Module 1: Development Flashcards
Describe brain development in the womb
- 3-4 weeks: forebrain, midbrain and hindbrain develop
- 5 weeks: forebrain splits into anterior and posterior sections, hindbrain splits down middle
- 6 weeks: cerebellum develops
- 20 weeks: medulla oblongata develops
What are Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development?
- Sensorimotor stage (birth - 2yrs)
- Pre-operational stage (2 - 7yrs)
- Concrete operational stage (7 - 11yrs)
- Formal operational stage (12+ yrs)
Describe the sensorimotor stage
- Know the world through sensations, don’t understand time
- Learn through linking sensations with objects (grasping, sucking, etc)
- ~6 months develop object permanence & sense of self
Describe the pre-operational stage
Symbolic function stage (2-4yrs):
- Symbolic play
- Are egocentric
- Display animism
Intuitive thought stage (4-7yrs):
- Ask many questions
- Display centration
- Display irreversibility
Describe the concrete operational stage
- Display seriation (can sort objects)
- Display reversibility
- Display decentration
- Develop logic, but are still concrete/literal
- Become less egocentric
- Struggle with hypothetical/abstract concepts
Describe the formal operational stage
- Can think hypothetically/abstractly
- Can use deductive logic
Describe Dweck’s mindset theory
- Fixed mindset vs growth mindset
- Fixed: believe ability is fixed at birth, no point in challenges/trying to improve
- Growth: believe ability changes with effort, encourages taking challenges/listening to feedback
- Mindset affected by type of praise
What are the strengths of Dweck’s mindset theory?
- Practical applications
- Evidence: Yeager and Dweck’s (2012) study
What are the weaknesses of Dweck’s mindset theory?
- Studies done in artificial settings, lacks validity
- Problem may lie in quality of teaching, not child’s effort
- Doesn’t consider factors other than praise
Describe Willingham’s learning theory
- Knowing facts helps build skills
- Skill can be learned through practice (REPETITION), transferred from short-term to long-term memory
What are the strengths of Willingham’s learning theory?
- Practical applications
What are the weaknesses of Willingham’s learning theory?
- Does not consider individual differences (genes)
- Ideas not a singular theory that can be tested
What were the aims of Piaget and Inhelder’s (1956) ‘Three Mountains’ task?
- To investigate the extent to which children of different ages could take another point of view
- To investigate children’s overall systems of putting together different views of what they see
What was the procedure of Piaget and Inhelder’s (1956) ‘Three Mountains’ task?
- Three models mountains, child given three pieces of card to represent the mountains
- Asked to arrange the cards to show the positions of the mountains from their viewpoint
- Then asked to arrange the cards to represent the viewpoint of a wooden doll
What were the results & conclusions of Piaget and Inhelder’s (1956) ‘Three Mountains’ task?
- Pre-operational stage showed egocentrism
- Concrete operational stage starts to understand other viewpoints
- Concluded children up to 7 years old were egocentric
Give weaknesses of Piaget and Inhelder’s (1956) ‘Three Mountains’ task
- Task unrealistic, results may have been due to a lack of spacial awareness and not egocentrism
- Other studies with simpler/more familiar tasks showed children under 7 and under 18 months displaying decentrism
What were the aims of Gunderson et al. (2013) study?
- To investigate the effect of different types of parental praise on children in a natural situation
- Find whether girls receive more person praise than boys
- Does the type of praise affect the child’s motivational framework 5 years later
What was the procedure of Gunderson et al. (2013) study?
- 90mins recorded of parent guiding child through tasks in the home
- ‘Person praise’ (praises ability) and ‘process praise’ (praises effort) recorded
- Parents, children & data gatherers did not know the study was on praise
- Children aged 14, 26 & 38 months, ideas about behaviour measured 5 years later
What were the results/conlcusions of Gunderson et al. (2013) study?
- Close relationship between process praise and later incremental motivational framework
- No relationship between person praise and entity motivational framework
- Boys received more process praise than girls
- Girls more often had entity motivational framework than boys
Give weaknesses of Gunderson et al. (2013) study.
- Ethics: participants deceived, no debrief
- Parents may have subconsciously changed praise style as they were being observed
Name Kolberg’s (1958) three stages of morality
Pre-conventional morality, conventional morality, post-conventional morality
Describe pre-conventional morality
(Before age 9)
Stage 1 - avoid punishment, rules cannot be changed
Stage 2 - sometimes value personal interest over rules, basic view of right/wrong
Describe conventional morality
(Most young people & adults)
Stage 3 - conform to group norms to be liked/seen as good
Stage 4 - maintain social order as it is a duty
Describe post-conventional morality
(~10% reach this level)
Stage 5 - understands some morals are cultural and differ in other cultures, view of right/wrong independent of group norms
Stage 6 - understands some morals go beyond group norms/laws and are universal
Give weaknesses of Kolberg’s (1958) of development of morality theory
- Hypothetical moral dilemmas show what someone thinks they should do, not what they’d actually do
- Male-only sample used
