Chapter 9: Social Development

Question 1

What is the Trans-Tasman challenge?

Answer 1

when people are socially isolated, hallucinations of other people are not uncommon

Question 2

We are an _______ social species

Answer 2

obligate

• we are not adapted to social isolation
• our ancestors needed people to survive
• this is likely when social cognitive capacities developed

Question 3

Compared to kids in orphanages with multiple caregivers, kids in prison being cared for by mom…

Answer 3

fared better.

• Even if needs are being met, a mother-child relationship has important outcomes.
• Kids w/o mothers were largely unable to walk and talk, more prone to infections etc.

Question 4

The social brain hypothesis

Answer 4

the view that the large brains of humans, as well as the general intelligence of humans, has evolved in response to social conflicts and challenges that are an inherent part of group living

Question 5

Why is the human gestational period only nine months?

Answer 5

This is the maximum amount of time that will still allow a natural birth. The woman’s pelvis is not wide enough to support a longer pregnancy, as seen in other species.

Question 6

The neocortex is designed for ________,
the limbric brain for ________,
and the brain stem for _______

Answer 6

higher-order thinking; emotions; survival

Question 7

What is the relationship between neocortex ratio and group size?

Answer 7

there is a strong positive correlation

Question 8

What are some human species-specific social cognitive skills? (list 4)

Answer 8

individual recognition, alliances, hierarchies, deception.

Question 9

What would Piaget say?

Answer 9

• interested in perspective taking

- limitations on social cognition during preoperational stage; they are egocentric

Question 10

What was the challenge to Piaget’s thought on social cognition in children?

Answer 10

• argument that children did know something about the perspective of others
• preoperational children are not entirely egocentric
• kids can understand that others may be prevented from seeing something that they can

Question 11

What would associationists say?

Answer 11

• Al Bandura and social learning theory
• observation and imitation help us learn from others
• Bobo doll experiment supports this theory

Question 12

while humans and other primates show a match in ________ …

Answer 12

intelligence in physical domain, humans outperform primates on social tasks
* social cognition is species-specific

Question 13

Imitation Milestone

Answer 13

at 14 months, a child is more likely to look at an adult that imitates them.

Question 14

Dyadic social skills & triadic social skills

Answer 14

• social smile, imitation, protoconversations
• 9 month revolution is the shift to triadic
• at 9 months, can point or follow a pointed finger, engage in joint attention
• 9-10 months, social referencing

Question 15

Joint Attention

Answer 15

we can attend to others, see what they’re attending to, and attend to it as well.

• helps facilitate language learning
• kids can also initiate joint attention rather than just participating in it

Question 16

Social Referencing

Answer 16

• we look to trusted authority figures for their response to novel stimuli
• if the mom looks comfortable, baby will be too, but if mom looks scared, baby will not approach
• different from imitation because it involves emotional processing. No modelling, kid just uses observed response as a signal to influence their own

Question 17

Animacy Perception (3 milestones)

Answer 17

• at 3 months, prefer to look at chasing display
• at 7 months, expectation that objects do not move
• at 12 months, expect rational behaviour

Question 18

Intention Perception (3 milestones)

Answer 18

• at 7 months, model tries to reach a toy but cannot so the baby will go grab it
• at 14 months, baby presses light with forehead only if the experimenters hands are free because they infer it was for a good reason
• at 18 months, baby will complete the goal they watched the experimenter try and fail to do

Question 19

Amanda Woodward’s Task

Answer 19

• at 9 months, baby watches hand repeatedly select 1 of 2 toys until they habituate
• toys locations are switched
• dishabituate if new toy is selected because they perceived a preference for the original one

Question 20

Action Parsing

Answer 20

11 month old watches video where woman does three actions and pauses are put in different places.
They dishabituate when the pause interrupts the action.

Question 21

Theory of Mind

Answer 21

the part of our psychological processes that allows us to understand another person’s mental states

Question 22

Appearance and Reality

Answer 22

• At 3 years, cannot simultaneously explain appearance and reality
• 6-7 year olds get it but cannot explain why something looks different than what it truly is
• 11-12 year olds understand and can explain it

Question 23

False Belief Task

Answer 23

a task in which a child must appreciate someone’s false belief to understand and predict their behaviour.
- A 5 year old understands false beliefs (would say their friend expects smarties not pencils) but a 3 year old does not understand false beliefs (would say friend expected pencils all along)

Question 24

Traditional researchers suggested theory of mind develops around ________ but new methods suggests this happens around ________

Answer 24

4 or 4 1/2 years; 15 months or even 13 months!
- infant looks longer when experimenter searches for item in place where they should not believe it to be (the experiment with the green and yellow box)

Question 25

Social Cognitive Development in Autism is delayed on these measures (6 things)

Answer 25

• joint attention
• social referencing
• imitation
• gaze following
• spontaneous animacy perception
• pretend play

Question 26

False Photo

Answer 26

kids with autism do not have a representation of false beliefs to predict behaviour
they have problems with the Smarties and Sally-Anne task but not with innovative studies like this one

Question 27

Other Race Effect

Answer 27

a characteristic of human face perception wherein members of one’s own race are more perceptually distinct than members of another race

• more to do with experience and exposure
• develops early, around 3 months

Question 28

______ may be more important than ______ in children’s social categorization

Answer 28

voice; race

• in the EEA, people would hear other accents but not see other races
• kids prefer being friends with those who share the same language
• do not have a strong preference for race of friends

Question 29

_______ accept toy from own-language speaker

Answer 29

10 month olds

Question 30

Pretend play starts at _____
Sociodramatic play is common around ____
Kids with imaginary friends are ________

Answer 30

18 months; 3 or 4 years; less shy