developmental area Flashcards
What are the features of the developmental area?
- looks at how humans change and develop over the lifespan
- suggests that our thoughts, feelings and behaviour are affected by both nature and nurture.
what is one assumption of the behaviourist perspective?
1) all behaviour is learnt through the environment
what are the ways that we learn behaviours through?
- classical condtioning
- operant conditioning
- social learning theory
whats classical conditioning?
learning through association
whats operant conditioning?
learning through consequences
what is social learning theory?
leanring through observation and imitation
another assumption of the behaviourist perspective?
we can test how behaviour is learned through the environment through observing and measuring responses to stimuli in scientific experiments.
what is positive reinforcement?
rewarding by giving something nice
what is negative reinforcement
rewarding by removing something bad.
what is positive punishment
giving something nasty as punishment
what is negative punishment
taking something nice as a punishment
four processes in social learning theory
Attention - paying attention to the behaviour
Retention - you must learn to retain information
Reproduction - ability to reproduce behaviour youve seen
Motivation - being motivated to imitate behaviour through reinforcement or punishment.
ARRM
what is vicarious reinforcement?
we are more likely to imitate a behaviour if we see a model rewarded for the behaviour
what is identification?
the ectent to which an individual related to a model. People are more likely to imitate a same sex model.
what is self reinforcement
when someone enjoys copying a behaviour they are more likely to repeat it.
what is self efficacy?
how effective a person thinks they will be at successfully adopting a behaviour.
what is an advantage and disadvantage of using operant conditioning to change someones behaviour
+ can create a better environment for everyone. eg. prisons or psychiatric institutions.
- people with stubborn personalities may not be willing to change
what were the aims of the Bandura study
1) to see if children might observe aggressive behaviour and then model their own actions on it.
2) to investigate gender on modelling.
what was the research method, design and different conditions in Banduras study?
Laboratory experiment/observation
independent measures design
24 of the children were put in a control group and did not observe a model at all, the rest of the 48 children were put in 8 experimental conditions where they saw either an aggressive or non aggressive model. Some watched an opposite or same sex model.
what was the sample of Banduras study?
72 children from one nursery in the USA. there was an equal mix of boys and girls. between 3-5 years old.
what were the independent and dependent variables of the study?
IVs - the behaviour of the model, the sex of the model, the sex of the children
DVs - number of imitative physical, verbal aggressive acts and number of non imitative aggressive acts.
what was the procedure of Banduras experiment?
children were individually taken to a room to play with potato prints or stickers. In the non aggressive condition, children saw the adult model play in the corner with some tinker toys. Children in the aggressive condition, see a model behave aggressively to a BOBO doll. after 10 minutes, children are put into a slightly aggressive state and are then observed playing. the researchers record the number of imitative and non imitative aggressive acts to the bobo doll.
What were the results of the Bandura study?
100% of the children who observed aggressive acts imitated it.
70% of children had a 0 score for aggressive acts.
boys were more physically aggressive than girls, but there was little difference in verbal aggression.
conclusions of Banduras study?
when children watch adults being aggressive, they are more likely to imitate the aggression (proving social learning theory)
children are more likely to copy a same sex model (identification) for example, the boys were more aggressive after seeing a male model.
GRAVE analysis for Bandura
G - all children were from one nursery in America -> not representative BUT it was mixed gender
R - the study was a lab experiment with good controls. replicable and reliable
A - this study suggests that children are likely to copy violence shown by models. therefore, childrens exposure to violent tv should be limited.
V - study involved artificial situation so lacks ecological validity.
E - the children were not protected from harm as they watched an adult be aggressive
how does Banduras study relate to the key theme of external influences on childrens behaviour?
looks at how role models in childrens environment can affect
their behaviour, specifically aggression.
Banduras study mostly supports the nurture side of the debate. why?
because it mainly looks at how environment influences behaviour specifically how aggressive role models are observed and imitated.
How could Bandura support nature?
differences in aggressive behaviour could be biological differences between males and females such as higher testosterone levels.
what were the aims of Chaney’s study?
1) to see whether children are more likely to continue their medication if they recieve a reward.
2) to show the use of an asthma device (funhaler)
what was the research method, design and different conditions in Chaneys study?
Field experiment, conducted in participants home settings in australia.
used closed, structured questionnaire to measure attitudes of funhaler and traditional spacer device.
repeated measures design, the same children took part in both conditions of the experiment. the funhaler and standard inhaler
sample of Chaney’s study?
32 children 22male 10female
children who were already taking asthma medication
australia
procedure for Chaney’s study
- took 2 weeks
- parents completed closed structured questionnaire
- participants were then asked to use funhaler which had toys such as a whistle and spinning disc.
- parents did another questionnaire on the funhaler
- researchers did a random check to see whether parent had given medication the previous day.
results for Chaneys study
- 81% had given medication the previous day with the funhaler whereas only 59% had given medication with the existing spacer device.
- questionnaire had positive attitudes towards funhaler
conclusions of Chaney’s study
funhaler leads to an increasr in use of a spacer device for asthma medication. devices that use self reinforcement strategies can improve overall health of children
GRAVE analysis for Chaney
G - large range of families from Australia. but all from on country
R - standardised procedure (everyone had the same questionnaires) so easy to replicate and reliable
A - study shows how reinforcement can improve medical adherence.
V - high ecological validity as experiment took place in participants homes. however, there could be bias in questionnaires
E - informed consent taken from parents, privacy ensured. children protected from harm as researchers took care for their comfort.
strengths of the developmental area
- many useful applications to childcare and education.
- holistic as it considers how nature AND nurture affect development. (opposite of reducitonist)
weaknesses of the developmental area
- research with children may raise ethical issues. such as consent and protection.
- using children as participants can highlight practical issues - children may not have language to explain what they are feeling or thinking.
strengths of the behaviourist perspective
- good scientific status. most studies are experimental and carried our under lab conditions, behaviourist ideas are easily testable
- pracitcal applications
weaknesses of the behaviourist perspective
- reducitonist - operant and classical conditioning only focus on stimulus response processes.
- raises ethical issues
what did kohlberg say about moral reasoning?
moral reasoning happens in 6 stages
1 - avoiding punishment
2 - aiming at rewards
3 - good boy/girl attitude
4 - loyalty to law and order
5 - justice and the spirit of law
6 - universal principles and ethics
aims of kohlbergs study
to see how moral development changes throughout adolescence and early childhood
what was the research method, design and different conditions in Kohlbergs primary/main study?
what was the research method and design in the cross cultural element in his study?
primary study - interviews, longitudinal study
cross cultural element of study - interviews, cross sectional design
what was the sample in Kohlbergs primary and cross cultural element of his study?
primary study - 75 american boys
between 10-16 years at start and 22-28 years at the end
cross cultural sample - 10-13 years in taiwan, mexico, etc.
how does longitudinal design differ from a cross sectional design
longitudinal studies follow the same participants over time as they change with age. cross sectional studies compare different groups of participants at different ages at one moment in time.
procedure of kohlbergs study
participants were followed from early adolescence to early adulthood for 12 years. every 3 years, each participant was interviewed individually. in the interview each participant was present with a series of moral dilemmas.
the cross cultural element of the study involved testing 10-13 year olds in different countries like canada and britain about a story of theft of food.
findings of Kohlberg
moral development occurs in the same sequence regardless of where a child grows up.
each stage of moral developement comes one at a time and always in the same order.
GRAVE analysis of Kohlberg
G - 75 american boys were used and their results were compared to different cultures. however, only males were used
R - the study standardised procedure as the boys were all interviewed in the 3 year span and asked the same moral dilemma.
A - Kohlberg applied the method to school
V - kohlberg study lacks ecological validity as they haf to say what they would do in a hypothetical situation which could be different to what they do when they are actually faced with the situation.
E - none
how does kohlberg relate to the key theme of moral development
kohlberh looks at how boys moral reasoning changed over a 12 year period
kohlbergs theory of moral development supports nature, why
it suggests we all move through predetermined stages of moral reasoning in the same sequence.
how could kohlberg support nurture
that childrens moral reasoning was affected by the environment as middle class boys moved faster and further along moral reasoning.
why is kohlberg unscientific
- researcher bias - some answers did not fit into a particular stage yet they were placed into one.
what did kohlberg argue in regards to free will-determinism debate
kohlberg argues that we all move through predetermined stages of moral development in the same sequence, suggesting lack of free will.
how does culture in canada differ from china
Canada is more individualist while china is more collectivist
what was the aim of Lee et al’s study
to investigate cross cultural differences in childrens understanding and moral judgements of lying by looking at chinese and canadian children.
what was the research method and design of Lees study
- quasi experiment
- independent measures design - two main groups, chinese and canadian and seperated in 3 different age groups, 7,9,11 year olds.
sample of Lees study
120 male and female chinese children from a city in China
108 male and female canadian children from a smaller city in canada
what were the IVs and DVs of Lees study
