6a Developmental Psychology

Question 1

Define nature and nurture.

Answer 1

Nature – sets out their course via gender, genetics, temperament and maturational stages
Nurture – shapes this predetermined course via the environment, parenting, stimulation and nutrition

Question 2

Define temperament.

Answer 2

Innate aspects of an individual’s personality, such as introversion/extroversion

Question 3

What is reciprocal socialisation?

Answer 3

Socialisation is bidirectional, children socialise parents as much as parents socialise children

Question 4

What are the two types of attachment?

Answer 4

• Secure attachment – the baby freely explores the room and shows happiness on mother’s return
• Insecure attachment – little exploration and little emotional response to mother

Question 5

How is attachment assessed?

Answer 5

Ainsworth’s strange situation test - it tests how babies and young children respond to the temporary absence of their mother

Present children with an unusual, but not overwhelmingly frightening, experience

It is interested in two things:
- How much the child explores the room on their own
- How the child responds to the return of the mothe

Question 6

Describe the 4 stages of Piaget’s model of cognitive development

Answer 6

Proposes that children’s thinking changes qualitatively with age

1. Sensorimotor stage (0-2 years)
   - Infants understand the world primarily through sensory experiences and physical (motor) interactions with objects
2. Preoperational stage (2-7 years)
   - World is represented symbolically through words and mental images
   - There is no understanding of basic mental operations or rules
3. Concrete operational stage (7-12 years)
   - Children can perform basic mental operations concerning problems that involve tangible (concrete) objects and situations
4. Formal operational stage (12yo+)
   - Abstract thinking & higher mental operations

Question 7

What is object permanence?

Answer 7

In sensorimotor stage (0-2y)

- Understanding that an object continues to exist even when it cannot be seen

Question 8

Describe some characteristics a child in preoperational stage exhibits.

Answer 8

• No understanding of Principle of Conservation (basic properties of objects stay the same even though outward appearance may change
• Irreversibility (cannot mentally reverse actions)
• Animism (assumes that everythign that exists has some sort of consciousness)
• Egocentrism (difficulty in viewing the world from someone else’s perspectives)

Question 9

What are the key features of the Formal Operational Stage?

Answer 9

Abstract thought

Moral, philosophical, ethical, social, political issues that require theoretical and abstract reasoning