Developmental Area Flashcards
What are the assumptions and defining principles of the developmental area?
-development is an ongoing process which continues throughout our lifetime and across the lifespan
-children go through lots of developmental changes before adulthood that impact how they see the world, understand concepts, and behave
-changes are due to inherited factors (nature) and to life experience (nurture)
-assumes that behaviour can be innate (nature) and happens in predetermined stages
What is the background to Banduras study?
Was proposed that social learning theory suggests that it is possible of people to lean by observations and imitation of a role models behaviour. If someone is rewarded for behaving, such as praise that are more likely to repeat the behaviour (operant conditioning), and if someone else sees another person rewarded for a behaviour they can be vicariously reinforced and also imitate that behaviour in the future
What is the Aim to Banduras study?
To demonstrate that learning can occur through observation of a role model and that imitation of learned behaviour can occur in the absence of that model
What were the hypothesis of Banduras study?
1, Children shown aggressive models will show more significantly imitative aggressive acts compared to the children shown non-agressive models or no models
2, Boys will ahow significantly more imitative aggression than girls
3, Children will imitate same sex models to a greater degree than opposite sex behaviour
What is the Sample of Banduras study?
-72 children (36 boys and girls) aged between 3 and 5 from a nursery school in Stanford California
-opportunity sampling as they were already avaliable in the nursery at the time
-sampling is likely to be representative of how all children would respond therefore having population validity and can be generalise
-ethnocentric as children are at a university nursery therefore may not be representative of other cultures and societies
What is the Method of Banduras study?
-Laboratory Experiment
-3 IV’s 1,whether the child was exposed to / witnesses an aggressive model, non-agressive model or no model present, 2,sex of the model, 3,sex of the child
-DV is the amount of imitative behaviour and aggression shown by the child in phase 3
- Observed through one-way mirror
- Physical, verbal, speech -aggressive responce, this allowed for standardisation for example using the same bobo doll which would reduce the chance of EV affecting results therefore establishing causality
-low ecological validity as children are not in their natural environment and so aggression towards the bobo doll would not happen in a real life situation
what is the Design of Banduras study?
the children were pre-tested to see how aggressive they were, the experimenter and nursery teacher observed the children and judged their aggressive behaviours on 4 5-point rating scales; physical aggression, verbal aggression, aggression towards inanimate objects,aggressive inhibition.
-matched pairs design was used which reduces participant variables. however there could be individual differences which could explain why one child may show imitative aggression or not
what is the Procedure to Banduras study?
-Phase 1- The child was taken to a room and sat in the “child’s corner”. In the adults corner was toys like bobo dolls, toy guns and a mallet. Durring the aggressive model condition the adult played with the bobo doll like hitting/punching/throwing and would also verbally yell’hit him down’, ‘pow’, and ‘kick him’. The adult played for 10 minutes and after that an experimenter entered the room and dismissed the adult and took the child out the room and into a second room
Phase 2- in the second room the child was told they cold play with toys such as doll and fire truck, after 2 minutes the experimenter tells the child that they are no longer able to play with the toys because she is reserving them for another child, this was done to frustrate the child and to see how they would respond in the final phase
-Phase 3- the experimenter took the child into the first room this time without a model and told them that they could play with the toys from both the adults corner and the child’s corner and were allowed to play for 20 minutes. The experimenter used time sampling at 5 second intervals to record the results creating 240 responses and found high inter-rater reliability
what were the findings to Banduras study?
-children with aggressive condition showed significantly more imitation of physical and verbal aggressive behaviour and non-aggressive verbal responses than children in the non-agressive or control conditions
-children in the non-agressive condition showed very little aggression and were often inhibited although results was not always significantly less than the control group
-behaviour of male model had more influence than the female model and that boys produced more imitative physical aggression than girls
-data is considered quantitative which is therefore easier to analyse and compare but lacks insight into why they were behaving in this imitative way
what are the conclusions to banduras study?
children will imitate aggressive/non-agressive behaviours displayed by adult models even if the model isn’t present which can be explained by social learning theory
What are the strengths of Banduras study?
-Used laboratory experiment and so was very standardised reducing the effects of extraneous variables. same; room, toys and, in each room for the same amount of time.
-Quantitative data was collected, so it is easier to compare and analyse the levels of aggression across different conditions; same sex model ((non-)aggressive),and opposite sex model ((non-)aggressive)
-Increased ecological validity as the setting of the experiment play room was similar to that of the nursery they went
-There was a great understanding of how easily aggressive behaviours are imitated, which leads to practical applications (for example putting violent TV shows on at a later time at night )
What are the weaknesses of Banduras study?
-Due to the use of laboratory the study lacked realism and so cannot be applied to real life scenarios (hitting a doll is very different than hitting a person)
-Only collecting quantitative meant that the researchers could not gather insight into the way the children were thinking or behaving in the way they did
-The use of children in the study raises ethical issues as they cannot give informed consent, and may find it difficult or understand that they have a right to withdraw. consent was gained through the school they went. The children were deliberately annoyed by the researchers as part of stage 2 of the study, which could raise issues of distress.
-Ecological validity is low as playing with a stranger in a room isn’t a typical task
What were the theories to Chaneys study?
Operant conditioning
* Operant conditioning is a form of associative learning, whereby associations and connections are formed between stimuli and responses that
didn’t exist before learning occurs.
* Operant conditioning involves learning through the consequences of behavioural responses. The principles of operant conditioning were
first investigated by Thorndike who found that any response that led to desirable consequences was more likely to be repeated, whereas any
response that led to undesirable consequences was less likely to be repeated – a principle which became known as the Law of Effect.
* The principles of operant conditioning were further developed by Skinner who applied them to explain how many aspects of human behaviour
are acquired.
what was the background to chaneys study?
Behaviour therapy and behaviour modification (based on classical and operant conditioning) have been major approaches used by both clinical
psychologists and health practitioners to improve adherence to prescribed medical regimes.
* Poor adherence to prescribed frequency and technique remains a major problem for paediatric asthmatics on inhaled medication (Chaney et al,
2004).
* Although reasons for poor adherence are varied, Watt et al proposed that a positive interplay of adherence considerations with aerosol output
factors would improve medication adherence in young asthmatics
What was the aim to chaneys study?
to show that the use of a novel asthma spacer device, the “Funhaler”, which incorporates incentive toys
isolated from the main inspiratory circuit by a valve, whilst not compromising drug delivery, can provide positive reinforcement which leads to
improved adherence in young asthmatics.
what was the research method to chaneys study?
- This was a field experiment, conducted in the participants’ home settings in Australia, which used a repeated measures design.
- The independent variables (IVs) were:
(i) whether the child used a standard/small volume spacer device – the Breath-a-Tech (Scott-Dibben, Australia)
(ii) whether the child used a Funhaler (InfMed Ltd, Australia). - The dependent variable (DV) was the amount of adherence to the prescribed medical regime.
what was the sample to chaneys study?
- 32 children (22 male, 10 female; age range 1.5 - 6 years, median and mean age 3.2 years; average duration of asthma 2.2 years) prescribed drugs
delivered by pMDI and spacer were recruited. - The children’s parents provided informed consent and also participated in the study through completing questionnaires and taking part in a
phone interview. They also helped (where necessary) in the use of the inhalers.
what was the procedure to chaneys study?
- Firstly, a comparison was made between the aerosol output of the standard/small volume spacer device (235ml Breath-a-Tech) and the 225ml
Funhaler. Overall no significant differences were observed. The comparison was therefore complementary, indicating that the use of a Funhaler
rather than a standard inhaler does not compromise drug delivery. - As part of this process, participants were approached by the researcher at home initially before the Funhaler was mentioned and were
interviewed with a questionnaire on their existing use of the inhaler. - Then they were give the Funhaler for two weeks and reported over the phone on an ad hoc basis to take snapshots of whether they had used
the Funhaler the previous day - After sequential use of the Breath-a-Tech inhaler and the Funhaler they were then visited again by the researcher and parents were interviewed
and completed the matched questionnaires. - Data collected from the self-report related to how easy each device was to use, compliance of parents and children, and treatment attitudes.
Furthermore, during the course of the study each parent was called at random to find out whether they had attempted to medicate their child
the day before.
e. The Funhaler makes spacers appealing to children in the following ways:
(i) It isolates incentive toys (eg spinner and whistle) in a separate branch to the standard inhalation circuit, placing them outside the expiratory
valve of the spacer to avoid problems of contamination and interference of drug delivery.
(ii) The design of the toys themselves ensures sufficient inspiratory resistance to minimise entrainment of inspired air through the toy circuit.
what were the key findings to chanayes study?
- The use of the Funhaler was associated with improved parental and child compliance.
- When surveyed at random, 81% (22/27) of children using the Funhaler were found to have been medicated the previous day compared to 59%
of children (16/27) using the existing small volume spacer device. - 30% more children took the recommended four or more cycles per aerosol delivery (24/30 – 80% versus 15/30 – 50%; p = 0.02) when using the Funhaler compared with the standard/small volume spacer.
- Use of the Funhaler was associated with fewer problems than when using the existing device
What were the possible conclusions of chaneys study?
- Improved adherence, combined with satisfactory delivery characteristics, suggest that the Funhaler may be useful for management of young
asthmatics. - The use of the Funaler could possibly be translated to improved measures of clinical outcome.
- The use of functional incentive devices such as the Funhaler may improve the health of children.
- More research is recommended in the long-term efficacy of this treatment
What are the theories behind kolhbergs study?
*At birth we’re all amoral, lacking any system of personal values and judgements about what is right and wrong.
*In the field of moral development, morality is usually defined as principles for how individuals ought to treat one another, with respect to
justice, others’welfare, and rights
Freud believed that the personality (psychic apparatus) comprises of three parts: the id, ego
and superego. The id contains everything that is inherited, that is present at birth, the instincts. The ego is a part of the id which becomes
modified by the direct influence of the external world and represents reason and common sense, in contrast to the psyche which
contains the passions. Not until the superego has developed can individuals be described as moral beings. The superego represents the
internalisation of parental and social moral values. There are two main aspects of the superego, the conscience and the ego-ideal. The
conscience represents the punishing parent and imposes feelings of guilt for immoral thoughts or deeds; whereas the ego-ideal represents
the rewarding parent and is responsible for feelings of pride and satisfaction, for‘good’thoughts or deeds.
*Freud proposed the existence of a tension between the needs of society and the individual. According to Freud, the moral development
proceeds when the individual’s selfish desires are repressed and replaced by the values of important socialising agents in one’s life such as
parents.
-inner, like Freud, focused on socialisation as the primary force behind moral development. In contrast
to Freud’s notion of a struggle between internal and external forces, Skinner focused on the power of external forces (reinforcement
contingencies) to shape an individual’s development.
what was the background of kohlbergs study?
-Kohlberg was inspired by Piaget’s pioneering effort to apply a structural approach to moral development rather than linking it to personality
traits. He therefore expanded on Piagetian notions of moral development and saw moral development as a more gradual process than Piaget.
He provided a systematic three-level, six-stage sequence of development which reflected changes in moral judgement throughout the
lifespan. Specifically, Kohlberg argued that development proceeds from a selfish desire to avoid punishment (personal), to a concern for group
functioning (societal), to a concern for the consistent application of universal ethical principles
levels of moral developement:
1.Preconventional
2.Conventional
3.Post-conventional
Stages:
1. Punishment and obedience orientation
2.Instrumental-relativist orientation
3.Good boy-good girl orientation
4.Law and order orientation
5.social contact orientation
6.universal principle orientation
What was the research method of kohlbergs study?
*This was a longitudinal study which followed the development of the same group of boys for 12 years by presenting them with hypothetical
moral dilemmas, all deliberately philosophical, some of them found in medieval works of casuistry. The aim was to show how, as young
adolescents develop into young manhood, they move through the distinct levels and stages of moral development proposed by Kohlberg in
his theory of moral development.
*Kohlberg also studied moral development in other cultures using hypothetical moral dilemmas. This study therefore has a cross-cultural
element
what was the sample to kohlbergs study?
-75 American boys who were aged 10-16 at the start of the study were followed at three-year intervals through to ages 22-28.
*Moral development was also studied in boys of other cultures including Great Britain, Canada, Taiwan, Mexico and Turkey
Outline the procedure of kohlbergs study?
Using 75 American boys
*Participants were presented with hypothetical moral dilemmas in the form of short stories to solve.
*The stories were to determine each participant’s stage of moral reasoning for each of25 moral concepts/aspects.
*Aspects assessed included:
-Motive Given for Rule Obedience or Moral Action
Using different cultures
*Taiwanese boys, aged 10-13, were asked about a story involving theft of food:“A man’s wife is starving to death but the store owner won’t give
the man any food unless he can pay, which he can’t. Should he break in and steal some food? Why?”
*Young boys in Great Britain, Canada, Mexico and Turkey were tested in a similar way
what are the key findings of kohlbergs study?
Each of Kohlberg’s six stages were shown as follows:
1: Obey rules to avoid punishment.
2: Conform to obtain rewards, have favours returned etc.
3. Conform to avoid disapproval, dislike by others.
4. Conform to avoid censure by legitimate authorities and resultant guilt.
5. Conform to maintain the respect of the impartial spectator judging in terms of community welfare.
6. Conform to avoid self-condemnation.
-The value of a human life is confused with the value of physical objects and is based on the social status or physical attributes of its possessor
-Cross-cultural findings:
*Taiwanese boys aged 10-13 tended to give ‘classic’ Stage-2 responses.
*Middle-class urban boys aged 10 in the US, Taiwan and Mexico showed the order of use of each stage to be the same as the order of its
difficulty or maturity.
*In the US, by age 16, Stage-6 was rarely used. At age 13, the good-boy, middle stage (Stage-3) was not used
What are conclusions of kohlbergs study?
*There is an invariant developmental sequence in an individual’s moral development.
*Each stage of moral development comes one at a time and always in the same order.
*An individual may stop at any given stage and at any age.
*Moral development fits with Kohlberg’s stage-pattern theory.
*There is a cultural universality of sequence of stages.
What are the theories behind Lee’s study?
*Children’s moral judgements about lying and truth telling primarily rely on the extent to which a verbal statement differs from factuality and
whether or not the lie is punished. Not until around 11 years of age do children begin to use the protagonist’s intention as the key factor of their
moral judgements -Piaget
-Kohlberg conducted cross-cultural research to support his theory of moral development, but did not specifically focus on the ‘art of lying’
what was the background to Lee’s study?
*This study was conducted to bridge the gap between this literature by directly testing the posited effect of culture on children’s moral
evaluations of lying and truth telling.
*This study compares the moral judgements of Canadian children and Chinese children from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in situations in
which pro- and antisocial actions were denied or acknowledged.
*The original study contains a detailed justification for why Chinese children in the PRC were compared with children from the Western culture of
Canada.
What is the research method to Lee’s study?
*This was a laboratory experiment which used an independent measures design.
*The independent variables (IVs) were:
(i) whether the participant heard the social story or the physical story
(ii) whether the participant heard (prosocial) stories involving a child who intentionally carried out a good deed (a deed valued by adults in both
countries) or (antisocial) stories involving a child who intentionally carried out a bad deed (a deed viewed negatively in both cultures).
There were therefore four conditions: Prosocial Behaviour/Truth-Telling stories, Prosocial Behaviour/Lie-Telling stories, Antisocial Behaviour/TruthTelling stories, Antisocial Behaviour/Lie-Telling stories
-The dependent variables (DVs) were:
(i) the rating given to the story character’s deed (ranging between very, very good and very, very naughty)
(ii) the rating given to what the character said (verbal statement) (ranging between very, very good and very, very naughty)
What was the sample of Lee’s study?
*120 Chinese children: 40 7-year-olds (M age = 7.5 years, 20 male, 20 female), 40 9-year-olds (M age = 9.4 years, 20 male, 20 female), and 40
11-year-olds (M age = 11.3years, 20 male, 20 female). They were recruited from elementary schools in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, a mediumsized city (provincial capital) in the PRC.
*108 Canadian children: 36 7-year-olds, 20 male, 16 female), 40 9-year-olds, 24 male, 16 female), 32 11-year-olds, 11.5 years, 14 male, 18 female). They were recruited from elementary schools in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. Like Hangzhou, Fredericton is a provincial capital but its population is considerably smaller than Hangzhou.
*Although the socio-economic status of the Chinese children was not known, most Canadian children were from middle-class families.
What is the procedure to Lee’s study?
- Half of the Chinese children participated in the social story condition and the other half were placed in the physical story condition. The
children were randomly assigned to each condition. - From the Canadian sample: 19 7-year-olds, 20 9-year-olds and 17 11-year-olds were randomly assigned to the social story condition and the
other children were assigned to the physical story condition.
What materials were used in Lee’s study?
*Participants were read four scenarios accompanied by illustrations, two prosocial, two antisocial. All 8 stories can be found in Appendix of the
original article, however the ProsocialBehaviour/Lie-Telling story went as follows:
Here is Alex. Alex’s class had to stay inside at recess time because of bad weather, so Alex decided to tidy up the classroom for his teacher.
(Question 1: Is what Alex did good or naughty?)
So Alex cleaned the classroom, and when the teacher returned after recess, she said to her students,“Oh, I see that someone has cleaned the
classroom for me.”The teacher then asked Alex,“Do you know who cleaned the classroom?”Alex said to his teacher,“I did not do it.”
(Question 2: Is what Alex did good or naughty?)
- Participants were then read either the four social or four physical stories. The story’s‘deed’section was read first and then they would indicate
their rating either verbally, non-verbally or both on the rating chart.
-They were then read the second section of the story and would then indicate, in the same way, their rating for the character’s verbal statement.
*The meaning of each symbol was repeated every time a question was asked.
*The words‘good’ and‘naughty’, in the two questions were altered within subjects.
*To control for order effects, for each condition, two orders of the four stories were first determined using a randomisation table. About half of
the participants in each condition were read the stories in one predetermined order, and the other half were read them in the other order.
*Participants were then involved in post-experimental discussions.
What were the key findinigs to Lee’s study?
Prosocial Behaviour/Truth-Telling Situations- The age and culture main effects were significant with Canadian children
at each age giving similar ratings to truth telling whereas Chinese children’s ratings became less positive as age increased. The condition main
effect was not significant.
Prosocial behaviour/Lie-Telling Situations: After partialing out the effect of, the age and culture main effects remained significant.
The condition main effect was not significant. Only the interaction between age and culture was therefore significant.
-Overall, Canadian children rated lie telling in this situation negatively but as age increased their ratings became somewhat less negative.
-Overall, Chinese children’s ratings of lie telling in this situation changed from negative to positive as age increased.
Antisocial Behaviour/Truth-Telling Situations: -Children from both cultures rated truth telling in this situation very positively. No
main effect or interaction was significant.
Antisocial behaviour/Lie-Telling Situations: The culture and
conditions main effects were not significant. Only the interaction between age, culture and condition was significant.
- Both Chinese and Canadian children rated lie telling negatively in this condition.
-Overall, negative ratings increased with age, irrespective of culture.
-Chinese 7-year-olds rated lie telling less negatively then older children in the physical story condition, whereas Canadian 7-year-olds rated
lie telling less negatively than older children in the social story condition.
What are the conclusions to Lees study?
*In the realm of lying and truth telling, a close relationship between socio-cultural practices and moral judgements exists.
*Specific social and cultural norms have an impact on children’s developing moral judgements, which in turn, are modified by age and
experience in a particular culture.
*Chinese children rate truth telling in prosocial situations less positively and lie telling in the same situations less negatively than Canadian
children.
*Both Chinese and Canadian children show similar moral evaluations of lie telling and truth telling related to antisocial behaviours
What are some applications of the D.A
-Education
-Child practices
-Computer games
-Child rating films
what are the strengths of the D.A
- many useful applications including child care and education
-attempts to answer the nature nurture debate
-uses a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods so will gain useful data. - can study participants over time to reduce participant variables
What are the weaknesses of the D.A
-research with children may arise ethical issues, such as consent and protection
-using children as participants can highlight practical issues, such as making inferences from observed behaviour as they cant tell us
- research may be constrained by time or culture sue to changes in early year environments and cultural differences in child rearing
- samples are often small and may be unrepresentative
