Final Review Flashcards
Piaget (differences from Vygotsky)
- Understates sociocultural influences
- Based on middle class European kids
- Explains Many Kids development but not all
- Assumes children’s thinking is more homogeneous than it really is
- Doesn’t account for individual differences
Vygotsky (differences from Piaget)
- Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
- Identify what someone is good at and challenge them one step harder than that.
- Extremely child centered theory, focuses on the individual rather than looking at it like everyone is the same
- Allows for sociocultrual heterogeneity and individual potential
What is a Schema?
- A mental framework that organizes knowledge into categories or groups of associations
- Becomes more sophisticated with EXPERIENCE
- Sometimes our schemas can be applied to new situations, but sometimes our schemas are not sufficient for a new situation and new information is needed
What are the key features and limitations of Piaget’s preoperational-stage of cognitive development (stage 2, 2-4 y/o)
- Preschooler has time comprehension, with clear understanding of past and future
- Uses language and mental imagery to explore and represent the world (symbolic representation)
Major Limitations: - Magical thinking
- Egocentrism
- Centration
- Lack of conversation
- Transductive thinking
- Symbolic representation allows for all of these things
Magical Thinking
Take symbolic representation beyond reality
Egocentrism
Cannot differentiate one’s own point of view from that of others’ (everything is MINE)
–Test with false belief task (if they pass they’re on their way to developing theory of mind, if not they’re egocentric)
Centration
Tendency to focus on a single, perceptually striking feature of an object or event and ignore other features
Lack of Conservation
Cannot understand that merely changing the appearance of objects does not change their key properties
Transductive Thinking
When objects share properties, it’s as if they are the same thing
– ex: “ i haven’t had my nap, so it cannot be the afternoon”
Preconceptual Substage (2-4)
Thinking is dominated by SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATION and imaginative play, often with deferred imitation
– Language, images, symbols, magical/animistic thinking
Intuitive Substage (4 to 7)
Thinking is dominated by WHAT CHILDREN FEEL or sense to be true, but they cannot explain the principles behind it (the “why”)
- Theory of mind begins to emerge between ages 4 and 5
- gradual understanding that each person has their own mental states (beliefs, desires, intentions)
Theory of Mind
An organized understanding of how the mind works and influences behavior
– Hallmark of autism is failure to develop theory of mind
What are the key features and limitations of Piaget’s concrete operations stage of cognitive development?
- stage 3 (3-11 y/o)
- Rule-driven
- Children can transform, and use systematic reasoning - but generally only about topics that are present or follow set, rules
- feather task (feather breaking glass)
- Manipulables
- Difficulty understanding abstract or hypothetical concepts
- what would the world be like if we had no thumbs
- Inductive reasoning
- when you throw sand on your friend he feels sand and does not want to play with you anymore
- works better than punishment or love withdrawal
Manipulables
Concrete, present objects
– Ex: finger counting
Inductive reasoning
Parental control technique to help children understand the effect of their behavior on others (show child how to use an experience to draw a new conclusion)
What are the key features of Piaget’s formal operations stage of cognitive development?
- Stage 4 (11-15 y/o)
- Ability to think abstractly and reason hypothetically and systemically (can consider multiple outcomes)
- Formal operations stage is not universal
- Horizontal Decalage
Horizontal decalage
Concept that abilities do not appear at the same time within a stage of development (child may have theory of mind but not yet have conservation)
What are some key limitations of Piaget’s cognitive development theory as a whole
- Vague about the cognitive mechanisms that enable cognitive growth
- Some cognitive abilities emerge earlier than Piaget thought
- Some children who are at one cognitive stage can be trained to reason at a higher cognitive stage
- Culture and education exert stronger influences on children’s development than piaget believed
What are the key features of Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory of Cognitive Development?
- Social interaction and cultural norms lead to continuous changes in children’s thinking
- Children construct their knowledge using these social tools
- The community provides knowledge and identity
- Language is central to cognitive development
- The end point of cognitive development can vary depending on which skills are considered to be the most important in a particular culture
- The ZPD
What is scaffolding as it applies to Vygotsky’s theory?
- An MKO (more knowing other) instructs in small steps, decreasing guidance until the child gradually advances to independence
- Identify what the child knows
- Teach him something new to add to it
- Relate it back to prior knowledge to guide conceptual understanding and independence
- Locus of Control Shifts (external- I need someone to tell me what to do vs Internal - i know it within myself and i can do it by myself)
How can guided participation and cultural contexts affect cognitive development?
- Children are “apprentices” in thinking through their scaffolded participation in social and cultural activities
- MKOs guide children’s learning opportunities through decisions about how much and when to expose children to books, television, child care, chores etc.
- development occurs when adults and children share activities
- during play involving cultural traditions and practices
- Scaffolding is widely used, but varies across cultures according to cultural norms in parenting and in social roles
What is egocentric speech?
“private Speech”
- Children use it to communicate socially and to self-regulate and guide themselves step-by-step to keep their thinking on track
- Child’s schema for thinking and understanding something develops separately from labels or spoken words, like learning a new language (understand it before speaking it)
What is inner speech?
- approx. age 7
- Language ability becomes internalized as thought (able to think about the words without saying the words out loud while keeping ourselves on track)
- Internal, language-based method for planning actions and strategies
What were the key findings of Autism discussed in lecture?
- Autism is a brain “disorder” that limits a person’s ability to communicate and relate to other people socially
- Becomes apparent in early childhood (1-6 y/o) and ranges along a spectrum from mild to severe
- 44% of Autistics have average to above average intellect (but is often comorbid, connected to another developmental disorder that does affect intellect)
- More identifiable so it gets diagnosed more often
- Vaccines DO NOT cause autism
- Early treatment, ideally before age 3, can greatly improved ASD child’s development
- Applied Behavior analysis can help ASD children learn to talk and communicate better, develop physically and deal with other people more effectively
- Technology allows for comfort between autistic people and non autistic people by changing the way they communicate
Key early signs of Autism
- Don’t respond to their own name
- don’t make eye contact
- do not smile or respond to social cues from others
- do not use two word-phrases by age 2
- Have no interest when adults point out objects such as a plane flying overhead
- Do repetitive motions like rocking or spinning
What must infants do in Emotion regulation and coping
Infants must LEARN to adapt to different contexts that require emotional regulation
Temperament
Biologically based emotional and behavioral style of reacting to internal and external events
- differences in temperament may make it more difficult for the parents of some infants to maintain responsiveness (sensitivity) over time
- it is biologically based on emotional style of interacting with the world (something you can already see in newborns)
- It is consistent (personality)
- Whatever the temperament of the baby is, it is going to affect the way the parent responds to the baby
Emotional Competence
Strategies we learn to effectively cope with emotional demands involving self and/or others