Child Development

Question 1

Development

Answer 1

The sequence of physical and psychological changes that human beings undergo as they grow older

Question 2

Developmental Psychology

Answer 2

The scientific study of age-related changes in behaviour, thinking, emotion and personality

Question 3

Big questions in Developmental Psychology

Answer 3

1. Continuity and change
2. Sources of Development
3. Individual Differences

Question 4

Quantitative Change (continuity)

Answer 4

continuities in development; things we can measure e.g., vocabulary (more and more words), gradual accumulation of changes

Question 5

Qualitative Change (Discontinuity)

Answer 5

discontinuities in development; stage-like e.g., (locomotive development), fundamentally different changes

Question 6

Data Collection (In Dvlpt. Psych)

Answer 6

• Self-Report
• Observation
• Experimental methods
• Clinical interview methods

Question 7

Experimental Methods of Data Collection

Answer 7

The Visual Cliff
The Rouge Test

Question 8

Clinical Interview Methods of Data Collection

Answer 8

Responding to questions with questions

Question 9

Research Design Examples

Answer 9

• Longitudinal design (look at the same children over time) e.g., the Dunedin study
• Cross-Sectional Design (comparing people of different ages)

Question 10

Cognitive Development

Answer 10

(basically) intellectual growth

Question 11

Jean Piaget

Answer 11

Four ‘stages’ of cognitive development; once children master things they struggle with in any particular stage, they ‘move on’ to the next stage

Question 12

Four “Stages” of Cognitive Development

Answer 12

1. Sensorimotor Stage
2. Preoperational Stage
3. Concrete Operations Stage
4. Formal Operations Stage

Question 13

Sensorimotor Stage General Characteristics

Answer 13

• Birth-2 years
• Cognition tied to external stimulation
• “Thinking is doing”; cognition consists of behaviour

Question 14

Object Permanence
Schema Formation
Representational Thought

Answer 14

Sensorimotor Stage

Question 15

Object Permanence

Answer 15

• The idea that objects do not cease to exist when they are out of sight
• Birth - 3 months: Looks at visual stimuli, turns head towards noise (DON’T GENERALLY FIND VISUAL TRACKING)
• 3 months: Follows movin objects with eyes, stares at spot where object disappears, but won’t search for it.
• 5 months: Grasps and manipulates objects, anticipates future position of object
• 8 months: Searches for hidden object, but shows “A not B” error/effect
  12 months: Searches in the last place that they saw the object

Question 16

Schema Formation

Answer 16

• A schema is a mental representation or set of rules that defines a particular behaviour category. It helps us to understand current and future experiences.

e.g., What happens at a lecture
Things that you can eat
Things that are animals

Question 17

Representational Thought

Answer 17

• The ability to form mental representations (e.g., of others’ behaviour)
• Occurs towards the end of the sensorimotor period
• Mental representation is instrumental in:
  o Imitation
  o Deferred imitation - a child’s ability to imitate the actions they observed others perform in the past
  o Symbolic play
  o The use of words to represent objects

Question 18

Preoperational Stage General Characteristics

Answer 18

• 2 - 7 years
• Ability to think logically as well as symbolically (if mom has the car keys, going for a drive)
• Rapid development of language ability
• Classification and categorisation, counting, object manipulation

Question 19

Failure of Conservation

Answer 19

Conservation is the understanding that specific properties of objects e.g., weight, volume, number) remain the same despite apparent changes or arrangements of these objects

Question 20

Egocentrism

Answer 20

A child’s belief that others see the world in precisely the same way that they do

Question 21

Concrete Operations Stage

Answer 21

• 7 to 12 years
• Ability to perform logical analysis
• Ability to empathise with the thoughts/feelings of others Understanding of complex cause-effect relations

Question 22

Formal Operations Stage

Answer 22

• 12 years upward
• Abstract Reasoning
• Metacognition

piaget said not everybody got to this stage