Cognitive development + Piaget Flashcards
Normality/normal
The state of having thoughts feelings and behaviours considered common and acceptable.
Abnormality/Abnormal
State of deviating from the norm, usually in an undesirable way.
Typical behaviour
Behaviour that would normally (typically) occur and is appropriate to the given situation.
Atypical behaviour
Behaviour that is abnormal or inconsistent to according to how an individual usually behaves.
Statistical rarity
Any behaviour which is not observed/portrayed by the majority of people.
Personal distress
When someone is distressed, they are extremely upset and suffering emotionally.
Adaptive behaviour
Any behaviour that enables individual to adjust to environment appropriately and effectively.
Maladaptive behaviour
Any behaviour that interferes with an individuals ability to function normally within society.
Neurotypical/neurotypically
A term used to describe those who display expected neurological and cognitive functioning. Can describe someone who is developing as expected.
Neurodiverse/Neurodiversity
Variations in neurological development and functioning.
What are the 4 attachment types?
Secure, insecure, insecure-resistant, disorganised.
What is secure attachment?
An infant cries when caregiver leaves but is confident they will come back. Feels comfortable around caregiver.
What is insecure avoidant attachment?
Where the infant treats the caregiver as a stranger and does not care whether they are there or not.
- result of neglectful or abusive caregivers
What is insecure resistant attachment?
Where the infant resists the caregiver and does not know what they want. Cry when cregiver is there and when they are not there.
What is disorganised attachment?
A form of insecure attachment with inconsistent, odd behaviours. Rocking, frozen, risk factor of development of mental health disorders
What was the strange situation?
an experiment which observes a child’s response to being apart and with caregiver (Mary Ainsworth)
What is attachment?
A long lasting emotional bond between two individuals at infancy.
What were Harlow’s monkeys?
Rhesus monkeys studied, both had a cage and a cloth surrogate. Half monkeys ate food form cloth mother and other half with cage mother. A fear test was conducted and all monkeys spent time with the cloth mother which proves contact comfort - more important than food.
What is contact comfort?
Positive effects experienced by infants or young animals when in close contact of caregiver (physical contact).
What is cognitive development?
The development of mental processes over the lifespan
Why can’t cog. development be directly observed in infants?
Infants and children do not have language ability to communicate what they think. Must be inferred from observable behaviours.
How did Jean Piaget view cog. development?
As a process of adaptation to the world around us.
How did Piaget see adaptation on a daily basis?
Processing, organising, using new information to enable us to adjust to changes in environment. -> through assimilaton and accomodation.
What is assimilation?
Taking in new information and fitting it into a pre-existing mental idea (e.g sees a truck and calls it a car)
What is accommodation?
Changing pre-existing mental idea to fit new information. More advanced that assimilation.
What is a schema?
A mental idea of what something is and how to act on it
How does a child form a schema?
Through assimilation and accommodation.
What did Piaget think schemas were?
The basic building blocks of intelligent behaviour used to understand and respond to situations.
What were Piaget’s stages of cognitive development?
Sensorimotor (0-2), Preoperational (2-7), Concrete operational (7-12), Formal operational (12+)
What occurs in the sensorimotor stage?
(0-2 years), infants learn using their senses and movement throughout the environment. Intergrate sensory processes and motor movements.
Object permanence, goal-directed behaviour.
What are the key accomplishments in the sensorimotor stage?
Object permanence, goal-directed behaviour
What is object permanence?
An infant understands that objects still exist, even if they cannot be seen.
What is goal-directed behaviour?
When infants behave in ways that enable them to meet a goal they purposefully planned.
What occurs in the preoperational stage?
(2-7) Children further acquire and develop language skills, develop imaginations and begin to use symbolic thinking.
Egocentrism, animism, centration, reversibility
What are the key accomplishments in the preoperational stage?
Egocentrism, animism, centration, reversibility
What is egocentrism?
Tendency to see world from one POV. Unable to understand perspectives of other people. At end of stage begin to appreciate others - decentered thinking/
What is animism?
Belief that inanimate objects have concisousness (feelings or personality)
What is centration?
Shown when children can only focus on one feature of an object at a tine
- leads to exclusion of other features.
- progression leads to decentered thinking.
What is reversability?
Understanding that objects can change and return to their original form (balloons, play dough)
What occurs during the concrete operational stage?
(7-12) Thinking becomes more sophisticated. Become more logical and can perform certain mental operations (e.g maths). Mental operations concrete (objects that aretangible)
What are the key accomplishments in the Concrete operational stage?
Conservation and classification
What is conservation?
The ability to understand certain properties of object can remain the same, even when appearance hasn’t been changed. Applies to any form of measurement (volume, mass number, length).
What is classification?
The ability to organise objects or events into groups or categories.
- children can group things according to similarities and differences.
- separate plastic from metal based on materials (e.g)
What occurs during the formal operational stage?
(12+ yoa), develop more complex, sophisticated thinking processes. Reasoning and logical thinking develop.
What are the key accomplishments in the formal operational stage?
Abstract thinking, logical, idealistic.
What is abstract thinking?
Ability to think and process information without seeing or moving anything.
- use of metaphors, scientific method
- understanding concepts (justice, honesty, respect)
What is logical thinking?
Using reason or logic to consider alternatives to solve problems.
What is idealistic thinking?
Develops so adolescents can think and plan for their futures, set goals, think about global issues, other social issues.
How do you know what stage you are in for Piaget’s theory?
Tested to see. If they can achieve milestones, then in that stage. If cannot, not in that stage. Can overlap
What are some criticisms of Piaget’s theory?
- underestimated children’s cog. abilities
- recent research shows children are more complex than Piaget thought
- language development can sometimes not occur, but cog. development has.
- critisised for having small sample size where most were his children.
