Lecture 8 Flashcards
Piaget’s views on children
- A child has its own logic, does not talk nonsense
2. A child is a young scientist, makes mini theories, constructs knowledge
What Piaget tried to explain with his theory
Genetic epistemology: study of formation of knowledge and how we know what we know
Schemes characteristics
- Are necessary for the child to understand what happens
- Coherent fixed series of actions
- Have internal consistency and are organized in a structure
Accomodation
Modification of preexisting schemes in order to adapt to the environment
Sensorimotor stage feature, task and description
Feature: object permanence
Task: hiding of objects
Description: perception and action
Preoperational stage feature, task and description
Feature: egocentrism, animism
Task: perspective taking
Description: thinking about things
Concrete operations stage feature, task and description
Feature: conservation, transitive inference
Task: conservation tasks
Description: thinking about actions
Formal operations stage feature, task and description
Feature: abstract reasoning
Task: deductive reasoning
Description: thinking about thinking
Why A not B error occurs
The mental representation is there but it is not linked with action
Centration
Focus on one aspect and ignore others
Feature of preoperational stage
Horizontal décalage
A specific principle is applied to different tasks at different times
Vertical décalage
Understanding of a task increases over time
Annette Karmiloff-Smith
- Neuroconstructivism
- No focus on results but on how child constructs result
- Developmental neuroscientist
- Understanding development of disorders
Neuroconstructivism
At birth there are hardly any connections between neurons
Connections arise based on active exploration and experience
Child constructs own brain
Elizabeth Spelke theory on core knowledge
Infants have 5 systems of core knowledge:
- Objects
- Persons
- Number
- Space
- Geometric forms
Three principles about objects and their motions
- Cohesion
- Continuity
- Contact
Piaget’s moral development stages
- Premoral: no clear sense of morality (preoperational)
- Heteronomous morality: rules set by authority figures are sacred (concrete operations)
- Autonomous morality: rules are agreements that can be discusses and changed (formal operations)
Criticism of Piaget morality views
Infants are surprised by immoral events and seem to have a sense of fairness
Kohlberg stages of moral development
- Avoiding punishment
- Aiming at reward
- Good boy attitude
- Loyalty to law and order
- Justice and the spirit of the law
- Universal principles of ethics
Level 1: preconventional morality
Stage 1: punishment orientation
Rules are obeyed to avoid punishment
Rules are sacred
Stage 2: instrumental orientation
Rules are obeyed for personal gain
Awareness that there are two sides to the argument
Level 2: Conventional morality
Stage 3: good boy attitude
Rules are obeyed for approval
Stage 4: maintenance of social order
Rules are obeyed to maintain order
Social system morality
Level 3: Postconventional morality
Stage 5: morality of contract and individual rights
Rules are obeyed where they are impartial
Make use of ethical principles
Stage 6: morality of conscience
Makes own rues in accordance with universal ethical principles
Criticism of Kohlberg theory of morality
- Underestimates children’s reasoning
- Judgement not same as action
- Doesn’t cover all aspects of morality
- Social cognition is broader than moral reasoning
- Stages are not universal
- Moral judgement is related to personality
Criticism of Piaget’s development theory
- Theory too vague, impossible to test things like assimilation
- He misjudged ages of when something develops
- Universality is questionable
- Too little attention on cultural and social relationships
Siegler’s overlapping waves theory
Kids use multiple strategies and think on multiple levels. The strategies increase and decrease at certain ages
