Module 2 - Child development Flashcards
what is development ?
the sequence of physical and psychological changes that human beings undergo as they grow older
what is developmental psychology
the scientific study of age-related changes in behaviour, thinking, emotion, and personality.
what is cognition development ?
intellectual growth
who was the father of cognitive development ?
jean piaget
what did jean piaget do ?
Proposed a sequence of development that all normal children follow
- Four ‘stages’ of cognitive development
what age is the sensorimotor stage
Birth to 2 years
what does the sensorimotor stage include?
- object permanence
- schema formation
- representational thought
what is object permanence
the idea that objects do not cease to exist when they are out of sight
- Birth – 3 months - Look at visual stimuli Turn head towards noise - 3 months - Follow moving objects with eyes. Stares at place where object has disappeared, but will not search for object - 5 months- Grasp and manipulate objects Anticipate future position of object - 8 months Searches for hidden object “A not B” effect- ( search for the same place they found it not where they saw it last) - 12 months - Will search in the last place they saw the object
what is schema formation ?
a schema is a mental representation or set of rules that defines a particular behaviour category. It helps us to understand current and future experiences
describe the 2 process that schema develops
Assimilation – the process by which new information is modified to fit in with an existing schema - i.e knows dog and cat are animals but sees a rabbit and calls out “doggy”
- Accommodation – the process by which an existing schema is modified or changed by new experience. (i.e when he is told that it is not a doggy but a rabbit, the next time he will say rabbit, hence once more added to the schema of animals
what is representational thought ? when does it occur
ability to form mental representations of others’ behaviour.
- Occurs towards the end of the sensorimotor period
- Mental representation is instrumental in:
- Imitation
- Deferred imitation - a child’s ability to imitate the actions he or she has observed others perform in the past
- Symbolic play
- The use of words to represent objects
what age is preoperational stage
2- 7 yeards
what happens in the preoperational stage
- Ability to think logically as well as symbolically - crappy logic
- Rapid development of language ability
- Counting
- Object Manipulation
- Classification and categorisation
what to infants need to learn in the preoperational stage to move to the next
- Conservation – the understanding that specific properties of objects (height, weight, volume, number) remain the same despite apparent changes or arrangement of those objects.
- Egocentrism – a child’s belief that others see the world in precisely the same way that he or she does
what age is the concrete operation stage
7 to 12 years
what happens in the concrete operation stage ?
- Ability to perform logical analysis - they can’t go hypothetical
- Ability to empathise with the thoughts/feelings of others
- Understanding of complex cause-effect relations -
what age is the formal operation stage ?
12 years and upward
what happens in the formal operation stage?
- Abstract Reasoning - they would say I could imagine rocky, lonely dark hence hypothetical
- Metacognition - i.e studying - memorising - thinking about thinking
- Dependent on exposure to principles of scientific thinking
name the 4 stages
- sensorimotor stage
- preoperational stage
- concrete operations stage
- formal operations stage
what were the 2 criticism on on piagets theory
- babies don’t seem to start with nothing
2. Cognitive development isn’t on all or nothing phenomenon
what ideas supported the criticism babies don’t seem to start with nothing ?
- space and objects
- number and mathematical reasoning
- social cognition - our understanding of other people
explain the idea space and objects?
o The Visual Cliff
Children appear to be able to perceive depth around the time they can crawl
o The Effect of Occlusion
Habituation procedure
- Infants prefer to pay attention to novel things
- Over time they become accustomed to stimuli and pay less attention to them
o Understanding of Support
Develops gradually by 6 months - over six months they gradually show understanding
o Object Permanence
- If you don’t see the object, it does not mean it does not exist - Remember the “A not B” error? - they look for the object where they found the object and not where they last put it.
explain the idea o fnumber and mathematical reasoning?
Piaget said that infants had no concept of number and couldn’t conserve number until they were around 6 years old
o But even 6-months old show some understanding of number
i.e you show child 3 pieces of things and 2 pieces of things and you put a speaker and the speaker does “boom” “boom” the child will look at 2 pieces of things but if the speaker does boom X3 then the child will look at 3 pieces of things
explain the idea of social cognition - our understanding of other people
o New born babies would rather look at faces than scrambled faces
o At 3 weeks old, infants will attempt to imitate facial expressions
o 9-month-olds will look in the direction of their mother’s gaze
o Intentions - what adults tend to do or trying to do
- Even 6-month-olds understood that the object being reached for is separate to the reach itself
state the ideas that support the criticism that cognitive development isn’t an all or nothing phenomenon?
- Numerical skills in pre-schoolers
2. Social cognition in pre-schoolers
explain the idea of numerical skills in pre - schoolers ?
o Counting
- Even when they don’t use the right numbers, toddlers understand what counting is all about
o Numerical reasoning
- Could Piaget’s assertion that children can’t conserve number be due to repeated questioning?
- One reason why children failed his conservation tasks is because due to the fact when you ask them the same question they tend to change their answer as they believe you were not happy with the first answer
state the ideas of Social cognition in pre-schoolers
o Egocentrism
o Theory of mind
o Others’ likes and dislikes
o True and false beliefs
True and false beliefs ?
- One aspect of theory of mind
- False belief task On average,
- 4-year-olds pass and 3-year-olds don’t
Others’ likes and dislikes
- Broccoli versus crackers study
- 18-month-olds gave the experimenter what she liked
- 14-month olds gave the experimenter what they liked
o Theory of mind
- A group of skills relating to the understanding of the existence of other people’s minds (their intentions, beliefs, likes and dislikes, perspectives, etc.)
- Theory of mind allows us to be effective in social situations
oEgocentrism
- Piaget thought that children were egocentric until they were around 7 years old
- Even 3- and 4-year-olds can ‘pass’ a diorama task if it’s relevant
- At 2 ½ to 3 ½ children will turn a book around so an adult can see it, and bend down when talking to younger children
Children under 1 year will turn to see what their mother is looking at
what is social development ?
- Forming bonds with people
• Learning to behave in socially acceptable ways
• Learning to be good friends and allies
• Learning to deal with adversaries
how is social development achieved ?
through social learning theory and cognitive developmental theory
what is social learning theory?
Simply the theory where you learn by watching other people do it, i.e imitate, you pick up the phrases, slangs with whom you hang out with. Start picking up behaviour from people who are with constantly.
what is cognitive development theory?
Cognitive development drives social development i.e theory of mind
how is parental style a 2 way street
- The parents style can affect the child behaviour but the child’s behaviour can also affect the parenting style
what is the principle of minimal sufficiency?
the punishment should be severe enough that the child will change their behaviour but not so severe than they get forced into doing it.
what is emotional development ?
understanding others feelings
what is emotional development?
- Have to workout out what emotions are okay to show
- How to cope with emotions
- Knowing your gonna get sacred if you go watch a horror movie
what is moral behaviour ?
behaviour that conforms to a generally accepted set of rules
what was experiment that kohlberg theory of moral developement of which he based his theory of ?
- Studied boys aged between 10 and 17 years
- Presented subjects with scenarios
Example: Heinz’s wife is dying of cancer, and can be treated only by a medication discovered by a local pharmacist. Heinz cannot afford the price that the pharmacist demands. He breaks into the store and steals the drug…
- Presented subjects with scenarios
name the levels in the kohlberg theory?
- preconventional
- conventional
- post - conventional
what is the pre-conventional level? and what stages are in it
- Behaviour based on external sanctions, such as authority and punishment
Stage 1 – Morality of punishment and obedience Children obey authority and avoid punishment.
Stage 2 – Morality of naïve instrumental hedonism Behaviour guided egocentrically by the pleasantness of its consequences to them.
what is the conventional level and the stages in it
- Includes an understanding that the social system has an interest in people’s behaviour.
Stage 3 – Morality of maintaining good relations Children want to be regarded as good, well-behaved people.
Stage 4 – Morality of maintaining social order Laws and moral rules maintain social order and must be obeyed.
what is the post-conventional level and what stages are involved in this?
( TO GET INTO THIS STAGE YOU HAVE TO SAY TO STEAL THE DRUG)
Moral rules have some underlying principles that apply to all situations and societies.
Stage 5 – Morality of social contracts Rules are social contracts, not all authority figures are infallible, individual rights can sometimes take precedence over laws.
Stage 6 – Morality of universal ethical principles Rules and laws are justified by abstract ethical values, such as the value of human life and the value of dignity.
evaluate the kohlberg theory, state the ideas
Effect of wording changes on response
- Little change in wording can lead to big changes in the peoples responses
• Stages may not be coherent entities, but do reflect a progression
- They do tend to move through the stages
• Cultural and gender biases?
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• Correlation between moral reasoning and moral conduct
- Not a great correlation of what you answer on here and what you actually do in real life
