MIDDLE CHILDHOOD TO ADOLESCENCE: PHYSICAL AND COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT Flashcards
1
Q
Middle Child
A
Ages 6-12
2
Q
Adolescene
A
12-18
- Adolescence not recognised as a distinctive period of development until fairly recently
- Previously an abrupt transition from childhood to adulthood – with continuing education, a more gradual transition to adulthood
- A general picture of adolescence hard to generate – interactions between biological, psychological and social-environmental factors
3
Q
Motor development in middle childhood
A
- Growth slower than in earlier stages
- Bodies are larger and stronger
- Physical skills are easier to learn
- Improvements in fine and gross motor skills
- By age 11-12, manual dexterity equal to adult level
- Few differences in motor skills between sexes, although girls have somewhat less muscle strength
- Motor skills and physical growth important contributors to self-esteem and self-image
4
Q
Development of motor and sporting skills during middle childhood: Throwing a ball
A
Throwing speed, distance and accuracy or arm all improve steadily from age 6-12
5
Q
Development of motor and sporting skills during middle childhood: Running Speed
A
Running speed improves; children at age 12 can, on average, run 1.5 times as fast as they could at age six
6
Q
Development of motor and sporting skills during middle childhood: Hopping
A
Skill in hoping directionally on one foot improves to age nine, then levels off
7
Q
Physical Changes in Adolescence
A
- Adolescent growth spurt – rapid increases in height and weight
- Height growth spurt – girls gain an average of 28cms, boys 30cms
- Weight growth spurt – 50% of adult body weight gained during this period
- Weight gains less predictable than height gains and are influenced by diet, exercise and general lifestyle
- Changes in height and weight result in changing body shapes
- Boys’ and girls’ bodies change differently
- Pattern followed opposite to earlier patterns – extremities develop more quickly
- Puberty a series of physical changes culminating in the completion of sexual development and signalling reproductive maturity
8
Q
Cognitive development in middle childhood: Piaget
A
- In middle childhood, children move from preoperational to concrete operational stage
- Tested using the tasks of conservation that are not equal in difficulty – horizontal decalage (kids don’t learn conservation in everything at the same time)
- Ability to perform operations – mental actions on concrete situations
- Identify, reversibility, decentration (looking at something that is most obvious to you)
- Classification – class inclusion
- Seriation – transivity (3 pencils in different lengths, have to put them in order of shortest to longest. If A is longer longer than B, and B is longer than C, what is A in relation to C)
- Spatial reasoning – transposition (can physically put themselves in your shoes, look at the physical perspective of another person, not social, that’s theory of mind)
9
Q
Cognitive development in adolescence: Piaget
A
- Move from concrete to formal operational thought
- Hypothetico-deductive reasoning
o Systematic, scientific approach
o Tested by the pendulum problem and other similar tasks - Propositional reasoning
o Making logical inferences
o May apply to premises that are not factually true
o Understand validity of logic
10
Q
When do formal operations develop?
A
- Piaget suggested a transitional stage from 11 years to 15 years of age
- Recent research supports the existence of this stage, but challenges this proposed age of transition
- Three hypotheses to explain the variation in the mastery of formal operational thought:
o Environment causality
o Genetic causality
o Nature-nurture interaction and cognitive specialisation
11
Q
Impact of formal-operational thought
A
- Become more critical of adult authority, and can argue more skilfully
- Better able to understand philosophical and abstract topics at school
- May become more judgemental about perceived short comings of social systems
- May try to apply logic to bigger, more complex problems such as world peace – may appear naïve
12
Q
Defining Morality
A
- Morality (from the Latin moralitas “manner, character, proper behaviour”) is a sense of behavioural conduct that differentiates intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good (or right) and bad (or wrong)
- Components of morality
o Moral affect
o Moral behaviour
o Moral reasoning
13
Q
Moral Affect
A
- Moral affect – positive and negative emotions related to matters of right and wrong – can motivate behaviour
o Negative emotions (shame, guilt) can keep us from doing what we know is wrong
o Positive emotions (pride, self-satisfaction) can occur when we do the right thing - Empathy – the vicarious experiencing of another person’s feelings – is an emotional process that is important in moral development
- Empathy can motivate prosocial behaviour – positive social acts, such as helping or sharing, that reflect concern for the welfare of others
14
Q
Moral Reasoning
A
- Moral reasoning and general cognitive development
- Moral reasoning is believed to progress through a fixed and universal order of stages
- Each stage represents a consistent way of thinking about moral issues that is different from the stage preceding or following it
15
Q
Moral Development: Piaget
A
- Piaget observed children playing games with rules
- Three phases of moral reasoning
o Amoral (very young children)
o Heteronomous morality (4-5) not about intentions, just the consequences. More damage = worse.
o Autonomous morality (10 years) - Later research suggests evidence advancement
