservation
- egocentrism / theory of mind

Question 18

What is conservation?

Answer 18

Conservation is the idea that even if you change the appearance of something, it is still equal in size as long as nothing has been removed/added.

Think Juice/wide/tall glass example
Also remember the row of quarters example.

Question 19

What is egocentrism?

Answer 19

The idea that whatever they know, everyone else knows

Ex/ little red riding hood and wolf example
Also, little red riding hood not knowing about the wolf but feeling “scared” shows that egocentrism develops through time, not stage.

Question 20

What is theory of mind?

Answer 20

Theory of mind is the cognitive ability to attribute mental states to others (think beliefs, intentions, desires).

Question 21

What is the concrete operational stage? Age? Developmental tasks?

Answer 21

This is the stage where children start thinking logically / mathematically.
- they understand conservation / reversibility
- they also develop theory of mind.

Age 7-11

Still can’t properly think abstractly / hypothetically

Question 22

What is the formal operational stage? Age? Developmental tasks?

Answer 22

This is the stage where you start thinking abstractly / hypothetically.
- You can attribute attributes other stuff (think a pillow with the properties of steel hitting a window)

Age 12+

No real developmental tasks from now on.

Question 23

What are some criticisms about Piaget’s theory?

Answer 23

• Today we believe that cognitive development is a more continuous process instead of stage-like
• also often expressed earlier than Piaget thought.
• Also more than formal logic (think baby and box example)

Ex/ Take row of quarters example but replace with chocolate. If you have a short row of 6 chocolates and a long row of 5 chocolates, the child will pick the shorter row (proper motivation) even though Piaget claims that they haven’t reached the stage of conservation yet.

Question 24

What can we do with looking time with infants?

Answer 24

We can use looking time as a measure of interest.
- the more surprising something is, the longer an infant will look at it
- the more familiar an infant becomes with a stimulus, the less time they will spend looking at it

Ex/ think about the box with normal and irregular flap example in class. The baby ended up looking longer at the irregular box, showing that even at 3 months old, there is some sort of logical thought.

Question 25

Who is Kolhberg? What did he develop?

Answer 25

Kolhberg was a developmental psychology who developed a chart with 3 levels and 6 stages of moral reasoning.

Question 26

Name the three levels and 6 stages of Kolhberg’s theory.

Answer 26

Pre-Conventional, Conventional, Post-Conventional

1. Obedience/punishment
2. Self-interest
3. Interpersonal
4. Authority
5. Social Contract
6. Universal ethics

Question 27

Name what stages are in each level of Kholberg’s theory

Answer 27

Preconventional:
- Obedience/Punishment
- Self-interest

Conventional:
- Interpersonal
- Authority

Post- Conventional:
- Social Contract
- Universal Ethics

Question 28

Name and describe each stage in Kholberg’s theory.

Answer 28

1. Obedience / Punishment
   - Behavior driven by avoiding punishment / being obedient
2. Self-interest
   - Interested in self-interest and rewards
3. Interpersonal
   - social approval (What actions are approved by others)
4. Authority
   - Law and Order (Ex/ It’s illegal to steal and if he does, he should accept the punishment. Actions have consequences).
5. Social Contract
   - Balance of social order and individual rights (think of the medicine example in class. The scientist has the right to set prices as he’s spent so much time).
6. Universal Ethics
   - Internal, moral principals (think of stealing or not stealing the medicine example in class).

Question 29

What are some of Kolhberg’s claims of moral reasoning that we criticize?

Answer 29

Once you reach one level of moral reasoning, you do not go back
- this is not the case

Females were more deficient in their moral reasoning abilities (not many make it past stage 4)
- Not the case. Males and females just focus on different aspects of the situation.

Question 30

Is morality based on logic?

Answer 30

No it isn’t. Think about train, lever, and pushing example. If morality was based on logic, there should be an even distribution between people saying yes to the lever and pushing the person, but there wasn’t.