child development - exam Flashcards
What are the three big questions that developmental psychologies are interested in answering
Continuity & Change: how is development occurring, is it continuous or discontinuous
Sources of development: nature vs nurture
Individual differences: what makes everyone different
What are the four main ways of collecting data in developmental psychology? W
Self-reporting
Experimental methods
Clinical interview methods
observation
did Piaget think that change was continuing os discontinued
dis
explain the sensorimotor stage
birth - 2 years
birth - 3 months - move head towards noise
3 months - stare at where object disappeared
5 months - anticipate future position of object
8 months - a not b error, look at object last place it was hidden
12 months - search in last place they saw it
- object permanence
- representational thought - differed imitation
- schema
explain the pre operational stage
2-7 years
- counting
- object manipulation
- think symbolically and logically
- conservation
- egocentrism
explain the concrete operational stage
7 - 12
- ability to form logical analysis
- ability to emphasis with thoughts/ feelings of others
- understand cause and effect relationships
explain the formal operational stage
- abstract reasoning
- metacognition
dependent on exposure ti principals of scientific thinking
Did Piaget underestimate or overestimate children? How do we know?
underestimated Childrens cognitive ability
- believed babies had no depth perception (visual cleft). Children developed depth perception around the time they crawled.
- thought babies had no numerical or mathematical reasoning till their 6 years old but in actuality baby’s recognised numbers from 6 months onwards.
how was attachment studied? - different types of attachment
attachment - emotional bond with caregiver that spans both time and space
Harry Harlow – looked at importance of attachment. Did this by investigating how lack of mother impacted there development. Found that babies moneys that didn’t form attachment had social difficulties in life
Anxious attachment style – more social difficulties in life
Securely attached children – fewer social difficulties in life
social learning theory and cognitive development theory
Social learning theory – it is the theory that we learn to behave socially by watching others
cognitive developmental theory – cognitive development drives social development
parenting styles
Authoritative D+ R+
authoritarian D+ R-
permissive D- R+
disengaged D- R-
emotional development
-Basic emotions (angry, happy, sad) are present from early on.
-Other emotions take time to emerge
babies can’t regulate emotions when they are born it is something that is learnt
moral development
moral behaviour - behaviour that conforms to a generally accepted set of rules
Not doing wrong thing - Initially children learn rules because of the consequences and then internalise things that are wrongs
principal of minimal sufficiency - – internalise rules the best if consequence is enough to get you to change your behaviour. But not so server that you feel forced into
Doing the right thing - learning through morals
Kohleberg stages of moral Development
pre conventional - behavior based in external sanctions, such as authority and punishment. obeying authority and avoiding punishment and behavior guided by the pleasantness of its consequences to them/fulfilment of needs
conventional level - included an understanding that the social system has an interest in people’s behavior. wanting to be regarded as good, well-behaved people and social order must be obeyed
post- conventional level - Moral rules have some underlying principles that apply to all situations and societies. Rules are social contracts and Rules and laws are justified by abstract ethical values, such as the value of human life and the value of dignity
Gender Identity, Gender Role and Gender Stereotype
Gender Identity - One’s private sense of maleness or femaleness
Gender Role - Cultural / societal expectations about ways in which males and females should behave
Gender Stereotype - Beliefs about differences in the behaviours, abilities and personality traits of males and females
time line of gender development
18 months - Beginnings of gender-typed preferences
3 years - Knowledge of own gender
Preference for different toys
Preference for making friends of the same sex
Limited ability to assign gender to pictures
5 years - Knowledge of gender consistency
what leads to ones sense of gender?
-Prenatal exposure to testosterone will alter the brain’s development to make you more male-like
-Males deprived of exposure to testosterone will display more female-like characteristics
-The anatomy of the brain shows some gender differences (e.g., male’s have larger brains) and is thought to be due to different patterns of hormone exposure during development
how does gender impact spatial ability
-Gender differences in cognitive ability (e.g., spatial ability) are at least partly due to differences in the brain
-Testosterone may play a role in one’s spatial ability
-Evolutionary theories propose that men and women have evolved to behave differently, depending on their roles in society
Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia
o Insufficient production of cortisol affecting normal growth and development
o Ambiguous genetalia (females)
o Enlarged genetalia (males)
(Montemayor, 1974) - gender development
found - 6- and 8-year-old children performed better at and enjoyed more if they were labeled either gender-neutral or gender-appropriate. Addititionally, children performed worst when the game was labelled as gender-inappropriate
(Morrongiello & Dawber, 1999) - are genders treated diffrencently depending on how they are raised
- Mothers and fathers did not differ in how they communicated with children, hence being reffered to as ‘parents’
- Sons received more directives, fewer explanations and more phyical pressure compared to daughters
- Parents communicated with younger children (participant children aged two- to four-years old) in a way that may promote:
o Increased risk-taking by sons
o Greater perceived injury vulnerability among daughters
(Smith & Lloyd, 1978) - gender differences in relation to labels
children behaved differently depending on the label they where given when playing with toys
scribbling stage - drawing development
- 2-3 years (starts at 18 months)
- Children now have the motor control to hold some kind of drawing object and to make marks on a page
- Marks are not representative of anything, does things on the page but don’t know what it is
o Children aren’t thinking to draw a flower, but more experimenting with colours
Preschematic Stage: drawing development.
- First attempts at human figure drawings
- 3-4 years (can be earlier and can be later)
- Tadpole Drawings
o Head and body are just one thing
o Circle/ellipse representing head
o 2 (or 4) protruding lines representing limbs
Schematic Stage - drawing Development
- 5-6 years
- Child develop a “schema”
o Schema is a blueprint for what generally happens
o Fairly consistent – ‘this is how I draw a person’ - Separate Trunk from head
- Initially omit or misplace arms
Later on in the stage… - Substance added to limbs
o Actual limbs, not just lines - Arms correctly placed
- More detail (clothing, glasses, ears, etc.)
- Emergence of neck representation (last)
Realistic Stage: drawing Development
- From around 9 years
o Something we learn at school (does art with the teacher)
o Look at what people look like - Marks end of art as a spontaneous activity
- More detail (“Realism”)
- Varying expressions
- Use of profile
- Better use of space
Period of Indecision: drawing Development
- Art is something to be done or left alone (may become a hobby)
why is Childrens drawing helpful
Projective measures - Projecting meaning onto the way the child draws, being able to draw meaning from it
Verbal communication aid - drawing makes them talk more, content not relevant, historically used
draw a person test - Florence good enough
-Given 5 minutes to draw a man, 5 minutes to draw a women, and 5 minutes to draw yourself (self, mother, father)
-Based on how you draw the person, you get a score
-The better the detail on the drawing the more points you get
-Could use that score to prorate intelligence that we could go “this kind of score means this IQ – controversy)
Butler et al. study on drawing.
children went to fire station
- Children in the “Draw and Tell” group reported twice as much information in the Direct Recall phase than the “Tell” children
- No differences between groups in the Free Recall phase
- Information reported by the Draw and Tell group was just as accurate as information reported by the Tell group
when can children have a good memory to be used in court
4/5 years
what’s suggestibility in court
- Suggestibility is “the degree to which one’s memory and/or recounting of an event is influenced by suggested information or misinformation
*Cognitively driven suggestibility: when beliefs and memory are changed, after a while remembering events differently, memory is changeable
*Socially driven suggestibility: agreeing with suggestions despite knowing they are wrong in their mind
what are the main problems children face in court ?
lack of legal knowledge
confronting accused
courtroom environment
cross examination
what’s an imaginary friend and how many have them?
invisible character
up to 65% of preschool children
higher in girls
usually between 2-4
first born most likely
only play with them by themselves
marjorie taylor - imaginary friends
found
- most IC are people
16% based on real people
have magical powers
ic animale can usually talk
3% are enemies
why do children develop ICs
protector
overcome fears
help control behaviour
sruggoate friends
attachment objects
Attachment to an inanimate object
ages 1.5 90%
7 - 43%
\object attachment peaks around 2
why do they develop attachment objects?
help with sleep
transitional objects
substitutions for primary caregiver in some situation s
recommended hours of screen time vs reality
reccomeneded - NO TV below age 2, 1 hour for 3-8 year olds, 1.5-2 for 8+
actual - 90% of children watch TV before 2, 40% of 3yo, 64% of age 5-14 years watch more than 2 hours per (NZ stats), 35% of secondary school students watch more than 3 hours (NZ stats)
can children learn from watching tv?
- YES - 6-18 month olds are capable of imitating actions on TV
Sesame Street findings ball and bogatz 1970
what - assessed ability of children before watching it in groups who watched 2-3 times a week, 4-5 times a week and 5+ times
found -
after watching all groups increased on both tasks
5+ times = biggest gain, children from low SES showed biggest gains
criticisms for watching tv
- delays development
- mesmerises
overstimulation
displaces valuable cognitive development
decreases achievement
disrupts sleep
boytzis study - power rangers
*Boys committed more aggressive acts than girls
*Power rangers group committed 7x aggressive acts for every aggressive act committed by a control child
-Violent TV vs criminal activity (Huessman et al. 1984)
- Boys who exhibited a higher preference for violent TV at age 8 had committed more serious crimes by the age of 30 years than boys who showed a lower preference for violent TV at age 8
What are the specific situations in which videogame use might be beneficial?
-May be therapeutic and/or educational for children with chronic illnesses
-May improve fine motor skills and coordination
-May distract from physical and emotional pain - (eg. Can be good distraction for children in hospital)
-May improve decision making skills and brain plasticity – (only in more complicated games)
-May foster persistence, resilience, and prosocial behaviour
-Claims made against videogame play are generally the same as those made against TV. - (eg., more violence)
Anderson and Dill experiments
experiment one - Videogame use correlated with aggressive personality, nonaggressive delinquency and aggressive delinquency
experiment two - Women delivered longer blasts (of white noise) than men, Individuals with higher APQ scores delivered longer blasts than low APQ scores, Violent game delivered longer blasts
