developmental psychology Flashcards
define cognitive development
changes in ability such as thinking and reasoning, memory, attention, imagination and language
piagets main idea about cognitive development
piaget considered that we build an understanding of our world and develop our thinking skills through active interaction with our environment
schema
is an idea about what something is and how to deal with it
assimilation
we interpret new experiences and information in terms of our current understanding
accomodation
as we interpret with out world we construct and modify schemas
4 stages of piaget
1- sensori motor stage (2yr): babies develop an understanding of the world through their sensory and motor interactions. Infants do not have awareness of other objects
2- pre operational stage (2-7yr): not able to carry out metal operations, egocentric, percieve the world through their own view point
3- concrete operational stage(7-11yr): carry out mental operations provided they have concrete materials, conservation, classify objects on what is common and order objects
4- formal operational stage(11+yr): abstract thinking, logical thinking develop strategies, develop hypothesis
seagrim and lendon adaptation of Piaget
looked at Australian indigenous people and compared them to western people. they found that Aborginal children were as capable as white children in the different types of thinking at similar ages and with similar educational experiences. This only the case if children have been completly immersed in white culture
piagets cristisms
- underestimated young minds
- failed to distinguish between competence and perfromance
- gave insufficent attention to social influnces on performance
- Donaldson found that children aged between 3.5 and 5 are no longer egocntric ‘boy and a policeman’
- sigeal argues that younger children apparent inability to conserve can be explained by the adults breaking the conversational rules that children hold
moral reasoning
is the thinking behind our ideas of what is right and wrong
what does improved cognitive ability enable us to do
- information to be processed more quickley
- attention can be focused for longer periods of time
- attention can be focused more selectivley
kohlberg study
extended the focus from young children into adolescense and adulthood. Kohlberg gave a series of hyopthetical dilemmas to subjects in a longitudinal study over 20 years. Subjects were interviewed to see what they though the person should do in a dilemma and why they should do that
kohlbergs 6 stages
preconventional- early childhood (3-8 years)
1- punishement and obediance, egocentric, obeying rules to avoid punishment
2- indiviudal, instramental and concrete, obeying rules is importent to gain rewards
conventional- late childhood/early adolsecense 9-12 years
3- mutual interpersonal expectations, confromity and relationships. right and wrong are determined by approval of others
4- right and wrong are determined by respecting authorties and obeying rules and laws put in place by soceity
post conventional- adolescense and onwards(12+)
5- rights and social context, soceitys laws are importent ot follow for the maintenance of law and order
6- universal ethical principlas and moral POV, respect for others
critismism of kohlberg
- does moral reasoning necessairly lead to moral behaviour
- is justice the only aspect of moral reasoning we should consider
- critics have pointed out that kohlberg moral development may play an importent part in moral reasoning
- over emphasising western philosophy
researchers who critisised kohlberg
schaffer- said that he should use a cross sectional research design of different people in different age groups
Shweder- culture biased
Gillian- argued that females moral reasoning was not inferior simply different
unique sense of identity
describes the enduring personaility characterstics of each and every one of us
