Course 4: How Behaviour Works Flashcards
Naturalistic observations
Observing behaviour in its natural environment
Normative approach
The study of development using norms, when most children reach developmental milestones (eg. crawling, walking, writing, dressing, naming colors, speaking in sentences, and starting puberty).
Little Hans
Sigmund Freud studied Little Hans in 1990, a boy who had a fear of horses. Freud thought his phobia was related to the Oedipus complex (a child’s feelings of desire for his or her opposite-sex parent and jealousy and anger toward his or her same-sex parent). The horses symbolized his fear of his father castrating him. It was theorized that Hans was scared of horses especially because they hard large penises, and reinforced by the fact that horses that shared similar features to his father caused greater fear.
Aché
The Aché society in Paraguay is an example that development can be affected by culture. Mothers generally carry their young children in order to protect them from getting hurt; as a result they first start walking around 23-25 months. However, as they are given more freedom in the forests around the age of 9, they are vastly superior to the American counterparts in terms of motor skills.
Continuous development
View that development is a cumulative process: gradually improving on existing skills
Discontinuous development
View that development takes place in unique stages, which happen at specific times or ages
Psychosocial development
Domain of lifespan development that examines emotions, personality, and social relationships
Cognitive development
Domain of lifespan development that examines learning, attention, memory, language, thinking, reasoning, and creativity
Psychosexual theory of development
According to Freud, children’s pleasure-seeking urges are focused on a different area of the body, called an erogenous zone, at each of the five stages of development: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital. He believed that we could become fixated in one of those stages without proper nurturance.
Psychosocial theory of development
Erik Erikson modified Freud’s theory, emphasizing the social nature of development rather than the sexual side. According to psychosocial theory, we experience eight stages of development over our lifespan, from infancy through late adulthood. At each stage there is a conflict, or task, that we need to resolve. Successful completion of each developmental task results in a sense of competence and a healthy personality. Failure to master these tasks leads to feelings of inadequacy.
The 8 stages of Erikson’s theory of development are…
Infancy 0–1 Trust vs. mistrust
Trust (or mistrust) that basic needs, such as nourishment and affection, will be met
Toddlers 1–3 Autonomy vs. shame/doubt
Develop a sense of independence in many tasks
Preschool 3–6 Initiative vs. guilt
Take initiative on some activities—may develop guilt when unsuccessful or boundaries overstepped
Elementary 7–11 Industry vs. inferiority
Develop self-confidence in abilities when competent or sense of inferiority when not
Adolescence 12–18 Identity vs. confusion Experiment with and develop identity and roles
Early adulthood 19–39 Intimacy vs. isolation
Establish intimacy and relationships with others
Middle adulthood 40–64 Generativity vs. stagnation Contribute to society and be part of a family
Late adulthood 65– Integrity vs. despair
Assess and make sense of life and meaning of contributions
Erikson - Trust vs Mistrust
The stage of infancy, infants are completely dependent on their caregivers. Caregivers that are responsible to the infant’s needs will give them the sense that the world is a safe place. On the flip side, if the baby’s needs are not met, the infant may experience anxiety and fear, viewing the world as unsafe and unpredictable.
Erikson - Autonomy vs Shame and Doubt
The stage of toddlers, toddlers are now showing preferences for certain areas of their environment, such as food, toys, and clothing. They want to exercise their ability to be independent (“me do it” stage), such as trying on clothes. If denied this opportunity, the toddler may experience low self esteem and confidence, resulting in a less independent adult.
Erikson - Initiative vs Guilt
The stage of preschool, preschoolers are capable of taking initiative in activities and social interactions. By learning to plan and take action, children can build confidence and self-purpose. If denied the opportunity to do so, or their intents are unclear to others, they can develop a sense of guilt.
Erikson - Industry vs Inferiority
The stage of elementary school, children begin to compare their qualifications with others. They either develop a sense of pride and accomplishment in their schoolwork, sports, social activities, and family life, or they feel inferior and inadequate when they don’t measure up.
Erikson - Identity vs Role Confusion
The stage of adolescence, this is the period where children face the questions of “Who am I?” and “What do I want to do?” Trying on different selves, adolescents that successfully find the one that fits them best develop a sense of identity.
Erikson - Intimacy vs Isolation
The stage of early adulthood, Erikson stated that we must have a strong identity before we begin to share our life with others. Adults who do not develop a positive self-concept in adolescence may experience feelings of loneliness and emotional isolation.
Erikson - Generativity vs Stagnation
The stage of middle adulthood, it revolves on the feeling of wanting to contribute to society. Generativity involves finding your life’s work and contributing to the development of others, through activities such as volunteering, mentoring, and raising children. Those who do not master this task may experience stagnation, having little connection with others and little interest in productivity and self-improvement.
Erikson - Integrity vs Despair
The stage of late adulthood, this is the stage of reflection. People either reflect on their lives and feel satisfaction or despair. They either look back with few regrets, or look forward with bitterness and depression.
Schemata
Jean Piaget believed that children develop schemata in order to learn. Schemata are mental models that help us interpret information. By the time they have reached adulthood, they have a schemata for almost everything, refined over the years through assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation is the process of taking in new info, and accommodation is the process of changing schemata based on new info.
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
0–2 Sensorimotor
World experienced through senses and actions
Object permanence, stranger anxiety
2–6 Preoperational
Use words and images to represent things, but lack logical reasoning
Pretend play, egocentrism, language development
7–11 Concrete operational
Understand concrete events and analogies logically; perform arithmetical operations
Conservation, mathematical transformations
12– Formal operational
Formal operations; utilize abstract reasoning
Abstract logic, moral reasoning
Sensorimotor stage
Piaget’s first stage is the sensorimotor stage, which lasts from birth to about 2 years old. During this stage, children learn about the world through their senses and motor behavior. Young children put objects in their mouths to see if the items are edible, and once they can grasp objects, they may shake or bang them to see if they make sounds. Between 5 and 8 months old, the child develops object permanence, which is the understanding that even if something is out of sight, it still exists. Around the same time children develop object permanence, they also begin to exhibit stranger anxiety, which is a fear of unfamiliar people.Stranger anxiety results when a child is unable to assimilate the stranger into an existing schema; therefore, she can’t predict what her experience with that stranger will be like, which results in a fear response.
Preoperational stage
Piaget’s second stage is the preoperational stage, which is around the ages of 2-7. In this stage, children can use symbols to represent words, images, and ideas, which is why children in this stage engage in pretend play. Children also begin to use language in, but they cannot understand adult logic or mentally manipulate information (the term operational refers to logical manipulation of information, so children at this stage are considered to be pre-operational). Children in this stage cannot perform mental operations because they have not developed an understanding of conservation, which is the idea that even if you change the appearance of something, it is still equal in size as long as nothing has been removed or added. During this stage, we also expect children to display egocentrism, which means that the child is not able to take the perspective of others. A child at this stage thinks that everyone sees, thinks, and feels just as they do.
Concrete operational stage
Piaget’s third stage is the concrete operational stage, which occurs from about 7 to 11 years old. In this stage, children can think logically about real (concrete) events; they have a firm grasp on the use of numbers and start to employ memory strategies. They can perform mathematical operations and understand transformations, such as addition being the opposite of subtraction. In this stage, children also master the concept of conservation: Even if something changes shape, its mass, volume, and number stay the same. Children in the concrete operational stage also understand the principle of reversibility, which means that objects can be changed and then returned back to their original form or condition.
Formal operational stage
The last stage in Piaget’s theory is the formal operational stage, which is from about age 11 to adulthood. Whereas children in the concrete operational stage are able to think logically only about concrete events, children in the formal operational stage can also deal with abstract ideas and hypothetical situations. Children in this stage can use abstract thinking to problem solve, look at alternative solutions, and test these solutions. In adolescence, a renewed egocentrism occurs. For example, a 15-year-old with a very small pimple on her face might think it is huge and incredibly visible, under the mistaken impression that others must share her perceptions.
Postformal stage
Developmental psychologists that disagree with Piagnet suggest a fifth stage, the postformal stage. In postformal thinking, decisions are made based on circumstances and emotions.
Heinz dilemma
In Europe, a woman was near death from a special kind of cancer. There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was charging ten times what the drug cost him to make. He paid $200 for the radium and charged $2,000 for a small dose of the drug. The sick woman’s husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could only get together about $1,000, which is half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said: “No, I discovered the drug and I’m going to make money from it.” So Heinz got desperate and broke into the man’s store to steal the drug for his wife. Should the husband have done that?
Psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg was not interested in a yes/no response, but the reasoning behind your answer.
Kohlberg’s theory of moral development
Pre-conventional morality (before age 9)
Conventional morality (early adolescence)
Post-conventional morality (few fully achieve this; formal operational thought must be obtained first)
Kohlberg’s stages of moral development
Pre-conventional morality
Stage 1: Obedience and punishment - driven by avoiding punishment
Stage 2: Individual interest - driven by reward
Conventional morality
Stage 3: Interpersonal - driven by social approval
Stage 4: Authority - driven by conforming to authority and social order
Post-conventional morality
Stage 5: Social contract - driven by balance of social order and individual rights
Stage 6: Universal ethics - driven by internal morals
The three stages of prenatal development are…
Germinal, embryonic, and fetal
Germinal stage
Weeks 1-2, a mother and father’s DNA is passed on to the child at the moment of conception. Conception occurs when sperm fertilizes an egg and forms a zygote. A zygote begins as a one-cell structure that is created when a sperm and egg merge. The genetic makeup and sex of the baby are set at this point. During the first week after conception, the zygote undergoes mitosis. Mitosis is a fragile process, and fewer than one-half of all zygotes survive beyond the first two weeks. As the cells divide, they become more specialized, forming different organs and body parts. In the germinal stage, the mass of cells has yet to attach itself to the lining of the mother’s uterus. Once it does, the next stage begins.
