Cognitive Development: Childhood & Adolescence II

Question 1

What is the definition of morality?

Answer 1

Our sense of behavioural conduct that differentiates intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good (or right) and bad (or wrong).

Question 2

In moral development, there are three basic components of morality, what is the affective component?

Answer 2

The emotional component. This consists of feelings (guild, concern for others’ feelings, etc.) that surround right or wrong actions and that motivate moral thoughts and actions (moral affect)

Question 3

In moral development, there are three basic components of morality, what is the cognitive component?

Answer 3

This is moral reasoning. Centres on how we conceptualise right and wrong and make decisions about how to behave.

Question 4

In moral development, there are three basic components of morality, what is the behavioural component?

Answer 4

The moral behaviour component. This reflects how we behave when we experience the temptation to cheat or are called upon to help a needy person.

Question 5

How does moral affect - positive and negative emotions relating to right and wrong - motivate our behaviour?

Answer 5

Negative emotions (shame and guilt) can keep us from doing what we know is wrong.

Positive emotions (pride, self-satisfaction) can occur when we do the right thing.

Question 6

Why is empathy important in a developmental context?

Answer 6

The vicarious experience of another’s feelings and emotions can motivate prosocial behaviour and moral affect. This makes us help others and reflects our concern for the welfare of others.

Question 7

How do cognitive developmental theorists study morality, and how does it progress?

Answer 7

It is studied by looking at moral reasoning (the thinking process involved in deciding whether an act is right or wrong)

It progresses through an invariant sequence where each stage represent a consistent way of thinking about moral issues that is different to the one preceding it.

Question 8

In Piaget’s theory of moral development, what is the premoral period?

Answer 8

During preschool years, children show little awareness or understanding of rules and cannot be considered moral beings. Piaget argues this is driven by moral figures and not the child themselves, meaning the child does not have an internal moral code, but one that is imposed.

Question 9

In Piaget’s theory of moral development, what is the heteronomous morality period?

Answer 9

Children 6-10 take rules seriously, they are handed down by parents and other authority figures and are perceived as unalterable. Rule violations are wrong based on the extent of the damage done, not paying attention to whether the violator had good or bad intentions.

Question 10

In Piaget’s theory of moral development, what is the autonomous morality stage?

Answer 10

At age 10 or 11, children enter this final state where rules are an agreement between individuals, arguments that change through a consensus of those individuals. In judging actions, they pay more attention to whether the person’s intentions were good or bad than to the consequences of the act.

Question 11

How did Piaget test a person’s stage of moral development?

Answer 11

The Tea Cup Scenario.
This scenario brought confounded intentions with the amount of damage done.

Question 12

What is Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of moral development?

Answer 12

He argued that moral growth progresses through a universal and invariant sequence of three broad moral levels, each of which is composed of two distinct stages.

Question 13

What are Kohlberg’s first level of morality and its subsequent stages?

Answer 13

Level 1: Preconventional morality (emphasis on avoiding punishment and getting awards)

Stage 1: Punishment-and-obedience orientation
Good is following the rules and avoiding what produces punishment

Stage 2: Instrumental hedonism
A recognition that there is an instrumental purpose to behaving in a certain way. The notion of reciprocity, I might benefit from another due to my behaviour.

Question 14

What are Kohlberg’s second level of morality and its subsequent stages?

Answer 14

Level 2: Conventional Morality (emphasis on social rules)

Stage 3: Interpersonal normative morality
Good is whatever pleases or helps others and brings approval from friends or peer groups.

Stage 4: Authority and social order maintaining morality
Good is conforming to existing laws, customs and authorities; contributions to the good of society as a whole.

Question 15

What are Kohlberg’s third level of morality and its subsequent stages?

Answer 15

Level 3: Postconventional Morality (emphasis on moral principles)

Stage 5: Morality of contract, individual rights, and democratically accepted law
Good depends on consensus, we should all agree to these principles because it is good for all.

Stage 6: Morality of individual principles of conscience
Moralistic principles are universal, broader moral principles that judge the framework of what is right or wrong - a set of self-generated principles.

Question 16

What are the two biggest influences on moral reasoning that Kohlberg and Piaget find in regard to cognitive growth and social dimensions?

Answer 16

For cognitive growth to exist at the conventional level, the ability to take other people’s perspectives is required. For the post-conventional level, formal-operational thinking is required.

The social world is where we are able to negotiate and work out differences in perspectives, thus actualising moral reasoning.

Question 17

What are some criticisms of Kohlberg’s theory?

Answer 17

Scoring procedures not sufficiently objective or consistent

The content of dilemmas is too narrow

Dilemmas not aligned with real-life

No distinction between moral knowledge and social conventions

Gender and cultural bias

Question 18

What is the reason for the high variability in the post-conventional stage of Kohlberg’s theory?

Answer 18

Culture played a large part in why people would engage in stages 5 and 6 of his theory. This is due to the cultural norms that would be contested in these stages.

Question 19

Social-learning theorists had focused on the behavioural component of morality, according to this school how is behaviour determined?

Answer 19

It is learned in the same way other behaviours are learnt, through observational learning and reinforcement and punishment principles.

Question 20

Social-learning theorists believe that moral behaviour is influenced by the situation, how does this influence behaviour?

Answer 20

Due to situational influences, what we do (moral performance) is not always reflective of our internalised values and standards (moral competence).

Question 21

According to Bandura moral cognition is linked to moral action through self-regulatory mechanisms, what are these mechanisms?

Answer 21

Monitoring and evaluating our actions

Disapproving of ourselves when we contemplate doing wrong

Approving ourselves when we behave responsibly or humanely

Question 22

How are self-regulator mechanisms overcome?

Answer 22

Through moral disengagement. Our capacity to ignore key aspects that drive moral behaviour.

Question 23

How is moral behaviour approached in adolescence?

Answer 23

If it aligns with our self-concept and self-identity then we are more likely to engage in that expression of moral behaviour.

Question 24

How do we make an adolescent a more morally good person?

Answer 24

We shift the perspective of their self-concept to align with the idea that “I’m a morally good person”. Other self-regulatory mechanisms don’t work as well for this age group.

Question 25

What is explicit memory?

Answer 25

Involves intentional recollection of previous experiences (conscious, accessed directly)

Question 26

What is implicit memory?

Answer 26

Retention is exhibited on a task that does not require intentional remembering. (unconscious, accessed indirectly)

Question 27

How do explicit memory and implicit memory change over the lifespan?

Answer 27

There is a massive shift in explicit memory from early childhood to adolescence and implicit stays constant across the lifespan.

Question 28

Why is it that implicit memory stay constant from 9 months of age?

Answer 28

The brain structures underpinning this type of memory are old, primitive and critical. Therefore, we don’t see gradual development.

Question 29

What are the four hypotheses as to why explicit memory capacity increases from infancy to adulthood?

Answer 29

Changes in basic capacities

Changes in memory strategies

Increased knowledge about memory

Increased knowledge about the world

Question 30

What can explain why our explicit memory improves more rapidly than implicit?

Answer 30

It is due to a change in our short-term or working memory. The capacity is as follows.
2 years: 2 items
5 years: 4 items
7 years: 5 items
9 years: 6 items

Question 31

What are improvements in STM capacity and working memory capacity driven by?

Answer 31

The increased speed and efficiency of processing allow simultaneous mental operations and basic mental processes to become automatic.

Question 32

How do changes in memory strategy shift from early to middle childhood, what are the three strategies used?

Answer 32

The strategy of memory changes through early childhood. The three strategies used are:
Rehearsal
Organisation
Elaboration

Question 33

In the changes in our knowledge about memory hypothesis, what phenomenon is through to underpin our development of memory?

Answer 33

Metamemory. The idea is that we can think about memory and understand memory itself.

Question 34

What is the knowledge of the world hypothesis in regard to memory?

Answer 34

Children who have knowledge about particular things develop a stronger knowledge base thus improving memory.