Chapter 13

Question 1

Describe the false belief task? What does it assess?

Answer 1

Purpose was to determine whether young children have a theory of mind. In the false belief task it shows that people can hold incorrect beliefs and even though incorrect, can guide behavior.

Question 2

Which group of older children typically has difficulty with the false belief task?

Answer 2

Children typically don’t pass the false belief task until about age 4. Children with autism have the most difficulty with this test.

Question 3

List and describe the key 5 steps in the development of theory of mind.

Answer 3

1. Joint attention - shows awareness of other’s perceptual awareness
2. Understanding intentions - that people set goals and act to achieve them
3. Pretend play - between 1 and 2, distinguish between pretense and reality
4. Imitation - ability to mentally represent other’s actions
5. Emotional understanding - understanding that others have emotions

Question 4

Describe the changes in perspective taking discovered by Robert Selman in children from 3 to adolescence.

Answer 4

Progresses in a stage like manner:

• Children 3-6 - tend to respond egocentrically; assumes others share their point of view
• Children 8-10 - children appreciate that two people can have different points of view
• 12+ - capable of mentally juggling multiple perspectives

Question 5

Describe social cognition in adulthood and give 2 reasons why social cognitive skills hold up well in later life.

Answer 5

Thinking about the thoughts, feelings, motives, and behavior of the self and other people.
Social cognitive skills hold up better in adulthood than non-social cognitive skills.
If tasks are not too cognitively demanding and adults remain socially engaged - skills will hold up.

Question 6

Define and illustrate the three main components of morality.

Answer 6

1. Emotional - consists of feelings that surround right or wrong actions and motivate moral thoughts and actions.
2. Cognitive - how we think about right and wrong and make behavioral decisions drawing on cognitive skills.
3. Behavioral - how we behave when we are tempted to cheat or help a person in need

Question 7

Compare and contrast the main messages about moral development of psychoanalytic, cognitive-developmental, social learning, and evolutionary theorists.

Answer 7

Psychoanalytic - superego/conscious keeps the ego and id in check to make sure that selfish urges are morally acceptable. Freud - moral emotions are part of morality, motivating moral behavior; early relationships with parents contribute to moral development

Moral reasoning - Cognitive - focus on development of moral reasoning; how we decide what to do not what we decide or what we actually do; Kohlberg’s stages of moral reasoning

Social Learning - moral behavior is learned in the same way that other social behaviors are learned - observational learning and reinforcement and punishment principles

Evolutionary theory - moral emotion, thought and behavior are a part of our human nature and helped us to adapt to our environments

Question 8

Describe Kohlberg’s preconventional, conventional, and postconventional levels of moral reasoning.

Answer 8

Preconvential - rules are external to the self rather than internalized; child conforms to rules imposed by authority figures to avoid punishment or gain rewards
Conventional - individual has internalized moral values; shows respect for rules set by others; perspectives of others clearly recognized
Post Conventional - defines what is right in terms of broad principles of justice

Question 9

According to Kohlberg, what are the two main influences on moral development?

Answer 9

Cognitive growth - a solid command of formal-operational thinking.
Social Interaction with peers - need to work out differences between our own and other’s perspectives

Question 10

Discuss how prosocial behaviors such as cooperation and altruism might have evolved through the processes of kin selection, group selection, and reciprocal altruism.

Answer 10

Kin selection is the idea that helping those who are genetically related to us insures that our general genotype gets passed on through generations.
Altruism gene will continue on through kin selection.
Group selection is that more cooperative groups survive better than less cooperative groups.
By cooperating with a group that is often made up of our relatives, altruism will continue on.

Question 11

Describe Kenneth Dogde’s information processing model of aggressive behavior.

Answer 11

Highly aggressive youth develop hostile attribution bias where they see the world as hostile and assume any harm to them is deliberate and not accidental

Question 12

Belief-desire psychology

Answer 12

People’s desires and beliefs guide their behavior

Question 13

Moral rules

Answer 13

Standards of conduct that focus on the basic rights and privileges of individuals.

Question 14

Social conventional rules

Answer 14

Standards of conduct determined by social consensus that indicate what is appropriate within a particular social setting.

Question 15

Religiousness

Answer 15

Sharing the beliefs and participating in the practices of an organized religion.

Question 16

Theory of mind

Answer 16

The understanding that people have mental states (feelings, desires, beliefs, intentions) and that these states underlie and help explain their behavior

Question 17

Mirror neurons

Answer 17

Neural cells in several brain areas that are activated not only when we perform an action but also when we observe someone else performing it. Implicated in imitation, theory of mind skills, empathy, and language.

Question 18

Moral disengagement

Answer 18

According to Bandura, the ability to avoid self-condemnation when engaged in immoral behavior by justifying, minimizing, or blaming others for one’s actions.

Question 19

Hostile attribution bias

Answer 19

The tendency of aggressive individuals to attribute hostile intentions to others, assuming that any harm to them was deliberate rather than accidental.

Question 20

Coercive family environments

Answer 20

A home in which family members are locked in power struggles, each trying to control the other through aggressive tactics such as threatening, yelling, and hitting.

Question 21

Desire psychology

Answer 21

The earliest theory of mind: An understanding that desires guide behavior (for example, that people seek things they like and avoid things they hate). Contrast with belief–desire psychology.

Question 22

Gerald Patterson

Answer 22

Coercive family environments

Question 23

Martin Hoffman

Answer 23

Love withdrawal, power, assertion, induction

Question 24

Robert Selman

Answer 24

Perspective taking skills

Question 25

Simon Baron-Cohen

Answer 25

False belief task