developmental psychology

Question 1

What does Skinner say about language development that uses operant conditioning.

Answer 1

• children learn language through positive reinforcement as parents tend to reward babies when they develop words by giving it attention
• correct utterances are positively reinforced with the thing it is associated with
• the child begins to learn the communicative value of words.

Question 2

how does operant conditioning explain how a child continues to develop language?

Answer 2

• parent gets used to the babbling of a child so they pay less attention to the child
• motivates them to vary the babbling and sometimes they may produce more recognisable speech sounds
• catches the attention of a parent, reinforcing them again.

Question 3

Use the terms ‘shaping’ and ‘chaining’ to briefly describe how language would develop into more complex sentences.

Answer 3

Due to the parent saying words like “daddy” to their child they are shaping their sounds and words and as the child becomes more developed in speech the chaining of this reinforcement allows them to form more complex speech.

Question 4

Give 3 criticisms of language development using learning theories.

Answer 4

• learning cannot account for rate that language is acquired as shaping is a long process yet language acquisition happens quickly
• infinite sentences so cannot be learned through imitation
• does not explain how children use verbs incorrectly e.g. hitted, as this would not be imitated

Question 5

How can reinforcement explain how gender development is learnt?

Answer 5

a girl being praised for playing with dolls due to gender appropriateness

Question 6

how do children learn gender behaviours via modelling?

Answer 6

A boy may learn a gender behaviour through observing a footballer and so they may imitate the behaviour of a footballer by being sporty. The motivation to do so may be internal or external if the model is rewarded by things such as fame and attention.

Question 7

How does Bandura’s bobo doll study support the social learning theory in explaining gender development?

Answer 7

• same sex models are more effective for increasing aggressive behaviour
• boys watching male role models copied 25.8 of the aggressive acts compared to 12.4 for female