Development Flashcards
What is the purpose of developmental psychology?
Seeks to identify and explain the changes (in behaviour) that individuals undergo from moment of conception until they die
What areas are studied in developmental psychology?
Physical growth (including sensation and perception) and motor skills
Mental or reasoning ability (cognition and learning)
Emotional expression
Patterns of social behaviour
Personality
It can basically look at all fields researched in psychology
What are some examples of questions asked by developmental psychologists
What does the world look like to the newborn?
How does perception change with age?
Why do so many 1 year olds seem so attached to their mothers and so fearful of strangers?
Why are some people friendly and outgoing whereas others are shy and reserved?
Why is learning to speak so natural, but learning to read or learn maths so effortful?
Is ADHD the same in adults as in children?
Can we trust children’s testimony?
WHat’s different about you now from when you were a baby?
Are babies just tiny adlts who dont know anything? Or is there a qualitative transformation
Why do babies seem so dumb? Are they actually dumb?Or do babies actually know more than they seem?
What is the general trajectory of developmental change?
Seeking to identify development from a transition from dependence to independence or also external regulation to self regulation
But why does it take so long? What mechanisms at play?
WHen infants and children are so reliant on others, how sophisticated is their thinking and how active are they in what they learn?
contemporary answer:
Children are quite active and sophisticated even when they have limited self - regulatory abilities
THis is because of the flexibility of our species.
Self regulation and independence requires that we prioritise goals. Goals guide self regulation. It makes sense if we have many years of learning before we prioritise only goal relevant information
What are two kinds of research we can do the address questions asked by developmental psychologists?
Reverse engineering the way the world is now - E.g. What are the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying the development of self regulation?
Interventions to make the world better - E.g. understanding these mechanisms how do we best help children at risk for self regulation problems ?
Both kinds of research is needed. Usually done by different researchers. WHen doing 1, you dont know what would be relevant for the other one. Colaborations are necessary for each kind to best inform each other
Delayed gratification example
Check slides
What are the two sides which describe the cause of behaviour?
Nature: Our personality/behaviour stems from our biological makeup
Nurture: Our personality/behaviour stems from interactions with the environment
Which is correct in nature vs nurture?
Research has shown it is a bit of both nature and nurture which plays a part in our development
What are the different methodological considerations in developmental research?
Use of lab or naturalistic observations (internal/external validity) –> lab = high control, naturalistic - low control
How do we quantify what we want to measure?
Who observes results/tests?
How to approach age experiments? –> Cross sectional or longitudinal designs?
WHat are examples of issues which can arise from the design of the experiment?
Sampling bias (representative sample)
Observer effects (mother/teacher/researcher)
Selective attrition (Problem in longitudinal studies –> dropout)
Practice effects (repeated measures –> improves performance)
Validity/reliability of tests (is the test really meaasuring what is desired?)
What are the 3 different research designs we could use?
Cross sectional approach
Longitudinal approach
Longitudinal Sequential approach
What is the cross sectional approach?
Involves different subjects being studied at different ages
What are the benefits of the cross sectional approach?
Data collected over a wide age range in a short time
What are the drawbacks of the cross sectional approach?
This yields no information about past determinants of age related changes
Problem of cohort variation - each age group born in different year –> different environmental influences
No information about individual development
What is the longitudinal approach?
The investigator studies the same studies at a variety of ages as they develop. They can be very long (decades) or could be long but considered short (a year or two)
What are the benefits of the longitudinal approach?
Provides extensive information about how individuals develop
What are the drawbacks of longitudinal approach?
Time and cost
Subjects lost - selective attrition
Cross generational change - how relevant is our early data?
Inflexibility (stuck with sample and with originally decided measures)
What is the longitudinal sequential design?
It is composed of a sequence of samples of different ages, each of which is followed longitudionally for a period of time, however not as long as the longitudinal approach
What are the benefits of the longitudinal sequential design?
More efficient than longitudinal designs (i.e. this might only take 5 years compared to longitudinals 10 years)
Reveals cultural/historical effects - by employing a time lagged comparison (compare sample, born in different years with one another at same age)
What are the drawbacks of the longitudinal sequential design?
Expensive
People could still drop out –> selective attrition (it is still a relatively long process)
What is an experiment which addressed how a lack of social contact impacts infant development?
Monkey experiments which looked at their impoverished early environment
Involves investigating effects of social isolation for monkeys on varying periods of early life
How long were the pperiods investigated by the monkeys and their impoverished early environments?
Isolation for first 3 months, first 6 months, second 6 months and first 12 months
What was the impact of isolation for first 3 months?
Emotional shock - self clutching and biting, rocking etc. but within a month fo return to the group cage –> behaves normally
What was the impact of isolation for first 6 months?
As above but effects persisted - no return to normal
What was the impact of isolation for the second 6 months
(I.e. with group for first 6 months and then isolation) - became aggressive and fearful when returned to group cage, but quickly recovered
What was the impact of isolation for the first 12 months?
Social misfits with no signs of recovery
What were the experiments on monkeys able to conclude?
Severity of the behavioural disruption depends upon both duration of isolation and age at which it begins
Children require more than just food, water and lack of disease to thrive as human beings
First 6 months are critical for development
What were the effects of early social deprivation via orphanage studies? (Goldfarb study)
Orphanages basically had children living in almost complete isolation in the 1940s, as such this allowed psychologists to study social deprivation in humans without ethical issues
Compared early (<3 months) with late (> 3 years) placement of children in foster homes from orphanages (placement = how long)
At age 12, it was found that those with an early placement had a mean IQ of 95, whereas late placement had a mean IQ of 72
What did Goldfarb conclude about children who spent 3+ years in an institution? (Cognitive and social emotional effects)
Concluded that when institutional effects go on for 3+ years, effects are long lasting and irreversible
Cognitive effects:
Lower ability to conceptualise
Poorer speech development
Inability to concentrate
Poorer school achievement
Social-emotional:
Social immaturity
Aggressiveness
Insatiable need for affection but cant form bornds
Cant adhere to rules
No remorse when they break the rules
What were conditions like in Romanian orphanages?
Freezing
Full of malnutrition
Smell of urine
No toys
Often babies are hosed down
What were the English/Romanian adoption studies?
Purpose of this study was to exmaine recovery in orphans following removal from impoverished circumstances. Helps determine if initial deficits were caused by early impoverishment or not
Compared the Romanian orphans to English orphans
What did the English/Romanian adoption study discover? (Findings - theres a lot, just remember key findings)
Weight, height and head circumference are significantly lower at entry to UK for the Romanian babies (majority below 3rd percentile)
Catch up was greatest for those adopted before 6 months in orphanages
IQ of Romanians adopted was significantly lower
Catch up in weight was virtually complete by 6 years except for extreme malnourishment cases
Significant head circumference deficits persisted even when weight catchup was complee
Continued impairment in head growth could not be accounted for
Cognitive impairment in 15% Romanian adoptees compared with 2% of within UK adoptees
A linear association of impairment with duration of institutional care i.e. the longer the duration the higher % of impaired
For Romanian adoptees that were adopted before 6 months, outcomes very similar to UK adoptee controls
For Romanian adoptees that were adopted after 6 months, many differences
Romanians with a higher rate of cognitive impairment, autism spectrum disorder, ADHD symptoms, lower self reported rates of emotional wellbeing, high rates of mental health service use
What could the English/Romanian orphanage studies conclude?
Concludes that children who spent the first period of life in deprived (orphanage) environments suffer lasting cognitive and social/emotional deficits
The effects of this deprivation can be overcome by a move to a stimulating (enriched) environment
The degree to which the deficits can be overcome is related to the period of time spent in the deprived environments (the earlier the move, the greater the recovery)
Moreover, effects of deprivation are mediated by individual differences and/or resilience
What are the effects of post natal development (PND), what % of mothers have PND?
20-40% of mothers experience PND
Mothers with PND –> irritable and hostile, less engaged, exhibit less emotion and warmth and have lower rates of play with infants at 3 months.
Why is PND used as a study?
It is an example of impoverished environments for infants , with less social contact than needed
What were the findings of PND studies?
Maternal PND had various effects on childhood, such as behaviour problems, cognitive delays and health problems to disturbed early interactions
At 13 years old, children from PND mothers during infancy had higher cortisol levels (stress hormone)
At 21 years old, more reactive to stressful situations, greater risk of anxiety and depression
Does SES have an effect on children?
Yes it has an effect on their development , and as such it is studied
What are the impacts of low SES on the development of children? How does this research impact future funding?
Lower SES children are behind entering school and dont improve
Provides an economic argument for preschool investment. Promotes cheaper and actually effective attempts to improve SES, which has better benefits for education, job training and decreased interactions with the police force/prison
What is the difference between the headstart program and the Abecedarian project?
Abecedarian was more personalised and also Abecedarian also emphasised earlier intervention at younger ages (<3 years)
What were the goals of the Headstart program?
Improve physical and mental health
Enhance cognitive skills
Foster social and emotional development
What were the components of the Headstart program?
Early childhood education
health screening and referral-mental health services
Nutrition education and hot meals
Social services for child and family
parental involvement
Addresses low income families
What did the initial headstart studies find?
Immediate cognitive (IQ) gains, but these ‘washed out’ over the follow up period
Gains in non cognitive areas (i.e. improved social competence) persisted to grade 2 follow up
In the long term, gains in non cognitive areas persisted and this was still the case in adulthood
Overall effect:
No lasting IQ gains but signnificantly fewer referrals for “special education” programs and increased likelihood of finishing highschool
What is the difference between the ‘Early headstart’ and the ‘headstart’ program?
Early headstart (EHS) started providing the same services and goals of the headstart program but earlier in their life; before the age of 3 years
And also aimed to educate parents
What were the outcomes of EHS programs?
EHS children: had better controls on cognitive and language skills, higher emotional engagement of parent and sustained attention when playing and less aggressive
EHS parents: more emotionally supportive, provided more language learning and learning stimulation, read more to children and spanked less
What were the features of the Abecedarian Project?
Begins early in infancy
Random assignment of infants from low SES families to intervention and control conditions
Treated children had 5 years of exposure to early education in high quality childcare settings
Individualised programs - emphasis on language (difference to Headstart as well)
What were the results of the Abecedarian project?
At 4 years - benefits in language, social interactions and IQ
At 12,15,21 years - benefits in IQ, reading and maths
Enhanced language skills a major factor in enhanced cognitive skills
At 21 years - intervention group had higher education levels and lower unemployment
What was the conclusion of the Abecedarian project?
Early high quality childhood education significantly improves scholastic success and educational attainments of disadvantaged children, even into early childhood
What was the overall conclusion from preschool interviews?
Early intervention is effective in improving a wide variety of skills and competencies in deprived children (e.g. social competence, IQ, school retention, employment)
Intervention must begin early (preferrably before 3 years of age)
Parental involvement required for success
Emphasis on language shows greater results
Intervention should be of sufficient quality
What is cognition?
Refers to all mental activities such as: thinking, problem solving, learning, remembering, paying attention
What is cognitive development?
Refers to the processes by which humans come to think and understand
What is the difference between constructivist theories and Piaget’s stage theory?
What qustions did Piaget try to answer?
What is the origin of knowledge?
How is knowledge acquired, how is it used to reason, how does this change with development?
What are the two different types of arguments in explaining development?
Nature (biological factors) or nurture (environmental)?
Continuous or discontinuous development?
What do predeterminists believe?
Environment plays a minor role; maturation has the major role
What do environmentalists (behaviourists) believe?
Environment has the pre eminent role
What do interactionists believe?
Both nature and nurture plays a part (most likely explanation)
What is constructivism?
Constructivism is based on the idea that people actively construct or make their own knowledge, and that reality is determined by your experiences as a learner. Basically, learners use their previous knowledge as a foundation and build on it with new things that they learn.
What did Piaget argue?
Piaget argued that cognitive and intellectual development happens through a process of adaptation. That is, children learn by adjusting to the world. They do this through assimilation, accommodation and equilibration.
the child is a self driven learner and constructs its own mental life, unlike pure nature or nurture theories
What are stage theories (in general)?
Suggests a discontinuity in development. Every stage represents periods where there is qualitative change
Children only moved onto the next stage when they are mature enough and when learned enough
What are the general features of stage theories?
Individuals pass through a series of qualitiatively different levels/stages of structural organisation
Development involves changing underlying structures
Sequence of stage progression is invariant
The stages are universal
Both nature and nurture contribute (interactionist)
What is Piaget’s theory of cognitive development? What are some key features?
The main features involve both the stage theory and constructivist approach to cognitive development.
Childrens thought qualitatively different from adults, and perceives children as active constructors of knowledge, not passive recipients
The Theory of Cognitive Development by Jean Piaget, the Swiss psychologist, suggests that children’s intelligence undergoes changes as they grow. Cognitive development in children is not only related to acquiring knowledge, children need to build or develop a mental model of their surrounding world
Key Concept include the ideas of schemes/schemata and adaptation
What are schemes/schemata?
The “mental structures” that capture the common properties of behaviours (e.g. grasping), objects (e.g. chair), experiences (e.g. bath time)
What is the importance of adaptation?
Knowledge, thoughts and ideas develop through adaptation which is a modification of schema/schemes
What are the two components of adaptation?
Assimilation, and accommodation
What is assimilation as a component of adaptation?
Assimiliation involves making sense of experiences in terms of our existing schema. I.e. taking in information and changing it to fit existing schema or structure.
(Putting new ideas into understanding and practice - application of previous concepts to new concepts)
What is accomodation as a component of adaptation?
Modifying our schemes to take into account our new expeirences; i.e., altering the cognitive structure to fit in the new information
(altering previous concepts in face of new information)
What are Piaget’s stages, and the age ranges that they occur?
Sensorimotor stages (0-2 years)
Preoperational stages (2-7 years)
Concrete operational stages (7-11 years)
Formal operational stages (11+ years)
What is the sensorimotor stage?
This is where reflexes turn to symbolic thought
Involves understanding the world via hands, direct experience
Involves understanding the nature of objects, however they often fail object permanence
What is object permanence?
The understanding that objects have a separate and permanent existence independent of our actions on them and whether we see it or not
Knowing that objects continue to exist even if they cant be seen or heard
Why might children in the sensorimotor stage fail object permanence?
Memory limitations, limited motor skills, inability to translate understanding into action, lack of appreciation of object permanence
What is the preoperational stage? (Main features)
Here, there is the development of symbolic thought - mental action
Thought is unsystematic, inconsistent and illogical
Characterised by egocentric thinking: limited ability to take the perspectives of others (perspective taking involves being able to take the physical or perceptual perspective of others (e.g. 3 mountains task)
They have features such as:
centration, being perceptually bound, animism, and tendency for egocentric explanations
They lack the capability to understand the idea of ‘conservatism’ - the ability to understand that certain aspects of an object remain the same even if shape or space is manipulated
Lack of structural thinking
What was the 3 mountains task?
It involves a child and a doll sitting opposite each other with different stacks of ‘mountains’ on a table. The child is asked what the doll’s perspective it is. If they are in the preoperational stage, they typically fail this part
What does centration mean?
Child centres on most noticeable feature and ignores all other features
What does perceptually bound mean?
Judge the world the way it looks
What does animism mean?
All things that move are alive
What are egocentric explanations?
Egocentrism represents a cognitive bias, in that someone would assume that others share the same perspective as they do, unable to imagine that other people would have a perception of their own
What is the concrete operations stage? What are the key features?
Child has mastered mental operations such as: Decentering, reversible thinking
Logical mental operations on concrete objects enable classification and conservation
Concepts of time, space and causality develop
What is the formal operations stage? What are the key features?
Logical operations on abstract entities are now possible
Capacity for abstract thoughts, concepts
Ability to perform mental operations on hypothetical, abstract things
Ability to reason in a systematic way
Reflective thinking: able to reflect on our own thinking processes
What are the problems with Piaget’s ideas about adolescent thought?
1) Why do many adults fail formal tests of logical reasoning?
2) Why does abstract thinking often need concrete examples?
3) Underestimation of young children’s abilities and overestimation of adults
4) Does cognitive development really progress in distinct stages??
5) Developmental sequences truly universal?
What are the similarities between contemporary constructivist theories and Piaget’s theories?
Shares with Piaget emphasis on child as active in their development, and no innate knowledge
Contrasted to contemporary nativist research
What are the differences between contemporary constructivist theories and Piaget’s theories?
Constructivist has more emphasis on development as continuous and much more room for cross cultural variation
What does contemporary constructivist theory propose?
Proposes two drives of cognitive development: acquirement of domain specific knowledge, and maturation of domain-general “executive function” or self regulation skills
Each are important to regulate behaviour
What is domain specific knowledge?
The ability to relate similar objects to each other (i.e. understanding that a slice of bread is the same as a whole loaf of bread in the sense that they are both bread)
Understanding or expertise within a particular subject area or domain.
What is executive function?
Ability to manage lots of information and avoids distraction. Involves inhibitory control(allows for sharing) and working memory( allows for mental flexibility)
The ability to control and coordinate cognitive abilities and behaviour
Be able to divide their attention and self regulating behaviour to enact complex plans to achieve goals
Executive abilities to mentally juggle multiple things and select whats important and put out of mind what is not is also critical
Does Piaget assume sociocultural aspects play an impact on development?
No, he assumes that sociocultural aspects play no impact, and it is simply the childs interaction and exploration of knowledge etc.
What does Vygotsky suggest?
Takes different view to Piaget and suggests that the mental life of a child is co developed with the people around them
Object of development is the child’s culture. This is what the child grows into
He proposed that to understand development we look at the child’s behaviour in the context that it occurs
What are the levels of context?
Context could range from:
Immediate face to face interaction with another person
All encompassing cultural belief systems
What is the zone of proximal development?
It is defined as the space between what a learner can do without assistance and what they could do with adult guidance/assistance or with collaboration with more capable peers
Concept of also knowing what the child could do in the future, not only what they could do now
What is the main idea of sociocultural origins of mental functioning?
Children grow into the intellectual life of those around them
What does child-in-activity-in-context mean?
The smallest meaningful unit of study is a child-in-context participating in some activity
Individuals are embedded in culturally infused context
Focus on activity – children are socialized into culture through daily activities with people
Cognition develops as a by-product of engaging in cultural routines
What are the features of Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of cognitive development?
Study of the “child-in-activity-in-context”
Study of the “zone of proximal development”
Sociocultural origins of mental functioning
Mediation of intellectual functioning by tools provided by culture
A childs development and learning ability is guided and mediated by the childs social interactions
What is the research of cultural variation in individualism vs collectivism (as part of sociocultural origins of mental functioning)
Western cultures focus on individuals, whereas indigenous and eastern cultures focus on the collective
Based on these cultural differences, different sets of prioritises are created in the different cultures
Asian countries prioritise collective whereas western countries prioritise individuals –> different effects on the development of the child in terms of memory and attention etc.
What are psychological tools?
They are tools which allow for mediation of intellectual functioning, which is provided by culture
Involves language systems, counting systems, writings, diagrams, maps, works of art, strategies for learning, attending or memorising etc.
Does Vygotsky suggest that language from adults is important for childs behaviour?
Yes, Vygotsky notices that speech gets internalised over time, and language from adults act as an external locus of control on the childs behaviour, and child learns to use language and inner speech to control their own behaviour
What is Bandura’s Social Learning theory
Argues that human learning results from experience on observation/vicarious basis (The S-O-R theory)
It is based on the stimulus-response (S-R_ theory of learning, but attempts to take into account social/cognitive variables operating in human development
Suggests that people learn by observation of consequences for others
Social learning theory, introduced by psychologist Albert Bandura, proposed that learning occurs through observation, imitation, and modeling and is influenced by factors such as attention, motivation, attitudes, and emotions.
As parents teach moral standards, the children learn by the parents practicing this as well
What are the 3 parts of Bandura’s theory of reciprocal determinism?
Behaviour (Motor and verbal responses, social interactions)
Person(Cognitive abilities, physical characteristics, belief and attitudes)
Environment (Physical surroundings, family and friends, other social influences)
What models are children likely to imitate under Banduras social learning theory?
People they regard as prestigious
Model of their own sex
models who receive rewards
Models they perceive being as like themselves
What is theory of mind?
Ability to attribute mental states, beliefs, intents, desires, pretending, knowledge etc to oneself and others and to understand that others have beleifs, desires and intents different from their own
(A theory of mind includes the knowledge that others’ beliefs, desires, intentions, emotions, and thoughts may be different from one’s own.)
What does prosocial behaviour mean?
A voluntary behaviour intended to benefit another
Are infants likely to imitate based on perceived intentions or specific actions?
Perceived intentions
How is theory of mind tested with children?
Using a false belief task
What is a false belief task?
When children are asked to determine others behaviour even if the child has a different behaviour (Such as the Sally Anne test with trying to understand where they think the stolen stuff is etc.)
3 year olds fail, 5 year olds succeeed
How does age impact children’s moral judgement?
Older children take intention into account whilst younger children dont. This is observed when children are presented with situations with different moral dilemmas
What are the two types of moral judgement?
Externally regulated
Self regulated
What does an externally regulated moral judgement mean? (From 5 years old)
“Rules from another” - external morality
Superficial and absolute type of reasoning
Show little understanding of intentions of others
What does a self regulated moral judgement mean (from 8 years old)
“Rules from self” - internal morality
Intangible type of reasoning
Judges transgressions in light of intentions and mutual agreements of individuals involved
How does Kohlberg argue moral judgement?
Extends off Piaget’s stage approach, and suggests a lifespan theory of moral development that extends Piaget’s moral development theory into adolescence and adulthood. There is 3 levels with 2 phases within each level
Proposes the 3 broad stages of moral judgement
And suggests that overall there is a developmental sequence in capacity to reason about moral dilemmas: go from being absolutist about rule following to nuanced about understanding contexts and intentions
What are the 3 broad stages of moral judgement as proposed by Kohlberg (based off Piaget)
Pre Conventional (Early Childhood)
Conventional (emerges 8-10)
Post Conventional (adolescence, but may never get here)
WHat does the preconventional stage involve?
Focussed on punishment and reward
What is right is what is rewarded and what is wrong is punished
What does the conventional stage involve?
Broad social system based on fairness and empathy and helping each other defines what is wrong or right
Legal and moral often equated
What does the post conventional stage involve?
Beyond necessary conforming to laws because the person realises there are universal principles of justice and human rights that may be more important than laws
Some laws are immoral and should be changed
Does Piaget think that the Kohlberg idea of moral judgement is correct?
Piaget was cautious, warning that individual differences in moral understanding are enormous and less committed to formal stages like he proposed cognitive development was
What are the four aspects of language?
Phonology
Semantics
Grammar/Syntax
Pragmatics
What is phonology?
The sound used by the speakers of a language
What is semantics?
Meaning of words and utterances
What is grammar/syntax?
Form or structure of a language - rules for combining words into meaningful sentences
Biggest debates about nature of language development in grammar/syntax
What is pragmatics?
Principles specifiying how language is used in conversation; how discourse is structured
What are the 3 approaches to language development?
Empiricists (e.g. Skinner, bandura) - learning approach (nurture)
Nativists (Chomsky, Pinker) - innate language knowledge/learning guidelines (nature)
Interactionists/Constructivists (Bates, Tomasello) - Domain general maturation and cognitive/social learning account for language, language is constructed from other faculties
WHat is the empiricist/behaviourist approach to language development?
Skinner; Acquisition via positive reinforcement for saying words and sentences
Bandura: Social learning perspective - learning by imitation and reinforcement
What is the nativist approach to language development?
Chomsky - Chomsky’s theory is based on the idea that all languages hold similar structures and rules, also known as a universal grammar. This theory states that all languages have formal universals and principles in common, with specific options and limits for variation in grammar and features between languages.
Suggests that reinforcement learning and learning through action mechanisms cannot explain acquisition of human language. Instead argues that language is too complex with abstract syntax rules, and that there has to be an inherent part of language which is common and allows it to be learnt quickly
What is recursion in language?
Sentences which can be embedded within sentences
Chomsky argues that this cant be achieved from skinner or Piaget learning mechanisms, thus learning must have special innate properties
What is the interactionist-constructivist approach to language development?
Language acquisition is a product of the interaction between maturation and environmental factors and is tied to cognitive development
Language emerges from domain-general cognitive and social learning mechanisms
What are the aspects of language development?
BIological maturation, neural development, cognitive development, linguistic environment
What is the summary of syntax development?
Skinner and bandura applied behaviourist and social leanring principles to language development
Chomsky argues that language is too complex to be learnt by the learning mechanisms of behaviourism and Piaget. Thus, language must have an innate special learning curve
Interactionist-constructivist suggests that brain maturation and domain general cognitive mechanisms can explain language
What is Getner’s natural partitions hypothesis?
World is paritioned into objects and relations between objects.
Language is not needed to form object concepts, however as the relations among objects are less defined, so there are more ways to represent them –> use of language to develop the relations between objects (i.e. this ball is bigger than that ball etc. )
Language helps children understand abstract/relational commonalities between objects (i.e. object sizes, family, etc. )
What are the two components of of the conceptual change in learning numbers?
1) Precise number of small sets (i.e. distinguish 2 dots from 3 dots)
2) Analog magnitude scale (i.e. can distinguish large quantities from others (vaguely) ) (i.e. 350 dots from 500 dots, not 350 dots from 352 dots)
What is the argument of the role of language in learning numbers?
To learn numbers, there is a different approach to language, thus there needs to be a new conceptual system. Corey suggests that language provides this 2nd conceptual system
What is conceptual essentialism?
the belief that entities have some unobservable underlying reality, identity or true nature that causes similarities among members of their category. (Gelman)
When children form categories, they assume they arent arbitrary sets
What was the previous thought about how self esteem influences childhood?
If children/people have high self esteem, they will try hard, achieve, have friends etc.
If low self esteem –> fail in school, no friends, drug addicts etc.
As a result, the focus previously centered on cultivating high self esteem (e.g. lower criticism, increased praise, no keeping scores in game etc. - we are all winners etc. )
However, what is the issue with constant praise?
Leads to more “fragile” self esteem instead of a sense of earned ‘secure’ self esteem
What is intrinsic motivation?
Working hard because one likes it
Intrinsic motivation is defined as the doing of an activity for its inherent satisfaction rather than for some separable consequence
What is extrinsic motivation?
Working to achieve an external reward
Extrinsic motivation is a motivation that is driven by external rewards
What can cause a shift from intrinsic to extrinsic motivation?
Immediate rewards for any behaviour. As a result, if there is no reward available –> lose motivation.
What is a way to increase motivation
When reward is less predictable and or based on increased standards of performance –> beneficial for motivation
What can intrinsic motivation result in (in terms of goals)?
Mastery goals - desire to master a skill for its own sake
What can extrinsic motivation result in (in terms of goals)?
Performance goals - desire to perform for others sake. What matters is how you do relative to peers and how well you are evaluated.
Is mastery or perfomrance goals better?
Students with mastery goals are proven to perform better than those with performance goals
What is person praise and what does it encourage?
Person praise is praising the inherent qulaities of the person as to why they are so good. I.e. “You’re so smart”
It encourages “entity” mindset
Associated with performance goals, especially avoidance performance. Children want to avoid looking dumb so they avoid performing
What is “entity” mindset?
Intelligence is fixed. this can lead to the belief that good grades come with little effort if smart
What is process praise and what does it encourage?
Process praise involves praising the process of getting good, i.e. “you did well because you worked hard”
Encourages a growth mindset - intelligence is a skill achieved with hard work.
Associated with mastery goals
Which praise is more likely to result in taking easy vs hard options
Easy: person praise
Hard: Process praise
This is because person prasised doesnt want to be embarassed by revealing they arent smart
Which mindsets respond better to challenge?
Growth mindset compared to entity mindset. Entity mindset dont try because they want the excuse of not trying as to failing (keeping their reputation). Entity mindset are thus more likely to cheat
What were the results of a growth mindset intervention study?
Those who were told about growth mindset and nature of mind and intelligence had a signififcant increase in grades compared to control studies
What are the praise and gender differences in the USA?
Research shows that boys get more process praise than girls and boys are more likely to have a growth mindset.
Children are sensitive to indiscriminate praise: if children are praised for non-academic classroom behaviors, e.g.,
“having a clean and organised desk” they then discount the authenticity/meaningfulness behind academic praise
Girls (compared to boys) are more likely to be praised for non-academic behaviors, and criticised academically,
and vice-versa for boys
WHat is a summary of why immediate reward and person praise can be dangerous?
- Reduces intrinsic motivation and mastery goals
- Encourages entity mindsets: increases performance goals,
engenders the primary concern to maintain self-image and avoid
looking dumb. - Reduces ability to cope with challenge and failure
What is the impact of adult attitudes on kids (case of gender and maths)
Parents of boys have higher expectations of success in maths now and in later careers, and believe boys are
“more naturally talented” at maths
Parents of girls have lower minimum acceptable levels
for achievement
Parents who endorse gender stereotypes in general endorse that gender stereotypes apply to their children,
even when they see their own children’s grades and
performance counter the stereotypes
- Teachers who endorse stereotypes apply them to their
students, even when grades are the same - Equal grades are explained by adults for different
reasons. They reason:
– Boys achieve because they are talented or fail because of a
lack of effort (or perhaps bad luck)
– Girls achieve because they must have tried so extra hard (or
perhaps good luck), while fail due to lack of ability
Children (on average) endorse the gender stereotypes of
their parents and teachers
* Even when their own achievement contradicts these
beliefs (assimilation)
- Female children more likely to have entity theories of intelligence in general, and view that they have no natural maths ability, thus: why try?
- Boys more likely to have incremental theories of intelligence and receive more process praise in general
(not maths specific)
