Major researchers and info on their work T2

Question 1

Kohlburg, Developmental psych

Answer 1

• Morality: Principles concerning the distinction b/w right and wrong.
• 6 Stages; 3 levels. Based on responses to moral dilemmas; focus on vakue if human life, value of honesty, meaning of social rules and laws. Tests done on children.
• Ex: The Heinz case (Stealing medicine to save sick wife, costs too much, moral dilemma).
• Stages occur in the same sequence worldwide.
• Theory involved with ethics dilemmas.
• Moral develop. linked with cognitive development.
• Colby and Colleagues-> agree with stages.
LEVEL EXPLANATION
3. Post-conventional Indiv. Develops more autonomous decision-making; based on right and justice principle. 3.2: Universal ethical principles.
3.1: Social contract and individual rights.
2.Conventional Indiv. Does what’s expected of them by others.
2.2: Social accord and system maintenance.
2.1: Interpersonal accord, conformity.
1.Pre-conventional Individual shows concern 4 self-interest, rewards and punishments.
1.2: Instrumental purpose and exchange.
1.1: Obedience and punishment.

Question 2

Piaget,Develop. psych

Answer 2

• Adaptation: continuous process of using the environment to learn. Adjusting to changes in the environment.
• Assimilation: Process of taking in new info and fitting it into and making it part of an existing mental idea →objects or the world.
• Accommodation: Changing an existing mental idea in order to fit in new info. More advanced; categorised.
–>Sensori-motor (0-2)
Acquire ‘object permanence’; objects still exists, even if they cant be seen or touched.
Goal orientated behavior: behavior conducted with a specific purpose in mind.

• Pre operational (2-7)
Egocentricism: Struggle seeing from others POV, focus on self.
Animism: Belief that everything that exists ahs a form of consciousness (naughty teddy)
Transformation: Understands something can change state (Ex: ice to water)
Centration: Child can only focus on one quality/feature of an object at once (coin mind game, same # of coins but bunched up = more?!?)
Reversibility: Follow a line of reasoning back to the original starting point.

• Concrete operational (7-11)
Conservation: object changes appearance, but not amount, weight, mass, volume. (glass/beaker task)
Classification: Ability to organize info into categories based on common features/ things that separate it from others.

• Formal operational (11 onwards)
Abstract thinking: Thinking that doesn’t rely upon seeing/visualising to understand concepts.
Logical thinking: Developing strategies to solve issues Identify possible solutions, hypothesis and systematically test possible solutions.

Question 3

Donaldson and McGarrigle,

Answer 3

• Showed 4 year olds could conserve # if activity given meaning.
• Relates ^^^ to Piaget overlooking 7-11 development of many, non-math’s based skills.
• McGarrigle/Donaldson: Repeated coin conservation experiment on 6 YO.
• When done as per a Piaget experiment, 74% think the # of coins changed.
• When a ‘naughty teddy’ messes up the coin line, 36% think the # is different.
-→Shows higher # of conservational 6 year olds than Piaget.
→Task needs to make real world sense; not be abstract.

Question 4

Siegel and Gilligan,

Answer 4

• Found that Piagetian tasks had issues where the experimenters ask Q’s with an obvious answer or the Question is repeated after answer given.
• Children may change answer because;
-Trying to impress researcher.
-Repeat of ‘are you sure’ child may rethink answer.
Some child→answer without explaining reasoning.
• Piaget-> assume if a child failed a cognitive task = cant perform it.
• Many factors affect if someone completes task successfully ;
-Person may have competannt reasoning, but the have poor verbal expression skills.
-Lead to follow up studies-> change how the Q. is asked.

Question 5

Gilligan,

Answer 5

• Gilligan (dif b/w male and female reasoning →linked with morals)
• Hypothesised b/c diff. in socialisation of genders = different values.
• Conducted research; found that Men-> focus on justice and law, Women -> focus on caring and love.
• Socialisation of Genders:
-Males; independent, achievement orientated, moral dilemmas seen as a conflict b/w person-person.
-Females; socially responsible, nurturing.

• ^^^Gilligan-> moral reasoning of 29 Women asked a Q; “Whether or not to continue with a pregnancy”.
• Posed conflict b/w personal choice and traditional female role in nurturing and self-sacrifice. 3 levels of ‘Female’ reasoning;
1. Self-interest: response based on own needs/wishes
2. Self-sacrifice: Rights of other and unborn child, wishes of partner.
3. Care as a universal obligation: balance of the two; care for others and own well-being.

Question 6

Sandra Scarr,

Answer 6

• Link b/w personality(extraversion/introversion) and IQ, due to hereditary rather than hereditary determining IQ directly.
• Study conducted on black children being adopted by white adults and looking at IQ against black children raised by their own parents. Data from both families suggest that hereditary plays a large role, as differences in IQ from adopted and non-adopted children were minimal.

Question 7

Bouchard,

Answer 7

• Found sets of twins from around the world who had been separated in infancy and raised apart.
• Brought them to a lab; compared to them on:
-Ability
-Personality
-leisure time
-Vocational interests
-Social attitudes
• Results; Identical twins raised apart, still had similarities.
• IQ still fairly similar raised apart, more than fraternal.
• Heredity makes a relatively strong link to IQ scores.

Question 8

Daniels, Plomin,

Answer 8

• Longitudinal adoption study
• Tested socialabiity vs. shyness of children, adopted at 12 and 24 months.
• Test to see if more like biological/adoptive mums.
• Result^^^: found heredity plays a role in shyness and environment too.
-Extreme shyness from biological mum; child shy at 2 years.
-Extreme shyness from adoptive parent: child shy at 2 years.