Developmental Psychology - Learning Theories Flashcards
What is developmental psychology?
A scientific approach which aims to explain growth, change and consistency through the lifespan
What does developmental psychology look at?
Looks at how thinking, feeling and behaviour changes through a persons life
What do developmental psychologists seek to explain?
Seek to explain the changes they have observed in relation to normative processes and individual differences
What does learning theory predict about developmental psychology?
Predicts that behaviours can be acquired at any time during our lifespan and largely remain
What does developmental psychology say about classical conditioning?
Behaviour is acquires at any time during lifespan
Classical conditioning plays a role in the development of what we like or don’t like due to associations we form during development
What does developmental psychology say about operant conditioning?
We learn through association and reinforcement
What did Dollard & Miller find about developmental psychology and operant conditioning?
Dollard & Miller (1950) claimed that infants feel discomfort when they are hungry
Infants will cry and their mother will feed them removing their discomfort
What did Crone et al find about developmental psychology and operant conditioning?
Found using fMRI scans that control centres in the brain were more strongly activated in younger children when receiving positive feedback
In older children more strongly activated when receiving negative feedback
What does developmental psycholgy say about SLT and development through observation?
Much complex behaviour could probably never be acquired unless children were exposed to people who modelled them
Modelled behaviour may not always be what the parents or society would approve of
Children are continually learning a whole range of behaviours through the basic processes of observation and imitation
