DP#3 Flashcards
What is attachment theory?
. The close emotional bond shared between an infant and their primary caregiver; also, the tendency to seek emotionally supportive relationships in adulthood.
. Universal to all humans
. Separation anxiety ( apears around 8 months of age) attachment has been formed
What is Mary Ainsworth and the strange situation?
Involves an experimenter taking a caregiver and their infant into an unfamiliar room containing toys. The infant is then exposed to a series of separations and reunions. The infants behaviour is recorded.
What is insecure avoidant attachment (group a)?
. The infant does not seek closeness or contact with the caregiver and treats them like a stranger
. Infant rarely cries when the caregiver leaves the room and ignores the caregiver on return
. This attachment style may be the result of a neglectful or abusive caregiver
What is secure attachment (group b)?
. Balance between dependence and exploration
. Shows some distress and decreases exploration when the caregiver departs
. Infant uses caregiver as a safe base
. Securely attached infants feel safe and are able to depend on their care givers
What is insecure resistant attachment (group c)?
. Appears anxious even when their caregiver is near
. Become very upset when separated from the caregiver
. Cried to be picked up, then squirms or fights to be free
What is Harlow and his monkey’s experiment?
. Experiment on attachment between monkey’s and their babies
. Monkey’s were taken from their mother’s at birth and given a surrogate mother
. surrogate monkey is made out of mesh wire
. One surrogate was covered in cloth with food and the other with no cloth and with food
. when the monkey’s were scared they went to the clothed surrogate, not the unclothed one showing the comfort was more important to the monkey’s then nourishment
What is cognitive development? - Jean Piaget and stages of cognitive development
Some psychologists saw infants as ‘empty vessels’- as unresponsive organisms with limited perceptual abilities and little capacity to learn, remember or think. His research lead to the development of a theory that includes 4 stages of development that cover the changes that occur over the lifespan, cognitively.
What is assimilation?
The process of taking in new information and fitting it into and making it a part of a pre-existing mental idea. Sometimes we cannot assimilate new information into a pre-existing mental idea.
What is accommodation?
Involves changing a pre-existing mental idea in order to fit new information.
What is the sensorimotor stage (0-2 years)?
This first stage spans from birth to about 2 years of age. In the sensorimotor stage, infants explore and learn about the world primarily through their senses and motor activities.
What are the key cognitive accomplishments of the sensorimotor stage and there meaning?
Object permanence - The understanding that objects still exist even if they cannot be seen, heard, touched; develops the ability to carry out goal-directed behaviour - to perform and successfully complete a sequence of actions with a particular purpose in mind.
What is the Pre-operational stage (2-7 years)
As children progress through the pre-operational stage, they become increasingly able to mentally represent objects and experiences.
What are the key cognitive accomplishments of the Pre-operational stage and there meaning?
Symbolic thinking - The ability to use symbols such as words and pictures to represent objects that are not physically present
Egocentrism - The tendency to perceive the world solely from one’s own point of view
Animism - The belief that everything which exists has some kind of consciousness
Centration - The cognitive ability to focus on only one quality of feature of an object or event at one time
Reversibility - The ability to mentally follow a sequence of events or line of reasoning back to it’s starting point.
What is the Concrete operational stage (7-12 years)?
Child is now capable of true logical thought and can perform mental ‘operations’.
What are the key cognitive accomplishments of the Concrete operational stage and their meaning?
Mental operation - the ability to accurately imagine the consequences of something happening without it actually needing to happen.
Conservation - Understanding certain properties of an object can remain the same even when appearance changes.
What is the Formal operational stage (12+ years)?
More complex thought processes are evident and their thinking becomes increasingly sophisticated through the combined effects of brain maturation and life experience.
What are the key cognitive accomplishments of the Formal operational stage and their meaning?
Abstract thinking - A way that does not rely on being able to see, visualize, experience or manipulate in order to understand something.
Idealistic thinking - Is also possible during the formal operational stage. Eg. adolescents often think about the most desirable characteristics of themselves.
What are some of the criticisms of Piaget’s theory?
- small sample size
- infants know more and sooner than Piaget suggested
