Developmental Psychology

Question 1

Explain Piaget’s theory of cognitive development

Answer 1

• explains how a child constructs a mental model of the world.
• Piaget was interested in how children think, administering intelligence test to children and being intrigued by the reassign that led to children giving wrong answers.
• He disagreed with the idea that intelligence was a fixed trait, and regarded cognitive development as a process which occurs due to biological maturation and interaction with the environment.

Question 2

What is a schema

Answer 2

• set of linked mental representations of the world, which we use both to understand and to respond to situations also known as a building blocks of knowledge.
• developed or acquired.

Question 3

What is Assimilation?

Answer 3

• where one needs to interpret new experiences using an existing schema to deal with a new object or situation.

Question 4

What is Accommodation?

Answer 4

• Interacting with the world, one constructs and modify ones schemas

Question 5

What is Equilibrium?

Answer 5

• occurs when a child’s schemas can deal with most new information through assimilation.

Question 6

What is the first stage of CD?

Answer 6

Sensorimotor (birth-2)

• Coordination of sensory and motor input responses
• Development of Object permanence —> understanding that objects continue to exist even when hidden

Question 7

What is the 2nd stage of CD?

Answer 7

Pre-operational (2-7)

• development of symbolic though marked by irreversibility, contraption and egocentrism (can only see the world from their own viewpoint)
• Until the age of 6years children cannot understand that another person can hold a different visual perspective from their own

Question 8

What is the 3rd stage of CD?

Answer 8

Concrete (7-11)

• mental operations applied to concrete events
• mastery of conversation, hierarchal classification

Question 9

What is the 4th stage of CD?

Answer 9

Formal (11+)

• mental operations applied to abstract ideas
• logical systematic and abstract thinking
• developing hypotheses and testing them until a solution is found.

Question 10

List 2 criticism of Piaget’s theorist?

Answer 10

Donaldson (1984) - unable to see another persons perspective because of lack of familiarity with the situation rather than lacking the cognitive ability

Michael Siegal (1991) – believes children are unable to conserve in Piaget’s tasks due to adults breaking the conversational rules that children hold
i.e. obvious answer / repeat question when an answer has been given

Question 11

strengths of Piaget’s study ?

Answer 11

• Correct in sequence of milestones
• His emphasis on children as active beings transformed education and removed the notion as children being empty vessels
• Regarded as one of the 20th Century’s twenty most influential thinkers and scientists

Question 12

What is Kearin’s study ?

Answer 12

Judith Kearin’s (1986) wanted to identify the survival skills possessed by desert-living Aborigines as an example of intellectual skill

Question 13

What year was Kohlberg’s study?

Answer 13

(1981, 1984)

Question 14

What was kohlberg’s study?

Answer 14

• sought to describe the development of moral reasoning.
• Kohlberg posed moral dilemmas, like “Whether a person should steal medicine to save a loved one’s life,” to children and adolescents and found stages of moral development.

Question 15

What was heniz Dilemma?

Answer 15

• Dying wife was denied treatment because it was being sold for 10 times the amount
• Husband stole medicine

Question 16

What is the 3 levels of Kohlberg’s theory?

Answer 16

• pre conventional
• conventional
• Post conventional

Question 17

What stages come under pre conventional level ?

Answer 17

• Obedience and punishment

- Individualism and exchange

Question 18

What stages come under the conventional level ?

Answer 18

• interpersonal relationship

- authority and social order

Question 19

what stages come under the post conventional level?

Answer 19

• Social contract

- Universal principles

Question 20

What is obedience punishment?

Answer 20

• Based on avoiding punishment

- A focus on the consequences of actions father than the intentions

Question 21

What is individualism and exchange?

Answer 21

• The “right” behaviours are those that are in the best interest of oneself

Question 22

What is interpersonal relationship?

Answer 22

‘good boy, good girl’ attitude, sees individuals as filling social roles

Question 23

What is authority and social order?

Answer 23

• Law and order as highest ideals

- social obedience is a must to maintaining functional society

Question 24

What is social contract?

Answer 24

• begin to learn others have different values; realisation that the law is contingent on culture.

Question 25

What is universal principles

Answer 25

• Develop internal moral principles; individual begins to obey these above the law

Question 26

What is Kohlberg’s critics

Answer 26

• Developmental sequence
• Gender bias (Carol Gilligan 1982)
• Culture bias (Richard Shweder)

Question 27

What is the criticism of Developmental sequence ?

Answer 27

• Many follow up studies from around the world have found Kohlberg’s studies to develop sequentially
• However these studies used cross-sectional designs, therefore could not show that the stages reached were invariant

Question 28

What is the gender bias criticism?

Answer 28

• Kohlberg only used male participants, developing a Western, male-oriented view of moral development.

Carol Gilligan (1982) – suggested females reached stage 3 and males 4 this was due to differences in socialisation rather than values

• Males are socialised to be independent and achievement-oriented leading to a morality of justice (stage 4)

= Females are socialised as responsible and nurturing, leading to a morality of care (S3)

Question 29

What is the Culture bias criticism ?

Answer 29

Richard Shweder, case study: Babaji, an orthodox Hindu teacher
- Presented with an Indian version of the Heinz dilemma
- Hindu dharma (moral duty) forbids stealing under any circumstances
Placed at stage 3 or 4 (following rules, doing ones duty)

Question 30

What is Erikson’s stage theory of identity ?

Answer 30

• describes the development of identity across the entire lifespan
• Identity recognised as the enduring personality characteristics of an individual
• A series of continual changes that have to be met by the individual to move successfully to the next phase of life
• Resolution of conflict during our lives can lead to the next stage
• Unsuccessful resolution can lead to children, adolescents and adults becoming ‘stuck’ at a particular stage and not developing normally
• Erikson’s (1959) theory of psychosocial development has eight distinct stages.

Question 31

Strengths of Erikson’s Theory

Answer 31

• Strong face validity

- Ties together important psychosocial development across the lifespan

Question 32

Limitations of Erikson’s Theory

Answer 32

• Vague about the causes of development
• No universal mechanism for crises resolution
• Doesn’t explain how one psychosocial crises influences personality at a later stage
• No objective way of assessing whether a person has passed or failed a particular stage

Question 33

What is bandura’s social learning theory?

Answer 33

• interested in how people learn social behaviour
• His theory emphasises Observational Learning (modelling or imitation)
• Learning is a function of observing, retaining and replicating behaviour observed in others
• It can take place at any stage however it is most important during childhood

Question 34

What is modelling in Bandura’s theory?

Answer 34

• Modelling occurs when one observes the behaviour and consequences of another to influence their own thoughts, actions and feelings.

Question 35

What are the four meditational Processes of Bandura’s theory ?

Answer 35

Attention - Noticing the behaviour (perceive the model to be interesting)
Retention - Remembering the behaviour (retain)
Reproduction - Ones ability to perform the behaviour (reproduce)
Motivation / Reinforcement - The will to perform the behaviour, influenced by reinforcement (rewards)

Question 36

What is the bobo doll experiment aim?

Answer 36

a study to investigate if social behaviours (i.e. aggression) can be acquired by observation and imitation.

Question 37

Method of the Bobo doll experiment?

Answer 37

• The subjects were 36 boys and 36 girls from the Stanford University Nursery School and were between 3 and 6.
• The average age of the group was 4years and 4 months.
• The control group consisted of 24 children.
• The first experimental group comprised of 24 children exposed to aggressive behaviour, whilst the second experimental group of 24 was exposed to non-aggressive model behaviour.
• The two groups were then divided based on their sex and then exposed to same-sex and opposite sex models.

Question 38

Results of Bobo doll experiment theory ?

Answer 38

• Children exposed to the aggressive model were more likely to act in a physically aggressive manner than those who were not exposed to the aggressive model
• Similar results were found with verbal aggression
• Boys exhibited more aggression when exposed to aggressive male models than when exposed to aggressive female models
• Girls had similar results and were overall less aggressive than boys

Question 39

Conclusions of bobo doll experiment?

Answer 39

• The findings support Bandura’s (1977) Social Learning Theory. That is, children learn social behaviour such as aggression through the process of observation learning through watching the behaviour of another person.
• This study has important implications for the effects of media violence on children.