Development Psychology - Cognitive Development Flashcards
Developmental psychology - definition (and central issues)
Psychology that documents the course of social, emotional, moral and intellectual development over the life span. From conception to death.
Central issues: gaining full understanding of these changes, investigating processes which underlie the changes (nature vs nurture)
Nurture argument - John Locke (1960s)
Childhood experiences have a profound and permanent effect on individuals. Newborns are blank slates, adults teach them about the world and how to behave
Nature argument - Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1760s)
Children are capable of learning about the world and behaviour without adults. They should be allowed to grow as nature dictates, with little guidance or pressure from parents.
Maturation - Arnold Gesell
First psychologist to study role of nature in behaviour systematically. He looked at development of motor skills in a fixed sequence of stages.
Noted that deviations occur only under extreme environmental conditions
Founder of behaviourist approach - Watson (1990s)
He disagreed with Gesell and said that the environment shapes and molds development
Piaget 1920s-1980s (First to…)
First to suggest nature and nurture work together, the two being inseparable and interactive.
Most development psychologists now accept this view.
Nature and nurture working together
Operate to make human beings both alike and unique.
Inherited genes create predispositions that interact with environmental influences.
It’s often impossible to access how much is due to nature and nurture.
Changes in the brain (infancy -> childhood)
Neural networks connecting brain cells mature, becoming more complex and efficient and allowing near cognitive abilities to appear.
Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development
Development proceeds in a series of stages or periods. Entering each stage involves a qualitative change from the previous stage (like caterpillar > butterfly)
Building blocks of intellectual development are called schemas
Piaget’s schemas
Schemas are generalisations formed as people experience the world. They organise past experiences and provide a framework for understanding future experiences.
As children adapt to environment they form basic unite of knowledge including behaviours, mental symbols and mental activities
Assimilation and accommodation processes (Piaget’s schemas)
Two complimentary processes guide development of schemas.
> Assimilation - process of trying to fit new objects into existing schemas. E.g. baby sees a toy, sucks on it as it assimilated the ‘sucking’ schema of a bottle and dummy
Accommodation - process of changing existing schemas to fit new objects. E.g. baby discovers toy more fun when it squeaks so chews instead of sucks.
Piaget’s development stages
> Sensorimotor development 0-2 years
Preoperational development 2-4 years and 4-7 years
Formal operational 11+
Sensorimotor development
0-2 years
> Mental activity confined to schemas about sensory functions and motor skills.
> Can only form schemas of things they can actually touch
> Not able to have mental representation - i.e. can’t ‘think’ of mum
> End of period marked by development of object permanent (around 8 months)
Preoperational development
First half (2-4)
> Children begin to understand, create, and use symbols to represent things that are not present
Second half (4-7)
> Children begin to make intuitive guesses about the world as they try to determine how things work.
> Children seem highly egocentric - appear to believe the way things look to them is how they look to everyone else.
> Do not yet have conservation - don’t understand some logical mental operations
Formal operational
11+ years
> Can think logically about abstractions
> Can speculate, work probabilities and imagine other worlds
> Can deal with analogies and reason using logic
