developmental psychology Flashcards
brain
the organ in your head made up of nerves. it processes information and controls behaviour.
forebrain
the anterior part of the brain, including the hemispheres and the central brain structures.
midbrain
the middle section of the brain forming part of the central nervous system.
hindbrain
the lower part of the brain that includes the cerebellum, pons and medulla oblongata.
anterior
directed towards the front (when used in relation to our biology).
posterior
directed towards the back (when used in relation to our biology).
cerebellum
an area of the brain near to the brainstem that controls motor movements (muscle activity).
medulla oblongata
connects the upper brain to the spinal cord and controls automatic responses. it controls involuntary responses such as sneezing and breathing, as well as heart rate and blood pressure.
involuntary response
a response to a stimulus that occurs without someone making a conscious choice. they are automatic, such as reflexes.
neural connections
links formed by messages passing from one nerve cell (neuron) to another.
seriation
sorting objects into an order. develops during concrete operational stage.
conservation
the child knows that quantity, length or number are not related to shape e.g. juice test
decentration
ability to take on another’s viewpoint.
egocentric
unable to see the world from another’s point of view.
animism
belief that objects can behave as if they were alive.
reversibility
understanding that action can return something to its original state. develops in the concrete operational stage.
morality
general principle about what is right and wrong.
symbolic play
children play using objects and ideas to represent other objects and ideas.
schema
mental representations of the world based on one’s own experiences.
sensorimotor stage
infants use their senses and movements to get information about the world. at first they live in the present. they develop object permanence and learn to control their movements.
pre-operational stage
children engage in symbolic play. they think in pictures and use symbols, including some words (the beginning of language development). children are egocentric and show animism. later in this stage they start reasoning and show centration and irreversibility.
formal operational stage
develops around 12 years old and is associated with the moral reasoning and deductive reasoning.
concrete operational stage
develops from age 7-12 and involves development of abilities to such conservation, reversibility, seriation and decentration.
equilibrium
when a child’s schemas can explain all that they experience- a state of mental balance may have resulted from new accommodation.
assimilation
incorporating new experiences into existing schemas.
accommodation
when a schema has to be changed to deal with a new experience.
three mountain task
an experiment by piaget and inhelder which tested egocentrism.
mindset
a belief about something which influence our perceptions, interpretations of situations and how we behave.
fixed mindset
belief that abilities are unchangeable.
growth mindset
belief that abilities are changeable.
gunderson et al (2013)
a natural experiment showing process praise correlates to a belief that effort is worthwhile.
3-4 weeks
forebrain, midbrain and hindbrain develops.
6 weeks
cerebellum starts to develop
20 weeks
medula begins to develop
rehearsal/drilling
another word for practice. can lead to the behaviour/thought becoming automatic.
self-regulation
an individuals ability to manage their own behaviour. willingham suggest delaying rewards can help this develop.
automatic
this happens when something is practiced and leads to the thought/behaviour being performed with little thought.
working model of memory
a model of memory made up of the central executive, visuo-spatial sketchpad and phonological loop.
incremental theory
belief that effort drives ability (which can change)
process praise
praising what is being done rather than the individual
person praise
praising the individual rather than what they are doing.
heteronomous rules
rules put into place by others.
autonomous rules
rules that the individual decides themselves.
social norm
the values and customs of a society directs the individual within its behaviour.
cognitive
thinking, including problem-solving, perceiving, remembering, using language and reasoning.
operations
how we reason and think about things.
object permanence
knowing something exists even if it is out of of sight.
subjective
based on personal opinion or feelings
aims of gunderson et al.
researchers wanted to know
- if children are affected by type of praise (process or person)
- if parents give more or less praise to a certain gender
- if parents’ use of praise in childhood predicts child’s reasoning later on about what motivates and causes behaviour (ability or effort)
method of gunderson et al.
- looked at parents’ use of praise at home when children were 14, 26, 38 months old
- five years later, children’s ideas about behaviour were measured and related to the type of praise received.
- gender and influences of the type of praise given were looked into
participants of gunderson et. al
29 boys, 24 girls with their caregivers.
procedure of gunderson et. al
- participants thought study was about language development
- at each visit, participants were asked to go about their typical day
- interactions were videotaped.
- at 7-8 years old, children answered a questionnaire about what they thought led to a person’s intelligence
results of gunderson et al.
- 3% of parental comments were praise
- process praise was 18%, person praise was 16%
- 24.4% praise for boys was process praise compared to 10.3% for girls
effect of process praise
- the more process praise in childhood, the more likely they will believe putting effort it worthwhile.
conclusion of gunderson et al.
- clear relationship found between parents’ use of praise and child’s later use of incremental motivational framework (ability being changeable)
- boys received more process praise than girls
- boys tended to have more of an incremental framework than girls.
strengths and weaknesses of gunderson et al.
strengths
- shows that dweck’s findings were also found in a naturalistic environment. findings form both theories support each other
- researchers who videotaped interactions did not know parental praise was the interest, reduces bias and thus increases reliability
weaknesses
- unethical as participants did not know the true aim of the study and so were deceived. this would be ethically acceptable if a debrief had occurred.
- parents may have changed style of praise because they knew they were being observed. data may not be natural and so lacks validity,
- small sample which means its not generalisable to wider population
aims of piaget and inhelder
- to test for egocentrism
- extent children of different ages were able to take multiple viewpoints
- children’s system of putting together a number of different views of what they see.
procedure
- 100 children were studied between 4-12 years old
- children were asked to use cardboard shapes to show mountains from different viewpoints, such as theirs and the doll’s
- children were shown pictures of the model and asked to choose which one they could see, and the doll’s
- children were shown a picture and positioned the doll to see that viewpoint.
results
- pre-operational stage: child chooses pictures and arranged the doll to see their own viewpoint, even if asked for the doll’s
- concrete-operational stage: child chooses pictures and arranged the doll to see the correct viewpoint, as they understand the doll has a different view.
conclusion
- pre-operational stage: child is egocentric, can’t see another viewpoint
- concrete operational stage: child is non-egocentric able to co-ordinate different perspectives
- provides evidence for stages of viewpoint
strengths and weaknesses
strengths
- qualitative analysis about each child which was rich in detail, and were thus able to discern if the child was nearing the next stage
- experimental methods were used so variables were controlled, and then compared, meaning findings were reliable
weaknesses
- unrealistic scenarios:
borke used sesame street to make it more appropriate for younger children. she found that children as young as 3 could see different viewpoints (task was too hard, it was not that they were egocentric)
repancholi and gopnik found that younger children displayed non-egocentric behaviour in terms of crackers and brocolli
