Chapter 4 Flashcards
What do developmental theories provide?
A framework for understanding important phenomena
Developmental theories lead to a better understanding of what?
Children
Piaget’s Theory
Observations convey the texture of children’s thinking at different ages
First days of infancy through adolescence
Children actively shape their own development
Constructivist
Depicts children as constructing knowledge for themselves in response to their experiences
Child as scientist
3 of the most important constructive processes
Generating hypotheses
Performing experiments
Drawing conclusions from observations
Piaget’s Basic Assumptions
Children are mentally and physically active from the moment of birth, contributing to development
Children learn many important lessons on their own
Children are intrinsically motivated to learn and do not need rewards from others to do so
Nature and nurture do what in Piaget’s theory?
Interact to produce cognitive development
Nurture’s role in Piaget’s theory
Child gets nurturing from parents and every experience they are involved in
Nature’s role in Piaget’s theory
Maturing brain and body
Ability to perceive, act, and learn
Tendency to integrate observations into knowledge
Sources of Continuity
Assimilation
Accommodation
Equilibration
What do the sources of continuity do?
Work together from birth to propel development forward
Assimilation
Process by which people translate incoming information into a form that fits concepts they already understand
Accommodation
Process by which people adapt current knowledge structures in response to new experiences
Equilibration
Process by which children balance assimilation and accommodation to create a stable understanding
3 Phases of Equilibration
Equilibrium
Disequilibrium
Sophisticated Understanding
Equilibrium
Not seeing any discrepancies between their observations and their understanding
Disequilibrium
Recognize shortcomings in their understanding, but cannot generate a superior alternative
Sophisticated Understanding
Eliminates shortcomings of old, creating more advanced equilibrium
Sources of Discontinuity
Stage theory
Stage Theory
Products of the human tendency to organize knowledge into coherent structures
Properties of the Stage Theory
Qualitative change
Broad applicability
Brief Transitions
Invariant Sequence
Qualitative Change
Children of different ages think in different ways
Broad applicability
Thinking characteristics influences children’s thinking across diverse topics
Brief Transitions
Fluctuate between the type of thinking characteristics
Invariant Sequence
Progresses through stages in the same order without skipping any of them
Stages of Piaget’s Theory
Sensorimotor Stage
Preoperational Stage
Concrete Operational Stage
Formal Operational Stage
Sensorimotor Stage
Intelligence is expressed through sensory and motor abilities
Live in the here and now
When is the sensorimotor stage?
Birth to 2 years
“Intelligence is bound to their immediate perceptions and actions”
What stage?
Sensorimotor Stage
Preoperational Stage
Able to represent their experiences in language, mental imagery, and symbolic thought
Remember experiences for longer periods
What are children unable to do in the preoperational stage?
Perform central operations
When is the preoperational stage
2 to 7 years
Concrete Operational Stage
Able to reason logically about concrete objects and events
When is concrete operational stage?
7 to 12 years
What can a child not do in the concrete operational stage?
Think purely in abstract terms or generate systematic scientific experiments to test their beliefs
Formal Operational Stage
People became able to think about abstractions
Able to perform systematic scientific experiments
When is the formal operational stage?
12+ years
What stage does “simple reflexes and perceptual abilities are the foundation of intelligence” belong to?
Sensorimotor stage
Object Permanence
The knowledge that objects continue to exist even when they’re out of view
A-not-B Error
Tendency to reach for a hidden object where it was last found rather than in the new location where it was last hidden
At what age do infants start to actively explore the potential ways in which an object can be used?
1 year
When do infants begin to form enduring mental representations?
18-24 months
Deferred Imitation
Repetition of other people’s behavior a substantial time after it originally occurred
What stage does “A mix of cognitive acquisitions to fascinating limitations” belong to?
Preoperational stage
Symbolic Representation
Use of one object to stand for another
Egocentrism
Tendency to perceive the world solely from one’s point of view
