Child Development

Question 1

development definition

Answer 1

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

Question 2

development psychology definition

Answer 2

the scientific study of age-related changes in behavior, thinking, emotion, and personality.

Question 3

What are the big questions that developmentalists are interested in?

Answer 3

• continuity and change
• Sources of development
• cognitive development

Question 4

explain quantative and qualative change

Answer 4

quantative: is change measureable? - continuity (like vocab development)

qualative: fundamental shifts/ stages - discontinuity (like frog development)

related to critical periods in development

Question 5

describe sources of development

Answer 5

nature vs nurture - epigenetics

(individual differences - and to what extent are individual characteristics stable overtime?)

Question 6

cognitive development

Answer 6

cognitive development basically means intellectual growth

cognitive processes are those by which we get to know ourselves and our world

jean piaget

Question 7

Four ‘Stages’ of Cognitive Development

Answer 7

1: sensorimotor stage (0-2)
2: pre-operational stage (2-7)
3: concrete operations stage (7-12)
4: formal operations stage (12+)

Question 8

main points of the sensorimotor stage:

Answer 8

Cognition is closely tied to external stimulation - “thinking is doing” behaviour

3 things to master before moving to the next stage
- object permeance
- shema formation
- representational thought - (occuring towards the end of this stage)

Question 9

object permeance:

Answer 9

the idea that objects do not cease to exist when out of sight - this skill gradually develops

A not B error: where babes will search the last place they saw the object rather than where they watched it go out of sight

Question 10

schema formation

Answer 10

a schema: is a mental representation or set of rules that defines a particular behaviour category - like a blueprint of what generally happens

Assimilation: new information is modified to fit into existing schema (baby thinks rabbit is dog)

Accomodation: existing schema is modified/ changed by new experiences (baby now knows the rabbit is a dog)

Question 11

representational thought

Answer 11

the ability to form mental representation of other’s behaviour

instrumental in:
- imitation and deferred imitation
- symbolic play
- use of words to represent objects

Question 12

what happens in the pre-operational stage?

Answer 12

• ability to think logically as well as symbolically
• rapid development of language ability
• classification and categorisation
• failure of conservation (understanding that specific properties of objects remain the same despite changes/ arrangements of those objects)
• egocentrism

Question 13

Concrete Operational Stage

Answer 13

• lacking abstract thought/ reasoning
• ability to perform object analysis
• ability to emphasize with thoughts/ feelings of others
• understanding complex cause-effect relations

Question 14

formal operations stage

Answer 14

• abstract reasoning
• metacognition (thinking about your own thought processes)
• dependent on exposure to principles of scientific thinking (Piaget says not everyone reaches this)

Question 15

what do most critic says about Piaget’s theory?

Answer 15

that he underestimated children’s abilities at various ages

Question 16

Critisism 1 of Piaget’s theory

Answer 16

babies don’t seem to start with nothing - they are not a blank state

infants seem to show skills earlier than Piaget thought

Question 17

list of critisism 1

Answer 17

the visual cliff
the effect of occlusion
understanding of support - develops gradually by 6 months
object permeance - A not B error - understanding that objects are there even though they cannot see them
number and mathematical reasoning
social cognition - occurs earlier than Piaget thought and understand actions in terms of goals

Question 18

what is the visual cliff

Answer 18

(1/2 is safe and 1/2 is glass)
- children’s ability to perceive depth cues around the time they start crawl

Question 19

what is the effect of occlusion

Answer 19

infants prefer to pay attention to novel things
habituation procedure - overtime babies become more accustomed to stimuli

Question 20

what did paiget say about number/math reasoning?

Answer 20

that they have no concept of number and cant conserve number until round age of 6
BUT
even 6 months old show some understanding of number (appreciate that 2 objects is different than 3)

Question 21

Critisism 2

Answer 21

cognitive development isn’t an all-or-nothing phenomenon = not stage like changes

Question 22

list of critisism 2

Answer 22

• counting - toddlers understand
• numerical reasoning - can conserve number if it is relevant
• social cognition - egocentrism (piaget said not until about 7) but it seems to be a gradual change
• theory of mind

Question 23

theory of mind

Answer 23

group of skills relating to the existence of other people’s minds and that they may be different to yours